" SYCOPHANT " AND "HIEROPHANT."
[To TIER EDITOR Or 5215 "SPXOTATOR.1
Sur,—Mr. Tollemache (Spectator, June 15th) may like to know that the omniscient M. Salomon Reinach read a paper- to the Academie des Inscriptions recently on the derivation of the word "sycophant." I have not the paper by me, but, if I do not misrepresent its purport, M. Rented' strove to show that there were two Attic mysteries,—the Elensinian cult of Ceres and wheat, and another which had to 'do with some
forgotten " " and the fig. The first became respect- able and fashionable, and. its " hierophant "—the darsaka (to use a Hindu phrase) of its emblem—became a venerable personage. The other cult, for some reason, grew disreputable and was connected, with obscene associations. Hence its ministrant was remembered only as the denouncer of intruders on unholy rites devised
"ut lode • Manibus elicerent animas responsa daturas."
The subject is, perhaps, one for cautions inquiry, since it may lead the inquirer into, unsavoury places. In some cases it' is wise not to be too inquisitive as to the pedigree of . worda—T am, Sir, &c.,
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