Note 81.1 — Chapter XVIII · THE RESCUE OF ANDROMEDA: ITS RELATION TO HUMAN SACRIFICES.

Passing over a number of similar observances in German and Slavonic lands, I need only mention the “Funeral of Kostroma” as celebrated in Russia on Saint Peter’s day, the 29th June. “In the Murom district, Kostroma was represented by a straw figure dressed in woman’s clothes and flowers. This was laid in a trough and carried with songs to the bank of a lake or river. Here the crowd divided into two sides, of which the one attacked and the other defended the figure. At last the assailants gained the day, stripped the figure of its dress and ornaments, trod the straw of which it was made under foot, and flung it into the stream, while the defenders of the figure hid their faces in their hands, and pretended to bewail the death of Kostroma.” Elsewhere a maiden plays the part of Kostroma. She is treated with reverence, carried to the brink of a stream and there bathed.81.1 In some Swabian villages, where the Carnival Fool is represented by a living man, he is treated less gently, being at last thrown into the water.81.2