Note 1384 — Chapter XVI · GUILD FOOLS AND COURT FOOLS

Douce, pl. 3; cf. Leber, in Rigollot, lxi. 164, quoting the proverb ‘pisa in utre perstrepentia’ and a statement of Savaron, Traité contre les Masques (1611), that at Clermont in Auvergne men disguised ‘en Fols’ ran through the streets at Christmas ‘tenant des masses à la main, farcies de paille ou de bourre, en forme de braiette, frappant hommes et femmes.’ I suppose the bauble, like the hood, was originally part of the sacrificial exuviae and the marotte a sophistication of it.