Beatty—The St. George, or Mummers', Plays. 291 
SUMMER. 
“I am the Summer in white array, 
I am chasing the Winter far, far away.” 
WINTER. 
“I am the Winter in mantle and furs, 
I ? m chasing the Summer o’er hushes and burs.” 
SUMMER. 
“O Winter, your chatter no more! can I stay, 
I’ll kick and I’ll cuff you without delay.” 
Then follows a scuffle between the characters, in which Sum¬ 
mer wins, and turns Winter out of doors. But soon the beaten 
Winter peeps in at the door and says with a humbled and crest¬ 
fallen air: 
“O Summer, dear Summer, I’m under your ban, 
For you are the master and I am your man.” 
To which Summer replies in a peaceable fashion. 1 In the 
Isle of Man the Queem of May and the Queen of Winter en¬ 
gage in a mock battle. 2 
The constant use of leaves or green branches has an import¬ 
ant bearing on the dress of the actors in some of the St. George 
plays. The “armor” is made of tissue paper, and this has 
been supposed by some to represent the scale of the dragon. 
But the contention of Gomme 3 that the “armor” represents 
leaves is almost overwhelmingly proven by a consideration of 
decorations used in the folk ceremonies. In nearly all the 
ceremonies we have described, green branches form an import¬ 
ant part of the dressi, and in some they form a very striking 
feature of the ceremony. On St. George’s day in Oarinthia 
the chief figure is “Green George,” clad in green branchesu 
1 In Frazer, 1. c., vol. 1, pp. 99-101. Others of a similar nature are 
cited in these and the following pages. 
2 L. c., vol. 1, p. 103. 
3 Nature, Dec. 23, 1897. 
