Figs. 159 to 163.—Channel Islands. From Akerman.
Figs. 164 to 167.—British. From Akerman.
It is not improbable that this young sprig was known as the Little Leaf Man, for in Thuringia as soon as the trees began to bud out, the children used to assemble on a Sunday and dress one of their playmates with shoots and sprigs: he was covered so thoroughly as to be rendered blind, whereupon two of his companions, taking him by the hand lest he should stumble, led him dancing and singing from home to home. Amor, like Homer, was reputed blind, and the what-nots on Fig. 167 may possibly be leaves, the symbols of the living, loving Elf, or Life—“this senior-junior, giant-dwarf Dan Cupid”.
It was practically a universal pagan custom to celebrate the return of Spring by carrying away and destroying a rude idol of the old Dad or Death:—
Now carry we Death out of the village,
The new Summer into the village,
Welcome, dear Summer,
Green little corn.