44 WOMAN AS WITCH 



Catholic Church. Walpurg is represented with an oil 

 flask in her hand. In Bavaria there is an old chapel 

 at Kaufering to Walpurg. At this chapel the folk 

 say health offerings used to be made to idols in the 

 old days, and in a neighbouring building the old 

 plague cars were preserved. Walpurg is thus associ- 

 ated with a being who once protected the people from 

 disease. The dog is peculiarly sacred to Walpurg, and 

 she cures the bite of mad dogs. Thus the dog, the token 

 of fertility, is sacred to her as to Holle and Frick. She 

 carries three ears of corn in her hand the symbol of 

 the goddess of agricultural fertility. On Walpurgistag 

 there is a procession in the Frankenwald which opens 

 with the Walber, a man clothed with straw ; there is a 

 dance round the Walber tree a symbolic driving out of 

 winter and a heralding of spring. In Lower Austria 

 the harvest days are especially consecrated to Walpurg. 

 She then goes through all the fields and gardens with a 

 spindle blessing them. Like the witches, she brings in 

 spring, and by dancing makes the fields fertile. 



We have already noted that the great common meals 

 of the Germans, with their accompanying worship of some 

 goddess of fertility, were not aboHshed by the intro- 

 duction of Christianity. In many places they were 

 converted into a Kirmes or ecclesiastical feast. Such 

 a common meal used to be held at Monheim in a church 

 dedicated to Walpurg. Oxen and swine were carried 

 for this purpose into the church itself. It will be 

 obvious from the above and from the general character 

 of the feastings and dancings on Walpurgisnacht that 

 Walpurg could not have originally represented an 



