Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/28

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This custom is comparable with others of equal significance, and its more ancient features preserved to us from the early seventeenth century supply us with further details; but the comparison is not needed, because the custom contains within itself a perfect record of the prehistoric original.

At Whitsuntide, in the parish of King's Teignton, Devonshire, a custom is thus described. A lamb is drawn about the parish on Whitsun Monday in a cart covered with garlands of lilac, laburnum, and other flowers, when persons are requested to give something towards the animal and attendant expenses; on Tuesday it is then killed and roasted whole in the middle of the village. The lamb is then sold in slices to the poor at a cheap rate. The origin of the custom is forgotten, but a tradition, supposed to