Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/496

 450 Correspondence,

de I'an," and after parading it through the streets by torch-light with the mock ceremonial of a funeral procession, to end by burying it on the beach, or in some other retired spot, or to make a bonfire and burn it."

A note by the editor adds : — " Hence the country people's term for the effigy of Guy Fawkes on the 5th of November, Me vieux bout de Fan.'"

Is it not likely, however, that the figure now transformed into Guy represented the finish of the agricultural year, and that thus it was " le bout de I'an " in the exact sense ?

A few years ago I said in Folk-Lore that here at Kirton-in-Lindsey, it was not customary to have a Guy with the 5th of November bonfire. Now, I am told that "th' lads '11 sometimes make a straw-man and dress him up in old things, because it pleases 'em to burn him at end of green."

M. Peacock.

[Will the Editor of Guernsey Folklore be so good as to tell us anything she can of the observance (past and present) of " Guy Fawkes' Day " in Guernsey, or of any analogous November customs there? Such evidence might throw valuable light on the connection between Guy Fawkes' and Hallowmas bonfires, long surmised by collectors of English folklore, but not proven. — Ed.]