Note 52 — Chapter I · OLYMPIAN AND CHTHONIC RITUAL.

As regards the ethnography of these two strata, I accept Prof. Ridgeway’s view that the earlier stratum, which I have called chthonic, belongs to the primitive population of the Mediterranean to which he gives the name Pelasgian; the later stratum, to which belongs the manner of sacrifice I have called ‘Olympian,’ is characteristic of the Achaean population coming from the North. But, as I have no personal competency in the matter of ethnography and as Prof. Ridgeway’s second volume is as yet unpublished, I have thought it best to state the argument as it appeared to me independently, i.e. that there are two strata in religion, one primitive, one later. I sought for many years an ethnographical clue to this stratification, but sought in vain.