In short, there seems great reason to conclude that this feast, which was once sacred to Apollo, was constantly maintained, when a far less valuable circumstance,--i.e., "shouting the churn,"-- is observed to this day by the reapers, and from so old an era; for we read of this exclamation, Isa.xvi.

9: "For the shouting for thy summer fruits and for thy harvest is fallen;" and again, ver.

10: "And in the vineyards there shall be no singing, their shouting shall be no shouting." Hence then, or from some of the Phoenician colonies, is our traditionary "shouting the churn." But it seems these Orientals shouted both for joy of their harvest of grapes and of corn.

We have no quantity of the first to occasion so much joy as does our plenty of the last; and I do not remember to have heard whether their vintages abroad are attended with this custom.

Bread or cakes compose part of the Hebrew offering (Levit.xxiii.