authority. Even the older forms of the tradition accounting for the supposed institution of "throwing the hood" can scarcely be accepted as having any historical foundation; unless, indeed, some mishap occurring to the headgear of one of the Mowbray family resulted in a bequest for the purpose of keeping up an old and popular diversion, or unless it was the Mowbray family which introduced this survival of hoary nature-worship into the Isle of Axholme. The latter supposition is, it may be said, very unlikely, for the determined strife of the different townships or hamlets for the possession of the hood is connected with ideas of which the true meaning had become obscure long before any Norman invader had become over-lord by the Trent.
Whether the word hood is really, in this instance, a synonym for couvre-chef has yet to be settled by philologists;[1] but the original import of the game itself is not difficult to explain. Very similar amusements are, as can easily be proved, familiar to French folklorists, who recognise in them a continuance of archaic sun-worship, long after the early significance of the ceremonial practice has passed out of memory. The course of the hood through the air once represented the course of the sun through the upper heavens; and the struggle to gain possession of it sprang, no doubt, from the idea that it would secure favourable weather to its owners.
The remarkable and distinguishing feature of the Isle of Axholme sport—the characteristic conclusion which differentiates it from its French analogues—is the "smoking of the fool." This termination shows that it is closely allied with the varied customs and observances examined and
- ↑ One suggestion regarding the word is, that it has affinity with the Hood ot Robin flood, and the Höðr of Norse God-lore: Robin Hood being a type of spring-tide sunlight, or the reviving energy of nature; while Hoðr, the blind deity who slew Baldr, the god of summer sunlight, is supposed to represent winter, or the sun in its wintry aspect.
