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Thus the demons are driven out step by step. As
soon as this is done a consecrated rope is fastened round the
circuit of the city walls to prevent the banished demons from
returning. The rope is made of tough couch-grass and is painted in
alternate stripes of red, yellow, and blue.
Annual expulsions of demons, witches, or evil influences appear to
have been common among the heathen of Europe, if we may judge from
the relics of such customs among their descendants at the present
day. Thus among the heathen Wotyaks, a Finnish people of Eastern
Russia, all the young girls of the village assemble on the last day
of the year or on New Year's Day, armed with sticks, the ends of
which are split in nine places. With these they beat every corner of
the house and yard, saying, "We are driving Satan out of the
village." Afterwards the sticks are thrown into the river below the
village, and as they float down stream Satan goes with them to the
next village, from which he must be driven out in turn. In some
villages the expulsion is managed otherwise.


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