of England, New Edition, by W. Hone (London, 1834), pp. xliii. – xlv.; F. W. Fairholt, Gog and Magog, the Giants in Guildhall (London, 1859), pp. 52-59.
94
F. W. Fairholt, op. cit. pp. 59-61.
95
F. W. Fairholt, op. cit. pp. 61-63.
96
Felix Liebrecht, Des Gervasius von Tilbury Otia Imperialia (Hanover, 1856), pp. 212 sq.; A. de Nore, Coutumes, Mythes, et Traditions des Provinces de France, pp. 354 sq.; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 514.
97
W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, pp. 514, 523.
98
Athenaeum, 24th July 1869, p. 115; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, pp. 515 sq. From a later account we learn that about the year 1890 the custom of lighting a bonfire and dancing round it was still observed at Bagnères de Luchon on Midsummer Eve, but the practice of burning live serpents in it had been discontinued. The fire was kindled by a priest. See Folk-lore, xii. (1901) pp. 315-317.
99
A. Breuil, “Du culte de St. – Jean Baptiste,” Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de Picardie, viii. (1845) pp. 187 sq.; Collin de Plancy, Dictionnaire Infernal (Paris, 1825-1826), iii. 40; A. de Nore, Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de France, pp. 355 sq.; J. W. Wolf, Beiträge zur deutschen Mythologie (Göttingen and Leipsic, 1852-1857), ii. 388; E. Cortet, Essai sur les Fêtes Religieuses (Paris, 1867), pp. 213 sq.; Laisnel de la Salle, Croyances et Légendes du Centre de la France (Paris, 1875), i. 82; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 515.
100
Tessier, in Mémoires et Dissertations publiés par la Société Royale des Antiquaires de France, v. (1823) p. 388; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 515.
101
Alexandre Bertrand, La Religion des Gaulois (Paris, 1897), p. 407.
102
J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,4 i. 519; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 515.
103
W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 515; Montanus, Die deutschen Volksfesten, Volksbräuche und deutscher Volksglaube (Iserlohn, n. d.), p. 34.
104
W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 515.
105
A. Meyrac, Traditions, Coutumes, Légendes, et Contes des Ardenness (Charleville, 1890), p. 68.
Marie Trevelyan, Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales (London, 1909), pp. 214, 301 sq.; Ulrich Jahn, Hexenwesen und Zauberei in Pommern (Breslau, 1886), p. 7; id., Volkssagen aus Pommern und Rügen (Stettin, 1886), p. 353, No. 446.
110
See above, vol. i. p. 315 n. 1.
111
The treatment of magic and witchcraft by the Christian Church is described by W. E. H. Lecky, History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe, New Edition (London, 1882), i. 1 sqq. Four hundred witches were burned at one time in the great square of Toulouse (W. E. H. Lecky, op. cit. ii. 38). Writing at the beginning of the eighteenth century Addison observes: “Before I leave Switzerland I cannot but observe, that the notion of witchcraft reigns very much in this country. I have often been tired with accounts of this nature from very sensible men, who are most of them furnished with matters of fact which have happened, as they pretend, within the compass of their own knowledge. It is certain there have been many executions on this account, as in the canton of Berne there were some put to death during my stay at Geneva. The people are so universally infatuated with the notion, that if a cow falls sick, it is ten to one but an old woman is clapt up in prison for it, and if the poor creature chance to think herself a witch, the whole country is for hanging her up without mercy.” See The Works of Joseph Addison, with notes by R. Hurd, D.D. (London, 1811), vol. ii., “Remarks on several Parts of Italy,” p. 196.
112
Strabo, iv. 4. 4, p. 197. See the passage quoted above, p. 32, note 2.
113
W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, pp. 532-534.
114
Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, i. 270-305.
115
Some of the serpents worshipped by the old Prussians lived in hollow oaks, and as oaks were sacred among the Prussians, the serpents may possibly have been regarded as genii of the trees. See Simon Grunau, Preussischer Chronik, herausgegeben von Dr. M. Perlbach, i. (Leipsic, 1876) p. 89; Christophor Hartknoch, Alt und Neues Preussen (Frankfort and Leipsic, 1684), pp. 143, 163. Serpents played an important part in the worship of Demeter, but we can hardly assume that they were regarded as embodiments of the goddess. See Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, ii. 17 sq.
116
For example, in China the spirits of plants are thought to assume the form of snakes oftener than that of any other animal. Chinese literature abounds with stories illustrative of such transformations. See J. J. M. de Groot, The Religious System of China, iv. (Leyden, 1901) pp. 283-286. In Siam the spirit of the takhien tree is said to appear sometimes in the shape of a serpent and sometimes in that of a woman. See Adolph Bastian, Die Voelker des Oestlichen Asien, iii. (Jena, 1867) p. 251. The vipers that haunted the balsam trees in Arabia were regarded by the Arabs as sacred to the trees (Pausanias, ix. 28. 4); and once in Arabia, when a wood hitherto untouched by man was burned down to make room for the plough, certain white snakes flew out of it with loud lamentations. No doubt they were supposed to be the dispossessed spirits of the trees. See J. Wellhausen, Reste Arabischen Heidentums2 (Berlin, 1897), pp. 108 sq.
117
J. L. M. Noguès, Les mœurs d'autrefois en Saintonge et en Aunis (Saintes, 1891), p. 71. Amongst the superstitious practices denounced by the French writer J. B. Thiers in the seventeenth century was “the gathering of certain herbs between the Eve of St. John and the Eve of St. Peter and keeping them in a bottle to heal certain maladies.” See J. B. Thiers, Traité des Superstitions (Paris, 1679), p. 321.
118
A. de Nore, Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de France (Paris and Lyons, 1846), pp. 150 sq.
119
Jules Lecœur, Esquisses du Bocage Normand (Condé-sur-Noireau, 1883-1887), ii. 8, 244; Amélie Bosquet, La Normandie romanesque et merveilleuse (Paris and Rouen, 1845), p. 294.
120
De la Loubere, Du Royaume de Siam (Amsterdam, 1691), i. 202. The writer here mentions an Italian mode of divination practised on Midsummer Eve. People washed their
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