Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/426

 422 Rudwin of pelting the effigy representing Winter and its company with sticks and stones, 167 and in the more refined battles of flowers or confetti, which always figure in the modern Carnival. 168 Such a dramatic contest between Summer and Winter or between the new and old fertility spirit is still a fairly wide- spread custom among the European peasants. It is quite common in the German lands, especially on both sides of the Middle Rhine. 169 It also formed a part of the Schembartlauf in Nuremberg. The custom is usually observed as a part of the Carnival ceremonies on Shrove Tuesday, 170 but also at the spring equinox, 171 on May Day, 172 and at Whitsuntide. 173 There were also held at Carnival more or less serious battles as a means of promoting the fertility of the crops. 174 The tug-of- war, for instance, is still practised among many primitive peoples as a fertility charm. 175 We still have a Shrovetide tug-of-war in England. 176 A related custom is the ceremony with whips and brooms on Senseless Thursday, the last Thursday in Carni- val, in the Tyrol. 177 The broom is considered an excellent protection against witches and evil spirits. 178 The marchers in the Carnival procession in Cologne brush those in front of them with brooms in order to rid them of ghosts. 179 Whipping on Shrove Tuesday was a similar means of purification. 180 This 167 Cf. Frazer, op. tit., iv. 247. 168 Cf. Cornford, op. tit., p. 122, 112. In Italy the Jewish children used to range themselves in rows, and pelt one another with nuts; cf. Jewish Encyd., x. 278a. 169 Cf. Grimm, op. tit., ii. 765; Frazer, op. tit., iv. 254-8; Chambers, op, tit., i. 187. Ludwig Uhland, Schriften z. Geschichte d. deutschen Dichtung und Sage iii. (1866) 17-51, has given a very poetical description of this dramatic contest. See also Rudolf Hildebrand, Materialien Zur Geschichte des Deutschen Volkslieds (1900), pp. 92sqq. 170 C/. Frazer, op. cit., iv. 257. 172 Ibid., iv. 254. 173 Ibid., iv. 257. 174 Cf. Mannhardt, W.u.F.K., i. 175 Cf. Frazer, op. tit., ix. 174, 182; Cornford, op. cit., p. 57. 176 Cf. Chambers, op. tit., L 150. 177 Cf. Frazer, op. tit., ix. 248. "*Ibid., ix. 5, x. 210. 179 Cf. Rademacher, "Carnival," (Hastings') Encyd. ofRel.&Eth., iii. 227b. 180 Cf. Mannhardt, W.u.F.K., i. 292; Frazer, op. cit., ix. 260. Or is the whip (flagellum) a symbol of the god of human fecundity? Cf. T. Inman,