Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 8, 1897.djvu/348

316 There is no room within the limits of this paper for much discussion of the relations of these to similar ceremonies at other places, and all that can be done is to briefly note a few obvious parallels. The main feature is, of course, the sacrifice of a living victim by the community, to bring luck during the ensuing year to all who participate in it. This is shown directly in the Whit Hunt, where the piece of stag's skin brings luck to its possessor. As to the Kidlington lamb, the honour done to its captor shows the same thing. At Kirtlington we see the luck in process of being transferred from the lamb to the cake, for it is the latter that is treasured up during the year. At Bampton the transference is complete; the living victim has disappeared, and the cake represents it. Perhaps the sword impaling the cake is emblematic of sacrifice ; but this need not be insisted on. The whole body of customs bears a remarkable resemblance to the Southern Indian festival described by Mr. Gomme (Ethnology in Folk-Lore, pp. 22–6). It is enough to indicate some leading features common to both : 1. The victim is carried round the village on a man's head (Kirtlington). 2. The victim is seized with the mouth by a bound man (at Kidlington, by a woman). 3. Pieces of the victim are scrambled for (Whit Hunt). 4. The victim's head is specially reverenced, e.g., stag's head in the Whit Hunt, "head pie" at Kirtlington. 5. The possession of a piece of the victim or its substitute brings luck (common to all). 6. The victim is accompanied by dancing men and women, with a jester (common to all). With the aid of these and the King's Teignton, and Holne ceremonies (Ethnology in Folk-Lore, pp. 30–3) those who are interested in the question, can draw out for themselves a more detailed parallel than I have here space for.