The Frankish
custom is thus described by a writer of the sixteenth century: "At
Mid-Lent, the season when the church bids us rejoice, the young
people of my native country make a straw image of Death, and
fastening it to a pole carry it with shouts to the neighbouring
villages. By some they are kindly received, and after being
refreshed with milk, peas, and dried pears, the usual food of that
season, are sent home again. Others, however, treat them with
anything but hospitality; for, looking on them as harbingers of
misfortune, to wit of death, they drive them from their boundaries
with weapons and insults." In the villages near Erlangen, when the
fourth Sunday in Lent came around, the peasant girls used to dress
themselves in all their finery with flowers in their hair. Thus
attired they repaired to the neighbouring town, carrying puppets
which were adorned with leaves and covered with white cloths. These
they took from house to house in pairs, stopping at every door where
they expected to receive something, and singing a few lines in which
they announced that it was Mid-Lent and that they were about to
throw Death into the water.
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