Note 12 — Chapter I · PURPOSE AND METHOD

There is more to be said for the partial origin of poetry in choral songs of a sexual character sung after the communal feast of the horde or clan. This “sex-freedom,” so revolting to modern ideas, left late traces in history; and Professor Karl Pearson quotes Tsakni’s La Russie Sectaire to the effect that such license still prevails at fairs and periodic festivals in Russia, combined with choral dance.—Pearson, The Chances of Death, II. 243. There are Australian festivals of this sort; and license of May-Day, of Shrove-Tuesday, and the rest, is familiar in European survival. On the other hand, it will be found that erotic poetry of the individual and lyric sort is almost unknown among savages.