The Past Inside The Present

In time of drought the Serbians strip a girl to her skin and clothe her from head to foot in grass, herbs, and flowers, even her face being hidden behind a veil of living green. Thus disguised she is called the Dodola and goes through the village with a troop of girls. They stop before every house; the Dodola keeps turning herself round and dancing,  while the other girls form a ring about her singing one of the Dodola songs, and the housewife pours a pail of water over her. One of the songs they sing runs thus: “ We go through the village;                   The clouds go in the sky;          We go faster.    Faster go the clouds;    They have overtaken us. And wetted the corn and the vine.”

James George Frazer - “The Golden Bough”, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1925, pp.69-70.