THE CONTENTS OF THE PASSION-PLAY 381 



familiarity which borders on contempt. In the passion- 

 plays two maids address this disciple in no very flatter- 

 ing terms : " You old bald-pate," " you old traitor," etc., 

 " were you not with him ? " After each denial the cock 

 on the post, a great feature of the stage apparatus, 



calls out : l - 



Gucze gu gu gu ga ! 

 Peter lug lug lug nu da ! 



This scene usually contains the puctpirn, or the game 

 with the blindfolded Christ. It appears to have been 

 a very common children's game in the Middle Ages. 

 One blindfolded child being placed in the centre, the 

 others gather pears from different parts of his body : 

 " The pears are sweet, here by the feet " ; "At the top 

 of the tree are ripe pears, see," and so forth ; each 

 jingle is accompanied by a pull, until the blindfolded 

 child guesses the pear-plucker's name. 2 This game, 

 with every conceivable insult and violence, was played 

 on the blindfolded Christ, and to judge by its frequent 

 occurrence in the plays must have met with much 

 popular approval. Next the interview with Caiaphas 

 follows, which only serves to throw into still greater 

 prominence the supposed brutal passions of the hated 

 Jews. This leads up to the first interview with Pilate. 

 On the character and motives of the Eoman com- 



1 See C, p. 109. The denial scene varies a good deal ; compare F, p. 169 ; 

 K, p. 123, etc. 



2 A jingle possibly for this game will be found in Wolff's Zeitschrift, iv. p. 

 351. As to butz, see Schmeller's Bayerisches Worterbuch, vol. i. p. 316 ; compare 

 Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, 418, and Wunderliorn (ed. Reclam), p. 823. 

 References to pictures of the incident have been given (p. 262). The game is 

 one form of BlindekuJi or blindman's-buff. It is introduced onto the stage also 

 in a farce of Herzog Heinrich Julius (ed. Tittmann, p. 106). 



