Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/442

 438 Rudwin ceeding centuries evidently would be attributed by him to a Pro- testant reaction. As a matter of fact, the fool and the devil originally were identical in person and may be traced back to the demonic clown of the ancient heathen days. P. Paris correctly derives the French arlequin (German Harlekin) from the Low Germsinhellekin (Little Devil). 29 The fool may now appear to be a supernumerary person among the morris-dancers. But just as the Mehlweib, who also is one of their number, originally had, as we have seen, 291 a magical act to perform, so the fool also played an important part in the ritual drama. His act, though some- what comical, was for this reason not any the less sacred than the other acts, as may be seen from its analogy to the sacred customs of the Zunians. Our argument that the clownish demon had the phallus will be supported by the analogy to the comic figures in the Turkish play of shades (Karagoz) and in the Javanese puppet-play (Semar.) 292 His sooty appearance has in time been shared by one or the other of the ritual performers. When the dead vegetation spirit later came to be looked upon as a sort of scape-goat and was laden with all the follies com- mitted during the Carnival season, the name of Carnival Fool was transferred to him 293 and he, too, was smeared with soot. The black appearance of the antagonist in the modern survivals is chiefly due to Christian influence, as is very evident from the chain, which he holds at times in his hands. It was the phallic demon, the clown among the fertility agents, who became the actor. How many of his characteristics have gone over to the actor cannot be stated with any precision. It is certain, however, that voracity and obscenity go back to the phallic demon. 294 Greek comedy according to Aristotle took its rise in the Phallika (Poet. iv. 12). The phantastic costume of the actor in Greek comedy corresponds entirely to the phallic type of demons, 295 as they appear on the Corinthian vases in Thiasos. 296 He originally appeared in no other form but as 290 Quoted ibid. 291 Cf. Preuss, Archivf. Anthr., xxix. 176n2. Supra, p. 417. 294 Cf. Preuss, Archivf. Anthr., xxix, 178. 296 Ibid., i. 174. 298 Cf. Preuss, Neue Jahrbiicher, xvii. 161.