Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/18

10 This fact is important, as unfortunately a minute description has not been put on record. A crowd of men and boys walked for about a mile along the road which runs along the bay. At their head were two middle-aged men, holding each by one of his hands a lad of about nineteen years of age perfectly naked, while immediately behind him was an elderly man (either his father or uncle, as it was afterwards found out) holding a hatchet and a saw. On reaching the bathing-place a circle was formed, and the principal performers were enclosed in it. After a time the young man was led out by another, who had undressed himself, and bathed in the sea, after which they were again received into the circle, when some ceremony was gone through in which the hatchet and saw were used, and in a few moments a loud shout proclaimed that the mystery was proceeding successfully. As soon as the man who had bathed the boy was dressed, the crowd set forth into the village with loud shouts, the two men leading the naked youth as before, and the man with the saw and hatchet following. Nothing could be found out about the meaning of this extraordinary ceremony, and questions were not allowed to be asked about it. A sort of horror seemed to hang over everything until the bathing ceremony was completed, and everyone, particularly the women, seemed anxious to keep out of the line of procession, while the ceremony was strictly guarded from the observation of the "profane". As soon as it was over, all the rabble rout, both male and female, of the village flocked about the performers, and for some time kept up loud shouts.

What is the meaning of this ceremony? Can we think of the nude figure as a victim or as a novitiate? May we connect some of the incidents, notably the supposed secrecy and the absence of the townspeople, as parallel to some of the incidents in the Godiva ceremony which Mr. Hartland has examined for us? Or are we to think of it as a mere piece of modern foolery of more than questionable taste?