Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/473

Rh the hollow on the mound, is supposed to revive, and to be endowed with a vivifying influence which is highly prized. Thus in Spachendorf (Austrian Silesia), the figure of Death is carried out to an open place outside the village, and there burned, and then a great struggle takes place for the pieces. Everyone who secures a fragment ties it to a branch of the tallest tree in his garden, or buries it in the ground. The same scramble for the fragments occurs in the Troppau district; and other instances in which a highly prized fertilising power is attributed to the figure of Death will be found in Mr. Frazer's Golden Bough.

I think, then, that, at any rate in default of a better explanation, we may class this Hallaton bottle-kicking with the widely-prevalent spring ceremonies I have mentioned. Space will not allow me to carry the argument any further; but I will refer to the very elaborate and suggestive discussion of Mr. J. G. Frazer, in which he certainly makes out a very strong case for the view that this custom of "carrying out Death" is a survival of an ancient rite of sacrificing the Spirit of Vegetation in the spring of the year. And if upon the evidence of analogy,