There, he was allowed to scramble out again, as the mock victim does in many European ceremonies; but originally, I do not doubt, he was drowned as a rain-charm. These ceremonies, at the time when our authorities learnt of them, had all degenerated to the level of mere childish pastimes; but they contain in them, none the less, persistent elements of most tragic significance, and they point back to hideous and sanguinary god-making festivals. In most of them we see still preserved the choice of the willing or unconscious victim; the preference for a stranger, a fool, or an idiot; the habit of intoxicating the chosen person; the treatment of the victim as king, mayor, or governor; his scourging or mocking; his final death; and his burning on a pyre, or his drowning as a rain-charm. All these points are still more clearly noticeable in the other form of survival where the king or divine victim is represented, not by a mock or temporary king, but by an image or effigy. Such is the common case of King Carnival, who is at last burnt in all his regalia, or thrown into a river. Our own Guy Fawkes, though fastened upon the personality of a particular unpopular historical character, seems to be the last feeble English representative of such a human victim. I will not elaborate this point any further (considerations of space forbid), but will refer the reader for additional examples to Mr. Gomme’s {297}_Village Community_, and Mr. Frazer’s wonderful collection of examples in _The Golden Bough_.