I have Cawte here before me. The illustration on p. 211 is a 1913 reproduction of an engraving dated 1835; the original is now missing. The drawing shows the oss in a slightly different form than its current one: possibly oblong instead of round, with a convex top (rather than flat), and the man who carries the oss wears a conical hat, rather than the full mask with peaked head covering of more recent osses. The oss is accompanied by a fife and drum (these were standard in many European folk festivals and celebrations during the 18th and 19th centuries), and two men in the picture are firing pistols into the air.
There is a maypole in the background, but it looks more like what we call in Italian "l'albero di Cuccagna:" there are prizes or flags on top, and the point is to get to the top first and claim the prize. These, too, were standard in many European folk festivals before 1900. There seem to be two men trying to climb it. Whatever it is, it's not the "dancing-around-the-maypole-weaving ribbons" type of maypole that is part of the Berkeley NROOGD celebration.
BB,
Sabina
---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2006 19:00:34 -0500
>From: Amy Hale <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: FYI--*Oss! Oss! Wee Oss!* Online
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
> Jason tells me that the reproduction in question is
> in Cawte is on page 211 and that the illustration is
> dated c.1835. Now he also says that this is
> reproduced in Rawe and this may be the source of the
> date of the illustration. As I mentioned, all of my
> books are currently packed so I can't look at these
> to verify. Of course, I'd be interested in knowing
> the dates if this turns out to be incorrect.
>
> Best,
> Amy
>
> On 1/24/06, jacqueline simpson
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > Amy Hale wrote:
> > >
> > > There seems to be an illustration of a maypole
> > associated with Padstow
> > > from 1835 in Cawte's Ritual Animal
> Disguise. It
> > clearly hasn't been
> > > integrated into the Oss bit, but it looks like
> its
> > been part of the
> > > May festivities in Padstow for quite sometime.
> > >
>
> I'm puzzled. As far as I can see the Padstow
> illustrations in Cawte's 'Ritual animal Disguise'
> are
> modern photos, taken in the '70s. Cawte does
> mention a
> maypole as part of the current celebrations as he
> had
> witnessed them himself (p. 158), and he does
> conclude
> that the Horse is independent of the May Day
> features,
> and that the latter would be the older (p. 166).
> But I
> don't see the specific date 1835.
>
> Jacqueline
>
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Sabina Magliocco
Associate Professor
Department of Anthropology
California State University
18111 Nordhoff St.
Northridge, CA 91330-8244
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