Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 3 (Celtic and Slavic).djvu/478

312 thrown into the water or burned, is usually called Rusalka;  $19$ and the ceremony itself is probably meant as a second funeral, i. e. to secure the favour of the Rusalky, the spirits of those who, dying a violent death, have not been buried with religious rites. The same signification may be attached to the so-called "Driving out of Death" before Easter,  $20$ a custom which, though prohibited as early as the fourteenth century, has not yet entirely disappeared in Bohemia and other countries.

The Bulgarians in Southern Macedonia keep the Rusalye during Christmastide, the chief characteristic of the festival here being warlike games which remind us of the ancient funeral combats (trizna, tryzna). $21$