Further, I believe that the use of swords in the dance was not martial at all; their object was to suggest not a fight, but a mock or symbolical sacrifice. Several of the dances include figures in which the swords are brought together in a significant manner about the person of one or more of the dancers. Thus in the Scandinavian dance described by Olaus Magnus, a _quadrata rosa_ of swords is placed on the head of each performer. A precisely similar figure occurs in the Shetland and in a variety of the Yorkshire dances[724]. In the Siebenbürgen dances there are two figures in which the performers pretend to cut at each other’s heads or feet, and a third in which one of them has the swords put in a ring round his neck[725]. This latter evolution occurs also in a variety of the Yorkshire dance[726] and in a Spanish one described by Müllenhoff after a seventeenth-century writer. And here the figure has the significant name of _la degollada_, ‘the beheading[727].’ CHAPTER X THE MUMMERS’ PLAY [_Bibliographical Note._--The subject is treated by T. F. Ordish, _English Folk-Drama_ in _Folk-Lore_, ii. 326, iv. 162. The Folk-Lore Society has in preparation a volume on Folk-Drama to be edited by Mr. Ordish (_F. L._ xiii. 296). The following is a list of the twenty-nine printed versions upon which the account of the St. George play in the present chapter is based. The Lutterworth play is given in Appendix K. NORTHUMBERLAND. 1. _Newcastle._ Chap-book--W. Sandys, _Christmastide_, 292, from _Alexander and the King of Egypt. A mock Play, as it is acted by the Mummers every Christmas_. Newcastle, 1788. (Divided into Acts and Scenes.) CUMBERLAND. 2. _Whitehaven._ Chap-book--Hone, _E. D. B._ ii. 1646. (Practically identical with (1).) LANCASHIRE. 3. _Manchester._ Chap-book--_The Peace Egg_, published by J. Wrigley, 30, Miller Street, Manchester. (Brit. Mus. 1077, _g_/27 (37): Acts and Scenes: a coloured cut of each character.) SHROPSHIRE. 4. _Newport._ Oral. Jackson and Burne, 484. (Called the Guisers’ (gheez-u´rz) play.) STAFFORDSHIRE. 5. _Eccleshall._ Oral. _F. L. J._ iv. 350. (Guisers’ play: practically identical with (4). I have not seen a version from Stone in W. W. Bladen, _Notes on the Folk-lore of North Staffs._: cf. _F. L._ xiii. 107.) LEICESTERSHIRE. 6. _Lutterworth._ Oral. Kelly, 53; Manly, i. 292; _Leicester F. L._ 130. WORCESTERSHIRE. 7. _Leigh._ Oral. 2 _N. Q._ xi. 271. WARWICKSHIRE. 8. _Newbold._ Oral. _F. L._ x. 186 (with variants from a similar Rugby version). OXFORDSHIRE. 9. _Islip._ Oral. Ditchfield, 316. 10. _Bampton._ Oral. Ditchfield, 320. 11. _Thame._ Oral. 5 _N. Q._ ii. 503; Manly, i. 289. 12. _Uncertain._ Oral. 6 _N. Q._ xii. 489; Ashton, 128. BERKSHIRE. 13. _Uncertain._ Oral. Ditchfield, 310. MIDDLESEX.