Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 9, 1898.djvu/312

284 "In the neighbouring town of Riom, on the feast of the patron St. Amable (June 11), two men in mediæval costume follow the procession, rolling along a large wheel adorned with flowers. The local explanation of this strange ceremony is that on a visitation of the plague (date not given) the canons of St. Amable vowed a candle of wax as long as the distance from their church to the sanctuary of Mozac if the pestilence ceased. The distance being over a mile in length, the taper had to be rolled up in the form of a wheel. It seems, however, more probable that this ceremony dates from an earlier period, and that it is a relic of sun-worship at the summer solstice, which was prevalent throughout Gaul, and is still observed in the Baal-fires kindled on the eve of St. John Baptist. The rolling of a wheel down a hill would be symbolic of the gradual approach of winter, and this pre-historic observance might in course of time become Christianised and incorporated in some such ceremony of the church as an annual procession on the feast of the patron saint of the place" (p. 375).

An old Eastertide custom was observed at the docks yesterday on board some of the vessels trading with South America and the Spanish possessions in the West Indies. The vessels are manned to a large extent by Spanish-speaking seamen, Brazilians and Chilians principally, and of the Roman Catholic faith. These men took part in the ceremony of the Crucifixion, in effigy, of Judas Iscariot. A figure made of straw and tow, and dressed in a fantastic costume, was nailed to a wooden frame, roughly put together, in representation of a cross. Amid shouts of execration, knives and daggers were thrown at the figure, and the ceremony was closed with a dance, during which the effigy was kicked and reviled, and finally dismembered and burned.—Standard, April 9th, 1898.