Chapter X: Relics of Tree-Worship in Modern Europe (2)

[Sidenote: Jack-in-the-Green in England.] In England the best-known example of these leaf-clad mummers is the Jack-in-the-Green, a chimney-sweeper who walks encased in a pyramidal framework of wickerwork, which is covered with holly and ivy, and surmounted by a crown of flowers and ribbons. Thus arrayed he dances on May Day at the head of a troop of chimney-sweeps, who collect pence.[304] The ceremony was witnessed at Cheltenham on the second of May 1892, by Dr. W. H. D. Rouse, who has described in detail the costume of the performers. They were all chimney-sweeps of the town. Jack-in-the-Green or the Bush-carrier was enclosed in a wooden framework on which leaves were fastened so as to make a thick cone about six feet high, topped with a crown, which consisted of two wooden hoops placed crosswise and covered with flowers. The leafy envelope was unbroken except for a single opening through which peered the face of the mummer. From time to time in their progress through the streets the performers halted, and three of them, dressed in red, blue, and yellow respectively, tripped lightly round the leaf-covered man to the inspiring strains of a fiddle and a tin whistle on which two of their comrades with blackened faces discoursed sweet music. The leader of the procession was a clown fantastically clad in a long white pinafore or blouse with coloured fringes and frills, and wearing on his head a beaver hat of the familiar pattern, the crown of which hung loose and was adorned with ribbons and a bird or a bundle of feathers. Large black rings surrounded his eyes, and a red dab over mouth and chin lent a pleasing variety to his countenance. He contributed to the public hilarity by flapping the yellow fringe of his blouse with quaint gestures and occasionally fanning himself languidly. His efforts were seconded by another performer, who wore a red fool’s cap, all stuck with flowers, and a white pinafore enriched with black human figures in front and a black gridiron-like pattern, crossed diagonally by a red bar, at the back. Two boys in white pinafores, with similar figures, or stars, on the breast, and a fish on the back, completed the company. Formerly there used to be a man in woman’s clothes, who personated the clown’s wife.[305] In some parts also of France a young fellow is encased in a wicker framework covered with leaves and is led about.[306] In Frickthal, in the Swiss [Sidenote: The Whitsuntide Basket in Switzerland.] canton of Aargau, a similar frame of basketwork is called the Whitsuntide Basket. As soon as the trees begin to bud, a spot is chosen in the wood, and here the village lads make the frame with all secrecy, lest others should forestall them. Leafy branches are twined round two hoops, one of which rests on the shoulders of the wearer, the other encircles his calves; holes are made for his eyes and mouth; and a large nosegay crowns the whole. In this guise he appears suddenly in the village at the hour of vespers, preceded by three boys blowing on horns made of willow bark. The great object of his supporters is to set up the Whitsuntide Basket on the village well, and to keep it and him there, despite the efforts of the lads from neighbouring villages, who seek to carry off the Whitsuntide Basket and set it up on their own well.[307] In the neighbourhood of Ertingen (Würtemberg) a [Sidenote: The Lazy Man in Würtemberg.] masker of the same sort, known as the Lazy Man (_Latzmann_), goes about the village on Midsummer Day; he is hidden under a great pyramidal or conical frame of wickerwork, ten or twelve feet high, which is completely covered with sprigs of fir. He has a bell which he rings as he goes, and he is attended by a suite of persons dressed up in character—a footman, a colonel, a butcher, an angel, the devil, the doctor, and so on. They march in Indian file and halt before every house, where each of them speaks in character, except the Lazy Man, who says nothing. With what they get by begging from door to door they hold a feast.[308]

In the class of cases of which the foregoing are specimens it is obvious that the leaf-clad person who is led about is equivalent to the May-tree, May-bough, or May-doll, which is carried from house to house by children begging. Both are representatives of the beneficent spirit of vegetation, whose visit to the house is recompensed by a present of money or food.

[Sidenote: Leaf-clad representative of vegetation sometimes called a King or Queen.] Often the leaf-clad person who represents the spirit of vegetation is known as the king or the queen; thus, for example, he or she is called the May King, Whitsuntide King, Queen of May, and so on. These titles, as Mannhardt observes, imply that the spirit incorporate in vegetation is a ruler, whose creative power extends far and wide.[309]

[Sidenote: May-Kings at Whitsuntide in Germany and Bohemia.] In a village near Salzwedel a May-tree is set up at Whitsuntide and the boys race to it; he who reaches it first is king; a garland of flowers is put round his neck and in his hand he carries a May-bush, with which, as the procession moves along, he sweeps away the dew. At each house they sing a song, wishing the inmates good luck, referring to the “black cow in the stall milking white milk, black hen on the nest laying white eggs,” and begging a gift of eggs, bacon, and so on.[310] At the village of Ellgoth in Silesia a ceremony called the King’s Race is observed at Whitsuntide. A pole with a cloth tied to it is set up in a meadow, and the young men ride past it on horseback, each trying to snatch away the cloth as he gallops by. The one who succeeds in carrying it off and dipping it in the neighbouring Oder is proclaimed King.[311] Here the pole is clearly a substitute for a May-tree. In some villages of Brunswick at Whitsuntide a May King is completely enveloped in a May-bush. In some parts of Thüringen also they have a May King at Whitsuntide, but he is dressed up rather differently. A frame of wood is made in which a man can stand; it is completely covered with birch boughs and is surmounted by a crown of birch and flowers, in which a bell is fastened. This frame is placed in the wood and the May King gets into it. The rest go out and look for him, and when they have found him they lead him back into the village to the magistrate, the clergyman, and others, who have to guess who is in the verdurous frame. If they guess wrong, the May King rings his bell by shaking his head, and a forfeit of beer or the like must be paid by the unsuccessful guesser.[312] At Wahrstedt in Brunswick the boys at Whitsuntide choose by lot a king and a high-steward (_füstje-meier_). The latter is completely concealed in a May-bush, wears a wooden crown wreathed with flowers, and carries a wooden sword. The king, on the other hand, is only distinguished by a nosegay in his cap, and a reed, with a red ribbon tied to it, in his hand. They beg for eggs from house to house, threatening that, where none are given, none will be laid by the hens throughout the year. In this custom the high-steward appears, for some reason, to have usurped the insignia of the king.[313] At Hildesheim, in Hanover, five or six young fellows go about on the afternoon of Whit-Monday cracking long whips in measured time and collecting eggs from the houses. The chief person of the band is the [Sidenote: The Leaf King.] Leaf King, a lad swathed so completely in birchen twigs that nothing of him can be seen but his feet. A huge head-dress of birchen twigs adds to his apparent stature. In his hand he carries a long crook, with which he tries to catch stray dogs and children.[314] In some parts of Bohemia on Whit-Monday the young fellows disguise themselves in tall caps of birch bark adorned with flowers. One of them is dressed as a king and dragged on a sledge to the village green, and if on the way they pass a pool the sledge is always overturned into it. Arrived at the green they gather round the king; the crier jumps on a stone or climbs up a tree and recites lampoons about each house and its inmates. Afterwards the disguises of bark are stripped off and they go about the village in holiday attire, carrying a May-tree and begging. Cakes, eggs, and corn are sometimes given them.[315] At Grossvargula, near Langensalza, in [Sidenote: The Grass King.] the eighteenth century a Grass King used to be led about in procession at Whitsuntide. He was encased in a pyramid of poplar branches, the top of which was adorned with a royal crown of branches and flowers. He rode on horseback with the leafy pyramid over him, so that its lower end touched the ground, and an opening was left in it only for his face. Surrounded by a cavalcade of young fellows, he rode in procession to the town hall, the parsonage, and so on, where they all got a drink of beer. Then under the seven lindens of the neighbouring Sommerberg, the Grass King was stripped of his green casing; the crown was handed to the Mayor, and the branches were stuck in the flax fields in order to make the flax grow tall.[316] In this last trait the fertilising influence ascribed to the representative of the tree-spirit comes out clearly. In the neighbourhood of Pilsen (Bohemia) a conical hut of green branches, without any door, is erected at Whitsuntide in the midst of the village. To this hut rides a troop of village lads with a king at their head. He wears a sword at his side and a sugar-loaf hat of rushes on his head. In his train are a judge, a crier, and a personage called the Frog-flayer or Hangman. This last is a sort of ragged merryandrew, wearing a rusty old sword and bestriding a sorry hack. On reaching the hut the crier dismounts and goes round it looking for a door. Finding none, he says, “Ah, this is perhaps an enchanted castle; the witches creep through the leaves and need no door.” At last he draws his sword and hews his way into the hut, where there is a chair, on which he seats himself and proceeds to criticise in rhyme the girls, farmers, and farm-servants of the neighbourhood. When this is over, the Frog-flayer steps forward and, after exhibiting a cage with frogs in it, sets up a gallows on which he hangs the frogs in a row.[317] In the neighbourhood of Plas the ceremony differs in some points. The king and his soldiers are completely clad in bark, adorned with flowers and ribbons; they all carry swords and ride horses, which are gay with green branches and flowers. While the village dames and girls are being criticised at the arbour, a frog is secretly pinched and poked by the crier till it quacks. Sentence of death is passed on the frog by the king; the hangman beheads it and flings the bleeding body among the spectators. Lastly, the king is driven from the hut and pursued by the soldiers.[318] The pinching and beheading of the frog are doubtless, as Mannhardt observes,[319] a rain-charm. We have seen that some Indians of the Orinoco beat frogs for the express purpose of producing rain, and that killing a frog is a European rain-charm.[320]

[Sidenote: May-Queens and Whitsuntide Queens.] Often the spirit of vegetation in spring is represented by a queen instead of a king. In the neighbourhood of Libchowic (Bohemia), on the fourth Sunday in Lent, girls dressed in white and wearing the first spring flowers, as violets and daisies, in their hair, lead about the village a girl who is called the Queen and is crowned with flowers. During the procession, which is conducted with great solemnity, none of the girls may stand still, but must keep whirling round continually and singing. In every house the Queen announces the arrival of spring and wishes the inmates good luck and blessings, for which she receives presents.[321] In German Hungary the girls choose the prettiest girl to be their Whitsuntide Queen, fasten a towering wreath on her brow, and carry her singing through the streets. At every house they stop, sing old ballads, and receive presents.[322] In the south-east of Ireland on May Day the prettiest girl used to be chosen Queen of the district for twelve months. She was crowned with wild flowers; feasting, dancing, and rustic sports followed, and were closed by a grand procession in the evening. During her year of office she presided over rural gatherings of young people at dances and merry-makings. If she married before next May Day, her authority was at an end, but her successor was not elected till that day came round.[323] The May Queen is common in France[324] and familiar in England. Thus at the adjoining [Sidenote: The May Queen in Warwickshire.] villages of Cherrington and Stourton in south Warwickshire, the Queen of May is still represented on May Day by a small girl dressed in white and wearing a wreath of flowers on her head. An older girl wheels the Queen in what is called a mail-cart, that is, a child’s perambulator on two wheels. Another girl carries a money-box. Four boys bear the May-pole, a conical framework formed of a high tripod with a central shaft. The whole structure is encased in a series of five hoops, which rise one above the other, diminishing in size from bottom to top with the tapering of the cone. The hoops, as well as the tripod and the central shaft, are all covered with whatever flowers happen to be in bloom, such as marsh-marigolds, primroses, or blue-bells. To the top of the central shaft is fastened a bunch of the flower called crown-imperial, if it is in season. The lowest hoop is crossed by two bars at right angles to each other, and the projecting ends of the bars serve as handles, by which the four boys carry the May-pole. Each of the bearers has a garland of flowers slung over his shoulder. Thus the children go from house to house, singing their songs and receiving money, which goes to provide a treat for them in the afternoon.[325]

[Sidenote: Spirit of vegetation represented simultaneously by a King and Queen or a Bridegroom and Bride.] Again the spirit of vegetation is sometimes represented by a king and queen, a lord and lady, or a bridegroom and bride. Here again the parallelism holds between the anthropomorphic and the vegetable representation of the tree-spirit, for we have seen above that trees are sometimes married to each other.[326] At Halford in south Warwickshire the children go from house to house on May Day, [Sidenote: Whitsuntide King and Queen.] walking two and two in procession and headed by a King and Queen. Two boys carry a May-pole some six or seven feet high, which is covered with flowers and greenery. Fastened to it near the top are two cross-bars at right angles to each other. These are also decked with flowers, and from the ends of the bars hang hoops similarly adorned. At the houses the children sing May songs and receive money, which is used to provide tea for them at the school-house in the afternoon.[327] In a Bohemian village near Königgrätz on Whit-Monday the children play the king’s game, at which a king and queen march about under a canopy, the queen wearing a garland, and the youngest girl carrying two wreaths on a plate behind them. They are attended by boys and girls called groomsmen and bridesmaids, and they go from house to house collecting gifts.[328] A regular feature in the popular celebration of Whitsuntide in Silesia used to be, and to some extent still is, the contest for the kingship. This contest took various forms, but the mark or goal was generally the May-tree or May-pole. Sometimes the youth who succeeded in climbing the smooth pole and bringing down the prize was proclaimed the Whitsuntide King and his sweetheart the Whitsuntide Bride. Afterwards the king, carrying the May-bush, repaired with the rest of the company to the ale-house, where a dance and a feast ended the merry-making. Often the young farmers and labourers raced on horseback to the May-pole, which was adorned with flowers, ribbons, and a crown. He who first reached the pole was the Whitsuntide King, and the rest had to obey his orders for that day. The worst rider became the clown. At the May-tree all dismounted and hoisted the king on their shoulders. He nimbly swarmed up the pole and brought down the May-bush and the crown, which had been fastened to the top. Meantime the clown hurried to the ale-house and proceeded to bolt thirty rolls of bread and to swig four quart bottles of brandy with the utmost possible despatch. He was followed by the king, who bore the May-bush and crown at the head of the company. If on their arrival the clown had already disposed of the rolls and the brandy, and greeted the king with a speech and a glass of beer, his score was paid by the king; otherwise he had to settle it himself. After church time the stately procession wound through the village. At the head of it rode the king, decked with flowers and carrying the May-bush. Next came the clown with his clothes turned inside out, a great flaxen beard on his chin, and the Whitsuntide crown on his head. Two riders disguised as guards followed. The procession drew up before every farmyard; the two guards dismounted, shut the clown into the house, and claimed a contribution from the housewife to buy soap with which to wash the clown’s beard. Custom allowed them to carry off any victuals which were not under lock and key. Last of all they came to the house in which the king’s sweetheart lived. She was greeted as Whitsuntide Queen and received suitable presents—to wit, a many-coloured sash, a cloth, and an apron. The king got as a prize, a vest, a neckcloth, and so forth, and had the right of setting up the May-bush or Whitsuntide-tree before his master’s yard, where it remained as an honourable token till the same day next year. Finally the procession took its way to the tavern, where the king and queen opened the dance. Sometimes the Whitsuntide King and Queen succeeded to office in a different way. A man of straw, as [Sidenote: King and Queen of May.] large as life and crowned with a red cap, was conveyed in a cart, between two men armed and disguised as guards, to a place where a mock court was waiting to try him. A great crowd followed the cart. After a formal trial the straw man was condemned to death and fastened to a stake on the execution ground. The young men with bandaged eyes tried to stab him with a spear. He who succeeded became king and his sweetheart queen. The straw man was known as the Goliath.[329] Near Grenoble, in France, a king and queen are chosen on the first of May and are set on a throne for all to see.[330] At Headington, near Oxford, children used to carry garlands from door to door on May Day. Each garland was borne by two girls, and they were followed by a lord and lady—a boy and girl linked together by a white handkerchief, of which each held an end, and dressed with ribbons, sashes, and flowers. At each door they sang a verse:—

“_Gentlemen and ladies,
We wish you happy May;
We come to shew you a garland,
Because it is May-day._”

On receiving money the lord put his arm about his lady’s waist and kissed her.[331] At Fleuriers in Switzerland on the seventh of May 1843 a May-bridegroom (_Époux de Mai_) and his bride were escorted in a procession of over two hundred children, some of whom carried green branches of beech. A number of May Fools were entrusted with the delicate duty of going round with the hat. The proceeds of their tact and industry furnished a banquet in the evening, and the day ended with a children’s ball.[332] In some Saxon villages at Whitsuntide a lad and a lass used to disguise themselves and hide in the bushes or high grass outside the village. Then the whole village went out with music “to seek the bridal pair.” When they found the couple they all gathered round them, the music struck up, and the bridal pair was led merrily to the village. In the evening they danced. In some places the bridal pair was called the prince and the princess.[333]

[Sidenote: Whitsuntide Bridegroom and Bride in Denmark.] In a parish of Denmark it used to be the custom at Whitsuntide to dress up a little girl as the Whitsun-bride (_pinse-bruden_) and a little boy as her groom. She was decked in all the finery of a grown-up bride, and wore a crown of the freshest flowers of spring on her head. Her groom was as gay as flowers, ribbons, and knots could make him. The other children adorned themselves as best they could with the yellow flowers of the trollius and caltha. Then they went in great state from farmhouse to farmhouse, two little girls walking at the head of the procession as bridesmaids, and six or eight outriders galloping ahead on hobby-horses to announce their coming. Contributions of eggs, butter, loaves, cream, coffee, sugar, and tallow-candles were received and conveyed away in baskets. When they had made the round of the farms, some of the farmers’ wives helped to arrange the wedding feast, and the children danced merrily in clogs on the stamped clay floor till the sun rose and the birds began to sing. All this is now a thing of the past. Only the old folks still remember the little Whitsun-bride and her mimic pomp.[334]

[Sidenote: Midsummer Bridegroom and Bride in Sweden and Norway.] We have seen that in Sweden the ceremonies associated elsewhere with May Day or Whitsuntide commonly take place at Midsummer.[335] Accordingly we find that in some parts of the Swedish province of Blekinge they still choose a Midsummer’s Bride, to whom the “church coronet” is occasionally lent. The girl selects for herself a Bridegroom, and a collection is made for the pair, who for the time being are looked on as man and wife. The other youths also choose each his bride.[336] A similar ceremony seems to be still kept up in Norway, for a correspondent writes to me as follows in reference to the Danish custom of the Whitsun-bride: “It may interest you to know that on June 23, 1893, I witnessed at Ullensvang, Hardanger, Norway, a ceremony almost exactly the same as that described in your book. Wild flowers are scarce there, and the bride wore the usual metal crown, the attendants for the most part wearing the pretty Hardanger costume. The dancing took place in an unlighted barn, as the farmer was afraid of fire. There were plenty of boys at the dance, but so far as I can remember, none in the procession. The custom is clearly dying out, and the somewhat reluctant bridegroom was the subject of a good deal of chaff from his fellows.”[337] In Sardinia the Midsummer couples are known as the Sweethearts of St. John, and their association with the growth of plants is clearly brought out by the pots of sprouting grain which form a principal part of the ceremony.[338]

[Sidenote: Forsaken Bridegroom or Bride of May or Whitsuntide.] In the neighbourhood of Briançon (Dauphiné) on May Day the lads wrap up in green leaves a young fellow whose sweetheart has deserted him or married another. He lies down on the ground and feigns to be asleep. Then a girl who likes him, and would marry him, comes and wakes him, and raising him up offers him her arm and a flag. So they go to the alehouse, where the pair lead off the dancing. But they must marry within the year, or they are treated as old bachelor and old maid, and are debarred the company of the young folk. The lad is called the bridegroom of the month of May (_le fiancé du mois de May_). In the alehouse he puts off his garment of leaves, out of which, mixed with flowers, his partner in the dance makes a nosegay, and wears it at her breast next day, when he leads her again to the alehouse.[339] Like this is a Russian custom observed in the district of Nerechta on the Thursday before Whitsunday. The girls go out into a birch-wood, wind a girdle or band round a stately birch, twist its lower branches into a wreath, and kiss each other in pairs through the wreath. The girls who kiss through the wreath call each other gossips. Then one of the girls steps forward, and mimicking a drunken man, flings herself on the ground, rolls on the grass, and feigns to fall fast asleep. Another girl wakens the pretended sleeper and kisses him; then the whole bevy trips singing through the wood to twine garlands, which they throw into the water. In the fate of the garlands floating on the stream they read their own.[340] Here the part of the sleeper was probably at one time played by a lad. In these French and Russian customs we have a forsaken bridegroom, in the following a forsaken bride. On Shrove Tuesday the Slovenes of Oberkrain drag a straw puppet with joyous cries up and down the village; then they throw it into the water or burn it, and from the height of the flames they judge of the abundance of the next harvest. The noisy crew is followed by a female masker, who drags a great board by a string and gives out that she is a forsaken bride.[341]

Viewed in the light of what has gone before, the awakening of the forsaken sleeper in these ceremonies probably represents the revival of vegetation in spring. But it is not easy to assign their respective parts to the forsaken bridegroom and to the girl who wakes him from his slumber. Is the sleeper the leafless forest or the bare earth of winter? Is the girl who wakens him the fresh verdure or the genial sunshine of spring? It is hardly possible, on the evidence before us, to answer these questions. The Oraons of Bengal, it may be remembered, celebrate the marriage of earth in the springtime, when the sál-tree is in blossom.[342] But from this we can hardly argue that in the European ceremonies the sleeping bridegroom is “the dreaming earth” and the girl the spring blossoms.

[Sidenote: St. Bride in Scotland and the Isle of Man.] In the Highlands of Scotland the revival of vegetation in spring used to be graphically represented on St. Bride’s Day, the first of February. Thus in the Hebrides “the mistress and servants of each family take a sheaf of oats, and dress it up in women’s apparel, put it in a large basket, and lay a wooden club by it, and this they call Briid’s bed; and then the mistress and servants cry three times, ‘Briid is come, Briid is welcome.’ This they do just before going to bed, and when they rise in the morning they look among the ashes, expecting to see the impression of Briid’s club there; which if they do, they reckon it a true presage of a good crop and prosperous year, and the contrary they take as an ill omen.”[343] The same custom is described by another witness thus: “Upon the night before Candlemas it is usual to make a bed with corn and hay, over which some blankets are laid, in a part of the house, near the door. When it is ready, a person goes out and repeats three times, ... ‘Bridget, Bridget, come in; thy bed is ready.’ One or more candles are left burning near it all night.”[344] Similarly in the Isle of Man “on the eve of the first of February, a festival was formerly kept, called, in the Manks language, _Laa’l Breeshey_, in honour of the Irish lady who went over to the Isle of Man to receive the veil from St. Maughold. The custom was to gather a bundle of green rushes, and standing with them in the hand on the threshold of the door, to invite the holy Saint Bridget to come and lodge with them that night. In the Manks language, the invitation ran thus:—‘_Brede, Brede, tar gys my thie tar dyn thie ayms noght. Foshil jee yn dorrys da Brede, as lhig da Brede e heet staigh._’ In English: ‘Bridget, Bridget, come to my house, come to my house to-night. Open the door for Bridget, and let Bridget come in.’ After these words were repeated, the rushes were strewn on the floor by way of a carpet or bed for St. Bridget. A custom very similar to this was also observed in some of the Out-Isles of the ancient kingdom of Man.”[345] In these Manx and Highland ceremonies it is obvious that St. Bride, or St. Bridget, is an old heathen goddess of fertility, disguised in a threadbare Christian cloak. Probably she is no other than the Celtic goddess Brigit, who will meet us again later on.[346]

[Sidenote: May Bride or Whitsuntide Bride.] Often the marriage of the spirit of vegetation in spring, though not directly represented, is implied by naming the human representative of the spirit, “the Bride,” and dressing her in wedding attire. Thus in some villages of Altmark at Whitsuntide, while the boys go about carrying a May-tree or leading a boy enveloped in leaves and flowers, the girls lead about the May Bride, a girl dressed as a bride with a great nosegay in her hair. They go from house to house, the May Bride singing a song in which she asks for a present, and tells the inmates of each house that if they give her something they will themselves have something the whole year through; but if they give her nothing they will themselves have nothing.[347] In some parts of Westphalia two girls lead a flower-crowned girl called the Whitsuntide Bride from door to door, singing a song in which they ask for eggs.[348] At Waggum in Brunswick, when service is over on Whitsunday, the village girls assemble, dressed in white or bright colours, decked with flowers, and wearing chaplets of spring flowers in their hair. One of them represents the May Bride, and carries a crown of flowers on a staff as a sign of her dignity. As usual the children go about from cottage to cottage singing and begging for eggs, sausages, cakes, or money. In other parts of Brunswick it is a boy clothed all in birch leaves who personates the May Bride.[349] In Bresse in the month of May a girl called _la Mariée_ is tricked out with ribbons and nosegays and is led about by a gallant. She is preceded by a lad carrying a green May-tree, and appropriate verses are sung.[350]

Footnote 239:

Quoted by J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, i. 246 (ed. Bohn).

Footnote 240:

T. F. Thiselton Dyer, _British Popular Customs_ (London, 1876), p.
254.

Footnote 241:

W. Borlase, _The Natural History of Cornwall_ (Oxford, 1758), p. 294.

Footnote 242:

J. Brand, _op. cit._ i. 212 _sq._

Footnote 243:

T. F. Thiselton Dyer, _Popular British Customs_, p. 233.

Footnote 244:

R. Chambers, _Book of Days_ (London and Edinburgh, 1886), i. 578; T.
F. Thiselton Dyer, _op. cit._ pp. 237 _sq._

Footnote 245:

W. Hone, _Every Day Book_ (London, N.D.), ii. 615 _sq._; T. F.
Thiselton Dyer, _British Popular Customs_, pp. 251 _sq._ At Polebrook
in Northamptonshire the verses sung by the children on their rounds
include two which are almost identical with those sung at Abingdon in
Berkshire. See Dyer, _op. cit._ pp. 255 _sq._ The same verses were
formerly sung on May Day at Hitchin in Hertfordshire (Hone, _Every Day
Book_, i. 567 _sq._; Dyer, _op. cit._ pp. 240 _sq._).

Footnote 246:

Dyer, _op. cit._ p. 263.

Footnote 247:

Percy Manning, in _Folk-lore_, iv. (1893) pp. 403 _sq._

Footnote 248:

_Id._, in _Folk-lore_, viii. (1897) p. 308. Customs of the same sort
are reported also from Combe, Headington, and Islip, all in
Oxfordshire (Dyer, _British Popular Customs_, pp. 261 _sq._). See
below, pp. 90 _sq._

Footnote 249:

Dyer, _op. cit._ p. 243.

Footnote 250:

W. H. D. Rouse, in _Folk-lore_, iv. (1893) p. 53. I have witnessed the
ceremony almost annually for many years. Many of the hoops have no
doll, and ribbons or rags of coloured cloth are more conspicuous than
flowers in their decoration.

Footnote 251:

J. P. Emslie, in _Folk-lore_, xi. (1900) p. 210.

Footnote 252:

_Memoirs of Anna Maria Wilhelmina Pickering_, edited by her son,
Spencer Pickering (London, 1903), pp. 160 _sq._

Footnote 253:

Lady Wilde, _Ancient Cures, Charms, and Usages of Ireland_ (London,
1890), pp. 101 _sq._ At the ancient Greek festival of the Daphnephoria
or “Laurel-bearing” a staff of olive-wood, decked with laurels, purple
ribbons, and many-coloured flowers, was carried in procession, and
attached to it were two large globes representing the sun and moon,
together with a number of smaller globes which stood for the stars.
See Proclus, quoted by Photius, _Bibliotheca_, p. 321, ed. Bekker.

Footnote 254:

E. Cortet, _Essai sur les fêtes religieuses_ (Paris, 1867) pp. 167
_sqq._

Footnote 255:

_Revue des traditions populaires_, ii. (1887) p. 200.

Footnote 256:

W. Müller, _Beiträge zur Volkskunde der Deutschen in Mähren_ (Wien und
Olmütz, 1893), pp. 319 _sq._, 355-359.

Footnote 257:

_Folk-lore_, i. (1890) pp. 518 _sqq._

Footnote 258:

W. R. S. Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_ 2nd Ed., (London,
1872), pp. 234 _sq._

Footnote 259:

A. Kuhn, _Märkische Sagen und Märchen_ (Berlin, 1843), p. 315.

Footnote 260:

W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 162.

Footnote 261:

L. Lloyd, _Peasant Life in Sweden_, p. 235.

Footnote 262:

L. Lloyd, _op. cit._ pp. 257 _sqq._

Footnote 263:

H. Pröhle, _Harzbilder_ (Leipsic, 1855), pp. 19 _sq._ Compare _id._,
in _Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde_, i. (1853)
pp. 81 _sq._; W. Mannhardt, _Germanische Mythen_, pp. 512 _sqq._; A.
Kuhn und W. Schwartz, _Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche_
(Leipsic, 1848), p. 390, § 80.

Footnote 264:

Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Fest-Kalendar aus Böhmen_ (Prague, N.D.), pp.
308 _sq._ A fuller description of the ceremony will be given later.

Footnote 265:

For the evidence see J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, i. 234 _sqq._;
W. Hone, _Every Day Book_, i. 547 _sqq._, ii. 574 _sqq._; R. Chambers,
_Book of Days_, i. 574 _sqq._; T. F. Thiselton Dyer, _British Popular
Customs_, pp. 228 _sqq._; W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, pp. 168 _sqq._

Footnote 266:

Phillip Stubbes, _The Anatomie of Abuses_, p. 149 (F. J. Furnivall’s
reprint). In later editions some verbal changes were made.

Footnote 267:

W. Borlase, _Natural History of Cornwall_ (Oxford, 1758), p. 294.

Footnote 268:

W. Hutchinson, _View of Northumberland_ (Newcastle, 1778), ii.
Appendix, pp. 13 _sq._; Dyer, _British Popular Customs_, p. 257.

Footnote 269:

“Padstow ‘Hobby Hoss,’” _Folklore_, xvi. (1905) pp. 59 _sq._

Footnote 270:

E. Meier, _Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Schwaben_
(Stuttgart, 1852), p. 396.

Footnote 271:

E. Mogk, in R. Wuttke’s _Sächsische Volkskunde_ 2nd Ed., (Dresden,
1901), pp. 309 _sq._

Footnote 272:

M. Rentsch, in R. Wuttke’s _op. cit._ p. 359.

Footnote 273:

A. De Nore, _Coutumes, mythes et traditions des provinces de France_
(Paris and Lyons, 1846), p. 137.

Footnote 274:

Bérenger-Féraud, _Superstitions et survivances_ (Paris, 1896), v. 308
_sq._ Compare _id._, _Reminiscences populaires de la Provence_, pp. 21
_sq._, 26, 27.

Footnote 275:

J. G. Scott and J. P. Hardiman, _Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan
States_, part i. vol. i. (Rangoon, 1900) p. 529.

Footnote 276:

W. Hone, _Every Day Book_, i. 547 _sqq._; R. Chambers, _Book of Days_,
i. 571.

Footnote 277:

_Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern_, i. 372.

Footnote 278:

W. Hone, _Every Day Book_, ii. 597 _sq._ Mr. G. W. Prothero tells me
that about the year 1875 he saw a permanent May-pole decked with
flowers on May Day on the road between Cambridge and St. Neot’s, not
far from the turning to Caxton.

Footnote 279:

See above, pp. 47 _sq._

Footnote 280:

Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Fest-Kalendar aus Böhmen_, p. 217; W.
Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 566.

Footnote 281:

A. Birlinger, _Volksthümliches aus Schwaben_ (Freiburg im Breisgau,
1861-1862), ii. 74 _sq._; W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 566.

Footnote 282:

Aristophanes, _Plutus_, 1054; W. Mannhardt, _Antike Wald- und
Feldkulte_, pp. 222 _sq._

Footnote 283:

Boecler-Kreutzwald, _Der Ehsten abergläubische Gebräuche, Weisen und
Gewohnheiten_, pp. 112-114. Some traits in this story seem to suggest
that the return of the trooper to his old home was, like that of the
war-broken veteran in Campbell’s poem, only a soldier’s dream.

Footnote 284:

Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Fest-Kalendar aus Böhmen_, pp. 86 _sqq._; W.
Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 156.

Footnote 285:

R. Chambers, _Book of Days_, i. 573. Compare the Cambridge custom,
described above, p. 62.

Footnote 286:

W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 312.

Footnote 287:

W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 313.

Footnote 288:

_Ibid._ p. 314.

Footnote 289:

_Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern_, iii. 357; W.
Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, pp. 312 _sq._ The word _Walber_ probably
comes from Walburgis, which is doubtless only another form of the
better known Walpurgis. The second of May is called Walburgis Day, at
least in this part of Bavaria.

Footnote 290:

W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, pp. 313 _sq._

Footnote 291:

H. von Wlislocki, _Volksglaube und religiöser Brauch der Zigeuner_
(Münster i. W., 1891), pp. 148 _sq._

Footnote 292:

E. T. Dalton, _Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal_, p. 261.

Footnote 293:

B. A. Gupte, “Harvest Festivals in honour of Gauri and Ganesh,”
_Indian Antiquary_, xxxv. (1906) p. 61.

Footnote 294:

W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, pp. 315 _sq._

Footnote 295:

W. R. S. Ralston, _Russian Folk-tales_, p. 345. As to Green George see
above, pp. 75 _sq._

Footnote 296:

W. R. S. Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_, p. 234.

Footnote 297:

W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 318; J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,
4th ed., ii. 657.

Footnote 298:

A. de Nore, _Coutumes, mythes et traditions des provinces de France_,
pp. 17 _sq._; Bérenger-Féraud, _Réminiscences populaires de la
Provence_, pp. 1 _sq._

Footnote 299:

A. Meyrac, _Traditions, coutumes, légendes et contes des Ardennes_
(Charleville, 1890), pp. 79-82. The girl was called the Trimouzette. A
custom of the same general character was practised down to recent
times in the Jura (Bérenger-Féraud, _Réminiscences populaires de la
Provence_, p. 18).

Footnote 300:

F. A. Reimann, _Deutsche Volksfeste im neunzehnten Jahrhundert_
(Weimar, 1839), pp. 159 _sq._; W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 320; A.
Witzschel, _Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Thüringen_, p. 211.

Footnote 301:

W. Kolbe, _Hessische Volks-Sitten und Gebräuche im Lichte der
heidnischen Vorzeit_ (Marburg, 1888), p. 70.

Footnote 302:

_Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern_, iv. 2, pp.
359 _sq._ Similarly in the Département de l’Ain (France) on the first
of May eight or ten boys unite, clothe one of their number in leaves,
and go from house to house begging (W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p.
318).

Footnote 303:

E. Hoffmann-Krayer, “Fruchtbarkeitsriten im schweizerischen
Volksbrauch,” _Schweizerisches Archiv für Volkskunde_, xi. (1907) p.
252.

Footnote 304:

W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 322; W. Hone, _Every-Day Book_, i. 583
_sqq._; T. F. Thiselton Dyer, _British Popular Customs_, pp. 230 _sq._

Footnote 305:

W. H. D. Rouse, “May-Day in Cheltenham,” _Folk-lore_, iv. (1893) pp.
50-53. On May Day 1891 I saw a Jack-in-the-Green in the streets of
Cambridge.

Footnote 306:

W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 323.

Footnote 307:

W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 323; H. Herzog, _Schweizerische
Volksfeste, Sitten und Gebräuche_ (Aarau, 1884), pp. 248 _sq._

Footnote 308:

A. Birlinger, _Volksthümliches aus Schwaben_, ii. 114 _sq._; W.
Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 325.

Footnote 309:

W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, pp. 314 _sq._

Footnote 310:

A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, _Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche_,
p. 380.

Footnote 311:

F. Tetzner, “Die Tschechen und Mährer in Schlesien,” _Globus_, lxviii
(1900) p. 340.

Footnote 312:

A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, _op. cit._ pp. 383 _sq._; W. Mannhardt,
_Baumkultus_, p. 342.

Footnote 313:

R. Andree, _Braunschweiger Volkskunde_ (Brunswick, 1896), pp. 249
_sq._

Footnote 314:

K. Seifart, _Sagen, Märchen, Schwänke und Gebräuche aus Stadt und
Stift Hildesheim_, Zweite Auflage (Hildesheim, 1889), pp. 180 _sq._

Footnote 315:

Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Fest-Kalendar aus Böhmen_, pp. 260 _sq._; W.
Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, pp. 342 _sq._

Footnote 316:

F. A. Reimann, _Deutsche Volksfeste im neunzehnten Jahrhundert_, pp.
157-159; W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, pp. 347 _sq._; A. Witzschel,
_Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Thüringen_ (Vienna, 1878), p. 203.

Footnote 317:

Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Fest-Kalendar aus Böhmen_, pp. 253 _sqq._

Footnote 318:

Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Fest-Kalendar aus Böhmen_, p. 262; W.
Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, pp. 353 _sq._

Footnote 319:

_Baumkultus_, p. 355.

Footnote 320:

Above, vol. i. pp. 292, 293.

Footnote 321:

Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Fest-Kalendar aus Böhmen_, p. 93; W.
Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 344.

Footnote 322:

W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, pp. 343 _sq._

Footnote 323:

T. F. Thiselton Dyer, _British Popular Customs_, pp. 270 _sq._

Footnote 324:

W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, pp. 344 _sqq._; E. Cortet, _Fêtes
religieuses_, pp. 160 _sqq._; D. Monnier, _Traditions populaires
comparées_, pp. 282 _sqq._; Bérenger-Féraud, _Réminiscences populaires
de la Provence_, pp. 17 _sq._; Ch. Beauquier, _Les Mois en
Franche-Comté_ (Paris, 1900), pp. 65-69. In Franche-Comté she seems to
be generally known as _l’épousée_, “the spouse.”

Footnote 325:

From information given me by Mabel Bailey, in the service of Miss A.
Wyse of Halford. My informant’s father is a native of Stourton, and
she herself has spent much of her life there. I conjecture that the
conical flower-bedecked structure may once have been borne by a mummer
concealed within it. Compare the customs described above, pp. 82 _sq._

Footnote 326:

Above, pp. 24 _sqq._

Footnote 327:

From information given me by Miss A. Wyse of Halford.

Footnote 328:

Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Fest-Kalendar aus Böhmen_, pp. 265 _sq._; W.
Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 422.

Footnote 329:

P. Drechsler, _Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube in Schlesien_, i.
(Leipsic, 1903) pp. 125-129.

Footnote 330:

D. Monnier, _Traditions populaires comparées_ (Paris, 1854), p. 304;
E. Cortet, _Fêtes religieuses_, p. 161; W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p.
423.

Footnote 331:

J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, i. 233 _sq._; W. Mannhardt,
_Baumkultus_, p. 424. We have seen (p. 62) that a custom of the same
sort used to be observed at Bampton-in-the-Bush in Oxfordshire.

Footnote 332:

E. Hoffmann-Krayer, “Fruchtbarkeitsriten im schweizerischen
Volksbrauch,” _Schweizerisches Archiv für Volkskunde_, xi. (1907) pp.
257 _sq._

Footnote 333:

E. Sommer, _Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Sachsen und Thüringen_
(Halle, 1843), pp. 151 _sq._; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, pp. 431 _sq._
The custom is now obsolete (E. Mogk, in R. Wuttke’s _Sächsische
Volkskunde_, 2nd Ed., Dresden, 1901, p. 309).

Footnote 334:

H. F. Feilberg, in _Folk-lore_, vi. (1895) pp. 194 _sq._

Footnote 335:

See above, p. 65.

Footnote 336:

L. Lloyd, _Peasant Life in Sweden_, p. 257.

Footnote 337:

Mr. W. C. Crofts, in a letter to me dated February 3, 1901, 9
Northwich Terrace, Cheltenham.

Footnote 338:

For details see _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, pp. 202 _sq._

Footnote 339:

This custom was told to W. Mannhardt by a French prisoner in the war
of 1870-71 (_Baumkultus_, p. 434).

Footnote 340:

W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, pp. 434 _sq._

Footnote 341:

_Ibid._ p. 435.

Footnote 342:

See above, pp. 76 _sq._

Footnote 343:

M. Martin, _Description of the Western Islands of Scotland_ (London,
1673 [1703]), p. 119; _id._ in Pinkerton’s _Voyages and Travels_, iii.
613; W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 436. According to Martin, the
ceremony took place on Candlemas Day, the second of February. But this
seems to be a mistake. See J. G. Campbell, _Witchcraft and Second
Sight in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland_, pp. 247 _sq._ The
Rev. James Macdonald, of Reay in Caithness, was assured by old people
that the sheaf used in making Briid’s bed was the last sheaf cut at
harvest (J. Macdonald, _Religion and Myth_, p. 141). Later on we shall
see that the last sheaf is often regarded as embodying the spirit of
the corn, and special care is therefore taken of it.

Footnote 344:

John Ramsay of Ochtertyre, _Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eighteenth
Century_, edited by Alex. Allardyce (Edinburgh, 1888), ii. 447. At
Ballinasloe in County Galway it is customary to fasten a cross of
twisted corn in the roof of the cottages on Candlemas Day. The cross
is fastened by means of a knife stuck through a potato, and remains in
its place for months, if not for a year. This custom (of which I was
informed by Miss Nina Hill in a letter dated May 5, 1898) may be
connected with the Highland one described in the text.

Footnote 345:

J. Train, _Historical and Statistical Account of the Isle of Man_
(Douglas, Isle of Man, 1845), ii. 116.

Footnote 346:

See below, pp. 240 _sqq._ Brigit is the true original form of the
name, which has been corrupted into Breed, Bride, and Bridget. See
Douglas Hyde, _A Literary History of Ireland_ (London, 1899), p. 53,
note 2.

Footnote 347:

A. Kuhn, _Märkische Sagen und Märchen_, pp. 318 _sqq._; W. Mannhardt,
_Baumkultus_, p. 437.

Footnote 348:

W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 438.

Footnote 349:

R. Andree, _Braunschweiger Volkskunde_ (Brunswick, 1896), p. 248.

Footnote 350:

D. Monnier, _Traditions populaires comparées_, pp. 283 _sq._; E.
Cortet, _Fêtes religieuses_, pp. 162 _sq._; W. Mannhardt,
_Baumkultus_, pp. 439 _sq._