figure of Death is made out of a cross, with a head and mask stuck at the top, and a shirt stretched out on it. On the Fifth Sunday in Lent the boys take this effigy to the nearest brook or pool, and standing in a line throw it into the water. Then they all plunge in after it; but as soon as it is caught no one more may enter the water. The boy who did not enter the water or entered it last will die within the year, and he is obliged to carry the Death back to the village. The effigy is then burned.[1] On the other hand it is believed that no one will die within the year in the house out of which the figure of Death has been carried;[2] and the village out of which Death has been driven is sometimes supposed to be protected against sickness and plague.[3] In some villages of Austrian Silesia on the Saturday before Dead Sunday an effigy is made of old clothes, hay, and straw, for the purpose of driving Death out of the village. On Sunday the people, armed with sticks and straps, assemble before the house where the figure is lodged. Four lads then draw the effigy by cords through the village amid exultant shouts, while all the others beat it with their sticks and straps. On reaching a field which belongs to a neighbouring village they lay down the figure, cudgel it soundly, and scatter the fragments over the field. The people believe that the village from which Death has been thus carried out will be safe from any infectious disease for the whole year.[4] In Slavonia the figure of Death is cudgelled and then
- ↑ Vernalecken, Mythen und Bräuche des Volkes in Oesterreich, p. 294 sq.; Reinsberg-Düiringsfeld, Fest-Kalender aus Böhmen, p. 90.
- ↑ Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,4 ii. 640.
- ↑ J. A. E. Köhler, Volksbrauch, Aberglauben, Sagen und andre alte Ueberlieferungen im Voigtlande, p. 171.
- ↑ Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Das festliche Jahr, p. 80.
