.MTA0OA.Njk5MDE

From Newberry Transcribe
Jump to navigation Jump to search

booth erected and provided with seats. - On the day after the Dance, the messenger started to give notice throughout the country of the time fixed for the Festival; at which it was considered as having been with marked emphasis ordained by the Creator that the entire nation should convene. The evening prior to the Festival Day, the hunters and the people came in, all bringing their respective contributions, as on the last great occasion. The arbour and the booth were made ready. A beautiful shade tree being cut down near the root, - a bushy-topped tree, wide-branching; -and a place dug for it; - it was a adjusted firmly in the very centre of the sacred square. Every man provided himself with a green bough. These preparations being completed, on the ensuing morn the Festival began. It was one of unmeasured exultation. It was like the Harvest Home of the British, when, Leigh Hunt has said, his "ancestors used to burst into an enthusiasm of joy." "They crowned the sheaves with flowers, they shouted, they danced, they invited each other, they met to feast." Only men were entitled to perform the festal dance peculiar to this commemoration; and when in the morning all met in the sacred square, each bore his green bush in the right hand over his