The modern Creek Indians commence the New Year immediately after the celebration of the Busk, or ripening of the new corn, in August. They divide the year into summer and winter, and subdivide 12 successive moons: Hey6thluccour (Big-ripening Moon) August ; AtauwoOskochee (Little Chestnut Moon) September ; Otauwo6skO1itcco (Big Chestnut Moon), October, etc. The Cherokees, at the end of their year, burnt all rubbish, cleansed houses, fasted three days and took purgatives. All crimes but murder were par doned that they might commence the year free of sin. Feasting and dancing announced the new year. These festivities also celebrated the four winds (the rain-bringers), the four my stic ancestors of the human race.
The Mandan (Dakotas) held a most elab orate pageant festival, the "'Buffalo Dance," to mark the beginning of the annual hunting season.
The festivals of the Thompson River In dians have been fully investigated and described by Teit. They appear to be almost wholly social in character and to possess little true seasonal significance.
The Hopi, or Moki, of Arizona, present us with one of the most perfectly developed and elaborate festival systems of the American In dian, exhaustively studied by several prominent anthropologists. Two factions, representing the old school and the new, are said never to take part in the same festival.
The harvest festivals of the Pima tribe of the southern branch of the Athapascan family are wild occasions of animal pleasure and could not strictly be called ceremonies.
The Apache Indians commonly celebrate *Illness Feasts* for the purpose of banishing sickness. Their principal celebration is the *Scalp Dance,* held after successful combats. They have few religious festivals.
The Iroquois have a *Feast of the Dead,* which occurs once in 12 years. The tribe pro ceeds to the burying place and after reviving the names of those who have been dead for 12 years, exhume their bodies and cast them into a pit along with clothing and provender.
The festivals of the tribes of California have been fully described and analyzed by Stephen Powers in 'Tribes of California) (1877). A curious festival of the Pomu race, called the *Grand Devil Dance? is held once in seven years under the auspices of the frater nity of *Woman-Tamers* and is said to be abhorred by the women of the tribe. There is a show of the devil (Yu-ku-ku-la) visiting the tribe in the shape of some of its members. Against these demoniacal representatives, the men of the Pomu defend their women in mock gladiatorial display. This custom is said to have arisen out of the intractable nature of the women on the one side, and the sense of humor of the men on the other.
The ancient Toltecs and Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru had a richly developed calendar of festivals .connected for the most part with the new moons and the summer and winter solstices and equinoxes. Another relic of ancestor worship is seen in the Peruvian custom of periodically assembling embalmed bodies of dead emperors in the great square of the capital to be feasted in company with the people.
Greek For the festive customs of primitive Greece the older Homeric poems are our main authority; these customs being simple in comparison with the highly developed system of festivals with which we become ac quainted in the post-Homeric literature. Each of the peoples of ancient Greece had their own fes tivals, more or less similar at the root, but often quite distinctive in all other respects. In such a climate, with so hearty a people, we may well take Strabo seriously when he tells us that the Tarentines came to have more holidays than working days. The Athenian calendar con tained about 60 festival days during which the administration of public affairs, and all regular business, was suspended. These included, in Gamelion (January), the Lenera or wine feast in celebration of Dionysus (or Bacchus); in Anthesterion (February), the Anthesteria of Dionysus, the Diasia of Zeus, and the lesser Eleusinia; in Elaphebolion (March), the Elaphebolia of Artemis, the Pandia of Zeus, and the greater Dionysia; in Munychion (April), the Munychia of Artemis and the Delphinia of Apollo; in Thargelion (May), the Thargelia of Apollo and the Plynterta and Callysteria of Athena; in Scirophorion (June), the Diipolia of Zeus and the Scirophoria of Athena; in Hekatombaion (July). hecatombs were offered to Apollo, the summer-god; and in this month also were held the Croma of Cronus and the Panathenaa of Athena (the most famous of all the festivals of Attica) ; in Metageitnion (August), the Metageitnia of Apollo; in Boedromion (September), the Boidromia of Apollo, the Nemescia, the an niversaries of the battle of Marathon, and the downfall of the 30 tyrants, and the cele bration of the greater Eleusinia; in Pyanepsion (October), the Pyanepsia of Apollo, the Oschophoria of Dionysus, the Chalkeia or Athetura of Athena, the Thesmophoria of Demeter and the Apaturia; in Maimacterion (November), the Mainsacteria of Zeus ; and in Poseideon (December), the lesser Dionysia.