originally Slavonic, the carrying out of the puppet is accompanied with the singing of a song, which begins, "Now we carry Death out of the village and Spring into the village." 1 In Bohemia the children go out with a straw-man, representing Death, to the end of the village, where they burn it, singing "Now carry we Death out of the village, The new Summer into the village, Welcome, dear Summer, Green little corn.' " 9 At Tabor in Bohemia the figure of Death is carried out of the town and flung from a high rock into the water, while they sing "Death swims on the water, Summer will soon be here, We carried Death away for you, We brought the Summer. And do thou, O holy Marketa, Give us a good year For wheat and for rye." 3 In other parts of Bohemia they carry Death to the end of the village, singing- "We carry Death out of the village, And the New Year into the village. Green grass, we bid you welcome." Behind the village they erect a pyre, on which they burn the straw figure, reviling and scoffing at it the while. Then they return, singing— "We have carried away Death, And brought Life back. He has taken up his quarters in the village, In some German villages of Moravia, as in Jassnitz and Seitendorf, the young folk assemble on the third Sunday in Lent and fashion a straw-man, who is generally adorned with a fur cap and a pair of old leathern hose, if such are to be had. The effigy is then hoisted on a pole and carried by the lads and lasses out into the open fields. On the way they sing a song, in which it is said that they are carrying Death away and bringing dear Summer into the house, and with Summer the May and the flowers. On reaching an appointed place they dance in a circle round the effigy with loud shouts and screams, then suddenly rush at it and tear it to pieces with their hands. Lastly, the pieces are thrown together in a heap, the pole is broken, and fire is set to the whole. While it burns the troop dances merrily round it, rejoicing at the victory won by Spring; and when the fire has nearly died out they go to the householders to beg for a present of eggs wherewith to hold a feast, taking care to give as a reason for the request that they have carried Death out and away.1 3 The effigy of Death is often regarded with fear and treated with marks of hatred and contempt. In Lusatia the figure is sometimes made to look in at the window of a house, and it is believed that some one in the house will die within the year unless his life is redeemed by the payment of money.2. Again, after throwing the effigy away, the bearers sometimes run home lest Death should follow them, and if one of them falls in running, it is believed that he will die within the year. At Chrudim, in Bohemia, the figure of Death is made out of a cross, with a head and mask stuck at the top, and a shirt stretched out on it. On the fifth Sunday in Lent the boys take this effigy to the nearest brook or pool, and standing in a line throw it into the water. Then they all plunge in after it; but as soon as it is caught no one more may enter the water. The boy who did not enter the water or entered it last will die within the year, and he is obliged to carry the Death back to the village. The effigy is then burned. On the other hand it is believed that no one will die within the year in the house 1 W. Müller, Beiträge zur Volkskunde der Deutschen in Mähren, pp. 353-355. Grimm, op. cit. ii. 644: K. Haupt, Sagenbuch der Lausitz, ii. 55. 3 Grimm, op. cit. ii. 640, 643. Vernaleken, Mythen und Bräuche des Volkes in Oesterreich, p. 294 sq.; Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Fest-Kalender aus Böhmen, p. 90. 1 out of which the figure of Death has been carried; and the village out of which Death has been driven is sometimes supposed to be protected against sickness and plague.2 In some villages of Austrian Silesia on the Saturday before Dead Sunday an effigy is made of old clothes, hay, and straw, for the purpose of driving Death out of the village. On Sunday the people, armed with sticks and straps, assemble before the house where the figure is lodged. Four lads then draw the effigy by cords through the village amid exultant shouts, while all the others beat it with their sticks and straps. On reaching a field which belongs to a neighbouring village they lay down the figure, cudgel it soundly, and scatter the fragments over the field. The people believe that the village from which Death has been thus carried out will be safe from any infectious disease for the whole year.3 In villages of the Wagstadt district, Austrian Silesia, girls and boys together dress up a man of straw called Death on the fifth Sunday of Lent, which hence goes by the name of Dead or Black Sunday. After arraying the effigy in their best clothes they carry it in procession on a pole to the boundary of the village, where they strip it, tear it in pieces, and burn it. In Slavonia the figure of Death, is cudgelled and then rent in two.5 In Poland the effigy, made of hemp and straw, is flung into a pool or swamp with the words "The devil take thee."6 The custom of "sawing the Old Woman," which is or used to be observed in Italy, France, and Spain on the fourth Sunday in Lent, is doubtless, as Grimm supposes, merely another form of the custom of "Carrying out Death." A great hideous figure representing the oldest woman of the village was dragged out and sawn in two, amid a prodigious noise made with cow-bells, pots and pans, and so forth. In Palermo the representation used to be still more lifelike. At Mid-Lent an old woman was drawn through the streets 1 Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, ii. A. Peter, Volksthümliches aus Ös640. terreichisch-Schlesien, ii. 281. Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 211. 6 Ibid. p. 210. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, ii. 652; H. Usener, "Italische Mythen," Rheinisches Museum, N.F., xxx. (1875), p. 191 sq. 4 2 J. A. E. Köhler, Volksbrauch, Aberglauben, Sagen und andre alte Ueberlieferungen im Voigtlande, p. 171. 3 Reinsberg - Düringsfeld, Das festliche Jahr, p. 80. on a cart, attended by two men dressed in the costume of the Compagnia de' Bianchi, a society or religious order whose function it was to attend and console prisoners condemned to death. A scaffold was erected in a public square; the old woman mounted it, and two mock executioners proceeded, amid a storm of huzzas and hand-clapping, to saw through her neck or rather through a bladder of blood which had been previously fitted to her neck. The blood gushed out and the old woman pretended to swoon and die. The last of these mock executions took place in 1737. In Florence, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Old Woman was represented by a figure stuffed with walnuts and dried figs and fastened to the top of a ladder. At Mid-Lent this effigy was sawn through the middle under the Loggie of the Mercato Nuovo, and as the dried fruits tumbled out they were scrambled for by the crowd. A trace of the custom is still to be seen in the practice, observed by urchins, of secretly pinning paper ladders to the shoulders of women of the lower classes who happen to show themselves in the streets on the morning of Mid-Lent.2 A similar custom is observed by urchins in Rome; and at Naples on the first of April boys cut strips of cloth into the shape of saws, smear them with gypsum, and strike passers-by with their "saws on the back, thus imprinting the figure of a saw upon their clothes.3 At Montalto, in Calabria, boys go about at MidLent with little saws made of cane and jeer at old people, who therefore generally stay indoors on that day. The Calabrian women meet together at this time and feast on figs, chestnuts, honey, and so forth; this they call "sawing the Old Woman"—a reminiscence probably of a custom like the old Florentine one.1 In Lombardy the Thursday of Mid-Lent is known as the Day of the Old Wives (il giorno delle Vecchie). The children run about crying out for the oldest woman, whom they wish to burn; and failing to possess themselves of the original, they make a puppet representing her, which, in the evening, is consumed on a 1 G. Pitrè, Spettacoli e feste popolari siciliane (Palermo, 1881), p. 207 sq.; id., Usi e Costumi, i. 107 sq. 2 Archivio per lo studio delle tradizioni popolari, iv. (1885), p. 294 sq. 3 H. Usener, op. cit. p. 193. 4 Vincenzo Dorsa, La tradizione greco-latina negli usi e nelle credence popolari della Calabria citeriore (Cosenza, 1884), p. 43 sq. bonfire. On the Lake of Garda, the blaze of light flaring at different points on the hills produces a picturesque effect.1 In Berry, a region of Central France, the custom of “sawing the Old Woman" at Mid-Lent used to be popular, and has probably not wholly died out even now. Here the name of "Fairs of the old Wives" was given to certain fairs held in Lent, at which children were made to believe that they would see the Old Woman of Mid-Lent split or sawn asunder. At Argenton and Cluis-Dessus, when Mid-Lent has come, children of ten or twelve years of age scour the streets with wooden swords, pursue the old crones whom they meet, and even try to break into the houses where ancient dames are known to live. Passers-by, who see the children thus engaged, say, "They are going to cut or sabre the Old Woman." Meantime, the old wives take care to keep out of sight as much as possible. When the children of CluisDessus have gone their rounds, and the day draws towards evening, they repair to Cluis-Dessous, where they mould a rude figure of an old woman out of clay, hew it in pieces with their wooden swords, and throw the bits into the river. At Bourges on the same day, an effigy representing an old woman was formerly sawn in two on the crier's stone in a public square. About the middle of the nineteenth century, in the same town and on the same day, hundreds of children assembled at the Hospital "to see the old woman split or divided in two." A religious service was held in the building on this occasion, which attracted many idlers. In the streets it was not uncommon to hear cries of "Let us cleave the Old Wife! let us cleave the oldest woman of the ward!" At Tulle, on the day of Mid-Lent, the people used to inquire after the oldest woman in the town, and to tell the children that at mid-day punctually she was to be sawn in two at Puy-Saint-Clair.2 In Barcelona on the fourth Sunday in Lent boys run about the streets, some with saws, others with billets of wood, others again with cloths in which they collect gratuities. They sing a song in which it is said that they are looking E. Martinengo-Cesaresco, in The Academy, No. 671, March 14th, 1885, p. 188. Laisnel de la Salle, Croyances et Légendes du Centre de la France, i. 43 sq. |