This is borne out by a statement of Varro that to kill an OX was
formerly a capital crime in Attica. The mode of selecting the victim
suggests that the OX which tasted the corn was viewed as the
corn-deity taking possession of his own. This interpretation is
supported by the following custom. In Beauce, in the district of
Orleans, on the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth of April they make a
straw man called "the great _mondard._" For they say that the old
_mondard_ is now dead and it is necessary to make a new one. The
straw man is carried in solemn procession up and down the village
and at last is placed upon the oldest apple-tree. There he remains
till the apples are gathered, when he is taken down and thrown into
the water, or he is burned and his ashes cast into water. But the
person who plucks the first fruit from the tree succeeds to the
title of "the great _mondard._" Here the straw figure, called "the
great _mondard_" and placed on the oldest apple-tree in spring,
represents the spirit of the tree, who, dead in winter, revives when
the apple-blossoms appear on the boughs.
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