[496] Mrs. Gomme, s. v. Oranges and Lemons.
[497] Mrs. Gomme, s. vv.
[498] Dyer, 6, 481. ‘Stang’ is a word, of Scandinavian origin, for ‘pole’ or ‘stake.’ The Scandinavian nið-stöng (scorn-stake) was a horse’s head on a pole, with a written curse and a likeness of the man to be ill-wished (Vigfusson, Icel. Dict. s. v. níð).
[499] Cf. with Mr. Barrett’s account, Northall, 253; Ditchfield, 178; Northern F. L. 29; Julleville, Les Com. 205; also Thomas Hardy’s Mayor of Casterbridge, and his The Fire at Tranter Sweatley’s (Wessex Poems, 201). The penalty is used by schoolboys (Northern F. L. 29) as well as villagers.
[500] Grenier, 375; Ducange, s. v. Charivarium, which he defines as ‘ludus turpis tinnitibus et clamoribus variis, quibus illudunt iis, qui ad secundas convolant nuptias.’ He refers to the statutes of Melun cathedral (1365) in Instrumenta Hist. Eccl. Melud. ii. 503. Cf. Conc. of Langres (1404) ‘ludo quod dicitur Chareuari, in quo utuntur larvis in figura daemonum, et horrenda ibidem committuntur’; Conc. of Angers (1448), c. 12 (Labbé, xiii. 1358) ‘pulsatione patellarum, pelvium et campanarum, eorum oris et manibus sibilatione, instrumento aeruginariorum, sive fabricantium, et aliarum rerum sonorosarum, vociferationibus tumultuosis et aliis ludibriis et irrisionibus, in illo damnabili actu (qui cariuarium, vulgariter charivari, nuncupatur) circa domos nubentium, et in ipsorum detestationem et opprobrium post eorum secundas nuptias fieri consuetum, &c.’
[501] Cf. ch. xvi, and Leber, ix. 148, 169; Julleville, Les Com. 205, 243. In 1579 a regular jeu was made by the Dijon Mère-Folle of the chevauchée of one M. Du Tillet. The text is preserved in Bibl. Nat. MS. 24039 and analysed by M. Petit de Julleville.
[502] In Berks a draped horse’s head is carried, and the proceeding known as a Hooset Hunt (Ditchfield, 178).
[503] Ducange, s. v. Asini caudam in manu tenens.
[504] Julleville, Les Com. 207.
[505] So on Ilchester Meads, where the proceeding is known as Mommets or Mommicks (Barrett, 65).