ing him or her in leaves or flowers; sometimes, too, it is indicated by the name he or she bears.
Thus in some parts of Russia on St. George's Day (the twentythird of April) a youth is dressed out, like our Jack-in-the-Green, with leaves and flowers. The Slovenes call him the Green George. Holding a lighted torch in one hand and a pie in the other, he goes out to the cornfields, followed by girls singing appropriate songs. A circle of brushwood is next lighted, in the middle of which is set
the pie. All who take part in the ceremony then sit down around the fire and divide the pie among them. In this custom the Green George dressed in leaves and flowers is plainly identical with the similarly disguised Green George who is associated with a tree in the Carinthian, Transylvanian, and Roumanian customs observed on the same day. Again, we saw that in Russia at Whitsuntide a birch-tree is dressed in woman's clothes and set up in the house. Clearly equivalent to this is the custom observed on Whit-Monday
by Russian girls in the district of Pinsk. They choose the prettiest of their number, envelop her in a mass of foliage taken from the birch-trees and maples, and carry her about through the village.
In Ruhla as soon as the trees begin to grow green in spring, the children assemble on a Sunday and go out into the woods, where they choose one of their playmates to be the Little Leaf Man. They break branches from the trees and twine them about the child till only his shoes peep out from the leafy mantle. Holes are made in it for him to see through, and two of the children lead the
Little Leaf Man that he may not stumble or fall. Singing and dancing they take him from house to house, asking for gifts of food
such as eggs, cream, sausages, and cakes. Lastly, they sprinkle the Leaf Man with water and feast on the food they have collected. In
the Fricktal, Switzerland, at Whitsuntide boys go out into a wood and swathe one of their number in leafy boughs. He is called the
Whitsuntide-lout, and being mounted on horseback with a green branch in his hand he is led back into the village. At the village-well
a halt is called and the leaf-clad lout is dismounted and ducked in the trough. Thereby he acquires the right of sprinkling water on
everybody, and he exercises the right specially on girls and street urchins. The urchins march before him in bands begging him to
give them a Whitsuntide wetting.
In England the best-known example of these leaf-clad mummers is the Jack-in-the-Green, a chimney-sweeper who walks encased in a pyramidal framework of wickerwork, which is covered with holly and ivy, and surmounted by a crown of flowers and ribbons. Thus arrayed he dances on May Day at the head of a troop of chimney-sweeps, who collect pence. In Fricktal a similar frame of
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basketwork is called the Whitsuntide Basket. As soon as the trees begin to bud, a spot is chosen in the wood, and here the village lads make the frame with all secrecy, lest others should forestall them. Leafy branches are twined round two hoops, one of which rests
on the shoulders of the wearer, the other encircles his claves; holes are made for his eyes and mouth; and a large nosegay crowns
the whole. In this guise he appears suddenly in the village at the hour of vespers, preceded by three boys blowing on horns made of
willow bark. The great object of his supporters is to set up the Whitsuntide Basket on the village well, and to keep it and him there,
despite the efforts of the lads from neighbouring villages, who seek to carry off the Whitsuntide Basket and set it up on their own
well.
In the class of cases of which the foregoing are specimens it is obvious that the leaf-clad person who is led about is equivalent to the May-tree, May-bough, or May-doll, which is carried from house to house by children begging. Both are representatives of the beneficent spirit of vegetation, whose visit to the house is recompensed by a present of money or food.
Often the leaf-clad person who represents the spirit of vegetation is known as the king or the queen; thus, for example, he or she is
called the May King, Whitsuntide King, Queen of May, and so on. These titles, as Mannhardt observes, imply that the spirit incorpo-
rate in vegetation is a ruler, whose creative power extends far and wide.
In a village near Salzwedel a May-tree is set up at Whitsuntide and the boys race to it; he who reaches it first is king; a garland of flowers is put round his neck and in his hand he carries a May-bush, with which, as the procession moves along, he sweeps away the dew. At each house they sing a song, wishing the inmates good luck, referring to the "black cow in the stall milking white milk, black hen on the nest laying white eggs," and begging a gift of eggs, bacon, and so on. At the village of Ellgoth in Silesia a ceremony called the King's Race is observed at Whitsuntide. A pole with a cloth tied to it is set up in a meadow, and the young men ride past it on horseback, each trying to snatch away the cloth as he gallops by. The one who succeeds in carrying it off and dipping it in the neighbouring Oder is proclaimed King. Here the pole is clearly a substitute for a May-tree. In some villages of Brunswick at Whitsuntide
a May King is completely enveloped in a May-bush. In some parts of Thuringen also they have a May King at Whitsuntide, but
he is dressed up rather differently. A frame of wood is made in which a man can stand; it is completely covered with birch boughs
and is surmounted by a crown of birch and flowers, in which a bell is fastened. This frame is placed in the wood and the May King
gets into it. The rest go out and look for him, and when they have found him they lead him back into the village to the magistrate,
the clergyman, and others, who have to guess who is in the verdurous frame. If they guess wrong, the May King rings his bell by
shaking his head, and a forfeit of beer or the like must be paid by the unsuccessful guesser. At Wahrstedt the boys at Whitsuntide
choose by lot a king and a high-steward. The latter is completely concealed in a May-bush, wears a wooden crown wreathen with
flowers, and carries a wooden sword. The king, on the other hand, is only distinguished by a nosegay in his cap, and a reed, with a
red ribbon tied to it, in his hand. They beg for eggs from house to house, threatening that, where none are given, none will be laid
by the hens throughout the year. In this custom the high-steward appears, for some reason, to have usurped the insignia of the
king. At Hildesheim five or six young fellows go about on the afternoon of Whit-Monday cracking long whips in measured time
and collecting eggs from the houses. The chief person of the band is the Leaf King, a lad swathed so completely in birchen twigs
that nothing of him can be seen but his feet. A huge head-dress of birchen twigs adds to his apparent stature. In his hand he carries
a long crook, with which he tries to catch stray dogs and children. In some parts of Bohemia on Whit-Monday the young fellows
disguise themselves in tall caps of birch bark adorned with flowers. One of them is dressed as a king and dragged on a sledge to the
village green, and if on the way they pass a pool the sledge is always overturned into it. Arrived at the green they gather round the
king; the crier jumps on a stone or climbs up a tree and recites lampoons about each house and its inmates. Afterwards the disguises
of bark are stripped off and they go about the village in holiday attire, carrying a May-tree and begging. Cakes, eggs, and corn are sometimes given them. At Grossvargula, near Langensalza, in the eighteenth century a Grass King used to be led about in procession
at Whitsuntide. He was encased in a pyramid of poplar branches, the top of which was adorned with a royal crown of branches and
flowers. He rode on horseback with the leafy pyramid over him, so that its lower end touched the ground, and an opening was left
in it only for his face. Surrounded