we cannot doubt but that we have here a story of a human scape-goat, of which Frazer (G.B., 2nd ed., ii., p. 111 foll.) gives several examples. (Thus, at Entlebuch, in Switzerland, during the eighteenth century, the devil, "represented by a lad disguised as an old witch or as a goat or an ass," was driven out annually "amid a deafening noise of horns, clarionets, bells, whips, and so forth.")
It is not related that the Armenian patriarch donned a camel-skin for the occasion; yet in view of the fact that, as we have seen above, sacred skins were worn in church at the celebration of the Eucharist, it is not unlikely. If so, we have a complete parallel to the old Roman scape-goat, called Mamurius Veturius, or "the old Mars." This was an old man who every 14th of March was clad in skins, and led in procession through the streets. The Salii beat him with white rods, and ultimately he was expelled from the city.[1] The camel was a sacred animal among the Arabs, and may have retained his quality among the Armenians, but have been too expensive and rare an animal to be really sacrificed. If so, the Armenian patriarch was the substitute of a substitute. Anyhow, so holy a man would be able to absorb into himself the sins of princes, especially if he turned himself into a sacred animal for the occasion. In interpreting these stories we must bear in mind that the custom of sacrificing animals for the expiation of sins both of the living and the dead flourishes in Christian Armenia even to the present day, and that the priest in eating the offerings of sinners is reckoned to 'eat their sins.'
Though not bearing directly on the foregoing points, it may be noted that from the Histoire critique des pratiques superstitieuses qui ont séduit les peuples, by Pierre Lebrun, a monk of the Oratory, published in 1702, bk. iii., ch. 4, it would appear that the custom of sacrificing animals on solemn days still lingered on in Marseilles as late as the eighteenth century. For he relates that on the vigil, and on the day of the Corpus Domini feast, a bull decked with ribbands and other frivolous ornaments was led in procession through the streets of that city to the sound of flutes, bagpipes, and drums. Women as it passed ran
- ↑ Frazer, G.B., iii., 122.
