obsession may obtain in the case of savage races, we look in vain for any trace of it in this "Life of Beket."
Of the positive results gained from the story, we will deal first with an old custom. Beket is coming back to Canterbury, and processions and other expressions of joy were organised to welcome him.
Of bells and of tabors: so great was the sound.
Of each manner glee and songs: when he came into town.
That men could hear no other things: but the noise that was so great.
No more joy might there be: than there was in every street.
Noise, we may judge from this, was considered to be expressive of joy as well as serviceable for the driving away of eclipses.
Here we have a description of either ecclesiastical relic-hunting or of a practice of collecting the blood of those who died a violent death:
The wounds bled all the night: and men took thereof I-wis.
And in the church of Canterbury: some of that blood yet is.
******
Much folk was about him: that blood for to keep.
And for to gather of the blood: that was shed on the ground.
And of that earth on which it fell (be-bled): and gladly they it found.
Because no man would hinder them: thick they drew it away.
Of his burial, or rather of his right to be buried, we read as follows. The knights took counsel outside the town, after the murder:
They counselled to take his holy body: and it with wild horses draw.
And after hang it on a gallows: they said that it was law.
For he was not worthy to be buried: in church or in churchyard.
Beket's curse:
Book and candle he took anon: and cursed right there.
All that warred against holy church: and against her rights were.
