230 SPORT, TRAVEL, AND ADVENTURE 



church steeple tolls that is the signal for the pro- 

 cession to start. (The bell, by the way, was presented 

 to Echternach by the Emperor Maximilian in 1512 

 in remembrance of his pilgrimage to St. Willibrord's 

 tomb in that year. It weighs about three and a half 

 tons.) The dancers begin to fall into line. At the 

 head are the clergy, chanting, and following them comes 

 the long file of dancers, singers, praying pilgrims, and 

 musicians in no settled order, the musicians being 

 scattered along the whole length of the procession. 

 On the bridge the dance begins, opened by a number 

 of boys. It is a curious movement to the accompani- 

 ment of a polka- like tune, played on a great variety 

 of instruments. 



The movement consists of taking five steps forwards 

 and then three backwards ; the motion is slow and 

 sedate, and it is a most curious sight to see the sway- 

 ing procession wending its way slowly through the 

 streets. The distance to be covered, from the bridge 

 to the Basilica, is scarcely three-quarters of a mile, 

 yet it takes five or six hours for the entire procession 

 to pass over the route. Until a few years ago up 

 to the time of the removal of St. Willibrord's tomb 

 to the Basilica the dancers proceeded to the church 

 of St. Peter and St. Paul, where the remains of the 

 saint lay. To reach that church a flight of sixty steps 

 must be climbed, and to climb it in the way men- 

 tioned was certainly a test of physical endurance after 

 five or six hours of * dancing:.' In 1906, however, 

 the tomb of the saint was removed to the Basilica, 

 and there the procession now comes to its end, with- 

 out any such final feat of strength. The dancers pass 

 before the tomb, place their offerings before it, and 





