Animal Superstitions and Totcmisui. 251
Pig : Wurzburg at Martinstide/ (probably a pig-baiting is
meant). Owl : in Suffolk at Christmas.^ Ram : Eton and East Wrotham.^ Squirrel : Wales, Suffolk at Christmas; Cammin (Pomerania)
and Harz Mountains at Easter ; Lelbach (Waldeck) at
Ascensiontide ; Easling on Nov. 30th ; the Wotyaks,
Oct. I St.* We may perhaps add the fox, which was one of the animals hunted in Ireland on St. Martin's Day.^
[h) The Hahnenschlag.
This type I name after the custom which is in modern folklore the commonest and best preserved of the many variants — that of striking blindfold at a cock.
There are,however,some transitional forms which must first be dealt with. In Whitsun-week a lamb was formerly pro- vided at Kidlington (Oxfordshire), after which the girls of the township ran with their thumbs tied and tried to catch the animal with their mouths ; the successful one was proclaimed Lady of the Lamb, which was carried before her to the green. The next day the lamb was eaten at a feast at which the lady presided.^
A variant of this custom is the catching the greasy pig,
' Z. filrd. Myth., i., 107.
- Brand, i., 268; on Valentine's day in the West of England three single young men had to go out and catch an owl and two sparrows, which they carried round the village; Hone, i., 227.
' Brand, ii., 314.
^ Owen, p. 351; Brand, i., 268; Wolf, i., 78; Kuhn, Nordd. S., p. 374; cf. Liebrecht, ziir V., 261; Curtze, p. 441; Hone, i., 1539; Buck, Die Wotjaken, p. 162. Mr. Hartland informs me that it used to be hunted at Dursley on May-morning.
' F. L. -/?., iv., 108. Miss Marriage informs me that one of the palace courts at Dresden was used for fox-hunting. cf. Preller, Roman Myth.^ p. 436. The gulls were hunted on the Schlei on July 23rd (Schiitze, Idiotikon,
iii.,97-)
« F., viii., 315.
