The practice of whipping kids while processioning land in order that they remember the boundaries was largely  abandoned because more and more people could write and set forth property boundaries by a writing such as a deed and deed description, etc.  

Processioning continued here until the last years of the 18th century.  "Lease and release" transfers also were common here till the early years of the 18th-C.  And "turf and twig" memorializations of transfers of land here were not yet completely abandoned till the last years of the 17th-C.  In my dictionary you will find definitions of those.             
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Charlotte 
  To: paul drake 
  Sent: Sunday, June 08, 2003 10:52 AM
  Subject: "Bouncing and Processioning".


  I thought I had read a discussion of yours on Processioning.  So, I understand then, that the practice had been abandoned before this country was settled.  I wonder if there are other traditions of simalar ritualistic nature still found in the country communities of the U.S.


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