AN ERNTEBALL OR HARVEST FESTIVAL IN GERMANY

"Here is a picture of an "Ernteball" or harvest festival in a German village. As soon as the last wagon-load of golden grain has been carried from the field, preparations are made for a grand celebration. The largest barn is chosen fro the purposes of merry-making; and the festivities, which begin in the afternoon, are kept up with surprising vigour through out the night, and frequently, with a few necessary interruptions, through a second night, and far into the following day."

"prolonged howls; he stamps with all his might, he snaps his fingers, he pours forth clouds of tobacco smoke from mouth and nose, while ever and anon, if he desires to be thought anything of a dancer, and to find favor with the gentler sex, he must toss up is fair partner on to the air."

A shrew is defined by Webster as "a bad tempered woman". Being a shrew was a punishable offence. To improve their dispositions they were sentenced to suffer indignities like these ladies who were forced to don masks and wear heavy weights around their necks. In England they were forced to be seated in a chair at the end of a long pole and were dunked in water. They were also chained to the wall of the parish church.

When the cuckoo laughs there will be thunderstorms before the end of the day.