GUISING AND MUMMING IN DERBYSHIRE. 41 



in sacred groves, and they were employed in no earthly labour, i 

 They were therefore regarded as peculiarly sacred. 



That ceremonies like " the old tup " or " the old horse " 

 were of a magical nature may be inferred from the fact that 

 they were sternly prohibited by Christian law-givers and moral- 

 ists. Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury', in his Pcnileniial, 

 forbade the practice of going about at Christmas dressed up 

 like a young stag or an old woman, clad in the skins of 

 animals, or wearing beasts' heads, and he declared that those 

 who changed themselves into the forms of animals were to do 

 penance for three years, because the thing was devilish.- 



Such heathenish practices were not confined to England, and 

 in the fourth centur}' we find St. Augustine denouncing them 

 in a sermon. 



"If," he says, "you still observe that people perform that 

 very foul disgrace of the young hind or stag, chastise them 

 so severely that they may repent of having done the impious 

 act."'^ In the life of St. Eligius we have this prohibition : 

 " Let nobody on the kalends of January make abominable and 

 ridiculous things^ — old women, or young stags, or games." 

 Again, these practices were forbidden by the Council of 

 Auxerre, which declared that " it is unlawful on the kalends 

 of January to perform with an old woman, or a young stag, 

 or to observe devilish handsels." 



It will be noticed that a ram's head, and not a stag's head, 

 is used in North Derbyshire, possibly because stags' horns 



1 Tacitus, Germania, 9, 10. See more on this subject in Grimm, 

 Deutsche Mythologie (Eng. trans.), p. 658, seqq. 



2 " Si quis in kalendas Januarii in cervulo aut vetula vadit, id est in 

 ferarum habitus se communicant, et vestiuntur pellibus pecudum, et 

 assumunt capita bestiarium ; qui vero taliter in ferinas species se trans- 

 formant, iii. annos poeniteant ; quia hoc daemonicum est." — Thorpe's 

 Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, ii. 34. 



^ " Si adhuc agnoscatis aliquos illam sordidissimam turpitudinem de 

 hinnula vel cervula exercere, ita durissime castigate, ut eos poeniteat rem 

 sacrilegam commisisse." — Serm. de Tempore, 211;. 



■* " Nullus in kalend. Januarii nefanda et ridiculosa, vetulas, aut 

 cervulos, aut jotticos faciant." — Vita S. Eligii, lib. 2., cap. 4. 



'"Non licet kalendis Januarii vetula aut cervulo facere, vel strenas 

 diabolicas observare, etc." — Concil. Antissiod. can. 2. All these passages 

 are quoted from the last edition of Du Cange. 



