24 WOMAN AS WITCH 



men at peasant festivals in parts of Germany. Both 

 seem closely connected with the worship of a female 

 deity, whose symbols are those of the hearth and primi- 

 tive agriculture. When we remember that the great 

 witch dances to which students, and even doctors, of 

 Tubingen used to go out were especially held on the eve 

 of the first of May, how suggestive is the statement that 

 "people of quality in the old days used to go from 

 London to dance in the villages of Essex on May Day ! " 

 The close connection between Walpurgisnacht, the 

 eve of the first of May, and May Day itself must ever be 

 kept in view. On the latter day we have the May 

 queen and her maidens decorating the tree or well of 

 the mother-goddess ; on the former night we have a 

 distorted image of the May-Day ceremonies, truer in 

 some respects, all the same, to the old mother-age civil- 

 isation. Links between the two will be found in sagas 

 which make the witches beautiful maidens with flowing 

 robes, dancing and feasting to the most entrancing 

 music. Such sagas are not uncommon, particularly in 

 Westphalia. But perhaps a closer link may be found in 

 the custom of choosing maidens on Walpurgisnacht as 

 sweethearts for the year. This occurs in the Lahn 

 district, and is termed the Mailehn, or May-fee. The 

 youths march out on this night with cracking of whips and 

 with song. Then one of their number stands upon a hillock 

 or stone, and calls out the names of maid and youth 

 pair by pair, adding : " In this year to wed." Each pair 

 must then keep together at all the dances of the year ; 



went about on hobby-horses collecting food for a common meal, and were termed 

 Huren. In the evening there was a great drinking bout, feasting and dancing. 

 In Beverley Minster on one of the misericords is depicted a man on a hobby-horse. 



