Both the Khond and the European customs
are rain-charms.
To return now to the Lityerses story. It has been shown that in rude
society human beings have been commonly killed to promote the growth
of the crops. There is therefore no improbability in the supposition
that they may once have been killed for a like purpose in Phrygia
and Europe; and when Phrygian legend and European folk-custom,
closely agreeing with each other, point to the conclusion that men
were so slain, we are bound, provisionally at least, to accept the
conclusion. Further, both the Lityerses story and European
harvest-customs agree in indicating that the victim was put to death
as a representative of the corn-spirit, and this indication is in
harmony with the view which some savages appear to take of the
victim slain to make the crops flourish. On the whole, then, we may
fairly suppose that both in Phrygia and in Europe the representative
of the corn-spirit was annually killed upon the harvest-field.
Grounds have been already shown for believing that similarly in
Europe the representative of the tree-spirit was annually slain.
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