Deer's antlers, there
can be little doubt, were placed in the halls of our forefathers, a
votive offering to the Diana of the Scandinavian Pantheon; as it was the
custom in like manner to ornament the temples with the heads of
sacrificial victims in the Greek and Roman worship. The eagerness of our
sportsmen for the "brush," as the first trophy in the chase, has in all
probability originated from the same propitiatory notion.
Few would expect to meet with fragments of the worship of Juno in the
racing of country girls for an inner garment, and the hunting of the pig
with his tail greased; yet practised, but rapidly becoming obsolete, in
wakes and other pastimes from Scotland to the Land's End.
Thus far we have examined tradition by the test of positive experience.
There is still a gleaning of poetry which might be culled, in some few
districts, from the "lyre of the unlettered muse." There are songs
scattered up and down our own and the neighbouring counties among the
population least affected by the spread of literature which are of great
antiquity, and are not to be found in any books or writings now extant.
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