We shall watch him as we sip the juice of our coconuts and slurp our mangos.
Well, actually, I think that in the very old days of Beltane there was always a human sacrifice. First, the designated victim had to circle the bonfire three times, and then....I don't know....be roasted and eaten? Edwarda?
Oh, these fertility festivals! In India, in one of the lower castes in a particular region, it was customary to designate one family to provide the yearly sacrifices. (This story comes from Frazer's "Golden Bough".) The designee on any given year was usually an adolescent. He (or she) would be treated with great respect, pampered, well fed (of course!), right up until the BIG DAY.
Then the villagers would wheel out a wooden elephant, so built that it would revolve. The designated sacrificial victim was strapped to it, and the elephant was set revolving. The villagers, armed with knives, and standing in a circle around the elephant, would then slice pieces off the victim as he slowly turned. The idea was to keep him alive as long as possible, because pieces of flesh watered with his tears were especially prized. Each villager would then plant the flesh so collected in the ground, on his own plot....
That corpse you planted last year in your garden,
Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?
Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?
O keep the Dog far hence, that's friend to men,
Or with his nails he'll dig it up again!
(From The Waste Land)
Beech Dryad |
