in the schools without a word of reproof, and the children
were wont to burn their master's rod.{58}

In the neighbourhood of Antwerp children go early to school on St.
Thomas's Day, and lock the master out, until he promises to treat them
with ale or other drink. After this they buy a cock and hen, which are
allowed to escape and have to be caught by the boys or the girls
respectively. The girl who catches the hen is called "queen," the boy who
gets the cock, "king." Elsewhere in Belgium children lock out their
parents, and servants their masters, while schoolboys bind their teacher
to his chair and carry him over to the inn. There he has to buy back his
liberty by treating his scholars with punch and cakes. Instead of the
chase for the fowls, it was up to 1850 the custom in the Ardennes for the
teacher to give the children hens and let them chop the heads off.{59}
Some pagan sacrifice no doubt lies at the root of this barbarous
practice, which has many parallels in the folk-lore of western and
southern Europe.{60}

As for schoolboys' larks with their teachers, the custom of "barring out
the master" existed in England, and was practised before Christmas{61}
as well as at other times of the year, notably Shrove Tuesday. At
Bromfield in Cumberland on Shrove Tuesday there was a regular siege, the
school doors were strongly barricaded within, and the boy-defenders were
armed with pop-guns. If the master won, heavy tasks were imposed, but if,
as more often happened, he was defeated in his efforts to regain his
authority, he had to make terms with the boys as to the hours of work and
play.{62}

St. Thomas's Eve is in certain regions one of the uncanniest nights in
the year. In some Bohemian villages the saint is believed to drive about
at midnight in a chariot of fire. In the churchyard there await him all
the dead men whose name is Thomas; they help him to alight and accompany
him to the churchyard cross, which glows red with supernatural radiance.
There St. Thomas kneels and prays, and then rises to bless his namesakes.
This done, he vanishes beneath the cross, and each Thomas returns to his
grave. The saint here seems to have taken over |225| the character of
some pagan god, who, like the Teutonic Odin or Woden, ruled the souls of
the departed. In the houses the people listen with awe for the sound of
his chariot, and when it is heard make anxious prayer to him for
protection from all ill. Before retiring to rest the h