k out.[355] At Braunroede, in the Harz Mountains,
it was the custom to burn squirrels in the Easter bonfire.[356] In the
Altmark, bones were burned in it.[357]

[The Easter fires in Bavaria; the burning of Judas; burning the Easter
Man.]

Further south the Easter fires are, or used to be, lit in many districts
of Bavaria. Thus on Easter Monday in some parts of Middle Franken the
schoolboys collect all the old worn-out besoms they can lay hands on,
and march with them in a long procession to a neighbouring height. When
the first chime of the evening bell comes up from the dale they set fire
to the brooms, and run along the ridges waving them, so that seen from
below the hills appear to be crested with a twinkling and moving chain
of fire.[358] In some parts of Upper Bavaria at Easter burning arrows or
discs of wood were shot from hill-tops high into the air, as in the
Swabian and Swiss customs already described.[359] At Oberau, instead of
the discs, an old cart-wheel was sometimes wrapt in straw, ignited, and
sent rolling and blazing down the mountain. The lads who hurled the
discs received painted Easter eggs from the girls.[360] Near Forchheim,
in Upper Franken, a straw-man called the Judas used to be burned in the
churchyards on Easter Saturday. The whole village contributed wood to
the pyre on which he perished, and the charred sticks were afterwards
kept and planted in the fields on Walpurgis Day (the first of May) to
preserve the wheat from blight and mildew.[361] About a hundred years
ago or more the custom at Althenneberg, in Upper Bavaria, used to be as
follows. On the afternoon of Easter Saturday the lads collected wood,
which they piled in a cornfield, while in the middle of the pile they
set up a tall wooden cross all swathed in straw. After the evening
service they lighted their lanterns at the consecrated candle in the
church, and ran with them at full speed to the pyre, each striving to
get there first. The first to arrive set fire to the heap. No woman or
girl might come near the bonfire, but they were allowed to watch it from
a distance. As the flames rose the men and lads rejoiced and made merry,
shouting, "We are burning the Judas!" Two of them had to watch the
glowing embers the whole night long, lest people should come and steal
them. Next morning at sunrise they carefully collected the ashes, and
threw them into the running water of the Roeten brook. The man who had
been the first to reach the pyre