339 The method of choosing the Epiphany king is thus described by the sixteenth-century writer, Etienne Pasquier:

"When the cake has been cut into as many portions as there are guests, a small child is put under the table, and is interrogated by the master under the name of Phebe [Phoebus], as if he were a child who in the innocence of his age represented a kind of Apollo's oracle. To this questioning the child answers with a Latin word: Domine. Thereupon the master calls on him to say to whom he shall give the piece of cake which he has in his hand: the child names whoever comes into his head, without respect of persons, until the portion where the bean is given out. He who gets it is reckoned king of the company, although he may be a person of the least importance. This done, everyone eats, drinks, and dances heartily."{5}

In Berry at the end of the festive repast a cake is brought before the head of the household, and divided into as many portions as there are guests, plus one. The youngest member of the family distributes them. The portion remaining is called la part du bon Dieu and is given to the first person who asks for it. A band of children generally come to claim it, with a leader who sings a little song.{6} There was formerly a custom of dressing up a king in full robes. He had a fool to amuse him during the feast, and shots were fired when he drank.{7}

Here is a nineteenth-century account from Lorraine:—

"On the Vigil of the Epiphany all the family and the guests assemble round the table, which is illuminated by a lamp hanging above its centre. Lots are cast for the king of the feast, and if the head of anyone present casts no shadow on the wall it is a sign that he will die during the year. Then the king chooses freely his queen: they have the place of honour, and each time they raise their glasses to their mouths cries of 'The king drinks, the queen drinks!' burst forth on all sides.... The next day an enormous cake, divided into equal portions, is distributed to the company by the youngest boy. The first portion is always for le bon Dieu, the second for the Blessed Virgin (these two portions are always given to the first poor person who presents himself); then come those of relations, servants, and visitors. He who finds a bean in his portion is proclaimed king; if it is a lady she chooses her 340 king, and he invites the company to a banquet on the Sunday following, at which black kings are made by rubbing the face with a burnt cork."{8}

The use of the gateau des Rois goes pretty far back. At the monastery of Mont-St.-Michel in the thirteenth century the Epiphany king was chosen from among the monks by means of a number of cakes in one of which a bean was placed. At Matins, High Mass, and Vespers he sat upon a special throne.{9}

It may be added that there is a quaint old story of a curate "who having taken his preparations over evening, when all men cry (as the manner is) the king drinketh, chanting his Masse the next morning, fell asleep in his Memento: and, when he awoke, added with a loud voice, The king drinketh."{10}

One more French "king" custom may be mentioned, though it relates to Christmas Day, not Epiphany. At Salers in the centre of France there were formerly a king and queen whose function was to preside over the festival, sit in a place of honour in church, and go first in the procession. The kingship was not elective, but was sold by auction at the church door, and it is said to have been so much coveted that worthy citizens would sell their heritage in order to purchase it.{11}

It may be remarked that Epiphany kings and cakes similar to the French can be traced in Holland and Germany,{12} and that the "King of the Bean" is known in modern Italy, though there he may be an importation from the north.{13}

How is this merry monarch to be accounted for? His resemblance to the king of the Saturnalia, who presided over the fun of the feast in the days of imperial Rome, is certainly striking, but it is impossible to say whether he derives directly from that personage. No doubt his association with the feast of the Three Kings has helped to maintain his rule. As for the bean, it appears to have been a sacred vegetable in ancient times. There is a story about the philosopher Pythagoras, how, when flying before a host of rebels, he came upon a field of beans and refused to pass through it for fear of crushing the plants, thus enabling his pursuers to overtake him. Moreover, the flamen dialis in Rome was forbidden to eat or even name the vegetable, and the 341 name of the Fabii, a Roman gens, suggests a totem tribe of the bean.{14}

In eastern Europe, though I know of no election of a king, there are New Year customs with cakes, closely resembling some of the French practices described a page or two back. "St. Basil's Cake" on New Year's Eve in Macedonia is a kind of shortbread with a silver coin and a cross of green twigs in it. When all are seated round the table the father and mother take the cake, "and break it into two pieces, which are again subdivided by the head of the family into shares. The first portion is destined for St. Basil, the Holy Virgin, or the patron saint whose icon is in the house. The second stands for the house itself. The third for the cattle and domestic animals belonging thereto. The fourth for the inanimate property, and the rest for each member of the household according to age. Each portion is successively dipped in a cup of wine." He who finds the cross or the coin in his share of the cake will prosper during the year. The money is considered sacred and is used to buy a votive taper.{15}

In Macedonia when the New Year's supper is over, the table, with the remnants of the feast upon it, is removed to a corner of the room in order that St. Basil may come and partake of the food.{16} He appears to have been substituted by the Church for the spirits of the departed, for whom, as we have seen, food is left in the West on All Souls' and Christmas Eves. Probably the Macedonian practice of setting aside a portion of the cake for a saint, and the pieces cut in France for le bon Dieu and the Virgin or the three Magi, have a like origin. One may compare them with the Serbian breaking of the kolatch cake in honour of Christ "the Patron Namegiver." Is it irrelevant, also, to mention here the Greek Church custom, at the preparation of the elements for the Eucharist, of breaking portions of the bread in memory of the Virgin and other saints?

* * * * *

In many countries the Epiphany is a special time for the expulsion of evils. At Brunnen in Switzerland boys go about in procession on Twelfth Night, with torches and lanterns, and make a great noise with horns, bells, whips, &c., in order to 342 frighten away two wood-spirits. In Labruguiere in southern France on the Eve of Twelfth Day the inhabitants rush through the streets, making discordant noises and a huge uproar, with the object of scaring away ghosts and devils.{17}

In parts of the eastern Alps there takes place what is called Berchtenlaufen. Lads, formerly to the number of two or three hundred, rush about in the strangest masks, with cowbells, whips, and all sorts of weapons, and shout wildly.{18} In Nuremberg up to the year 1616 on Bergnacht or Epiphany Eve boys and girls used to run about the streets and knock loudly at the doors.{19} Such knocking, as we have seen, may well have been intended to drive away spirits from the houses.

At Eschenloh near Partenkirchen in Upper Bavaria three women used to berchten on that evening. They all had linen bags over their heads, with holes for the mouth and eyes. One carried a chain, another a rake, and the third a broom. Going round to the houses, they knocked on the door with the chain, scraped the ground with the rake, and made a noise of sweeping with the broom.{20} The suggestion of a clearing away of evils is here very strong.

In connection with the Kallikantzaroi mention has already been made of the purification of houses with holy water, performed by Greek priests on the Epiphany. In Roumania, where a similar sprinkling is performed, a curious piece of imitative magic is added—the priest is invited to sit upon the bed, in order that the brooding hen may sit upon her eggs. Moreover there should be maize grains under the mattress; then the hen will lay eggs in abundance.{21}

* * * * *

We noted in an earlier chapter the name Berchtentag applied in southern Germany and in Austria to the Epiphany, and we saw also how the mysterious Frau Berchta was specially connected with the day. On the Epiphany and its Eve in the Moellthal in Carinthia a female figure, "the Berchtel," goes the round of the houses. She is generally dressed in a hide, wears a hideous wooden mask, and hops wildly about, inquiring as to the behaviour of children, and demanding gifts.{22}

343 Something of the terrible, as well as the beneficent, belongs to the "Befana," the Epiphany visitor who to Italian children is the great gift-bringer of the year, the Santa Klaus of the South. "Delightful," say Countess Martinengo, "as are the treasures she puts in their shoes when satisfied with their behaviour, she is credited with an unpleasantly sharp eye for youthful transgressions."{23} Mothers will sometimes warn their children that if they are naughty the Befana will fetch and eat them. To Italian youngsters she is a very real being, and her coming on Epiphany Eve is looked forward to with the greatest anxiety. Though she puts playthings and sweets in the stockings of good children, she has nothing but a birch and coal for those who misbehave themselves.{24}

Formerly at Florence images of the Befana were put up in the windows of houses, and there were processions through the streets, guys being borne about, with a great blowing of trumpets.{25} Toy trumpets are still the delight of little boys at the Epiphany in Italy.

The Befana's name is obviously derived from Epiphania. In Naples the little old woman who fills children's stockings is called "Pasqua Epiphania,"[117] the northern contraction not having been acclimatized there.{26}

In Spain as well as Italy the Epiphany is associated with presents for children, but the gift-bringers for little Spaniards are the Three Holy Kings themselves. There is an old Spanish tradition that the Magi go every year to Bethlehem to adore the infant Jesus, and on their way visit children, leaving sweets and toys for them if they have behaved well. On Epiphany Eve the youngsters go early to bed, put out their shoes on the window-sill or balcony to be filled with presents by the Wise Men, and provide a little straw for their horses.{27}

It is, or was, a custom in Madrid to look out for the Kings on Epiphany Eve. Companies of men go out with bells and pots and pans, and make a great noise. There is loud shouting, and torches cast a fantastic light upon the scene. One of the men carries a large ladder, and mounts it to see if the Kings are 344 coming. Here, perhaps, some devil-scaring rite, resembling those described above, has been half-Christianized.{28}

In Provence, too, there was a custom of going to meet the Magi. In a charming chapter of his Memoirs Mistral tells us how on Epiphany Eve all the children of his countryside used to go out to meet the Kings, bearing cakes for the Magi, dried figs for their pages, and handfuls of hay for their horses. In the glory and colour of the sunset young Mistral thought he saw the splendid train; but soon the gorgeous vision died away, and the children stood gaping alone on the darkening highway—the Kings had passed behind the mountain. After supper the little ones hurried to church, and there in the Chapel of the Nativity beheld the Kings in adoration before the Crib.{29}

At Trest not only did the young people carry baskets or dried fruit, but there were three men dressed as Magi to receive the offerings and accept compliments addressed to them by an orator. In return they presented him with a purse full of counters, upon which he rushed off with the treasure and was pursued by the others in a sort of dance.{30} Here again the Magi are evidently mixed up with something that has no relation to Christianity.

* * * * *

We noted in Chapter IV. the elaborate ceremonies connected in Greece with the Blessing of the Waters at the Epiphany, and the custom of diving for a cross. It would seem, as was pointed out, that the latter is an ecclesiastically sanctioned form of a folk-ceremony. This is found in a purer state in Macedonia, where, after Matins on the Epiphany, it is the custom to thrust some one into water, be it sea or river, pond or well. On emerging he has to sprinkle the bystanders.{31} The rite may be compared with the drenchings of human beings in order to produce rain described by Dr. Frazer in "The Magic Art."{32}

Another Greek custom combines the purifying powers of Epiphany water with the fertilizing influences of the Christmas log round Mount Olympos ashes are taken from the hearth where a cedar log has been burning since Christmas, and are baptized in the blessed water of the river. They are then borne 345 to the vineyards, and thrown at their four corners, and also at the foot of apple- and fig-trees.{33}

This may remind us that in England fruit-trees used to come in for special treatment on the Vigil of the Epiphany. In Devonshire the farmer and his men would go to the orchard with a large jug of cider, and drink the following toast at the foot of one of the best-bearing apple-trees, firing guns in conclusion:—

"Here's to thee, old apple-tree, Whence thou may'st bud, and whence thou may'st blow! And whence thou may'st bear apples enow! Hats full! caps full! Bushel!—bushel—sacks full, And my pockets full too! Huzza!"{34}

In seventeenth-century Somersetshire, according to Aubrey, a piece of toast was put upon the roots.{35} According to another account each person in the company used to take a cupful of cider, with roasted apples pressed into it, drink part of the contents, and throw the rest at the tree.{36} The custom is described by Herrick as a Christmas Eve ceremony:—

"Wassail the trees, that they may bear You many a plum and many a pear; For more or less fruits they will bring, As you do give them wassailing."{37}

In Sussex the wassailing (or "worsling") of fruit-trees took place on Christmas Eve, and was accompanied by a trumpeter blowing on a cow's horn.{38}

The wassailing of the trees may be regarded as either originally an offering to their spirits or and this seems more probable as a sacramental act intended to bring fertilizing influences to bear upon them. Customs of a similar character are found in Continental countries during the Christmas season. In Tyrol, for instance, when the Christmas pies are a-making on St. Thomas's Eve, the maids are told to go out-of-doors and put their arms, sticky with paste, round the fruit-trees, in order that they 346 may bear well next year.{39} The uses of the ashes of the Christmas log have already been noticed.

Sometimes, as in the Thurgau, Mecklenburg, Oldenburg, and Tyrol, the trees are beaten to make them bear. On New Year's Eve at Hildesheim people dance and sing around them,{40} while the Tyrolese peasant on Christmas Eve will go out to his trees, and, knocking with bent fingers upon them, will bid them wake up and bear.{41} There is a Slavonic custom, on the same night, of threatening apple-trees with a hatchet if they do not produce fruit during the year.{42}

Another remarkable agricultural rite was practised on Epiphany Eve in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire. The farmer and his servants would meet in a field sown with wheat, and there light thirteen fires, with one larger than the rest. Round this a circle was formed by the company, and all would drink a glass of cider to the success of the harvest.[118] This done, they returned to the farm, to feast—in Gloucestershire—on cakes made with caraways, and soaked in cider. The Herefordshire accounts give particulars of a further ceremony. A large cake was provided, with a hole in the middle, and after supper everyone went to the wain-house. The master filled a cup with strong ale, and standing opposite the finest ox, pledged him in a curious toast; the company followed his example with the other oxen, addressing each by name. Afterwards the large cake was put on the horn of the first ox.{43}

It is extremely remarkable, and can scarcely be a mere coincidence, that far away among the southern Slavs, as we saw in Chapter XII., a Christmas cake with a hole in its centre is likewise put upon the horn of the chief ox. The wassailing of the animals is found there also. On Christmas Day, Sir Arthur 347 Evans relates, the house-mother "entered the stall set apart for the goats, and having first sprinkled them with corn, took the wine-cup in her hand and said, 'Good morning, little mother! The Peace of God be on thee! Christ is born; of a truth He is born. May'st thou be healthy. I drink to thee in wine; I give thee a pomegranate; may'st thou meet with all good luck!' She then lifted the cup to her lips, took a sup, tossed the pomegranate among the herd, and throwing her arms round the she-goat, whose health she had already drunk, gave it the 'Peace of God' kissed it, that is, over and over again." The same ceremony was then performed for the benefit of the sheep and cows, and all the animals were beaten with a leafy olive-branch.{44}

As for the fires, an Irish custom to some extent supplies a parallel. On Epiphany Eve a sieve of oats was set up, "and in it a dozen of candles set round, and in the centre one larger, all lighted." This was said to be in memory of the Saviour and His apostles, lights of the world.{45} Here is an account of a similar custom practised in Co. Leitrim:—

"A piece of board is covered with cow-dung, and twelve rushlights are stuck therein. These are sprinkled with ash at the top, to make them light easily, and then set alight, each being named by some one present, and as each dies so will the life of its owner. A ball is then made of the dung, and it is placed over the door of the cowhouse for an increase of cattle. Sometimes mud is used, and the ball placed over the door of the dwelling-house."{46}

There remains to be considered under Epiphany usages an ancient and very remarkable game played annually on January 6 at Haxey in Lincolnshire. It is known traditionally as "Haxey Hood," and its centre is a struggle between the men of two villages for the possession of a roll of sacking or leather called the "hood." Over it preside the "boggans" or "bullocks" of Plough Monday (see p. 352), headed by a figure known as "My Lord," who is attended by a fool. The proceedings are opened on the village green by a mysterious speech from the fool:—

"Now, good folks, this is Haxa' Hood. We've killed two 348 bullocks and a half, but the other half we had to leave running about field: we can fetch it if it's wanted. Remember it's

'Hoose agin hoose, toon agin toon, And if you meet a man knock him doon.'"

Then, in an open field, the hoods—there are six of them, one apparently for each of the chief hamlets round—are thrown up and struggled for. "The object is to carry them off the field away from the boggans. If any of these can get hold of them, or even touch them, they have to be given up, and carried back to My Lord. For every one carried off the field the boggans forfeit half-a-crown, which is spent in beer, doubtless by the men of the particular hamlet who have carried off the hood." The great event of the day is the struggle for the last hood—made of leather—between the men of Haxey and the men of Westwoodside—"that is to say really between the customers of the public-houses there—each party trying to get it to his favourite 'house.' The publican at the successful house stands beer."{47}

Mr. Chambers regards the fool's strange speech as preserving the tradition that the hood is the half of a bullock—the head of a sacrificial victim, and he explains both the Haxey game and also the familiar games of hockey and football as originating in a struggle between the people of two villages to get such a head, with all its fertilizing properties, over their own boundary.{48} At Hornchurch in Essex, if we may trust a note given by Hone, an actual boar's head was wrestled for on Christmas Day, and afterwards feasted upon at one of the public-houses by the victor and his friends.{49}

One more feature of the Haxey celebration must be mentioned (it points apparently to a human sacrifice): the fool, the morning after the game, used to be "smoked" over a straw fire. "He was suspended above the fire and swung backwards and forwards over it until almost suffocated; then allowed to drop into the smouldering straw, which was well wetted, and to scramble out as he could."{50}

Returning to the subject of football, I may here condense an 349 account of a Welsh Christmas custom quoted by Sir Laurence Gomme, in his book "The Village Community," from the Oswestry Observer of March 2, 1887: "In South Cardiganshire it seems that about eighty years ago the population, rich and poor, male and female, of opposing parishes, turned out on Christmas Day and indulged in the game of football with such vigour that it became little short of a serious fight." Both in north and south Wales the custom was found. At one place, Llanwenog near Lampeter, there was a struggle between two parties with different traditions of race. The Bros, supposed to be descendants from Irish people, occupied the high ground of the parish; the Blaenaus, presumably pure-bred Brythons, occupied the lowlands. After morning service on Christmas Day, "the whole of the Bros and Blaenaus, rich and poor, male and female, assembled on the turnpike road which divided the highlands from the lowlands." The ball was thrown high in the air, "and when it fell Bros and Blaenaus scrambled for its possession.... If the Bros, by hook or by crook, could succeed in taking the ball up the mountain to their hamlet of Rhyddlan they won the day, while the Blaenaus were successful if they got the ball to their end of the parish at New Court." Many severe kicks were given, and the whole thing was taken so keenly "that a Bro or a Blaenau would as soon lose a cow from his cowhouse as the football from his portion of the parish." There is plainly more than a mere pastime here; the thing appears to have been originally a struggle between two clans.{51}

* * * * *

Anciently the Carnival, with its merrymaking before the austerities of Lent, was held to begin at the Epiphany. This was the case in Tyrol even in the nineteenth century.{52} As a rule, however, the Carnival in Roman Catholic countries is restricted to the last three days before Ash Wednesday. The pagan origin of its mummeries and licence is evident, but it is a spring rather than a winter festival, and hardly calls for treatment here.

The Epiphany is in many places the end of Christmas. In Calvados, Normandy, it is marked by bonfires; red flames mount 350 skywards, and the peasants join hands, dance, and leap through blinding smoke and cinders, shouting these rude lines:

"Adieu les Rois Jusqu'a douze mois, Douze mois passes Les bougelees."{53}

Another French Epiphany chanson, translated by the Rev. R. L. Gales, is a charming farewell to Christmas:—

"Noel is leaving us, Sad 'tis to tell, But he will come again, Adieu, Noel.

His wife and his children Weep as they go: On a grey horse They ride thro' the snow.

* * * * *

The Kings ride away In the snow and the rain, After twelve months We shall see them again."{54}

POST-EPIPHANY FESTIVALS.

Though with Twelfth Day the high festival of Christmas generally ends, later dates have sometimes been assigned as the close of the season. At the old English court, for instance, the merrymaking was sometimes carried on until Candlemas, while in some English country places it was customary, even in the late nineteenth century, to leave Christmas decorations up, in houses and churches, till that day.{55} The whole time between Christmas and the Presentation in the Temple was thus treated as sacred to the Babyhood of Christ; the withered evergreens would keep alive memories of Christmas joys, even, sometimes, after Septuagesima had struck the note of penitence.

Before we pass on to a short notice of Candlemas, we may 351 glance at a few last sparks, so to speak, of the Christmas blaze, and then at the English festivals which marked the resumption of work after the holidays.

In Sweden Yule is considered to close with the Octave of the Epiphany, January 13, "St. Knut's Day," the twentieth after Christmas.

"Twentieth day Knut Driveth Yule out"

sing the old folks as the young people dance in a ring round the festive Yule board, which is afterwards robbed of the viands that remain on it, including the Yule boar. On this day a sort of mimic fight used to take place, the master and servants of the house pretending to drive away the guests with axe, broom, knife, spoon, and other implements.{56} The name, "St. Knut's Day," is apparently due to the fact that in the laws of Canute the Great (1017-36) it is commanded that there is to be no fasting from Christmas to the Octave of the Epiphany.{57}

In England the day after the Epiphany was called St. Distaff's or Rock Day (the word Rock is evidently the same as the German Rocken = distaff). It was the day when the women resumed their spinning after the rest and gaiety of Christmas. From a poem of Herrick's it appears that the men in jest tried to burn the women's flax, and the women in return poured water on the men:—

"Partly work, and partly play You must on St. Distaff's day: From the plough soon free your team, Then come home and fother them; If the maids a-spinning go, Burn the flax and fire the tow.

* * * * *

Bring in pails of water then, Let the maids bewash the men; Give St. Distaff all the right, Then bid Christmas sport good night; And next morrow, every one To his own vocation."{58}

352 A more notable occasion was Plough Monday, the first after Twelfth Day. Men's labour then began again after the holidays.{59} We have already seen that it is sometimes associated with the mummers' plays. Often, however, its ritual is not developed into actual drama, and the following account from Derbyshire gives a fairly typical description of its customs:

"On Plough Monday the 'Plough bullocks' are occasionally seen; they consist of a number of young men from various farmhouses, who are dressed up in ribbons.... These young men yoke themselves to a plough, which they draw about, preceded by a band of music, from house to house, collecting money. They are accompanied by the Fool and Bessy; the fool being dressed in the skin of a calf, with the tail hanging down behind, and Bessy generally a young man in female attire. The fool carries an inflated bladder tied to the end of a long stick, by way of whip, which he does not fail to apply pretty soundly to the heads and shoulders of his team. When anything is given a cry of 'Largess!' is raised, and a dance performed round the plough. If a refusal to their application for money is made they not unfrequently plough up the pathway, door-stone, or any other portion of the premises they happen to be near."{60}

By Plough Monday we have passed, it seems probable, from New Year festivals to one that originally celebrated the beginning of spring. Such a feast, apparently, was kept in mid-February when ploughing began at that season; later the advance of agriculture made it possible to shift it forward to early January.{61}

CANDLEMAS.

Nearer to the original date of the spring feast is Candlemas, February 2; though connected with Christmas by its ecclesiastical meaning, it is something of a vernal festival.{62}

The feast of the Purification of the Virgin or Presentation of Christ in the Temple was probably instituted by Pope Liberius at Rome in the fourth century. The ceremonial to which it owes its popular name, Candlemas, is the blessing of candles in church and the procession of the faithful, carrying them lighted in their hands. During the blessing the "Nunc dimittis" is chanted, 353 with the antiphon "Lumen ad revelationem gentium et gloriam plebis tuae Israel," the ceremony being thus brought into connection with the "light to lighten the Gentiles" hymned by Symeon. Usener has however shown reason for thinking that the Candlemas procession was not of spontaneous Christian growth, but was inspired by a desire to Christianize a Roman rite, the Amburbale, which took place at the same season and consisted of a procession round the city with lighted candles.{63}

The Candlemas customs of the sixteenth century are thus described by Naogeorgus:

"Then numbers great of Tapers large, both men and women beare To Church, being halowed there with pomp, and dreadful words to heare. This done, eche man his Candell lightes, where chiefest seemeth hee, Whose taper greatest may be seene, and fortunate to bee, Whose Candell burneth cleare and brighte; a wondrous force and might Doth in these Candells lie, which if at any time they light, They sure beleve that neyther storme or tempest dare abide, Nor thunder in the skies be heard, nor any devils spide, Nor fearefull sprites that walke by night, nor hurts of frost or haile."{64}

Still, in many Roman Catholic regions, the candles blessed in church at the Purification are believed to have marvellous powers. In Brittany, Franche-Comte, and elsewhere, they are preserved and lighted in time of storm or sickness.{65} In Tyrol they are lighted on important family occasions such as christenings and funerals, as well as on the approach of a storm{66}; in Sicily in time of earthquake or when somebody is dying.{67}

In England some use of candles on this festival continued long after the Reformation. In 1628 the Bishop of Durham gave serious offence by sticking up wax candles in his cathedral at the Purification; "the number of all the candles burnt that evening was two hundred and twenty, besides sixteen torches; sixty of 354 those burning tapers and torches standing upon and near the high Altar."{68} Ripon Cathedral, as late as the eighteenth century, was brilliantly illuminated with candles on the Sunday before the festival.{69} And, to come to domestic customs, at Lyme Regis in Dorsetshire the person who bought the wood-ashes of a family used to send a present of a large candle at Candlemas. It was lighted at night, and round it there was festive drinking until its going out gave the signal for retirement to rest.{70}

There are other British Candlemas customs connected with fire. In the western isles of Scotland, says an early eighteenth-century writer, "as Candlemas Day comes round, the mistress and servants of each family taking a sheaf of oats, dress it up in woman's apparel, and after putting it in a large basket, beside which a wooden club is placed, they cry three times, 'Briid is come! Briid is welcome!' This they do just before going to bed, and as soon as they rise in the morning, they look among the ashes, expecting to see the impression of Briid's club there, which if they do, they reckon it a true presage of a good crop and prosperous year, and the contrary they take as an ill-omen."{71} Sir Laurence Gomme regards this as an illustration of belief in a house-spirit whose residence is the hearth and whose element is the ever-burning sacred flame. He also considers the Lyme Regis custom mentioned above to be a modernized relic of the sacred hearth-fire.{72}

Again, the feast of the Purification was the time to kindle a "brand" preserved from the Christmas log. Herrick's Candlemas lines may be recalled:—

"Kindle the Christmas brand, and then Till sunne-set let it burne; Which quencht, then lay it up agen, Till Christmas next returne.

Part must be kept wherewith to teend The Christmas Log next yeare; And where 'tis safely kept, the Fiend Can do no mischiefe there."{73}

355 Candlemas Eve was the moment for the last farewells to Christmas; Herrick sings:

"End now the White Loafe and the Pye, And let all sports with Christmas dye,"

and

"Down with the Rosemary and Bayes, Down with the Misleto; Instead of Holly, now up-raise The greener Box for show.

The Holly hitherto did sway; Let Box now domineere Until the dancing Easter Day, Or Easter's Eve appeare."{74}

An old Shropshire servant, Miss Burne tells us, was wont, when she took down the holly and ivy on Candlemas Eve, to put snow-drops in their place.{75} We may see in this replacing of the winter evergreens by the delicate white flowers a hint that by Candlemas the worst of the winter is over and gone; Earth has begun to deck herself with blossoms, and spring, however feebly, has begun. With Candlemas we, like the older English countryfolk, may take our leave of Christmas.

356 357



CONCLUSION

The reader who has had patience to persevere will by now have gained some idea of the manner in which Christmas is, and has been, kept throughout Europe. We have traced the evolution of the festival, seen it take its rise soon after the victory of the Catholic doctrine of Christ's person at Nicea, and spread from Rome to every quarter of the Empire, not as a folk-festival but as an ecclesiastical holy-day. We have seen the Church condemn with horror the relics of pagan feasts which clung round the same season of the year; then, as time went on, we have found the two elements, pagan and Christian, mingling in some degree, the pagan losing most of its serious meaning, and continuing mainly as ritual performed for the sake of use and wont or as a jovial tradition, the Christian becoming humanized, the skeleton of dogma clothed with warm flesh and blood.

We have considered, as represented in poetry and liturgy, the strictly ecclesiastical festival, the commemoration of the Nativity as the beginning of man's redemption. We have seen how in the carols, the cult of the presepio, and the religious drama, the Birth of the King of Glory in the stable at midwinter has presented itself in concrete form to the popular mind, calling up a host of human emotions, a crowd of quaint and beautiful fancies. Lastly we have noted the survival, in the most varied degrees of transformation, of things which are alien to Christianity and in some cases seem to go back to very primitive stages of thought and feeling. An antique reverence for the plant-world may lie, as we have seen, beneath the familiar institution of the Christmas-tree, some sort of animal-worship may be at the bottom of the 358 beast-masks common at winter festivals, survivals of sacrifice may linger in Christmas feasting, and in the family gatherings round the hearth may be preserved a dim memory of ancient domestic rites.

Christmas, indeed, regarded in all its aspects, is a microcosm of European religion. It reflects almost every phase of thought and feeling from crude magic and superstition to the speculative mysticism of Eckhart, from mere delight in physical indulgence to the exquisite spirituality and tenderness of St. Francis. Ascetic and bon-vivant, mystic and materialist, learned and simple, noble and peasant, all have found something in it of which to lay hold. It is a river into which have flowed tributaries from every side, from Oriental religion, from Greek and Roman civilization, from Celtic, Teutonic, Slav, and probably pre-Aryan, society, mingling their waters so that it is often hard to discover the far-away springs.

We have seen how the Reformation broke up the great mediaeval synthesis of paganism and Christianity, how the extremer forms of Protestantism aimed at completely destroying Christmas, and how the general tendency of modern civilization, with its scientific spirit, its popular education, its railways, its concentration of the people in great cities, has been to root out traditional beliefs and customs both Christian and pagan, so that if we would seek for relics of the old things we must go to the regions of Europe that are least industrially and intellectually "advanced." Yet amongst the most sceptical and "enlightened" of moderns there is generally a large residuum of tradition. "Emotionally," it has been said, "we are hundreds of thousands of years old; rationally we are embryos"{1}; and many people who deem themselves "emancipated" are willing for once in the year to plunge into the stream of tradition, merge themselves in inherited social custom, and give way to sentiments and impressions which in their more reflective moments they spurn. Most men are ready at Christmas to put themselves into an instinctive rather than a rational attitude, to drink of the springs of wonder, and return in some degree to earlier, less intellectual stages of human development—to become in fact children again.

359 Many elements enter into the modern Christmas. There is the delight of its warmth and brightness and comfort against the bleak midwinter. A peculiar charm of the northern Christmas lies in the thought of the cold barred out, the home made a warm, gay place in contrast with the cheerless world outside. There is the physical pleasure of "good cheer," of plentiful eating and drinking, joined to, and partly resulting in, a sense of goodwill and expansive kindliness towards the world at large, a temporary feeling of the brotherhood of man, a desire that the poor may for once in the year "have a good time." Here perhaps we may trace the influence of the Saturnalia, with its dreams of the age of gold, its exaltation of them of low degree. Mixed with a little sentimental Christianity this is the Christmas of Dickens the Christmas which he largely helped to perpetuate in England.

Each nation, naturally, has fashioned its own Christmas. The English have made it a season of solid material comfort, of good-fellowship and "charity," with a slight flavour of soothing religion. The modern French, sceptical and pagan, make little of Christmas, and concentrate upon the secular celebration of the jour de l'an. For the Scandinavians Christmas is above all a time of sport, recreation, good living, and social gaiety in the midst of a season when little outdoor work can be done and night almost swallows up day. The Germans, sentimental and childlike, have produced a Christmas that is a very Paradise for children and at which the old delight to play at being young again around the Tree. For the Italians Christmas is centred upon the cult of the Bambino, so fitted to their dramatic instincts, their love of display, their strong parental affection. (How much of the sentiment that surrounds the presepio is, though religiously heightened, akin to the delight of a child in its doll!) If the Germans may be called the good, industrious, sentimental children of Europe, making the most of simple things, the Italians are the lively, passionate, impulsive children, loving gay clothes and finery; and the contrast shows in their keeping of Christmas.

The modern Christmas is above all things a children's feast, and the elders who join in it put themselves upon their children's 360 level. We have noted how ritual acts, once performed with serious purpose, tend to become games for youngsters, and have seen many an example of this process in the sports and mummeries kept up by the elder folk for the benefit of the children. We have seen too how the radiant figure of the Christ Child has become a gift-bringer for the little ones. At no time in the world's history has so much been made of children as to-day, and because Christmas is their feast its lustre continues unabated in an age upon which dogmatic Christianity has largely lost its hold, which laughs at the pagan superstitions of its forefathers. Christmas is the feast of beginnings, of instinctive, happy childhood; the Christian idea of the Immortal Babe renewing weary, stained humanity, blends with the thought of the New Year, with its hope and promise, laid in the cradle of Time.

361 362 363



NOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

CHAPTER I.—INTRODUCTION

1. G. K. Chesterton in "The Daily News," Dec. 26, 1903.

2. Ibid. Dec. 23, 1911.

3. Cf. J. E. Harrison, "Themis: a Study of the Social Origins of Greek Religion" (Cambridge, 1912), 139, 184.

4. Or plural Weihnachten. The name Weihnachten was applied in five different ways in mediaeval Germany: (1) to Dec. 25, (2) to Dec. 25-8, (3) to the whole Christmas week, (4) to Dec. 25 to Jan. 6, (5) to the whole time from Christmas to the Octave of the Epiphany. G. Bilfinger, "Das germanische Julfest" (Stuttgart, 1901), 39.

5. A. Tille, "Die Geschichte der deutschen Weihnacht" (Leipsic, 1893), 22. [Referred to as "D. W."]

6. H. Usener, "Das Weihnachtsfest" (Kap. i., bis. iii. 2nd Edition, Bonn, 1911), 273 f.

7. L. Duchesne, "Christian Worship: its Origin and Evolution" (Eng. Trans., Revised Edition, London, 1912), 257 f.

8. J. Hastings, "Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics" (Edinburgh, 1910), iii. 601 f.

9. E. K. Chambers, "The Mediaeval Stage" (Oxford, 1903), i. 244. [Referred to as "M. S."]

10. A. Tille, "Yule and Christmas: their Place in the Germanic Year" (London, 1899), 122. [Referred to as "Y. & C."]

11. Ibid. 164.

12. Tille, "D. W.," 21.

13. Tille, "Y. & C.," 203.

14. K. Lake in Hastings's "Encyclopaedia" and in "The Guardian," Dec. 29, 1911; F. C. Conybeare, Preface to "The Key of Truth, a Manual of the Paulician Church of Armenia" (Oxford, 1898), clii. f.; Usener, 18 f.

15. Usener, 27 f.

16. Ibid. 31; J. E. Harrison, "Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion" (Cambridge, 1903), 550.

17. Harrison, "Prolegomena," 402 f., 524 f., 550. 364

18. Lake, and G. Rietschel, "Weihnachten in Kirche, Kunst and Volksleben" (Bielefeld and Leipsic, 1902), 10.

19. Conybeare, lxxviii.

20. A. Lupi, "Dissertazioni, lettere ed altre operette" (Faenza, 1785), i. 219 f., mentioned in article "Nativity" in T. K. Cheyne's "Encyclopaedia Biblica" (London, 1902), iii. 3346.

21. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 234.

22. Ibid. i. 235; F. Cumont, "The Monuments of Mithra" (Eng. Trans., London, 1903), 190.

23. G. Negri, "Julian the Apostate" (Eng. Trans., London, 1905), i. 240 f.

24. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 235.

25. Duchesne, "Christian Worship," 265.

26. Tille, "Y. & C.," 146.

PART I.—THE CHRISTIAN FEAST

CHAPTER II.—CHRISTMAS POETRY (I)

1. See especially for Latin, German, and English hymnody J. Julian, "A Dictionary of Hymnology" (New Edition, London, 1907), and the Historical Edition of "Hymns Ancient and Modern" (London, 1909).

2. H. C. Beeching, "A Book of Christmas Verse" (London, 1895), 3.

3. Beeching, 8.

4. A. Gastoue, "Noel" (Paris, 1907), 38.

5. R. W. Church, "St. Anselm" (London, 1870), 6.

6. Ibid. 3 f.

7. W. R. W. Stephens, "The English Church from the Norman Conquest to the Accession of Edward I." (London, 1901), 309.

8. W. Sandys, "Christmastide: its History, Festivities, and Carols" (London, n.d.), 216; E. Rickert, "Ancient English Carols. MCCCC-MDCC" (London, 1910), 133.

9. For the Franciscan influence on poetry and art see: Vernon Lee, "Renaissance Fancies and Studies" (London, 1895); H. Thode, "Franz von Assisi und die Anfaenge der Kunst der Renaissance in Italien" (Berlin, 1885); A. Macdonell, "Sons of Francis" (London, 1902); J. A. Symonds, "The Renaissance in Italy. Italian Literature," Part I. (New Edition, London, 1898).

10. Thomas of Celano, "Lives of St. Francis" (Eng. Trans. by A. G. Ferrers Howell, London, 1908), 84.

11. P. Robinson, "Writings of St. Francis" (London, 1906), 175.

12. "Le poesie spirituali del B. Jacopone da Todi," con annotationi di Fra Francesco Tresatti (Venice, 1617), 266.

13. Ibid. 275.

14. Ibid. 867.

15. "Stabat Mater speciosa," trans. and ed. by J. M. Neale (London, 1866). 365

16. For German Christmas poetry see, besides Julian: Hoffmann von Fallersleben, "Geschichte des deutschen Kirchenliedes bis auf Luthers Zeit" (2nd Edition, Hanover, 1854); P. Wackernagel, "Das deutsche Kirchenlied" (Leipsic, 1867); and C. Winkworth, "Christian Singers of Germany" (London, n.d.).

17. R. M. Jones, "Studies in Mystical Religion" (London, 1909), 235, 237.

18. "Meister Eckharts Schriften und Predigten," edited by H. Buttner (Leipsic, 1903), i. 44.

19. Translation by C. Winkworth, "Christian Singers," 84. German text in Wackernagel, ii. 302 f.

20. "Deutsches Weihnachtsbuch" (Hamburg-Grossborstel, 1907), 125.

21. "A Compendious Book of Godly and Spiritual Songs," reprinted from the Edition of 1567 by A. F. Mitchell (Edinburgh and London, 1897), 53. This translation is abridged and Protestantized. The mediaeval German text, which is partly addressed to the Virgin, is given in Hoffmann von Fallersleben, "In Dulci Jubilo" (Hanover, 1854), 46. For the music see G. R. Woodward, "The Cowley Carol Book" (New Edition, London, 1909), 20 f. [a work peculiarly rich in old German airs].

22. K. Weinhold, "Weihnacht-Spiele und Lieder aus Sueddeutschland und Schlesien" (2nd Edition, Vienna, 1875), 385.

23. Ibid. 396. [For help in the translation of German dialect I am indebted to Dr. M. A. Muegge.]

24. Ibid. 400.

25. Ibid. 417.

26. E. K. Chambers, essay on "Some Aspects of Mediaeval Lyric" in "Early English Lyrics," chosen by E. K. Chambers and F. Sidgwick (London, 1907), 290. [Twenty-five of Awdlay's carols were printed by Messrs. Chambers and Sidgwick in "The Modern Language Review" (Cambridge), Oct., 1910, and Jan., 1911.]

27. Ibid. 293.

28. Quoted by J. J. Jusserand, "A Literary History of the English People" (2nd Edition, London, 1907), i. 218.

29. Rickert, 6; Beeching, 13.

30. No. lv. in Chambers and Sidgwick, "Early English Lyrics."

31. No. lix., ibid.

32. No. lxi., ibid.

33. No. lxx., ibid.

34. No. lxvii., ibid.

35. No. lxiii., ibid.

36. Rickert, 67.

CHAPTER III.—CHRISTMAS POETRY (II)

1. Noel Herve, "Les Noels francais" (Niort, 1905), Gastoue, 57 f.; G. Gregory Smith, "The Transition Period" (Edinburgh and London, 1900), 217.

2. Gregory Smith, 217.

3. H. Lemeignen, "Vieux Noels composes en l'honneur de la Naissance de Notre-Seigneur Jesus-Christ" (Nantes, 1876), iii. 2 f.

4. Ibid. i. 10, 11.

5. Ibid. ii. 93, 95.

6. Herve, 46.

7. Lemeignen, i. 55. 366

8. Lemeignen, i. 29.

9. "Les Vieux Noels," in "Nouvelle Bibliotheque Populaire" (published by Henri Gautier, 55 Quai des Grands Augustins, Paris).

10. Lemeignen, i. 93.

11. H. J. L. J. Masse, "A Book Of Old Carols" (London, 1910), i. 21.

12. Herve, 86.

13. Lemeignen, i. 71.

14. "Hymns Ancient and Modern" (Historical Edition), 79. Translation is No. 58 in Ordinary Edition.

15. Herve, 132.

16. A great number of these villancicos and romances may be found in Justo de Sancha, "Romancero y Cancionero Sagrados" (Madrid, 1855, vol. 35 of Rivadeneyra's Library of Spanish Authors), and there are some good examples in J. N. Boehl de Faber, "Rimas Antiguas Castellanas" (Hamburg, 1823).

17. Boehl de Faber, ii. 36.

18. F. Caballero, "Elia y La Noche de Navidad" (Leipsic, 1864), 210.

19. A. de Gubernatis, "Storia Comparata degli Usi Natalizi" (Milan, 1878), 90.

20. These three verses are taken from Countess Martinengo-Cesaresco's charming translation of the poem, in her "Essays in the Study of Folk-Songs" (London, 1886), 304 f.

21. Martinengo, "Folk-Songs," 302 f.

22. Latin text in Tille, "D. W.," 311; Italian game in De Gubernatis, 93.

23. Herve, 115 f.

24. W. Hone, "The Ancient Mysteries Described" (London, 1823), 103.

25. Ibid. 103.

26. See Note 11.

27. D. Hyde, "Religious Songs of Connacht" (London, 1906), ii. 225 f.

28. "The Vineyard" (London), Dec., 1910, 144.

29. "Deutsches Weihnachtsbuch," 120 f.

30. "A Compendious Book of Godly and Spiritual Songs," 49 f. (spelling here modernized); Rickert, 82 f.

31. "Deutsches Weihnachtsbuch," 123, and most German Protestant hymnbooks.

32. Translation by Miles Coverdale, in Rickert, 192 f.

33. No. 5 in Paulus Gerhardt, "Geistliche Lieder," ed. by P. Wackernagel and W. Tuempel (9th Edition, Guetersloh, 1907).

34. Translation by C. Winkworth in "Lyra Germanica" (New Edition, London, 1869), ii. 13 f.

35. "Deutsches Weihnachtsbuch," 128 f.

36. Translation (last verse altered) in "The British Herald" (London), Sept., 1866, 329.

37. "Christmas Carols New and Old," the words edited by H. R. Bramley, the music edited by Sir John Stainer (London, n.d.).

38. Beeching, 27 f.

39. Ibid. 67.

40. Ibid. 49.

41. Ibid. 76.

42. Ibid. 48.

43. Ibid. 45.

44. Ibid. 42 f. 367

45. Beeching, 85 f.

46. Selwyn Image, "Poems and Carols" (London, 1894), 25.

47. G. K. Chesterton in "The Commonwealth" (London), Dec., 1902, 353.

CHAPTER IV.—CHRISTMAS IN LITURGY AND POPULAR DEVOTION

1. Translation, "Creator of the starry height," in "Hymns A. and M." (Ordinary Edition), No. 45.

2. J. Dowden, "The Church Year and Kalendar" (Cambridge, 1910), 76 f.

3. "Rational ou Manuel des divins Offices de Guillaume Durand, Eveque de Mende au treizieme siecle," traduit par M. C. Barthelemy (Paris, 1854), iii. 155 f.

4. See translation of the Great O's in "The English Hymnal," No. 734.

5. Barthelemy, iii. 220 f.

6. D. Rock, "The Church of Our Fathers" (London, 1853), vol. iii. pt. ii. 214.

7. J. K. Huysmans, "L'Oblat" (Paris, 1903), 194.

8. Gastoue, 44 f.

9. E. G. C. F. Atchley, "Ordo Romanus Primus" (London, 1905), 71.

10. "The Pilgrimage of S. Silvia of Aquitaine" (Eng. Trans. by J. H. Bernard, London, 1891), 50 f.

11. S. D. Ferriman in "The Daily News," Dec. 25, 1911.

12. G. Bonaccorsi, "Il Natale: appunti d'esegesi e di storia" (Rome, 1903), 73.

13. Gastoue, 41 f.

14. Bonaccorsi, 75.

15. H. Malleson and M. A. R. Tuker, "Handbook to Christian and Ecclesiastical Rome" (London, 1897), pt. ii. 211.

16. Th. Bentzon, "Christmas In France" in "The Century Magazine" (New York), Dec., 1901, 170 f.

17. L. von Hoermann, "Tiroler Volksleben" (Stuttgart, 1909), 232.

18. M. J. Quin, "A Visit to Spain" (2nd Edition, London, 1824), 126 f.

19. "Madrid in 1835," by a Resident Officer (London, 1836), i. 395 f.

20. W. S. Walsh, "Curiosities of Popular Customs" (London, 1898), 237.

21. G. Pitre, "Spettacoli e feste popolari siciliane" (Palermo, 1880), 444.

22. Tille, "D. W.," 70 f.

23. F. H. Woods, "Sweden and Norway" (London, 1882), 209; L. Lloyd, "Peasant Life in Sweden" (London, 1870), 201 f.

24. J. E. Vaux, "Church Folklore" (London, 1894), 222 f.

25. M. Trevelyan, "Folk-Lore and Folk-Stories of Wales" (London, 1909), 28.

26. Vaux, 262 f.

27. R. F. Littledale, "Offices from the Service-Books of the Holy Eastern Church" (London, 1863), 174 f.

28. [Sir] A. J. Evans, "Christmas and Ancestor Worship in the Black Mountain," in "Macmillan's Magazine" (London), vol. xliii., 1881, 228.

29. Duchesne, 273.

30. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 245.

31. "The Roman Breviary," translated by John, Marquess of Bute (New Edition Edinburgh and London, 1908), 186.

32. See announcement in "The Roman Mail" in Jan., 1912. 368

33. Mary Hamilton, "Greek Saints and their Festivals" (London, 1910), 113 f.

34. H. Holloway, "An Eastern Epiphany Service" in "Pax" (the Magazine of the Caldey Island Benedictines), Dec., 1910.

35. Hamilton, 119 f.

36. Holloway, as above.

37. F. H. E. Palmer, "Russian Life in Town and Country" (London, 1901), 176 f.

38. Thomas of Celano, trans. by Howell, 82 f.

39. Countess Martinengo-Cesaresco, "Puer Parvulus" in "The Outdoor Life in the Greek and Roman Poets" (London, 1911), 248.

40. Chambers, "M. S.," ii. 41.

41. Bonaccorsi, 85; Usener, 298.

42. Usener, 290.

43. Ibid. 295, 299.

44. Rietschel, 55.

45. Ibid. 56 f.

46. Ibid. 60.

47. Ibid. 69 f.; Tille, "D. W.," 59 f.

48. Music from Trier "Gesangbuch" (1911), No. 18, where a very much weakened text is given. Text from Weinhold, 114. Another form of the air is given in "The Cowley Carol Book," No. 36.

49. Text and music in Masse, i. 6.

50. Tille, "D. W.," 60.

51. Ibid. 61 f.

52. Ibid. 63.

53. Thomas Naogeorgus, "The Popish Kingdome," Englyshed by Barnabe Googe, 1570 (ed. by R. C. Hope, London, 1880), 45.

54. Tille, "D. W.," 68.

55. Ibid. 68.

56. Hoermann, "Tiroler Volksleben," 235.

57. Ibid. 235.

58. Tille, "D. W.," 64.

59. Rietschel, 75.

60. Martinengo, "Outdoor Life," 249.

61. Lady Morgan, "Italy" (New Edition, London, 1821), iii. 72.

62. Matilde Serao, "La Madonna e i Santi" (Naples, 1902), 223 f.

63. L. Caico, "Sicilian Ways and Days" (London, 1910), 192 f.

64. Information kindly given to the author by Mrs. C. G. Crump.

65. Information derived by the author from a resident in Messina.

66. Serao, see Note 62.

67. W. H. D. Rouse, "Religious Tableaux in Italian Churches," in "Folk-Lore" (London), vol. v., 1894, 6 f.

68. Morgan, iii. 76 f.

69. Bonaccorsi, 45 f.

70. A. J. C. Hare, "Walks in Rome" (11th Edition, London, 1883), 157.

71. Martinengo, "Outdoor Life," 253; Bonaccorsi, 110 f.; R. Ellis Roberts, "A Roman Pilgrimage" (London, 1911), 185 f.

72. H. J. Rose, "Untrodden Spain" (London, 1875), 276.

73. See Note 18 to Chapter III. 369

74. T. F. Thiselton Dyer, "British Popular Customs" (London, 1876), 464.

75. Vaux, 216.

76. Dyer, 464.

77. Cf. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 120.

CHAPTER V.—CHRISTMAS DRAMA

1. This account of the mediaeval Christmas drama owes much to Chambers, "The Mediaeval Stage," especially chaps. xviii. to xx., and to W. Creizenach, "Geschichte des neueren Dramas" (Halle a/S., 1893), vol. i., bks. ii.-iv. See also: Karl Pearson, essay on "The German Passion Play" in "The Chances of Death, and other Studies in Evolution" (London, 1897), ii. 246 f.; E. Du Meril, "Origines latines du theatre moderne" (Paris, 1849); L. Petit de Julleville, "Histoire du theatre en France au moyen age. I. Les Mysteres" (Paris, 1880); and other works cited later.

2. Chambers, "M. S.," ii. 8 f.

3. Ibid. ii. 11.

4. Du Meril, 147.

5. Chambers, "M. S.," ii. 52.

6. Text in Du Meril, 153 f.

7. Chambers, "M. S.," ii. 44.

8. Ibid. ii. 52 f.

9. On the English plays see: Chambers, "M. S.," chaps. xx. and xxi.; A. W. Ward, "A History of English Dramatic Literature" (London, 1875), vol. i. chap. i.; Creizenach, vol. i.; K. L. Bates, "The English Religious Drama" (London, 1893).

10. Chambers, "M. S.," ii. 129, 131, 139.

11. "Ludus Coventriae," ed. by J. O. Halliwell (London, 1841), 146 f.

12. "York Plays," ed. by L. Toulmin Smith (Oxford, 1885), 114 f.

13. "The Chester Plays," ed. by T. Wright (London, 1843), 137.

14. Ibid. 138.

15. Ibid. 143.

16. "The Towneley Plays," ed. by George England, with Introduction by A. W. Pollard (London, 1897). The first Shepherds' Play is on p. 100 f., the second on p. 116 f.

17. Text from Chambers and Sidgwick, "Early English Lyrics," 124 f.

18. Text in T. Sharp, "A Dissertation on the Pageants or Dramatic Mysteries anciently performed at Coventry" (Coventry, 1825).

19. Petit de Julleville, ii. 36 f and 431 f.

20. Ibid. ii. 620 f.; "Les marguerites de la Marguerite des princesses," ed. from the edition of 1547 by F. Frank (Paris, 1873), ii. 1 f.

21. Petit de Julleville, i. 441.

22. Ibid. i. 455. Text in Lemeignen, ii. 1 f.

23. Petit de Julleville, i. 79 f.

24. P. Sebillot, "Coutumes populaires de la Haute-Bretagne" (Paris, 1886), 177.

25. Martinengo, "Folk-Songs," xxxiii. f. In her essay, "Puer Parvulus," in "The Outdoor Life," 260 f., the Countess gives a charming description of a somewhat similar Piedmontese play.

26. Barthelemy, iii. 411 f. 370

27. Rietschel, 88 f.; O. von Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, "Das festliche Jahr" (2nd Edition, Leipsic, 1898), 439 f.

28. Rietschel, 92 f.

29. An interesting book on popular Christmas plays is F. Vogt, "Die schlesischen Weihnachtspiele" (Leipsic, 1901).

30. Weinhold, 94.

31. Ibid. 95 f.

32. Ibid. 100 f.

33. Ibid. 96 f.

34. See Chambers, "M. S.," ii. 91 f.; Symonds, "Renaissance," iv. 242, 272 f.; A. d'Ancona, "Origini del Teatro italiano" (Florence, 1877), i. 87 f.

35. D'Ancona, "Origini," i. 126 f.

36. A. d'Ancona, "Sacre Rappresentazioni dei secoli xiv, xv e xvi" (Florence, 1872), i. 191 f.

37. Ibid. i. 192.

38. Latin original quoted by D'Ancona, "Origini," i. 91, and Chambers, "M. S.," ii. 93.

39. Creizenach, i. 347.

40. J. Fitzmaurice-Kelly, "A History of Spanish Literature" (London, 1898), 113.

41. Juan del Encina, "Teatro Completo" (Madrid, 1893), 3 f., 137 f.

42. See G. Ticknor, "History of Spanish Literature" (6th American Edition, Boston, 1888), ii. 283 f.

43. Ibid. ii. 208.

44. "Archivio per lo studio delle tradizioni popolari" (Palermo and Turin), vol. xxi., 1902, 381.

45. Pitre, 448.

46. Fernan Caballero, "Elia y La Noche de Navidad," 222 f.

47. Lloyd, 213 f.

48. H. F. Feilberg, "Jul" (Copenhagen, 1904), ii. 242 f.

49. E. Cortet, "Essai sur les fetes religieuses" (Paris, 1867), 38.

50. Sebillot, 215.

51. Feilberg, ii. 250; Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 31 f.; T. Stratilesco, "From Carpathian to Pindus: Pictures of Roumanian Country Life" (London, 1906), 195 f.; E. van Norman, "Poland: the Knight among Nations" (London and New York, 3rd Edition, n.d.), 302; S. Graham, "A Vagabond in the Caucasus. With some Notes of his Experiences among the Russians" (London, 1910), 28.

52. Translation in Karl Hase, "Miracle Plays and Sacred Dramas" (Eng. Trans., London, 1880), 9; German text in Weinhold, 132.

53. Hoermann, "Tiroler Volksleben," 247 f.

54. Graham, 28.

55. Stratilesco, 195 f.

56. Ibid. 355 f.

57. Van Norman, 302.

58. Cortet, 42.

59. Barthelemy, iii. 411 f.

60. Madame Calderon de la Barca, "Life in Mexico" (London, 1843), 237 f.

POSTSCRIPT

1. E. Underhill, "Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Man's Spiritual Consciousness" (London, 1911), 305. 371

PART II.—PAGAN SURVIVALS

CHAPTER VI.—PRE-CHRISTIAN WINTER FESTIVALS

1. Karl Pearson, essay on "Woman as Witch" in "The Chances of Death and other Studies in Evolution" (London, 1897), ii. 16.

2. Cf. J. G. Frazer, "The Dying God" (London, 1911), 269.

3. J. A. MacCulloch, "The Religion of the Ancient Celts" (Edinburgh, 1911), 278.

4. Frazer, "Dying God," 266.

5. E. Anwyl, "Celtic Religion in Pre-Christian Times" (London, 1906), 1 f.

6. Ibid. 20; cf. E. K. Chambers, "The Mediaeval Stage" (Oxford, 1903), i. 100 f. [Referred to as "M. S."]

7. W. Robertson Smith, "Lectures on the Religion of the Semites" (New Edition, London, 1894), 16.

8. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 236; W. W. Fowler, "The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic" (London, 1899), 272.

9. "The Works of Lucian of Samosata" (Eng. Trans. by H. W. and F. G. Fowler, Oxford, 1905), iv. 108 f.

10. John Brand, "Observations on Popular Antiquities" (New Edition, with the Additions of Sir Henry Ellis, London, Chatto & Windus, 1900), 283.

11. "Works of Lucian," iv. 114 f.

12. Ibid. iv. 109.

13. J. G. Frazer, "The Golden Bough" (2nd Edition, London, 1900), iii. 138 f., and "The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kingship" (London, 1911), ii. 310 f.

14. W. W. Fowler, "The Religious Experience of the Roman People" (London, 1911), 107, 112.

15. Fowler, "Roman Festivals," 268, and "Religious Experience," 107; C. Bailey, "The Religion of Ancient Rome" (London, 1907), 70.

16. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 237 f.; Fowler, "Roman Festivals," 278.

17. Quoted from "Libanii Opera," ed. by Reiske, i. 256 f., by G. Bilfinger, "Das germanische Julfest" (vol. ii. of "Untersuchungen ueber die Zeitrechnung der alten Germanen," Stuttgart, 1901), 41 f.

18. "Libanii Opera," iv. 1053 f., quoted by Bilfinger, 43 f.

19. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 237 f., 258.

20. A. Tille, "Yule and Christmas" (London, 1899), 96. [Referred to as "Y. & C."]

21. J. C. Lawson, "Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion" (Cambridge, 1910), 221 f. Cf. M. Hamilton, "Greek Saints and their Festivals" (London, 1910), 98.

22. Chambers, "M. S.," ii. 290 f.

23. Latin text in Chambers, "M. S.," ii. 297 f.

24. Ibid. i. 245.

25. Tille, "Y. & C.," 88 f.; Chambers, "M. S.," ii. 303 f. 372

26. Tille, "Y. & C.," throughout; Chambers, "M. S.," i. 288 f.; Chantepie de la Saussaye, "The Religion of the Ancient Teutons" (Boston, 1902), 382. Cf. O. Schrader, in Hastings's "Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics" (Edinburgh, 1909), ii. 47 f.

27. MacCulloch, "Religion of the Ancient Celts," 258 f. Cf. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 228, 234.

28. Tille, "Y. & C.," 203.

29. [Sir] A. J. Evans, "Christmas and Ancestor Worship in the Black Mountain," in "Macmillan's Magazine" (London), vol. xliii., 1881, 363.

30. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 247.

31. Tille, "Y. & C.," 64.

32. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 232.

33. Ibid. i. 130; W. Robertson Smith, 213 f.

34. Frazer, "Dying God," 129 f.

35. See N. W. Thomas in "Folk-Lore" (London), vol. xi., 1900, 227 f.

36. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 132 f.

37. W. Robertson Smith, 437 f.

38. J. E. Harrison, "Themis: A Study of the Social Origins of Greek Religion" (Cambridge, 1912), 67. Cf. E. F. Ames, "The Psychology of Religious Experience" (London and Boston, 1910), 95 f.

39. Harrison, "Themis," 137.

40. Ibid. 110.

41. S. Reinach, "Cultes, mythes, et religions" (Paris, 1905), i. 93. For the theory that totems were originally food-objects, see Ames, 118 f.

42. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 133.

43. Ibid. i. 105 f., 144.

44. Harrison, "Themis," 507.

45. W. Robertson Smith, 255.

46. Bede, "Historia Ecclesiastica," lib. i. cap. 30. Latin text in Bede's Works, edited by J. A. Giles (London, 1843), vol. ii. p. 142.

47. Frazer, "Golden Bough," iii. 143.

48. Jerome, "Comm. in Isaiam," lxv. 11. Latin text in Chambers, "M. S.," ii. 294.

49. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 266.

50. Latin text in Chambers, "M. S.," ii. 306.

51. Bede, "De Temporum Ratione," cap. 15, quoted by Chambers, i. 231. See also Tille, "Y. & C.," 152 f., and Bilfinger, 131, for other views.

52. Frazer, "Golden Bough," iii. 70 f.

53. See Frazer, "Magic Art," i. 52.

54. Cf. Frazer, "Golden Bough," iii. 300 f.

55. Latin text in H. Usener, "Religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen," part ii. (Bonn, 1889), 43 f. See also A. Tille, "Die Geschichte der deutschen Weihnacht" (Leipsic, 1893), 44 f. [Referred to as "D. W."]

56. Philip Stubbs, "Anatomie Of Abuses" (Reprint of 3rd Edition of 1585, edited by W. B. Turnbull, London, 1836), 205.

57. Quoted by J. Ashton, "A righte Merrie Christmasse!!" (London, n.d.), 26 f.

58. Ibid. 27 f. 373

CHAPTER VII.—ALL HALLOW TIDE TO MARTINMAS

1. R. Chambers, "The Book Of Days" (London, n.d.), ii. 538 [referred to as "B. D."]; T. F. Thiselton Dyer, "British Popular Customs" (London, 1876), 396 f.

2. [Sir] J. Rhys, "Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as illustrated by Celtic Heathendom" (London, 1888), 514, "Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx" (Oxford, 1901), i. 321.

3. Tille, "Y. & C.," 57 f.

4. Rhys, "Celtic Folklore," i. 315 f.

5. J. Dowden, "The Church Year and Kalendar" (Cambridge, 1910), 23 f.

6. Cf. J. G. Frazer, "Adonis, Attis, Osiris" (2nd Edition, London, 1907), 315 f.

7. E. B. Tylor, "Primitive Culture" (3rd Edition, London, 1891), ii. 38.

8. Frazer, "Adonis," 310.

9. Ibid. 312 f.

10. P. Sebillot, "Coutumes populaires de la Haute-Bretagne" (Paris, 1886), 206.

11. L. von Hoermann, "Tiroler Volksleben" (Stuttgart, 1909), 193.

12. Frazer, "Adonis," 315.

13. G. Pitre, "Spettacoli e feste popolari siciliane" (Palermo, 1880), 393 f. Cf. H. F. Feilberg, "Jul" (Copenhagen, 1904), i. 67.

14. "Notes and Queries" (London), 3rd Series, vol. i. 446; Dyer, 408.

15. Frazer, "Adonis," 250.

16. Dyer, 405 f.

17. Notes and Queries, 1st Series, vol. iv. 381; Dyer, 407.

18. C. S. Burne and G. F. Jackson, "Shropshire Folk-Lore" (London, 1883), 383.

19. Ibid. 381 f.

20. Quoted by Dyer, 410.

21. O. von Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, "Das festliche Jahr der germanischen Voelker" (2nd Edition, Leipsic, 1898), 390.

22. "Archivio per lo studio delle tradizioni popolari" (Palermo), vol. viii. 574.

23. Hoermann, "Tiroler Volksleben," 189 f.

24. Frazer, "Adonis," 303 f.

25. Ibid. 306 f.

26. Evans, 363 f.

27. Dyer, 394.

28. Ibid. 398.

29. Ibid. 394. Cf. Chambers, "B. D.," ii. 519 f.

30. Dyer, 395.

31. Ibid. 399.

32. Ibid. 397 f.

33. S. O. Addy, "Household Tales, with other Traditional Remains. Collected in the Counties of Lincoln, Derby, and Nottingham" (London and Sheffield, 1895), 82.

34. Ibid. 85.

35. W. Henderson, "Folk Lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders" (2nd Edition, London, 1879), 101.

36. Dyer, 399.

37. Ibid. 403. 374

38. Rhys, "Celtic Folklore," i. 321, "Celtic Heathendom," 514.

39. Rhys, "Celtic Folklore," i. 328.

40. MacCulloch, "Religion of the Ancient Celts," 259, 261.

41. Rhys, "Celtic Heathendom," 515.

42. Ibid. 515.

43. Ibid. 515, "Celtic Folklore," i. 225.

44. MacCulloch, "Religion of the Ancient Celts," 262.

45. Brand, 211.

46. Dyer, 402.

47. Ibid. 394 f.

48. Frazer, "Golden Bough," iii. 299 f.

49. Burne and Jackson, 389.

50. Dyer, 409.

51. J. Grimm, "Teutonic Mythology" (Eng. Trans. by J. S. Stallybrass, London, 1880-8), i. 47.

52. K. Weinhold, "Weihnacht-Spiele und Lieder aus Sueddeutschland und Schlesien" (Vienna, 1875), 6.

53. U. Jahn, "Die deutschen Opfergebraeuche bei Ackerbau und Viehzucht" (Breslau, 1884), 262.

54. Ibid. 262.

55. Weinhold, 6.

56. Dyer, 472.

57. Notes and Queries, 1st Series, vol. i. 173; Dyer, 486.

58. Weinhold, 7.

59. Ibid. 10.

60. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 449.

61. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 166.

62. Dyer, 480.

63. Feilberg, ii. 228 f.

64. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 393.

65. Tacitus, "Annales," lib. i. cap. 50, quoted by Tille, "Y. & C.," 25.

66. Tille, "Y. & C.," 26.

67. Ibid. 52.

68. Ibid. 27.

69. Brand, 216 f.

70. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 401 f. For German Martinmas feasting, see also Jahn, 229 f.

71. Grimm, iv. 1838, for Danish custom; Jahn, 235 f., for German.

72. "The Folk-Lore Record" (London), vol. iv., 1881, 107; Dyer, 420.

73. MacCulloch, "Religion of the Ancient Celts," 260.

74. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 403.

75. Jahn, 246 f.

76. Ibid. 246; Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 403.

77. Tille, "Y. & C.," 34 f.

78. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 404; Jahn, 250.

79. Jahn, 247.

80. Angela Nardo-Cibele in Archivio trad. pop., vol. v. 238 f., for Venetia; Pitre, 411 f., for Sicily.

81. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 405. 375

82. Jahn, 240.

83. Ibid. 241 f.

84. Ibid. 241.

85. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 404.

86. Weinhold, 7.

87. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 268; Weinhold, 7; Tille, "D. W.," 25.

88. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, illustration facing p. 406.

89. Ibid. 405.

90. Ibid. 404.

91. Ibid. 410; Tille, "D. W.," 26 f.; W. Mannhardt, "Der Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer Nachbarstaemme" (Berlin, 1875. Vol. i. of "Wald- und Feldkulte"), 273.

92. Cf. Mannhardt, "Baumkultus," 303, and Reinach, i. 180.

93. Archivio trad. pop., vol. v. 238 f., 358 f.

94. Mannhardt, "Baumkultus," 274.

CHAPTER VIII.—ST. CLEMENT TO ST. THOMAS

1. Dyer, 423.

2. Notes and Queries, 1st Series, vol. viii. 618; Dyer, 425.

3. Brand, 222 f.

4. Henderson, "Folk Lore of the Northern Counties," 97.

5. Notes and Queries, 3rd Series, vol. iv. 492; Dyer, 423.

6. Dyer, 425.

7. Brand, 222.

8. Ibid. 223.

9. Notes and Queries, 2nd Series, vol. v. 47; Dyer, 427.

10. Dyer, 426 f.

11. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 415.

12. J. N. Raphael in "The Daily Express," Nov. 28, 1911.

13. Dyer, 430.

14. Ibid. 429.

15. Tille, "D. W.," 148.

16. B. Thorpe, "Northern Mythology" (London, 1852), iii. 143.

17. Ibid. iii. 144.

18. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 416 f. Cf. Grimm, iv. 1800.

19. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 417. Cf. Thorpe, iii. 145.

20. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 418.

21. Thorpe, iii. 145.

22. F. S. Krauss, "Sitte und Brauch der Suedslaven" (Vienna, 1885), 179.

23. T. Stratilesco, "From Carpathian to Pindus: Pictures of Roumanian Country Life" (London, 1906), 189.

24. Ibid. 188 f.

25. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 416.

26. Ibid. 420 f.

27. Ibid. 425. 376

28. Thomas Naogeorgus, "The Popish Kingdome," Englyshed by Barnabe Googe, 1570 (ed. by R. C. Hope, London, 1880), 44.

29. G. F. Abbott, "Macedonian Folklore" (Cambridge, 1903), 76.

30. P. M. Hough, "Dutch Life in Town and Country" (London, 1901), 96.

31. Cf. Frazer, "Golden Bough," iii. 90, and also the Epiphany noise-makings described in the present volume.

32. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 426.

33. Hoermann, "Tiroler Volksleben," 218 f.

34. Tille, "D. W.," 30.

35. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 370.

36. Hamilton, 30. Cf. article on St. Nicholas by Professor Anichkof in Folk-Lore, vol. v., 1894, 108 f.

37. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 428 f.

38. Tille, "D. W.," 35 f.; Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 430.

39. Hoermann, "Tiroler Volksleben," 209 f.

40. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 430.

41. Weinhold, 9.

42. Mannhardt, "Baumkultus," 326.

43. Weinhold, 9.

44. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 431 f.

45. Hoermann, "Tiroler Volksleben," 212 f.

46. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 433.

47. Ibid. 433.

48. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 369.

49. W. S. Walsh, "Curiosities of Popular Customs" (London, 1898), 753 f. Cf. Chambers, "B. D.," ii. 664.

50. Feilberg, i. 165, 170.

51. Ibid. i. 169 f.

52. Ibid. i. 171.

53. L. Caico, "Sicilian Ways and Days" (London, 1910), 188 f.

54. Feilberg, i. 168.

55. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 434.

56. Ibid. 434 f.

57. Grimm, iv. 1867.

58. Feilberg, i. 108 f.

59. Ibid. i. 111.

60. N. W. Thomas in Folk-Lore, vol. xi., 1900, 252.

61. Ashton, 52.

62. Dyer, 72 f.

63. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 436 f.

64. Ibid. 437.

65. Ibid. 438.

66. Ibid. 439.

67. Dyer, 439.

68. Ibid. 438 f.; Chambers, "B. D.," ii. 724.

69. Abbott, 81.

70. Notes and Queries, 2nd Series, vol. v. 35; Dyer, 439. 377

CHAPTER IX.—CHRISTMAS EVE AND THE TWELVE DAYS

1. Tille, "D. W.," 32 f.

2. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 446.

3. Ibid. 448.

4. Ibid. 449.

5. Ibid. 448; Weinhold, 8 f.

6. Evans, 229.

7. Weinhold, 8.

8. Tille, "Y. & C.," 116.

9. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 444 f.

10. Ibid. 442 f.

11. Ibid. 444.

12. W. R. S. Ralston, "Songs of the Russian People" (1st Edition, London, 1872), 186 f.

13. Sebillot, 216.

14. Walsh, 232.

15. Burne and Jackson, 406; Henderson, "Folk Lore of the Northern Counties," 311; Sir Edgar MacCulloch, "Guernsey Folk Lore" (London, 1903), 34; Thorpe, ii. 272.

16. Walsh, 232.

17. Henderson, "Folk Lore of the Northern Counties," 311.

18. MacCulloch, "Guernsey Folk Lore," 34 f. Cf. for Germany, Grimm, iv. 1779, 1809.

19. Grimm, iv. 1840.

20. Ralston, 201.

21. A. Le Braz, "La Legende de la Mort chez les Bretons armoricains" (Paris, 1902), i. 114 f.

22. Thorpe, ii. 89.

23. Lloyd, 171.

24. Feilberg, ii. 7 f.

25. Ibid. ii. 14.

26. Bilfinger, 52.

27. Feilberg, ii. 3 f.

28. Ibid. ii. 20 f.

29. A. F. M. Ferryman, "In the Northman's Land" (London, 1896), 112.

30. Feilberg, ii. 64.

31. Grimm, iv. 1781, 1783, 1793, 1818.

32. Krauss, 181.

33. Accounts of the carols used in Little Russia are given by Mr. Ralston, 186 f., while those sung by the Roumanians are described by Mlle. Stratilesco, 192 f., and those customary in Dalmatia by Sir A. J. Evans, 224 f.

34. Ralston, 193.

35. Stratilesco, 192.

36. Ralston, 197.

37. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 244.

38. Shakespeare, "Hamlet," Act I. Sc. 1.

39. Bilfinger, 37 f.

40. Henderson, "Folk Lore of the Northern Counties," 132. 378

41. Tylor, i. 362.

42. W. Golther, "Handbuch der germanischen Mythologie" (Leipsic, 1895), 283 f.

43. Tille, "D. W.," 173.

44. Henderson, "Folk Lore of the Northern Counties," 132.

45. MacCulloch, "Guernsey Folk Lore," 33 f.

46. Burne and Jackson, 396 f., 403.

47. R. T. Hampson, "Medii Aevi Kalendarium" (London, 1841), i. 90.

48. Grimm, iv. 1836; Thorpe, ii. 272.

49. Burne and Jackson, 405.

50. Ibid. 405; MacCulloch, "Religion of the Ancient Celts," 166.

51. E. H. Meyer, "Mythologie der Germanen" (Strassburg, 1903), 424; Golther, 491; Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 22 f.

52. Golther, 493.

53. Meyer, 425 f.

54. Ibid. 425 f.

55. Grimm, iii. 925 f.

56. Ibid. i. 268, 275 f.

57. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 22.

58. Grimm, i. 275; Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 23.

59. Ibid. 23.

60. Meyer, 425; Grimm, i. 281.

61. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 21.

62. Golther, 493.

63. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 24.

64. Grimm, i. 274.

65. Meyer, 428.

66. R. H. Busk, "The Valleys of Tirol" (London, 1874), 116.

67. Ibid. 118.

68. Ibid. 417.

69. The details given about the Kallikantzaroi are taken, unless otherwise stated, from Lawson, 190 f.

70. Abbott, 74.

71. Hamilton, 108 f.

72. Ibid. 109.

73. Abbott, 218.

74. Ibid. 73 f.

75. Meyer, 85 f.

76. G. Henderson, "Survivals of Belief among the Celts" (Glasgow, 1911), 178.

77. Ibid. 177.

78. F. H. E. Palmer, "Russian Life In Town and Country" (London, 1901), 178.

CHAPTER X.—THE YULE LOG

1. Evans, 221 f.; Mannhardt, "Baumkultus," 224 f. Cf. the account of the Servian Christmas in Chedo Mijatovitch, "Servia and the Servians" (London, 1908), 98 f.

2. Same sources. 379

3. Mannhardt, "Baumkultus," 236.

4. Frazer, "Magic Art," ii. 208.

5. Ibid. ii. 232.

6. Evans, 219, 295, and 357.

7. Ibid. 222.

8. Mannhardt, "Baumkultus," 237.

9. Cf. Frazer, "Magic Art," ii. 233.

10. Ibid. ii. 365 f.

11. Mannhardt, "Baumkultus," 226 f.

12. "Memoirs of Mistral" (Eng. Trans. by C. E. Maud, London, 1907), 29 f.

13. Mannhardt, "Baumkultus," 226 f.

14. Sebillot, 218.

15. A. de Gubernatis, "Storia Comparata degli Usi Natalizi" (Milan, 1878), 112.

16. C. Casati in Archivio trad. pop., vol. vi. 168 f.

17. Jahn, 253.

18. Ibid. 254.

19. Ibid. 257.

20. Brand, 245; Dyer, 466.

21. [Sir] G. L. Gomme, "Folk Lore Relics of Early Village Life" (London 1883), 99.

22. Ashton, 111.

23. Burne and Jackson, 402.

24. Ibid. 398 f.

25. Notes and Queries, 1st Series, vol. iv. 309; Dyer, 446 f.

26. "The Gentleman's Magazine," 1790, 719.

27. Hampson, i. 109.

28. Feilberg, i. 118 f.

29. Ibid. i. 146.

30. Ibid. ii. 66 f.

CHAPTER XI.—THE CHRISTMAS-TREE, DECORATIONS, AND GIFTS

1. I. A. R. Wylie, "My German Year" (London, 1910), 68.

2. Mrs. A. Sidgwick, "Home Life in Germany" (London, 1908), 176.

3. Tille, "D. W.," 258. For the history and associations of the Christmas-tree see also E. M. Kronfeld, "Der Weihnachtsbaum" (Oldenburg, 1906).

4. Tille, "D. W.," 259.

5. Ibid. 261.

6. Ibid. 261 f.

7. G. Rietschel, "Weihnachten in Kirche, Kunst und Volksleben" (Bielefeld and Leipsic, 1902), 153.

8. Ibid., 153.

9. Tille, "D. W.," 270.

10. Rietschel, 151.

11. Ibid. 151.

12. Tille, "D. W.," 267. 380

13. Dyer, 442; E. M. Leather, "The Folk-Lore of Herefordshire" (London, 1912), 90.

14. Rietschel, 154.

15. Ashton, 189.

16. Ibid. 190.

17. Tille, "D. W.," 271.

18. Ibid. 272.

19. Ibid. 277; Rietschel, 254.

20. Information supplied by the Rev. E. W. Lummis, who a few years ago was a pastor in the Muensterthal.

21. L. Macdonald in "The Pall Mall Gazette" (London), Dec. 28, 1911.

22. Tille, "Y. & C.," 174.

23. Ibid. 175 f.

24. Rietschel, 141.

25. Tille, "Y. & C.," 175.

26. Ibid. 172 f.; Chambers, "B. D.," ii. 759.

27. Latin text in Chambers, "M. S.," ii. 290.

28. Mannhardt, "Baumkultus," 244.

29. Frazer, "Magic Art," ii. 65.

30. Mannhardt, "Baumkultus," 244.

31. Ibid. 241; Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 18.

32. Lloyd, 168.

33. Dyer, 35.

34. W. F. Dawson, "Christmas: its Origin and Associations" (London, 1902), 325.

35. Harrison, "Themis," 321.

36. Frazer, "Magic Art," ii. 55 f.

37. Frazer, "Magic Art," ii. 48.

38. Mannhardt, "Baumkultus," 242 f.

39. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 251.

40. Latin text, ibid. ii. 300.

41. J. Stow, "A Survay of London," edited by Henry Morley (London, 1893), 123.

42. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 251.

43. Grimm, iii. 1206; Frazer, "Golden Bough," iii. 327; MacCulloch, "Religion of the Ancient Celts," 162, 205.

44. MacCulloch, "Religion of the Ancient Celts," 162 f.

45. Grimm, iii. 1206.

46. Burne and Jackson, 246; Laisnel de la Salle, "Croyances et legendes du centre de la France" (Paris, 1875), i. 58.

47. Frazer, "Golden Bough," iii. 451 f.

48. Washington Irving, "The Sketch-Book" (Revised Edition, New York, 1860), 245.

49. Notes and Queries, 5th Series, vol. viii. 481.

50. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 472.

51. Henderson, "Folk Lore of the Northern Counties," 100.

52. Burne and Jackson, 245.

53. Henderson, "Folk Lore of the Northern Counties," 226.

54. E. K. Chambers and F. Sidgwick, "Early English Lyrics" (London, 1907), 293; E. Rickert, "Ancient English Carols" (London, 1910), 262. 381

55. Rickert, 262.

56. Burne and Jackson, 245 f., 397, 411.

57. Lloyd, 169.

58. Van Norman, 300.

59. Evans, 222.

60. Van Norman, 300 f.

61. Frazer, "Golden Bough," ii. 286 f.

62. Grimm, iv. 1831.

63. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 238. Cf. Tille, "Y. & C.," 104.

64. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 420.

65. Tille, "D. W.," 195.

66. Ibid. 197.

67. Bilfinger, 48.

68. Th. Bentzon, "Christmas in France" in "The Century Magazine" (New York), Dec., 1901, 173.

69. Feilberg, ii. 179 f.

70. Pitre, 167, 404.

71. Feilberg, i. 196; Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 453 f.; Wylie, 77 f.

72. Lloyd, 172.

73. W. Sandys, "Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern" (London, 1833), xcv.

74. Walsh, 240 f.; Ashton, 194 f.

CHAPTER XII.—CHRISTMAS FEASTING AND SACRIFICIAL SURVIVALS

1. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 257.

2. Rickert, 259.

3. W. Sandys, "Christmastide: its History, Festivities, and Carols" (London, n.d.), 112.

4. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 133.

5. J. A. H. Murray, "A New English Dictionary" (Oxford, 1888, &c.) iv. (1) 577.

6. Addy, 103.

7. Dawson, 254.

8. Addy, 104.

9. Burne and Jackson, 407.

10. Brand, 283.

11. Cf. Folk-Lore, vol. xi., 1900, 260.

12. Addy, 103.

13. Cf. carols in Brand, 3, and Rickert, 243 f.

14. Brand, 3.

15. Dyer, 464.

16. Feilberg, i. 119, 184; Lloyd, 173.

17. Jahn, 265.

18. Stratilesco, 190.

19. Ralston, 193, 203.

20. Mijatovich, 98.

21. Jahn, 261.

22. Rietschel, 106. Cf. Weinhold, 25, and Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 463.

23. Sebillot, 217. 382

24. Laisnel, i. 7 f.

25. Ibid. i. 12 f.

26. Ibid. i. 11.

27. E. Cortet, "Essai sur les Fetes religieuses" (Paris, 1867), 265.

28. Frazer, "Golden Bough," ii. 286 f.

29. M. Hoefler, "Weihnachtsgebaecke. Eine vergleichende Studie der germanischen Gebildbrote zur Weihnachtszeit" in "Zeitschrift fuer oesterreichische Volkskunde," Jahrg. 11, Supplement-Heft 3 (Vienna, 1905).

30. Jahn, 280 f.

31. Burne and Jackson, 406 f.

32. "The Mirror of Perfection," trans. by Sebastian Evans (London, 1898), 206.

33. Mannhardt, "Baumkultus," 233 f.

34. Lloyd, 170 f.

35. Jahn, 276.

36. Ibid. 276.

37. Lloyd, 168.

38. Evans, 231 f.; for the ox-custom, see Evans, 233.

39. Abbott, 76.

40. Hoermann, "Tiroler Volksleben," 244 f., 238, 245.

41. Dawson, 339.

42. S. Graham, "A Vagabond in the Caucasus. With some Notes of his Experiences among the Russians" (London, 1910), 25 f.

43. Stratilesco, 190.

44. Van Norman, 299 f.

45. Jahn, 267.

46. Frazer, "Golden Bough," ii. 442 f., where other examples, British and Continental, of the wren-hunt are given. Cf. Dyer, 494 f.

47. Folk-Lore, vol. xviii., 1907, 439 f.

48. MacCulloch, "Religion of the Ancient Celts," 221.

49. See Frazer, "Golden Bough," ii. 380, 441, for examples of similar practices with sacred animals.

50. Folk-Lore, vol. xi., 1900, 259.

51. Brand, 272.

52. Folk-Lore, vol. xi., 1900, 262.

53. Lloyd, 181 f.

54. Ibid. 181.

55. Thorpe, ii. 49 f.

56. Ralston, 200.

CHAPTER XIII.—MASKING, THE MUMMERS' PLAY, THE FEAST OF FOOLS, AND THE BOY BISHOP

1. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 390 f.

2. The Works Of Ben Jonson, ed. by Barry Cornwall (London, 1838), 600.

3. Shakespeare, "Henry VIII.," Act I. Sc. IV.

4. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 403 f.

5. Ibid. i. 227, 402.

6. Ibid. i. 402. Cf. Burne and Jackson, 410.

7. For a bibliography of texts of the mummers' plays see Chambers, "M. S.," i. 205 f. 383

8. This account of the plays and dances is based upon Chambers, "M. S.," i. 182 f. (chapters ix. and x.).

9. Tacitus, "Germania," cap. xxiv. (Eng. Trans. by W. Hamilton Fyfe, Oxford, 1908).

10. Cf. Harrison, "Themis," 43 f.

11. Professor Gilbert Murray in "Themis," 341 f.

12. Harrison, "Themis," 232.

13. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 226.

14. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 192, 213 f.

15. Ibid. i. 220 f.

16. Lawson, 223 f.

17. Notes and Queries, 5th Series, vol. x. 482.

18. This account of the Feast of Fools and the Boy Bishop is mainly derived from Chambers, "M. S.," i. 274-371, and from Mr. A. F. Leach's article, "The Schoolboys' Feast," in "The Fortnightly Review" (London), vol. lix., 1896, 128 f.

19. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 294.

20. Full text in Chambers, "M. S.," ii. 280 f.

21. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 372 f.

22. "Two Sermons preached by the Boy Bishop at St. Paul's," ed. by J. G. Nichols, with an Introduction by E. F. Rimbault (London, printed for the Camden Society, 1875).

23. Ibid. 3.

24. Quoted by F. J. Snell, "The Customs Of Old England" (London, 1911), 44.

25. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 366.

26. J. Aubrey, "Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme" (1686-7), ed. by J. Britten (London, 1881), 40 f.

27. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 350.

28. Feilberg, ii. 254.

CHAPTER XIV.—ST. STEPHEN'S, ST. JOHN'S, AND HOLY INNOCENTS' DAYS

1. Hoermann, "Tiroler Volksleben," 237 f.

2. Dyer, 492.

3. L. von Hoermann, "Das Tiroler Bauernjahr" (Innsbruck, 1899), 204.

4. Ibid. 204.

5. Ibid. 204 f.

6. Feilberg, i. 212.

7. Mannhardt, "Baumkultus," 402.

8. Feilberg, i. 211.

9. Mannhardt, "Baumkultus," 402 f.

10. Ibid. 402 f.; Feilberg, i. 204 f.; Lloyd, 203 f.

11. H. C. Beeching, "A Book of Christmas Verse" (London, 1895), 21 f.

12. Mannhardt, "Baumkultus," 406.

13. Henderson, "Folk Lore of the Northern Counties," 67.

14. Jahn, 269 f.

15. Ibid. 270 f.

16. Ibid. 273. 384

17. Dyer, 497 f.

18. Ibid. 498; Brand, 290.

19. Mannhardt, "Baumkultus," 264 f.

20. Ibid. 265 f.

21. Ibid. 268.

22. Frazer, "Golden Bough," iii. 129 f.

CHAPTER XV.—NEW YEAR'S DAY

1. Rhys, "Celtic Folklore," i. 320 f.

2. Henderson, "Folk Lore of the Northern Counties," 72.

3. E. Thurston, "Omens and Superstitions of Southern India" (London, 1912), 17 f.

4. Walsh, 742.

5. Wylie, 81.

6. Sebillot, 176.

7. A. Maurice Low, "The American People" (London, 1911), ii. 6.

8. Walsh, 739 f.

9. Evans, 229.

10. Burne and Jackson, 315 f.

11. Notes and Queries, 5th Series, vol. iii. 6.

12. Information given by the Rev. E. J. Hardy, formerly Chaplain to the Forces at Hongkong.

13. Frazer, "Golden Bough," iii. 204 f.

14. Burne and Jackson, 265.

15. Grimm, iv. 1784.

16. Harrison, "Themis," 36.

17. Henderson, "Folk Lore of the Northern Counties," 72 f.

18. Addy, 205.

19. G. Hastie in Folk-Lore, vol. iv., 1893, 309 f.

20. J. E. Crombie in same volume, 316 f.

21. Addy, 106; Burne and Jackson, 314; Rhys, "Celtic Folklore," i. 337.

22. Rhys, "Celtic Folklore," i. 339.

23. Ibid. 339 f.; W. Henderson, 74. Cf. Folk-Lore, vol. iii., 1892, 253 f.; vol. iv., 1893, 309 f.

24. Hastie (see Note 19), 311.

25. Walsh, 738.

26. Hastie, 312.

27. Chambers, "B. D.," i. 28.

28. Ibid. ii. 789 f.; Notes and Queries, 2nd Series, vol. ix., 322; Dyer, 506.

29. Ashton, 228.

30. Hoermann, "Tiroler Volksleben," 230 f.

31. J. G. Campbell, "Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland" (Glasgow, 1902), 232. Cf. the account given by Dr. Johnson, in Brand, 278.

32. Henderson, "Survivals of Belief among the Celts," 263 f.

33. R. Chambers, "Popular Rhymes of Scotland" (Edinburgh, 1847), 296, and "B. D.," ii. 788. 385

34. "New English Dictionary," v. (1) 327.

35. Cortet, 18.

36. Sebillot, 213.

37. Ibid. 213.

38. MacCulloch, "Guernsey Folk Lore," 37.

39. Abbott, 80 f.

40. Stratilesco, 197 f.

41. Hamilton, 103.

42. Ibid. 104.

43. Mannhardt, "Baumkultus," 593 f.

44. Latin text from Ducange in Chambers, "M. S.," i. 254.

45. Wylie, 81.

46. Abbott, 78.

47. Grimm, iv. 1847.

48. Sebillot, 171.

49. Dyer, 7.

50. Ashton, 228.

51. A. Macdonell, "In the Abruzzi" (London, 1908), 102.

52. Abbott, 77.

53. Ralston, 205.

54. "The Athenaeum" (London), Feb. 5, 1848; Notes and Queries, 1st Series, vol. v., 5.

CHAPTER XVI.—EPIPHANY TO CANDLEMAS

1. Hoermann, "Tiroler Volksleben," 240 f.

2. Leigh Hunt, "The Seer; or, Common-Places Refreshed" (London, 1850), part ii. 31.

3. Beeching, 148 f.

4. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 261.

5. E. Pasquier, "Les Recherches de la France" (Paris, 1621), livre iv., chap. ix. p. 375.

6. Cortet, 33.

7. Ibid. 34.

8. Ibid. 43.

9. E. Du Meril, "Origines latines du theatre moderne" (Paris, 1849), 26 f.

10. Brand, 13.

11. A. de Nore, "Coutumes, mythes et traditions des provinces de France" (Paris, 1846), 173.

12. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 29 f.; Brand, 13.

13. Matilde Serao, "La Madonna e i Santi" (Naples, 1902), 128.

14. Reinach, i. 45 f.

15. Abbott, 77.

16. Ibid. 78.

17. Frazer, "Golden Bough," iii. 93.

18. Hoermann, "Tiroler Volksleben," 246; Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 21.

19. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 21.

20. Ibid. 21 f. 386

21. Stratilesco, 198.

22. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 21.

23. Countess Martinengo-Cesaresco, "Essays in the Study of Folk-Songs" (London, 1886), 334.

24. D. N. Lees, "Tuscan Feasts and Tuscan Friends" (London, 1907), 87.

25. Ibid. 83.

26. Serao, 127 f.

27. E. de Olavarria y Huarte, "El Folk-Lore de Madrid," 90. [Vol. ii. of "Biblioteca de las Tradiciones Populares Espanolas" (Seville, 1884).]

28. Ibid. 92.

29. "Memoirs of Mistral," 32 f.

30. Nore, 17.

31. Abbott, 87.

32. Frazer, "Magic Art," i. 275 f.

33. Hamilton, 118.

34. Brand, 16; Chambers, "B. D.," i. 56; Dyer, 21.

35. Aubrey, 40.

36. Brand, 16.

37. Beeching, 147.

38. Ashton, 87 f.

39. Hoermann, "Tiroler Volksleben," 225.

40. Tille, "D. W.," 254.

41. Hoermann, "Tiroler Volksleben," 230.

42. W. S. Lach-Szyrma in "The Folk-Lore Record" (London), vol. iv., 1881, 53.

43. Brand, 17; Chambers, "B. D.," i. 55 f.; Dyer, 22 f. Several accounts have been collected by Mrs. Leather, "Folk-Lore of Herefordshire," 93 f.

44. Evans, 228.

45. Dyer, 24.

46. Folk-Lore, vol. v., 1894, 192.

47. Ibid. vol. vii., 1896, 340 f.

48. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 149 f.

49. W. Hone, "Every Day Book" (London, 1838), ii. 1649.

50. Folk-Lore, vol. vii., 1896, 342.

51. [Sir] G. L. Gomme, "The Village Community" (London, 1890), 242 f.

52. Busk, 99.

53. Dawson, 320.

54. "The Nation" (London), Dec. 10, 1910.

55. Burne and Jackson, 411.

56. Lloyd, 217.

57. Bilfinger, 24.

58. Brand, 18 f.

59. Dyer, 37.

60. Quoted from "Journal of the Archaeological Association," vol. vii., 1852, 202, by Dyer, 39.

61. Chambers, "M. S.," i. 113.

62. Ibid. i. 114.

63. Usener, 310 f.

64. Naogeorgus, 48.

65. Sebillot, 179 f. 387

66. Hoermann, "Tiroler Volksleben," 7.

67. Usener, 321.

68. Brand, 25. Cf. G. W. Kitchin, "Seven Sages Of Durham" (London, 1911), 113.

69. The Gentleman's Magazine, 1790, 719.

70. Dyer, 55 f.

71. Quoted by Dyer, 57, from Martin's "Description of the Western Isles of Scotland" (1703), 119.

72. Gomme, "Folk-Lore Relics," 95.

73. Brand, 26.

74. Ibid. 26.

75. Burne and Jackson, 411.

CONCLUSION

1. E. Clodd in Presidential Address to the Folk-Lore Society, 1894. See Folk-Lore, vol. vi., 1895, 77.

388 389 390 391



INDEX

Abbots Bromley, horn-dance at, 201

Abruzzi, All Souls' Eve in, 192; "new water" in, 333

"Adam," drama, 127-8

Adam and Eve, their Day, 271

Adam of St. Victor, 33-4

"Adeste, fideles," 63-4

Advent, 90-2; "Advent images," 118; Kloepfelnaechte, 216-8

Alexandria, pagan rites at, 20

All Saints' Day, and the cult of the dead, 173, 189-90

All Souls' Day, and the cult of the dead, 173, 181, 189-95

Alsace, Christkind in, 230; New Year's "May" in, 269-70

Alsso of Brevnov, 183

Ambrose, St., 31-2

Amburbale, 353

Amiens, Feast of Fools at, 305

Anatolius, St., hymn of, 100

Ancestor-worship, 181, 253-4, 290, 341

Andrew, St., his Day, 173, 213-6, 277

Animals, carol of, 69; ox and ass at the Nativity, 155; cult of, 174-8; masks of, 175-6, 199-202; on Christmas Eve, 233-4; specially fed at Christmas, 289; wassailing, 346-7

Ansbach, Martinmas in, 206

Antwerp, soul-cakes at, 194; St. Martin at, 206-7; St. Thomas's Day at, 224

Apples, customs with, 195-6, 207, 278

Ara Coeli, Rome, 115-6

Ardennes, St. Thomas's Day in, 224

Armenian Church, Epiphany in, 22

Artemis and St. Nicholas, 218

Aryan and pre-Aryan customs, 163-4

Aschenklas, 219, 231

Ashes, superstition about, 258

Ass, Prose of the, 304-5

Athens, New Year in, 331

Aubrey, J., 308

Augury, 182, 195-8, 214-5, 225, 237, 321-33

Augustine, St. (of Canterbury), 21, 179

Aurelian, 23

Austria, Christmas poetry in, 45-46; Christmas drama in, 143-6; soul-cakes in, 194; St. Nicholas in, 218-20; St. Lucia's Eve in, 223; St. Thomas's Eve in, 225; Frau Perchta, etc., in, 241-4, 342; Sylvester in, 274. See also Bohemia, Carinthia, Styria, Tyrol

Awdlay, John, 47-8

Bach, J. S., 73-4

Baden, All Souls' Eve in, 192

Balder, 273

Baptism of Christ, celebrated at Epiphany, 20-2, 101-4

Barbara, St., her festival, 268

Bari, festival of St. Nicholas at, 221

Barring out the master, 224

Bartel, 219

Basil, St., his festival, 331

Basilidians, 21

Basle, Council of, 305

Bavaria, St. Martin's rod in, 207; Christmas-trees in, 266-7; sacrificial feast in, 286; St. John's wine in, 314

Beauvais, Feast of the Ass at, 305

Bede, Venerable, 181, 203 392

Bees on Christmas Eve, 234

Befana, 244, 278, 343

Belethus, Johannes, 302

Belgium, All Souls' Eve in, 192, 194; St. Hubert's Day in, 202; Martinmas in, 204-7; St. Catherine's Day in, 213; St. Nicholas in, 219; St. Thomas's Day in, 224

Bentzon, Madame Th., 96-7

Berchta. See Perchta

Berlin, pyramids in, 266; biscuits in, 288

Bernard, St., of Clairvaux, 33

Berry, cake customs in, 287, 339

Bethlehem, Christmas at, 94-5, 107

Biggar, bonfires at, 327

Bilfinger, Dr. G., 172

Birds fed at Christmas, 289

Blindman's buff, 293

Boar's head, 284, 348

Bohemia, the "star" in, 152; fifteenth-century Christmas customs in, 183; St. Andrew's Eve in, 215-6; St. Thomas's Eve in, 224-5

Boniface, St., 171

Boy Bishop, 212-3, 306-8; connection with St. Nicholas, 220-1, 307-8

"Breast-strip" rites, 328

Breviary, the Roman, 90

Briid, 354

Brimo, 21

Brittany, Herod play in, 141; Magi actors in, 151; All Souls' Eve in, 191-2; Christmas Eve superstitions in, 233-5, 236; Christmas log in, 256; New Year in, 323; aguillanneuf in, 330; weather superstition in, 332

Brixen, cradle-rocking at, 111

Brixlegg, Christmas play at, 143 f.

Bromfield, Cumberland, barring out the master at, 224

Brough, Westmoreland, Twelfth Night tree at, 270

Brunnen, Epiphany at, 341

Budelfrau, 220

Burchardus of Worms, 181

Burford, Christmas holly at, 275

Burghead, "Clavie" at, 327

Burns, Robert, 197

"Bush, burning the," 346

Buzebergt, 220

Byrom, John, 84

Caballero, Fernan, 66-7, 117, 151

Caesarius of Arles, 170-1, 181

Cakes, "feasten," 177; soul, 192-4; St. Hubert's, 202; Martin's horns, 204; Christmas, 287-8, 289-90; Twelfth Night, 337-40, 346; St. Basil's, 341

Calabrian minstrels, 112

Calamy, 185

Caligula, 168

Callander, Hallowe'en at, 198

Cambridge, St. Clement's Day at, 212

Canada, Christmas Eve superstition in, 234

Candlemas, 350, 352-5

Candles, on St. Lucia's Day, 212-2; Yule, 258-60

Cards, Christmas, 279

Carinthia, St. Stephen's Day in, 312

Carnival, 300, 349

Carols, meaning of the word, 47-8; English sacred, 47-51, 76-8, 84-5; Welsh, 69; Irish, 69-70; Highland, 70

Catholicism and Christmas, 27, 186

Celtic New Year, 172, 189, 195, 203-4, 321

Centaurs, 247

Cereal sacraments, 177-8. See also Cakes

Chambers, Mr. E. K., 5, 125, 299-300, 302-7, 348

Charlemagne, coronation of, 96

Charms, New Year, 182, 195-8, 321-34

Cheshire, Old Hob in, 199; poultry specially fed at Christmas, 289

Chester plays, 128, 133-4

Chesterton, Mr. G. K., 85-6

Childermas, 315

Children's festivals, 205-7, 218-20, 223-4, 359-60

China, New Year in, 324

Chios, Christmas rhamna in, 270

Christkind as gift-bringer, 205, 230, 277-8

Christmas, pagan and Christian elements in, 18-28, 161-86, 357-60; names of, 20-5; establishment of, 20-2; 393 its connection with earlier festivals, 20-8; becomes humanized, 25-7, 34-8; in poetry, 31-86; liturgical aspects of, 89-101; in popular devotion, 104-18; in drama, 121-54; its human appeal, 155-7, 357-60; attracts customs from other festivals, 173, 226, 277-8, 284; decorations, 178, 272-6; feasting, 178-80, 283-91; presents, 276-9; masking customs, 297-308; log, see Yule Log

Christmas Eve, 229-38; superstitions about the supernatural, 233-7; log customs, 251-8; fish supper on, 286-7

Christmas-tree, 168, 178, 263-72; its origin, 267-72

Christpuppe, 231

Chrysostom, 269

Church, Dean, 34

Circumcision, Feast of, 101, 302. See also New Year's Day

Clement, St., his Day, 211-2

Cleobury Mortimer, curfew at, 258

Clermont, shepherd play at, 141

Coffin, Charles, 64

Communion, sacrificial, 174-8

"Comte d'Alsinoys," 56, 58-9

Cornwall, Hallowe'en custom in, 196; blackbird pie in, 293; Childermas in, 315

Coventry plays, 128, 130-1, 138

Cradle-rocking, 108-11

Crashaw, 79-81

Crib, Christmas, 105-8, 113-8; possible survivals in England, 118, 274

Crimmitschau, 112

Crivoscian customs, 231, 253-4, 276, 346-7

Croatia, St. Andrew's Eve in, 215; Christmas log customs in, 251

Cronia, 166

Dalmatia, Yule log customs in, 252

Dancing, 47-8, 293-4, 298-300, 302

Daniel, Jean, 56, 58

Dannhauer, J. K., 265

Dasius, St., 167

Dead, feasts of the, 173, 180-1, 189-95, 235-6, 240, 253-4, 341

Decorations, evergreen, 168, 178, 350, 355

Denisot, Nicholas, 56, 58-9

Denmark, "star-singing" in, 151; animal masks in, 202; Martinmas goose in, 203; St. Lucia's Eve in, 223; St. Thomas's Day in, 223-4; Christmas Eve superstitions in, 235-6; Yule candles in, 259-60; Christmas-tree in, 267; pig's head eaten in, 286; Yule-bishop in, 308

Derbyshire, "kissing-bunch" in, 274; Plough Monday in, 352

Devil, and beast masks, 202; and flax, 240

Devon, "Yeth hounds" in, 240; "ashton faggot" in, 258; wassailing fruit-trees in, 345

Dew, Christmas, 288-9

Dickens, Charles, 359

Dinan, Herod play at, 141

Dionysus, as child-god, 21; winter festivals of, 169, 331

Dorstone, Hallowe'en at, 197

Drama, Christmas, in Latin, 121-7; in English, 128-38; in French, 128, 138-43; in Spanish, 128, 148-50; in German, 143-6; in Italian, 147-8, 150; survivals of, 150-4; St. Nicholas plays, 220, 232; pagan folk-drama, 298-302

Drinking customs, 36, 204, 285-6, 314-5, 327

Druids and mistletoe, 273

Duchesne, Monsignor, 20, 24

Durham, Candlemas at, 353-4

Duesseldorf, Martinmas at, 206

Dyzemas, 315

Eckhart, 42-3, 157