Chapter 10. Relics of Tree Worship in Modern Europe.
FROM THE FOREGOING review of the beneficent qualities commonly ascribed to
tree-spirits, it is easy to understand why customs like the May-tree or May-pole have
prevailed so widely and figured so prominently in the popular festivals of European
peasants. In spring or early summer or even on Midsummer Day, it was and still is in many
parts of Europe the custom to go out to the woods, cut down a tree and bring it into the
village, where it is set up amid general rejoicings; or the people cut branches in the woods,
and fasten them on every house. The intention of these customs is to bring home to the
village, and to each house, the blessings which the tree-spirit has in its power to bestow.
Hence the custom in some places of planting a May-tree before every house, or of carrying
the village May-tree from door to door, that every household may receive its share of the
blessing. Out of the mass of evidence on this subject a few examples may be selected. 1
Sir Henry Piers, in his Description of Westmeath, writing in 1682 says: "On May-eve,
every family sets up before their door a green bush, strewed over with yellow flowers,
which the meadows yield plentifully. In countries where timber is plentiful, they erect tall
slender trees, which stand high, and they continue almost the whole year; so as a stranger
would go nigh to imagine that they were all signs of ale-sellers, and that all houses were
ale-houses." In Northamptonshire a young tree ten or twelve feet high used to be planted
before each house on May Day so as to appear growing; flowers were thrown over it and
strewn about the door. "Among ancient customs still retained by the Cornish, may be
reckoned that of decking their doors and porches on the first of May with green boughs of
sycamore and hawthorn, and of planting trees, or rather stumps of trees, before their
houses." In the north of England it was formerly the custom for young people to rise a little
after midnight on the morning of the first of May, and go out with music and the blowing
of horns into the woods, where they broke branches and adorned them with nosegays and
crowns of flowers. This done, they returned about sunrise and fastened the flower-decked
branches over the doors and windows of their houses. At Abingdon in Berkshire young
people formerly went about in groups on May morning, singing a carol of which the
following are two of the verses:
"We've been rambling all the night,
And sometime of this day;
And now returning back again,
We bring a garland gay.
A garland gay we bring you here;
And at your door we stand;
It is a sprout well budded out,
The work of our Lord's hand." 2
At the towns of Saffron Walden and Debden in Essex on the first of May little girls go
about in parties from door to door singing a song almost identical with the above and
carrying garlands; a doll dressed in white is usually placed in the middle of each garland.
Similar customs have been and indeed are still observed in various parts of England. The
garlands are generally in the form of hoops intersecting each other at right angles. It
appears that a hoop wreathed with rowan and marsh marigold, and bearing suspended
within it two balls, is still carried on May Day by villagers in some parts of Ireland. The balls,
which are sometimes covered with gold and silver paper, are said to have originally
represented the sun and moon. 3
In some villages of the Vosges Mountains on the first Sunday of May young girls go in
bands from house to house, singing a song in praise of May, in which mention is made of
the "bread and meal that come in May." If money is given them, they fasten a green bough
to the door; if it is refused, they wish the family many children and no bread to feed them.
In the French department of Mayenne, boys who bore the name of Maillotins used to go
about from farm to farm on the first of May singing carols, for which they received money
or a drink; they planted a small tree or a branch of a tree. Near Saverne in Alsace bands of
people go about carrying May-trees. Amongst them is a man dressed in a white shirt with
his face blackened; in front of him is carried a large May-tree, but each member of the band
also carries a smaller one. One of the company bears a huge basket, in which he collects
eggs, bacon, and so forth. 4
On the Thursday before Whitsunday the Russian villagers "go out into the woods, sing
songs, weave garlands, and cut down a young birch-tree, which they dress up in woman's
clothes, or adorn with many-coloured shreds and ribbons. After that comes a feast, at the
end of which they take the dressed-up birch-tree, carry it home to their village with joyful
dance and song, and set it up in one of the houses, where it remains as an honoured guest
till Whitsunday. On the two intervening days they pay visits to the house where their `guest'
is; but on the third day, Whitsunday, they take her to a stream and fling her into its waters,"
throwing their garlands after her. In this Russian custom the dressing of the birch in
woman's clothes shows how clearly the tree is personified; and the throwing it into a
stream is most probably a raincharm. 5
In some parts of Sweden on the eve of May Day lads go about carrying each a bunch of
fresh birch twigs wholly or partly in leaf. With the village fiddler at their head, they make the
round of the houses singing May songs; the burden of their songs is a prayer for fine
weather, a plentiful harvest, and worldly and spiritual blessings. One of them carries a
basket in which he collects gifts of eggs and the like. If they are well received, they stick a
leafy twig in the roof over the cottage door. But in Sweden midsummer is the season when
these ceremonies are chiefly observed. On the Eve of St. John (the twenty-third of June)
the houses are thoroughly cleansed and garnished with green boughs and flowers. Young
fir-trees are raised at the doorway and elsewhere about the homestead; and very often
small umbrageous arbours are constructed in the garden. In Stockholm on this day a
leaf-market is held at which thousands of May-poles (Maj Stănger), from six
inches to twelve feet high, decorated with leaves, flowers, slips of coloured paper, gilt
egg-shells strung on reeds, and so on, are exposed for sale. Bonfires are lit on the hills,
and the people dance round them and jump over them. But the chief event of the day is
setting up the May-pole. This consists of a straight and tall sprucepine tree, stripped of its
branches. "At times hoops and at others pieces of wood, placed crosswise, are attached to
it at intervals; whilst at others it is provided with bows, representing, so to say, a man with
his arms akimbo. From top to bottom not only the `Maj Stăng' (May-pole) itself,
but the hoops, bows, etc., are ornamented with leaves, flowers, slips of various cloth, gilt
egg-shells, etc.; and on the top of it is a large vane, or it may be a flag." The raising of the
May-pole, the decoration of which is done by the village maidens, is an affair of much
ceremony; the people flock to it from all quarters, and dance round it in a great ring.
Midsummer customs of the same sort used to be observed in some parts of Germany. Thus
in the towns of the Upper Harz Mountains tall fir-trees, with the bark peeled off their
lower trunks, were set up in open places and decked with flowers and eggs, which were
painted yellow and red. Round these trees the young folk danced by day and the old folk in
the evening. In some parts of Bohemia also a May-pole or midsummer-tree is erected on
St. John's Eve. The lads fetch a tall fir or pine from the wood and set it up on a height,
where the girls deck it with nosegays, garlands, and red ribbons. It is afterwards burned. 6
It would be needless to illustrate at length the custom, which has prevailed in various parts
of Europe, such as England, France, and Germany, of setting up a village May-tree or
May-pole on May Day. A few examples will suffice. The puritanical writer Phillip Stubbes in
his Anatomie of Abuses, first published at London in 1583, has described with manifest
disgust how they used to bring in the May-pole in the days of good Queen Bess. His
description affords us a vivid glimpse of merry England in the olden time. "Against May,
Whitsonday, or other time, all the yung men and maides, olde men and wives, run gadding
over night to the woods, groves, hils, and mountains, where they spend all the night in
plesant pastimes; and in the morning they return, bringing with them birch and branches of
trees, to deck their assemblies withall. And no mervaile, for there is a great Lord present
amongst them, as superintendent and Lord over their pastimes and sportes, namely,
Sathan, prince of hel. But the chiefest jewel they bring from thence is their May-pole,
which they bring home with great veneration, as thus. They have twentie or fortie yoke of
oxen, every oxe having a sweet nose-gay of flouers placed on the tip of his hornes, and
these oxen drawe home this May-pole (this stinkyng ydol, rather), which is covered all over
with floures and hearbs, bound round about with strings, from the top to the bottome, and
sometime painted with variable colours, with two or three hundred men, women and
children following it with great devotion. And thus beeing reared up, with handkercheefs
and flags hovering on the top, they straw the ground rounde about, binde green boughes
about it, set up sommer haules, bowers, and arbors hard by it. And then fall they to daunce
about it, like as the heathen people did at the dedication of the Idols, whereof this is a
perfect pattern, or rather the thing itself. I have heard it credibly reported (and that viva
voce) by men of great gravitie and reputation, that of fortie, threescore, or a hundred
maides going to the wood over night, there have scaresly the third part of them returned
home againe undefiled." 7
In Swabia on the first of May a tall fir-tree used to be fetched into the village, where it
was decked with ribbons and set up; then the people danced round it merrily to music. The
tree stood on the village green the whole year through, until a fresh tree was brought in
next May Day. In Saxony "people were not content with bringing the summer symbolically
(as king or queen) into the village; they brought the fresh green itself from the woods even
into the houses: that is the May or Whitsuntide trees, which are mentioned in documents
from the thirteenth century onwards. The fetching in of the May-tree was also a festival.
The people went out into the woods to seek the May (majum quaerere), brought young
trees, especially firs and birches, to the village and set them up before the doors of the
houses or of the cattle-stalls or in the rooms. Young fellows erected such May-trees, as
we have already said, before the chambers of their sweethearts. Besides these household
Mays, a great May-tree or May-pole, which had also been brought in solemn procession to
the village, was set up in the middle of the village or in the market-place of the town. It had
been chosen by the whole community, who watched over it most carefully. Generally the
tree was stripped of its branches and leaves, nothing but the crown being left, on which
were displayed, in addition to many-coloured ribbons and cloths, a variety of victuals such
as sausages, cakes, and eggs. The young folk exerted themselves to obtain these prizes. In
the greasy poles which are still to be seen at our fairs we have a relic of these old
May-poles. Not uncommonly there was a race on foot or on horseback to the May-tree-a
Whitsunday pastime which in course of time has been divested of its goal and survives as a
popular custom to this day in many parts of Germany." At Bordeaux on the first of May the
boys of each street used to erect in it a May-pole, which they adorned with garlands and a
great crown; and every evening during the whole of the month the young people of both
sexes danced singing about the pole. Down to the present day May-trees decked with
flowers and ribbons are set up on May Day in every village and hamlet of gay Provence.
Under them the young folk make merry and the old folk rest. 8
In all these cases, apparently, the custom is or was to bring in a new May-tree each year.
However, in England the village May-pole seems as a rule, at least in later times, to have
been permanent, not renewed annually. Villages of Upper Bavaria renew their May-pole
once every three, four, or five years. It is a fir-tree fetched from the forest, and amid all the
wreaths, flags, and inscriptions with which it is bedecked, an essential part is the bunch of
dark green foliage left at the top "as a memento that in it we have to do, not with a dead
pole, but with a living tree from the greenwood." We can hardly doubt that originally the
practice everywhere was to set up a new May-tree every year. As the object of the custom
was to bring in the fructifying spirit of vegetation, newly awakened in spring, the end would
have been defeated if, instead of a living tree, green and sappy, an old withered one had
been erected year after year or allowed to stand permanently. When, however, the meaning
of the custom had been forgotten, and the May-tree was regarded simply as a centre for
holiday merry-making, people saw no reason for felling a fresh tree every year, and
preferred to let the same tree stand permanently, only decking it with fresh flowers on May
Day. But even when the May-pole had thus become a fixture, the need of giving it the
appearance of being a green tree, not a dead pole, was sometimes felt. Thus at Weverham in
Cheshire "are two May-poles, which are decorated on this day (May Day) with all due
attention to the ancient solemnity; the sides are hung with garlands, and the top terminated
by a birch or other tall slender tree with its leaves on; the bark being peeled, and the stem
spliced to the pole, so as to give the appearance of one tree from the summit." Thus the
renewal of the May-tree is like the renewal of the Harvest-May; each is intended to secure
a fresh portion of the fertilising spirit of vegetation, and to preserve it throughout the year.
But whereas the efficacy of the Harvest-May is restricted to promoting the growth of the
crops, that of the May-tree or May-branch extends also, as we have seen, to women and
cattle. Lastly, it is worth noting that the old May-tree is sometimes burned at the end of
the year. Thus in the district of Prague young people break pieces of the public May-tree
and place them behind the holy pictures in their rooms, where they remain till next May Day,
and are then burned on the hearth. In Würtemberg the bushes which are set up on the
houses on Palm Sunday are sometimes left there for a year and then burnt. 9
So much for the tree-spirit conceived as incorporate or immanent in the tree. We have
now to show that the tree-spirit is often conceived and represented as detached from the
tree and clothed in human form, and even as embodied in living men or women. The
evidence for this anthropomorphic representation of the tree-spirit is largely to be found in
the popular customs of European peasantry. 10
There is an instructive class of cases in which the tree-spirit is represented simultaneously
in vegetable form and in human form, which are set side by side as if for the express
purpose of explaining each other. In these cases the human representative of the
tree-spirit is sometimes a doll or puppet, sometimes a living person, but whether a puppet
or a person, it is placed beside a tree or bough; so that together the person or puppet, and
the tree or bough, form a sort of bilingual inscription, the one being, so to speak, a
translation of the other. Here, therefore, there is no room left for doubt that the spirit of
the tree is actually represented in human form. Thus in Bohemia, on the fourth Sunday in
Lent, young people throw a puppet called Death into the water; then the girls go into the
wood, cut down a young tree, and fasten to it a puppet dressed in white clothes to look like
a woman; with this tree and puppet they go from house to house collecting gratuities and
singing songs with the refrain:
"We carry Death out of the village,
We bring Summer into the village."
Here, as we shall see later on, the "Summer" is the spirit of vegetation returning or reviving
in spring. In some parts of our own country children go about asking for pence with some
small imitations of May-poles, and with a finely-dressed doll which they call the Lady of the
May. In these cases the tree and the puppet are obviously regarded as equivalent. 11
At Thann, in Alsace, a girl called the Little May Rose, dressed in white, carries a small
May-tree, which is gay with garlands and ribbons. Her companions collect gifts from door
to door, singing a song:
"Little May Rose turn round three times,
Let us look at you round and round!
Rose of the May, come to the greenwood away,
We will be merry all.
So we go from the May to the roses."
In the course of the song a wish is expressed that those who give nothing may lose their
fowls by the marten, that their vine may bear no clusters, their tree no nuts, their field no
corn; the produce of the year is supposed to depend on the gifts offered to these May
singers. Here and in the cases mentioned above, where children go about with green
boughs or garlands on May Day singing and collecting money, the meaning is that with the
spirit of vegetation they bring plenty and good luck to the house, and they expect to be
paid for the service. In Russian Lithuania, on the first of May, they used to set up a green
tree before the village. Then the rustic swains chose the prettiest girl, crowned her,
swathed her in birch branches and set her beside the May-tree, where they danced, sang,
and shouted "O May! O May!" In Brie (Isle de France) a May-tree is erected in the midst of
the village; its top is crowned with flowers; lower down it is twined with leaves and twigs,
still lower with huge green branches. The girls dance round it, and at the same time a lad
wrapt in leaves and called Father May is led about. In the small towns of the Franken Wald
mountains in Northern Bavaria, on the second of May, a Walber tree is erected before a
tavern, and a man dances round it, enveloped in straw from head to foot in such a way that
the ears of corn unite above his head to form a crown. He is called the Walber, and used to
be led in procession through the streets, which were adorned with sprigs of birch. 12
Amongst the Slavs of Carinthia, on St. George's Day (the twentythird of April), the
young people deck with flowers and garlands a tree which has been felled on the eve of the
festival. The tree is then carried in procession, accompanied with music and joyful
acclamations, the chief figure in the procession being the Green George, a young fellow clad
from head to foot in green birch branches. At the close of the ceremonies the Green
George, that is an effigy of him, is thrown into the water. It is the aim of the lad who acts
Green George to step out of his leafy envelope and substitute the effigy so adroitly that no
one shall perceive the change. In many places, however, the lad himself who plays the part
of Green George is ducked in a river or pond, with the express intention of thus ensuring
rain to make the fields and meadows green in summer. In some places the cattle are
crowned and driven from their stalls to the accompaniment of a song:
"Green George we bring,
Green George we accompany,
May he feed our herds well.
If not, to the water with him."
Here we see that the same powers of making rain and fostering the cattle, which are
ascribed to the tree-spirit regarded as incorporate in the tree, are also attributed to the
tree-spirit represented by a living man. 13
Among the gypsies of Transylvania and Roumania the festival of Green George is the chief
celebration of spring. Some of them keep it on Easter Monday, others on St. George's Day
(the twentythird of April). On the eve of the festival a young willow tree is cut down,
adorned with garlands and leaves, and set up in the ground. Women with child place one of
their garments under the tree, and leave it there over night; if next morning they find a leaf
of the tree lying on the garment, they know that their delivery will be easy. Sick and old
people go to the tree in the evening, spit on it thrice, and say, "You will soon die, but let us
live." Next morning the gypsies gather about the willow. The chief figure of the festival is
Green George, a lad who is concealed from top to toe in green leaves and blossoms. He
throws a few handfuls of grass to the beasts of the tribe, in order that they may have no
lack of fodder throughout the year. Then he takes three iron nails, which have lain for three
days and nights in water, and knocks them into the willow; after which he pulls them out
and flings them into a running stream to propitiate the water-spirits. Finally, a pretence is
made of throwing Green George into the water, but in fact it is only a puppet made of
branches and leaves which is ducked in the stream. In this version of the custom the
powers of granting an easy delivery to women and of communicating vital energy to the
sick and old are clearly ascribed to the willow; while Green George, the human double of the
tree, bestows food on the cattle, and further ensures the favour of the water-spirits by
putting them in indirect communication with the tree. 14
Without citing more examples to the same effect, we may sum up the results of the
preceding pages in the words of Mannhardt: "The customs quoted suffice to establish with
certainty the conclusion that in these spring processions the spirit of vegetation is often
represented both by the May-tree and in addition by a man dressed in green leaves or
flowers or by a girl similarly adorned. It is the same spirit which animates the tree and is
active in the inferior plants and which we have recognised in the May-tree and the
Harvest-May. Quite consistently the spirit is also supposed to manifest his presence in the
first flower of spring and reveals himself both in a girl representing a May-rose, and also,
as giver of harvest, in the person of the Walber. The procession with this representative of
the divinity was supposed to produce the same beneficial effects on the fowls, the
fruit-trees, and the crops as the presence of the deity himself. In other words the mummer
was regarded not as an image but as an actual representative of the spirit of vegetation;
hence the wish expressed by the attendants on the May-rose and the May-tree that those
who refuse them gifts of eggs, bacon, and so forth, may have no share in the blessings
which it is in the power of the itinerant spirit to bestow. We may conclude that these
begging processions with May-trees or May-boughs from door to door (`bringing the May
or the summer') had everywhere originally a serious and, so to speak, sacramental
significance; people really believed that the god of growth was present unseen in the
bough; by the procession he was brought to each house to bestow his blessing. The names
May, Father May, May Lady, Queen of the May, by which the anthropomorphic spirit of
vegetation is often denoted, show that the idea of the spirit of vegetation is blent with a
personification of the season at which his powers are most strikingly manifested." 15
So far we have seen that the tree-spirit or the spirit of vegetation in general is
represented either in vegetable form alone, as by a tree, bough, or flower; or in vegetable
and human form simultaneously, as by a tree, bough, or flower in combination with a puppet
or a living person. It remains to show that the representation of him by a tree, bough, or
flower is sometimes entirely dropped, while the representation of him by a living person
remains. In this case the representative character of the person is generally marked by
dressing him or her in leaves or flowers; sometimes, too, it is indicated by the name he or
she bears. 16
Thus in some parts of Russia on St. George's Day (the twenty-third of April) a youth is
dressed out, like our Jack-in-the-Green, with leaves and flowers. The Slovenes call him the
Green George. Holding a lighted torch in one hand and a pie in the other, he goes out to
the corn-fields, followed by girls singing appropriate songs. A circle of brushwood is next
lighted, in the middle of which is set the pie. All who take part in the ceremony then sit
down around the fire and divide the pie among them. In this custom the Green George
dressed in leaves and flowers is plainly identical with the similarly disguised Green George
who is associated with a tree in the Carinthian, Transylvanian, and Roumanian customs
observed on the same day. Again, we saw that in Russia at Whitsuntide a birch-tree is
dressed in woman's clothes and set up in the house. Clearly equivalent to this is the custom
observed on Whit-Monday by Russian girls in the district of Pinsk. They choose the
prettiest of their number, envelop her in a mass of foliage taken from the birch-trees and
maples, and carry her about through the village. 17
In Ruhla as soon as the trees begin to grow green in spring, the children assemble on a
Sunday and go out into the woods, where they choose one of their playmates to be the
Little Leaf Man. They break branches from the trees and twine them about the child till only
his shoes peep out from the leafy mantle. Holes are made in it for him to see through, and
two of the children lead the Little Leaf Man that he may not stumble or fall. Singing and
dancing they take him from house to house, asking for gifts of food such as eggs, cream,
sausages, and cakes. Lastly, they sprinkle the Leaf Man with water and feast on the food
they have collected. In the Fricktal, Switzerland, at Whitsuntide boys go out into a wood
and swathe one of their number in leafy boughs. He is called the Whitsuntide-lout, and
being mounted on horseback with a green branch in his hand he is led back into the village.
At the village-well a halt is called and the leaf-clad lout is dismounted and ducked in the
trough. Thereby he acquires the right of sprinkling water on everybody, and he exercises
the right specially on girls and street urchins. The urchins march before him in bands
begging him to give them a Whitsuntide wetting. 18
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. In Fricktal 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 claves; 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. 19
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. 20
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. 21
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. 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. 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. At Wahrstedt the boys at Whitsuntide choose by lot a
king and a high-steward. The latter is completely concealed in a May-bush, wears a wooden
crown wreathen 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. At Hildesheim 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 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. 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. At Grossvargula, near Langensalza, in 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.
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. 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. The pinching
and beheading of the frog are doubtless, as Mannhardt observes, 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. 22
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. 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. 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. The May Queen is common In France and familiar in
England. 23
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. At Halford in South Warwickshire
the children go from house to house on May Day, 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 schoolhouse in the afternoon. 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. 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 alehouse, 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. Meanwhile the clown hurried to the alehouse
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 chain, 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 neck-cloth, 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 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. 24
In a parish of Denmark it used to be the custom at Whitsuntide to dress up a little girl as
the Whitsun-bride 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. 25
We have seen that in Sweden the ceremonies associated elsewhere with May Day or
Whitsuntide commonly take place at Midsummer. 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. A similar ceremony seems to be still kept up in
Norway. 26
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 folks.
The lad is called the Bridegroom of the month of 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. 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. 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. 27
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 awakens him the fresh verdure or the genial sunshine of spring? It is hardly possible,
on the evidence before us, to answer these questions. 28
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." 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." 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." 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 Brigit, the Celtic
goddess of fire and apparently of the crops. 29
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. 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. 30