The mixture was then distributed to
shepherds, and used by them for fumigating their flocks.
In this ceremony the decoration of the horse's head with a string of
loaves, and the alleged object of the sacrifice, namely, to procure
a good harvest, seem to indicate that the horse was killed as one of
those animal representatives of the corn-spirit of which we have
found so many examples. The custom of cutting off the horse's tail
is like the African custom of cutting off the tails of the oxen and
sacrificing them to obtain a good crop. In both the Roman and the
African custom the animal apparently stands for the corn-spirit, and
its fructifying power is supposed to reside especially in its tail.
The latter idea occurs, as we have seen, in European folk-lore.
Again, the practice of fumigating the cattle in spring with the
blood of the horse may be compared with the practice of giving the
Old Wife, the Maiden, or the _clyack_ sheaf as fodder to the horses
in spring or the cattle at Christmas, and giving the Yule Boar to
the ploughing oxen or horses to eat in spring.
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