We brought the Summer.
And do thou, O holy Marketa,
Give us a good year
For wheat and for rye.”[852]
In other parts of Bohemia they carry Death to the end of the village, singing—
“We carry Death out of the village,
And the New Year into the village.
Dear Spring, we bid you welcome,
Green grass, we bid you welcome.”
Behind the village they erect a pyre, on which they burn the straw figure, reviling and scoffing at it the while. Then they return, singing—