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766 SUMMER AND WINTER.
supposes their existence, or that of songs substantially the same.
The conception and setting of the whole are quite heathenish :
valiant Summer found, fetched, wakened from his sleep; van
quished Winter rolled in the dust, thrown into chains, beaten
with staves, blinded, banished ; these are demigods or giants of
antiquity. Violets are mentioned with evident reference to the
welcoming of Summer. In some parts the children march out
with white peeled rods, either for the purpose of helping Summer
to belabour the foe, or perhaps to represent the retinue of Winter,
for it was the old custom for the conquered and captive to be let
go, carrying white staves (RA. 134). One of the band of boys,
marching at their head wrapt in straw, stands for Winter, another
decked with ivy for Summer. First the two fence with their poles,
presently they close and wrestle, till Winter is thrown and his
straw garment stript off him. During the duel, the rest keep
singing :
stab aus, stab aus,
steclit dem Winter die augen aus I
This is completely the rauba birahanen, hrusti giwinnan, caesos
spoliare armis of the heroic age ; the barbarous punching out of
The wakening of
eyes goes back to a 1
still remoter antiquity.
Summer is like the wakening of Sselde.
In some places, when the fight is over, and Winter put to flight,
they sing :
So treiben wir den Winter aus
durch unsre stadt zum thor hinaus (out at the gate) ;
here and there the whole action is compressed into the shout :
3
Sommer rein (come in), Winter naus !
(go out)
As we come back through the Odenwald toward inner Fran-
conia, the Spessart and the Rhon Mts, the words begin to change,
and run as follows :
Stab aus, stab aus,
stecht dem Tod (death) die augen aus !
1 The MHG. songs keep pace : der Meie hat sinen schaft hi den Winter ver-
stpchen, dug his shaft into, MsH. 3, 19o b . Mai hat den W. erslagen , slain,
Hatzl. 131, 58. vehten wil der W. kalt gegen dem lieben Sumer, MsH. 3, 42 3 \