Walter Fewkes (_American Anthropologist_, March, 1898).
That these solemn annual dances and festivals of North America frequently
merge into "a lecherous _saturnalia_" when "all is joy and happiness," is
stated by H.H. Bancroft (_Native Races of Pacific States_, vol. i, p.
352).
[131] As regards the northern tribes of Central Australia, Spencer and
Gillen state that, during the performance of certain ceremonies which
bring together a large number of natives from different parts, the
ordinary marital rules are more or less set aside (_Northern Tribes of
Central Australia_, p. 136). Just in the same way, among the Siberian
Yakuts, according to Sieroshevski, during weddings and at the great
festivals of the year, the usual oversight of maidens is largely removed.
(_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, Jan.-June, 1901, p. 96.)
[132] R.E. Guise, _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1899, pp.
214-216.
[133] Dalton, _Ethnology of Bengal_, pp. 196 et seq. W. Crooke (_Journal
of the Anthropological Institute_, p. 243, 1899) also refers to the annual
harvest-tree dance and _saturnalia_, and its association with the seasonal
period for marriage. We find a similar phenomenon in the Malay Peninsula:
"In former days, at harvest-time, the Jakuns kept an annual festival, at
which, the entire settlement having been called together, fermented
liquor, brewed from jungle fruits, was drunk; and to the accompaniments of
strains of their rude and incondite music, both sexes, crowning themselves
with fragrant leaves and flowers, indulged in bouts of singing and
dancing, which grew gradually wilder throughout the night, and terminated
in a strange kind of sexual orgie.
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