WOMAN AS WITCH 39 



frequently represented in the legends as spinning ; they 

 come to weddings and spin ; they punish idle spinsters, 

 and their worship is closely connected with the distaff 

 as symbol. Another phase of their worship is connected 

 with the village spinning-room and the licentiousness 

 which then and now surrounds that institution. But to 

 enter into the folklore and practice of the spinning- room 

 and its fossils in still more ill-famed resorts might in- 

 deed throw much light on the mother-age, but it would 

 lead us too far from our present subject of witchcraft. 



I have endeavoured to interpret various obscure 

 witch-customs as fossils of an ancient woman civilisation, 

 especially as fossils of its religious worship, reflecting 

 as all religion the social habits and modes of thought of 

 the society in which it originated. We shall see these 

 phases of the old life still further emphasised if we note 

 a few a very few of the ceremonies which occur in 

 Germany on Walpurgisnacht, May Day or Midsummer 

 Day times especially associated with witches and the 

 old feminine deities. In the Eussian Baltic provinces 

 we find that there are festivals on the first of May with 

 torch or candle processions comparable with the witch 

 gatherings and the Friesian marriage ; that a May king 

 is chosen, who does reverence to the May queen, 1 and 

 that a free feast is given to the women and maidens. 

 As usual, there is music and dancing in the even- 

 ing exactly as at witch - dances. In Dantzig there 

 is dancing on the Fayusberg, possibly the fairy's 

 hill. In Denmark we find processions with choral 



1 The May - Day ceremonies here closely approach the Mylitta feast at 

 Babylon ; see Essay XL 



