The horse instead of a camel

Even the horse has a symbolic history in Europe which is equally ancient: if one thinks, for example, of the so-called Franco-Belgian cheval-jupon (a cloth horse, worn by a knight in a way similar to a lifesaver), which is also found in Seminara, and the mythical Horse Bayard (the magical steed ridden by the four sons of Aymon, described in the cycle of Charlemagne). At Léau, a Belgian city of Flemish Brabant, the presence of the camel has been attested since the sixteenth century, along with a giant Goliath, a lion, the Horse Bayard and a cheval-jupon. The similarity between the southern camel and Horse Bayard is justified especially in cases where the exotic animal is surmounted by a small figure of a Moor. In other cases, when the identity of the strange figure is associated with that of a devil, there may be similarity with the puppet of Anne Boleyn, who sits on the famous Franco-Spanish Tarasque or Tarasca (a mythological monster with the body of a turtle and with a lion’s head). Interestingly in the ommegang (procession) in Termonde, in flemish Belgium, the camel is surmounted by a small Moor which is part of a varied scenery composed by giants and fantastic animals.