Again,
early that morning one |313| peasant would clean out another's stable,
often at some distance from his home, feed, water, and rub down the
horses, and then be entertained to breakfast. In olden times after
service on St. Stephen's Day there was a race home on horseback, and it
was supposed that he who arrived first would be the first to get his
harvest in. But the most remarkable custom is the early morning jaunt of
the so-called "Stephen's men," companies of peasant youths, who long
before daybreak ride in a kind of race from village to village and awaken
the inhabitants with a folk-song called _Staffansvisa_, expecting to be
treated to ale or spirits in return.
The cavalcade is supposed to represent St. Stephen and his followers, yet
the saint is not, as might be expected, the first martyr of the New
Testament, but a dauntless missionary who, according to old legends, was
one of the first preachers of the Gospel in Sweden, and was murdered by
the heathen in a dark forest. A special trait, his love of horses,
connects him with the customs just described. He had, the legends tell,
five steeds: two red, two white, one dappled; when one was weary he
mounted another, making every week a great round to preach the Word.
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