Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 16, 1905.djvu/539

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Wilkinson, without a hint of date or indication whether the custom was there borrowed; a few references to Olympia and Epidauros, and other such allusions, only suffice to indicate that the modern practice has its roots in heathendom. The author has not used any of the works specially devoted, wholly or in part, to the topic. The second, which treats of the relation of the Catholic Church to the saints, is also of a thin texture, and does not enter into the relation of the modern saints to the ancient gods or heroes. It would have been very useful had the author compiled a list of saints, with their properties, and if possible some indication of their relation to antiquity. No doubt original research on these lines would have taken a very long time, and would have given matter enough for a new book ; but something has been already done, and at least the list we speak of could have been made. After this the author comes to his own special sphere, and at once he becomes worth hearing. He describes first the general features of pilgrim shrines and sacred springs : the reader will be amused to see how the new is grafted upon the old. In Bickerstein the author bought for a penny a paper packet upon which was depicted a steam engine, with the words "Railway to Heaven" and "Ticket for Paradise." Spiritual playing-cards are also somewhere to be found. A chapter follows on Pilgrimages ; and a picture is given of one poor sinner who for 36 years has not washed, and has always carried an iron chain bound seven times about his wasted body. An interesting series of notes and observations is attached under the title " Guardians of Domestic Animals." Some are patrons of cattle, some of horses. Here again our author is too scanty. We now come to a chapter on St. Leonard and his powers, with a list of his holy places in South Germany. At Aigen, in Bavaria, the author saw more than a thousand iron figures of horses and kine which had been there offered on the saint's feast-day. Here also he found a number of allusions to the practice in the church archives, in which the foundation statutes of 1599 give detailed directions for the dedication of offerings. These iron figures are quite a common form of dedication to this saint at various local shrines : they are dedicated after a procession of riders and carts thrice about the church. Other saints have the same patronage

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