192 SZLACHTA
of Saints Blaise and Agatha; to Whitsuntide; and to Corpus Christi. On
Ascension Day, the figure of Christ would be fastened to the Church steeple
whilst an effigy of Satan was cast to the ground below. On Ash Wednesday, girls
of marriageable age who had failed to find a husband were harnessed to a log,
and, after being paraded in public, were disposed of at a mock auction. At
Corpus Christi, it was customary to fire off pistols, or if one was well equipped,
a brace of cannon. Whitsuntide, known in Poland as Zielone Swiqtki (The
Green Holiday), was regarded as the festival of farmers and shepherds. On the
Wednesday before Easter, Judas was ceremoniously drowned in a sack in every
village pond. Maundy Thursday was the day for charitable donations. Easter
Monday saw an annual battle of the sexes, at which men and women drenched
each other with buckets of cold water. Pre-Christian festivals also survived. At
the end of June, the countryside was ablaze with bonfires which were lit in hon-
our of the Sun and of Love. This was one of the few occasions in the year when
the szlachta mixed freely with the peasantry, and avoided holding their celebra-
tions apart.
Whilst estate-management inevitably took up most of the nobleman's time,
relaxation was most commonly found in hunting. Foxes and hares were coursed
with greyhounds; bears were hunted with nets; wolves, which were regarded as
vermin, were trapped in pits baited with a goose or a duck; bison were usually
attacked by a ring of riders armed with bows and firearms. Martin Kromer,
describing an organized bison hunt in Podolia, reveals several features strikingly
reminiscent of a Spanish corrida:
... Meanwhile, one of the hunters, assisted by powerful hounds, approaches and draws
the bison round and round the tree, playing it and teasing it until it drops from its wounds
or just from sheer exhaustion. Should the hunter falter whilst taking aim, or otherwise
be threatened by danger, his colleagues distract the bison by waving large red capes, since
red is a colour which drives it to a fury. Thus tormented, the bison releases the first man,
and attacks the next one who is then able to finish it off.'^9
Sociability was one of the szlachta's most marked characteristics. The enter-
taining was of an earthy sort, where carousing and crapulence took their usual
toll, and where an evening out was as likely as not to end in an uninhibited
brawl:
Once some relations of my wife's mother came to visit us - Pan Stanislaw Szembek, the
Deputy Starosta of Cracow, and Pan Franciszek Zelecki. They came with a kinsman of
theirs called Kardowski, who was a frightful drunkard. I was glad to see them, but was
much irritated by that Kardowski, for he was continually insulting the Mazovians, say-
ing that they are born blind, and born under an evil star, and so on. The others, mightily
enjoying it, encouraged him. In fact, they had dragged him there specially in order to
tease me. When a calf s head was brought on to the table, he said it was 'the Mazovian
Pope', and when he saw the pastry beneath the veal, he said it was made from 'Mazovian
communion wafers'. In short, he provoked me greatly... After supper, Szembek began
to dance, and it wasn't long before they were all dancing the polonez. Then, standing in
the line of the dance, Kardowski began to croon: