imals was offered to S. Martin,
who may have taken the place of a god, and ill-luck followed the
non-observance of the custom.[897] The slaughter was followed by general
feasting. This later slaughter may be traced back to the pastoral stage,
in which the animals were regarded as divine, and one was slain annually
and eaten sacramentally. Or, if the slaughter was more general, the
animals would be propitiated. But when the animals ceased to be
worshipped, the slaughter would certainly be more general, though still
preserving traces of its original character. The pastoral sacrament may
also have been connected with the slaying and eating of an animal
representing the corn-spirit at harvest time. In one legend S. Martin is
associated with the animal slain at Martinmas, and is said to have been
cut up and eaten in the form of an ox,[898] as if a former divine animal
had become an anthropomorphic divinity, the latter being merged in the
personality of a Christian saint.

Other rites, connected with the Calends of January as a result of
dislocation, point also in this direction. In Gaul and Germany riotous
processions took place with men dressed in the heads and skins of
animals.[899] This rite is said by Tille to have been introduced from
Italy, but it is more likely to have been a native custom.[900] As the
people ate the flesh of the slain animals sacramentally, so they clothed
themselves in the skins to promote further contact with their divinity.
Perambulating the township sunwise dressed in the skin of a cow took
place until recently in the Hebrides at New Year, in order to keep off
misfortune, a piece of the hide being burned and the smoke inhaled by
each person and animal in the township.[901] Similar customs have been
found in other Celtic districts, and these animal disguises can hardly
be separated from the sacramental slaughter at Samhain.[902]

Evils having been or being about to be cast off in the New Year ritual,
a few more added to the number can make little difference. Hence among
primitive peoples New Year is often characterised by orgiastic rites.
These took place at the Calends in Gaul, and were denounced by councils
and preachers.[903] In Ireland the merriment at Samhain is often
mentioned in the texts,[904] and similar orgiastic rites lurk behind the
Hallowe'en customs in Scotland and in the licence still permitted to
youths in the quietest townships of the West Highlands at Samhain eve.

Samhain, as