THE DANCERS

87

and of the handle, which may be separate. The tube is to be filled
with gunpowder or a substitute in such a way as to produce several
shots one after the other; additional shots may be prepared and
carried along; the whole affair is to be covered with leaves ("mit
grunen Sachen"), as in our miniatures.
Shooting and fire-throwing in festivals has a history from the
early Middle Ages, when "wild-fire" was thrown, and has persisted
until today in the form of burning discs and torches thrown into
the air, the shooting of firearms, and brilliant pyrotechnical dis-
plays.181 In Nuremberg the police had forbidden the custom as
early as 1469, under pain of a heavy fine:
Auch so gebieten wir, das hie nyemand, wer der sey, den anndern
hinfiir weder mit lohe, aschen, vedern oder annder unsawbrikeit, wie
die genant ist, weder auff der gassen oder in den hewsern werffen oder
sust domit belaidigen sol, bey der pub v pfund newer haller.. .182
Another order was issued by the Council in 1513: "das sie under-
lassen, mit feuer, aschen oder loe zu werfen."183 In English pag-
eants and royal entries the throwing of "wyld fire" was well-
known,184 and the "whifflers" wielded "clubbs of fireworks" to
clear the crowds.185 An illustration of the Wild Men who ran ahead
of the pageant shows the "squybes" they carried to be very similar
to the "club" of the Schembartldufer.186 There is apparently no
indication that the Ldufer used their leafy club in any other way
than as a firework, shooting off a succession of flashes like a
Roman candle; whether it represents a relic of twigs or leaves used
originally for beating to instil fertility must remain a matter of
speculation.187
181 Cf. Frazer, X, chap, iv, "The Fire-Festivals of Europe," especially pp. io6ff.,
116, 270; further Hwb. d. d. Aberglaubens, VII, 1064. A purificatory purpose is
generally connected with the custom today.
182 Baader, p. 93. The devils in the illustrations to J. Ruof's Weingartenspiel throw
fire from bellows, cf. Herrmann (Forschungen), Abb. 113.
183 Hampe (Theaterwesen), p. 230, Nr. 31.
184 Cf. Withington, I, 40.
185 Ibid., p. 72.
186 Cf. J. Strutt, Sports and Pastimes of the People of England (London: T.
Bensley, 1810), Pl. XXXII, "Pageantry," and p. 334, n. h): "From Bate: Mysteries
of Art and Nature, London, 1635"; cited below as "Strutt." The illustration is
reproduced in Withington, I, opp. p. 74.
187 By the method of conjecture the "club" of the Ldufer could be related to what
Reich, I, 94, has called "der mimische Priigelholz," the cudgel of the mimes; or to
the marotte of the fools, the "batte" of Arlecchino, or the bladder still used by