HORN DANCE

horn dance, a medieval dance, still celebrated during the september "wakes" at abbots bromley, a village on the borders of needwood forest, staffordshire. six or seven men, each wearing a deer's skull with antlers, dance through the streets, pursued by a comrade who bestrides a mimic horse, and whips the dancers to keep them on the move. the horn-dance usually takes place on the monday after wakes sunday, which is the sunday next after the 4th of september. originally the dance took place on a sunday. see _strand magazine_ for november 1896; also _folk-lore_, vol. vii. (1896), p. 381.