The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion (Vol. 1 of 2)Frazer, James George
Religion
The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion (Vol. 1 of 2)
Frazer, James George
Magic; Mythology; Religion; Superstition
The effigy of Death is often regarded with fear and treated with marks of
hatred and contempt. In Lusatia the figure is sometimes made to look in at
the window of a house, and it is believed that some one in the house will
die within the year unless his life is redeemed by the payment of
money.(855) Again, after throwing the effigy away, the bearers sometimes
run home lest Death should follow them; and if one of them falls in
running, it is believed that he will die within the year.(856) At Chrudim,
in Bohemia, the 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.(857) 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;(858) and the village out of which Death has been driven is
sometimes supposed to be protected against sickness and plague.(859) 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.(860) In Slavonia
the figure of Death is cudgelled and then rent in two.(861) In Poland the
effigy, made of hemp and straw, is flung into a pool or swamp with the
words, “The devil take thee.”(862)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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