of honour. First, a banner of the kind of satin in which peasants bring
their oats to the city. The _klippe_ which hangs on it is unfortunately
only of tin; besides, there is a plate of wood, and on it a fine whey
cheese; instead of the orange an apple, and in an earthen bowl a drink
of light beer." Thus did the _pritschmeister_ deride him, and at last
presented him with a fool's cap and cock's feathers. Meanwhile the
_pritschmeister's_ boys yelled, rattled, and piped around the marksman,
cut summersaults, and followed him with their grimaces up to his stand,
whilst a bagpipe-player preceded him, and forced from his bags their
most dissonant tones. It was afterwards seriously maintained by the
marksmen that in this buffoonery those with the highest pretensions did
not come off better than the rest. But to the person concerned it was
very painful. He seldom succeeded in concealing beforehand the widest
bolt, which always excited general displeasure. To princes who were
present some consideration was shown: at least, the words of the
_pritschmeister_ to them, which are printed, sound very mild. If the
sovereign himself had made the widest shot, one of his suite took it
upon himself, as at Zwickau in 1573.

Thus was the festival carried on, round after round, each succeeded by
the rewards. These interludes took not a little time; thus it happened
that not more than seven or eight courses of shots took place in a day,
still less at the great meetings.

At the end of the festival, in most of the districts in Germany, the
shooting was interrupted by a pleasing custom which shall here be
described as it took place, in the second half of the sixteenth
century, in the cities of Suabia, Franconia, Thuringia, and Meissen.
Many of the most distinguished maidens of the city went in procession,
festively clad, accompanied by councillors, city pipers, and yeomen of
the guard, to the shooting-ground. One of them carried, in an
ornamental box, a costly garland--sometimes of silver and gold, with
pearls and precious stones--another bore a beautiful banner. Their
procession stopped on the ground; then the shooters of a friendly city
were summoned, a herald of the city delivered an address, the maidens
handed over to them, as a gift of honour from their city, the garland
and banner, and invited them to a dance of honour. The invited thanked
them in choice language in the name of their city; one of them placed
the garland on his head, and