[Footnote 4: "Histoire de la Musique Dramatique en France," par Gustave Chouquet. Paris, 1873.] The fete of the ass, celebrated on January 14 every year at Beauvais, was an excellent example of this sort of ceremony. This was a representation of the flight into Egypt. A beautiful young woman, carrying in her arms an infant gorgeously dressed, was mounted on an ass. Then she moved with a procession from the cathedral to the church of St. Etienne. The procession marched into the choir, while the girl, still riding the ass, took a position in front of the altar. Then the mass was celebrated, and at the end of each part the words "Hin han" were chanted in imitation of the braying of the beast. The officiating priest, instead of chanting the "Ite missa est," invited the congregation to join in imitating the bray. This simple procession in time developed into a much more pretentious liturgical drama called "The Prophets of Christ." But this appearance in the open streets was doubtless the beginning of the custom of enacting sacred plays in the public squares of cities and small towns. The fete of the ass dates from the eleventh century, and we shall see that open-air performances of religious dramas took place in the twelfth, if no sooner. Other significant elements of the fete of the ass and similar ceremonials were the singing of choruses by the populace and dancing. In the Beauvais "Flight into Egypt" at one point the choir sang an old song, half Latin and half French, before the ass, clothed in a cope. "Hez, sire Asnes, car chantez! Belle bouche rechignez; Vous aurez du foin assez Et de l'avoine a plantez." This refrain was changed after each stanza of the Latin. The people of Limoges, in their yearly festival, sang: "San Marceau, pregas per nous, E nous epingarem per vous." In the seventeenth century these good people of Limoges were still holding a festival in honor of the patron saint of their parish, and singing: "Saint Martial, priez pour nous, Et nous, nous danserons pour vous!" This choral dance formed in the church, and continued to the middle of the nave, and thence to the square before the edifice, or even into the cemetery. At a period later than that first mentioned these dances had instrumental accompaniment and became animated even to the verge of hysteria. Thus unwittingly the people of the medieval church were gathering into a loose, but by no means unformed, union the same materials as the ancients used in the creation of their drama.