Περὶ τῆς Συρίης Θεοῦ

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İngilizce Yunanca

49 But the grettest of alle festes wherof I knowe is kepte in the firste somer sesoun, and some men clepen it Fuyr Feste and some Torche Feste. Ther inne thei don sacrifise in this wyse. Thei kutten grete trees and setten hem in the clos, and after, brynginge gotes and schepe and othere bestes, thei hangen hem fro the trees, alle on lyve, and eke briddes (birds) and clothes and ioyelles of gold and of silver, And whan thei han mad everyche thing complet and perfyt, thei beren the ydoles aboute the trees, and thanne thei casten inne fuyr and als swythe alle tho thinges brennen.Baudissin (176, 3) knows no closer parallel than the Continental Mai-feste, and thinks that, if the Syrian custom came down from the North, a community of origin is possible. Somewhat similar is the practice at Tarsos of erecting a pyre, setting on it an image of the god Sandan, and then burning it up. Frazer (i, 126, 146) associates the two customs and ascribes their origin to the immolation of a human victim, the priest-king. For myself, I should like to know what became of the tree in the Attis-cult, that was cut down and brought into the temple, that the image of Attis might be tied to it (Frazer, i, 267). In the Gilgamesh Epic, Humbaba is posted by Bel as watcher of the cedars (Schrader-Zimmern, 570); and sacred trees still have offerings hung on them (Robertson Smith, Jel. of the Senvites, pp. 185-6). To this feste comen manye bothe fro Surrye and from alle the marches there aboute; and alle bryngen here owne holy thinges and han alle here Tokenes made in lyknesse of that on.