mong various savage tribes there are similar histories of the
derivation of the use of fire from superhuman beings.[1457]

+844+. Early ceremonies, as we have seen,[1458] are universally
connected with religion, and their origin is ascribed to divine or
semi-divine figures of the past. In Australia the initiation ceremonies,
which take up a great part of the tribal life, are regarded as having
been established by the mythical ancestors.[1459] Among the Hebrews
when circumcision, an early initiation ceremony,[1460] became
religiously important, its establishment was referred to the ancestor
Abraham, who is said to have acted by direct command of God,[1461] but
in earlier documents there are hints of other origins for the
rite.[1462] The ritual dances of the North American Indians, which are
very elaborate, are accompanied by explanations in which the origin of
every detail is referred to some event or person in the supernatural
past;[1463] and similar explanations are given of the dances of
Mexico.[1464] In many cases the restrictions of food and other things
are ascribed to the experiences of the ancestors or to the commands of
deities: the Hebrew usage of not eating a certain sinew is connected
with the story of the struggle between Jacob and a divine being.[1465]

+845+. Festivals also were treated in this manner as soon as men began
to reflect on the origin of society. As one feature in the festival
sacred to Mars (March 1) was the dancing of the priests who carried
curious shields, it was narrated, to account for this, that the shield
of Mars fell down from heaven;[1466] and the goddess Maia, according to
one conjecture, was invented to explain the name of the month of
May.[1467] A Greek explanation of the fact that children at a later
period were not called by the mother's name was that in the contest
between Poseidon and Athene for the control of the city of Athens the
latter deity prevailed by the votes of the women, who were in the
majority, and to appease the wrath of Poseidon this rule was then made
by the men.[1468] The Gileadite festival in which maidens lamented the
death of the daughter of Jephthah[1469] was doubtless an old rite in
which the death of some divinity was bewailed. The Greek Boedromia was
referred to the succor given by Theseus against the Amazons,[1470] and
in the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries aetiological myths
connected with Demeter, Kore, and Dionysos formed the central part of