Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/30

 20 The Legends of Krishna.

at the Phapa rites in Siam ; and the mock combats of various American Indian tribes.^

I need hardly refer to the cases of the late survivals of tribal contests in Great Britain which have been illustrated by Mr. G. L. Gomme." We know that many of the most ancient fairs in this country are connected with the ancient cemeteries and some cult of the dead in which mock combats and even blood-letting were part of the observances. It would be tempting to suggest that we have a similar ritual survival in some of our English games, like "The Raid," " Scotch and English," and " Prisoners' Base." ^ Bull-bait- ing, again, which in some cases seems to be a survival of a water-sacrifice,* often takes the form of a contest between rival villages or townships. Akin to these are other popular ceremonials in which animals take part, such as the habit of horse-riding at certain feasts.^ Wren-hunting, which is done by fishermen in the Isle of Man to keep off storms, was originally possibly a procession in honour of the sacred beast which later on turned into a hunt, like the custom of the Munda girls in India, who on a feast-day hunt and kill any pigs, sheep, or goats of neighbouring villages which they can come across, and that of the youths in Bihar, who have a festival on which they hunt hares and jackals.^

' Bancroft, loc. cif., ii., 330; i., 84; Panjab Notes and Queries, iii., 85 ; Ling Roth, loc. cif., i., 260, 414 ; The Times. 8th September, 1891 ; Robert- son, K&firs of the Hindu Knsh., 584 seqq. , 592 ; Symes, Mission to the Court of Awa, ii., 210; Burmah Gazetteer, i., 417; Reports, American Bureau of Ethnology', 1881-82, 295, 337 ; '^■zxvq%. History of the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands, 153; Bowring, ^zrtiw, i., i^f^ seqq ; Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxi., 126.

' Village Communities, 240.

3 Mrs. Gomme, Traditional Games, ii., 79 seqq., 183 ; Denhatn Tracts, i., 151 seqq.


 * Folk-Lore, vii., 346.


 * Martin in Pinkerton, Travels, iii., 600, 606, 668, 716.

^ Frazer, Golden Bojtgh, ii., 140; Bancroft, loc. cit., ii., 336; Denham Tracts, i., 203 ; No?-th Indian Notes and Queries, iii., 98; Grierson, Bihar Peasant life, 401 ; Gomme, loc. cit., 112 seqq. ; Folk-Lore, iii., 463 seqq.