were obscene. The persons in the dance represented
vegetation demons, and the dances helped to get good crops.[1948] The
notion was not to employ sympathetic magic, but the men, by parallel
operations, were supposed to help in the work of fructification which
the demons were accomplishing in the plant. Hence a great drama of human
cooperation was carried on in the dances. Snakes and frogs were eaten
because they were demons of rain and growth. The obscene dances were
"not consequences of sex desire, but, on account of their antiquity,
they were accepted as a matter of course."[1949] At the time of the
Spanish conquest public opinion about the dances was not fixed, but they
lasted on through the force of ancient religious tradition. We may be
sure that the case of Mexico throws light on the ancient usages of
sacral harlotry. In comparatively recent times there were cases in
Russia of sex license on the eve of great Christian festivals.[1950]
There is a parallel also, amongst the Mexicans, in the case of
drunkenness. Religion controlled and forbade drunkenness, but then again
allowed it on specified occasions. To drink _pulque_ was forbidden,
under penalty of death, except to prescribed persons at certain
festivals, but on the festival of the fire god all intoxicated
themselves by custom and tradition.[1951] Kings in Central America were
expressly allowed to intoxicate themselves at festivals, and
functionaries were appointed to perform their duties while they were
incapacitated. It is nowadays considered not dishonorable to become
intoxicated during festivals, and "it may be observed that Indians now
thank God for the gift of drunkenness."[1952] That is a case of the
persistence of ideas born of old mores long after another religion and
social system have displaced the folkways themselves.

+602. Japanese mores.+ In Japan the government formerly bought girls of
fourteen from their parents and caused them to be educated in feminine
accomplishments. For ten years they lived as courtesans to the profit of
the state. They were then discharged with a sum of money. The number of
them at one time was twenty thousand. They furnished at the tea houses
afternoon entertainments at which families were present, but men alone
remained later.[1953] When a people, through acquaintance with mores
different from its own, is led to philosophize about the latter, or is
made conscious of them and uncertain about them, then the old mores of