the risen Adonis. [25] Cf.  Vellay, p. 93. [26] Vide supra, pp. —–. —–. [27] Supra, p. —–. [28] Cf.  Potvin, appendix to Vol.  III.; Sir Gawain and the Grail Castle, pp. 41, 44, and note. [29] My use of this parallel has been objected to on the ground that the prose Lancelot is a late text, and therefore cannot be appealed to as evidence for original incidents.  But the Lancelot in its original form was held by so competent an authority as the late M. Gaston Paris to have been one of the earliest, if not the very earliest, of French prose texts. (Cf.  M. Paris’s review of Suchier and Birch-Hirschfield’s Geschichte der Franz.  Litt.) The adventure in question is a ‘Gawain’ adventure; we do not know whence it was derived, and it may well have been included in an early version of the romance.  Apart from the purely literary question, from the strictly critical point of view the adventure is here obviously out of place, and entirely devoid of raison d’être.  If the origins of the Grail legend is really to be found in these cults, which are not a dead but a living tradition (how truly living, the exclusively literary critic has little idea), we are surely entitled to draw attention to the obvious parallels, no matter in which text they appear.  I am not engaged in reconstructing the original form of the Grail story, but in endeavoring to ascertain the ultimate source, and it is surely justifiable to point out that, in effect, no matter what version we take, we find in that version points of contact with one special group of popular belief and practice.  If I be wrong in my conclusions my critics have only to suggest another origin for this particular feature of the romance—­as a matter of fact, they have failed to do so. [30] Cf.  Perlesvaus, Branch ii.  Chap.  I. [31] Throwing into, or drenching with, water is a well known part of the ‘Fertility’ ritual; it is a case of sympathetic magic, acting as a rain charm.

CHAPTER V

[1] Ancient Greek Religion, and Modern Greek Folk-Lore, J. C. Lawson, gives some most interesting evidence as to modern survivals of mythological beliefs. [2] Wald und Feld-Kulte, 2nd edition, 2 vols., Berlin, 1904.  Cf.  Vol.  II. p. 286.  The Golden Bough, 3rd edition, 5 vols. [3] I cite from Mannhardt, as the two works overlap in the particular line of research we are following:  the same instances are given in both, buyt the honour of priority belongs to the German scholar. [4] Op. cit.  Vol.  I. p. 411. [5] See G. Calderon, ‘Slavonic Elements in Greek religion,’ Classical Review, 1918, p. 79. [6] Op. cit. p. 416. [7] Op. cit. pp. 155 and 312. [8] Op. cit. p. 353. [9] Op. cit. p. 358. [10] Op. cit. p. 358. [11] Op. cit. p. 359.  Cf. the Lausitz custom given supra, which Mannhardt seems to have overlooked. [12] In the poem, besides the ordinary figures of the Vegetation Deity, his female counterpart, and the Doctor, common to all such processions,