Animal Superstitions and Totemism. 253
ern and western portions of Europe and in Spanish
America.^
Other animals sacrificed in the same way are —
Bear: Swabia (iii.)-^
Frog : Bohemia ^ in the ceremonies connected with the King of the May (iii.).
Goat : Jiiterbock (ii.)^
Goose : Bavaria, Brittany, Saxony, Switzerland, Derby- shire.^
Pigeon : very frequently in the Middle Ages ; later a wooden bird was shot at ; this custom is still found in Schleswig-Holstein (i.) (ii.)-^
Cat : Pomerania (combined with a hunt), Kelso, Shropshire, &c.(ii.); the cat was frequently shut up in a wooden bottle with a quantity of soot, and he who beat out the bottom and escaped the soot was the hero of the day,^
Owl : North Walsham.^
Deer: to this class belongs the running deer in the Schiitz- enfest of Burg.^°
' Cockfighting seems to be a variant of this custom; it was practised on Shrove Tuesday, the same day as the Hahnenschlag. I hope to deal elsewhere with the " Brauthahn," some forms of which include the "Hahnenschlag." The egg-games may also be mentioned here; v. Holland, vi., 105; Hender- son, p. 84; Sebillot, Cotitumes, p. 251; F. L. /., iv., 131, vi., 60; Nicholson, p. 12.
- De Gubernatis, p. 426.
^ Mannhardt, Bk., p. 354.
Kloster, xii., 76.
= Kloster, xii., 1005; RoUand, vi., 175; Meyrac, p. 95; Grabner, Ver. Niederlande, p. 360; for other refs. v. Jahn, Opfergebrciuche, p. 234.
- Am Urquell, i., 129; Jahn, p. 149; Handelmann, p. 12.
'Jahn, p. 107; Brand, ii., 303; Grabner, p. 361; Burne, p. 450; Handelmann, p. 22.
8 Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, i., 2; Kloster, xii., 552. The inn- sign of the "Cock and Bottle" is obviously an allusion to this, as is that of the " Dog and Duck " to a similar amusement. " Gare au pot au noir " is a phrase used in France in playing Blind Man's Buff.
- De Gubernatis, p. 560. According to Hone this was only a practical
joke. It will, however, appear later that the custom probably existed in Germany. At Lille ducks and rabbits were used (Desrousseaux, i., 289).
'° Handelmann, p. 25. Did the Elaphebolia take its name from a similar practice ?
