Catholic Church grew more and more "respectable," but traces of him
are to be found in the eighteenth century at Lyons and Rheims; and at
Sens, even in the nineteenth, the choir-boys used to play at being
bishops on Innocents' Day and call their "archbishop" _ane_--a memory
this of the old _asinaria festa_.{27} In Denmark a vague trace of him
was retained in the nineteenth century in a children's game. A boy was
dressed up in a white shirt, and seated on a chair, and the children sang
a verse beginning, "Here we consecrate a Yule-bishop," and offered him
nuts and apples.{28}

|309| |310| |311|

CHAPTER XIV

ST. STEPHEN'S, ST. JOHN'S, AND HOLY INNOCENTS' DAYS

Horse Customs of St. Stephen's Day--The Swedish St. Stephen--St.
John's Wine--Childermas and its Beatings.

The three saints' days immediately following Christmas--St. Stephen's
(December 26), St. John the Evangelist's (December 27), and the Holy
Innocents' (December 28)--have still various folk-customs associated with
them, in some cases purely secular, in others hallowed by the Church.

ST. STEPHEN'S DAY.

In Tyrolese churches early in the morning of St. Stephen's Day there
takes place a consecration of water and of salt brought by the people.
The water is used by the peasants to sprinkle food, barns, and fields in
order to avert the influence of witches and evil spirits, and bread
soaked in it is given to the cattle when they are driven out to pasture
on Whit Monday. The salt, too, is given to the beasts, and the peasants
themselves partake of it before any important journey like a pilgrimage.
Moreover when a storm is threatening some is thrown into the fire as a
protection against hail.{1}

The most striking thing about St. Stephen's Day, however, is its
connection with horses. St. Stephen is their patron; in England in former
times they were bled on his festival in the belief that it would benefit
them,{2} and the custom is still continued in some parts of Austria.{3}
In Tyrol it is the custom not only to |312| bleed horses on St.
Stephen's Day, but also to give them consecrated salt and bread or oats
and barley.{4}

In some of the Carinthian valleys where horse-breeding is specially
carried on, the young men ride into the village on their unsaddled
steeds, and a race is run four or five times round the church, while the
priest blesses the animals, sprinkling them with holy water and
exorcizing them.{5}

Similar customs are or w