Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/423

 The Origin of the German Carnival Comedy 419 The water trip is regarded by K. Th. Preuss 129 as a journey to the underworld and was intended to symbolize the swallowing up of the young sun by Mother Earth. When the dead fertility god was later misconceived to be an evil spirit, the belief may have gained ground that the ship carried the evil spirits out upon the unfruitful ocean. 130 Evils are expelled on rafts or in a ship in modern folk-survivals and in savage customs. 131 As a result of this misinterpretation of Death we have as a part of the annual Carnival ceremonies an expulsion of demons and witches, death and disease, plague and pain, fire and famine. 132 This custom was commonly observed among the heathen of Europe, 133 and was not unknown among the ancient Germans. 134 The demons at their expulsion were either embod- ied in effigies, 136 or spersonified by men, 136 while witches were always burned in effigy. Torches were used in the expulsion of demons and witches. 137 A variant of this ceremony is the custom of burning of effigies in bon-fires. The giants of wicker-work burned in bon-fires at Carnival and other popular festivals 138 are believed by Mannhardt to have been originally representa- tives of vegetation spirits and later degraded into demons. 139 The great season for fire-festivals in Europe is the summer solstice, Midsummer Eve or Midsummer Day. 140 Midsummer fires are found all over Europe and especially in German lands. 141 The custom of burning effigies in Midsummer fires is still observed in some parts of Europe. 142 The Yule log, the Mid- 129 "Der damonische Ursprung d. griechischen Dramas," Neue Jahrbilcher f. klass. Altertum, Geschichte u. deutsche Literatur u.f. Padagogik xvii. (1906) 172. 130 Cf. Mannhardt, W.u.F.K., i. 393. 131 Cf. Frazer, op. cit., ix. 199sqq. 132 Ibid., ix. 250. 133 Ibid., ix. 155. 134 /^.,ix. 157-66,214^5. 135 Ibid., ix. 172sq. Ibid., ix. 170-3, 213sqq. t 235. 137 Ibid., ix. 156sqq. t 163, 1655?. Ibid., xi. 35, 40. Ibid., xi. 21, 33, 41-4. 140 76^., x. 160. 141 Ibid., I72sqq. 142 Ibid., x. 195.