Coverley_ and other old English ‘country’ dances of the same type. Just as the ‘country’ dance is derived from the processional dance, so the other type of folk-dance, the _ronde_ or ‘round,’ is derived from the comparatively stationary dance of the group of worshippers around the more especially sacred objects of the festival, such as the tree or the fire[547]. The custom of dancing round the May-pole has been more or less preserved wherever the May-pole is known. But ‘Thread the Needle’ itself often winds up with a circular dance or _ronde_, either around one of the players, or, on festival occasions, around the representative of the earlier home of the fertilization divinity, the parish church. This custom is popularly known as ‘clipping the church[548].’ Naturally the worshippers at a festival would dance in their festival costume; that is to say, in the garb of leaves and flowers worn for the sake of the beneficent influence of the indwelling divinity, or in the hides and horns of sacrificial animals which served a similar purpose. Travellers describe elaborate and beautiful beast-dances amongst savage peoples, and the Greeks had their own bear- and crane-dances, as well as the dithyrambic goat-dance of the Dionysia. They had also flower dances[549]. In England the village dancers wear posies, but I do not know that they ever attempt a more elaborate representation of flowers. But a good example of the beast-dance is furnished by the ‘horn-dance’ at Abbots Bromley in Staffordshire, held now at a September wake, and formerly at Christmas. In this six of the performers wear sets of horns. These are preserved from year to year in the church, and according to local tradition the dance used at one time to take place in the churchyard on a Sunday. The horns are said to be those of the reindeer, and from this it may possibly be inferred that they were brought to Abbots Bromley by Scandinavian settlers. The remaining performers represent a hobby-horse, a clown, a woman, and an archer, who makes believe to shoot the horned men[550].