Sept. 22.]
Bedfordshire
Sept. 22.]
Bedfordshire.
On this day, at Biddenham, shortly before noon, a little procession of villagers convey a white rabbit decorated with scarlet ribbons through the village, singing a hymn in honour of St. Agatha. This ceremony is said to date from the year of the first Crusade. All the unmarried young women who meet the procession extend the first two fingers of the left hand, pointing towards the rabbit, and say—
“Gustin, Gustin, lacks a bier!
Maidens, maidens, bury him here.”
The Penny Post, November 1870.