To the top of the tree
is fastened a human figure called the "witch," made of old clothes
and stuffed with gunpowder. At night the whole is set on fire and
boys and girls dance round it, swinging torches and singing rhymes
in which the words "corn in the winnowing-basket, the plough in the
earth" may be distinguished. In Swabia on the first Sunday in Lent a
figure called the "witch" or the "old wife" or "winter's
grandmother" is made up of clothes and fastened to a pole. This is
stuck in the middle of a pile of wood, to which fire is applied.
While the "witch" is burning, the young people throw blazing discs
into the air. The discs are thin round pieces of wood, a few inches
in diameter, with notched edges to imitate the rays of the sun or
stars. They have a hole in the middle, by which they are attached to
the end of a wand. Before the disc is thrown it is set on fire, the
wand is swung to and fro, and the impetus thus communicated to the
disc is augmented by dashing the rod sharply against a sloping
board. The burning disc is thus thrown off, and mounting high into
the air, describes a long fiery curve before it reaches the ground.
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