basket-rattle

Updated: June 17, 2025

Before she quitted the hut at nightfall to roam abroad, she painted her face red and put on a mask of fir-branches, and in her hand, as she walked, she carried a basket-rattle to frighten ghosts and guard herself from evil.

Sir James George Frazer - Balder the Beautiful, Volume I.: A Study in Magic and Religion: the Golden Bough, Part VII., The: Fire-Festivals of Europe and the Doctrine of the External Soul