[451] F. L. vi. i.
[452] Frazer, iii. 319; Gaidoz, 27; Cortet, 213; Simpson, 221; Bertrand, 68; F. L. xii. 315. The work of Posidonius does not exist, but was possibly used by Caesar, B. G. vi. 15; Strabo, iv. 4. 5; Diodorus, v. 32. Wicker ‘giants’ are still burnt in some French festival-fires. But elsewhere, as in the midsummer shows, such ‘giants’ seem to be images of the agricultural divinities, and it is not clear by what process they came to be burnt and so destroyed. Perhaps they were originally only smoked, just as they were dipped.
[453] Gomme, Ethnology, 137; F. L. ii. 300; x. 101; xii. 217; Vaux, 287; Rhys, C. F. i. 306.
[454] F. L. ii. 302; Rhys, C. F. i. 307. In 1656, bulls were sacrificed near Dingwall (F. L. x. 353). A few additional examples, beyond those here given, are mentioned by N. W. Thomas, in F. L. xi. 247.
[455] 1 N. Q. vii. 353; Gomme, Ethnology, 32; Village Community, 113; Grant Allen, 290. The custom was extinct when it was first described in 1853, and some doubt has recently been thrown upon the ‘altar,’ the ‘struggle’ and other details; cf. Trans. of Devonshire Assn. xxviii. 99; F. L. viii. 287.
[456] 1 N. Q. vii. 353; Gomme, Ethnology, 30; Vaux, 285.
[457] Blount, Jocular Tenures (ed. Beckwith), 281; Dyer, 297.
[458] Dunkin, Hist. of Bicester (1816), 268; P. Manning, in F. L. viii. 313.
[459] P. Manning, in F. L. viii. 310; Dyer, 282.
[460] N. W. Thomas, in F. L. xi. 227; Dyer, 285, 438, 470; Ditchfield, 85, 131.