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BAIN-MAKING. DUCKING. 595
future illnesses. Celtic tradition, without bringing in girl or
child ; makes the pouring out of water in seasons of great drought
evoke the wished-for rain. The huntsmen go to the fountain of
Barenton in the forest of Breziliande, scoop up the water in their
horns, and spill it on the stones ; immediately the rain-clouds rise
and refresh the land. : The custom, with an addition of church
ceremonial, is kept up to this day. Led by the clergy, amid
chanting and pealing of bells, with five great banners borne in
front, the parish walks in procession to the spring, and the head
of the commune dips his foot crosswise in the fountain of Bar
enton ; they are then sure of its raining before the procession
arrives home again. 2 The mayor s foot alone is wetted instead of
the child, or a little water only is poured out as a beginning of
that which is to fall in masses from the sky. The scanty offering
brings the great bounty to our door. In Spain, when hot weather
lasts long, an image of the Virgin arrayed in mourning (imagen
cubierta de luto) is solemnly escorted through the villages, to
obtain the blessing of rain, 3 as in the Liege procession (pp. 174- 5),
with which again that described by Petronius agrees (p. 175) ;
only here the .symbolic libation is left out. But of those herbs
that were tied round the child, some most likely were of magic
such a use of henbane is otherwise unknown to me.
power;
Lastly, the Bavarian waterbird seems identical with dodola and
pyrperuna. The man who is the last to drive out on Whitmonday 4
is led by the other workmen into the nearest wood, and tied
round and round with leaves and twigs or rushes; then they ride in
triumph through the village, and everybody that has young legs
follows the procession to the pond or brook, where the waterbird
is solemnly tumbled off his horse into the water (Schm. 1, 320).
In Austria too the village lads elect a Whitsun king, dress him
him into the brook
up in green boughs, blacken his face and pitch
(Denis, Lesefr. 1, 130). In these two cases the l
votis vocare
1 Boman de Bon, v. 11514 (the passage extracted in the notes to Iwein, pp.
262-3).
2 Bevue de Paris, tome 41, pp. 47-58. Villemar adds, that children throw
pins into the fountain, while they call out : ris done, fontaine de Berendon, et je
te donnerai une epingle ! and the fay of the fountain is supposed to be made
friendly by the gift. Conf. libamina lacui exhibere , p. 596.
3 Don Quixote 1, 52 (Ideler 2, 435). And in other places it was the custom in*
time of drought, to carry the bodies of saints about, Flodoard. rem. 4, 41.
4 As the girl who oversleeps herself on Easter morning is ducked (p. 590).