Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/264

 252 Animal Superstitions and Totemism.

found in Schlesvvig-Holstein and Hungerford;^ a pig shorn and greased had to be caught by the tail. In Belgium the eel had to be similarly caught.^ Climbing the greasy pole is another form of the same custom.^

In Spain and Germany it was the practice in the Middle Ages to let loose a pig in an enclosure ; it was then pursued by blindfolded men with sticks.^

We have thus a series of transitions leading from the hunt to the Hahnenschlag. In the many variants of the latter custom we may distinguish four main forms.

(i.) The cock is {a) buried in the earth up to the neck, (/3) covered with a pot, (7) carried on a man's shoulders, &c., and struck at or beaten by persons with their eyes blindfolded.-^

(ii.) The cock is hung up in a pot or from a line and thrown at with sticks ; in other cases the competitors ride underneath and endeavour to seize the bird ; elsewhere it is shot at.^

(iii.) The cock is solemnly condemned to death ; its for- giveness is begged, and its head struck off with a wooden sword, if possible at one stroke. The people are some- times sprinkled with the blood.'^

(iv.) The possession of the cock is decided by athletic competitions or by chance.^

Variants of these customs are found in all the south-

' Handelmann, Spiele, p. 23; Hone, ii., 1401. - Breton, Belgique, i., 241.

^ Brand, ii., 303. For other popular amusements possibly referable to a similar source, see Hone, i., 573, ii., 1401 ; Schiitze, Idiotikon, iii., 7.


 * Raumer, Gesch. der Hohenstaufen, vi., 590.

X., 264. Greek coins often represent animals on men's shoulders (Frazer Patisanias, v., 87). Does this point to a similar custom ?
 * Owen, Old Stone Crosses, p. 191; Am Urqtiell, I, 129; M. C, iv., 135,

^ Mont. Coll., iii., 86; Schuster, Deutsche Myth, aus sieben-sdchs. Qiiellen, p. 268.

' Vernaleken, Mythe^i u. Brduche, 303, 305 ; Reinsberg-Diiringsfeld, Fest-kaL, p. 52; Coremans, 83, 103; Pfannenschmid, 299.

^ Pfannenschmid, p. 559; Zeits. fiir die el Welt, 1801, 445; Reimann, Deutsche Volksjerte, p. 13.