92. dych.
102. a mong.
FOOTNOTES:
[184] Everriculum fermenti veteris, seu residuæ in Danico orbe cum paganismi tum papismi reliquiæ in apricum prolatæ. "Rogata anus num vera esse crederet quæ canebat, respondit: Me illa in dubium vocaturam averruncet Deus!" Grundtvig, II, 518.
[185] "Staffans-skede, lusus, vel, ut rectius dicam, licentia puerorum agrestium, qui in Festo S. Stephani, equis vecti per villas discurrunt, et cerevisiam in lagenis, ad hoc ipsum præparatis, mendicando ostiatim colligunt:" a dissertation, Upsala, 1734, cited by Bergström in his edition of Afzelius, II, 358, note 28. Skede is gallop, or run, Icelandic skeið (Bergström), Norwegian skeid, skjei. Many copies of the Staffansvisa have been collected: see Bergström's Afzelius, II, 356: and for a description of the custom as practised among Swedes in Finland, with links and lanterns, but no foals, Fagerlund, Anteckningar om Korpo och Houtskärs Socknar, p. 39 ff. Something very similar was known in Holstein: see Schütze, Holsteinsches Idioticon, III, 200, as quoted by Grundtvig, II, 521, note **. From Chambers' Book of Days, II, 763 f, it appears that a custom, called a Stephening, was still existing at the beginning of this century, of the inhabitants of the parish of Drayton Beauchamp, Bucks, paying a visit to the rector on December 26, and lightening his stores of all the bread, cheese and ale they wanted. Chambers, again, in his Popular Rhymes of Scotland, p. 168 f, gives a song closely resembling the Staffansvisa, which was sung before every house on New Year's eve, in Deerness, Orkney, with the same object of stimulating hospitality. Similar practices are known in the Scottish Highlands: see Campbell, Tales of the West Highlands, III, 19, and Chambers, at p. 167 of the Popular Rhymes.
[186] Stephen in all the ballads can be none other than the first martyr, though Ihre, and other Swedes since his day, choose, for their part, to understand a "Stephanum primum Helsingorum apostolum," who certainly did not see the star in the east. The peasantry in Helsingland, we are told, make their saints' day December 26, too, and their St Stephen is a great patron of horses. The misappropriation of the glories of the protomartyr is somewhat transparent.
[187] Grundtvig, whom I chiefly follow here, II, 521-24. In a note on page 521, supplemented at III, 883 e, Grundtvig has collected much interesting evidence of December 26 being the great Horse Day. J. W. Wolf, cited by Grundtvig, II, 524, had said previously: "Nichts im leben des ersten christlichen blutzeugen erinnert auch nur fern an pferde; trotzdem machte das volk ihn zum patron der pferde, und setzte ihn also an die stelle des Fro, dem im Norden, und nicht weniger bei uns, die pferde heilig waren." Beiträge zur deutschen Mythologie, I, 124.
[188] Jean Baptiste Thiers, Traité des Superstitions, etc., 2d ed., Paris, 1697, as cited by Liebrecht, Gervasius von Tilbury, Otia Imperialia, p. 233, No 169, condemns the belief, "qu'il vaut bien mieux ...saigner des chevaux le jour de la fête de S. Estienne qu'à tout autre jour." This may be one of the practices which Thiers had learned of from his reading (see Liebrecht's preface, p. xvii f), but might also have migrated from the east or north into France. Superstitions, like new fashions, are always sure of a hospitable reception, even though they impose a servitude.
[189] From a copy of this collection the story is given in Acta Sanctorum, VI Julii, p. 50, § 202 ff.
[190] Vincent, as pointed out by Professor George Stephens, knew of the miracle of the cock, and tells it at l. 25, c. 64, on the authority of Pietro Damiani. Two Bolognese dining together, one of them carved a cock and dressed it with pepper and sauce. "Gossip," says the other, "you have 'fixed' that cock so that Peter himself could not put him on his legs again." "Peter? No, not Christ himself." At this the cock jumped up, in all his feathers, clapped his wings, crow, and threw the sauce all over the blasphemous pair, whereby they were smitten with leprosy.