Note 452 — Chapter VI · VILLAGE FESTIVALS

Frazer, iii. 319; Gaidoz, 27; Cortet, 213; Simpson, 221; Bertrand, 68; F. L. xii. 315. The work of Posidonius does not exist, but was possibly used by Caesar, B. G. vi. 15; Strabo, iv. 4. 5; Diodorus, v. 32. Wicker ‘giants’ are still burnt in some French festival-fires. But elsewhere, as in the midsummer shows, such ‘giants’ seem to be images of the agricultural divinities, and it is not clear by what process they came to be burnt and so destroyed. Perhaps they were originally only smoked, just as they were dipped.