The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 09 of 12)

Annual expulsion of poverty and demons in China, India, and Persia.

On the third day of the tenth month in every year the Hak-Ka, a native race in the province of Canton, sweep their houses and turn the accumulated filth out of doors, together with three sticks of incense and some mock money made of paper. At the same time they call out, “Let the devil of poverty depart! Let the devil of poverty depart!” By performing this ceremony they hope to preserve their homes from penury.[372 - Eitel, “Les Hak-ka,” L'Anthropologie, iv. (1893) pp. 175 sq.] Among some of the Hindoos of the Punjaub on the morning after Diwali or the festival of lamps, at which the souls of ancestors are believed to visit the house, the oldest woman of the family takes a corn-sieve or winnowing basket and a broom, to both of which magical virtues are ascribed, and beats them in every corner of the house, exclaiming, “God abide, and poverty depart!” The sieve is then carried out of the village, generally to the east or north, and being thrown away is supposed to bear away with it the poverty and distress of the household. Or the woman flings all the sweepings and rubbish out of doors, saying, “Let all dirt and wretchedness depart from here, and all good fortune come in.”[373 - Panjab Notes and Queries, ii. pp. 146 sq., § 792 (June, 1885); D. C. J. Ibbetson, Outlines of Panjab Ethnography (Calcutta, 1883), p. 119; W. Crooke, Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India (Westminster, 1896), ii. 188, 295 sq.] The Persians used annually to expel the demons or goblins (Dives) from their houses in the month of December. For this purpose the Magi wrote certain words with saffron on a piece of parchment or paper and then held the writing over a fire into which they threw cotton, garlic, grapes, wild rue, and the horn of an animal that had been killed on the sixteenth of September. The spell thus prepared was nailed or glued to the inside of the door, and the door was painted red. Next the priest took some sand and spread it out with a knife, while he muttered certain prayers. After that he strewed the sand on the floor, and the enchantment was complete. The demons now immediately vanished, or at least were deprived of all their malignant power.[374 - John Richardson, Dictionary of Persian, Arabic, and English, New Edition (London, 1829), p. liii.]

Annual expulsion of demons in China at the end of the year.

For ages it has been customary in China to expel the demons from house and home, from towns and cities, at the end of every year. Such general expulsions of devils go by the name of no. They are often mentioned and described in Chinese literature. For example, under the Han dynasty, in the second century of our era, “it was ordered that fang-siang shi with four eyes of gold, masked with bearskins, and wearing black coats with red skirts, bearing lances and brandishing shields, should always perform at the end of the year in the twelfth month the no of the season, in the rear of hundreds of official servants and boys, and search the interior of the palace, in order to expel the demons of plague. With bows of peach wood and arrows of the thorny jujube they shoot at the spectres, and with porcelain drums they drum at them; moreover they throw red balls and cereals at them, in order to remove disease and calamity.”[375 - J. J. M. de Groot, The Religious System of China, vi. (Leyden, 1910) pp. 977 sq.] Again, in a poem of the same period we read that “at the end of the year the great no takes place for the purpose of driving off all spectres. The fang-siang carry their spears, wu and hih hold their bundles of reed. Ten thousand lads with red heads and black clothes, with bows of peach wood and arrows of thorny jujube shoot at random all around. Showers of potsherds and pebbles come down like rain, infallibly killing strong spectres as well as the weak. Flaming torches run after these beings, so that a sparkling and streaming glare chases the red plague to all sides; thereupon they destroy them in the imperial moats and break down the suspension bridges (to prevent their return).”[376 - J. J. M. de Groot, op. cit. vi. 978.] At a later period Chinese historians inform us that the house of Tsi caused the annual expulsion of demons to be performed on the last day of the year by two groups, each of one hundred and twenty lads, and twelve animals headed by drums and wind instruments. The gates of the wards and of the city walls were flung open, and the emperor witnessed the ceremony seated on his throne in the midst of his officers. With rolling drums the procession entered the palace through the western gate, and passed through all parts of it in two divisions, even ascending the towers, while they hopped, jumped and shrieked; and on quitting the palace they spread out in six directions till they reached the city walls.[377 - J. J. M. de Groot, op. cit. vi. 979.] At the present time it is customary in every part of China to fire off crackers on the last day and night of the year for the purpose of terrifying and expelling the devils: enormous quantities of the explosives are consumed at this season: the people seem to vie with one another as to who shall let off the most crackers and make the most noise. Sometimes long strings of these fireworks hang from balconies and eaves and keep up a continuous crackling for half an hour together or more; in great cities the prolonged and ear-splitting din is very annoying to foreigners. To the ears of the Chinese the noise appears to be agreeable, if not for its own sake, at least for the beneficial effect it is supposed to produce by driving demons away. Indeed they seem to be of opinion that any noise, provided it be sufficiently harsh and loud, serves this useful purpose. The sound of brass instruments is particularly terrifying to devils; hence the great use which the Chinese make of gongs in rites of exorcism. The clash of gongs, we are told, resounds through the Chinese empire daily, especially in summer, when a rise in the death-rate, which ignorant Europeans attribute to mere climatic influences, stimulates the people to redouble their efforts for the banishment of the fiends, who are the real cause of all the mischief. At such times you may see and hear groups of benevolent and public-spirited men and women banging gongs, clashing cymbals, and drubbing drums for hours together. No protest is made by their neighbours, no complaint that they disturb the night's rest of the sick and the tired. People listen with resignation or rather with gratitude and complacency to the deafening uproar raised by these generous philanthropists, who thus devote their services gratuitously to the cause of the public health.[378 - J. J. M. de Groot, The Religious System of China, vi. 944 sqq.; id., The Religion of China (New York, 1910), pp. 38 sq.; J. H. Gray, China (London, 1878), i. 251 sq.] In Corea, also, the devils are driven out of the towns on New Year's Eve by the firing of guns and the popping of crackers.[379 - W. Woodville Rockhill, “Notes on some of the Laws, Customs, and Superstitions of Korea,” The American Anthropologist, iv. (1891) p. 185.]

Annual expulsion of demons in Tonquin.

In Tonquin a theckydaw or general expulsion of malevolent spirits commonly took place once a year, especially if there was a great mortality amongst men, the elephants or horses of the general's stable, or the cattle of the country, “the cause of which they attribute to the malicious spirits of such men as have been put to death for treason, rebellion, and conspiring the death of the king, general, or princes, and that in revenge of the punishment they have suffered, they are bent to destroy everything and commit horrible violence. To prevent which their superstition has suggested to them the institution of this theckydaw, as a proper means to drive the devil away, and purge the country of evil spirits.” The day appointed for the ceremony was generally the twenty-fifth of February, one month after the beginning of the new year, which fell on the twenty-fifth of January. The intermediate month was a season of feasting, merry-making of all kinds, and general licence. During the whole month the great seal was kept shut up in a box, face downwards, and the law was, as it were, laid asleep. All courts of justice were closed; debtors could not be seized; small crimes, such as petty larceny, fighting, and assault, escaped with impunity; only treason and murder were taken account of and the malefactors detained till the great seal should come into operation again. At the close of the saturnalia the wicked spirits were driven away. Great masses of troops and artillery having been drawn up with flying colours and all the pomp of war, “the general beginneth then to offer meat offerings to the criminal devils and malevolent spirits (for it is usual and customary likewise amongst them to feast the condemned before their execution), inviting them to eat and drink, when presently he accuses them in a strange language, by characters and figures, etc., of many offences and crimes committed by them, as to their having disquieted the land, killed his elephants and horses, etc., for all which they justly deserve to be chastised and banished the country. Whereupon three great guns are fired as the last signal; upon which all the artillery and musquets are discharged, that, by their most terrible noise the devils may be driven away; and they are so blind as to believe for certain, that they really and effectually put them to flight.”[380 - S. Baron, “Description of the Kingdom of Tonqueen,” in J. Pinkerton's Voyages and Travels, ix. (London, 1811) pp. 673, 695 sq.; compare Richard, “History of Tonquin,” ibid. p. 746. The account of the ceremony by Tavernier (whom Baron criticises very unfavourably) is somewhat different. According to him, the expulsion of wicked souls at the New Year is combined with sacrifice to the honoured dead. “At the beginning of every year they have a great solemnity in honour of the dead, who were in their lives renowned for their noble actions and valour, reckoning rebels among them. They set up several altars, some for sacrifices, others for the names of the persons they design to honour; and the king, princes, and mandarins are present at them, and make three profound reverences to the altars when the sacrifices are finished; but the king shoots five times against the altars where the rebels' names are; then the great guns are let off, and the soldiers give vollies of small shot, to put the souls to flight. The altars and papers made use of at the sacrifices are burnt, and the bonzes and sages go to eat the meat made use of at the sacrifice” (Tavernier, in John Harris's Collection of Voyages and Travels, vol. i. (London, 1744) p. 823). The translation is somewhat abridged. For the French original, see J. B. Tavernier, Voyages en Turquie, en Perse, et aux Indes (The Hague, 1718), iii. 230 sq.]

Annual expulsion of demons in Cambodia and Siam.

In Cambodia the expulsion of evil spirits took place in March. Bits of broken statues and stones, considered as the abode of the demons, were collected and brought to the capital. Here as many elephants were collected as could be got together. On the evening of the full moon volleys of musketry were fired and the elephants charged furiously to put the devils to flight. The ceremony was performed on three successive days.[381 - É. Aymonier, Notice sur le Cambodge (Paris, 1875), p. 62.] In Siam the banishment of demons is annually carried into effect on the last day of the old year. A signal gun is fired from the palace; it is answered from the next station, and so on from station to station, till the firing has reached the outer gate of the city. Thus the demons are driven out step by step. As soon as this is done a consecrated rope is fastened round the circuit of the city walls to prevent the banished demons from returning. The rope is made of tough couch-grass and is painted in alternate stripes of red, yellow, and blue.[382 - A. Bastian, Die Völker des östlichen Asien, iii. (Jena, 1867) pp. 237, 298, 314, 529 sq.; Mgr. Pallegoix, Description du Royaume Thai ou Siam (Paris, 1854), i. 252. Bastian (p. 314), with whom Pallegoix seems to agree, distinctly states that the expulsion takes place on the last day of the year. Yet both say that it occurs in the fourth month of the year. According to Pallegoix (i. 253) the Siamese year is composed of twelve lunar months, and the first month usually begins in December. Hence the expulsion of devils would commonly take place in March, as in Cambodia. In Laos the year begins in the fifth month and it ends in the fifth month of the following year. See Lieutenant-Colonel Tournier, Notice sur le Laos Français (Hanoi, 1900), p. 187. According to Professor E. Seler the festival of Toxcatl, celebrated in the fifth month, was the old Mexican festival of the New Year. See E. Seler, Altmexikanische Studien, ii. (Berlin, 1899) pp. 153, 166 sq. (Veröffentlichungen aus dem königlichen Museum für Völkerkunde, vi. Heft 2/4). Hence it appears that in some calendars the year is not reckoned to begin with the first month.] According to a more recent account, the Siamese ceremony takes place at the New Year holidays, which are three in number, beginning with the first of April. For the feasting which accompanies these holidays a special kind of cake is made, “which is as much in demand as our own Shrove-Tuesday pancakes or our Good-Friday hot cross-buns. The temples are thronged with women and children making offerings to Buddha and his priests. The people inaugurate their New Year with numerous charitable and religious deeds. The rich entertain the monks, who recite appropriate prayers and chants. Every departed soul returns to the bosom of his family during these three days, freed from any fetters that may have bound him in the regions of indefinable locality. On the third day the religious observances terminate, and the remaining hours are devoted to ‘the world, the flesh, and the devil.’ Gambling is not confined to the licensed houses, but may be indulged in anywhere. Games of chance hold powerful sway in every house as long as the licence to participate in them lasts. Priests in small companies occupy posts at regular intervals round the city wall, and spend their time in chanting away the evil spirits. On the evening of the second day, the ghostly visitors from the lower realms lose the luxury of being exorcised with psalms. Every person who has a gun may fire it as often as he pleases, and the noise thus made is undoubtedly fearful enough in its intensity to cause any wandering traveller from the far-off fiery land to retrace his steps with speed. The bang and rattle of pistols, muskets, shot-guns, and rifles cease not till the break of day, by which time the city is effectually cleared of all its infernal visitors.”[383 - Ernest Young, The Kingdom of the Yellow Robe (Westminster, 1898), pp. 135 sq.] From this account we learn that among the spirits thus banished are the souls of the dead, who revisit their living friends once a year. To the same effect, apparently, Bishop Bruguière, writing from Bangkok in 1829, tells us that “the three first days of the moon of April are days of solemn festivity for the pious Siamese. That day Lucifer opens all the gates of the abyss, the souls of the dead, which are shut up there, come forth and partake of a repast in the bosom of their family. They are treated splendidly. One of these three days a monk repairs to the palace to preach before the king. At the end of the sermon a preconcerted signal is given, and in a moment the cannons are fired in all the quarters of the city to chase the devil out of the walls or to kill him, if he dares to resist. On the first day a temporary king is named, who bears the title of phaja-phollathep; during these three days he enjoys all the royal prerogatives, the real king remaining shut up in his palace.”[384 - “Lettre de Mgr. Bruguière, évêque de Capse, à M. Bousquet, vicaire-général d'Aire,” Annales de l'Association de la Propagation de la Foi, v. (Paris and Lyons, 1831) p. 188. As to the temporary king of Siam, his privileges and the ceremony of ploughing which he performs, see The Dying God, pp. 149-151.]

Annual reception and expulsion of the spirits of the dead in Japan.

A similar belief and a similar custom prevail in Japan. There, too, the souls of the departed return to their old homes once a year, and a festival called the Feast of Lanterns is made to welcome them. They come at evening on the thirteenth day of the seventh month of the old calendar, which falls towards the end of August. It is needful to light them on their way. Accordingly bamboos with pretty coloured lanterns attached to them are fastened on the tombs, and being thickly set they make an illumination on the hills, where the burying-grounds are generally situated. Lamps of many hues or rows of tapers are also lit and set out in front of the houses and in the gardens, and small fires are kindled in the streets, so that the whole city is in a blaze of light. After the sun has set, a great multitude issues from the town, for every family goes forth to meet its returning dead. When they come to the spot where they believe the souls to be, they welcome the unseen visitors and invite them to rest after their journey, and to partake of refreshments which they offer to them. Having allowed the souls time enough to satisfy their hunger and recover from their fatigue, they escort them by torchlight, chatting gaily with them, into the city and to the houses where they lived and died. These are also illuminated with brilliant lanterns; a banquet is spread on the tables; and the places of the dead, who are supposed to absorb the ethereal essence of the food, are laid for them as if they were alive. After the repast the living go from house to house to visit the souls of their dead friends and neighbours; and thus they spend the night running about the town. On the evening of the third day of the festival, which is the fifteenth day of the month, the time has come for the souls to return to their own place. Fires again blaze in the streets to light them on the road; the people again escort them ceremoniously to the spot where they met them two days before; and in some places they send the lanterns floating away on rivers or the sea in miniature boats, which are laden with provisions for the spirits on their way to their long home. But there is still a fear that some poor souls may have lagged behind, or even concealed themselves in a nook or corner, loth to part from the scenes of their former life and from those they love. Accordingly steps are taken to hunt out these laggards and send them packing after their fellow-ghosts. With this intention the people throw stones on the roofs of their houses in great profusion; and going through every room armed with sticks they deal swashing blows all about them in the empty air to chase away the lingering souls. This they do, we are told, out of a regard for their own comfort quite as much as from the affection they bear to the dead; for they fear to be disturbed by unseasonable apparitions if they suffered the airy visitors to remain in the house.[385 - Charlevoix, Histoire et description generale du Japon (Paris, 1736), i. 128 sq.; C. P. Thunberg, Voyages au Japon (Paris, 1796), iv. 18-20; A. Bastian, Die Völker des östlichen Asien, v. (Jena, 1869) p. 364; Beaufort, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xv. (1886) p. 102; A. Morgan, in Journal of American Folk-lore, x. (1897) pp. 244 sq.; Lafcadio Hearn, Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan (London, 1894), i. 106-110, ii. 504 sq. The custom of welcoming the souls of the dead back to their old homes once a year has been observed in many lands. See Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, pp. 301 sqq.]

Annual reception and expulsion of the spirits of the dead in ancient Greece and Rome.

Thus in spite of the kindly welcome given to the souls, the fear which they inspire comes out plainly in the pains taken to ensure their departure; and this fear justifies us in including such forced departures among the ceremonies for the expulsion of evils with which we are here concerned. It may be remembered that the annual banishment of ghosts has been practised by savages so low in the scale of humanity as the Australian aborigines.[386 - Above, pp. 123 (#x_12_i21)sq.] At the other end of the scale it was observed in classical antiquity by the civilized Greeks and Romans. The Athenians believed that at the festival of the Anthesteria the souls of the dead came back from the nether world and went about the city. Accordingly ropes were fastened round the temples to keep out the wandering ghosts; and with a like intention the people chewed buckthorn in the morning and smeared the doors of their houses with pitch, apparently thinking that any rash spirits who might attempt to enter would stick fast in the pitch and be glued, like so many flies, to the door. But at the end of the festival the souls were bidden to depart in these words: “Out of the door with you, souls. The Anthesteria is over.”[387 - Hesychius, s. v. μιαραὶ ἡμέραι; τοῦ Ἀνθεστηριῶνος μηνός, ἐν αἶς τὰς ψυχὰς τῶν κατοιχομένων ἀνιέναι ἐδόκουν. Photius, Lexicon, s. vv. Θύραζε Κᾶρες; οὐκέτ᾽ Ἀνθεστήρια … τινὲς δὲ οὕτως τὴν παροιμίαν φασί; Θύραζε Κῆρες οὐκέτ᾽ Ἀνθεστήρια; ὡς κατὰ τὴν πόλιν τοῖς Ἀνθεστηρίοις τῶν ψυχῶν περιερχομένων. Id., s. vv. μιαρὰ ἡμέρα; ἐν τοῖς Χουσὶν Ἀνθεστηριῶνος μηνός, ἐν ᾧ δοκοῦσιν αἱ ψυχαὶ τῶν τελευτησάντων ἀνιέναι, ῥάμνῳ ἕωθεν ἐμασῶντο καὶ πίττῃ τὰς θύρας ἔχριον. Pollux, viii. 141: περισχοινίσαι τὰ ἱερὰ ἔλεγον ἐν ταῖς ἀποφράσι καί τὸ παραφράξαι. As to the closing of the temples, see further Athenaeus, x. 49, p. 447 c. As to the Anthesteria in general, see E. Rohde, Psyche

(Tübingen and Leipsic, 1903), i. 236 sqq., who rightly adopts Hesychius's second explanation of Κῆρες. The reasons given by August Mommsen for rejecting that explanation betray an imperfect acquaintance with popular superstition (Feste der Stadt Athen im Altertum, Leipsic, 1898, p. 386, note 1). Compare Miss J. E. Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, Second Edition (Cambridge, 1908), pp. 32 sqq. The Greeks thought that branches of buckthorn (rhamnus) fastened to doors or windows kept out witches (Dioscorides, De materia medica, i. 119). A similar virtue was attributed to buckthorn or hawthorn by the ancient Romans and modern European peasants. See A. Kuhn, Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Göttertranks

(Güterslöh, 1886), pp. 209 sq.; J. Murr, Pflanzenwelt in der griechischen Mythologie (Innsbruck, 1890), pp. 104-106; The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 54 sq., 191. According to Mr. Murr, rhamnus is Lycium europaeum L. I learn from Miss J. E. Harrison that Sir Francis Darwin believes it to be buckthorn (Rhamnus catharticus). In some parts of Bosnia, when peasant women go to pay a visit in a house where a death has occurred they put a little hawthorn (Weissdorn) behind their headcloth, and on returning from the house they throw it away on the street. They think that if the deceased has turned into a vampyre, he will be so occupied in picking up the hawthorn, that he will not be able to follow them to their homes. See F. S. Krauss, “Vampyre im südslavischen Volksglauben,” Globus, lxi. (1892) p. 326. At childbirth also the Greeks smeared pitch on their houses to keep out the demons (εἰς ἀπέλασιν τῶν δαιμόνων) who attack women at such times (Photius, Lexicon, s. v. ῥάμνος). To this day the Bulgarians try to keep wandering ghosts from their houses by painting crosses with tar on the outside of their doors, while on the inside they hang a tangled skein composed of countless broken threads. The ghost cannot enter until he has counted all the threads, and before he has done the sum the cock crows and the poor soul must return to the grave. See A. Strausz, Die Bulgaren (Leipsic, 1898), p. 454. The Servians paint crosses with tar on the doors of houses and barns to keep out vampyres. See F. S. Krauss, “Vampyre im südslavischen Volksglauben,” Globus, lxi. (1892) p. 326. In the Highlands of Scotland it was believed that tar put on a door kept witches away. See J. G. Campbell, Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (Glasgow, 1902), p. 13. The Thompson Indians of British Columbia used to bar their houses against ghosts by means not unlike those adopted by the Athenians at the Anthesteria. When a death had happened, they hung a string of deer-hoofs across the inside of the house, and an old woman often pulled at the string to make the hoofs rattle. This kept the ghost out. They also placed branches of juniper at the door or burned them in the fire for the same purpose. See James Teit, “The Thompson Indians of British Columbia” (April 1900), p. 332 (The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History). With the Athenian use of ropes to keep ghosts out of the temples at the Anthesteria we may compare the Siamese custom of roping demons out of the city at the New Year (above, p. 149 (#x_14_i9)). Ropes of rice-straw, which are supposed to repel demoniacal and evil influences, are hung by the Japanese in front of shrines, and at the New Year they hang them also before ordinary houses. See W. G. Aston, Shinto (London, 1905), pp. 335 sq. Some of the Kayans of Borneo stretch ropes round their houses to keep out demons of disease; in order to do so more effectually leaves of a certain plant or tree are fastened to the rope. See A. W. Nieuwenhuis, Quer durch Borneo, i. (Leyden, 1904) p. 448.] Yet for the entertainment of the unseen guests during their short stay earthenware pots full of boiled food appear to have been everywhere prepared throughout the city; but probably these were placed in the street outside the houses, in order to give the ghosts no excuse for entering and disturbing the inmates. No priest would eat of the food thus offered to the dead,[388 - Scholiast on Aristophanes, Frogs, 218.] but prowling beggars probably had no such scruples. Similarly when the Sea Dyaks of Sarawak celebrate their great Festival of Departed Spirits at intervals which vary from one to three or four years, food is prepared for the dead and they are summoned from their far-off home to partake of it; but it is put outside at the entrance of the house. And before the general arrival of the souls, while the people are busy brewing the drink for the feast, each family takes care to hang an earthenware pot full of the liquor outside of the single room which it occupies in the large common house, lest some thirsty soul should arrive prematurely from the other world, and, forcing his way into the domestic circle, should not merely slake his thirst but carry off one of the living.[389 - J. Perham, “Sea Dyak Religion,” Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, No. 14, December 1884, pp. 296-298.] During three days in May the Romans held a festival in honour of the ghosts. The temples were shut, doubtless to keep out the ghostly swarms; but, as in Japan, every house seems to have been thrown open to receive the spirits of its own departed. When the reception was over, each head of a family arose at dead of night, washed his hands, and having made with fingers and thumb certain magic signs to ward off ghosts, he proceeded to throw black beans over his shoulder without looking behind him. As he did so, he said nine times, “With these beans I redeem me and mine”; and the ghosts, following unseen at his heels, picked up the beans and left him and his alone. Then he dipped his hands again in water, clashed bronze vessels together to make a din, and begged the ghosts to depart from his house, saying nine times, “Go forth, paternal shades!” After that he looked behind him, and the ceremony was over: the ghosts had taken their leave for another year.[390 - Ovid, Fasti, v. 419-486; Varro, quoted by Nonius Marcellus, p. 135 (p. 142 ed. Quicherat), s. v. “Lemures”; Festus, p. 87 ed. C. O. Müller, s. v. “Fabam.” Ovid, who is our chief authority for the ceremony, speaks as if the festival lasted only one day (the ninth of May). But we know from the inscribed calendars that it lasted three days. See W. Warde Fowler, The Roman Festivals of the period of the Republic (London, 1899), pp. 106 sqq.]

Annual expulsion of Satan among the Wotyaks and Cheremiss of Russia.

Annual expulsions of demons, witches, or evil influences appear to have been common among the heathen of Europe, if we may judge from the relics of such customs among their descendants at the present day. Thus among the heathen Wotyaks, a Finnish people of Eastern Russia, all the young girls of the village assemble on the last day of the year or on New Year's Day, armed with sticks, the ends of which are split in nine places. With these they beat every corner of the house and yard, saying, “We are driving Satan out of the village.” Afterwards the sticks are thrown into the river below the village, and as they float down stream Satan goes with them to the next village, from which he must be driven out in turn. In some villages the expulsion is managed otherwise. The unmarried men receive from every house in the village groats, flesh, and brandy. These they take to the fields, light a fire under a fir-tree, boil the groats, and eat of the food they have brought with them, after pronouncing the words, “Go away into the wilderness, come not into the house.” Then they return to the village and enter every house where there are young women. They take hold of the young women and throw them into the snow, saying, “May the spirits of disease leave you.” The remains of the groats and the other food are then distributed among all the houses in proportion to the amount that each contributed, and each family consumes its share. According to a Wotyak of the Malmyz district the young men throw into the snow whomever they find in the houses, and this is called “driving out Satan”; moreover, some of the boiled groats are cast into the fire with the words, “O god, afflict us not with sickness and pestilence, give us not up as a prey to the spirits of the wood.” But the most antique form of the ceremony is that observed by the Wotyaks of the Kasan Government. First of all a sacrifice is offered to the Devil at noon. Then all the men assemble on horseback in the centre of the village, and decide with which house they shall begin. When this question, which often gives rise to hot disputes, is settled, they tether their horses to the paling, and arm themselves with whips, clubs of lime-wood, and bundles of lighted twigs. The lighted twigs are believed to have the greatest terrors for Satan. Thus armed, they proceed with frightful cries to beat every corner of the house and yard, then shut the door, and spit at the ejected fiend. So they go from house to house, till the Devil has been driven from every one. Then they mount their horses and ride out of the village, yelling wildly and brandishing their clubs in every direction. Outside of the village they fling away the clubs and spit once more at the Devil.[391 - Max Buch, Die Wotjäken (Stuttgart, 1882), pp. 153 sq.] The Cheremiss, another Finnish people of Eastern Russia, chase Satan from their dwellings by beating the walls with cudgels of lime-wood. For the same purpose they fire guns, stab the ground with knives, and insert burning chips of wood in the crevices. Also they leap over bonfires, shaking out their garments as they do so; and in some districts they blow on long trumpets of lime-tree bark to frighten him away. When he has fled to the wood, they pelt the trees with some of the cheese-cakes and eggs which furnished the feast.[392 - A. Bastian, Der Mensch in der Geschichte (Leipsic, 1860), ii. 94; P. v. Stenin, “Ein neuer Beitrag zur Ethnographie der Tscheremissen,” Globus, lviii. (1890) p. 204.]

Annual expulsion of witches and other powers of evil in Christian Europe.

In Christian Europe the old heathen custom of expelling the powers of evil at certain times of the year has survived to modern times. Thus in some villages of Calabria the month of March is inaugurated with the expulsion of the witches. It takes place at night to the sound of the church bells, the people running about the streets and crying, “March is come.” They say that the witches roam about in March, and the ceremony is repeated every Friday evening during the month.[393 - Vincenzo Dorsa, La tradizione greco-latina negli usi e nelle credenze popolari della Calabria Citeriore (Cosenza, 1884), pp. 42 sq.] Often, as might have been anticipated, the ancient pagan rite has attached itself to church festivals. For example, in Calabria at Eastertide every family provides itself in time with a supply of holy water, and when the church bells proclaim the resurrection of Christ the people sprinkle the house with the water, saying in a loud voice, “Esciti fora sùrici uorvi, esciti fora tentaziuni, esca u malu ed entri u bene.” At the same time they knock on doors and windows, on chests and other articles of furniture.[394 - Vincenzo Dorsa, La tradizione greco-latina negli usi e nelle credenze popolari della Calabria Citeriore, p. 48.] Again, in Albania on Easter Eve the young people light torches of resinous wood and march in procession, swinging them, through the village. At last they throw the torches into the river, crying, “Ha, Kore! we throw you into the river, like these torches, that you may never return.”[395 - J. G. von Hahn, Albanesische Studien (Jena, 1854), i. 160. Compare The Dying God, pp. 264 sq.] Silesian peasants believe that on Good Friday the witches go their rounds and have great power for mischief. Hence about Oels, near Strehlitz, the people on that day arm themselves with old brooms and drive the witches from house and home, from farmyard and cattle-stall, making a great uproar and clatter as they do so.[396 - P. Drechsler, Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube in Schlesien (Leipsic, 1903-1906), i. 86.]

Widespread fear of witches and wizards in Europe.

The belief in the maleficent power and activity of witches and wizards would seem to have weighed almost as heavily on the heathen of Central and Northern Europe in prehistoric times as it still weighs on the minds of African negroes and other savages in many parts of the world. But while these unhallowed beings were always with our forefathers, there were times and seasons of the year when they were supposed to be particularly mischievous, and when accordingly special precautions had to be taken against them. Among such times were the twelve days from Christmas to Twelfth Night, the Eve of St. George, the Eve of May Day (Walpurgis Night), and Midsummer Eve.[397 - As to the activity of the evil powers on the twelve days from Christmas to Twelfth Night, see Gustav Bilfinger, Das germanische Julfest (Stuttgart, 1901), pp. 74 sqq.; as to witches on St. George's Eve, May Eve, and Midsummer Eve, see The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 52 sqq., 127, 334 sqq.]

Annual expulsion of witches on Walpurgis Night (the Eve of May Day), on May Day in the Tyrol.

In Central Europe it was apparently on Walpurgis Night, the Eve of May Day, above all other times that the baleful powers of the witches were exerted to the fullest extent; nothing therefore could be more natural than that men should be on their guard against them at that season, and that, not content with merely standing on their defence, they should boldly have sought to carry the war into the enemy's quarters by attacking and forcibly expelling the uncanny crew. Amongst the weapons with which they fought their invisible adversaries in these grim encounters were holy water, the fumes of incense or other combustibles, and loud noises of all kinds, particularly the clashing of metal instruments, amongst which the ringing of church bells was perhaps the most effectual.[398 - G. Bilfinger, Das germanische Julfest (Stuttgart, 1901), p. 76.] Some of these strong measures are still in use among the peasantry, or were so down to recent years, and there seems no reason to suppose that their magical virtue has been at all impaired by lapse of time. In the Tyrol, as in other places, the expulsion of the powers of evil at this season goes by the name of “Burning out the Witches.” It takes place on May Day, but people have been busy with their preparations for days before. On a Thursday at midnight bundles are made up of resinous splinters, black and red spotted hemlock, caperspurge, rosemary, and twigs of the sloe. These are kept and burned on May Day by men who must first have received plenary absolution from the Church. On the last three days of April all the houses are cleansed and fumigated with juniper berries and rue. On May Day, when the evening bell has rung and the twilight is falling, the ceremony of “Burning out the Witches” begins. Men and boys make a racket with whips, bells, pots, and pans; the women carry censers; the dogs are unchained and run barking and yelping about. As soon as the church bells begin to ring, the bundles of twigs, fastened on poles, are set on fire and the incense is ignited. Then all the house-bells and dinner-bells are rung, pots and pans are clashed, dogs bark, every one must make a noise. And amid this hubbub all scream at the pitch of their voices,

“Witch flee, flee from here,
Or it will go ill with thee.”

Then they run seven times round the houses, the yards, and the village. So the witches are smoked out of their lurking-places and driven away.[399 - J. M. Ritter von Alpenburg, Mythen und Sagen Tirols (Zurich, 1857), pp. 260 sq. Compare J. E. Waldfreund, “Volksgebräuche und Aberglauben,” Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde, iii. (1855) p. 339. A Westphalian form of the expulsion of evil is the driving out the Süntevögel, Sunnenvögel, or Sommervögel, that is, the butterfly. On St. Peter's Day, 22nd February, children go from house to house knocking on them with hammers and singing doggerel rhymes in which they bid the Sommervögel to depart. Presents are given to them at every house. Or the people of the house themselves go through all the rooms, knocking on all the doors, to drive away the Sunnenvögel. If this ceremony is omitted, it is thought that various misfortunes will be the consequence. The house will swarm with rats, mice, and other vermin, the cattle will be sick, the butterflies will multiply at the milk-bowls, etc. See J. F. L. Woeste, Volksüberlieferungen in der Grafschaft Mark (Iserlohn, 1848), p. 24; J. W. Wolf, Beiträge zur deutschen Mythologie, i. (Göttingen and Leipsic, 1852) p. 87; A. Kuhn, Westfälische Sagen, Gebräuche und Märchen (Leipsic, 1859), ii. pp. 119-121, §§ 366-374; Montanus, Die deutschen Volksfeste, Volksbräuche, und deutscher Volksglaube (Iserlohn, n. d.), pp. 21 sq.; U. Jahn, Die deutschen Opfergebräuche bei Ackerbau und Viehzucht (Breslau, 1884), pp. 94-96.]

Annual expulsion of witches on Walpurgis Night in Bavaria and Voigtland.

The custom of expelling the witches on Walpurgis Night is still, or was down to thirty or forty years ago, observed in many parts of Bavaria and among the Germans of Bohemia. Thus in the Böhmerwald Mountains, which divide Bavaria from Bohemia, all the young fellows of the village assemble after sunset on some height, especially at a cross-road, and crack whips for a while in unison with all their strength. This drives away the witches; for so far as the sound of the whips is heard, these maleficent beings can do no harm. The peasants believe firmly in the efficacy of this remedy. A yokel will tell his sons to be sure to crack their whips loudly and hit the witches hard; and to give more sting to every blow the whip-lashes are knotted. On returning to the village the lads often sing songs and collect contributions of eggs, lard, bread, and butter. In some places, while the young fellows are cracking their whips, the herdsmen wind their horns, and the long-drawn notes, heard far-off in the silence of night, are very effectual for banning the witches. In other places, again, the youth blow upon so-called shawms made of peeled willow-wood in front of every house, especially in front of such houses as are suspected of harbouring a witch.[400 - Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern (Munich, 1860-1866), ii. 272, iii. 302 sq., 934; O. Freiherr von Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Das festliche Jahr (Leipsic, 1863), p. 137.] In Voigtland, a bleak mountainous region of Central Germany[401 - Encyclopaedia Britannica, Ninth Edition, xx. 493.] bordering on the Frankenwald Mountains, the belief in witchcraft is still widely spread. The time when the witches are particularly dreaded is Walpurgis Night, but they play their pranks also on Midsummer Eve, St. Thomas's Eve, and Christmas Eve. On these days they try to make their way into a neighbour's house and to borrow or steal something from it; and woe betide the man in whose house they have succeeded in their nefarious errand! It is on Walpurgis Night and Midsummer Eve that they ride through the air astride of pitchforks and churn-dashers. They also bewitch the cattle; so to protect the poor beasts from their hellish machinations the people on these days chalk up three crosses on the doors of the cattle-stalls or hang up St. John's wort, marjoram, and so forth. Very often, too, the village youth turn out in a body and drive the witches away with the cracking of whips, the firing of guns, and the waving of burning besoms through the air, not to mention shouts and noises of all sorts.[402 - R. Eisel, Sagenbuch des Voigtlandes (Gera, 1871), p. 210.] Such customs appear to be observed generally in Thüringen, of which Voigtland is a part. The people think that the blows of the whip actually fall on the witches hovering unseen in the air, and that so far as the cracking of the whips is heard, the crops will be good and nothing will be struck by lightning,[403 - August Witzschel, Sitten, Sagen und Gebräuche aus Thüringen (Vienna, 1878), pp. 262 sq.] no doubt because the witches have been banished by the sound.

Annual “Burning of the Witches”on Walpurgis Night in Bohemia.

In Bohemia many are the precautions taken by the peasantry, both German and Czech, to guard themselves and their cattle against the witches on Walpurgis Night. Thorny branches are laid on the thresholds of cow-houses and dwellings to keep out the infernal crew, and after sunset boys armed with whips and guns drive them from the villages with a prodigious uproar and burn them in bonfires on the neighbouring heights. It is true that the witches themselves are not seen, though effigies of them are sometimes consumed in the bonfires. This “Burning of the Witches,” as it is called, protects the crops from their ravages. German lads also employ goats' horns as a means of driving away the witches at the moment when they issue forth from kitchen-chimneys on their way to the witches' Sabbath.[404 - O. Freiherr von Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Fest-Kalender aus Böhmen (Prague, preface dated 1861), pp. 210-212; id., Das festliche Jahr (Leipsic, 1863), p. 137; Alois John, Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube im deutschen Westböhmen (Prague, 1905), pp. 70-73.] Some minor variations in the mode of expelling the witches on Walpurgis Night have been noted in the German villages of Western Bohemia. Thus in Absrot the village youth go out to cross-roads and there beat the ground with boards, no doubt for the purpose of thrashing the witches who are commonly supposed to assemble at such spots. In Deslawen, after the evening bells have rung, people go through the houses beating the walls or floors with boards; then they issue forth into the roads, headed by a boy who carries the effigy of a witch made up of rags. Thereupon grown-up folk crack whips and fire shots. In Schönwert the young people go in bands through the village and the meadows, making a great noise with bells, flutes, and whips, for the more noise they make the more effectual is the ceremony supposed to be. Meantime the older men are busy firing shots over the fields and the dungheaps. In Hochofen troops of children go from house to house on Walpurgis Evening, making a great clatter with tin cans and kettles, while they scream, “Witch, go out, your house is burning.” This is called “Driving out the Witches.”[405 - Alois John, op. cit. p. 71.] The German peasants of Moravia, also, universally believe that on Walpurgis Night the witches ride through the air on broomsticks and pitchforks in order to revel with Satan, their master, at the old heathen places of sacrifice, which are commonly on heights. To guard the cattle and horses from their insidious attacks it is usual to put knives under the thresholds and to stick sprigs of birch in the dungheaps. Formerly lads used to gather on the heights where the witches were believed to assemble; and by hurling besoms, dipped in pitch and ignited, they attempted to banish the invisible foe.[406 - Willibald Müller, Beiträge zur Volkskunde der Deutschen in Mähren (Vienna and Olmutz, 1893), p. 324.]

Annual “Burning of the Witches”on Walpurgis Night in Silesia.

In Silesia also, we are told, the belief in witchcraft still occupies a large space in the minds of the people. It is on Walpurgis Night that the witches are let loose and all the powers of magic have full sway. At that time the cottagers not uncommonly see a witch astride a hayfork or broomstick emerging from the chimney. Hence people are careful to remove all utensils from the fireplace, or the witches would ride on them, when they go with the Evil One to a cross-road or a gallows-hill, there to dance wild dances in a circle on the snow or to cut capers on the corn-fields. Steps are taken to guard village, house, and farmyard against their incursions. Three crosses are chalked up on every door, and little birch-trees fastened over the house-door, because the witches must count every leaf on the tree before they can cross the threshold, and while they are still counting, the day breaks and their power is gone. On that evening the cattle are especially exposed to the attacks of the witches, and prudent farmers resort to many expedients for the sake of protecting the animals from the wiles of these malignant beings. No wise man would sell milk or butter on Walpurgis Night; if he did, his cows would certainly be bewitched. And all the work of the byres should be finished and the cattle fed before sundown, which is the time when the witches begin to swarm in the air. Besides the usual crosses chalked on the door of the byre, it is customary to fasten over it three horse-shoes, or a holed flint, or a goat's horns with four branches; it is well, too, to nail bits of buckthorn crosswise over every entrance, and to lean pitchforks and harrows against the doors with the sharp points turned outwards. A sod freshly cut from a meadow and sprinkled with marsh-marigolds has likewise a very good effect when it is placed before a threshold. Moreover in the Grünberg district young men go clanking chains through the village and farmyards, for iron scares the witches; also they knock at the doors and they prance through the yards astride on pitchforks and broomsticks, all to drive away the witches, but in doing so they must be sure not to speak a word. A very powerful means of keeping witches at bay are the Walpurgis bonfires, which are still kindled in the Hoyerswerda district and the Iser Mountains. The fires are fed with the stumps of old brooms, and the people dance round them and wave burning besoms, just as they do at the Midsummer bonfires. About Hoyerswerda they call these fires, as usual, “Burning the Witches.”[407 - P. Drechsler, Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube in Schlesien (Leipsic, 1903-1906), i. 108-110. With regard to the dance of the witches in the snow, it is a common saying in the northern district of the Harz Mountains that the witches must dance the snow away on the top of the Blocksberg on the first of May. See A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche (Leipsic, 1848), p. 376. At Dabelow in Mecklenburg all utensils are removed from the fireplace on Walpurgis Night, lest the witches should ride on them to the Blocksberg. See A. Kuhn and W. Schwartz, l. c.]

Annual “Burning of the Witches”on Walpurgis Night among the Wends of Saxony.

The Wends of Saxony adopt very similar precautions against witches on the evening of Walpurgis Day. Any one who has been in Lusatia on the last day of April must remember the fires which he saw blazing on the mountains and in the valleys and the plains. That is the Witch-burning (kuzlarniče palić). For weeks before that the boys and lads have been collecting old brooms, and when the time comes they sally forth and dance with the burning besoms on the fields; the fire is thought to ban the witches and foul fiends. Also on that day people march about the fields and meadows clinking stones on scythes; for the noise is also deemed effectual in driving the witches away.[408 - R. Wuttke, Sächsische Volkskunde (Dresden, 1901), p. 359.] At Penzance in Cornwall boys run about blowing horns on the thirtieth of April (Walpurgis Day), and when questioned why they do so they say that they are “scaring away the devil.” The horns used for this purpose are made of tin and shaped like a herald's trumpet; they vary in length from a foot to a yard and can give forth a very loud blast.[409 - Lady Agnes Macdonell, in The Times, May 3rd, 1913, p. 6. In a letter to me (dated 31, Kensington Park Gardens, May 5th [1913]) Lady Macdonell was kind enough to give me some further particulars as to the custom. It seems that the boys use their horns on May Day as well as on the thirtieth of April. Processions of boys and girls decorated with flowers and leaves, and carrying flags and horns, went about Penzance on May Day of the present year (1913). The horns are straight; some of them terminate in a bell-shaped opening, others have no such appendage. The latter and plainer are the older pattern.] The custom is probably a relic of a general expulsion of witches and demons on that day.

Annual expulsion of witches during the Twelve Days from Christmas to Epiphany. “Burning out the Old Year”at Biggar.

Another witching time is the period of twelve days between Christmas (the twenty-fifth of December) and Epiphany (the sixth of January). A thousand quaint superstitions cluster round that mystic season. It is then that the Wild Huntsman sweeps through the air, the powers of evil are let loose, werewolves are prowling round, and the witches work their wicked will. Hence in some parts of Silesia the people burn pine-resin all night long between Christmas and the New Year in order that the pungent smoke may drive witches and evil spirits far away from house and homestead; and on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve they fire shots over fields and meadows, into shrubs and trees, and wrap straw round the fruit-trees, to prevent the spirits from doing them harm.[410 - P. Drechsler, Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube in Schlesien (Leipsic, 1903-1906), i. 15-18. With regard to the superstitions attached to these twelve days or twelve nights, as the Germans call them, see further A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche (Leipsic, 1848), pp. 408-418; A. Kuhn, Sagen, Gebräuche und Märchen aus Westfalen (Leipsic, 1859), ii. 111-117; L. Strackerjan, Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum Oldenburg (Oldenburg, 1867), ii. 28 sqq.; M. Toeppen, Aberglauben aus Masuren

(Danzig, 1867), pp. 61 sqq.; A. Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube

(Berlin, 1869), pp. 61 sqq., § 74; E. Mogk, “Mythologie,” in H. Paul's Grundriss der germanischen Philologie,

iii. (Strasburg, 1900) pp. 260 sq.; Alois John, Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube im deutschen Westböhmen (Prague, 1905), pp. 11 sqq.] On New Year's Eve, which is Saint Sylvester's Day, Bohemian lads, armed with guns, form themselves into circles and fire thrice into the air. This is called “Shooting the Witches” and is supposed to frighten the witches away. While the young fellows are rendering this service to the community, the housewives go about their houses sprinkling holy water in all the rooms and chalking three crosses on every door,[411 - O. Freiherr von Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Fest-Kalender aus Böhmen (Prague, preface dated 1861), p. 602.] no doubt to accelerate the departure of the witches, and to prevent their return. At Trieste on St. Sylvester's Eve people form processions and drive the evil spirits with sticks and brooms out of the houses, while they invite the good spirits and good luck to come and dwell there.[412 - W. G. Aston, Shinto (London, 1905), p. 312, referring to Lady Burton's life of her husband.] In the town of Biggar, in Lanarkshire, it has been customary from time immemorial to celebrate a custom called “burning out the Old Year” on the thirty-first of December. A large bonfire, to which all the onlookers think it their duty to contribute fuel, is kindled in the evening at the town cross, and fires are also lighted on the adjacent hills.[413 - T. Thiselton Dyer, British Popular Customs (London, 1876), p. 506.] When we remember how common it is in Central Europe to kindle fires at critical seasons for the purpose of burning the witches, we may suspect that what the good people of Biggar originally intended to burn on the last night of the year was not the Old Year but the witches. It would have been well for Scotland and for Europe if the practice of burning witches had always been carried out in this harmless fashion. A visitor to Scotland in 1644 saw nine witches of flesh and blood burned at one time on Leith Links.[414 - J. G. Dalyell, The Darker Superstitions of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1834), p. 670.]

Annual expulsion of witches and demons in Switzerland and France.

The last of the mystic twelve days is Epiphany or Twelfth Night, and it has been selected as a proper season for the expulsion of the powers of evil in various parts of Europe. Thus at Brunnen on the Lake of Lucerne the boys go about in procession on Twelfth Night, carrying torches and lanterns, and making a great noise with horns, cow-bells, whips, and so forth. This is said to frighten away the two female spirits of the wood, Strudeli and Strätteli. Of these two names Strudeli seems to mean “witch” and Strätteli “nightmare.” The people believe that if they do not make enough noise, there will be little fruit that year.[415 - H. Usener, “Italische Mythen,” Rheinisches Museum, N.F., xxx. (1875) p. 198; id., Kleine Schriften, iv. (Leipzic and Berlin, 1913), p. 109; E. Hoffmann-Krayer, Feste und Bräuche des Schweizervolkes (Zurich, 1913), p. 101.] On the same day the inhabitants of the Muota Valley, immediately to the east of Brunnen, used to make a similar racket, no doubt for a similar purpose. They collected chains, pots and pans, cow-bells, horns, and such like musical instruments. He who could borrow a number of horse's bells and wear them on his person so that the jangling sounded afar off was deemed uncommonly lucky. Thus equipped parties of people marched about making all the din they could; sometimes they would meet and joining all their efforts in one concerted burst of harmony or discord would raise such a hubbub that the surrounding rocks rang again with the sound.[416 - H. Herzog, Schweizerische Volksfeste, Sitten und Gebräuche (Aaran, 1884), pp. 212 sq.] In Labruguière, also, a canton of Southern France, the evil spirits are expelled at the same season. The canton lies in the picturesque and little-known region of the Black Mountains, which form a sort of link between the Pyrenees and the Cevennes, and have preserved in their remote recesses certain types of life which have long disappeared elsewhere. On the eve of Twelfth Day the inhabitants rush through the streets jangling bells, clattering kettles, and doing everything to make a discordant noise. Then by the light of torches and blazing faggots they set up a prodigious hue and cry, an ear-splitting uproar, hoping thereby to chase all the wandering ghosts and devils from the town.[417 - A. de Nore, Coutumes, Mythes, et Traditions des Provinces de France (Paris and Lyons, 1846), pp. 81, 85.]

Befana in the Piazza Navona at Rome, in the Tuscan Romagna.

With this noisy ceremony we may compare a similar custom which is still observed year by year at the same season in the long and spacious Piazza Navona at Rome. There on the night before Epiphany a dense crowd assembles, and diverts itself by raising a hideous uproar. Soon after supper troops of young folk and others march through the streets, preceded by puppets or pasteboard figures and all making the utmost possible din. They converge from different quarters on the Piazza Navona, there to unite in one prolonged and deafening outburst of clangorous discord. The favourite musical instruments employed in this cats' concert are penny trumpets, of which, together with tambourines, bells, and so forth, the shops take care to provide a large stock as a preparation for the pandemonium of the evening. The ceremony is supposed to be in honour of a certain mythical old hag called Befana, effigies of whom, made of rags, are put by women and children in the windows on Twelfth Night. Her name Befana is clearly a popular corruption of Epiphany, the ecclesiastical name of the festival; but viewed in connexion with the popular celebrations which we have examined she may be suspected to be of heathen rather than Christian origin. In fact we may conjecture that she was of old a witch, and that the noisy rite in the Piazza Navona is nothing but a relic of an annual expulsion of witches at this season.[418 - As to Befana and her connexion with Epiphany, see J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,

i. 234. The personified Befana, an ugly but good-natured old woman, is known in Sicily as well as Italy. See G. Pitrè, Spettacoli e Feste Popolari Siciliane (Palermo, 1881), p. 167. As to the ceremony in the Piazza Navona, see H. Usener, “Italische Mythen,” Kleine Schriften, iv. (Leipsic and Berlin, 1913) pp. 108 sqq., who rightly compares it to the Swiss ceremonies observed at and near Brunnen on Twelfth Night. I witnessed the noisy scene in the Piazza Navona in January, 1901.] A ceremony of the same sort is annually observed on the same evening, the Eve of Epiphany, by the peasantry who inhabit the mountains of the Tuscan Romagna. A troop of lads parade the streets of the village making a fiendish noise by means of bells and kitchen utensils of tin and brass, while others blow blasts on horns and reed-pipes. They drag about a cart containing an effigy of an old woman made up of rags and tow, which represents Befana (Epiphany). When they come to the village square they put fire to the effigy, which soon vanishes in smoke and flames amid a chorus of cries, shrieks, and other forms of rustic melody.[419 - P. Fabbri, “Canti popolari raccolti sui monti della Romagna-Toscana,” Archivio per lo Studio delle Tradizioni Popolari, xxii. (1903) pp. 356 sq.; H. Usener, Kleine Schriften, iv. 108 note 62. In the Abruzzi, on the evening before Epiphany, musicians go from house to house serenading the inmates with songs and the strains of fiddles, guitars, organs, and so forth. They are accompanied by others carrying lanterns, torches, or burning branches of juniper. See Antonio de Nino, Usi e Costumi Abruzzesi (Florence, 1879-1883), ii. 178-180; G. Finamore, Credenze, Usi e Costumi Abruzzesi (Palermo, 1890), pp. 88 sq. Such house to house visitations may be a relic of an old expulsion of witches and demons.] Similar ceremonies are probably observed on the same evening in other parts of Italy.

Expulsion of the Trows in Shetland on Up-helly-a', the twenty-fourth day after Christmas.

In the Shetland Islands the Yule or Christmas holidays begin, or used to begin, seven days before Christmas and last till Antinmas, that is, the twenty-fourth day after Christmas. In the Shetland parlance these holidays are known as “the Yules.” On the first night, called Tul-ya's e'en, seven days before Christmas, certain mischievous elves, whom the Shetlanders name Trows, “received permission to leave their homes in the heart of the earth and dwell, if it so pleased them, above ground. There seemed to have been no doubt that those creatures preferred disporting themselves among the dwellings of men to residing in their own subterranean abodes, for they availed themselves of every permission given, and created no little disturbance among the mortals whom they visited. One of the most important of all Yule-tide observances was the ‘saining’ required to guard life or property from the Trows. If the proper observances were omitted, the ‘grey-folk’ were sure to take advantage of the opportunity.”[420 - Rev. Biot Edmondston and Jessie M. E. Saxby, The Home of a Naturalist (London, 1888), p. 136. Compare County Folk-lore, vol. iii. Orkney and Shetland Islands, collected by G. F. Black (London, 1903), p. 196. As to the Trows, whose name is doubtless identical with the Norse Trolls (Swedish troll, Norwegian trold), see Edmondston and Saxby, op. cit. pp. 189 sqq.; John Jamieson, Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language, New Edition, edited by J. Longmuir and D. Donaldson (Paisley, 1879-1882), iv. 630 sq., who observes that “while the Fairies are uniformly represented as social, cheerful, and benevolent beings, the Trows are described as gloomy and malignant, ever prone to injure men.”] On the last day of the holidays, the twenty-fourth day after Christmas, which in Shetland goes by the name of Up-helly-a', Uphellia, or Uphaliday, “the doors were all opened, and a great deal of pantomimic chasing and driving and dispersing of unseen creatures took place. Many pious ejaculations were uttered, and iron was ostentatiously displayed, ‘for Trows can never abide the sight o' iron.’ The Bible was read and quoted. People moved about in groups or couples, never singly, and infants were carefully guarded as well as sained by vigilant and learned ‘wise women.’ Alas, the poor Trows! their time of frolic and liberty was ended, and on Twenty-fourth night they retired to their gloomy abodes beneath the sod, seldom finding opportunity to reappear again, and never with the same licence, until the Yules returned. All that pantomime, all that invoking of holier Powers, were but methods of ‘speeding the parting guest,’ and mortals were rejoicing that the unbidden, unwelcome grey-folk must depart. When day dawned after Twenty-fourth night the Trows had vanished and the Yules were ended.”[421 - Rev. Biot Edmondston and Jessie M. E. Saxby, The Home of a Naturalist (London, 1888), p. 146. Compare County Folk-lore, vol. iii. Orkney and Shetland Islands, collected by G. F. Black (London, 1903), pp. 202 sq.] Of late years Up-helly-a' has been celebrated in Lerwick with pompous and elaborate masquerades. The chief event of the evening is a torch-light procession of maskers or “guizers,” as they are called, who escort the model of a Norse galley through the streets, and finally set it on fire by throwing their torches into it. But in this form the celebration seems to date only from the latter part of the nineteenth century; in former times an old boat filled with tar and ignited was dragged about and blazing tar-barrels were drawn or kicked through the streets.[422 - The Shetland News, February 1st, 1913, p. 5. As January 5th is reckoned Christmas in Shetland, the celebration of Up-helly-a' falls on January 29th. See J. Nicolson, in The World's Work and Play, February, 1906, pp. 283 sqq. For further information relating to the ceremony I am indebted to the kindness of Sheriff-Substitute David J. Mackenzie (formerly of Lerwick, now of Kilmarnock). According to one of his correspondents, the Rev. Dr. J. Willcock of Lerwick, the present elaborate form of the ceremony dates only from 1882, when the Duke of Edinburgh visited Lerwick on naval business, and Up-helly-a' was celebrated in his honour on a grander scale than ever before. Yet Dr. Willcock apparently does not deny the antiquity of the festival in a simpler form, for in his letter he says: “In former times an old boat filled with tar was set on fire and dragged about, as were also lighted tar-barrels.” Another authority on Shetland antiquities, Mr. Gilbert Goudie, writes to Sheriff Mackenzie that “the kicking about and burning a tar-barrel is very old in Lerwick.” Compare County Folk-lore, iii. Orkney and Shetland Islands, collected by G. F. Black (London, 1903), p. 205: “Formerly, blazing tar-barrels were dragged about the town, and afterwards, with the first break of morning, dashed over the knab into the sea.” Up-helly-a', the Shetland name for Antinmas, is no doubt the same with Uphalyday, which Dr. J. Jamieson (Dictionary of the Scottish Language, New Edition, iv. 676) defines as “the first day after the termination of the Christmas holidays,” quoting two official documents of a. d. 1494 and 1541 respectively.I have to thank my friend Miss Anderson of Barskimming, Mauchline, Ayrshire, for kindly calling my attention to this interesting relic of the past.] The fire, however procured, was probably in origin intended to chase away the lingering Trows from the town at the end of the holidays.

Annual expulsion of witches and demons in Europe.

Thus it would seem that the custom of annually banishing witches and demons on a day or night set apart for the purpose has not been confined to Central Europe, but can be traced from Calabria and Rome in the south to the Shetland Islands in the far north.

Chapter IV. Public Scapegoats

§ 1. The Expulsion of Embodied Evils

The expulsion of embodied evils.