Ceremonial Animals of Languedoc and the SinibeletAuthor(s): Violet AlfordSource: Folklore, Vol. 59, No. 4 (Dec., 1948), pp. 184-187Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1256878 .

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COLLECTANEA

CEREMONIAL ANIMALS OF LANGUEDOC AND THE SINIBELET

THE ceremonial Hobby Horse of Languedoc has assumed several shapes and varying dimensions. In Montpellier and villages round it is a lightly made horse-shape into which the man steps so that it encircles his waist. The horse-cloth hangs down below his knees, but leaves him liberty to dance. The head is somewhat heavy, and the animal comes into what 1 have ventured to call the Tourney horse category, to differentiate these from the, I think, more primitive, horse-skull-on-a-pole form like the Mari Lwyd. It is accompanied today by four men dancers; in the eighteenth century we hear of twenty-four with bells on their legs. The present four are lithe young men who dance admirably. At one point in their dance they lie flat on the ground forming a square, the Horse dances round the square and leaps lightly over each in turn. It is a true dance, not merely a processing, and before the animal, dancing backwards, goes the donneur d'avoine carrying oats in a tambourine. The other three bear shoe-smith's implements, a flywhisk and a flag. These characters accom- pany several other Horses in the Pyrenees and along the region. The Montpellier Horse goes out when notable people visit their most beautiful town, and we have historical records of their so doing. De Nore' says they went out in 1389 to honour Charles VI when the ceremonial Danse des Treilles was also performed, in 1503 for the Archduc Philippe, and in 1564 for another Royalty. A. Fabre2 tells us they appeared before Louis XV in 1721 (they apparently went to the Louvre to regale his con- valescence); when the donneur d'avoine was in his place there were twenty- four dancers and two Captains, and the music was hautbois and drums. They all threaded and wound " les m6mes Rigodons que le Chevalet." I do not suppose for one moment the dance was a Rigodon, but that was a fashionable name at the time, so every dance was a Rigodon-just as today every dance is a Farandole. The Dukes of Bourgogne and Berry were present, and the Horse's verses were specially printed for them, in langue d'oc of course.

Dounas de civada au paure chivalet Fasas lou beure quand a set ...

The company danced before President Lebrun just before the war, and in May, when they kindly danced for me in a stable underneath an ancient house in the old town, they were as lively as ever.

There must, of course, be a story to explain their animal to their own satisfaction if to nobody else's. The pseudo-historical tale, very briefly is

1 Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions de France. 1846. 2Histoire de Montpellier. 1897.

184

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Collectanea 185 as follows. Pierre d'Aragon married Marie de Montpellier and left her- despised her they say. Her townspeople, all on the side of their local Lady, arranged that the King should meet his mistress at a Castel not far from the town, and surreptitiously introduced their Lady instead. In the morning her husband had again fallen under her charm, and carried her back to Montpellier on his horse, to the great delight of the schemers. This was in 1207, and the birth of an heir was facilitated by " 12 Consuls, des Abb's, des Prieurs, I'Officiel de l'Ev6que ainsi que 12 dames et demoiselles un cierge a la main, avec deux notaires," who altogether prayed all night.3 To celebrate the birth the ride was commemorated in 1239 with a horse-skin stuffed with straw, which the people made dance. The lapse of 32 years between the event and the commemoration seems somewhat suspect, but this tale is firmly believed and solemnly told when- ever the Chevalet is mentioned.

The other Horse of Languedoc is the Poulain de Pezenas. He is immense, needing eight men to carry him, all entirely hidden under his heavy black cloth. On his back sit two figures, Estien and Estiennette, whose appearance was noted in the Mercure Galant in 1702. This enor- mous Colt is enticed onwards by his donneur d'avoine who dances back- wards, tambourine or sieve of oats in hand. He appears on Shrove Tues- day and for great occasions, and is said to have been made to celebrate a visit of Louis VIII in 1226. So his history is as authentic as that of his little brother of Montpellier.

At Beziers a Camel shows himself in processions. He is as big as the Poulain and very much like him. Indeed I suspect that he too is really a Horse. Both have a strong resemblance to the Wild Mules (Mulaferas) of Catalonia, and these, big and small, were surely once Horses. The Pamplona Horse is known as the Horse-Mule (Zaldiko-Maldiko) showing how easy is the change. At Maze, on the Etang de Thau, an Ox with a peculiarly large head replaces the Horse, but across the Rh6ne in Provence the Chivau Frus still come out in lively companies, an imaginary Madame de Limagne feeding them with chestnuts-a nut possessing strong fertility properties all along the Mediterranean coast of France and Spain. There are also the Loup de Loupien and the Veau de St. Pons, neither of which I could see. The last ceremonial animal of Languedoc is the Donkey of Gignac. Gignac is an ancient town with remains of a medieval castle and town walls, about 30o kilometres north-west of Montpellier. Its patronal feast is Ascension Day, when a fair is held and the Ane de Gignac walks forth. On Ascension Day 1948 I went to witness his performance. It proved to be a very simple one. He appears in the procession to Church, and after the Festal Mass the Cur6 of Gignac blesses the beast. During the afternoon he again comes forth, and spends a long time walking and running amongst the crowd on the fair ground. He possesses a large, clumsy, wooden head painted brown, with the classic snapping jaw of these sort of creatures-such as our Padstow and Minehead Horses, these of Lincolnshire who go with the Plough Jags, and those of Cheshire who go with Soulers and Pace-eggers. The head, although brightly painted,

S A. Fabre, op. cit.

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186 Collectanea looked to me old, late eighteenth-century perhaps. The body is an oblong frame with half-hoops standing up at intervals; over these is thrown a dark blue cloth decorated with tricolour bows, tiny bouquets of flowers and the words Ville de Gignac, R6publique Frangaise. Under this tent, which is about 6 ft. long, run two young men, the blue cloth falls over their human legs below the knees; the first man carries the head of the donkey and clacks the formidable jaws. Dancing backwards in front of the beast came a young man in Languedocian gala dress, white, red beret and waistsash. He carried a small round, flat basket with a few flowers in it, which obviously should have been the tambourine of the donneur d'avoine, the tambourine itself taking the place of a sieve. He danced pretty well, and the group made a gay though extremely odd picture coming up the street. The band walked behind and consisted of an accordion, saxophone, cornet, fife and drum. They played a nondescript tune during which the creature walked decorously, then changed to the gay Bon Voyage, Monsieur Dumollet. At this the Donkey broke into a lumbering run, charging into the crowd and seizing people with his jaws. I imprudently patted him, whereupon he gripped my arm quite painfully. He presently disappeared whence he came, but the crowd rushed to the raised end of the fair ground and into the road below. After the usual interminable wait of the South, a drum beat was heard. Men came out of a house, cleared a space on the road and there threw down a quantity of large and rotten roots. Out came three young men in gala white, two with well-stuffed cushions strapped on their backs, one with a tin hat of helmet shape painted with the R.A.F. red, white and blue circles. I could not see whether it was a real R.A.F. helmet or not. He wore a large pad at the back of his neck and a wad of cotton stuff was clenched between his teeth. In his hand was a sword with a rubber tongue about three inches wide on its point.4 The drum beat went on and on. The first-cushioned man bent over, the helmetted man hit him three times with the rubber-ended sword. The second young man took his place, and he also received three tremendous whacks on the cushion. In their turn they stood up, picked up roots and flung them with all their might at the back of the helmetted man. So great was the force, that although he braced himself, he shuddered all over under the impact. The cotton in his mouth was then seen to be a necessary precaution. This attack, like the drum beat, went on and on until the helmeted man had had enough, when he turned, scowling upon his attackers. The whole performance was repeated several times, all in turn showing temper and indulging in scowls in the manner of Southerners when they are hurt. Yet they must have volunteered, therefore the act must be of importance to them. This extraordinary performance is slow, solemn and dull, but watched with avidity. They call it the Sinibelet.

The local explanation is that the Donkey, which bears the usual name of Martin, warned the castle of an impending attack by Saracen pirates by braying loudly. These were driven off by a fusillade of roots, and

4 This object has been called a gourdin or cudgel, but it was far too slender for that and to the best of my belief was, at least this year, a sword. V.A.

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Collectanea 187 Martin has been honoured ever since. The people know a verse addressed to him, but I did not hear it sung.

Martin es en dou, Habillat de nou; Martin a pas frech, Habillat d'estrech.

Et zou, zin, zac, I'ase de Gignac. Personally I think the Donkey and the Sinibelet are separate ceremonies. In this country of Horses it seems pretty certain that the Ase is only a degraded Horse. Everything is explained by Moors and Saracens from the Alps to the Atlantic, but some time ago the helmetted man appears to have worn a turban. If so he must be the shrunken remains of a com- pany of Moors, and the ceremony must once have been one of the numer- ous Moriscas found on both sides of the French-Spanish frontier. The word Sinibelet forcibly makes one see simili and belli, or some such corruption from the Latin into langue d'oc, but the cushioned and beaten men lead to the Scapegoat, who appears once at least in a Pyrenean dance. So far has this strange scene departed from what it must once have been that its origin is now very difficult to perceive. It was mentioned in a letter in the possession of Cecil Sharp (probably written to him) by Baring Gould, who gives a date for the Saracen raid on Gignac-A.D. 719, but who does not seem to have witnessed the performance. This letter was written in 19io when the turban was worn, only two combatants men- tioned, and the " fight " said to have taken place in a field.

Beyond this I can only find a faulty description in Itineraires aux Pays d'Oc, by Maurice Chauvet, 1947, and the obliging librarians of the famous Montpellier Library can do no better for me.

VIOLET ALFORD

RE VIEW

MANUEL DE FOLKLORE FRAN?AIS CONTEMPORAIN. By Arnold van Gennep. Volumes I and II. Pps. 830.: 6 diagrams--I7 maps. Paris Editions. Auguste Picard et Cie: 1943 and 1946.

IN the quarterly number of Folk-Lore for September 1938 there appeared a review of our honorary member's 2 volumes (Nos. iii and iv) of this manual. The author then expected that volumes i and ii containing the main text of the manual would be issued by the end of that year. But the tragedy of Europe was at hand and in his preface to volume i, which bears date 1943, he laments the delays which hindered the production of his book. He mentions as the causes of delay not only the war but the shortage of paper. We in England understand his feelings and can sym- pathise with him; for we also suffered from the same hindrances to scientific work.

In his preface M. Arnold van Gennep explains the scope and purpose of his book. He writes of the absence of a university chair of folklore in

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