152 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 191 1 



dowsed the company with water. On the analogy of a similar 

 group of customs in other parts of the world, it may be suggested 

 that the rite was originally a mimetic charm to produce rain and 

 fructify the crops. 



As an example of the large amount of such interesting 

 material which can be collected by careful local enquiry, I may 

 refer to a very valuable little book written by the Ven. Arch- 

 deacon E. C. Scobell, entitled " Parish Gleanings in Upton St. 

 Leonards." We have to thank the Archdeacon for his kindness 

 in communicating some of the interesting facts which he has 

 collected, at a Meeting of the Club held during the past session. 

 We read of the Cherry Fair, held on the first three Sundays 

 after July 5th, Old Midsummer's Day, which seems to represent 

 one of the primitive seasonal festivals held in various parts of 

 the country at this time of the year : the fight, often ending in 

 blood letting, between two neighbouring villages, in which we 

 recognise the custom of shedding blood at this season to revive 

 the fertilising powers of the earth. At Bristol Fair, held in the 

 Winter, cakes in the form of a pig — the appropriate offering to 

 the earth spirit — are sold. The periodical drumming by the 

 parish band goes back to the old rite of expelling evil spirits 

 by noise, which is a common feature of such observances. 

 The influence of the moon on vegetation, trees and animals is 

 recognised : pigs should be killed under a waxing moon, or the 

 bacon will not " phm " or swell in the pot, wood cut at this 

 time lasts longer, seeds then sown prosper, trees grafted are 

 more productive — all instances of mimetic magic, the belief 

 being that things rise and flourish with the waxing moon, sink 

 and fail as it decreases in size. We meet survivals of the open 

 field system, which had its roots in the organisation of the 

 Aryan village community : and there is a " No Man's Land," 

 a survival of the dedication of a patch of the virgin forest from 

 which the trees were never removed, which served for a horne 

 for the ejected, vagrant spirits of the fell and wood who had 

 to fly when disturbed by the woodman's axe or the plough 

 share. The beating of the bounds reminds us of the old custom 

 of making a sacred circle round the homestead to bar the entry 

 of foreign malignant spirits. All these curious survivals of 

 primitive rites and practices collected in a single parish remind 



