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PREFACE. 
 
 The series of books of which this is the second is designed 
 rather to be a supplement to the encyclopaedias than to be of 
 an encyclopedic character in itself. That is to say, it is the 
 strange and out-of-the-way things usually left out of current 
 works of reference which form the staple of this book, as of 
 its predecessor. 
 
 The book is largely a compilation. I have been greatly in- 
 debted to the antiquarian writers who have gone before. 
 Bourne, Brand, Hone, and Chambers have been placed under 
 contribution. Thiselton Dyer's "British Popular Customs" 
 (1891) and P. H. Ditchfield's " Old English Customs Extant at 
 the Present Time" (1897) have proved especially valuable 
 among the more modern authorities. To all these I cordially 
 give my thanks. I must also call attention to that very re- 
 markable French work by B. Picart, " Ceremonies et Coutumes 
 religieuses de tons les Peuples" (1723), because it has furnished 
 many of the most striking and unique of the illustrations to this 
 book. 
 
 A word about Barnaby Googe's translation of ^Naogeorgus, 
 from which many excerpts have been made, will not prove out 
 of place. Naogeorgus was the assumed name of Thomas Kirch- 
 mayer, a German of the time of the Eeformation, whose " Popish 
 Kingdom, or Eeign of Antichrist," was originally published in 
 Latin. Googe's translation into English appeared in 1570. A 
 new edition, by C. E. Hope, was published in 1880. The book, 
 it must be remembered, though many antiquarians have failed 
 so to remember, deals with the Germany and not the England 
 of Catholic times. 
 
 w. s. w. 
 
CURIOSITIES 
 
 OF 
 
 POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 Ab, Fast of, or Black Fast. The most mournful day in 
 the Jewish calendar. It occurs on the ninth day of the fifth 
 month, Ab, — a month which corresponds roughly with the end 
 of July and the beginning of August. This is the anniversary 
 of the two destructions of Jerusalem, the first by Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, which resulted in the Babylonish Captivity, the second 
 by Titus, when the Jewish nation was dispersed over the face 
 of the earth. The fast is observed scrupulously from sunset of 
 the eighth day of Ab until nightfall of the ninth. The syna- 
 gogues are darkened so that the light of the sun cannot pene- 
 trate within, only a few dim candles are lit, the ornaments are 
 ail removed, and the ark is stripped of its curtain. The service 
 consists of readings from the book of Lamentations, and dirges 
 describing the destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersion of 
 its people, all conducted in a low and melancholy key. 
 
 Adam's Peak, or Samanala, a holy mountain in Ceylon. 
 According to Mohammedan legend, Adam after the fall was taken 
 by an angel to the top of this mountain, whence a panorama of 
 all the ills that should afflict mankind was unrolled before him. 
 His foot left an impress on the solid rock which is still shown 
 to visitors, while his tears formed the lake from which pilgrims 
 still drink. The Buddhists have their own legend of the Sripada, 
 or Sacred Footstep, according to which Buddha, ascending to 
 heaven, left the impression where last he touched the earth on 
 the highest point of Samanala. The Brahmins, the Moham- 
 medans, and the Chinese have differing legends, and for more 
 than two thousand years all have worshipped in their own way 
 round the gigantic footprint. The latter is a flat rocky basin, 
 five an^l m, quarter feet by two and a half feet, on the top of a 
 huge b(jiildor, in which only a very active imagination, aided by 
 
 7 
 
8 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 a lively faith, can see the likeness to a human foot. The boulder 
 is covered with a wooden shrine of slender columns, which is 
 open on all sides to the wild winds that rage there, and is shel- 
 tered only by a roof with shady, overhanging eaves, from which 
 hang down two ancient bells. Although the shrine oifers but 
 slight resistance to the elements, the winds which blow and beat 
 about that sacred summit are so strong and wild that it has to 
 be secured in its place by great chains, which pass over it and 
 are fastened to the living rock below. To perform a pilgrimage 
 to this shrine and to lay an offering upon it is to a Buddhist 
 what a visit to Mecca is to a Mohammedan. The favorite months 
 are April and May, but all the year round a steady stream 
 of devotees flows hither. The devotions of the pilgrims, who 
 are usually clad in spotless white, consist of low bowings and 
 prayers before Sripada, gifts of flowers and incense, burning of 
 candles, ringing of small bells, and presents to the priests of rice 
 and of gold and silver coins. Eags of old clothes are also consid- 
 ered a worthy sacrifice, and the words " Sadu, Sadu," correspond- 
 ing to our " Amen, Amen," are often repeated. Tradition asserts 
 that the iron chains fastened to the walls of rock to give the pil- 
 grims safety along the precipices were placed there by Alexander. 
 
 Adam's Tomb. This is pointed out in a chamber of the 
 church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Mark Twain's 
 apostrophe at the tomb is one of the most famous bits in his 
 "Innocents Abroad:" "The tomb of Adam! how touching it 
 was, here in a land of strangers, far away from home and 
 friends ! True, he was a blood-relation ; though a distant one, 
 still a relation ! The unerring instinct of nature thrilled its 
 recognition. The fountain of my filial afi'ection was stirred to 
 its profoundest depths, and I gave way to tumultuous emotion. 
 I leaned upon a pillar and burst into tears. I deem it no shame 
 to have wept over the grave of my poor dead relative. Let him 
 who would sneer at my emotion close this volume. Noble old 
 man— he did not five to see his child ; and I — I — I, alas ! did not 
 live to see him. Weighed down by sorrow and disappointment, 
 he died before I was born — six thousand brief summers before I 
 was born. But let us try to bear it with fortitude. Let us trust 
 he is better off where he is. Let us take comfort in the thought 
 that his loss is our eternal gain." 
 
 Adrian, St. His festival, together with that of his wife, St. 
 Natalia, occurs September 8, the anniversary of the translation 
 of his relics to Eome. He was anciently commemorated on 
 March 4, his death-day. The greatest military saint next to St. 
 George, he is especially reverenced in Flanders, Germany, and 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 9 
 
 the north of France as the patron of soldiers and a protector 
 against the plague. In Flanders he is also the patron of brew- 
 ers. Adrian was one of the Praetorian Guards of the Emperor 
 Galerius Maximian. While superintending the torture of thirty- 
 four Christians, he was converted at sight of their fortitude and 
 devotion, and, publicly confessing his faith, was thrown into 
 prison. His wife Natalia was in secret a Christian, and greatly 
 did she rejoice at the news. Disguised as a man, she obtained 
 admittance to his cell and exhorted him to endure to the end. 
 The next day Adrian's limbs were struck off on an anvil, and he 
 was beheaded, March 4, 306. Natalia held him and sustained 
 him in his sufferings, and before the final blow could be given by 
 the headsman he expired in her arms. St. Adrian is usually 
 represented armed, with an anvil in his hands or at his feet. 
 His relics were conveyed to Constantinople, thence to Eome, 
 afterwards into Flanders, and found a final resting-place in the 
 abbey of St. Adrian, founded in 1088 at Geersburg in Belgium 
 by Baldwin YI., Earl of Flanders. But Eaulcourt in the same 
 country claims to possess a complete body, all save an arm. 
 Ghent has another, entirely complete. The jaw and half an 
 arm are shown at Cologne, another part of an arm at Prague, 
 a head at Bologna, and various fragments at Douai and at the 
 cathedral of Bruges. 
 
 Adriatic, Marriage of the. (It. Sposalizio del Adriatico.) 
 A solemn ceremony anciently performed in the Yenice of the 
 
 Marriage of the Adriatic. 
 (From an old print.) 
 
 Doges on Ascension Day. It was instituted in 1177 by Pope 
 Alexander III. in commemoration of a great naval victory won 
 
10 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 by the Venetians over the hostile fleet of Frederick Barbarossa 
 at Istria. Giving the Doge, Yitale Michieli II., a ring from his 
 own finger, the Pontiff instructed him and his successors on 
 every coming Ascension Day to cast a similar ring into the 
 Adriatic, promising that the bride so espoused should be as 
 dutiful as a wife to her husband. The initial ceremony was 
 performed on Ascension Day in that year. The state gondola 
 known as the Bucentaur, manned by forty rowers, and gor- 
 geously appointed, left the Piazza di San Marco and proceeded 
 slowly towards the isle of Lido. In its wake followed gondolas, 
 barges, sailing-vessels, and galleys, occupied by persons of rank, 
 with minstrels and other attendants. Arriving off the island, 
 the Doge first poured holy water into the sea. Then he took 
 the ring from his finger and dropped it into the bosom of the 
 Adriatic, saying, " We espouse thee, O Sea, in token of our just 
 and perpetual dominion." Solemn mass was attended by all the 
 celebrants and spectators at the church of St. Nicholas on the 
 isle of Lido, and the festivities were rounded out to an epicu- 
 rean end by a sumptuous banquet at the ducal palace. After the 
 invention of gunpowder a salute of guns was fired as the signal 
 for the gondolas and their train to start from St. Mark's Square. 
 (See Dart, Throwing of the.) 
 
 Advent. A preparation for Christmas, as Lent is a prepara- 
 tion for Easter. In one form or another it is recognized by the 
 Eoman, Greek, Lutheran, and Anglican Churches. It is impos- 
 sible to fix the exact time when the season began to be observed. 
 A canon of a Council at Saragossa, in 380, forbade the faithful 
 to absent themselves from the church services during the three 
 weeks from December 17 to the Epiphany; this is perhaps the 
 earliest trace on record of the observance of Advent. In the 
 fifth century it was closely assimilated to Lent, being kept as 
 a fast of forty days, — f.e., from Martinmas (November 11) to 
 Christmas Eve. Later the length of the season was limited, 
 and in the ninth century it was made to begin, as it now does, 
 with the Sunday nearest to the feast of St. Andrew (November 
 30), whether before or after that day, so that in all cases the 
 season of Advent shall contain the uniform number of four Sun- 
 days. In the Greek Church, however, it contains six Sundays. 
 
 Besides being a preparation for Christmas, Advent has an- 
 other significance in the Eoman Church, as the beginning of the 
 ecclesiastical year. Before the sixth century that beginning was 
 Easter, both in the West and in the East. The reason for the 
 change was that the Jewish ecclesiastical year also began about 
 Easter, and the Christians sought to differentiate themselves as 
 much as possible from the Jews. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 11 
 
 Since the curtailing of the season the ancient austerities also 
 have been greatly relaxed, until at present only the Fridays in 
 Advent are fast-days. But no marriages are celebrated during 
 the season. Special devotions are enjoined upon the faithful. 
 The purple hue of penance is the only color used in the services 
 of Advent, except on the feasts of saints. The organ is silenced 
 until the third Sunday in Advent, when it again finds its voice, 
 to indicate that the assured expectation of a Redeemer has 
 tempered mourning. In the Episcopal Church the services ap- 
 pointed for the Advent season bear particularly upon the coming 
 of the Lord. 
 
 Popular custom has marked this season with quaint and pecu- 
 liar observances. In the department of Eure-et-Loire in Nor- 
 mandy every farmer fixes upon some day in Advent for the pur- 
 pose of exorcising such animals as prove injurious to his crops. 
 He furnishes his younger children with prepared flambeaux, well 
 dried in the oven. If he have no children his neighbors lend him 
 theirs, for only young and innocent children can command cer- 
 tain injurious animals to withdraw from his lands. After twelve 
 years of age children are unfit to perform the office of exorcists. 
 These little people run over the country like so many spirits, set 
 fire to bundles of hay, flourish their torches among the branches 
 of the trees, burn the straw placed underneath, and continually 
 cry out, — 
 
 Mice, cuterpillars, and moles, 
 
 Get out, get out of my field ; 
 
 I will burn your beard and bones : 
 Trees and shrubs 
 
 Give me bushels of apples. 
 
 Accidents might be supposed to arise from this lawless assem- 
 bly of juvenile torch-bearers ; but their fire is believed to burn 
 only vermin. Such at least is the opinion of the simple inhab- 
 itants of Eure-et-Loire. 
 
 In Italy the Advent season is duly celebrated, especially in 
 Rome. One custom is worth referring to. In the last days of 
 Advent the Calabrian pifferari, or bagpipe-players, enter Rome, 
 and are to be seen in every street salutinjr the shrines of the 
 Yirgin Mother with their wild music, under the traditional notion 
 of soothing her until the birth-time of her infant at the approach- 
 ing Christmas. They also stop in front of carpenter-shops, out 
 of respect to St. Joseph, who was a carpenter by trade. 
 
 The pifferari play a pipe very similar in form and sound to the 
 bagpipes of the Highlanders. " Just before Christmas," says Lady 
 Morgan, "they descend from the mountains to Naples and Rome, 
 in order to play before the pictures of the Virgin and Child," 
 which are common in every Italian town, and abound in the 
 
12 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 cities. Eaphael's picture of the Nativity has a shepherd stand- 
 ing at the door playing upon his pipes. This is in accordance 
 with Italian tradition, which holds that the bagpipe was the 
 favorite instrument of the Virgin Mary, and that the shepherds 
 played on it when they visited the Saviour. 
 
 Aubanus tells us that in Franconia, on each of the three 
 Thursdays preceding Christmas, it was customary for young 
 boys and girls to ^o from house to house, knocking at the doors, 
 singing their Christmas carols and wishing a happy New Year. 
 In return they received gifts of pears, apples, nuts, or money. 
 Barnaby Googe also refers to this custom, in his paraphrase of 
 Naogeorgus's " Popish Kingdom :" 
 
 Three weekes before the day whereon was borne the Lorde of Grace, 
 And on the Thursdays boyes and gyrles do runne in every place, 
 And bounce and beat at every doore, with blowes and lustie snaps, 
 And crie the Advent of the Lord, not borne as yet perbaps, 
 And wishing to the neighbours all, that in the houses dwell, 
 A happy year, and everything to spring and prosper well : 
 Here have they peares, and plumbs, and pence, each man gives willinglie. 
 For these three nightes are always thought unfortunate to bee : 
 Wherein they are afrayde of sprites, and cankred witches spight, 
 And dreadfull devils blacke and grim, that then have chiefest might. 
 
 At this season, also, rustic young girls attempted to divine the 
 names of their husbands that should be. Barnaby says, — 
 
 In these same dayes yong, wanton gyrles that meete for marriage bee. 
 Doe search to know the names of them that shall their husbands bee. 
 Foure onyons, five, or eight, they take, and make in every one 
 Such names as they do fansie most and best do thinke upon. 
 Thus neere the chim-ney them they set, and that same onyon than, 
 That first doth sproute, doth surely beare the name of their good man. 
 
 They also endeavor to divine the character of the "good man" 
 by going at night to the wood-stack and drawing out the first 
 stick that the hand meets : 
 
 Which if it streight and even be, and have no knots at all, 
 A gentle husband then they thinke shall surely to them fall ; 
 But if it fowle and crooked be, and knottie here and there, 
 A crabbed, churlish husband then they earnestly.do feare. 
 
 For all these wicked doings Barnaby goes on to blame the 
 " Papistes," 
 
 Who rather had the people should obey their foolish lust, 
 Than truly God to know, and in him here alone to trust. 
 
 An English custom which is extinct save in remote interior 
 parishes is more directly traceable to the " Papistes." This is 
 the custom of carrying about Advent Images — two dolls dressed 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 13 
 
 up to represent the Saviour and the Virgin Mary — by poor women 
 in the week before Christmas. A halfpenny is expected from 
 every person to whom these are exhibited. Bad luck will follow 
 to him who refuses. (See Yessel-Cup.) 
 
 Afra, St., patroness of Augsburg, Germany. Her feast on 
 August 5 is especially honored in this her native city. Legend 
 asserts that she was originally a courtesan, who with her three 
 handmaidens, Digna, Eunomia, and Eutropia, led a dissolute life 
 during the reign of Diocletian. A priest named Narcissus, flee- 
 ing from persecution, took shelter in her house in ignorance of 
 its character. He converted and baptized her and her com- 
 panions, and she aided him to escape. For this offence she was 
 imprisoned, and when she confessed the faith she was burnt alive, 
 August 7, 304. All the members of her household also suffered 
 martyrdom on the same day. But for some reason St. Afra and 
 her companions are commemorated on August 5. Her relics are 
 supposed to have been discovered in 955 by St. Ulfric. They 
 now repose in the church of SS. Ulfric and Afra in Augsburg. 
 
 Agape, pi. Agapse. (Gr. dydmf), "love.") The love-feast of 
 the ancient Christians, when all the members of a congregation, 
 even the master and his slaves, met together at a common meal, 
 celebrating the Eucharist, as brethren and sisters of the same 
 family. The Agape therefore was a social symbol of the equality 
 and solidarity of all Christendom, hallowed and sealed by the 
 eucharistic sacrifice. Here all gave and received the kiss of 
 peace {q. v.), and here connmunications from other congregations 
 were received and read. The Agape dates from apostolic times, 
 for it is mentioned in Jude 12 and described at some length in I. 
 Corinthians xi. 23. But even in St. Paul's day its liability to 
 abuse was recognized. As each congregation grew larger and 
 more diverse in its membership, social differences began to assert 
 themselves. The Agapse lost their original significance. They 
 either became distinctively the entertainments of the rich, where 
 luxury was encouraged, or. sank down into a kind of poor-house 
 institution. Finally the third Council of Carthage (a.d. 391) 
 decreed that the Eucharist should be taken fasting, and thereby 
 separated the Agape from the celebration of the Eucharist. 
 Towards the end of the fourth century the Council of Laodicea 
 forbade " eating in the house of the Lord;" but from the fact 
 that the Synod in Trullo (a.d. 692) had to repeat this prohibition 
 it is evident that the practice died hard. From the complaints 
 of St. Augustine it would seem that in his time the custom still 
 survived of permitting communion once a year — viz., Holy 
 Thursday — to those who had just partaken of Agape. 
 
14 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Agatha, St. The festival of this saint occurs on February 5, 
 and is specially honored in Malta and in Catania, Sicily, of 
 which places she is the patroness. She is generally held to be a 
 native of Catania, though Palermo disputes the honor. Quin- 
 tianus, whom Decius had made King of Sicily, laid siege to her 
 virtue, and because she repulsed him ordered her to be bound and 
 beaten and her bosom to be torn with shears. But at midnight St. 
 Peter descended into her dungeon and healed her. Then Quin- 
 tianus ordered her to the stake. No sooner was the torch 
 applied than an earthquake broke out, and the citizens forced 
 Quintianus to rescue her from the flames. She was cast back 
 into prison, and God took her to himself (February 5, 251). A 
 year after her death the volcano of Mt. Etna burst into flame. 
 The fire had nearly reached the city, when its progress was 
 arrested by the veil of St. Agatha, which some of the inhabi- 
 tants had placed upon the top of a pole and borne out in pro- 
 cession ; and all the heathen were converted by this miracle and 
 received baptism. St. Agatha is a patroness against fire and all 
 diseases of the breast. She is represented with the palm in one 
 hand and in the other a salver on which is the female breast. 
 
 Most of the saint's relics are preserved at Catania in a church 
 dedicated to her which Gregory the Great purged from the 
 Arian impiety, and which was rebuilt in 460. The same Pope 
 sent some of her bones to the monastery of St. Stephen, in the 
 island of Capri. 
 
 The distinguishing feature of the festival at Catania is a pony- 
 race, closely analogous to the Barberi (^. v.) of the Eoman Carni- 
 val. It is thus described by an eye-witness : " The ponies destined 
 ibr the contest have no riders ; but, by means of wax, ribbons are 
 firmly attached to their backs ; and to these again are appended 
 bladders, and weighted pieces of wood, armed with sharp spikes ; 
 the noise of the one, and the pain inflicted by the other, being 
 amply sufiicient to urge to exertion animals much better qualified 
 to resist the efl'ect of either than the horse. At the firing of a 
 signal gun they are turned loose from one extremity of the 
 street ; and amidst the shouts of the populace which lines it on 
 both sides, they make what haste they can to the other. Here 
 I discovered to my great surprise, sitting in the open air, under 
 a canopj^ of crimson, arrayed in robes of office a good deal 
 resembling those of our barristers, the members of the senate, 
 with their intendente or president. The business of these first 
 magistrates of the city, decked out in all their paraphernalia, 
 and attended by drummers, fifers, and musketeers, was to declare 
 the winner among half a dozen jades, the best of which was not 
 worth ten pounds. It was difficult to suppress a smile on seeing 
 one of the parties rise, discuss the matter with the rest of the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 15 
 
 bench, and, not without much action and emphasis and delibera- 
 tion, deliver the senatus consultum to the expectant crowd. The 
 mottoes on the canopy might have been selected for the purposes 
 of burlesque : ' Invictas supero,' ' Gatana Hegum,' ' Tutrix Castigo 
 Rebellis' " (Rev. John James Blunt : Vestiges of Ancient Man- 
 ners and Customs discoverable in Modern Italy and Sicily^ London, 
 1823.) 
 
 A curious ceremony on St. Agatha's Day still survives at 
 Biddenham, England, and possibly other remote rural parishes. 
 Shortly before noon a procession of villagers, carrying a white 
 rabbit decorated with scarlet ribbons, passes through the village, 
 singing a hymn in honor of St. Agatha. Maids old and young 
 who meet the procession point at the rabbit with the first two 
 fingers of the right hand, saying, — 
 
 Gustin, Gustin, lacks a bier ! 
 Maidens, maidens, bury him here. 
 
 The custom is said to date from the year of the first Crusade. 
 
 Agnes, St. One of the four great virgin martyrs of the 
 Latin Church. Her festival occurs on January 21, the reputed 
 anniversary of her martyrdom. St. Agnes was born a Chris- 
 tian, and at a very early age had vowed herself to virginity. 
 When only thirteen she was sought in marriage by the son of the 
 prefect Sempronius. She refused him, saying she was already 
 affianced to one whom she dearly loved, meaning Jesus. The 
 young man fell sick of disappointed love, and Sempronius, learn- 
 ing his secret, besought the maiden to take pity on the unhappy 
 youth. But Agnes answered as before that she was already 
 affianced. When Sempronius inquired her meaning and learned 
 that she was a Christian, he rejoiced, for he knew she was in his 
 power. He commanded her to become a vestal virgin, and on 
 her refusal he had her taken to a house of infamy to be exposed 
 to outrage. The soldiers stripped her of her raiment, but her 
 hair became as a veil, covering her whole body, and those who 
 looked upon her were filled with fear. When they had left her 
 to herself, she praj'ed that she might not be dishonored, and a 
 shining white garment descended into the room. She put it 
 on, rejoicing. Soon afterwards the son of Sempronius entered, 
 thinking that now she must be subdued, but the light from the 
 garment struck him blind, and he fell down in convulsions. 
 Agnes was moved to compassion by the tears of his relations, 
 and through her prayers he was healed. Then Sempronius would 
 fain have released her, but the multitude cried out that she was 
 a sorceress, and clamored for her death. She was bound to a 
 stake. The fire consumed her executioners, but would not hurt 
 
16 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 her. At last a soldier climbed the pile and killed her with his 
 sword. The day of her martyrdom is given as January 21, 304. 
 She was buried by the Christians in the Yia Nomentana, and her 
 tomb became their place of assembly for devotion. At first the 
 pagans sought to drive them away by hurling stones at them, 
 but, having struck a maiden named Emerantiane, lightning 
 darted out of the skies and killed many of the assailants. There- 
 after they suffered the Christians to assemble in peace around 
 the tomb, and there on the eighth day after her death the 
 virgin appeared to them, surrounded by other holy martyrs 
 and with a spotless lamb by her side, and assured them of her 
 happiness. It is on this account that St. Agnes is represented 
 with a lamb by her side. She is usually clothed in white, with 
 the palm of martyrdom in her hand. 
 
 Constantine built a church in her honor over the reputed spot 
 of her burial. It was repaired by Pope Honorius in the seventh 
 century, and was enriched with her relics (still preserved here 
 in a rich silver shrine) by Pope Paul Y., in whose time they were 
 discovered under the floor of the church. The edifice is of Byz- 
 antine architecture, with galleries high up near the roof, and an 
 altar turned towards the apse instead of facing the nave. 
 
 In Catholic countries it was once usual to bless a lamb on St. 
 Agnes' Day, no doubt a recrudescence under Christian forms of 
 the ancient Eoman custom of invoking upon sheep the blessing 
 of Pales, the goddess of sheepfolds and pastures. The lamb, 
 gayly decorated, was first led through the streets by a holiday- 
 making crowd. A more special celebration of this kind is still 
 practised at Eome, when every year on St Agnes' Day two 
 chosen lambs, of undoubted virginity, are blessed by the Pope 
 in the church of St. Agnes after pontifical high mass. These 
 are carefully guarded until shearing-time, when their wool is 
 woven by nuns into the pallium (ji. v.) worn by the Pope and the 
 primates of the Church. 
 
 This ceremony is mentioned by l^aogeorgus : 
 
 For in St. Agnes' church upon this day while masse they sing, 
 Two lambes as white as snowe, the Nonnes do yearely use to bring : 
 And when the Agnus chaunted is, upon the aultar hie 
 (For in this thing there hidden is a solemne mysterie), 
 They offer them. The servaunts of the Pope, when this is done. 
 Do put them into pasture good till shearing time be come. 
 Then other wool! they mingle with these holy fleeses twaine, 
 Whereof, being sponne and drest, are made the Pals of passing gaine. 
 
 [The Popish Kingdom, translated by Barnaby Googe.) 
 
 In Jephson's "Manners, etc., of France and Italy" is a poet- 
 ical epistle dated from Eome, 14th February, 1793, certifying 
 the use of this ceremony at that time : 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 17 
 
 ST. AGNES'S SHRINE. 
 
 Where each pretty Ba-lamb most ijaily appears, 
 
 With ribands stuck round on its tail and its ears ; 
 
 On gold-fringed cushions they're stretch 'd out to eat, 
 
 And piously 6a, and to church music bleat ; 
 
 Yet to me ihey seem'd crying — alack, and alas ! 
 
 What's all this white damask to daisies and grass ! 
 
 Then they're brought to the Pope, and with transport they're kiss'd, 
 
 And receive consecration from Sanctity's fist : 
 
 To chaste Nuns he consigns them, instead of their dams, 
 
 And orders the friars to keep them from rams. 
 
 About 1850 the Pope and his retinue, while enjoying a slight 
 refection in a hall adjoining the church, just after the ceremony, 
 were suddenly precipitated through the rotten floor into a cellar 
 beneath. Almost all escaped unhurt, which was certainly a 
 remarkable occurrence, and was commemorated in after-years 
 by a fresco of marvellous ugliness and very small skill, painted 
 on the remaining wall of the former cellar. It is now enclosed 
 within a portico looking into the court in front of the church, 
 and, if a credit to Eoman feeling, is no less a disgrace to modern 
 Eoman art. 
 
 The eve of St. Agnes' feast is not- to be despised as a period 
 of prophetic promise for maidens in search of a husband. An 
 ancient method of divination, mentioned by Aubrey in his " Mis- 
 cellanies," directs that " upon St. Agnes' Night you take a row 
 of pins, and pull out every one, one after another, saying a 
 Pater Noster, sticking a pin in your sleeve, and you will dream 
 of him or her you shall marry." A more elaborate method was 
 for a maiden to leave her home and go to a strange locality. 
 When she retired to sleep that night she was to take her right- 
 leg stocking and knit the left garter around it, saying the while, — 
 
 I knit this knot, this knot I knit, 
 To know the thing I know not yet. 
 That I may see 
 
 The man that shall my husband be, 
 Not in his best or worst array. 
 But what he weareth every day ; 
 That I to-morrow may him ken 
 From among all other men. 
 
 At the conclusion of these words she was to lie down on her 
 back with her hands under her head, and her future spouse 
 would surely appear in a dream and salute her with a kiss. In 
 all cases the charm was rendered more certain if the maiden 
 went supperless to bed. Thus Burton, in "The Anatomy of 
 Melancholy," speaks of " maids fasting on St. Agnes' Eve, to 
 know who shall be their first husband." It is John Keats who 
 
 2 
 
18 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 has made the superstitions of this vigil ever memorable in liter- 
 ature by founding upon them his exquisite poem of " St. Agnes' 
 Eve." 
 
 They told her how, upon St. Agnes' Eve, 
 Young virgins might have visions of delight, 
 And soft adorings from their loves receive 
 Upon the honeyed middle of the night, 
 If ceremonies due they did aright ; 
 As, supperless to bed they must retire. 
 And couch supine their beauties lily-white ; 
 Nor look behind, nor sideways, but require 
 Of Heaven with upward eyes for all that they desire. 
 
 Another dream-charm for St. Agnes' Eve was to lake a sprig 
 of rosemary and another of thyme and sprinkle them thrice 
 with water, then place one in each shoe, and stand shoe and 
 sprig on each side of the bed, repeating, — 
 
 St. Agnes, that's to lovers kind. 
 Come ease the trouble of my mind. 
 
 In the northern parts of Scotland the lads and lasses used to 
 meet together on St. Agnes' Eve at midnight. One by one 
 would then go into a cornfield and throw grain on the soil. After 
 this all said the following rhyme : 
 
 Agnes sweet and Agnes fair, 
 Hither, hither, now repair ; 
 Bonny Agnes, let me see 
 The lad [or lass] who is to marry me. 
 
 On their return home it was expected that each would see in 
 a mirror the shadow of the destined bride or bridegroom. 
 
 Agnus Dei. (Lat., "Lamb of Grod.") A prayer based on 
 John i. 29, "Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the 
 world, have mercy on us," which was introduced into the mass 
 by Pope Sergius I. in 680. The name is also applied to heart- 
 shaped wax medallions bearing the figure of a lamb, which are 
 made from the remains of the Paschal candle {q. v.), and solemnly 
 blessed by the Pope on the Thursday after Easter, in the first 
 and seventh year of his pontificate. From Amalarius we learn 
 that in the ninth century the Agnus Dei's were made of wax 
 and oil by the Archdeacon of Eome, blessed by the Pope, and 
 distributed to the people during the octave of Easter. An Agnus 
 Lei said to have belonged to Charlemagne is among the treasures 
 of the cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle. 
 
 Aissaoua. An exhibition of immunity from pain given by 
 the Aissaoui, members of a Mohammedan sect which was 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 19 
 
 founded in the fifteenth century by Sidi Mohammed-ben-Aissa. 
 The latter was a marabout prophet who lived a holy life near 
 Mequinez, in Morocco, aroused the jealousy of the Sultan 
 Mo ulai- Ismail by his increasing influence, and was driven out 
 with his wives and children and those of his disciples who were 
 faithful enough to follow him into exile. Sustenance failed them 
 on the way, and when his hungry followers asked for food the 
 saint bade them eat poison, if they could find nothing else, and 
 himself set about searching among the stones for scorpions and 
 serpents, which they devoured without harm. So runs the 
 legend. To this day the Aissaoui, it is pretended, have the 
 power to resist the poison of venomous beasts in themselves, and 
 to cure its effects in others. Not only this, but they claim im- 
 munity from physical harm and an absolute insensibility to pain 
 of all kinds. The members of the confraternity nowadays ex- 
 hibit their powers of endurance to native audiences, or are even 
 willing to turn an honest penny, at times, by giving a special 
 show to Europeans. William H. Carpenter, in the JVew York 
 Evening Post for January 12, 1896, describes an Aissaoua that he 
 witnessed in Algiers. He tells how the performers gathered 
 around a charcoal fire burning in a brazier. One of them drew out 
 a red-hot iron and licked it with his tongue. He then placed a 
 burning coal between his teeth and fanned it by his breath into 
 a white heat. Another snatched an iron rod with a ball on one 
 end from the fire, and after winding one of his eyelids around it 
 until the eyeball was completely exposed, he thrust its point in 
 behind the eye, which was forced far out on his cheek. It was 
 held there for a moment, when it was withdrawn, and the eye 
 released, which was then rubbed vigorously a few times with the 
 ballad end of the rod. Another let a live scorpion fasten its 
 fangs into the inside of his cheek, where it hung suspended for 
 some time before he chewed and ate it. Another balanced him- 
 self across the edge of a bare sword on his naked stomach while 
 a comrade sprang violently upon his back and stood there. Still 
 another took a burning wisp of hay and passed it all over his 
 body and then wound up the performance by pulling out of the 
 fire the balled instrument already described and jabbing it 
 repeatedly into the pit of his stomach. " How much of the ex- 
 hibition was real," says Mr. Carpenter, " and how much pure 
 sleight of hand, I have no means of knowing. A critical 
 analysis of the performance came later, and it was then for the 
 first time remembered that there had been no sign of blood, not 
 even the slightest, from beginning to end ; no mark of any kind 
 had been left by the sword ; and the fire of the blazing wisp had 
 not even singed the man's garments, over which it had inadver- 
 tently been passed. The man whose stomach was so ruthlessly 
 
20 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 assaulted apparently had the worst part to play of all, for there 
 were indubitably a number of black and blue scars which plainly 
 bespoke previous experiences." 
 
 Aix-la-Chapelle, Great Relics of. The relics distinctively 
 so known are four in number, — viz., the tunic of the Blessed 
 Virgin, the swaddling-clothes of the infant Jesus, the cloth that 
 encircled the loins of Jesus on the cross, and the cloth in which 
 the head of St. John the Baptist was enveloped after his decapita- 
 tion. Their exposition in the cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle every 
 seven years from the 10th to the 24th of July is one of the most 
 famous ceremonies of Catholicity, and draws to Aix enormous 
 crowds of pilgrims. The tunic of the Virgin is yellowish in 
 color, five feet and a half in length, and three feet and a quarter 
 in circumference. A very small amount of decoration is to be 
 found upon it, and a small piece of the cloth has been torn out. 
 The swaddling-clothes of the infant Jesus are folded thrice in 
 double folds. Eibbons are the sole decoration, which border 
 them in the fashion of a collar. They are brownish yellow, 
 loosely woven. The linen of St. John the Baptist is of fine 
 texture, folded and bound with red ribbons. It is stained with 
 blood. The linen cloth which was bound about Christ's loins 
 upon the cross is of a heavy texture, folded, and showing great 
 blood-stains. It is folded in triangular shape, having a length 
 of four feet two and a half inches and a width of four feet ten 
 inches. 
 
 According to the legend, when Charlemagne had finished 
 building the church of Our Lady in Aix-la-Chapelle he set him- 
 self to the collecting of these relics from Eome, Constantinople, 
 and Jerusalem, and secured in addition a number of lesser ones, 
 among which may be mentioned the girdle of Christ, which is 
 sealed at the ends with the seal of the Emperor Constantine ; a 
 small piece of the cord with which Christ was bound during the 
 flagellation ; the girdle of the Virgin ; a bit of the sponge which 
 was offered to Christ on the cross ; a lock of hair from the head 
 of St. Bartholomew ; two of St. Thomas the Apostle's teeth ; 
 one of the arms of the old Simeon ; a fragment of the cross, 
 which was given to Charlemagne by Pope Leo III., and which 
 he bore continually on his person ; a tooth of St. Catherine ; the 
 point of a nail with which Christ was attached to the cross ; a 
 bit of the rod which served in the mocking of Christ ; a lock of 
 hair from the head of St. John the Baptist; a bust in gilded 
 silver of Charlemagne, in which is enclosed the emperor's skull ; 
 and, in a reliquary shaped like an arm, the right arm of Charle- 
 magne, presented by Louis XI., King of France, in 1481. 
 
 The septennial exhibition dates from the ninth century, and 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 21 
 
 remains practically the same that it was from its origin. Every 
 morning at ten o'clock the relics are brought out by the priests 
 to a lofty balcony on the exterior of the church and there ex- 
 posed to the veneration of the crowd gathered outside in the 
 square. Later (from one to eight p.m.) the church is thrown 
 open to pilgrims. The relics are arranged on various altars, but 
 at stated times are carried around by the priests for the laity to 
 kiss. The last day of the exposition is distinguished by a pro- 
 cession in the streets, in which the Great Eelics are borne in 
 their superb shrines by the canons of the cathedral. The date 
 of the last ceremony was 1895. 
 
 The Antiquary for November, 1888, translates from the Eoman 
 Catholic Germania this description of the manner in which these 
 famous relics are stored away after their exposure in the cathe- 
 dral : " The relics were first placed in silk wrappers, the gown 
 of the Mother of God being enveloped in white, the swaddling- 
 clothes of Christ in yellow, His loin-cloth in red, and the cloth 
 on which rested the head of John the Baptist was carried in pale 
 pink silk. After this each relic was wrapped up in a cloth richly 
 embroidered with real pearls, the four cloths being presents which 
 in 1629 the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenie of Spain offered at 
 the sacred shrines. Next, each reHc was put in a special pocket 
 closed with buttons, another cloth was wrapped round them, and 
 a cover of tissue-paper, the color of which corresponded to that 
 of the silk wrapper. Each parcel was then tied up with silk 
 ribbons, the ends of which were sealed with the seal of the 
 relics. Then a torchlight procession accompanied them to the 
 Hungarian chapel, and they were deposited in the large ' Mary's 
 shrine.' The iron lid was screwed on, the padlock filled with lead, 
 and the key to it crushed to powder before the eyes of the spec- 
 tators. A Te Deum was sung, and the solemn procession re- 
 turned to the upper regions to sign a paper in which it is stated 
 that the sealed relics had once again been enclosed in the secret 
 parts of the minster." 
 
 Alb. (Lat. alha^ " white.") A long tunic or vestment of white 
 linen worn by the Eoman priest at mass. While donning it he 
 prays, "Make me white, O Lord, and cleanse me." It differs 
 from the Anghcan surplice in fitting closer and in being encircled 
 with a girdle. The alb is a modification of the tunic or under- 
 garment of the Greeks and Eomans. It first appears in Church 
 history as the distinctive robe of the newly baptized, worn until 
 the Sunday after Easter, White-Sunday (Whitsunday). By the 
 fourth century it had become a special part of the ecclesiastical 
 garment. A canon of the fourth Council of Carthage, 398, 
 orderg deacons to use the alb " only at the time of the oblation 
 
22 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 or of reading." The Council of ]S"arbonne in 589 forbade dea- 
 cons, subdeacons, or lectores to put off the alb until after mass. 
 But it seems that for a long time after the alb was worn in daily 
 life as well as at the altar, for we read of a bishop of Soissons in 
 889 forbidding an ecclesiastic to use at mass the same alb that 
 he wore at home. 
 
 Alban, St. His festival is June 22. As the first English saint 
 and martyr, he was highly venerated in pre-Eeformation times in 
 England. The Abbot of St. Alban's in Hertfordshire had prece- 
 dence over all others. Born in Yerulam, St. Alban was converted 
 by a priest who had sought refuge with him against persecution. 
 St. Alban donned his guest's robes, and delivered himself up to 
 the soldiers in pursuit. When the fraud was discovered, he con- 
 fessed himself a Christian, and was tortured and beheaded, June 
 22, 303. To reach the place of execution it was necessary to 
 cross the river Coin, but, the bridge being insufficient for the 
 vast multitude of spectators, St. Alban said a prayer, the waters 
 were divided, and all went over dry-shod. At the place of exe- 
 cution he prayed for water, and a spring gushed out. Hence his 
 attribute, besides the sword, is a fountain of water. 
 
 The present town of St. Albans is built upon the scene of the 
 martyrdom. In the time of Constantine, according to Bede, a 
 large church was erected on the very spot, and was rendered 
 illustrious by frequent miracles. The pagon Saxons destroyed 
 it, but Offa, King of the Mercians, raised another in 793 with a 
 great monastery. In mediaeval times the shrine of St. Alban's 
 was a popular place of pilgrimage. " Our island for many ages," 
 says Alban Butler, "had recourse to St. Alban as its glorious 
 protomartyr and powerful patron with God, and acknowledged 
 many great favors received from God, through his intercession. 
 By it St. Germanus procured a triumph without Christian blood 
 and gained a complete victory both over the spiritual and cor- 
 poral enemies of this country." 
 
 About the year 900 the Danes sacked the abbey and carried 
 off the bones of the martyr to a convent at Owensee. But a 
 holy man named Egwin obtained admittance by stratagem to 
 the latter convent and surreptitiously returned the remains to 
 St. Alban's, where numerous miracles attested the saint's ap- 
 proval of the pious theft. When the Danes next ravaged the 
 country, ^Ifric, the eleventh abbot, concealed the true relics in 
 a cavity in the walls of the church, and as a further precaution 
 sent a bogus body to the monastery at Ely. On the departure 
 of the Danes ^Ifric reclaimed the counterfeit, but the wily monks 
 at Ely sent him a counterfeit of the counterfeit. The true relics 
 were then brought from their hiding-place and depositee^ in a 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 23 
 
 Bhrine. Straightway the monks of Ely publicly proclaimed the 
 artifice they had practised and declared that the ouly genuine 
 saint was in their possession. For a century the " true bones" 
 were exhibited both at St. Alban's and at Ely, until the Pope sent 
 three bishops to Ely to inquire into the matter, when the monks 
 acknowledged that they had been outwitted. 
 
 The shrine stood near the centre of St. Alban's Chapel. Ac- 
 cording to contemporary chroniclers, it was a glorious work, rich 
 in gold and precious stones and cunning workmanship. It was 
 shown only on high holidays, being on other occasions covered 
 with an operculum worked by cords and pulleys. On the sup- 
 pression of the monastery by Henry YIII. in 1539, the shrine with 
 its contents disappeared. There is a legend that it found its way 
 to the church of St. Mauritius in Cologne, where indeed the shrine 
 of St. Albinus is still exhibited. But Albinus and Alban were two 
 different saints. In 1872, in the course of certain restorations, 
 an immense quantity of carved fragments was found, evidently 
 the remnants of the shrine destroyed by the fury of an icono- 
 clastic mob. As soon as the general plan was made out, the 
 work of rebuilding was commenced, and continued with amazing 
 patience until the whole was put together as it now stands in 
 the site it occupied for centuries, and in a more perfect condi- 
 t,Mn than even the more famous shrine of St. Edward at West- 
 minster. 
 
 Ale, Church and College. In mediaeval England, festivals 
 lit which ale was the chief item of refreshment were celebrated 
 both in parishes and in universities, and hence were known as 
 Church or College Ales. The ecclesiastical custom, as Strutt 
 points out (" Sports and Pastimes," Chatto & Windus's ed., p. 
 471), originated from the wakes (q. v.). The churchwardens and 
 other chief parish officers, observing the latter festival to be more 
 popular than any others, rightly conceived that by establishing 
 similar institutions within the church limits they might draw 
 together a large concourse of people and annually collect from 
 them such suras of money as would be a great easement to the 
 parish rates. The meeting was held in the churchyard or in 
 some barn near the church, and took on something of a picnic 
 character, as every man brought what victuals he could spare. 
 The ale, which had been brewed good and strong for the occa- 
 sion, was sold by the churchwardens, who retained the profits as 
 a fund to keep the church in repairs, or to be distributed in alms 
 to the poor. 
 
 To modern temperance ideas it is somewhat surprising to come 
 upon an inscription like the following on a church gallery, as 
 actually occurs at Sygate, in Norfolk : 
 
24 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 God speed the plough 
 
 And give us good ale enow. . . . 
 
 Be merry and glade, 
 
 With good ale was this work made. 
 
 In some instances the inhabitants of one or more parishes were 
 mulcted in a certain sum to provide the ale for the day. Among 
 the Dodsworth MSS. (Bid. Bob., vol. 148, folio 97) is preserved 
 an ancient stipulation, couched in the following terms : " The 
 parishioners of Elverton and those of Okebrook in Derbyshire 
 agree jointly to brew four ales, and every ale of one quarter of 
 malt, between this and the feast of Saint John the Baptist next 
 comming, and every inhabitant of the said town of Okebrook 
 shall be at the several ales; and every husband and his wife 
 shall pay two pence, and every cottager one penny. And the 
 inhabitants of Elverton shall have and receive all the profits 
 comming of the said ales, to the use and behoof of the church 
 of Elverton ; and the inhabitants of Elverton shall brew eight 
 ales betwixt this and the feast of Saint John, at which ales the 
 inhabitants of Okebrook shall come and pay as before rehearsed; 
 and if any be away one ale, he is to pay at t'oder ale for 
 both." 
 
 In Sir Eichard Worsley's " History of the Isle of Wight," p. 
 210, speaking of the parish of Whitwell, he tells us that there is 
 a lease in the parish chest, dated 1574, " of a house called the 
 church house, held by the inhabitants of Whitwell, parishioners 
 of Gatcombe, of the Lord of the manor, and demised by them 
 to John Brode, in which is the following proviso : Provided al- 
 ways, that, if the Quarter shall need at any time to make a 
 Quarter-Ale, or Church-Ale, for the maintenance of the chapel, 
 that it shall be lawful for them to have the use of the said house, 
 with all the rooms, both above and beneath, during their Ale." 
 It appears from a Sermon made at Bland ford Forum, 1570, by 
 William Kethe, that it was the custom at that time for the 
 Church Ales to be kept upon the Sabbath-day ; which holy day, 
 says our author, " the multitude call their revelyng day, which 
 day is spent in bulbeatings, beare-beatings, bowlings, dicyng, 
 cardyng, daunsynges, and drunkenness, in so much, as men could 
 not keepe their servauntes from lyinge out of theyre own houses 
 the same Sabbath-day at night." 
 
 In course of time the word ale not only grew to be the generic 
 designation for these feasts, but entered into the names Of other 
 merrymakings, such as Gyst-ale, Lammas-ale, Leet-ale, and even 
 Bride-ale or Bridal. Celebrated at first on Sundays, without 
 regard to the season, they gradually grew to be limited first to 
 Easter, Christmas, and Whitsuntide, and eventually to the latter 
 holiday alone. Hence the Whitsun-ales were the last remnant 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 25 
 
 of the custom, and in spite of Puritan opposition these have or 
 until recently did have local survivals in England. 
 
 Audrey mentions this custom as continuing to his grandfather's 
 time, and speaks approvingly of it, reaiarking that in his own 
 parish "there were no poor rates; the Whitsun ale did the busi- 
 ness. . . . All things [at the festival] were civil and without scan- 
 dal." The abuse of such festivities is often denounced, but the 
 most sober and religious persons of the vicinity never appear to 
 have objected lo the fact of the brewing and sale of the beer. 
 Even the Puritans of the seventeenth century had no special 
 quarrel with the beverages vended on these occasions ; they 
 merely denounced "church ales" in the same company with May- 
 poles, stage plays, and all other amusements. Prynne himself 
 was certainly no abstainer ; for he records that during his im- 
 prisonment he took few regular meals, " rarely dined," but every 
 three or four hours " munched a manchet and refreshed his ex- 
 hausted spirits" with a cup of ale brought by his servant. 
 
 In 1597 a certain Puritanic minister of Eedbourne inveighed 
 thus against the Whitsun-ales : " These are in their origin bad ; 
 they are shamefully abused, having in them piping and dancing, 
 and Maid Marian coming into the church at the time of prayer 
 to move laughter with kissing in the church, and they justly 
 deserve to be called profane, riotous and disorderly." (Anti- 
 quary, vol. xiii. p. 183.) 
 
 In the " Yirgins' complaint for the loss of their sweethearts 
 by these present wars, and their now long solitude, and keep- 
 ing their virginities against their wills," presented to the House 
 of Commons in the " names and behalfes" of all damsels both 
 country and city, January 29, 1632-3, by sundry virgins of the 
 city of London, occurs the following mention of church ales : 
 " since the departure of the lusty young gentlemen courtiers and 
 cavaliers, and the ablest 'prentices and handsome journeymen 
 with whom we had used to walk to Islington and Pimlico to 
 eat cakes and drink Christian-ale on holy days." 
 
 " At present," says Douce, quoting from Kudder, " the Whit- 
 sun-ales are conducted in the following manner. Two persons 
 are chosen, previously to the meeting, to be lord and lady of the 
 ale, who dress as suitably as they can to the character they as- 
 sume. A large empty barn, or some such building, is provided for 
 the lord's hall, and fitted up with seats to accommodate the com- 
 pany. Here they assemble to dance and regale in the best manner 
 their circumstances and the place will afford; and each young 
 fellow treats his girl with a ribbon or favor. The lord and lady 
 honor the hall with their presence, attended by the steward, 
 sword-bearer, purse-bearer, and mace-bearer, with their several 
 ^-^adges or ensigns of office. They have likewise a train-bearer or 
 
26 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 * 
 page, and a fool or jester, drest in a party-colored jacket, whose 
 ribaldry and gesticulation contribute not a little to the entertain- 
 ment of some part of the company. The lord's music, consisting 
 of a pipe and tabor, is employed to conduct the dance. Some 
 people think this custom is a commemoration of the ancient Drink- 
 lean, a day of festivity formerly observed by the tenants and vas- 
 sals of the lord of the fee within his manor ; the memory of which, 
 on account of the jollity of those meetings, the people have thus 
 preserved ever since. The glossaries inform us that this Drink- 
 lean was a contribution of tenants towards a potation or J.^e pro- 
 vided to entertain the lord or his steward." 
 
 Dunkin in his "History of Bicester" (1816) gives a curious 
 account of a survival in his day and at that place of the Whit- 
 sun-ale : " A barn, the scene of the festivities, is called a hall, 
 two of the principal male and female characters are dubbed 
 lord and lady, and others bear the name of my lord's waiting- 
 man and my lady's waiting-maid. A treasurer, who carries a tin 
 box before him, a set of morris dancers, a Merry Andrew to clear 
 the ring for dancing in, form the remainder of the group, and 
 these, fantastically dressed and decorated with ribbons, dance or 
 parade among the spectators. The barn doors are ornamented 
 with an owl or monkey, who bear the appropriate names of my 
 lord's parrot and m.y lady's lapdog, and to miscall any of them, 
 or accept of my lord's cake and ale which are carried about in 
 profusion and offered to all comers, subjects the offending party 
 to a forfeiture of sixpence, for which, however, he is treated to a 
 ride on my lord's gelding [a fantastic hobby-horse carried on 
 men's shoulders], if a man, before my lady, or if a lady, before 
 my lord, who of course considers himself entitled to a salute ; 
 but if this honor is declined, for an additional sixpence the for- 
 feiting party is privileged to enter my lord's hall, and is enter- 
 tained with cake and ale. By the sums collected in this manner, 
 together with those arising from the voluntary visits of parties 
 to the hall, the expenses of the entertainment, which are very 
 considerable, are defrayed, and oftentimes the surplus is applied 
 to charitable purposes. A few years ago a funeral pall, for the 
 use of the poor, was purchased in this way. A towering May- 
 pole erected some time before Whitsuntide serves to announce 
 the amusement to the neighboring villages, and the crowds which 
 usually attend attract great numbers of those itinerant traders 
 who attend markets and fairs, so that the festival may be con- 
 sidered one of the most entertaining in the country. At the 
 neighboring village of Kirtlington is a similar amusement held 
 annually on Lammas day, and thence denominated a Lamb Ale." 
 Colleges in former times used to brew their own ale and hold 
 festivities known as College Ales. The ales of Brasenose and 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 27 
 
 Magdalen Colleges at Oxford were especially famous, the poems 
 connected with the Erasenose celebrations being among the best 
 of bibulous songs. In one of them occurs this theory of evolu- 
 tion : 
 
 A Grand Cross of " Malta" one night at a ball 
 
 Tell ill love with and married Hoppetta the Tall, 
 
 Hoppetta, the bitterest, best of her .sex, 
 
 By whom he had issue the first Double X. 
 
 Three others were born by this marriage : a girl, 
 
 Transparent as amber and precious as pearl ; 
 
 Then a son twice as strong as a porter or scout, 
 
 And another as " spruce" as his brother was " stout." 
 
 Double X, like his sister, is brilliant and clear ; 
 Like his mother, though bitter, by no means severe ; 
 Like his father, not small, and, resembling each brother, 
 Joins the spirit of one to the strength of the other. 
 
 An ale of unusual strength is still brewed at Oxford, called 
 Chancellor's Ale. Sixteen bushels of malt are used to the barrel. 
 Two wineglassfuls will intoxicate most people. It is kept in oak 
 bell-shaped casks, and is never tapped until it is two years old. 
 Some of the casks have been in use for half a century, but " Chan- 
 cellor ale" is used only at high table, when a man takes very high 
 honors. On such or other extra-special occasions the dean will 
 grant an order for a pint of this liquor, the largest quantity ever 
 allowed at a time. 
 
 Allan Day. A great children's festival celebrated on the 
 nearest Saturday to Halloween in Penzance and St. Ives, both 
 in Cornwall County, England. The fruiterers then display in 
 their windows very large apples, known locally as " Allan" apples. 
 The eating of them is supposed to bring good luck. The girls 
 and boys put them under their pillows at night, expecting to 
 dream of their future husband or wife. The fulfilment of the 
 dream depends upon the silence observed before eating the apple 
 next morning. The full ritual involves rising before dawn and 
 sitting under a tree clad in the night-dress only and then par- 
 taking of the apple. The future consort ought then fb make his 
 or her appearance. Moreover, if the sitter experiences no cold, 
 the same immunity from cold will continue throughout the 
 winter. (Ditchfield, p. 171.) 
 
 All Saints' Day. November 1, the eve of All Souls' Day. 
 The Greek Church so eai^ly as the fourth century kept a feast of 
 all martyrs and saints on the first Sunday of Pentecost. The 
 object of this day was in its inception probably to do honor in 
 bulk to all the lesser saints who could not have a feast specially 
 
28 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 set apart for them, as well as to all holy men and martyrs whose 
 record had not survived. A sermon of St. Chrysostom's delivered 
 on this feast is still extant. In the West All Saints' Day was 
 introduced by Pope Boniface lY. in the seventh century on the 
 occasion of the conversion of the Roman Pantheon into a Chris- 
 tian church dedicated to the Yirgin and all the martyrs. The 
 anniversary of this event was kept on May 13. But when 
 Gregory III., about November 1, 731, consecrated a chapel in 
 St. Peter's Church in honor of all the saints, the date of the 
 feast of All Saints was shifted, and it has ever since been No- 
 vember 1. From about the middle of the ninth century its ob^ 
 servance became general throughout the West. The festival has 
 been retained by the Anglican Church. A correspondent of the 
 Gentleman' s Magazine (1788, vol. Iviii. p. 602) alludes to a cus- 
 tom prevaiHng among English Roman CathoHcs of illuminating 
 some of their grounds on All Saints' Night, the ctc of All Souls', 
 by bearing around them bundles of straw or other fit material 
 kindled into a blaze. This ceremony is called a Tinley, and is an 
 emblematical lighting of souls out of purgatory. 
 
 In Austria it is the faith of the peasantry (and even some of 
 higher position) that on All Souls' Eve, at midnight, any one 
 visiting the cemetery will see a procession of the dead drawing 
 after them those who are to die during the coming year. There 
 is a gloomy drama founded on it, which is still acted on every 
 All Souls' Eve in the people's theatre at Yienna. It is called 
 " The Miller and his Child." The miller has a lovely daughter, 
 the daughter a lover: the miller obstinately opposes the mar- 
 riage. After some years of despair the youth goes to the church- 
 yard at midnight and sees the spectral train, and following it the 
 cruel miller. The miller, then, will die during the year. The 
 drama might have passed at this point from the graveyard to 
 the marriage bells ; but it would never be allowed in Austria 
 that young people should be so encouraged to look forward cheer- 
 fully to the demise of parents, however cruel; and therefore the 
 youth sees following close to the miller — himself. In the course 
 of the year the poor girl loses both father and lover. During the 
 performance of this drama the audience is generally bathed in 
 tears, some persons sobbing painfully. It is evidently no fiction 
 to them ; and it is impossible not to believe that the heaping of 
 their friends' graves with wreaths next day is in part due to the 
 surviving belief that the dead have some awful power over the 
 living, which is generally exerted for evil. 
 
 All Souls' Day. A festival of the Eoman Catholic Church 
 (November 2) distinguished by solemn commemoration of and 
 prayer for all the souls in purgatory. The mass said on that day 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 29 
 
 is alwnys the mass of the dead, and priests are obliged to recite 
 in private the matins and lauds from the office of the dead. This 
 solemnity owes its origin to the Abbot Odilon of Cluny, who 
 instituted it for all the monasteries of his congregation in the 
 year 998. Some authorities see traces of at least a local celebra- 
 tion of this day before Odilon's time. With the Greeks Saturday 
 was a day of special prayer for the dead, particularly the Satur- 
 day before Lent and the one before Pentecost. 
 
 The observance of All Souls' Day after its establishment was 
 deemed of such importance that in the event of its falling on 
 Sunday it was ordered not to be postponed till Monday, as 
 happens with some other festivals, but to take place on the 
 previous Saturday, so that the souls in purgatory should not 
 have the ministrations in their behalf unnecessarily postponed. 
 Thus All Saints' and All Souls' Days were occasionally celebrated 
 together. 
 
 In ancient times it was customary for criers dressed in black 
 to parade the streets, ringing a bell of mournful sound and call- 
 ing on all good Christians to remember the poor souls in pur- 
 gatory and join in prayer for their relief In Southern Italy, 
 notably in Salerno, there was another ancient custom, which 
 was put an end to in the fifteenth century because it was thought 
 to savor of paganism. Every family used to spread a table 
 abundantly for the regalement of the souls of its dead members 
 on their way from purgatory. All then spent the day at church, 
 leaving the house open, and if any of the food remained on the 
 table when they came back it was an ill omen. Curiously 
 enough, large numbers of thieves used to resort to the city at 
 this time, and there was seldom any of the food left to presage 
 evil. A story strangely like this is told in the Apocryphal book 
 of Bel and the Dragon. 
 
 All Souls' Day is a natural corollary to its predecessor All 
 Saints' Day (IN'ovember 1). That is a day dedicated specially to 
 all the faithful dead who have achieved paradise. This is a day 
 dedicated specially to the faithful dead who still remain in pur- 
 gatory. Nevertheless, like most Christian festivals, it is a re- 
 habilitation of a pagan feast. Days specially set apart for cere- 
 monies in honor of the dead are common to humanity. Even 
 in China and in Japan there is a feast of the dead, known best 
 under the alternative name of Feast of Lanterns. What is 
 more to the point, the very dates of l!^ovember 1 and November 
 2 were the dates on which our Druidical ancestors celebrated 
 their festivals of the dead. It was then that the god Samhan 
 was held to pass judgment upon the souls of the defunct. (See 
 Halloween and Decoration Day.) 
 
 All Souls' Day possesses a peculiar sanctity for all who have 
 
30 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 ever felt the poetry which underlies the services of the Catholic 
 Church. In the toil and moil of life we too easily forget the 
 dead, or remember them only with a sense of loss instead of 
 gratitude. Hence it seems well that once in the year an oppor- 
 tunity should be afforded for dwelling on them in a different 
 way, for recalling all that endeared them to us, which often 
 means all that has lent our past life its emotional value, for 
 drawing close to them in the spiritual bonds which according to 
 the Catholic Church are not severed by death, and for offering 
 them that pious meed of prayer which, the same authority 
 guarantees, will shorten their stay in purgatory and open out to 
 them the sooner the final glory and peace of paradise. 
 
 In nothing does the strange contrast of feeling appear more 
 strongly than in the different ways in which this day is celebrated 
 in countries or districts which are equally Eoman Catholic in 
 their profession of faith. In all, the religious services are sub- 
 stantially the same ; masses for the dead are read, the " Dies 
 Irse" is sung, and the prayer " Eternal rest grant them, O Lord, 
 and let perpetual life shine upon them," rises from thousands of 
 hearts as well as lips. But outside the church nothing can be 
 more unlike than the bearing of the worshippers. 
 
 In France the Jour des Morts, as it is generally known, is a 
 decorous, pathetic, and beautiful occasion among all believers. 
 For two or three weeks before the day arrives the shop- 
 windows and the news-venders' kiosks are laden with wreaths 
 and garlands of immortelles, some in their natural color, some 
 dyed blue, pink, or purple. On All Saints' the people stream to 
 the cemeteries. Thousands of people, thousands of wreaths. 
 I'he cemeteries are one mass of brilliant color, of moving 
 throngs, for not even the remotest corner of the potter's field is 
 neglected. Above the dust of the pauper as well as of the 
 prince is left some token of remembrance. Pains are taken that 
 no graves of friends and relatives are neglected, lest their spirits 
 should have their feelings hurt during their visit by perceiving 
 this neglect. The children, especially, are encouraged to delight 
 in the thought of pleasing the little dead brother, sister, or friend 
 by making the tiny mounds that mark their resting-places gay 
 and bright-looking. 
 
 The higher classes behave with the quietude and self-restraint 
 of well-bred people everywhere. But down among the common 
 people are manifested the emotions of the heart, sad remem- 
 brance, reawakened grief, love o-utlasting its object. 
 
 It is true that even into the midst of this pathetic ceremony 
 the Parisians sometimes manage to obtrude politics. On No- 
 vember 2, 1868, a strange scene was enacted in the cemetery 
 of Montmartre. The Empire was then at the height of its 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 31 
 
 unpopularity. A large number of its enemies came bearing 
 flowers to seek for the tomb of Alphonse Baudin, the repre- 
 sentative of the people who had died at the barricades on 
 December 2, 1851. For seventeen years this tomb had been 
 reported lost. But thousands of eager searchers soon located it, 
 and it was covered with a pyramid of immortelles and other 
 flowers. Eevolutionary speeches were made, and there were some 
 conflicts with the police. Next morning some of the liberal 
 journals opened a subscription-list for a monument to Baudin. 
 But the movement was stopped by the Imperial government, 
 and several of the editors were fined. 
 
 Scenes of this sort, however, are infrequent, and occur only 
 among unbelievers. Now contrast the Frenchman with the 
 Southern Italian. 
 
 Nothing can be more gruesome, incongruous, and flippant — to 
 the Northern mind — than the All Souls' celebrations in Naples. 
 The Saturday Beview of January 7, 1888, gives an account of 
 these which is as true to-day as it was then : 
 
 " In Naples All Souls' Day is regarded as a holiday, and the 
 visit of the families to the churchyard for the purpose of deco- 
 rating the graves degenerates into a pleasure-party. Metal gar- 
 lands are chiefly used for the purpose ; and, though they are more 
 durable, they hardly possess the charm of real leaves and flowers. 
 They may, however, be regarded as symbolic of the behavior, if 
 not always of the feelings, of those who offer them. On the 
 way to the cemetery a decent sobriety is observed, and the 
 various families usually remain separate ; but on the return 
 general sociability and mirth are the rule. The roadside is 
 lined with inns, which are better filled on this than any other 
 day in the year; and from all of them the sound of singing and 
 dancing may be heard. Indeed, it is by no means uncommon 
 for a young Neapolitan to say to a friend, ' We are going to 
 visit our mother's grave to-morrow, and on our way back we 
 shall stop at such or such an inn ;' which means, If you like to 
 come there, you can dance with my sister. To an Englishman 
 no celebration of the day seems a better thing. If we forget 
 our dead, we do not make their memory the excuse for a 
 jollification. 
 
 " It is not, however, in this point alone that a difference of 
 sentiment exists. The whole way in which the Neapolitans 
 treat the bodies of the dead fills us with disgust. To exhume a 
 corpse a year or two after it has been buried, to have the 
 skeleton taken to pieces and the bones carefully cleaned, would 
 seem to us a wanton outrage ; the wealthy Neapolitan who 
 neglects to have this done for his kindred is regarded as heart- 
 less. To carry about the prepared bones of a pet child, and to 
 
32 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 place them in a sealed casket on the drawing-room mantel-piece, 
 seems to us simply shocking; in Southern Italy it has been 
 regarded as a most pathetic expression of sorrow. But the 
 height of what appears to us grotesque horror has been reached 
 by a widower, who has the embalmed corj^se of his wife dressed 
 anew once a year in fresh and gorgeous apparel, and seizes the 
 opportunity to present it with a new ring or bracelet. 
 
 " In the villages, too, where the day is observed with a certain 
 seriousness, grotesque incidents are apt to mar, for the stranger 
 at least, the sense of mournful calm which the religious services 
 excite. In one of the churches of Eavello, for example, a dis- 
 gusting effigy is placed before the high altar, instead of the 
 shrouded structure in which, during the funeral service, the 
 coffin is placed. The very skill with which it is made renders 
 it the more repulsive. The fallen cheeks and livid hue are 
 rendered with what seems, in the half-light, a frightful realism ; 
 and it is clad in the court dress of some former century, in a 
 suit embroidered with gold, red stockings, and pointed shoes. 
 Or is it perhaps a real mummy? The writer did not pause to 
 inquire. In fact, the South Italian seems to be utterly des- 
 titute of the feeling which prompts us to conceal as far as 
 possible, even from our imaginations, all that is revolting in 
 death." 
 
 In France the Jour des Morts is kept utterly distinct from La 
 Toussaint, or All Saints' Day, which occurs on November 1. 
 This is also true of Italy. But in many other European 
 Catholic countries the decorating of graves begins on All Saints' 
 Day, either because it is looked upon as the Eve of All Souls', 
 or from the pious and complimentary hope that the dead in 
 whom the celebrant is interested may have already passed out 
 of the penitential flames of purgatory into the company of the 
 blessed. In a Catholic Alpine village, as soon as the mass has 
 been heard on All Saints', the women of the family busy them- 
 selves with weaving wreaths of evergreens, into which any 
 flowers that are still hardy enough to blossom are eagerly 
 worked. In the afternoon these are carried to the churchyard 
 and laid upon the graves with almost silent reverence; and in 
 the evening a lamp is placed at the foot of the last resting- 
 place of every departed friend. At such a time the cemetery is 
 a strange sight, with the garlands, the lights, and the groups of 
 mourners kneeling, often in the snow. 
 
 Almanac Day (November 22). Formerly this was a notable 
 occasion at Stationers' Hall, London. The Stationers' Company 
 originally enjoyed a monopoly of the printing of books. Even 
 after this privilege had been withdrawn from them they claimed 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 33 
 
 the exclusive right of issuing almanacs. Not till 1775 was this 
 claim successfully contested by one Thomas Carnan, a book- 
 seller in St. Paul's Churchyard. But for long afterwards, despite 
 their loss of what they considered a vested right, the almanacs 
 of the Stationers' Company continued to be the standard publi- 
 cations in this sort, the most popular and the most eagerly 
 sought for. Knight's "London" (1841) thus describes the scene 
 on Almanac Day in Stationers' Hall: "All over the long tables 
 that extend through the hall, which is of considerable size, and 
 piled up in tall heaps on the floor, are canvas bales or bags in- 
 numerable. This is the 22d of November. The doors are locked 
 as yet, but will be opened presently for a novel scene. The 
 clock strikes, wide asunder start the gates, and in they come, a 
 whole army of porters, darting hither and thither, and seizing 
 the said bags, in many instances as big as themselves. Before 
 we can well understand what is the matter, men and bags have 
 alike vanished — the hall is clear ; another hour or two, and the 
 contents of the latter will be flying along railways, east, west, 
 north, and south. . . . Yes, they are all almanacs : those bags 
 contain nothing but almanacs." Even now on November 22 in 
 some of the byways of London the cry once so familiar in all 
 the principal streets, "Almanacs for the ensuing year!" is 
 occasionally heard from peripatetic peddlers. The Stationers' 
 Company still keep up the old practice of sending an early copy 
 of each of their almanacs to the Archbishop of Canterbury on 
 publication-day. This custom originated in the early part of 
 the eighteenth century, while Edward Tenison was archbishop. 
 A near relative of his was Master of the Stationers' Company. 
 On one Lord Mayor's Day the latter, who had achieved the 
 dignity of Alderman, was awaiting in the civic barge at West- 
 minster Stairs the return of the Mayor from Westminster Hall. 
 As time hung heavy, he and bis fellow-aldermen rowed over to 
 Lambeth Palace to call^n Cousin Edward, who hospitably en- 
 tertained them with a pint of wine apiece and the watermen 
 with hot spiced ale and bread and cheese. This grew into a 
 settled custom year by year, until the abolition of the Mayor's 
 procession by water, and year by year the archiepiscopal 
 hospitality was acknowledged by the Stationers' Company by 
 presenting His Grace with copies of their several almanacs as 
 soon as published. 
 
 Altnohada. (Sp., " Pillow.") A ceremony at the court of 
 Madrid which dates back to the reign of Charles Y. It consists 
 in conferring the rank of grandee upon members of the Spanish 
 nobility. It is thus described by an eye-witness in October, 1888, 
 the only Almohada which has been held during the reign of 
 
 3 
 
34 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Alfonso XIII.: " On the afternoon of the appointed day the gran- 
 dees who happened to be residing at the time in the city assem- 
 bled in the small throne-room of the palace and took their seats 
 on carved stools upholstered with crimson velvet cushions, which 
 were ranged on either side of the room at right angles with the 
 throne, the gentlemen being on the right and the ladies on the 
 left thereof Punctually at three o'clock the queen regent made 
 her entry in state, accompanied by her sisters-in-law and attended 
 by the proud Duchess of Fernan-Nunez, her Camarera-Mayor, 
 or Grand Mistress of the Robes, by the Duke of Medina-Sidonia, 
 who is her Mayordomo- Mayor, or Grand Marshal of the Court, 
 and by other great officers of her household. As soon as she 
 had taken her seat on the throne she turned to the right and the 
 left with a slight inclination of her head, and, addressing the 
 grandees present, exclaimed, ' Be seated.' A moment afterwards 
 the folding doors at the farther end of the room were thrown 
 open, and, preceded by a chamberlain and conducted by the 
 two grandees appointed to act as sponsors, the postulant for ad- 
 mission to the grandezza made his appearance, and, after bowing 
 profoundly three times, — once on entering the royal presence, 
 once on reaching the centre of the room, and once on approach- 
 ing the throne, — stood still and awaited her majesty's orders. A 
 stool and crimson velvet cushion having been brought and placed 
 on the lowest step of the royal dais, the queen commanded that 
 the candidate should be seated, which he did with another low 
 obeisance. Christina then addressed a few complimentary words 
 to him, recalling the services rendered by his familj^ to the dy- 
 nasty in times gone by, and, after extending her hand to be 
 kissed, signified her desire that he should assume his place among 
 his peers. Eetiring backward from the royal presence, he was, 
 in the first place, conducted by his sponsors to the side of the 
 hall occupied by the ladies of grandee rank, to whom he made a 
 low bow, and then to that of the men, whom he saluted in a 
 similar manner. He thereupon put his hat on his head, his ex- 
 ample being instantaneously followed by every grandee present, 
 and all remained covered until, his stool and cushion having been 
 removed from the steps of the throne and placed beside those of 
 his peers, the newly elected grandee had seated himself thereon. 
 The object which the grandees have in view in putting on their 
 hats during this portion of the ceremony is to perpetuate and to 
 assert their ancient and traditional privilege of remaining cov- 
 ered in the presence of royalty. It is they alone who represent 
 the old blue blood of Spain and from whose number the great 
 officers of the royal household are almost exclusively selected. 
 A grandee and a grandesse are daily in attendance on the mon- 
 arch as chamberlain and as lady-in-waiting, and almost as many 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 35 
 
 nobiliary quarterings are required for- admission to the grandezza 
 as to the sovereign Order of Knighthood of Malta." 
 
 Altar. (Lat. altare, " an altar," from alius, " high.") A place or 
 object for sacrifice, adoration, or other priestly ofiice. The earliest 
 altars were turf mounds, large flat- topped stones, or other rude 
 elevations, natural or artificial. When temples came to be built, 
 altars were generally made of stone, marble, or metal. Greek 
 and Eoman altars were circular, square, or triangular in form, 
 and were highly ornamented. In the Jewish worship two altars 
 were used, the altar of burnt-offering and the altar of incense. 
 Both were made of shittim wood, the first overlaid with brazen 
 plates and the latter with gold. In the primitive Christian Church 
 the altar was usually of wood. But during the persecutions the 
 tombs of martyrs in the Catacombs were used as altars. Hence 
 the Catholic Church requires that the altar must either consist 
 of stone or contain an altar stone large enough for the sacred 
 vessels to stand upon. Hence also its general likeness in form to 
 a sarcophagus. The altar stone is consecrated by the bishop or 
 a specially licensed abbot, who anoints it with chrism, and fre- 
 quently seals up certain rehcs in a small cavity made for the 
 purpose. Such relics were at one time absolutely necessary. 
 The east end of a church, where possible, is the preferable posi- 
 tion, so that worshippers may face towards the east, as a re- 
 minder of Christ, " the Dayspring and the Resurrection." Here 
 undoubtedly is a reminiscence of the sun-worship which was the 
 primitive cult of our Aryan ancestors. Both Greeks and Romans 
 turned their faces to the east when praying. Originally there 
 was one altar in each church dedicated to the patron saint. But 
 as other relics than those of the patron were added to a church, 
 special altars were raised and consecrated to them. In the 
 Reformed Churches only one altar is used. The zeal of the early 
 Reformers frequently carried them so far as to abolish the altar 
 entirely. In Switzerland it was replaced by a plain communion- 
 table, and in Holland and Scotland even this communionrtable 
 was not tolerated except when communion was actually cele- 
 brated. 
 
 Amable, St. (died 475). One of the early apostles of Chris- 
 tianity in France. He is the patron of Riom, France, where 
 his festival, June 11, is celebrated with a curious ceremonial that 
 attracts large crowds from the neighboring peasantry. A pro- 
 cession is formed in which the most important feature is a wax 
 wheel several feet in diameter decorated with ribbons. This is 
 borne in the air by the priests, who from time to time make it 
 turn on its axle, to the great edification of the faithful. The 
 
36 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 wheel, it appears, is made by the churchwardens from a thread 
 of wax which is coiled into a circular form. The thread is just 
 long enough to measure around the town of Eiom. It is evident, 
 therefore, that this is a survival of wheel- worship (see Wheel of 
 Fire) transferred from the time of the summer solstice to the 
 festival of the patron saint. We may also surmise that origi- 
 nally the wheel was carried round the town, so as to protect it 
 from all evil influences, as is done to this day in the burning of 
 the Clavie at Burghead. By some curious mutation, however, 
 the wax thread of the length of the circuit was substituted. 
 The wheel is now carried to the neighboring village of Marsat, 
 where it is received by the priests of the chapel of Notre-Dame 
 as an oifering to the ihonor of the blessed Virgin Mary, mother 
 of Jesus. Another wheel, made by the peasants of flowers, also 
 capable of revolving on its axis, is carried in the procession. 
 
 Ambrose, St. The festival of this saint is celebrated on 
 December 7, the day on which he was ordained bishop. It is 
 especially observed in Milan, of which city he is the patron saint. 
 
 He was one of the four Latin Fathers of the Church. He was 
 born at Treves in Graul. It is related that when an infant a 
 swarm of bees alighted on his mouth without doing him any 
 harm, thus indicating his future eloquence. The same story, 
 it will be remembered, was told of Plato and of Archilochus. 
 Ambrose studied at Eome and then removed to Milan. Shortly 
 after, the bishop of that city died, and a great dispute arose be- 
 tween the Catholics and the Arians as to who should succeed him. 
 Ambrose pacified the disputants by his eloquence. Then a child's 
 voice was heard crying, "Ambrose shall be bishop;" and although 
 he protested, saying that he had not even been baptized, the 
 whole assembly took up the cry, his objections were overruled, 
 the ceremony of baptism was performed on the spot, and eight 
 days afterwards he was consecrated bishop. He threw his whole 
 soul into the performance of his duties, allowing no respect of 
 persons to interfere with them. On one occasion the Emperor 
 Theodosius, after having been guilty of a general massacre of 
 the insurgents in Thessalonica, presented himself to worship in 
 the cathedral, but St. Ambrose sternly refused him admittance 
 until he had performed public penance for his sin. In 387 he 
 founded the church now known as the basilica of Sant' Am- 
 brogio Maggiore at Milan, which he dedicated to all the saints. 
 At the consecration of this church the relics of SS. Gervasius 
 and Protasius were miraculously revealed to him. Many other 
 wonderful things are recorded about this saint. On one occasion 
 a heretic who came to scoff at his preaching saw an angel stand- 
 ing by his side and prompting him, and was at once converted to 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 37 
 
 the truth. At another time, while celebrating mass, he fell into 
 a trance and beheld the burial of St. Martin of Tours, then 
 taking place in France. When he was on his death-bed, the 
 Bishop of Yercelli, who was attending him, fell asleep, but an 
 angel awoke him in time to administer the last sacraments, and 
 then all present beheld St. Ambrose carried up to heaven in the 
 arms of angels. This was on April 4, 397. He is represented as 
 
 St. Ambrose Enthroned. 
 (From a German print of the fifteenth century.) 
 
 a mitred bishop with a crosier. Sometimes a beehive is at his 
 feet, but his usual attribute is a knotted scourge with three 
 thongs. 
 
 The body of St. Ambrose was originally interred near the 
 relics of SS. Gorvasius and Protasius in the basilica of St. 
 Ambrose, Milan. It now reposes in a vault under the high 
 altar. " God," says Alban Butler, " was pleased to honor him by 
 manifesting that through his intercession he protected the state 
 against the idolaters." He instances the case of Eadagaesus, 
 
38 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 King of the Goths, who in 450 invaded Italy, swearing to sacri- 
 fice all the Komans before bis gods. He quotes from Tillemont : 
 " Eadagsesus besieged Florence. This city was reduced to the 
 utmost straits, when St. Ambrose, who had once retired thither 
 (and who had now been dead nine years), appeared to a person 
 of the house where he had lodged, and promised him that the 
 city should be delivered from the enemy on the next day. The 
 man told it to the inhabitants, who took courage and resumed 
 the hopes which they had quite lost, and on the next day came 
 Stilicho with his army. Paulinus, who relates this, learned it 
 from a lady who lived at Florence." Stilicho, it will be remem- 
 bered, won a complete victory, and captured Eadagsesus and his 
 two sons and put them to death. 
 
 Amen Corner. A spot in Paternoster Eow, London. Prior 
 to the Eeformation an annual procession to St. Paul's Cathedral 
 used to be performed on Corpus Christi Day. Mustering at the 
 end of Cheapside, the clergy there commenced the chanting of 
 the Our Father, or Paternoster, through the whole length of 
 the street, hence called Paternoster Eow, so timing themselves 
 that the Amen would be reached at Amen Corner. Then began 
 the Ave Maria as they turned down Ave Maria Lane. After 
 crossing Ludgate Hill they chanted the Credo in Creed Lane. 
 It appears from Stow's " London" that the amen to the creed, 
 and hence the end of the chanting, was pronounced in Amen 
 Lane, which he says " is lately added to" Creed Lane. Amen 
 Lane, however, no longer exists. 
 
 Ampulla. The old Eoman, and still the ecclesiastical, name 
 for a vial or bottle of peculiar semiglobular nhape, usually with 
 two handles. The Eomans kept their wHne in ampullae of glass 
 or earthenware, as also the oil with which they anointed them- 
 selves after bathing. In modern ecclesiastical usage the term is 
 applied to the vessels holding the sacramental wine and water, 
 and to the cruets of precious metal holding the consecrated oil or 
 chrism used in extreme unction, at the coronation of kings, and 
 in other functions. The name and the thing are retained in the 
 EngUsh coronation service. Among the regalia preserved in 
 the Tower of London is the golden ampulla in the form of an 
 eagle, richly chased, which is said to have been made expressly 
 for the coronation of Charles II, 
 
 The anointing was a peculiarly sacred ceremony, used in the 
 earliest time only for the kings of England, France, Jerusalem, 
 and Sicily. Subsequently the kings of Scotland obtained the 
 privilege of anointing by special grant from the Pope. The 
 English kings were anointed, not with holy oil, but with a 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 39 | 
 
 specially prepared cream, wliich was consecrated by the primate, 
 or by some bishop deputed by him, and the custom continued 
 after the Eeformation. Thus the cream used for anointing 
 Charles I. was consecrated by Laud, then Bishop of St, David's. 
 
 In France, the sacred ampulla (la sainte ampoule) containing 
 the balm with which the kings were anointed was kept in the 
 tomb of St. Eemy in the cathedral of Eheims. According to 
 legend, a legend much younger than the pretended fact it com- ; 
 memorates, this ampulla was brought down from heaven by a ^ 
 
 dove, in answer to the prayer of St. Eemy, to serve at the bap- 5 
 
 tism and coronation of King Clovis in 496. Neither St. Eemy 
 himself, however, nor any of his contemporaries mentions the 
 miracle, which appears to have been a ninth-century invention. 
 The ampulla was always used at the coronation of French kings 
 down to Charles X. It was a glass vial forty-one millimetres 
 high, with an aperture sixteen millimetres in circumference, 
 filled with a compound of oil and balm " thick and slab," which 
 in the end had become solidified and of a reddish-brown color. 
 At the ceremony of coronation the High Prior of St. Eemy 
 hung the rich shrine that contained it about his neck, and by 
 means of a gold needle scooped out a particle which he placed 
 upon the monarch's brow. 
 
 The legend goes on to say that there was such a relation 
 between the holy vial and the life of the reigning king that the 
 bulk of the ointment it contained diminished if his health 
 happened to be impaired. In 1793 the revolutionists under Euhl, . ^ 
 then appointed commissioner in the department of Marne, -- - 
 broke this relic to pieces in the public square of Eheims. But 
 it is said that the Abbe Seraine, cure of St. Eemy, secreted a 
 part of the contents in a crystal vessel which was providentially 
 discovered in time for the coronation of Charles X. in 1825. 
 This is still preserved in a silver gilt shrine in Eheims Cathedral, 
 the revolutionists of 1848 contemptuously allowing it to remain '^ 
 in its ancient tabernacle. 
 
 J^ Amuck or Amok. A species of semi-voluntary insanity 
 which is peculiar to the Malays of the Indian Archipelago. The 
 curious feature about it is that, though the result of a momen- 
 tary passion, it seems to depend, in the Malay's mind, on a -^^.^ 
 belief that to run amok is, under certain circumstances, the ^ 
 right thing to do. The circumstance may be any accident or 
 sorrow which overwhelms a man with uncontrollable emotion. 
 His grief then takes the form of violent and indiscriminate ' 
 anger against the whole human race. With drawn kris he rushes',- - 
 out to slay or be slain. His frenzied appearance proclaims his<3^ ' 
 condition. " Amok ! Amok !" shriek the people, as they trample 
 
 ^.wmM^ -www ^Aw^.aW'-^^ - .'^"^^'^"t// 
 
40 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 over each other in their hurry to save their lives. The alarm 
 spreads far and wide. The hand of every Mala}^ springs to the 
 twisted band of his sheath, to draw forth the dagger that hangs 
 by his side ; the police clutch their weapons ; the Europeans 
 seize their guns ; every eye, every nerve, is strained for the 
 coming peril. "Amok! Amok!" — a wild shriek, a groan, a cry 
 for mercy, and on rushes the maniac with the bloody kris in his 
 hand, striking right and left, heedless of friend or foe. He is pur- 
 sued by a number of people armed with spears, daggers, knives, 
 guns, and clubs, who grow as madly excited as the wild creature 
 they chase. Brandishing his ruddy blade, the ghastly Malay, 
 perhaps himself gashed with cuts and riddled with bullets, dashes 
 along in his fury, marking his course with his own blood and 
 that of fresh victims. And so he goes on and on till he falls 
 from some shot, or sinks from exhaustion, to be despatched by 
 the ready daggers of his chasers. Or perhaps, cut off and 
 hemmed in, the amok-runner, dripping with blood, stands at bay 
 in some house or against a wall, glaring with bloodshot eyes, 
 and, holding out his stained kris, defies any one to approach. 
 Then the police bring into use a huge short-pronged pitchfork, 
 with which they are provided in the Straits Settlement, deftly 
 thrusting at him till he is caught by the throat, pinned to the 
 wall, and held there by powerful arms. His kris having been 
 wrested from him, he is quickly pinioned, and, if he does not 
 die of his wounds, is tried and executed by native or British 
 laws. 
 
 The nearest thing in nature to a Malay running amok is the 
 conduct of an elephant who goes "must." Both do all the 
 violent injury in their power without notice or warning. 
 Neither is usually spared when he returns to a calmer frame of 
 mind, by way of seeing whether his reformation will endure or 
 whether he will relapse. 
 
 Andisop. Train tells us in his " History of the Isle of Man" 
 (1845, vol. ii. p. 127) that the fiddlers go round from house to 
 house in the latter part of the night for two or three weeks be- 
 fore Christmas, playing a tune called the Andisop. On their 
 way they stop before particular houses, wish the inmates indi- 
 vidually good-morning, call the hour, then report the state of the 
 weather, and, after receiving a small gratuity, move on to the 
 next halting-place. 
 
 Andrew, St., the Apostle, patron of Scotland and of Eussia. 
 His feast is celebrated on November 30, the reputed day of his 
 death. Scripture informs us that he was the son of Jonas, a 
 fisherman of Bethsaida in Galilee, and the brother of Simon 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 41 
 
 Peter. A disciple of John the Baptist, he followed Jesus upon 
 the Baptist's pointing him out with the words " Behold the Lamb 
 of God!" (John i. 35-40.) 
 Andrew introduced his 
 brother to Jesus, a circum- 
 stance which has invested 
 him with special eminence. 
 They abode a day with the 
 Saviour, and subsequently 
 accompanied him to the mar- 
 riage at Cana, after which 
 they returned to their trade 
 as fishermen. Some months 
 later, Jesus, meeting them 
 while they were fishing, 
 called them to him, prom- 
 ising to make them fishers 
 of men. Thereupon they left 
 their nets and followed him. 
 (Matt. iv. 19, 20.) After the 
 Ascension there is no further 
 scriptural mention of St. An- 
 drew, but tradition assigns 
 Scythia, Greece, and Thrace 
 as the scenes of his mission- 
 ary labors, and asserts that 
 he was martyred at Patrse, 
 in Achaia, on November 30, 
 A.D. 70. The Eoman pro-^ 
 
 consul, it is said, angered because he had converted his wife Maxi- 
 milla, caused him to be first flogged and then crucified. The cross 
 upon which he sufi^ered was of the form called decussate, — i.e., 
 shaped like the letter X. To this day a cross of that kind is called 
 by his name. He was fastened to it by cords instead of nails, to 
 produce a lingering death by hunger and thirst. The legend goes 
 on to say that Maximilla caused the body to be decently interred, 
 and that for many years manna came out from his tomb, together 
 with a fragrant oil, and when these were abundant the crops for 
 that season were good, but if not the crops also were scanty. 
 The Emperor Constantine removed the body to Constantinople 
 and placed it in a church consecrated to the Twelve Apostles. 
 Thirty years after the death of Constantine, in 368, a Greek 
 monk named Eegulus, or Eule, conveyed the body to Scotland, 
 and reburied it on the eastern coast of Fife, where he built a 
 church, and here afterwards arose the city and cathedral of St. 
 Andrew. In the mediaeval chap-book entitled " The Seven Cham- 
 
 Martyrdom op St. Andrew. 
 (From an old print.) 
 
42 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 pions of Christendom," which is purely a secular performance, 
 full of astounding anachronisms, a different legend is told. After 
 performing prodigies of valor in Thrace, St. Andrew is repre- 
 sented as coming to Scotland, then "a rude and heathenish coun- 
 try, where the common sort of people inhabited." Although the 
 king and the nobility welcomed him, the people put him secretly 
 to death ; whereat the king, greatly incensed, raised a power of 
 his best resolved knights of war, and put every one to the sword, 
 man, woman, and child, that in any manner had consented to the 
 champion's martyrdom. So only Christian believers were left in 
 Scotland. Subsequently the king appointed a monastery to be 
 built on the place where St. Andrew died. 
 
 The cross upon which St. Andrew was crucified is one of the 
 most precious relics of the church of St. Victor (^. v.') in Mar- 
 seilles. It was brought from Patmos by the Burgondes, whose 
 king took Marseilles about the year 400 and deposited this relic 
 in St. Victor. Fearing its profanation during an invasion of the 
 Saracens, St. Eusebia, the abbess, hid it in a place known only to 
 herself and her martyred companions. Lost for some centuries, 
 it w^as supposed to have been seized by the infidels, until, after 
 having at three different times during mass a vision of its place 
 of concealment, the pious Hugues de Glacius searched the spot 
 indicated, and, amid a heap of rubbish, found the sacred wood. 
 
 From time immemorial St. Andrew has been the patron of 
 Scotland. His day, which is also known as Andrys Day, Androiss 
 Mess, and Andermess, is made the occasion of banquets, not only 
 at home, but wherever in foreign ports enough Scotsmen can be 
 mustered to partake of the festivity. In London a procession 
 of Scots used to be held, a singed sheep's head being borne in the 
 van. The use of sheep's head, boiled, baked, or singed, began in 
 the village of Duddington, a mile or so out from Edinburgh, 
 whither the citizens of the metropohs were wont to resort on 
 summer days for gastronomic purposes. It is supposed that the 
 custom arose from the practice of slaughtering for the market 
 the sheep fed on the neighboring hill. The carcasses were sent 
 to town, the head, etc., being left to be consumed in the place. 
 In the parish of Eastling, in Kent, England, the yearly diversion 
 of squirrel-hunting took place on St. Andrew's Lay. Peasants 
 and laborers would assemble together armed with guns, clubs, 
 poles, and other weapons, and under pretence of hunting squir- 
 rels would parade through the woods and grounds with loud 
 shoutings and kill every species of game, squirrels, hares, pheas- 
 ants, or partridges, that came in their way, doing much injury to 
 trees and hedges, and finally ending the day with a carousal at 
 the ale-houses. • 
 
 Luther in his " Table-Talk" describes how on the evening of 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 43 
 
 the feast of St. Andrew the young maids in Germany would 
 strip themselves naked and utter the following prayer : " Deus, 
 Deus meus, o Sancte Andrea, effice ut bonum pium acquiram 
 virum ; hodie mihi ostende qualis sit cui me in uxorem ducere 
 debet" (" God, my God, O Saint Andrew, bring it about that 
 I may obtain a good affectionate husband ; show me to-day what 
 manner of man it is that shall lead me to the altar"). Probably 
 there is an allusion to this custom in "The Popish Kingdom" of 
 Naogeorgus, thus translated by Barnaby Googe : 
 
 To Andrew all the lovers and the lustie wooers come, 
 Beleeving through his aid and certaine ceremonies done 
 (While as to him they presentes bring, and conjure all the night) 
 To have good lucke, and to obtaine their chiefe and sweete delight. 
 
 A somewhat analogous ceremony is practised in England on 
 St. Agnes' Eve (^. v.). 
 
 A pretty German superstition that still survives locally on St. 
 Andrew's Day is the following : 
 
 To learn which of the persons present love each other, or will 
 one day be united, a vessel with pure water is set on the table, 
 and there are placed, to float upon the water, little cups of silver- 
 foil, inscribed with the names of those whose fortune is to be 
 determined. If a youth's cup advances to a maiden's, or a 
 maiden's to a youth's, it is worth while to note which makes 
 the chief advances ; and if they eventually cling together, they 
 will be sweethearts. But little cups must also be set floating 
 marked as priests ; and it is only when the youth and the maid 
 coming together get a priest between them that they can look 
 forward with any certainty to marriage. 
 
 Angelus. The name given to the Catholic practice of re- 
 citing at morning, noon, and evening three Hail Marys, together 
 with sentences and a collect expressive of rejoicing trust in the 
 mystery of the Incarnation. The first sentence of the collect 
 begins, " Angelus Domini nuntiavit Marise" (" The angel of the 
 Lord announced unto Mary"). Hence the name of the devotion. 
 In Catholic countries a bell called the Angelus rings at the 
 several hours six a.m., twelve m., and six p.m. The evening 
 Angelus had the earliest origin. Introduced by Pope John 
 XXII. in 1326, he ordered that the church bells should sound at 
 the hour of curfew and that parishioners at this bell-stroke should, 
 on bended knees, repeat three times the angel's salutation to the 
 Virgin Mary, thus gaining ten days' indulgence. In 1369 it was 
 ordained that at dawn (m aurora diet) there should be three 
 bell-strokes, and that whoever hearing said three aves and as 
 many paternosters should obtain twenty days' indulgence. In 
 
44 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 1472 Louis XI. ordered the Angelus to be repeated three times 
 a day, and obtained a papal decree that whoever obeyed the 
 order should thereby acquire three hundred additional days of 
 indulgence. This threefold daily Angelus had also been recom- 
 mended as early as 1423 in Mainz and Cologne, in Breslau in 
 1416, etc. It has continued, with only slight modification in the 
 order of the prayers, up to the present day. Millet's famous 
 picture represents the evening Angelus. 
 
 Anne, St., mother of the Virgin. She is commemorated on 
 July 26, the reputed anniversary of her death. The patroness 
 of Canada, her famous shrine in the church of St. Anne, at the 
 little village of Beaupre, about twenty miles below Quebec, is 
 the Lourdes of the New World, attracting pilgrims from all 
 parts not only of Canada but also of the United States. 
 
 St. Anne, according to the legend, was the wife of Joachim, a 
 devout and wealthy man. For a long time the couple were 
 childless. Therefore when Joachim on a certain feast-day 
 appeared at the temple his offering was refused by the high- 
 priest. And he went away into the wilderness and fasted forty 
 days. Meanwhile Anne also bewailed her childlessness. And 
 while she was praying an angel aj^peared and told her that her 
 prayer was answered. Another angel appeared to Joachim with 
 the same message. The two met at the Golden Gate. And 
 when her time came Anne brought forth a daughter, whom she 
 called Mary. 
 
 The body of St. Anne was found in the time of Charlemagne, 
 at Apte, in France. A miracle revealed its abiding-place. A 
 boy born dumb suddenly spoke, saying, " Here lies the body of 
 Anne, mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary." This discovery is 
 commemorated by a yearly festival at Apte. To account for the 
 presence of the relics at that place the legend current at Apte 
 says that St. Paul dug St. Anne out of her grave in the Valley 
 of Jehoshaphat, and, carrying her to Rome, gave her to St. 
 Clement, who made a present of her bones to St. Auspicius, 
 Bishop of Apte. There are other legends about these relics, and 
 in fact there are other bodies or parts of bodies all claiming to 
 be genuine. There is a second head of St. Anne at Chartres, 
 brought from the East in the twelfth century by Louis, Count 
 of Blois ; a third at Bologna, given by Henry VI. of England 
 to Nicholas Albegarti; a fourth at Dtiren, in Germany, brought 
 from the Holy Land in 1212; a fifth at Castelbona, in Sicily, 
 brought from Lorraine by John de Hieac about a.d. 1468. The 
 arms and legs of this saint are relatively more numerous than 
 her heads. A noted relic, " a most miraculous and odoriferous 
 relic" (John Comnenus : The Pilgrim's Guide to the Holy Maun- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 45 
 
 tain, Venice, 1701), is kept in a silver case set with precious 
 stones in the church of St. Anne at Mount Athos, Greece. This 
 is the left foot of the saint. If the traveller is anxious to see 
 this relic, the monks, having first lighted candles and put on 
 their full canonicals, will draw forth the ghastly and shrunken 
 limb, which they devoutly kiss. 
 
 The special Canadian devotion to the saint began when the 
 original church was built at Beauj^re. The legend runs that in 
 1650 or 1651, that is, in the very infancy of the French colony 
 in Canada, some Breton sailors, caught in a storm, vowed that if 
 the good St. Anne would but bring them safely to land they 
 would build her a sanctuary on the spot where their feet first 
 touched land. The prayer was granted, the vow was kept. A 
 small wooden church was erected. Some years later a little 
 child was thrice favored with a heavenly vision near this build- 
 ing, and on her third appearance the \^ii'gin commanded the 
 little one to tell the people that they should build her a larger 
 church on that spot. 
 
 The governor of the colony, M. Aillebout, commenced with 
 his own hands the pious work, and laid the first stone in 1658, 
 and a habitant of the place, Louis Guimont, sorely afflicted with 
 rheumatism, came, grinning with pain, to lay three stones in the 
 foundation, in honor, probably, of St. Anne, St. Joachim, and 
 their daughter the Yirgin. Instantly he was cured of his rheu- 
 matism. That was but the beginning of a long course of 
 miracles, continued more than two and a quarter centuries 
 already, and still continuing. 
 
 Since 1666, pilgrimages have been frequent to St. Anne de 
 Beaupre. On the 30th of March of that year the Marquis de 
 Trace}', governor of the colony, went there to return thanks to 
 St. Anne for the preservation at sea of the ship which had 
 brought him from France and had been nearly wrecked, and in 
 August following he again visited the shrine, this time accom- 
 panied by Monsignor de Laval, first Bishop of Quebec, and pre- 
 sented it with the celebrated painting of St. Anne by Le Brun 
 which hangs over the richly adorned high altar, while a rich 
 chasuble, embroidered in gold, was presented to the church by 
 Anne of Austria, the queen mother of Louis XIY., who had 
 worked it with her own hands. 
 
 In 1668 the shrine was enriched by a relic which was nothing 
 less than a fragment of a finger of St. Anne. This is still 
 retained and carefully preserved. Its exposition, save on St. 
 Anne's Bay, is a favor rarely vouchsafed even to the faithful. 
 
 It was long the custom of all ships returning from voyages to 
 anchor here and honor Canada's patroness by a broadside. 
 
 In the number of its pilgrims St. Anne de Beaupre compares 
 
46 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 favorably with Loretto, JS'otre Dame de Lourdes, and Paray- 
 le-Monial. Under the French regime the whole shore was fre- 
 quently covered with the wigwams of Indian converts, who 
 had paddled their birch-bark canoes from the farthest wilds of 
 Canada. The more fervent would crawl on their knees from the 
 shore to the altar. 
 
 Ever since that period there has been a steady increase in the 
 volume of pilgrims to St. Anne. In one recent year forty thou- 
 sand visited the shrine between June and October. The average 
 yearly number of pilgrims is from seventy-five thousand to one 
 hundred thousand. They come from all parts of the United 
 States and Canada, and, as they are of various origins, they speak 
 a variety of languages. The Eedemptorist Fathers in charge of 
 the church preach in English, French, German, Spanish, Flemish, 
 Italian, and Eussian, as the occasion demands. 
 
 The proprietor of the new railroad to Beaupre has not failed 
 to secure for it a character thoroughly in accord with its mission. 
 On the day of its opening to travel Cardinal Taschereau blessed 
 both road and rolling stock, the ceremony of the benediction 
 being as interesting as it was novel, including the sprinkling of 
 engines, cars, and track with holy water, and the offering up 
 of j^rayers for the protection of all that travel by the railway, 
 for those that direct it, "that they may be directed in the way 
 of God's commandments," and for the passengers, " that, as the 
 Ethiopian eunuch was accorded grace while seated on his car, 
 so may they obtain eternal joys when their journey of life shall 
 come to an end." 
 
 The handsome new church of La Bonne Ste.-Anne was com- 
 menced in 1850, has cost from two hundred thousand dollars to a 
 quarter of a million, and has been raised by the Pope to the 
 dignity of a basilica. It is surrounded by a number of magnifi- 
 cent lateral chapels, each the gift of a Canadian diocese. In 
 front of the chancel is a splendid statue of St. Anne. 
 
 At intervals along the road there are small chapels, which are 
 used but once annually, when the shrines enclosed are exposed to 
 receive the votive offerings of processionists winding with stately 
 chant along the dusty highway upon St. Anne's Day. 
 
 There are numerous rude ex-voto pictures in the church, repre- 
 senting marvellous deliverances of ships in peril through the aid of 
 St. Anne, though by far the most interesting features of the sanc- 
 tuary are the massive tiers of crutches, sticks, and splints and 
 other peculiar contrivances for strengthening structural weak- 
 nesses, which have been joyfully cast aside by those who suddenly 
 found that they no longer required them. There is a very large 
 collection of spectacles and eye-glasses, indicative of the benefits 
 derived at the shrine by those who had previouslj^ suffered from 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 47 
 
 weak or defective vision, while a long row of tobacco-pipes and 
 another of snuff-boxes testify to the power of the saint in curing 
 the habits that called for their former use. A few bracelets illus- 
 trate the power of St. Anne in curing the vanity that is princi- 
 pally illustrated in the inordinate display of jewelry. No wonder 
 that St. Anne has been specially designated the patroness of 
 Canada, though it has been ecclesiastically provided that this is 
 to be without prejudice to the office of St. Joseph as its patron, 
 
 New York City boasts a famous relic of this saint, — a wrist- 
 bone taken from an arm possessed by the Benedictine monastery 
 at Rome. The manner of its arrival here is as follows. The 
 ^rowii; . devotion to the shrine of St. Anne at Beaupre had led 
 ie Cardinal Archbishop of Quebec in 1892 to send Monsignor 
 fprquis, prothonotary apostolic, on a journey to Bome seeking 
 xbr some larger and more important relic of the saint than was 
 in possession of the church. Pope Leo was pleased to accord a 
 gracious hearing to the ambassador, and, in accordance with a 
 papal request, the wrist of St. Anne was given to him by the abbot 
 of the Benedictine monastery. It was placed in a small casket 
 of bronze, lined with gold, and having a glass top, through which 
 the relic could be seen. On his way to Canada Monsignor Mar- 
 quis stopped over in New York and permitted the exhibition and 
 veneration of the rehc at the church of St. Jean Baptiste. Such 
 crowds flocked to the shrine, so many miracles were wrought in 
 the way of cures, such was the interest which it awakened among 
 the Roman Catholic clergy and people of New York, that the 
 good Monsignor was loath to remove it. The relic is brought 
 out when sick people want to see it, and the priest touches the 
 patient with the glass case. There are a number of prayers and 
 much penance in connection with the ceremony, and the cure, 
 when it is effected, is, of course, due to faith. This, the most 
 famous relic in the country, is watched with the most jealous 
 care, especially in view of the many attempts that have been 
 made to steal it. There is another but a very minute relic pre- 
 served in the church of St. Anne in New York City. (See also" 
 AuRAY, Pardon of.) 
 
 Anniversary Week. The name formerly given in New York 
 to the week beginning with the last Monday in May. This is the 
 week in which the Quakers hold their annual meetings, and it 
 gradually became the habit for other rehgionists, as well as for 
 political and social agitators and benevolent societies of all sorts, 
 to descend upon New York at the same period. " It was a week 
 of great interest and excitement," writes George W. Curtis, "and, 
 while the newspapers sneered and cheered at many a word spoken, 
 the impulse given to public opinion was prodigious. The meet- 
 
48 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 ings were of all kinds: religious, charitable, and reformatory, 
 from the most conservative and 'respectable' — meetings with 
 which no well-ordered citizen was unwilling to have his name 
 associated — to those which were alleged to be composed mainly 
 of lunatics, fanatics, and long-haired fools, association with which 
 was supposed to brand a man as deficient in common sense. The 
 missionary meetings, those of the established charities and phil- 
 anthropic enterprises, had always a full attendance and an ample 
 flow of well-regulated oratory." {Harper's Magazine, vol. Iv. p. 
 463.) 
 
 But the seeker of excitement was supposed to find more fun at 
 the '• radical" assemblies, and especially at the meetings of the 
 Abolitionists and Women's Eights advocates. Of these tLe 
 papers published the most exaggerated and ludicrous reports or 
 caricatures. 
 
 Now all is changed. Mr. Curtis mourns that even in his time 
 " the glory of anniversary week, in New York at least, is gone. 
 Except to those interested members of the societies, those to 
 whom ' meetings' of any kind are a delight, its return is scarcely 
 known. The great public is unaware of the old festival, and the 
 venerable joke of the return of the Quakers, who bring to town 
 the rain of May, sleeps undisturbed. The ' anniversaries' are be- 
 coming almost as obsolete in memory as the figures of the clergy- 
 men upon Broadway, which even the Easy Chair can recall, 
 walking to church in the sunny Sunday morning in all the flow- 
 ing pomp of robes, their black silk gowns floating around them 
 in the breeze as they moved." The venerable joke to which 
 reference is made is not dead, however. Here is how it was re- 
 vived so recently as May 27, 1896, in the editorial columns of 
 the JVew York Herald : 
 
 "It may be that within the memory of some octogenarian a 
 Quaker meeting has been held without any accompanying down- 
 pour. But if any eighty-year-older dares to make the assertion, 
 we shall boldly declare that he has reached that period of mental 
 decrepitude when he draws his facts from his imagination." 
 
 Annunciation, Feast of the (known locally in England as 
 Lady Day of March). The anniversary of the day when the 
 angel G-abriel announced to the Virgin the mystery of the Incar- 
 nation. 
 
 As it was necessary to place the Annunciation nine months 
 before the Nativity, it follows that it was not until December 25 
 had been fixed on for Christmas that March 25 was decided on 
 for the Annunciation. But the feast itself dates from earlier 
 times, since St. Athanasius makes mention of it in one of his 
 sermons. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 49 
 
 It is obvious that March 25 may happen in Lent. An ordi- 
 nance of the patriarch Nicephorus, however, allowed the Lenten 
 fast to be broken if the Annunciation happened to fall on the 
 Thursday or Friday of Holy Week. Hence the Council of 
 Toledo in 656, to preserve the integrity of Lent, ordered the 
 transference of the feast to the week preceding Christmas. 
 Some of the Eastern Churches still follow this decree, but the 
 Syrians have fixed the date on December 1, and the Armenians 
 on the 5th of January, while in the Latin Church it has resumed 
 its more logical place in the ecclesiastical calendar. Neverthe- 
 less, if it should fall in the Easter fortnight, its celebration is 
 postponed until the second Monday following the festival. 
 
 In Eome in the early part of the century the day used to be 
 celebrated with great pomp and splendor. We read that the 
 windows were hung with crimson and yellow silk draperies and 
 occupied by females in most gorgeous attire, while the churches 
 were patrolled by the Pope's horse-guards in their splendid full- 
 dress uniforms, all of whom wore in their caps a sprig of myrtle 
 as a sign of rejoicing. Before the service a procession appeared, 
 preceded by another detachment of the guards mounted on black 
 chargers, who rode forward to clear the way to the sound of trum- 
 pets and the beating of drums. This martial array was followed 
 by a bareheaded priest on a white mule, bearing the host in a 
 gold cup, at the sight of which everybody prostrated himself 
 The Pope used formerly to ride on the white mule himself, and 
 all the cardinals used to follow him in their magnificent robes of 
 state, but, as the eminentissimi were for the most part not very 
 eminent horsemen, they were generally fastened on, lest they 
 should tumble off. 
 
 Misson in his " Voyage d'ltalie" has described another cere- 
 mony which was in use in his day at the Papal chapel of the 
 Minerva, whither the Pope and the Sacred College used to pro- 
 ceed on horseback on the feast of the Annunciation. "After 
 the Pope has said high mass, a number of young girls confess 
 and communicate. Then these girls, who are dressed in white 
 serge, and enveloped like phantoms in a piece of cloth which 
 covers their heads, leaving only a little orifice for one eye, enter 
 two by two into the choir, where all the cardinals are assembled, 
 and prostrate themselves at the feet of the Pope. An ofiicer ap- 
 pointed for the purpose stands by, holding a basin full of Kttle 
 bags of white cloth. These enclose a bank-note either of fifty 
 shillings for those who choose marriage or of one hundred shil- 
 Hngs for those who prefer the convent. Each girl having 
 humbly declared her choice, her bag is handed out. She kisses 
 it in receiving it, makes a profound obeisance, and turns away 
 to give place to the others. The future nuns are distinguished 
 
 4 
 
50 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 by a garland of flowers which crowns their virginity. They 
 hold the honorable rank in the procession." 
 
 In England the term Lady Day (more properly Our Lady's 
 Day) is applied to four other festivals, — namely, February 2, or 
 Candlemas, July 2, or the Visitation, to commemorate the visit 
 paid by the Virgin Mary to her cousin Elisabeth (instituted by 
 Pope Urban VI. in 1383), September 8, or the Nativity, and 
 December 8, or the Conception. 
 
 Lad}^ Day of March has always been very highly observed 
 in England. The Synod of Worcester, a.d. 1240^ by one of its 
 canons forbade all servile work upon it, and this was afterwards 
 confirmed by various provincial and diocesan councils in all re- 
 spects except agricultural labor. 
 
 Gyst-ales (see Ales) were frequently held on this day. At St. 
 Albans in Hertfordshire it is still the custom to sell a species oi 
 buns known as Pope Ladies {q. v.). Popular tradition still pre- 
 dicts public misfortune if Lady Day falls on Easter Sunday. 
 The mediaeval couplet runs, — 
 
 When our Lady falls in our Lord's lap, 
 Then England beware of great mishap. 
 
 No less than thirteen saints figure in the calendar on this day ; 
 among these two ladies, St. Dula and St. Ida, one Irishman, St. 
 Cammin, Abbot of Iniskeltra, and two Englishmen, St. Alfwolf, 
 Bishop of Sherborne, and St. Wilham, the child-martyr of Nor- 
 wich. 
 
 In England, besides its religious importance, which has been 
 greatly minimized since the Eeformation, Lady Day has for 
 centuries preserved its fiscal significance as the first quarter- 
 day in the year for rents and other payments. The pay-days in 
 England have been arbitrarily fixed on Lady Day, Midsummer 
 Day, Michaelmas Day, and Christmas. Why ? Nobody has been 
 able to explain, unless it be that, arriving, as they do, near the 
 end of each quarter, such important days are better as reminders 
 of duty to landlords than any ordinary 30th or 31st of the month 
 would be likely to be. In England and Ireland alone have they 
 this importance, for Scotland has quarter-days of her own. There 
 the legal dates are Whitsunday (May 15) and Martinmas (No- 
 vember 11), the conventional terms Candlemas (February 2) and 
 Lammas (August 1) making up the quarter-days. 
 
 Anselm, St., Archbishop of Canterbury. Born in Piedmont 
 in 1033, he entered the monastic state at Bee, France, in 1060, 
 and in 1093 succeeded his friend Lanfranc in the archiepiscopate 
 of Canterbury. He died April 21, 1109. The anniversary of 
 that date is celebrated as his festival. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 51 
 
 St. Anselm was one of the most powerful mediaeval advocates 
 of the supremacy of Church over State, and did much to estab- 
 Hsh the Papal authority in England against the recalcitrance 
 
 Seal of St, Anselm. 
 (From Stanley's " Memorials of Canterbury.") 
 
 of King William Eufus and King Henry I. He was buried 
 in his own cathedral, and many miracles w^ere reported at his 
 shrine. 
 
 Anthony, St., hermit (251-356), the originator of the mo- 
 nastic idea in Christianity. His day in the Catholic calendar is 
 January 17. He is the great misogynist of the Church. He 
 regarded the whole sex with profound mistrust, a mistrust not 
 untinged with fear ; for, although always on the alert, he seems 
 to have been never quite sure what trick they might be up to 
 next. That they were, for the most part, the devil's closest and 
 most unscrupulous allies was a point about which he personally 
 had very little doubt. Again and again in the course of his life 
 he proved clearly what he thought of them and their ways ; he 
 would refuse to look on them or hold parley with them ; and the 
 hu7 ien of much of his teaching was, lions are less to be feared 
 
52 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 than women. He was, in fact, the organizer and leader of the 
 first anti- women crusade ; and it was part of his regular propa- 
 ganda to insist that there could be neither peace on earth nor 
 good will among men unless the whole feminine tribe were boy- 
 cotted. Evidently he had no great faith in the resisting powers 
 of his fellows ; for the lesson he most impressed upon them was 
 that in dealing with women their only chance of safety lay in 
 
 St. Anthony and the Devil. 
 (From an old print reproduced in Wright's " Caricature.") 
 
 flight. Yet, strange to say, in spite of the suspicion with which 
 he regarded them, and of the contumely with which he some- 
 times ireated them, St. Anthony seems always to have been 
 very popular among the ladies. No matter whose altar goes un- 
 decked, his is sure of its due meed of flowers, especially on his 
 feie-day. 
 
 Born in Alexandria, Anthony inherited great wealth from his 
 parents, who died when he was eighteen years old. But he gave 
 it all to the poor, and retired to the desert with a small com- 
 pany of hermits, who lived in community, though in separate 
 cells. Here his austerities attracted the special enmity of Satan. 
 Evil spirits spread delicious fruit before him, and, assuming 
 the forms of lovely women, tempted him to sin. When they 
 found they could not enmesh him in this way, they fell upuu 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 63 
 
 him and overwhelmed him with hideous sights and sounds. 
 But in the midst of these horrors a great hght shone from 
 heaven, and Christ's voice was heard, calming and comforting 
 him. Then Anthony knew that the arch-fiend had been baffled. 
 He sought another retreat in the ruins of an old castle on the 
 Ehine. Here he shut himself up and saw no one for twenty 
 years. When he emerged, great multitudes came to hear him 
 preach, and such was the force of his words and his example 
 that no less than five thousand hermits were at one time assem- 
 bled around him in caves and tombs. Now, when the saint had 
 reached the great age of ninety and had passed nearly seventy- 
 five years in the desert, he began to be puffed up with pride at 
 the thought that no one had lived in solitude and self-denial so 
 long as he. But a voice told him that there was one Paul who 
 had lived as a hermit for ninety years. Anthony went in search 
 of Paul, and found him in a cavern. While the two were engaged 
 in deep converse, there came a raven carrying a loaf in its beak, 
 and Paul explained that for ninety years this raven had daily 
 brought him half a loaf, but now for Anthony's sake the portion 
 was doubled. After they had eaten, Paul told Anthony that he 
 had come in time to receive his last breath. And he prayed him 
 go and fetch a cloak to bury him in. And Anthony on his 
 return heard heavenly music and saw the spirit of Paul wing- 
 ing its way to heaven. He wrapped the body in the cloak, and 
 then two lions came out of the desert and dug the grave in 
 which Anthony buried him. Fourteen years after, Anthony 
 died, at the age of one hundred and five. This saint has been a 
 favorite subject for painters of all schools. He wears the monk's 
 garb and cowl, and his attributes are various : a crutch denotes 
 his old age and feebleness; a bell shows his power in exorcising 
 evil spirits, for after his victory over the arch-fiend he was held 
 in great terror by all the powers of hell ; and the aspergus, or 
 rod for sprinkling holy water, conveys the same idea A hog 
 represents the sensuality and gluttony over which he triumphed. 
 Flames of fire also are often placed near him, to indicate that lie 
 is a patron against fire of all sorts, natural and supernatural. 
 
 Anthony's body, according to his instructions, was buried 
 secretly on his mountain retreat by two of his disciples. About 
 the year 561, according to Bollandus, it was discovered, and with 
 great solemnity translated first to Alexandria and then to Con- 
 stantinople. In the year 1070 the Emperor of Constantinople 
 presented the relics to Joselin, a nobleman of Dauphine, who 
 brought them back with him and deposited them in the church 
 of La Motte St.-Didier in Yienne, France, then a Benedictine 
 priory belonging to the abbey of Mont-Majour near Aries, but 
 now an independent abbey of regular canons of St. Anthony, 
 
54 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Boilandus mentions a number of miracles wrought at his shrine. 
 None was more memorable than the sudden stopping of the 
 plague known as the Sacred Fire, wrought through the saint's 
 intercession when it was raging violently in France and other 
 parts of Europe. 
 
 This was in the year 1089. The plague has been popularly 
 known as St. Anthony's fire ever since. Its more scientific name 
 is erysipelas. " Public praj^ers and processions," says Alban 
 Butler, " were ordered against this scourge. At length it 
 pleased God to grant many miraculous cures of this dreadful 
 distemper, to those who implored his mercy through the inter- 
 cession of St. Anthony, especially before his relics. The church 
 in which they were deposited was resorted to by great numbers 
 of pilgrims, and his patronage was implored over the whole 
 kingdom against this disease. A nobleman near Vienne, named 
 Gaston, and his son Girond, devoted themselves and their estate 
 to found and serve an hospital near this priory, for the benefit of 
 the poor that were afflicted with this distemper; seven others 
 joined them in their charitable attendance on the sick, whence 
 a confraternity of laymen who served this hospital took its rise, 
 and continued till Boniface YIII. converted the Benedictine 
 priory into an abbey, which he bestowed on these hospitaller 
 brothers, and, giving them the religious rule of regular canons of 
 St. Austin, declared the abbot general of this new order, called 
 Eegular Canons of St. Antony." 
 
 Anthony of Padua, St., patron of that city and of animals. 
 His festival is celebrated on June 13, the anniversary of his 
 death, which took place in Padua in 1231. A Portuguese by 
 birth, his youthful imagination became so inflamed by the story 
 of the devotion and sufferings of the Franciscan friars that he 
 joined St. Francis in Italy and was enrolled in the order. He is 
 a favorite subject with the Italian painters, who represent him 
 in the Franciscan habit, his attributes being the book and lily, 
 and a flame of fire in his hand or on his breast. He is said to 
 have performed many miracles, the most famous being that of 
 his preaching to the fishes. When the inhabitants of Rimini 
 stopped their ears and refused to listen to the saint, he repaired 
 to the sea-shore and called upon the fish to hearken to him. 
 "And, truly, it was a marvellous thing to see, how an infinite 
 number of fishes, great and little, lifted their heads above water 
 and listened attentively to the sermon." 
 
 Pope Gregory IX. canonized the saint in 1232, the year after 
 his death. In 1263 a large church was built in Padua for his 
 order, and his remains were translated into it. The flesh had all 
 been consumed save only the tongue, which was found incorrupt, 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 65 
 
 as red and fresh as in life. According to Butler, St. Bonaventure, 
 who was among the witnesses, took it up in his hands, kissed it 
 devoutly, and, bathing it with tears, poured out these words : " O 
 blessed tongue, that didst always praise God, and hast been the 
 cause that an infinite number learned to praise him : now it 
 appears how precious thou art before Him who framed thee to be 
 employed in so excellent and high a function." The tongue is 
 now kept separately in a silver case. The sarcophagus of the 
 saint is unusually rich, the costly lamps that hang before it being 
 presents from various cities. 
 
 At Rome the great celebration of St. Anthony's Day is at the 
 Franciscan church dedicated to him. Pope, cardinals, nobles, and 
 commoners send thither their horses and mules, as well as sad- 
 dles and harness, and the animals and their trappings are aspersed 
 and blessed in the name of the saint. 
 
 In the Balearic Islands donkeys and horses are similarly blessed 
 on St. Anthony's Day. In Palma and Mahon, the capitals re- 
 spectively of the islands of Majorca and Minorca, the ceremony is 
 one which half the population turns out to witness. The priest, 
 in his surplice, takes up his position in the doorway of one of 
 the houses in a principal thoroughfare. Beside him is placed a 
 table, on which are set a bowl of holy water and a large plate 
 for offerings. Servants or owners ride past on the quadrupeds, 
 reining up for a moment to receive the blessing and sprinkling 
 and deposit a copper in the plate. The popular belief is that the 
 sprinkling of holy water will keep the devil out of the beast for 
 at least a year, when the ceremony should be renewed on the next 
 anniversary of St. Anthony's Day. 
 
 For some inexplicable reason St. Anthony of Padua is regarded 
 as the special patron of the careless, at least of such of them as 
 lose their possessions. Throughout France, Spain, and Italy 
 prayers are straightway raised to him whenever anything goes 
 astray, no matter whether a child, a sheep, or a thimble. Not so 
 verj^ long ago, at a school within fifty miles of Paris, some sixty 
 children and their teachers were discovered, at the very hour, 
 too, when they ought to have been working out sums, rending 
 the air with supplications to St. Anthony to find for them some 
 book they had lost. The sous-prefet was scandalized when he 
 heard of the afi'air, and threatened to report it to Paris, but the 
 townsfolk to a man supported the teachers, and, after all, the 
 book was certainly found. 
 
 Antigonus of Antwerp. A monstrous figure, nearly forty 
 feet in height, preserved in the city hall of Antwerp and brought 
 out on great occasions to be paraded through the streets. (See 
 Giants.) A door in the pedestal on which he sits gives access 
 
56 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 through a stairway to the interior of the giant's body as far up 
 as the shoulders, beneath which a platform is constructed. Here 
 stands a man during the processions, working the colossal head 
 backward and forward by means of a winch. 
 
 ■ • 
 
 
 ^^w 
 
 f 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 ^ . 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 1 
 
 ^ 
 
 1 
 
 ^l» ir 
 
 u 
 
 i 
 
 
 ^=i 
 
 _ 
 
 =3 
 
 Antigonus. 
 
 According to legend, Antigonus was a giant who anciently in- 
 trenched himself on the river Scheldt where may still be seen 
 the ruins of the old castle of Antwerp and there extorted heavy 
 tolls from all travellers, cutting off the hands of such as would 
 not or could not accede to his request. The hands he threw 
 into the river. Hence, the legend adds, the origin of the word 
 Antwerp (Hantwerpen, or Hand-tossing). Finally, through the 
 agency of Prince Brabo (q. v.), Antigonus was slain and the city 
 relieved. This legend is incorporated in the arms of Antwerp, 
 which consists of a castle with three towers argent, surmounted 
 by two hands. 
 
 In the processions the figure of Antigonus is preceded by two 
 men, arrayed in the livery of the citizen, carrying severed hands 
 as a trophy. In old times it was found necessary to lower the 
 lanterns and remove the chains or ropes by which they were sus- 
 pended, in all streets through which the figure passed. It always 
 takes part in processions to honor the arrival of kings and poten- 
 tates within the city. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 57 
 
 Apollonia, St., the patroness against toothache and all dis- 
 eases of the teeth. Her day is February 9. She was born in 
 Alexandria, of heathen parents. When she became a convert 
 to Christianity, her father handed her over to the authorities. 
 They bound her to a column, drew her teeth out one by one 
 with pincers, and then burned her, February 9, a.d. 250. Her 
 attributes are a pair of pincers with a tooth. Sometimes a 
 golden tooth is suspended on her neck-chain. The major part 
 of her relics are preserved in the church of St. Apollonia at 
 Eome, her head at Santa Maria Transtiberina, her arms in St. 
 Lawrence outside the walls, parts of her jaw in St. Basil's, and 
 other relics are in the Jesuit church at Antwerp, in St. Augustine's 
 at Brussels, in the Jesuit church at Mechlin, in St. Cross at Liege, 
 and in several churches at Cologne. These relics consist in some 
 cases of a tooth only or a splinter of bone. 
 
 Apprentices' Feast. In the seventeenth century the appren- 
 tices of the city of London held an annual feast at Saddlers' 
 Hall on August 4. In Noorthouck's " History of London" it is 
 recorded that Charles II. sent to this feast a brace of bucks, 
 that his natural son the Duke of Grafton officiated as one of 
 the stewards, and that a number of his courtiers dined with the 
 apprentices. 
 
 April. The fourth month of the modern year, and the first 
 month of spring. In the ancient Albanian calendar, which 
 
 April Feasting. 
 (From an eleventh-century MS.) 
 
 divided the year into ten months of irregular length, April, with 
 thirty-six days, stood first. In the calendar of Eomulus it had 
 thirty'days, and was the second month. Numa's twelve-month 
 calendar assigned it the fourth place, with twenty-nine days ; and 
 so it remained till Julius Caesar's reformation of the calendar, 
 when it recovered its quota of thirty days, which it has ever 
 since retained. (See Calendar.) 
 
 The name has been a subject of considerable etymological 
 guess-work. It has been supposed to come from aperio, " I open," 
 
58 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 as marking the time when buds of trees and flowers begin to 
 open. But, inasmuch as all the other months are named after 
 divinities or supposititious demigods, and as the Romans always 
 looked upon April as being under the peculiar tutelage of Yenus, 
 it seems not impossible that Aprilis was originally Aphrilis, from 
 Aphrodite, the Greek name of Venus. 
 
 Among the Anglo-Saxons the month was known as Oster- 
 monath, whence our word Easter is sometimes imagined to have 
 been derived. 
 
 Proverbial philosophy looks benignly upon April. The staccato 
 rains which form its chief peculiarity are welcomed : 
 
 April showers 
 Bring May flowers. 
 
 Even something more emphatic than a shower is productive 
 of good : 
 
 An April flood 
 
 Carries away the frog and his brood. 
 
 Nor is there any harm in wind : 
 
 When April blows his horn 
 'Tis good for both hay and com. 
 
 April Fool Day, or All Fools' Day. The First of April, 
 when it is an almost universal custom throughout Christendom 
 to play more or less amiably asinine tricks upon one's neighbor. 
 Of the origin of this custom nothing positive is known. True, 
 there be antiquaries of a peculiarly sanguine and sapient type 
 who have evolved explanations that have all the rich humor of 
 other " origins" invented by people destitute of humor. Believe 
 these, and you will look on April fooling as well-nigh coeval with 
 the race. 
 
 One speculator gravely goes back to Noah and the Ark. The 
 April fool custom, says the London Public Advertiser of March 
 13, 1769, arose from "the mistake of Noah sending the dove out 
 of the ark before the water had abated, on the first day of the 
 month among the Hebrews which answers to our first of April, 
 and to perpetuate the memory of this deliverance it was thought 
 proper, whoever forgot so remarkable a circumstance, to punish 
 them by sending them upon some sleeveless errand similar to 
 that ineff'cctual message upon which the bird was sent by the 
 patriarch." 
 
 Another refers it to the time of Christ, arguing that as the 
 Passion of our Saviour took place about this time of the year, and 
 as the Jews sent Christ backward and forward to mock and tor- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. ' 59 
 
 menthim, — i.e.^ from Annas to Caiaphas, from Caiaphas to Pilate, 
 from Pilate to Herod, and from Herod back again to Pilate, — 
 this ridiculous or rather impious custom took its rise thence, by 
 which we send about from one place to another such persons 
 as we think proper objects of our ridicule. Further confirmation 
 is sought in the French name for an April fool, " poisson d'Avril," 
 on the theory that this poisson is a corruption of " passion." 
 
 Such an explanation would be unpleasant enough, but, luckily, 
 it has not a leg to stand on. All Fools' Day is at once far older 
 and far younger than the time of Christ, — older if looked upon 
 as a day set apart for merriment at the expense of one's neigh- 
 bor, younger if the merriment be specially associated with the 
 1st of April. As to the term '-poisson d'Avril," it means ex- 
 actly what it says, an " April fish," — i.e., a young fish, and there- 
 fore a fish easily caught, — much as in English we use the words 
 " gudgeon" and " sucker." 
 
 The most plausible conjecture is that which ascribes the 
 origin of the custom to France. This nation took the lead over 
 all Christendom in commencing the New Year on January 1 
 instead of March 25. Before the change was made the merry- 
 making culminated on the octave of the feast, April 1, when 
 visits were paid and gifts bestowed. With the adoption of the 
 reformed calendar in 1564, New Year's Day was carried back to 
 January 1, and only pretended gifts and mock ceremonial visits 
 were made on April 1, with the view of making fools of those who 
 had forgotten the change of date. The custom once started was 
 kept up after its origin had been forgotten. Its continuance was 
 helped on by the fact that it appeals to an integral part of human 
 nature which has asserted itself at all times and in all countries. 
 
 In character, though not in point of time. All Fools' Day 
 corresponds with the Eoman Saturnalia, when Caius and Man- 
 lius and the rest of the us's bent their classic wits to the task 
 of fooling one the other, and with the mediaeval Feast of Fools, 
 when the pre-Renaissance intellect battened in all sorts of ab- 
 surdities. But the nearest and most startling analogy, not only 
 in kind, but almost in actual date, was and is the Feast of Huli, 
 in Hindostan. The last day of this feast is March 31, when the 
 chief diversion is to send people on errands and expeditions that 
 are to end in disappointment for the sendee and merriment for 
 the sender and his friends. " They carry the joke so far," says 
 Colonel Pearce in his "Asiatic Researches," "as to send letters 
 making appointments in the names of persons it is known must 
 be absent from their houses at the time fixed upon, and the laugh 
 is always in proportion to the trouble given." 
 
 It is not impossible that the English borrowed their April 
 fooling from the French. For, in spite of all antiquarian guesses, 
 
60 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 the custom does not seem to have had any existence in Great 
 Britain until about the beginning of the eighteenth century. 
 The earliest literary allusion to it is by Addison in the " Spec- 
 tator," where he scornfully tells how "a neighbor of mine, who 
 is a haberdasher b}^ trade, and a very shallow, conceited fellow, 
 makes his boast that for these ten years consecutively he has 
 not made less than a hundred Fools. My landlady had a falling 
 out with him about a fortnight ago for sending every one of her 
 children upon a sleeveless errand, as she terms it. Her eldest 
 son went to buy a halfpenny's worth of inkle at a shoemaker's ; 
 the eldest daughter was despatched half a mile to see a monster ; 
 and, in short, the whole family of innocent children made April 
 Fools. Nay, my landlady herself did not escape him." 
 
 Yet, though the great Addison did not approve of April fool- 
 ing, the greater Swift seems to have condescended to custom. 
 In his "Journal to Stella," March 31, 1713, he tells how he. Dr. 
 Arbuthnot, and Lady Masham spent an amusing evening "in 
 contriving a lie for the morrow." The scheme was that the 
 august trio should, through their servants, circulate a report that 
 one Noble, who had been hanged a few days previous, had come 
 to life again and was now to be seen in the flesh as a guest of the 
 Black Swan in Holborn. Thus mine host would have his bands 
 full with an influx of curious visitors. Next day, however. Swift 
 records that his colleagues did not come up to their agreement, 
 and thus the scheme had failed. 
 
 What are known as " sleeveless" errands have always been a 
 special favorite on this day in England. Endless is the joy if a 
 rustic can be found so simple as to apply at the village bookstore 
 for a " History of Eve's Grandmother," at the grocer's for a pint 
 of pigeon's milk, at the cobbler's for strap oil. The latter was a 
 prime favorite. The cobbler, if he were up to the game, would 
 promptly give the innocent customer the strap with no oil to 
 moisten it. It is curious to find that all these jests were prac- 
 tised over a century and a half ago. So early as 1728 we find 
 them thus recorded in " Poor Eobin's Almanac :" 
 
 No sooner doth St. All-fools' morn approach, 
 
 But waggs, ere Phebus mount his gilded coach, 
 
 In sholes assemble to employ their sense, 
 
 In sending fools to get intelligence ; 
 
 One seeks hen's teeth, in farthest part of th' town ; 
 
 Another pigeon's milk ; a third a gown 
 
 From strolHng cobler's stall, left there by chance; 
 
 Thus lead the giddy tribe a merry dance. 
 
 And to reward them for their harmless toil. 
 
 The cobler 'noints their limbs with stirrup oil. 
 
 Thus by contriver's inadvertent jest, 
 
 One fool expos 'd makes pastime for the rest. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 61 
 
 Not yet has the habit disappeared of leaving a valuable-look- 
 ing ])ackage in a public place, nor the trick, devised by a refine- 
 ment of strategy to meet a refinement of perspicacity, of making 
 the package heavy and hard, so that he who contemptuously 
 kicks it aside may come to grief no less surely than he who 
 trustingly picks it up. Still does the small boy take dehght in 
 calling to the passing dude to look to his coat-tails, when he may 
 find them with a piece of paper pinned thereon, or may not, in 
 either case being saluted as an April fool. 
 
 In Scotland, that proverbial land of " wut" and humor, an ex- 
 quisite bit of foolery is as popular as it was a century ago. This 
 is called Hunting the Gowk. Gowk, originally a cuckoo, means 
 by extension a fool, a simpleton. The trick is for Wag JSTo. 1 to 
 send his victim to Wag No. 2, at some distance, with a letter con- 
 taining such words as these : 
 
 This is the first of Aprile, 
 Hunt the gowk another mile. 
 
 No. 2 then says that he is not the person sought, or that he 
 cannot do what the letter asks, and advises the messenger to go 
 to somebody else, some distance farther on. The third sends him 
 to a fourth, and so on, till the victim suspects the trick, or is told 
 of it by some kindly Sandy. 
 
 In the words of " Poor Eobin's Almanac," — 
 
 It is a thing to be disputed, 
 Which is the greatest fool reputed, 
 The man who innocently went 
 Or he that him designedly sent? 
 
 These pleasantries are not unknown in America, where street 
 urchins also find great comfort in placing a brick under an old 
 hat on the sidewalk for the passer-by to kick at with disastrous 
 effect on his toes, or to put a purse with a string attached to it 
 in the same public place and jerk it away if the unwary seek 
 to grasp it. A hot iron carelessly laid where it may be picked 
 up — and dropped — is also a favorite implement with juvenile 
 jesters. 
 
 Many a paterfamilias on rising in the morning finds that the 
 legs of his trousers have been turned into a mare clausum by 
 the cunning adjustment of prohibitory pins. At the breakfast 
 he is hailed with the information that "there is something on 
 your face, papa!" and after ineffectual efforts to wipe it off is 
 told with wild ahrieks of juvenile laughter that that something 
 is his nose, with the further information that he is an April fool 
 for his trouble. 
 
62 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Being a kindly man and a good father, he does not explain to 
 his progeny that the uproarious jest is one which he himself 
 had practised in the days of his nonage upon his equally com- 
 placent parent. 
 
 April Fool candy, made of gun-cotton plentifully spiced with 
 Cayenne pepper, coated with sugar, and appetizingly colored, is 
 sold in American candy- and toy-shops for juvenile use on this 
 day. 
 
 The story is told, though of doubtful authenticity, how Francis, 
 Duke of Lorraine, and his wife escaped from captivity at Nantes 
 one April 1. Dressed as peasants, they started off boldly to pass 
 the sentries. Some one, detecting their disguise, ran ahead and 
 warned the guards. The latter laughed in derision, however, 
 and shouted back, knowingly, " Poisson d'Avril!" and thus the 
 pretended peasants made good their escape. 
 
 Another French story bears an excellent moral. A lady stole 
 a w^atch from a friend's house, as an April joke, and, still as an 
 April joke, sent the poHce all over the town. When at last it 
 was located and the jester cried, " Poisson d'Avril !" the magis- 
 trate continued the merry bit of drollery by informing the lady 
 that she would have to go to jail until the ensuing Ist of April 
 as a poisson d'Avril! A Daniel come to judgment! 
 
 So recently as 1860 some gay spirits in London put their heads 
 together and perpetrated a successful and notorious piece of 
 foolery on the wholesale plan. Towards the latter part of March 
 many well-known persons received through the post the follow- 
 ing invitation card, bearing the stamp of an inverted sixpence 
 on one of the corners for oflScial effect : 
 
 "Tower of London — Admit Bearer and Friend to view annual 
 ceremony of Washing the White Lions on Sunday, April 1, 1860. 
 Admittance only at White Gate. 
 
 " It is particularly requested that no gratuities be given to 
 wardens or attendants." 
 
 The ruse worked so well that a succession of cabs rattled 
 around Tower Hill all the morning, much to the disturbance of 
 the customary peace of the Sabbath, in vain attempts to discover 
 the White Gate. 
 
 Arbor Day. In most of the States of the Union, and in 
 portions of Canada, a fixed day on which the citizens, the magis- 
 trates, the school-children, and others plant trees and shrubs 
 along roadsides and in other suitable places. It is a movable 
 festival, varying according to climate, though usually falling in 
 April or May, and in the United States is appointed either by 
 the legislature or the governor acting under legislative authority. 
 The pioneer State in the movement was Nebraska. The pioneer 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 63 
 
 mover was J. Sterling Morton, afterwards Secretary of Agricul- 
 ture during President Cleveland's second term. In 1872 he was 
 a member of the Nebraska State Board of Agriculture, and he 
 offered a resolution setting apart April 10 of that j'ear as " tree- 
 planting day." There were some members of the Board who 
 contended for the name " Sylvan Day," but Mr. Morton talked 
 them out of this title. The resolution as finally adopted recom- 
 mended that the people throughout the State plant trees on the 
 day named, and offered, in the name of the Board, a prize of one 
 hundred dollars to the agricultural society of that county which 
 should plant properly the largest number of trees. To the person 
 planting the largest number of trees a farm library worth twenty- 
 five dollars was offered. The Board requested the newspapers 
 to keep this resolution before their readers, and the newspapers 
 responded so generously that more than one million trees were 
 planted throughout Nebraska on the first Arbor Day. 
 
 Next year the day was observed with increased interest, and 
 in 1874 the governor officially proclaimed the second Wednes- 
 day of April as Arbor Day for Nebraska. The day was named 
 thus by proclamation until 1885, when the legislature designated 
 April 22 as Arbor Day and a holiday. Since that time a pro- 
 vision has been inserted in the Constitution of Nebraska de- 
 claring that " the increased value of lands, by reason of live 
 fences, fruit and forest trees grown and cultivated thereon, shall 
 not be taken into account in the assessment thereof." In addi- 
 tion to this, Nebraska has enacted many statutory provisions 
 touching upon the planting of trees. One directs the corporate 
 authorities of cities and towns to cause shade-trees to be planted 
 along the streets, and empowers the authorities to make addi- 
 tional assessments for taxation upon lands benefited by such 
 planting. Another section of the law provides for the planting 
 of trees not more than twenty feet apart upon each side of one- 
 fourth of the streets in everj^ city and village of Nebraska. 
 Most persons acquainted with the needs of really valuable 
 shade-trees realize that such trees should be planted a good deal 
 farther apart than the distance thus indicated by law. 
 
 One result of all this legislation, and of the premiums offered 
 each year by the State Board of Agriculture, has been the 
 astonishing prosperity of nurserymen in Nebraska. In the first 
 sixteen years after Arbor Day was instituted there were more 
 than three hundred and fifty million trees and vines planted in 
 Nebraska, and the observance of the day is still kept up with 
 interest. 
 
 In 1876 Michigan and Minnesota followed suit, and like action 
 was soon taken in other States. In 1887 the Education Depart- 
 ment of Ontario ordered that the first Friday in May should be 
 
64 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 set apart by the trustees of every rural school and incorporated 
 village for planting shade-trees and making flower-beds in the 
 school-grounds. 
 
 New York did not fall in line until 1888, when on April 30 the 
 following act was approved by the governor : 
 
 Section 1. The Friday following the first day of May in each year shall 
 hereafter be known throughout this State as Arbor Day. 
 
 ^ 2. It shall be the duty of the authorities of every public school in this 
 State, to assemble the scholars in their charge on that day in the school build- 
 ing, or elsewhere, as they may deem proper, and to provide for and conduct, 
 under the general supervision of the city superintendent or the school com- 
 missioner, or other chief officers having the general oversight of the public 
 schools in each city or district, such exercises as shall tend to encourage the 
 planting, protection and preservation of trees and shrubs, and an acquaint- 
 ance with the best methods to be adopted to accomplish such results. 
 
 g 3. The State Superintendent of Public Instruction shall have power to 
 prescribe from time to time, in writing, a course of exercises and instruction 
 in the subjects hereinbefore mentioned, which shall be adopted and observed 
 by the public school authorities on Arbor Day, and upon receipt of copies of 
 such course, sufficient in number to supply all the schools under their super- 
 vision, the school commissioner or city superintendent aforesaid shall promptly 
 provide each of the schools under his or their charge with a copy, and cause 
 it to be adopted and observed. » 
 
 By a popular vote the pupils of the State schools of New 
 York decided that the white elm was the tree and the rose the 
 flower of the State. They are therefore called upon to do all 
 in their power to increase the number of both by planting them 
 on Arbor Day. With this object in view, Central Park and the 
 big pleasure-grounds in the upper part of the city are thrown 
 open to them. Small parties of tree planters start from most of 
 the up-town schools in the afternoon, and go to some nook chosen 
 by the Park Commissioners to add their tribute to the day. Songs 
 are sung during the planting, and the teachers tell the pupils all 
 about the tree they have planted, how it will grow, and how 
 grateful its shade will be to future generations. A luncheon 
 spread in the open concludes the ceremonies. Arbor Day has 
 been imitated by Spain. (See Feast of the Tree.) 
 
 Arthur's Oon. A supposititious Eoman relic which formerly 
 existed on the Carron in Stirlingshire, Scotland. Alexander 
 Gordon has preserved its appearance in his " Itinerarium Sep- 
 tentrionale." It was a diminutive building, twenty-two feet in 
 height, with an outer circumference of some ninety feet, and an 
 arched door about nine feet high, the whole crowned with a dome 
 having a circular opening. It became a fruitful subject for 
 antiquarian speculation. In dimensions and structure it was 
 acknowledged that it bore some resemblance to the curious 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 65 
 
 beehive houses, to be found in some of the ancient Irish burial- 
 grounds, but these are of the roughest handiwork, while the 
 accurately hewn and nicely adjusted stones of Arthur's Oon 
 suggested Eoman artisanship. The etymologist jumped in with 
 a guess that Arthur's Oon was a contraction for Arthur's Oven, 
 as if it were the circular baking-place where that hospitable 
 prince appropriately prepared the viands consumed at his round 
 table. But the general run of antiquaries from a very early 
 period preferred to believe in the Eoman origin. The not always 
 reliable Nennius tells us as explicitly as possible that Carausius 
 built on the banks of the Carron a round house of polished stone 
 as a triumphal arch in memory of his victory, while he rebuilt 
 the wall between the Forth and the Clyde and fortified it with 
 seven castles. The ever unreliable Hector Boece is not less spe- 
 cific in stating that it was raised by Yespasian in honor of his 
 predecessor Claudius, and that it covers the ashes of the distin- 
 guished officer Auliis Plautius. Hector mentions some other little 
 particulars, which, if true, are decidedly to the point, — as that in 
 his day the e^gy of a Eoman eagle was visible cut in the pave- 
 ment, and that there stood within the building a stone sacrificial 
 altar. Sir Eobert Sibbald, the naturalist and historian, probably 
 having his imagination heightened by this statement, declared 
 that with a lighted link he could trace the outline of an eagle's 
 head, and that he could also trace something extremely like the 
 figure of a Victory. Moreover, he saw certain letters which, 
 with a diffidence unprecedented and unimitated in the antiqua- 
 rian world, he declared to be to him (Sir Eobert) quite unin- 
 telligible. 
 
 Thus Arthur's Oon had become accepted as one of the won- 
 ders of Scotland, when the proprietor of the estate in which it 
 stood, not having the fear of the antiquarian world before his 
 eyes, but desiring some good hewn stone for the purpose of flag- 
 ging a mill-dam, and believing that he could do what he liked 
 with his own, took Arthur's Oon to pieces. The mill-dam which 
 he built was carried off by a flood, — a just judgment, as it was 
 deemed, on its sacrilegious owner ; and the hewn stones of 
 Arthur's Oon have for over a centurj^ been buried in silt, or 
 tossed about and rounded by the water of the stream. The anti- 
 quaries were loud in their wail, and propagated their indignant 
 grief far around. Posterity took up the cry. " We remember," 
 says Blackwood's Magazine for November, 1853, " that, when the 
 representative of the original victim stood for a Scottish constitu- 
 ency after the passing of the Eeform Bill, it was stated against 
 him, with mysterious emphasis, that he was the descendant of 
 the destroyer of Arthur's Oon ; and we saw the whole delin- 
 quency specifically described as a sort of celebrated crime in 
 
 6 
 
66 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 the work of a German historian, published within the past five 
 years." 
 
 Artillery Day. In the early part of the nineteenth century 
 this was a festival celebrated in Boston within the week after the 
 announcement of the election of a new governor. The day the 
 announcement was made was known as Nigger 'Lection Day 
 (q. v.), because on that day blacks as well as whites were allowed 
 to throng the Boston Common to buy gingerbread and drink 
 beer. On Artillery Day the Ancient and Honorable Artillery 
 held a formal parade, and chose its new officers, who received 
 with much ceremonj", out of doors, their new commissions from 
 the new governor. Negroes were strictly debarred from its high 
 privileges and pleasures. In 1817 a negro boy named William 
 Eead, enraged at this restriction, blew up a ship called the Can- 
 ton Packet in Boston harbor. For years it was a standing taunt 
 of white boys in Boston to negroes, — 
 
 Who blew up the ship ? 
 
 Nigger. Why for? 
 'Cause he couldn't go to 'lection 
 
 And shake pawpaw. 
 
 Pawpaw was a gambling game which was played on the Com- 
 mon with four sea- shells of the Cyprcea moneta. 
 
 Arval, or Avril. (Dan. arveol, "a wake," "a funeral feast.") 
 In the northern parts of England a feast or entertainment at 
 funerals. After the interment, the relations first, and then their 
 attendants, throw upon the grave sprigs of bay, rosemary, or 
 other odoriferous evergreens, which have previously been dis- 
 tributed among them. The company then adjourn to a neigh- 
 boring public house, where they are severally presented with a 
 cake and a glass of ale, which refreshment is called an arval. 
 
 Asaruf, Al. (Arabic, " The Sacred Eelic") The name given 
 by Mohammedans to a hair of either the beard or the moustache 
 of the Prophet, or to his footprint. The most famous of the Al 
 Asarufs (a hair of the beard) is exhibited in the great mosque at 
 Delhi ; another is in a mosque in Cashmere. 
 
 Ascension Day, or Holy Thursday, is celebrated on the 
 fortieth day after Easter Sunday in honor of the ascension of 
 the Messiah into heaven forty days after his resurrection. It is 
 one of the oldest festivals of the Church. St. Augustine says 
 that in his day it had been kept from time immemorial, and he 
 attributes its institution to the apostles. Gregory of Tours 
 mentions a procession which used to be held on this day, in 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 67 
 
 memory of that which the apostles made from Jerusalem to 
 Bethany and the Mount of Olives. It was also the custom in 
 ancient Catholic days to bless the bread and new fruits in the 
 mass of this day. In CathoHc churches the paschal candle is 
 removed from the altar and extinguished after the Gospel at 
 high mass, the rite symbolizing Christ's departure from the 
 apostles. 
 
 Naogeorgus, in " The Popish Kingdom," as rendered by Bar- 
 naby Googe, thus satirically describes some of the scenes which 
 characterized Ascension Day in mediaeval times : 
 
 Then comes the day when Christ ascended to his Father's seate, 
 Which day they also celebrate with store of drink and nieate. 
 Then every man some bird must eate, I know not to what ende, 
 And after dinner all to church they come and there attende. 
 The blocke that on the aultar still till then was seen to stande, 
 Is drawn up hie above the roofe by ropes and force of hande : 
 The priests about it round do sta^nde, and chant it to the side, 
 For all these men's religion great in singing most doth lie. 
 Then out of hande the dreadfull shape of Sathan downe they throwe 
 Oft times, with fire burning bright and dasht asunder tho. 
 The boyes with greedie eyes do watch and on him straight they fall, 
 And beat him sore with rods and breake him into pieces small. 
 This done, they wafers downe do cast, and singing cakes the while, 
 "With papers round amongst them put the children to beguile. 
 With laughter great are all things done : and from the beams they let 
 Great streams of water downe to fall on whom they mean to wet. 
 And thus this solemn holiday and hie renowned feast, 
 And all their whole devotion here, is ended with a jeast. 
 
 In the Anglican Church it is the only weekday, save Christ- 
 mas, for which there is provided a special preface to the com- 
 munion. On this day, or on one of the three days preceding 
 (known as Eogation days), was performed the old English 
 custom of beating the bounds. Lysons also mentions the prac- 
 tices on this day of " rush-bearing, of hanging up white gloves 
 and garlands of roses in the churches at the funerals of young 
 maidens, of foot-ball plays, and of well-dressing" (^q. v.). 
 
 Many English towns have or have had their own local ob- 
 servances on Ascension Day. In Nantwich the Blessing of the 
 Brine was then performed. Pennant describes this custom in 
 his "Tour from Chester to London" (1811, p. 40): "A very 
 ancient pit called the Old Brine was also held in great venera- 
 tion, and till within these few years was annually on this festival- 
 decked with flowers and garlands and was encircled by a jovial 
 band of young people, celebrating the day with song and dance." 
 A correspondent of The Gentleman's Magazine (n87, vol. Ivii. 
 p. 718) calls attention to a custom in many villages of Exeter 
 to " hail the Lamb" on Ascension morn. " That the figure of a 
 
68 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 lamb actually appears in the east upon this morning is the pop- 
 ular persuasion ; and so deeply is it rooted that it has frequently 
 resisted (even in intelligent minds) the force of the strongest 
 argument." Brand in his " Popular Antiquities" mentions the 
 smock-race on Ascension Day, run by young country wenches 
 in the north of England. The prize was a fine Holland chemise, 
 usually decorated with ribbons. In Nottinghamshire it is be- 
 lieved that an egg laid on Ascension Day if placed in the roof 
 of a house will ward off fire, lightning, and other calamities. 
 
 The men in the slate-quarries of Northern Wales have a 
 curious superstition that if they work on Ascension Day a fatal 
 accident will happen to one of their number. " Some years 
 ago," says Notes and Queries, Seventh Series, vol. ii. p. 232, " an 
 attempt was made to break down this superstition, and for two 
 years the managers succeeded in inducing the men to work as 
 usual. Strange to relate, however, a fatal accident occurred each 
 year, and this naturally tended- to increase the dislike of the 
 superstitious to work on that day." 
 
 Ascension Day at Etretat, near Havre, is marked by a sin- 
 gular religious ceremony peculiar to this ancient town of Nor- 
 mandy. Two centuries ago a small river flowed down the narrow 
 valley that here breaks the continuity of the high chalk cliffs 
 between Havre and Dieppe. A violent storm from the north- 
 west on Ascension Day, 1690, sent the sea far up this gully, and 
 submerged the little fishing^town which nestled on its steep 
 slopes. When they receded, the waves left behind them a me- 
 morial in the shape of a shingle bank, which has served ever 
 since as a bulwark against further incursions. On every recur- 
 ring Ascension Da}^ morning a solemn procession w^lks from the 
 church of Etretat to the beach. First comes a beadle in cocked 
 hat, red stockings, and red small clothes and a profusion of gold 
 lace, then the children of the infant schools marshalled by the 
 Sisters of Charity, next a troop of young girls dressed in white, 
 behind them weather-beaten tars carrying a banner with the 
 inscription " Aimons-nous, aidons-nous," then a gold crucifix, 
 followed by the clergy in gorgeous vestments and the church 
 ofiicials, and last of all the cure in his richly embroidered 
 chasuble. 
 
 After chanting some prayers on the beach, the cure takes the 
 crucifix from the hands of one of the acolytes and holds it for- 
 . ward so that the handle may dip into the incoming waves. Then 
 with the holy water brush he sprinkles the sea, making the sign 
 of the cross over it. This being done, the blessing is pronounced, 
 the band strikes up a march, and the procession returns to church 
 to finish the mass. The military band takes an important part 
 in this mass, and the effect of the brass instruments is veiy 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 69 
 
 grand in the echoing walls of the old Norman church. An illus- 
 tration of this ceremony may be found in the London Graphic of 
 May 28, 1892. 
 
 In dogal Venice Ascension Day was chosen for the great festi- 
 val of the Doge's marriage to the Adriatic. 
 
 At Eome the paschal candle is extinguished after the Gospel, 
 to show the faithful that Christ on this day left the earth to 
 shine in heaven. The altar is adorned with flowers, images, and 
 relics. The priests and assistants on this occasion resume their 
 white vestments. The benediction given by the Pope on this 
 day is one of the three solemn benedictions of the Church. For- 
 merly the benediction was preceded by a solemn excommunica- 
 tion of heretics and infidels. 
 
 Ascot, Royal. Ascot Heath is a rac6-course in Berkshire, 
 England, some twenty-nine miles to the southwest of London. 
 The races which are held here early in June are usually attended 
 by the royal family in semi-state. Hence the title Eoyal Ascot. 
 Hence also the fact that of all occasions of out-door sport these 
 are the most patrician and fashionable. There is evidence that 
 Queen Anne instituted the meetings on August 6, 1711, though 
 the common supposition is that they originated in 1727 with 
 William, Duke of Cumberland, uncle to George III. But they 
 did not attain any great prestige until the memorable race for 
 the Oakland Stakes in June, 1791, won by the Prince of Wales, 
 afterwards George lY. Thereafter George III. never missed a 
 race. He ran horses there, he gave prizes, and he instituted the 
 Eoyal Processions from Windsor Castle, six miles away, which 
 are still a feature of the meeting on Tuesday and Thursday of 
 Ascot week. The Master of the Buckhounds leads the way on 
 a handsome steed ; behind him are the servants of the hunt, in 
 scarlet-and-green liveries, and then the carriages. To each of 
 these are four horses ridden by postilions in scarlet, and a brave 
 showing the whole makes. The carriages are open landaus, and 
 have two footmen sitting behind. The Prince and Princess of 
 Wales are always in the first landau, with some other English or 
 foreign royal person, and loud cheers greet them as they drive 
 up the course and into the enclosure. The next two or three 
 carriages also have royalties in them, and the last two or three 
 the suite, outriders in scarlet being between each carriage. 
 
 Ash Wednesday. The first day of Lent in our modern 
 observance. The name has a general reference to the penitential 
 sackcloth and ashes so frequently spoken of in the Old Testa- 
 ment, but a more special one to a peculiar rite in the Eoman 
 
70 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Church. Before the commencement of mass the congregation 
 approach and kneel at the altar rails, and the priest puts ashes 
 on the forehead of each, saying, " Memento, homo, quia pulvis 
 es, et in pulverem reverteris" (" Remember, man, that thou art 
 dust, and unto dust thou shalt return"). The ashes are obtained 
 by burning the palm- branches consecrated in the church on the 
 Palm Sunday of the year previous. 
 
 Ash Wednesday. 
 (From Pi cart.) 
 
 Originally the administration of the ashes was made only to 
 public penitents. These had to appear barefooted and in peni- 
 tential garb before the church door on the first day of Lent. 
 There their penances were imposed upon them. Then they were 
 admitted into the church and brought before the bishop. He 
 put ashes on their heads, and to the words already quoted added, 
 " age poenitentiam ut habeas vitam seternam" (" do penance that 
 thou mayest have eternal life"). Then he addressed them a 
 few words of exhortation, at the end of which they were sol- 
 emnly excluded from the church. Gradually it came to be the 
 custom for friends and relatives to manifest their humili'^y and 
 affection by joining the penitents, expressing a similar contri- 
 tion in their outward guise and offering their foreheads for the 
 ashes. The numbers of these self-condemned penitents grew in 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 71 
 
 time to be so large that at last the administration of ashes 
 was extended to the whole congregation and the rite took its 
 present form. 
 
 ]N"or was Ash Wednesday always included within the Lenten 
 period. In the fifth and sixth centuries Lent began with the suc- 
 ceeding Sunday, lasting for six weeks, which (omitting Sundays) 
 would be thirty-six days. At what time Ash Wednesday and 
 the three following days were added to the fast is not precisely 
 known, but it was certainly before 714, as a capitulary of the 
 church of Toulon of that date describes the Lenten usage as 
 identical with our own. The reason for the change is readily 
 intelligible. The addition of these four days makes the fast 
 (omitting Sundays) exactly forty days in duration, and there- 
 fore accords with the fasts of Moses and Eli as, and especially 
 the fast of the Saviour. 
 
 In Protestant Churches the Lenten sermons generally begin on 
 Ash Wednesday, but a special service is held only in the English 
 Church. Even here, however, the use of ashes has been discon- 
 tinued since shortly after the Eeformation, as being a "vain 
 show," and the only memorial of the original character of the 
 day is in the reading of the curses denounced against impenitent 
 sinners, when the people are directed to repeat an Amen at the 
 end of each malediction. This was not always so, however, for 
 in an original black-letter proclamation, dated 26 February, 30 
 Henry YIIL, concerning rites and ceremonies to be retained in 
 the Church of England, we read, " On Ashe Wenisday it shall 
 be declared, that these ashes be gyven to put every Christen 
 man in remembrance of penaunce at the beginning." 
 
 Naogeorgus gives a burlesque account of the Ash Wednesday 
 solemnities in his day : 
 
 The Wednesday next, a solemn day, to church they early go, 
 
 To sponge out all the foolish deedes by them committed so ; 
 
 They money give, and on their heddes the Prieste doth ashes laye, 
 
 And with his holy water washeth all their sinnes away : 
 
 In woondrous sort against the veniall sinnes doth profite this, 
 
 Yet here no stay of madnesse now, nor ende of follie is, 
 
 With mirth to dinner straight they go, and to their woonted play, 
 
 And on their deuills shapes they put, and sprightish fonde araye. 
 
 Some sort there are that mourning go, with lantarnes in their hande, 
 
 While in the day time Titan hright, amid the skies doth stande : 
 
 And seeke their Shroftide Bachanal, still crying every where, 
 
 Where are our feastes hecome ? alas the cruell fastes appere. 
 
 Some beare about a herring on a staffe, and lowde doe rore, 
 
 Herrings, herrings, stincking herrings, puddings now no more. 
 
 And hereto joyne they foolish playes, and doltish dogrell rimes, 
 
 And what beside they can invent, belonging to the times. 
 
 Some others beare upon a staffe their fellowes horsed hie. 
 
 And carie them unto some ponde, or running river nie, 
 
72 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 That what so of their foolish feast, doth in them yet remayne, 
 May underneth the floud be plungde, and wash't away againe. 
 Some children doe intise with nuttes, and peares abrode to play, 
 And singing through the towne they go, before them all the way. 
 In some place all the youthful flocke, with minstrels doe repaire, 
 And out of every house they plucke the girles, and maydens fayre. 
 And them to plough they straightways put, with whip one doth them hit, 
 Another holds the plough in hande ; the Minstrell here doth sit 
 Amidde the same, and drounken songes with gaping mouth, he sings, 
 Whome foloweth one that sowes out sande, or ashes fondly flings. 
 When thus they through the streetes have plaide, the man that guideth all. 
 Doth drive both plough aiid maydens through some ponde or river small : 
 And dabbled all with durt, and wringing wette as they may bee, 
 To supper calles, and after that to daunsing lustilee. 
 
 Aubanus corroborates the last folly described. " There is a 
 strange custom," he says, "used in many places of Germany 
 upon Ash Wednesday, for then the young youth get all the 
 maids together, which have practised dauncing all the year before, 
 and carrying them in a cart or tumbrell (which they draw them- 
 selves instead of horses) and a minstrell standing atop of it 
 playing all the way, they draw them into some lake or river, and 
 there wash them well favouredly." 
 
 The Jack-o'-Lent made iis first appearance on Ash Wednesday. 
 This was a ragged scarecrow-like effigy, used as a symbol or 
 personification of Lent, and carried around in processions to be 
 shied at with sticks as a sort of burlesque of the sport of throw- 
 ing at cocks practised on Shrove Tuesday. 
 
 A singular custom came to an abrupt end in the reign of 
 George 1. During the Lenten season it had long been customary 
 for an officer of the royal household, known as the King's Cock 
 Grower, to crow the hour every night within the precincts of the 
 palace, instead of leaving it to the watchmen to proclaim it. 
 On the first Ash Wednesday after the Hanoverian succession, 
 just as the Prince of Wales, subsequently George II., sat down 
 to supper, this officer made his appearance and emitted ten 
 shrill crows. The astonished prince, thinking some insult was 
 intended, jumped up to resent it, and was with difficulty calmed 
 by an explanation. " From that period," says Brady, " we find 
 no further account of the exertion of the imitative powers of 
 this important officer, but the court has been left to the voice of 
 reason and conscience to remind them of their errors, and not 
 to that of a cock, whose clarion called back Peter to repentance, 
 which this fantastical and sill}^ ceremony was meant to typify." 
 
 In rural France the peasantry on Ash Wednesday used to 
 carry around an effigy supposed to be a personification of good 
 cheer, and collected money for its funeral, inasmuch as this day 
 was the burial of good living. After sundry absurd mummeries, 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 73 
 
 / 
 the corpse was deposited in the earth. ^j[See Sardine, Burial 
 
 OF THE.) 
 
 Ashton Fagot. A huge fagot composed of sticks or branches 
 of ash, securely bound together with ash bands or withes, which 
 is burned on Christmas Eve in lieu of the Yule-log (^. v.~) 
 in Devonshire and Somersetshire, England. Sometimes it is 
 placed in the grate ; but, as grates are not common there, it is 
 more usually burned on the floor. A crowd of merrymakers 
 gather around it, to whom a quart of cider is served upon the 
 bursting of every band. As the timber is green and elastic, 
 each band generally bursts open with a smart report, which is 
 greeted with loud calls for the cider. The men who make up 
 the fagot take care to put as many bands around it as possible, 
 to insure a goodly supply of cider. A poem written in 1795 
 thus refers to the fagot, bands, and cider : 
 
 The pond'rous ashen faggot from the yard 
 The jolly farmer to his crowded hall 
 Conveys with speed ; where, on the rising flames 
 (Already fed with store of massy brands), 
 It blazes soon ; nine bandages it bears, 
 And as they each disjoin (so custom wills), 
 A mighty jug of sparkling cyder's brought. 
 With brandy mixt to elevate the guests. 
 
 The brands were originally saved, that they might serve to 
 relight the Christmas fire the following year : 
 
 "With the last year's brand 
 Light the new blocks. 
 
 There is a superstition that misfortune will follow in any 
 house where the fagot is not burned. It is common to hear the 
 claim that the fagot has been burned in this or that house for so 
 many centuries. 
 
 At Taunton there used to be an annual " Ash Fagot ball." The 
 fagot was bound with three withes, which were severally chosen 
 to represent them by the young people present, — the first withe 
 that broke in the fire signifying that they who selected it would 
 be the first to be married. 
 
 Ass, Feast of the. A burlesque ceremony (a sort of vari- 
 ant of the Feast of Fools, q. v.) once highly popular in Northern 
 France, in which priests and congregation joined to parody the 
 services of the Church. It seems to have been instituted in 
 good faith, and without any intentional irreverence, in part per- 
 haps as a means of attracting the godless and the ignorant to 
 
74 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 church through their sense of humor. Bui eventually it de- 
 generated into scurrilous indecency. In the fifteenth century it 
 was prohibited by ecclesiastical authority, but in many localities 
 was not fully suppressed until much later. The Festum Asinorum 
 was variously celebrated in various cities. In Rouen it occurred 
 shortly before Christmas, and consisted in the representation of 
 a little farce in whose principal scene Balaam's ass (a priest con- 
 cealed between the legs of an ass) appeared before the altar 
 of the cathedral and predicted the early coming of Christ. In 
 Beauvais the feast was far more elaborate. It was celebrated on 
 Circumcision Day (January 1). Before the beginning of vespers 
 an ass richly caparisoned, sometimes riderless, sometimes witli 
 a maiden on its back, was led up to the principal door of the 
 church. Two criers chanted in a loud voice the following Latin 
 verses : 
 
 Lux hodie, lux Isetitiae ! me judice, tristis 
 Quisquis erit, revomendus erit solemnibus istis. 
 
 Laeta volunt, quicunque colunt asinaria festa. 
 Sunt hodie procul invidise, procul omnia moesta. 
 
 ("Light to-day, the light of joy ! Believe me, whoever is sad shall be 
 cast out from these solemnities. Those who celebrate the feast of the Ass 
 wish only gayety. Par from here to-day the sentiment of envy, far from 
 here all that is sad.") 
 
 Two canons then conducted the ass (the rider, if any, having 
 dismounted) to a table, where a celebrant called the prechantrc 
 opened the ceremonies by chanting a burlesque ditty beginning, — 
 
 Orientis partibus 
 Adventavit asinus, 
 Pulcher et fortissimus, 
 Sarcinis aptissimus. 
 Hez ! sire ane ! Hez I 
 
 Hie in collibus Sichem 
 Jam nutritus sub Eeuben, 
 Transiit per jordanem, 
 Saliit in Bethlehem. 
 Hez ! sire ane ! Hez ! 
 
 (" From the Orient 
 Comes an ass. 
 Beautiful and strong, 
 Able for burdens. 
 Hey ! • master Ass ! Hey ! 
 
 In the hills of Sichem 
 Brought up under Reuben, 
 He crossed the Jordan, 
 And leaped into Bethlehem. 
 Hey ! master Ass ! Hey !") 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 75 
 
 The congregation all joined in the chorus as a response. 
 Vespers were then read. But into the services were introduced 
 fragments of other offices, joyful and sad, bits of prose and 
 verse, an olio, in short, of sacred and profane literature. At 
 intervals the ass was given to eat and drink. Finally clergy and 
 people danced around him with loud imitations of braying. 
 Then the congregation was led into the street by the prechantre, 
 preceded by an enormous lantern. Booths had been fitted up 
 before the church, where ribald farces were performed. There 
 were more songs and dances, at the end of which the prechantre 
 was deluged with water. The occasion wound up with a mid- 
 night mass, a burlesque of the regular mass, as the vespers had 
 been of regular vespers. At its conclusion the priest brayed 
 thrice instead of saying, " Ite missa est," and the people answered, 
 "Hin ban," in lieu of "Deo gratias." (See also Palm Sunday.) 
 
 Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. A festival celebrated 
 by the Catholic Church on August 15. Butler asserts that it 
 was established before the sixth century. According to tradition, 
 the Blessed Yirgin, after the death of her son, lived under the 
 care of St. John, and died at Jerusalem, where her empty tomb 
 was shown to pilgrims in the seventh century. Her body was 
 believed to have been preserved irom corruption and united to 
 her soul in the kingdom of heaven. It is true that there is no 
 distinct assertion of the corporal assumption in the prayers of 
 the feast, nor is that corporal assumption a necessary article of 
 faith, but that the Catholic Church encourages the belief is 
 apparent from the fact that among the lessons used during the 
 octave is a passage from St. John Damascene in which the 
 legend of the Assumption is given in detail. And this is the 
 legend. When the Virgin Mary had reached the age of seventy- 
 three she was stricken with mortal sickness. The apostles, 
 miraculously summoned from all parts of the earth, surrounded 
 her death-bed, all save Thomas, who was late as usual. The 
 latter, arriving after the funeral, gained permission to have the 
 tomb opened, in order that he might once more gaze upon the 
 features of the mother of the Eedeemer. When, lo ! a miracle ! 
 The body had disappeared, leaving behind it only a bunch of 
 lilies. Another legend relates that Mary was taken up bodily 
 into heaven in the actual presence of the apostles. 
 
 Bishop Hall tells us in the " Triumphs of Eome" that upon 
 this day it was customary to implore blessings upon herbs, plants, 
 roots, and fruits. It is to this that Naogeorgus alludes : 
 
 The blessed Virgin Marie's feast hath here his place and time, 
 Wherein, departing from the earth, she did the heavens clime; 
 
76 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Great bundles then of hearbes to church, the people fast doe beare, 
 
 The which against all hurtfull things, the priest doth hallow theare. 
 
 Thus kindle they and nourish still the peoples wickednesse. 
 
 And vainly make them to believe, whatsoever they expresse : 
 
 For sundrie witchcrafts by these hearbes are wrought and divers charmes, 
 
 And cast into the fire, are thought to drive away all harmes, 
 
 And every painefull griefe from man, or beast, for to expell, 
 
 Far otherwise than nature or the worde of God doth tell. 
 
 [The Popish Kingdom^ trans, by Barnaby Googe.) 
 
 In many parts of Catholic Europe the festival of the Assump- 
 tion is celebrated with great splendor and pageantry, Howell 
 tells us that in his day it was kept under the name of Bara at 
 Messina in Sicily : " An immense machine of about fifty feet 
 high is constructed to represent heaven ; and in the midst is 
 placed a young female personating the Virgin, with an image of 
 Jesus in her right hand ; round the Yirgin twelve little children 
 turn vertically, representing so many seraphim, and below them 
 twelve children turn horizontally, as cherubim ; lower down in 
 the machine a sun turns vertically, with a child at the extremity 
 of each of the four principal radii of his circle, who ascend and 
 descend w4th his rotation, yet always in an erect posture; and 
 still lower, within seven feet of the ground, are placed twelve 
 boys, who turn horizontally around the principal figure, exhibit- 
 ing thereby the Twelve Apostles. All are assembled to witness 
 the decease and assumption of the Yirgin. The machine is 
 drawn through the main streets, and families regard it as a 
 favor to have their children admitted to the divine exhibition, 
 though the little ones do not seem to appreciate the honor of 
 being apostles, cherubim, and seraphim." 
 
 In France the festival assumed a national character when 
 Louis XIII. chose this day to place his kingdom under the 
 patronage of the Blessed Yirgin, asking her to intercede for him 
 that he might obtain from heaven the gift of a dauphin. 
 Napoleon I. and afterwards IS'apoleon III. re-established the 
 feast as a national one. Napoleon I., indeed, is said to have 
 changed the real date of his birthday to make it coincide with 
 the feast of the Assumption. 
 
 Athanasius, St. The festival of this saint is celebrated on 
 May 2, the anniversary of his death (373), as likewise of the 
 translation of his remains to St. Sophia. The Greeks, however, 
 who nevertheless celebrate on the date of the translation, place 
 his death on January 18. Athanasius is one of the four Greek 
 Fathers of the Church, and the author of the creed which bears 
 his name. An Alexandrian and a pupil of St. Anthony, he de- 
 voted himself first to worldly learning, but, being converted, he 
 turned his studies into religious channels and became one of the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 77 
 
 greatest theologians of his day. At the Council of Nice in 325 
 he stood forth as the opponent of Arius, earning for himself the 
 title of the " Father of Orthodoxy." He became Bishop of 
 Alexandria, and spent his whole life in conflict with the Arians, 
 achieving a final victory only at the cost of exile and other hard- 
 ships. He was bishop forty six years, twenty of which were 
 spent in exile. He was originally buried in Alexandria, but 
 the remains were translated to the church of St. Sophia in 
 Constantinople. 
 
 Athos, Mount. One of the three tongues of the Chalcidian 
 peninsula on the jEgean Sea. The entire peninsula, as well as 
 the mount itself, is generally known as the Holy Mountain (Gr. 
 "Aywv "Opoq ; It. Monte Santo), from the great number of mon- 
 asteries and chapels of the Greek faith with which it is covered. 
 There are twenty of the convents, most of which were founded 
 during the Byzantine Empire, and some of them trace their 
 origin to the time of Constantine the Great. St. Helena is tra- 
 ditionally reputed to have been the first founder of convents on 
 Mount Athos. The spot is visited periodically by pilgrims from 
 Eussia, Servia, Bulgaria, Greece, Asia Minor, and all other 
 " orthodox" communities. The society owe the privileges which 
 they enjoy under the Turks to the fact that before the fall of 
 Constantinople they submitted to Mohammed II., who gave 
 them his protection and guaranteed their privileges, which favor 
 his successors have continued. The community maintains an 
 armed guard of forty or fifty Christian soldiers. The only 
 Mohammedan allowed to reside within the peninsula is one 
 Turkish officer, who is the means of communication between the 
 Sultan and the monks. Even he cannot have a woman in his 
 house ; all female animals of whatever species are rigidly ex- 
 cluded. 
 
 August. Harvesting. 
 
 August. The eighth month in the modern calendar. In the 
 old Roman calendar it was originally the sixth month, and was 
 hence known as Sextilis. It then consisted of twenty-nine days. 
 Julius Caesar's reformed calendar extended it to thirty days. 
 
78 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Augustus added still another day to it, which he took from 
 February, and renamed it in his own honor. He chose August 
 rather than his birth -month of September because in the first 
 place it came immediately after the month named in honor of 
 his great prototype, Julius Csesar, and in the second because it 
 had proved itself a propitious season in his life. 
 
 August, Twelfth of. In England this day marks the 
 beginning of the shooting season. For days if not weeks 
 previous the minds of a large mass of the titled and wealthy 
 classes are occupied, to the exclusion of almost everything else, 
 in preparations for the moors. The game-keepers on every great 
 estate send down to London bulletins as to the condition of the 
 birds. Parliament invariably adjourns just before this date, for 
 if it did not both bouses would be left without a quorum. 
 
 Something of the excitement attending the occasion may be 
 understood from an excellent article in Harjpefs Magazine^ vol. 
 xlvii. p. 567, 1873. The writer, an American, had been invited 
 by an English nobleman to visit him at his manor-house for two 
 weeks' shooting. The letter of invitation concluded as follows: 
 
 " Don't fail to come on Saturday, as all my guests will arrive 
 on that day, and we shall take the field at eight o'clock on 
 Monday morning [Monday being the 12th]. This game-killing 
 is a sort of solemn duty with us squires ; we go through it in 
 the usual sad manner of Englishmen enjoying themselves ; in- 
 deed, a real game-keeping, squire, who lives for nothing else (and 
 there are many of this class), is one of the curious creations of 
 modern civilization. But it is amusing enough for a time, and I 
 have no doubt that you will enjoy it. . . . My house is 1300 feet 
 above the level of the sea, and we shoot over ground going up to 
 2200 feet. Some of our scenery is considered to be among the 
 finest in England." 
 
 The invited guest found the trains all late and crowded with 
 gentlemen bound for the moors of England, Ireland, and Scot- 
 land, accompanied by their servants, dogs, guns, and huge piles 
 of baggage, including ample supplies of solid and liquid ammu- 
 nition. Nevertheless the journey was safely accomphshed. 
 
 " Punctually at seven on Monday, the 12th of August, the 
 valet entered, threw aside the heavy curtains of my chamber 
 windows, and, while I was taking my morning bath, laid out my 
 shooting-suit, and announced breakfast at half-past seven. At 
 eight o'clock we w^ere driven down to the game-keeper's, and, 
 selecting six dogs from the kennel, we started for the moor, 
 where we were that day to open the campaign of 1872, followed 
 in another vehicle by the six game-keepers and dogs. Eeaching 
 our shooting ground, a distance of five miles from the manor- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 79 
 
 house, we were divided into parties of two each, accompanied 
 by the same number of pointers and keepers carrying the game- 
 bags, each squad taking by agreement diiferent directions, with 
 the understanding that we were to meet at the appointed rendez- 
 vous for lunch at one o'clock. Our guns being loaded, and each 
 gentleman carrying fifty rounds in his pouch, and the pointers 
 enfranchised from their couples, the three parties separated, and 
 took off their several ways, the dogs bounding and barking 
 around us with joy." 
 
 It is pleasant to chronicle that in the shooting that followed 
 the American did his share of the killing. The rendezvous for 
 lunch was kept, and promptly at two the party separated again 
 and set out in the same order as before on the various routes 
 assigned by the chief game-keeper. 
 
 " With an instinct and training that obey the slightest word 
 or wave of the hand, the dogs again range over the moors, and 
 again are soon heard the fusilados from hill, valley, and moun- 
 tain-side. After a capital afternoon's shooting we again assemble 
 at half-past six at a farm-yard, where the carriage is in waiting 
 for us. As each party came in, the bags were emptied, and the 
 result of the day's sport was spread out before us, the grouse 
 being placed in lines of twenty, with the hares and snipe in the 
 rear, and summing up as follows : two hundred and sixty-four 
 grouse, seven hares, and eight snipe. After seeing the game 
 placed in large baskets, and resigning our guns to the attend- 
 ants, we were driven to the hall. . . . 
 
 " At the front door we were met b}' servants and slippers, which 
 latter were a pleasant exchange for our wet and heavy shooting- 
 boots. Going to our rooms to dress for dinner (after receiving our 
 letters, which arrived during the afternoon of each day, together 
 with the London morning papers), I found a hot bath prepared for 
 me, and my evening dress laid out in an artistic manner by the 
 servant assigned to my service. Descending to the drawing- 
 room at eight o'clock, we proceeded to dinner. And such a dinner ! 
 'Twould have tempted a dyspeptic anchorite, while our nine 
 hours of hard walking and 'carrying weight,' as the Country 
 Parson says, had given us tremendous appetites, that would have 
 served as sauce and seasoning for even such soldiers' fare as 
 was served out to us at Yicksburg. 
 
 "The following morning I was called as before, my shooting- 
 suit laid out for me, and my evening dress placed carefully in the 
 
 armoire. After breakfast Lord desired us to write the 
 
 address on parchment tags lying on his desk of any friends to 
 whom we desired to send some grouse. This done, the steward 
 received orders to attach them to little hampers containing six 
 brace of birds each, and have them forwarded to their various 
 
80 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 destinations by that day's trains, the charges being prepaid. All 
 being prepared for a start, our boots, which had been carefully 
 dried during the night and oiled, were brought out and put on, and 
 we were, as before, driven to the game-keeper's to select dogs for 
 the day, when we proceeded to fresh shooting-grounds, on a 
 different portion of the estate from where we had been the 
 previous day, — the attendants following in a carry-all drawn by 
 two horses, and bringing with them the dogs and shooting para- 
 phernalia, including the guns, cleaned and oiled, like the boots, 
 every night. 
 
 "The succeeding days of the week were substantially repe- 
 titions of the first, and it is therefore unnecessary to describe 
 them. 
 
 " On Saturday guests who had been invited for a week took 
 their departure, others arriving the same evening and the follow- 
 ing Monday morning to occupy their places. All of my readers 
 may not possibly know that in England persons are usually 
 invited to a country-house for a certain period, and at the ex- 
 piration of the time are expected to take their departure, other 
 guests having been previously asked to occupy their rooms. 
 You may be invited to come on a stated day and spend a week : 
 if you arrive behind the time fixed, you simply curtail by so 
 many days the period that you are expected to remain." 
 
 Augustalia or Augustales, Ludi. Ancient games in honor 
 of Augustus celebrated in Eome and other parts of the Eoman 
 Empire. After the battle of Actium a quinquennial festival 
 was instituted at Eome, and the birthday of Augustus, as well 
 as the day on which the victory was announced at Eome, was 
 regarded as a festival day. Quinquennial games were also in- 
 stituted in the provinces. On the return of Augustus from 
 Greece to Eome in e.g. 19 the day on which he returned was 
 made a festival and called Augustalia. 
 
 The formal recognition of the games was made at the begin- 
 ning of the reign of Tiberius. They were exhibited annually in 
 the Circus. In ISTaples the Augustalia were celebrated with 
 great splendor every fifth j^ear. They consisted of gymnastic 
 and musical contests, and lasted for several days. They were 
 also celebrated at Alexandria, and at numerous other places 
 throughout the Eoman Empire. 
 
 Augustine or Austin, St., patron of theologians and learned 
 men. His day is August 28. Though not converted until his 
 thirty-third year, he became one of the greatest names in the 
 Church. He died Bishop of Hippo, in a.d. 430. His usual 
 attribute in Christian art is a flaming heart, symbolizing the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 81 
 
 ardor of his piet3\ Sometimes it is transfixed by a sword, to 
 express the poignancy of his repentance for having delayed his 
 conversion, in spite of the prayers of St. Monica, his mother. 
 Occasionally he is represented with only a pen and a book. 
 
 The saint was buried in the church of St. Stephen at Hippo, 
 but according to Bede his body was fifty years later taken 
 to Sardinia by the bishops whom Huneric had banished. They 
 remained in that island till Luitprand, the pious and magnificent 
 king of the Lombards, purchased them from the Saracens. He 
 placed them in a coffin of lead enclosed in another of silver, and 
 that again within a coffin of marble, and hid the whole under a 
 brick wall in the church of St. Peter in Pavia. Here they were 
 discovered in the year 1695. Pope Benedict XIII. declared 
 them to be authentic in 1728. On account of its possession 
 of this treasure, the church of St. Peter changed its name to 
 St. Augustine. The relics have since been translated to the 
 cathedral. Some portions were in 1837 given to the diocese of 
 Algiers and placed on the ruined site of Hippo. 
 
 Another famous saint of the same name was the apostle to 
 England sent over by Pope Gregory the Great in the year 596. 
 He converted King Ethelbert of Kent, and so introduced Chris- 
 tianity into the island. This saint's festival is celebrated on 
 May 26, the anniversary of his death in 604. His body, after 
 several translations, found its last resting-place in a marble tomb 
 in the cathedral at Canterbury. His head was put into a rich 
 shrine ornamented with gold and precious stones in the year 
 1221. All the shrines in the cathedral were broken up at the 
 time of the Eeformation, and their contents were destroyed. 
 
 Auray, Pardon of. A famous festival celebrated at Auray 
 in Brittany in honor of St. Anne, mother of the Blessed Yirgin, 
 on July 25 and 26, the eve and the day of her feast. The 
 legend runs that in 1623 the saint appeared to a peasant named 
 Yves Nicolazie and directed him to induce good Christians to re- 
 build her chapel at Auray, which had been in ruins for nearly 
 ten centuries. ISTicolazie's pastor thought him crazed, but his 
 bishop patronized him. Soon after a broken effigy of wood was 
 found in a field, and, being identified as St. Anne's, attracted 
 pilgrims from far and near, who left behind them offerings 
 sufficient to build a chapel in which the relic might be enshrined. 
 This, together with a holy well adjoining, and a scala santa, or 
 sacred staircase, by which the chapel was reached, became the 
 resort of the most numerous and remarkable pilgrimages in 
 Brittany, which have been lent additional prestige through the 
 attendance of such pious and exemplary Chjistians as Louis 
 XIV. and Louis Napoleon, besides an innumerable multitude of 
 
 6 
 
82 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 other kings, queens, dukes, countesses, and burgesses and peas- 
 antry without end. It is stated that as many as eighty thousand 
 have been known to assemble at St. Anne at a single festival. 
 
 Hence the church at Auray has come to be known as the 
 milch -cow of the Bishop of Vannes (in whose diocese it lies), 
 such being the wealth it brings into his coffers. 
 
 Even before July 25 the pilgrims begin to pour into the 
 village. They come on foot and on horseback, in carts and in all 
 manner of strange vehicles, in steamboats down the river Auray, 
 in railway carriages by the Chemin de Fer de F Quest. They 
 come singly and in companies. Sometimes an entire family 
 will make the journey, the weak and aged supported by the 
 young and stalwart, the mother, mayhap, carrying her new-born 
 babe. The inhabitants of the Isle Dieu are not deterred by the 
 sixty leagues which they have to traverse from paying their 
 annual homage to St. Anne. Sailors, also, in pursuance of some 
 vow made in time of peril, will flock hither, bareheaded and 
 barefooted, from any point of the coast where they have landed 
 or been cast ashore. 
 
 No household can prosper, no ships be safe at sea, nor crops or 
 cattle thrive, unless once a year the people for miles around 
 come to burn their candles at St. Anne's shrine. 
 
 By the morning of the 25th a vast crowd has gathered in the 
 open square near the church of St. Anne. Some congregate 
 around the miraculous well, drinking of its healing waters or 
 washing their hands, feet, and faces in its basins ; others find a 
 temporary repose on the ground or on the steps of the neighbor- 
 ing amphitheatre ; while the more indefatigable make the round 
 of the chapel walls, or of the cloistered galleries of the church, 
 bareheaded and with lighted tapers in their hands, or climb up 
 the scala santa on their knees to kiss the statues in the chapel. 
 The latter is a small edifice, open to the air and surmounted by a 
 cupola, which is approached on all sides by the sacred stairway. 
 
 In the afternoon a procession of male pilgrims is formed, who 
 move solemnly around the town, headed by the priests. The 
 green-and-gold vestments of the latter, the white robes and 
 crimson sashes of the acolytes, the quaint costumes of the 
 peasantry enlivened with beads, medals, and other gewgaws, the 
 lighted tapers, the silver crucifixes, the flags and banners carried 
 high in air, the fanfare of the band, the chanting of the litanies, 
 make up a memorable sight. The surging crowds press as near 
 as they can, leaving only a narrow lane for the return to the 
 scala santa. When this is reached, the priests and their attend- 
 ants crowd upon the steps, and the Bishop of Vannes or some 
 other dignitary, mounting to the platform, addresses the crowd. 
 
 Beginning at four o'clock on the morning of the 26th, con- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. ^^ 
 
 tinuous masses are said in the church, and crowds pour in and 
 out incessantly. Meanwhile outside in the square a thriving 
 business is done by the booths, which dispense toys, rosaries, 
 medals, and statuettes of St. Anne. Women cook fish and 
 galettes (cakes), itinerant venders hawk gigantic wax candles, 
 peep-shows and games attract the more volatile, and families 
 gather in the cafes or the open fields. 
 
 Whit Monday is the occasion of another pilgrimage, of less 
 importance, yei that attracts its hundreds to the other's thou- 
 sands. This is the date chosen by the sailors of the commune 
 of Arzon, at the extremity of the peninsula of Ehins, to fulfil 
 a vow made by their fathers during a naval combat with the 
 Dutch. They embark with their wives and children, at Port 
 ]N"avalo, on board luggers with red sails, having at the head of 
 the flotilla a richly decked vessel, in which are the clergy of the 
 parish in charge of a massive silver crucifix. 
 
 Auriesville. The shrine of Our Lady of Martyrs in this 
 New York village, commemorating the spot where, in the early 
 missionary days, Jesuit priests and others suffered for the faith, 
 has earned it the title of the American Lourdes. Here the 
 League of the Five Nations of the Iroquois Indians formerly 
 held sway over the country between the Mohawk and Genesee 
 rivers. Auriesville is situated on the left bank of the Mohawk. 
 On August 14, 1642, the Jesuit father Isaac Jogues, his attend- 
 ants Eene Goupil and William Couture, and several Christian 
 Hurons, were brought here and underwent a long series of in- 
 dignities and tortures. Eene was finally killed on September 29. 
 The others were allowed to escape. In 1644 Father Jogues es- 
 tablished here the Mission of the Martyrs, where on October 18, 
 1646, he was tortured and slain by the Mohawks. The thirty- 
 eight years that followed his martyrdom were eventful to the 
 Mission. Many priests and Christian laymen were tortured here 
 to make an Indian holiday. Among the Indian converts the 
 most famous was the Iroquois maiden Catherine Tegakwitha 
 (1656-1680), " the Lily of the Mohawk," who after laboring for 
 the conversion of her fellow-Indians was forced to flee to Caugh- 
 nawaga, near Montreal, where her remains are kept to this day 
 as a precious treasure by her own Indian people. At the begin- 
 ning of the year 1684 the missions among the Mohawks were 
 abandoned, on account of the French and English wars. In 
 1884, just two centuries later, nearly the whole site of the 
 ancient village, ten acres in all, came into the possession of the 
 Society of Jesus. A small octagonal chapel, large enough for an 
 altar, a priest, and his servers, was built on the brow of the hill, 
 — where once was the Indian torture-platform, — the gilt cross 
 
84 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 that surmounts it being visible far down the valley. A glass 
 plate in the front door enables visitors to pray in sight of the 
 altar during the seasons when the oratory is closed. Pilgrim- 
 ages have been made to this shrine every year since 1885 during 
 the months of July and August. In August a daily mass is 
 said in the chapel by one of the Jesuit fathers. The feast of the 
 Assumption, August 15, and its eve, which is the anniversary of 
 the first public torture of Father Jogues and Groupil, are the 
 days which draw ihe largest number of pilgrims. Many miracu- 
 lous cures have been reported at the shrine. 
 
 At the twenty-seventh private session of the Third Plenary 
 Council of Baltimore the committee on new business reported 
 the petition of the fathers of the Society of Jesus to the Holy 
 See for the introduction of the cause of the beatification of 
 Father Jogues, Eene Groupil, and Catherine Tegakwitha. The 
 council unanimously subscribed to the postulate. 
 
 Austerlitz, La Sainte. The colloquial name under which 
 the anniversary of the battle of Austerlitz, December 2 (1805), 
 is celebrated at the military schools in France. At the college 
 of St.-Cyr the cadets all join a torchlight parade, singing the 
 Saint-Cyrienne : 
 
 Noble galette, que ton nom 
 
 Soit immortel dans notre histoire ; 
 
 Qu'il soit embelli par la gloire 
 
 D'une vaillante promotion ! 
 
 The whole ends by a magnificent pyrotechnic display on the 
 parade-ground. In the bedrooms afterwards the cadets indulge 
 in a mimic attack upon the plateau of Stratzen, mattresses 
 serving as barricades and pillows as weapons, and it is needless 
 to say that the height is always successfully stormed. 
 
 Azan. (Arabic, "Announcement.") The Mohammedan call 
 or summons to public prayer proclaimed by the Muezzin, or 
 crier, — in small mosques from the side of the building or at the 
 door, and in large mosques from the minaret. The words of 
 the call are as follows : " God is most great ! {four times.') I 
 testify that there is no God but God ! {twice.) I testify that 
 Mohammed is the apostle of God! {twice.) Come to prayer! 
 {twice.) Come to salvation ! {twice.) God is most great ! {twice.) 
 There is no God but God!" 
 
 At the early morning Azan, after the words " Come to 
 salvation !" are added, " Prayer is better than sleep ! Prayer is 
 better than sleep ! " 
 
 When the Azan is recited it is usual for every one in hearing 
 to respond to each call. The first three responses are a mere 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 85 
 
 repetition of the words of the Muezzin. To the cry " Come to 
 prayer!" the response is, "I have no power nor strength but 
 from God the most High and Great ;" to the " Come to salvation !" 
 " What God willeth will be ; what he willeth not will not be." 
 
 The recital of the Azan must be listened to with great rever- 
 ence. If a person be walking at the time, he should stand still ; 
 if reclining, sit up. The Muezzin, a paid official of the mosque, 
 must stand with his face towards Mecca and the points of his 
 forefingers in his ears. Four classes of people are debarred 
 from becoming Muezzins, — the unclean, the intemperate, the 
 insane, and the female. The Azan was estabUshed by Moham- 
 med himself, and tradition has invented the following legend : 
 While the matter was under discussion a certain Abdullah 
 dreamed that he met a man in green raiment carrying a bell. 
 Abdullah sought to buy it, saying it would do well for bringing 
 together the assembly of the faithful. " 1 will show thee a 
 better way," replied the stranger : " let a crier cry aloud, ' God 
 is most great,' etc." Waking from his sleep, Abdullah sought 
 the presence of Mohammed, and related to him his dream. 
 
 All lovers of poetry will remember Edwin Arnold's lines 
 beginning 
 
 He who died at Azan sends 
 
 This to comfort all his friends. 
 
 Babylas, St. (237-250). A bishop of Antioeh, who was 
 martyred in the Decian persecution. In the Eastern Church his 
 festival is September 4, in the Western, January 24. Histori- 
 cally he is famous for compelling the Emperor Philip, on a 
 visit to Antioeh, to take his place among the penitents and 
 undergo penance for the murder of Gordian, as a condition pre- 
 cedent to his reinstatement in church membership. In legend 
 he is still more famous for that his relics are said to have 
 silenced the revived oracle of Apollo during the reign of Julian 
 the Apostate. Julian, furious, ordered the relics to be removed. 
 On that very night the temple and statue of Apollo were de- 
 stroyed by lightning. 
 
 Bacon. As is well known, swine were held unclean animals 
 by the Jews, and their flesh was forbidden by Moses. This 
 taboo is still kept up. Hence our English forefathers loved to 
 show their abhorrence of Judaism by eating a gammon of bacon 
 on Easter, the day on which Christ was triumphant over his 
 
86 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 enemies. The custom is not extinct in some rural localities. 
 But even in classic times bacon had a certain religious signifi- 
 cance. Eobert Bell, in " Shakespeare's Puck and his Folk-Lore." 
 ciies a passage in point from Spence's " Polymetis :" " Alba Longa 
 is the place where ^neas met the white sow and thirty pigs ; 
 and here was a very fine flitch of bacon kept in the chief temple, 
 even in Augustus's time, I find recorded in that excellent his- 
 torian, Dionysius Halicarnassus." 
 
 In Tettan and Temme's " Yolk sage n" (1837) it is said, "A 
 mighty deity of the heathen Prussians was Percunnos. An 
 eternal fire was kept burning before him, fed by oak billets. He 
 was the god of thunder and fertility, and he was therefore in- 
 voked for rain and fair weather, and in thunderstorms the flitch 
 of bacon (Speckseite) was off'ered to him. Even now, when it 
 thunders, the boor in Prussia takes a flitch of bacon on his 
 shoulder, and goes with his head uncovered out of the house, 
 and carries it into the fields, and exclaims, ' O God, fall not on 
 my fields, and I will give thee this flitch.' When the storm is 
 passed he takes the bacon home and consumes it with his house- 
 hold as a sacrifice." 
 
 It is probably as the reward and symbol of fertility that a 
 flitch of bacon used anciently to be presented to any married 
 couple who, after a certain period of wedded life, could swear 
 that they had never regretted taking the step. The most 
 notable instance of this ceremony was at the priory of Dunmow 
 (^. v.). 
 
 Baddeley Cake. The eating of the Baddeley cake, or, as it 
 is sometimes facetiously called, St. Baddeley's Cake, is an an- 
 nual ceremony performed at the greenroom of Drurj^ Lane 
 Theatre in London on the evening of the 6th of January. Its 
 history is as follows. Eobert Baddeley, originally a cook, after- 
 wards a valet, and lastly an actor, died in 1794, and by will set 
 apart one hundred pounds as a fund whose income should be 
 used to furnish a cake and a bowl of punch every Twelfth-Night 
 to the Drury Lane greenroom, which by long custom had been 
 annually given over on that night to feasting and merriment. 
 
 Baddeley's bequest has been faithfully carried out, with the 
 exception of one provision, that whenever the cake was eaten 
 some commemoration should be made of his conjugal infelicity. 
 In his lifetime his wife was better known than himself She 
 sang well and danced charmingly, was beautiful and vivacious, 
 and was said to have been the cause of more duels than any 
 other woman of her time. Baddeley himself was an indifferent 
 actor, though noteworthy in histrionic annals as the original 
 Moses in " The School for Scandal." 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 87 
 
 The present proprietor of Drury Lane has added a few hun- 
 dred pounds of his own to the Baddeley gift, increased the bill 
 of fare so that it includes a large number of dehcacies, and re- 
 served the privilege of inviting distinguished outsiders, both lay 
 and professional, to join in the ceremonials. The piece de resis- 
 tance is still the large, round white cake, with red and green icing 
 in the centre, which is known as St. Baddeley's Cake, and no 
 guest goes away without securing a portion of it. 
 
 Badrinath. A peak of the main Himalayan range, in the 
 Northwestern Provinces of India, 22,901 feet above the sea. A 
 shrine of Yishnu stands on one of its shoulders at a height of 
 10,400 feet, about fifty-six miles northeast of Serinagur. This 
 temple overhangs a sacred tank, which is supplied from a thermal 
 spring. 
 
 The annual number of pilgrims to the shrine is about fifteen 
 thousand ; and every twelfth year, when the Kumbh Melah is 
 celebrated there, the number rises to fifty thousand. Adoration 
 of the idol, liberal fees to the attendant Brahmins, and ablution 
 in the sacred tank, in which both sexes bathe indiscriminately, 
 are believed to be efficacious in cleansing from past offences. 
 The officiating priests are Brahmins from the Deccan, of which 
 caste there are no women at Badrinath, so that they cannot 
 marry ; but they are a very profligate set. 
 
 Bairam or Beiram. The name of two Mohammedan feasts. 
 The lesser Bairam, being celebrated at the termination of the 
 great fast of Eamadan (q. v.), is to that extent the analogue of 
 the Christian Easter. Then the Moslem world puts on its new 
 clothes and comes out and rejoices over the return of sumptuary 
 liberty. Visits and presents are exchanged. In Constantinople 
 bands of music parade the streets, and the boats in the Bosporus 
 are decorated with flags. In the palace of Dolma-baktche the 
 Sultan receives his friends after worshipping at the mosque. He 
 takes his seat on the throne in the centre of the vast audience- 
 room. The grand vizier is received first. He presses to his fore- 
 head a broad scarf or veil which is attached to the throne, and 
 then bows low and withdraws. The Sheik-ul-Islam makes a feint 
 at doing the same. But, being almost as high as the Sultan in 
 religious rank, that sublime gentleman interrupts him and bows 
 to him instead. The festivities are generally protracted over 
 three days. 
 
 The second or greater Bairam, known also as the Feast of the 
 Sacrifices, is celebrated seventy days later. This is the culmi- 
 nating ceremony of the pilgrimage to Mecca, but it has an 
 individual significance as a commemoration of the wiUingness 
 
88 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 of Abraham to offer up his son Ishmael (not Isaac, as stated in 
 the Bible). The Moslem story runs thus : After the foundation 
 of Mecca by Abraham, God commanded him to prepare a feast. 
 The patriarch asked what the Lord would have served for the 
 occasion, and the answer w^as, " Offer up thy son Ishmael." So 
 Abraham placed Ishmael on his back with his head towards the 
 black stone. But the patriarch's hand trembled, and the knife 
 dropped out of it. Thereupon Ishmael told him to cover his 
 eyes with the end of his turban and strike blindfolded. Abra- 
 ham obeyed, and striking felt the blood gush forth from the 
 victim. " God is great !" he cried. But, lo! when he unbound 
 his eyes, a dying ram lay at his feet, which the archangel Gabriel 
 had substituted for Ishmael. In memory of this deliverance of 
 the patriarch's son, from whom Mohammed and his followers 
 claimed descent, sacrifices of goats and sheep are offered by all 
 who can afford them. These animals it is believed will reappear 
 after death to help the souls of the offerers across the bridge 
 that leads to paradise. Hence the richer Moslems, in a spirit of 
 altruistic charity, frequently supply their more indigent brethren 
 with victims to sacrifice. 
 
 Balaam's Ass Sunday. In Gloucestershire this was the 
 name formerly given to the second Sunday after Easter, when 
 the story of Balaam was read in the lesson for the day. Notes 
 and Queries (Seventh Series, vol. v. p. 426) mentions Eandwich 
 Church, near Stroud, and Hawkesbury Church, near Chipping- 
 Sodbury, as places where this custom survived up to the middle 
 of the nineteenth century, and suggests that this was probably 
 a relic from the days of Miracle Plays. 
 
 Bambino, II (It., " The Babe"), or, as it is frequently called, 
 II Santissimo Bambino (" The Most Holy Babe"). A figure 
 of the child Jesus in the Franciscan church of Ara Coeli at 
 Rome. It is reputed to heal the sick and to possess other miracu- 
 lous virtues. The festival of the Bambino, which occurs on 
 Epiphany (January 6), is a gorgeous spectacle, and is attended 
 by the faithful in Rome and the peasants for miles around. 
 The Bambino, loaded with jewels, is placed in a presepio, or 
 manger, and all day long the people pass in an endless procession 
 before the stolid features and unblinking eyes, beseeching some 
 favor, — health for themselves or for a loved one, a successful 
 number in the lottery, the safe return of a friend from afar, or 
 the fulfilment of any desire, serious or trivial. 
 
 The same church of Ara Coeli used to be the scene of a curi- 
 ous performance on Christmas. Opposite the lifelike representa- 
 tion of the stable of Bethlehem, called the Presepio, was placed 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 89 
 
 a tribune, or palco, on which a number of baby orators succes- 
 sively took their places and preached, or recited little speeches 
 prepared beforehand descriptive of the birth of our Lord and 
 his early childhood. 
 
 The Bambino often goes out to attend the sick, especially 
 women in childbirth, being driven from door to door in a large 
 tan-colored coach floating a vermilion flag. Two monks act as 
 its attendants. The fees paid for its presence at the sick-bed 
 are always large, and in case of recovery the gratuitous offerings 
 subsequently made are frequently magnificent. 
 
 There are several legends of its miraculous powers. Once 
 when it was left over-night in a house it returned next morning 
 of its own volition, and all the bells in the churches and con- 
 vents rang out a merry peal of salutation without any human 
 aid. On another occasion a woman desiring the Bambino to 
 stay with her longer than was necessary had a false image made, 
 which she sent back to the church in its stead. The true Bam- 
 bino was so indignant that on its own little bare feet it went 
 back to the church. When an astonished monk opened the 
 door it strode straight past him to its accustomed niche. 
 
 It is said the image was carved at Jerusalem by a Franciscan 
 monk out of a piece of wood from the Mount of Olives. Though 
 possessed of great skill in carving, this monk was not an adept 
 in the use of pigments. In despair he resorted to fasting and 
 prayer. He fell into a deep sleep, and when he awoke he found 
 the little olive-wood image tinted a beautiful flesh color. JSTow, 
 it is well known that St. Luke is the chosen painter to the Holy 
 Family, and it was instantly surmised that this was his work. 
 The monk decided to send it to the church of Ara Coeli, and, 
 although the vessel that bore it suffered shipwreck on the way, 
 the Bambino itself was washed safe ashore at Leghorn, whence 
 it was sent to Rome. 
 
 There are similar images known as Bambinos in Catholic 
 churches elsewhere. In England the most notable are preserved 
 in the Trappist monasteries at Kensington, Staplehill in Dor- 
 set, and Mount St. Bernard in Leicestershire. The ceremony of 
 the Adoration of the Bambino is performed here on Christmas 
 morning. As soon as the midnight of Christmas Eve has passed 
 and the holy day has arrived, the monastery bells ring joyfully 
 out, and all the monks arise to attend early service in the con- 
 vent chapel. Mass is celebrated, and as soon as the host is re- 
 turned to the tabernacle the officiating priest lifts a cloth and 
 discloses the Bambino, — a little swathed waxen doll, whose 
 wrappings leave exposed a tiny face and a pair of feet. The 
 priest raises the Bambino and faces the bowed monks. The 
 priests and monks circle round in procession from the front, and 
 
90 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 passing up, halt for a moment before the waxen image. Then, 
 kneeling down, they reverently kiss the face and hands, cross 
 themselves, and pass on. This ceremony is performed only by 
 the Trappist monks, and only at the Christmas season. 
 
 Banian or Banyan Days. In the British navy there were 
 at first two days and afterwards one day in the week on which 
 no allowance of meat was made to the crew. These have now 
 been abolished, but the term is still applied among sailors gener- 
 ally to days of poor fare. It is possibly derived from banian, 
 the East Indian fig, as a general symbol of vegetarian fare, but 
 a more likely suggestion is that it comes from the merchants 
 and traders of the Banian sect, who scrupulously avoid the use 
 of flesh meat and confine themselves to an ascetic diet. 
 
 Bank Holiday. In Great Britain a weekday specially fixed 
 .by law, whereon parties to negotiable paper are exempted from 
 the obhgation of presentment, payment, etc. The banks there- 
 fore, as well as the government offices, are closed on such a day, 
 and business establishments of all sorts usually follow suit. It 
 was Sir John Lubbock who was mainly instrumental in securing 
 the passage of the bank holiday law in 1871, the days named 
 being, in England and Ireland, Easter Monday, Whit Monday, 
 the first Monday in August, and the 26th of December (Boxing 
 Day) ; in Scotland, New Year's Day, the first Monday in May, 
 the first Monday in August, and Christmas Day. At the August 
 bank holiday it has now become well-nigh universal for em- 
 ployers to close their shops or offices on the preceding Saturday 
 also, so as to give their employees a three days' outing. 
 
 The effect of the bank holiday law on all negotiable paper 
 falling due on such a day is that it is made payable on the next 
 following secular day, whereas paper falling due on Sunday is 
 payable the preceding Saturday. 
 
 Banners, Feast of. (Japanese, Nohori-no-Sekku.) A Japan- 
 ese holiday in honor of male children, celebrated on the fifth 
 day of the fifth month, which in the Europeanized calendar of 
 Japan is now May 5. On every house that can boast of a male 
 child is affixed a pole of bamboo, and floating therefrom are one or 
 more gaud}^ fish made of paper. The exact number is determined 
 by the number of boys in the household. The wind, blowing 
 into the mouths of the fish, inflates them and makes them writhe 
 and wriggle with a curiously lifelike motion. The fish are sup- 
 posed to be carp, which in Japan are recognized symbols of 
 health and long life. Other staifs support paper pennons of 
 every color, while banners blazoned with heraldic devices float 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 91 
 
 in the wind. Boys of all ages appear in the street in gala attire, 
 some having little sabres in their belts, some bearing on their 
 shoulders huge swords of wood, gayly painted and decorated, 
 and others carrying miniature banners. 
 
 Baptism. In the earliest days of the Christian Church those 
 who were admitted into it by baptism were necessarily not in- 
 fants, but adolescent or adult converts. These previously under- 
 went a course of religious instruction, generally for two years. 
 They were called during their pupilage " catechumens," a name 
 afterwards applied to all infants before baptism. When such 
 candidates were judged worthy to be received within the pale of 
 the Church, their names were inscribed at the beginning of Lent 
 on a list of the competent or " illuminated." On Easter or Pen- 
 tecost Eve they were baptized, by three solemn immersions in 
 honor of the Trinity, the first of the right side, the second of the 
 left, and the third of the face. But, as the Arians found in this 
 triple immersion an argument in favor of plurality of natures 
 in the Godhead, Pope Gregory by a letter addressed to St. 
 Leander of Seville ordained that in Spain, the then stronghold 
 of Arianism, only one immersion should be practised. This pre- 
 scription was preserved and applied to the Church universal by 
 the sixth canon of the Council of Toledo in 633. The triple 
 immersion was, however, persisted in in Ireland to the twelfth 
 century. Infants were thus baptized by their fathers, or indeed 
 by any other person at hand, either in water or in milk ; but the 
 custom was abolished in 1172 by the Council of Cashel. 
 
 The baptistery of the early church was one of the exedrce, or 
 out-buildings, and consisted of a porch or anteroom, where adult 
 converts made their confession of faith, and an inner room, where 
 the actual baptism took place. Thus it continued till the sixth 
 century, when baptisteries began to be taken into the church 
 itself The font was always of wood or stone. Indeed, we find 
 the provincial council held in Scotland in 1225 prescribing those 
 materials as the only ones to be used. The Church in all ages 
 discouraged private baptism. By the fifty-fifth canon of the 
 same council, the water which had been used to baptize a child 
 out of church was to be thrown into the fire, or carried imme- 
 diately Jo the parish baptistery, that it might be employed for 
 no other purpose; in like manner, the vessel which had held it 
 was to be either burnt or consecrated for church use. For many 
 centuries superstitious virtues were attributed to water which 
 had been used for baptism. The blind bathed their eyes in it, 
 in the hope of regaining their sight. It was said to " drown the 
 devil" and to purify those who l]ad recoui'se to it. 
 
 Baptism was by the early Church strictly forbidden during 
 
92 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Lent, and every baptistery was closed during the fast and sealed 
 up with the seal of the church. 
 
 Christening fees originated at an early date. At first bisho, s 
 and those who had aided in the ceremony of baptism were enter- 
 tained at a feast. This was afterwards commuted to an actual 
 payment of money. 
 
 Both were afterwards forbidden. The forty-eighth canon of 
 the Council of Elvira, held in 303, prohibits the leaving of money 
 in the fonts, "that the ministers of the Church may not appear 
 to sell that which it is their duty to give gratuitously." This 
 rule was, however, as little observed in the Middle Ages as it 
 has been since. Strype says that in 1560 it was enjoined by the 
 heads of the Church that " to avoid contention, let the curate 
 have the value of the ' chrisom,' not under fourpence, and 
 above as they can agree, and as the state of the parents may 
 require." The chrisom was the white cloth placed by the 
 minister upon the head of a child which had been newly anointed 
 with chrism, or hallowed ointment composed of oil and balm, 
 always used after baptism. The gift of this cloth was usually 
 made by the mother at the time of churching. To show how 
 enduring such customs are, even after the occasion for them has 
 passed away, we need only quote a passage from Morant's 
 "Essex:" "In Denton Church there has been a custom, time 
 out of mind, at the churching of a woman, for her to give a 
 white cambric handkerchief to the minister as an offering." The 
 same custom is kept up in Kent, as may be seen in Lewis's His- 
 tory of the Isle of Thanet. 
 
 In the county of Durham it is an old custom to give fruit cake 
 and cheese to the first person met on the way to the church by 
 a christening party. The Antiquary ior February, 1886, tells this 
 story : " At Hexham a few Sundays ago some Wesleyan Sunday- 
 school scholars met a christening party on Gilesgate Bank, and 
 one of the women shouted to the foremost boy, ' Here, hinny, is 
 some cheese and cake for you.' Some of the youngsters were 
 much amused, and a division of the two slices of fruit loaf and 
 its complement of cheese quickly took place." 
 
 In Protestant churches the godmother holds the child until it 
 is taken by the cleric ; in Catholic churches the child is held by 
 the godfather over the font and the godmother takes it by the 
 feet and holds them towards the west. The priest puts a lighted 
 taper in the godfather's hand and the chrisom cloth over the 
 child's head. 
 
 Though baptism in its regenerative symbolism is unknown to 
 non-Christians, there are in many parts of the world peculiar 
 ceremonies attached to the giving of a name to a child. 
 
 " Unless the father be very poor indeed," — writes Mrs. Bishop 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 93 
 
 in her " Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan," — " he makes a feast 
 for his friends on an auspicious day and invites the village 
 mollahs. Sweetmeats are solemnly eaten after the guests have 
 assembled. Then the infant, stiffened and mummied in its 
 swaddHng clothes, is brought in and laid on the floor by one of 
 the mollahs. Five names are written on five slips of paper, 
 which are placed between the leaves of the Koran, or under 
 the edge of the carpet. The first chapter of the Koran is then 
 read. One of the slips is drawn at random, and a mollah takes 
 up the child and pronounces in its ear the name found upon it, 
 after which he places the paper on its clothes." This lottery- 
 like proceeding over, the relations and friends give the babe 
 presents according to their means, — a custom obviously analo- 
 gous to our christening gifts. "Thereafter," continues Mrs. 
 Bishop, " it is called by the name it has received. Among men's 
 names there is a preponderance of those taken from the Old 
 Testament, among which Ibrahim, Ismail, Suleiman, Yusuf, and 
 Moussa are prominent. Abdullah, Mahmoud, Hassan, Raouf, 
 Baba Houssein, Imam, are also common, and many names have 
 the sufl&x of Ali among the Shiahs. Fatmeh is a woman's name, 
 but girl-children usually receive the name of some flower or bird 
 or fascinating quaUty of disposition or person." 
 
 The incident of laying the child on the floor brings to mind 
 the custom of the Japanese in the performance of this function. 
 
 Mrs. C. M. Sawley, writing in the Asiatic Monthly, tells us that 
 when a Japanese baby boy is a hundred days old he is carried to 
 the priest's house in the Shinto temple, and there receives a 
 compound name, from the family name and that of his guardian. 
 " This guardian is generally the dearest friend of the family, 
 and his duty is to watch over the child's future career. The dual 
 name insures the bond of union between them. The priest writes 
 down the name and gives it to the child to keep in his prayer-bag, 
 as the sponsor's name has to be remembered continually before 
 the household shrine. When prayers have been said over the 
 child, he is placed on the floor and allowed for the first time to 
 wander at his own sweet will whithersoever he chooses. Towards 
 whichever cardinal point he turns, so will his future be in- 
 fluenced." The Gohei, or sacred slips of paper, are held over 
 the boy's head to propitiate the ancestral spirits so that they 
 will induce him to turn in the right direction. Two fans are 
 then presented to him, which in after-years will be exchanged 
 for swords. 
 
 In China the ceremony of naming the baby is accompanied by 
 the shaving of all its hair. If it is a boy his relations and 
 friends are invited to a feast the day his head is shaved, and 
 many of them bring a present; in some parts of the country 
 
94 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 the present is always a silver plate, on which is engraved, " Long 
 life, honors, and happiness." On this day the baby gets its name, 
 but it does not keep it all its life : so this first name is called the 
 milk name. A girl is generally called by her milk name till she 
 marries ; but a boy gets a new name the first day he goes to 
 school. 
 
 Among the Parsees fire and water are both used in the naming 
 ceremony. When a child is born, a priest waits on the parents 
 at their own house, and, after he has made a note of the hour, 
 moment, and circumstances of the child's introduction to the 
 world, he calculates its nativity. He then consults the father 
 and mother about a name, and, that point being settled, he pro- 
 nounces the choice in the presence of the assembled friends. 
 The child is washed, or dipped into a tub of water, and subse- 
 quentl}^ taken to the church, where it is held for a few moments 
 over a fire. 
 
 A curious analogue of the Parsee ceremony existed in Scot- 
 land, where it was once a common usage and still has its local 
 survivals. After baptism the child was put into a clean basket, 
 over which a cloth had previously been spread. Bread and 
 cheese were laid upon the cloth, and the whole arrangement was 
 then moved three times successively round the iron crook which 
 hangs over the fire for the purpose of supporting the pot when 
 water is boiled or victuals are prepared. The import of the 
 proceeding is clearly shown in the words repeated three times, 
 " Let the flame consume thee now or never." 
 
 Barbara, St., patron of Ferrara, Mantua, and Guastalla ; 
 also of fortifications and fire-arras, as well as of armorers and 
 gunsmiths. She is invoked as a protector against lightning and 
 explosions. The festival of this saint, December 4, is celebrated 
 in Southern France and Southern Germany as the beginning 
 of the Christmas season. Her relics are very numerous, es- 
 pecially in Germany. But her legends, which are widely dis- 
 crepant, are not accepted as authoritative by careful Catholic 
 hagiologists. The very date of her death is as arbitrary as the 
 fixing of the place where she suffered. But December 4, a.d. 
 235, is the most favored date, and Heliopolis is as plausible a 
 locality as Tuscany or Nicomedia, which are alternatively sug- 
 gested. Legends generally agree that her father, whose name 
 was Dioscorus, shut her up in a high tower lest she should 
 attract suitors by her beauty. Somehow a trusty servant of 
 Origen penetrated her seclusion, instructed her in Christianity, 
 and baptized her. Her father proposed to make a bath-room 
 in the tower, and she requested that three windows should be 
 introduced, in honor of the three windows through which the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 95 
 
 soul receives light, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. 
 Then her father knew that she was a Christian, and he car- 
 ried her to a mountain where he himself beheaded her. Imme- 
 diately a great tempest arose, and the lightning consumed the 
 father. 
 
 In Southern France the women in every house fill two and 
 sometimes three plates with wheat or lentils, and then stand 
 them in the warm ashes of the fireplace or on a sunny window- 
 ledge to germinate. According as St. Barbara's grain grows 
 well or ill, the harvest of the coming year will be good or bad. 
 At what is known as the Great Supper on Christmas Eve the 
 table is decorated with the growing grain as a symbol of the 
 harvest that is to be. 
 
 In Servia the peasants on the eve of this saint's feast boil all 
 sorts of grain together in the same pot, which they leave near 
 the fire during the night. The next morning they carefully 
 observe on which side the boiling has most swelled the grain, 
 and on this indication they sow the fields which extend in that 
 direction. 
 
 Barbecue. (From Sp. barbacoa, an attempt to transliterate 
 a native Haytien term for a wooden framework supporting meat 
 or fish to be smoked or dried over a fire.) In its most popular 
 modern signification, a large social or political entertainment in 
 the open air, at which sheep or oxen are roasted whole and all 
 the feasting is conducted on a Gargantuan scale. 
 
 Georgia is probably the native home of the barbecue, but it 
 spread thence to most of the Southern and Southwestern States, 
 and has even invaded some of the Northern ones. Georgia, 
 however, still retains its supremacy as the Barbecue State. 
 "The barbecue is to Georgia," says D. Allen Willey, in the 
 Home- Maker's Magazine for December, 1896, " what the clam- 
 bake is to Ehode Island, what a roast-beef dinner is to our 
 Enghsh cousins, what canvas-back duck i-s to the Marylander, 
 and what a pork-and-beans supper is to the Bostonian. The 
 barbecue has done much for Georgia. It has played its part in 
 politics, in social gatherings, in the entertainment of strangers, 
 and in festivities generally. It has come to be a necessary part 
 of all kinds of social functions, and the man who has visited 
 Georgia and come away without a sample of barbecue viands is 
 indeed to be commiserated. 
 
 " The genius who prepared the first barbecue is unknown, 
 although there are a dozen theories offered as to its origin. Get 
 into a country store and sit on the cracker-box by the side of 
 two or three Georgia ' colonels' and ' majors,' and they will tell 
 any number of tales about how their ancestors bought their 
 
96 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 estates from the Indians and to close up the bargain gave the 
 ' noble red men' a barbecue, consisting of venison and sweetened 
 hoe-cake, followed by plenty of imported rum and other ' fire- 
 waters.' One thing is clear, and that is that game constituted 
 the meat cooked in the barbecue of fifty years ago. As deer, 
 bear, and other animals became scarce, oxen, sheep, and pigs 
 took their places. The variety of viands increased until the 
 barbecue of to-day may contain fish, beef, mutton, pork, vege- 
 tables, and fowls. It depends much on the liberality of the givers 
 and the number invited to participate. The popularity of this 
 kind of entertainment is so great that it is enjoyed in cities as 
 well as towns. Even in the wire-grass country, where possibly 
 the white farmers live two or three miles apart, a half-dozen 
 families will get together on a holiday, or some one's birthday, 
 perhaps, kill a sheep or a pig, and have a barbecue. During the 
 Atlanta Exposition a daily barbecue, at which three or four 
 hundred persons were fed at once, was a feature. 
 
 " As an aid to political campaigns, the barbecue exerts a power- 
 ful influence. Many a man has been elected senator, or governor, 
 or Congressman from this State by a majority secured largely 
 through votes gained at barbecues. A canvass for the governor- 
 ship of Georgia is not considered completed without a serres of 
 these affairs, sometimes one in every county, given just before 
 election, to which every one is invited." 
 
 In other Southern and Western States the barbecue plays its 
 part in the political game ; and it is not entirely unknown in 
 New York. It was first introduced into that State in the Pres- 
 idential campaign of 1876 by Eepublican managers, and the 
 example so set has since been followed occasionally by members 
 of both the great parties. 
 
 On the morning of Wednesday, October 18, 1876, two huge 
 oxen were paraded through the cities of New York and Brook- 
 lyn and then taken to Myrtle Park in the latter city. 
 
 There they were killed in the afternoon. By eleven in the 
 evening one weighing nine hundred and eighty-three pounds 
 was on the spit and in process of roasting over a coke fire. 
 Though less picturesque than the old-fashioned pit, with its wood 
 fire, its forked flames, and occasionally its superabundant smoke, 
 this was found to be an improvement as a cooking apparatus. 
 The coke fire was placed in tw^o large iron pans, ranged parallel 
 to the spit, but not directly under the carcass, the heat being 
 thrown on that by a peaked roof of the same metal stretched 
 over the spit and about two feet from it. Between the two fires 
 was a long dripping-pan, from which the meat was frequently 
 basted with its own fat. The first ox was declared done at eight 
 o'clock on Thursday morning (October 20), and was taken off to 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 97 
 
 cool, while the other, over one thousand pounds in weight, took 
 its place upon the spit. Even at that early hour some hundred 
 or more curious citizens were on the ground, and the number 
 kept steadily increasing until by noon over a thousand had 
 arrived. The barbecue was then declared opened. All present 
 were invited to a share of the ox which had been roasted during 
 the morning. This had been cut up and with the aid of eight 
 hundred loaves of bread turned into sandwiches. So great was the 
 public demand that in twenty minutes the only vestiges left were 
 the skeleton and such fragments as were unfit for food. The 
 other ox was served up at night. Upwards of fifty thousand 
 people in all participated in the exercises. Five speakers, at as 
 many stands, simultaneously addressed audiences of thousands, 
 while thousands more amused themselves in various ways in the 
 grounds. 
 
 Barberi, The. Until very recently this was the crowning 
 sport of the Carnival in Eome, preserving even down to our time 
 
 The Stakt of the Barberi. 
 
 that element of cruelty which has been all through the ages one 
 of the distinguishing features of the Eomans' taste in pleasure. 
 The Barberi (so called because in old times the finest coursers 
 of Barbary were used for this purpose) were in the latter days 
 
 7 
 
98 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 some half-dozen horses of small value. They were taken to an 
 appointed spot at the head of the Corso, where heated bits of 
 iron and twisted wire were driven into their flesh and their 
 haunches bedecked with spiked balls and flags. Maddened with 
 pain, they were then allowed to dash riderless down the Corso, 
 with a reckless indifl'erence to their own safety and that of the 
 dense masses of people who choked the sidewalks, until stopped 
 at the end of a mile by employees who held carpets in front of 
 them. The owner of the winner bore off a prize banner. 
 
 Formerly these races excited the greatest emulation among 
 the noblest houses in Eome, and the winners would hang up the 
 prize banners in their private chapels. Thus from the middle 
 of the seventeenth to the middle of the eighteenth century we 
 find all the most aristocratic names in Eome on the list of 
 winners. In 1788, however, Goethe tells us, the horse-races 
 were no longer confined to the aristocracy, but the middle and 
 lower classes also took part in them : " The great men are parsi- 
 monious ; they hold aloof from the proceedings." Finally they 
 were entirely abandoned by the patrician to the plebeian. (See 
 Agatha, St.) 
 
 Barnabas, St., one of the patrons of Milan. His feast is on 
 the day of his nativity, June 11. This unusual selection of a 
 birthday in lieu of a death-day was partly due to the fact that 
 he was not commemorated in either the East or the West until 
 late. Florus of Lyons first introduced the name of St. Barnabas 
 in the Western martyrology. Eadulph de Eivo, in the beginning 
 of the fifteenth century, speaks of the feast of the saint as being 
 generally observed then, but Paul III. was the first to allow 
 proper lessons in the Breviary of Cardinal Quinones for this day. 
 The Abyssinian Church commemorates St. Barnabas on Decem- 
 ber 17. He was not one of the original twelve apostles, although 
 he is styled an apostle by Luke (Acts xiv. 13). He accompanied 
 Paul on his missions to the Jews and Gentiles, and tradition 
 asserts that he carried the gospel to Milan. He is said to have 
 been stoned to death by a heathen mob in Cyprus. 
 
 Mark and other Christians buried him near the site of his 
 martyrdom. More than four centuries later, in the time of 
 the Emperor Zeno, his relics were found and removed to Con- 
 stantinople, a stately church being erected over them and dedi- 
 cated in his honor. It is said that the saint's skeleton arms 
 clasped across his breast a copy of the Gospel according to St. 
 Matthew, written in Hebrew by St. Barnabas himself. On the 
 occupation of Cyprus by the Saracens in the seventh century, 
 the head and some other relics of the saint are said to have been 
 translated to Milan. The translation of these relics to a new 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 99 
 
 shrine was made in 1521, and an annual festival instituted to 
 commemorate it, to which the Pope attached an indulgence of a 
 hundred years. 
 
 Toulouse, however, claims to be in possession of rival relics in 
 the church of St. Saturninus. May 27 is the feast of the In- 
 vention of these to Toulouse. Saussaye in his " Galilean Mar- 
 tyrology" says, "'the head is now exposed there to veneration, 
 apart from the body, which reposes in its own shrine." This 
 head was examined and verified in 1807 by Clement de Barbazan, 
 Vicar- General. It is still at Toulouse. Other heads are in the 
 church of Edna in Bergamo, in the cathedral at Genoa, in the 
 Jesuit church at Naples, and at Andechs in Bavaria. Fragments 
 of the same head are in Prague, Cremona, and Pavia. 
 
 In England the feast of St. Barnabas is sometimes known as 
 Barnabee's Day. It was usual in some churches to decorate the 
 altars with garlands of flowers. In Hesket, an extensive parish 
 of Cumberlandshire, England, the Court of Inglewood Forest is 
 held annually on June 11 in the open air. The suitors assem- 
 ble b}' the highway-side at a place marked only by an ancient 
 thorn, where the annual dues to the lord of the Ibrest, composi- 
 tions for improvements, etc., are paid ; and a jury for the whole 
 jurisdiction is chosen from among the inhabitants of twenty 
 mesne manors who attend on this spot. 
 
 Barring Out. An obsolescent practice among British school- 
 boys of excluding the school-master from the proper scene of 
 his labors by barricading the doors and windows and holding 
 the place in a state of siege until the master acceded to their 
 demands. The time chosen was during the Christmas season in 
 some places and at Shrove Tuesday in others. The understand- 
 ing was that if the boys could keep their teacher on the outside 
 of the academy door for the full term of three days, the deposed 
 dignitary was bound by custom to enter into a capitulation with 
 the youngsters, and to grant to them certain demands relating 
 to the number of holidays for the ensuing year, to the allot- 
 ment of the hours of study and recreation, and to other impor- 
 tant points connected with the economy of the establishment. 
 On the other hand, if the pupils failed in holding the school- 
 house against their assailants for the period of three days, the 
 master admittedly had a right to dictate his own terms in all 
 those matters which have been mentioned. He obtained also 
 the momentous right of castigating at will the actors in the 
 rebellion, — a labor which they always took care to save him, 
 in cases where they were successful, by making that point the 
 subject of a very explicit condition in the act of capitulation. 
 This document, it may be observed, was commonly drawn up in 
 
100 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 11 formal and most diplomatic style, securities for the fulfilment 
 of all its stipulations being provided on both sides, and signa- 
 tures affixed by the master and the scholars, or by plenipoten- 
 tiaries appointed by the latter for the purpose. The " high 
 contracting parties" were then at peace for the year. 
 
 The grave and gentle Addison is said to have been the leader 
 in a barring out during his school-days at Lichfield, circa 1684, 
 and to have displayed a degree of disorderly daring scarcely in- 
 teUigible in the future "parson in a tie-wig." 
 
 Ditchfield reports that the custom still prevails in Cumber- 
 land. " A few years ago," he says, " the Dalston School Board 
 received a letter from the master, requesting that the school 
 might close on the Thursday before Christmas instead of the 
 Friday, on the ground that the ' old barbarous custom of barring 
 out' the school-master might no longer be resorted to. If the 
 school were opened on the Friday the master was of opinion 
 that the children might possibly be persuaded by outsiders to 
 make an attempt to bar him out, and would then have to suffer 
 a large amount of severe castigation. The school accordingly 
 closed on the Thursday, much to the regret of the chairman and 
 others, who would like to have witnessed the repetition of so 
 ancient a custom." 
 
 Bartholomew, St., the Apostle, whose day is celebrated on 
 August 24, is variously represented as the son of Prince Ptolo- 
 maeus and of a simple husbandman. His name means " son of a 
 drawer of water." Tradition says that on the dispersion of the 
 apostles he travelled as far as India, entering pagan temples and 
 imposing silence upon the oracles, curing the possessed and con- 
 verting mighty princes. On his return through Armenia he was 
 flayed alive and then crucified. His bones were dispersed by 
 the heathen, but a monk, informed by a vision, gathered them 
 together at night-time, when they shone like fire, and carried 
 them to Benevento, where they still repose. Another legend 
 asserts that the relics were transferred to Home. His attribute 
 is a large knife, in addition to which he sometimes carries his 
 own skin on his arm. At the abbey of Croyland, in Lincoln- 
 shire, England, there used to be a distribution of knives to all 
 comers on the saint's day. But the custom grew to be so 
 financially onerous that it was abolished in the time of Edward 
 IV. by Abbot John de Wisbech. In the parish of Dorrington 
 in the same county the maidens would go in procession on St. 
 Bartholomew's Day to a small chapel whose floor they strewed 
 with rushes. Thence they proceeded to a piece of land called 
 the Play-Garths, where they were joined by most of the inhab- 
 itants of the place, and the remainder of the day was passed in 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 101 
 
 rural sports. It was a custom in olden time for the scholars of 
 various schools to meet upon this day and hold debates and dis- 
 cussions. The practice remained long in vogue in Yorkshire, 
 but has now disappeared. There was also held formerly, in 
 London, a celebrated fair, which bore the name of Bartholo- 
 mew, but it became so debased in its character that it was at 
 last put down. 
 
 A popular English distich alludes to the insetting of chilly 
 evenings at about this period : 
 
 St. Bartholomew 
 Brings the cold dew. 
 
 But, as .the feast happens just forty days after St. Swithin's, 
 the good Bartholomew is looked upon as the deliverer from the 
 quarantine of rain that is due if St. Swithin's be rainy : 
 
 St. Bartlemy's mantle wipes dry 
 
 All the tears that St Swithin can cry. 
 
 Of course it often happens that after a showery August the 
 rain clears off towards the end of the month preparatory to a 
 sunshiny September. The verification of the proverb is eagerly 
 looked for in still other phrases : "As Bartholomew's Day, so 
 the whole autumn," and, again, 
 
 If the 24th of August be fair and clear. 
 Then hope for a prosperous autumn that year. 
 
 The Massacre of St. Bartholomew, which has cast a bloody 
 stain upon the feast, took place on the eve of St. Bartholomew 
 in 1572. Charles IX. of France, Catherine de Medicis the 
 queen mother, the Duke of Anjou, and the Guises, had deter- 
 mined upon the extermination of the Huguenots. The slaugh- 
 ter was to be indiscriminate ; the Princes of Conde and Navarre 
 were the only Protestants to be spared. Charles, in a moment 
 of compassion, endeavored to persuade the young Count de 
 la Eochefoucault to remain that night in the Louvre, but with- 
 out success. Everything had been arranged. Suddenly, deep 
 in the night, a pistol was fired ; the tocsin of St.-Germain 
 sounded the assault, and the Duke of Guise and his band of 
 wretches rushed upon the defenceless Protestants. Guise made 
 for the abode of the noble old Admiral Coligny, crying, '' To 
 death ! to death !" but he did not dare to meet the admiral face 
 to face. Breme, one of his German guards, ascended the stairs, 
 and found a venerable old man engaged in his devotions. "Art 
 thou Coligny ?" demanded the assassin. " I am," replied the 
 admiral : " young man, respect my gray hairs." Breme thrust 
 
102 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 his sword through the helpless old man, crying to those below, 
 "He is done for!" To satisfy the remorseless Guise, the body 
 of the admiral was flung into the street. Thus perished Coligny, 
 one of the noblest and purest men of that day. Over ten 
 thousand Protestants are said to have been slain that night in 
 Paris alone, five hundred of whom were men of rank. Great 
 numbers also fell in the provinces. But Catholic historians con- 
 tend that the number has been greatly exaggerated. 
 
 Basil the Great, St. (328-380). The second in rank in the 
 Greek Church, and the founder of the Basilicans, the only mo- 
 nastic order known in that Church. His festival is celebrated in 
 the Western Church on June 14, the day of his ordination, but 
 in the Eastern on January 1, his death-day. He was a great 
 preacher and a great theologian, but, fearing for his humility, 
 retired to the desert as a hermit. In 370 he became Bishop of 
 Caesarea. He disobeyed the orders of the Emperor Yalens to 
 use the Arian rites. The Emperor threatened him even with 
 death, but to no avail. Then Yalens determined to awe the 
 prelate into submission. He came in great pomp with his court 
 and soldiers to church on the feast of the Epiphany. But Basil 
 would not notice him even when he came to the altar with his 
 oblation. Yalens swooned and fell into the arms of an attendant. 
 Baffled again and again, he finally suffered Basil to go his own 
 way. Some of the relics of the saint are said to be preserved 
 at Bruges, brought thither in 1187. 
 
 Bathilda, St. (Fr. Bathilde, Baldochide, or Bauteur.) The 
 wife of Clovis III., King of France, and after his death regent 
 of the kingdom. Her festival is celebrated in France on Jan- 
 uary 30, the anniversary of her death (about a.d. 680), but is 
 named on the 26th in the Eoman Martyrology. She founded 
 many churches and religious houses, especially the great abbey 
 of Corbie in Picardy, and the church of the Holy Cross at 
 Chelles, near Paris, where she is buried in a rich silver shrine. 
 Le Boeuf in his "Histoire du Diocese de Paris" asserts that six 
 nuns were cured of inveterate distempers, attended with fre- 
 quent fits of convulsions, by touching the relics of St. Bathilde, 
 when her shrine was opened on July 13, 1631. 
 
 Bavo or Bavon, St. (589-653), patron of Ghent in Flanders, 
 and of Haarlem in Holland. His festival is celebrated on the 
 anniversary of his death, October 1. His name in the world 
 was Allowin. He was a profligate nobleman, but the death of 
 his wife and the preaching of St. Amandus converted him. The 
 remainder of his life he spent in various cells and huts con- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 103 
 
 structed by himself in the woods adjoining the monastery of St. 
 Peter in Ghent. His conversion was followed by that of sixty 
 of his fellow-nobles, who founded the church of St. Bavo at 
 Ghent, where his relics remained until the church was torn 
 down to give place to a citadel, when they were transferred to 
 St. John's Church, which was re-named in his honor and is now 
 the cathedral of Ghent. An arm of St. Bavo is kept in a silver 
 case at Haarlem in the church which bears his name. 
 
 Bee, Bees, or Bega, St. A saint whose name is commemo- 
 rated in the abbey in Cumberland known by any one of these 
 three names, and who appears in the Latin calendar on Septem- 
 ber 6, probably her death-day. Legend asserts that she was the 
 daughter of an Irish king who on the eve of her wedding to a 
 son of the King of Norway escaped hj night to preserve her 
 vows of virginity, and lived for many years in a cell which she 
 built for herself near the site of the abbey. This was towards 
 the close of the seventh century. She was celebrated during 
 her lifetime for her austerity and charity, the latter leading her, 
 during the building of her monastery, to prepare with her own 
 hands the food of the masons and to wait upon them in their 
 workshops, hastening from place to place like a bee laden with 
 honey. She remained down to the Middle Ages the patroness 
 of the laborious and often oppressed population of the district. 
 A bracelet said to have been given to her by an angel was re- 
 garded as a sacred relic, and petty tyrants against whom there 
 was no other defence were made to swear upon it, in the belief 
 that a perjury committed on so sacred a pledge could not pass 
 unpunished. 
 
 Bee Customs. A superstition which prevails in rural Eng- 
 land and New England, and also in parts of Europe, is that bees 
 will either fly away or die on the occasion of a death in the 
 family unless some one knock at their hive and tell them of 
 it. In some places the hives are further put into mourning, or, 
 again, a bit of the funeral biscuit is offered to the bees. Whit- 
 tier's poem " TelHng the Bees" is founded on this custom : 
 
 Under the garden wall. 
 Forward and back, 
 Went drearily singing the chore-girl small, 
 Draping each hive with a shred of black. 
 
 * * * * * * * 
 
 And the song she was singing ever since 
 
 In my ear sounds on : 
 " Stay at home, pretty bees, fly not hence I 
 
 Mistress Mary is dead and gone !" 
 
104 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 In some places bees are formally invited to funerals. Another 
 custom of the same sort is mentioned in this paragraph from the 
 London Argus of September 13, 1790 : " A superstitious custom 
 prevails at every funeral in Devon of turning round the bee- 
 hives that belonged to the deceased, if he had any, and that at 
 the moment the corpse is carried out of the house." 
 
 At a funeral some time since, at Collumpton, in Devonshire, 
 England, of a rich old farmer, just as the corpse was placed in the 
 hearse, and the horsemen, to a large number, were drawn up 
 in order for the procession of the funeral, a person called out, 
 " Turn the bees !" when a servant, who had no knowledge of such 
 a custom, instead of turning the hives round, lifted them up and 
 then laid them down on their sides. The bees, thus hastily in- 
 vaded, instantly attacked and fastened on the horses and their 
 riders. It was in vain they galloped off: the bees as precipitately 
 followed, and left their stings as marks of their indignation. A 
 general confusion took place, attended with loss of hats, wigs, 
 etc., and the corpse during the conflict was left unattended ; nor 
 was it till after a considerable time that the funeral attendants 
 could be rallied in order to proceed to the interment of their 
 deceased friend. 
 
 As good order is so strikingly exhibited in the government of 
 the bees for the bees and by the bees, it seems not inappropriate 
 that in Egyptian hieroglyphics the bee should represent royalty 
 and that in later times it should have become the symbol of the 
 French Empire. In France the royal mantle and standard were 
 thickly sewn with golden bees, and in the tomb of Childeric 
 in 1653 there were discovered three hundred bees made from 
 the same precious metal. 
 
 In Eoman Catholic days in England, and even occasionally in 
 rural parishes in America, it used to be a custom to place in the 
 centre of a hive of bees a small piece of the sacred wafer sur- 
 reptitiously carried away from the communion. This was called 
 the " little God Almighty," and was supposed to insure the bees 
 from all harm and to increase their power of honey-making. 
 The custom was denounced by the Church. Hawker, in his 
 " Echoes from Old Cornwall," tells how the bees, to rebuke the 
 irreverence of their owner, raised a shrine around the sacred 
 bread, to show 
 
 How holier hearts than his may beat 
 Beneath the bold blasphemers feet. 
 
 [A Legend of the Hive.) 
 
 In England it is considered unlucky to buy or sell bees ; they 
 must be given, and the donee in return makes a gift of a bushel 
 of corn, a small pig, or other equivalent. Stolen bees will not 
 thrive, but pine away and die by degrees. It is even unlucky 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 105 
 
 for a swarm of bees to settle on strange premises, unless they 
 are subsequently claimed by the owner. When bees die, or even 
 when they remove or go away from their hives, there will be a 
 death in the owner's family. 
 
 In Virgil we find the story that Jupiter endowed the bee with 
 its marvellous intelligence because when as an infant he lay con- 
 cealed from his father's search in the Cretan cave bees fed him 
 with honey. The Cretans themselves came to his aid by dancing 
 around the babe and rattling brazen cymbals to drown the cries 
 that might have betrayed him. To this latter legend is traced 
 the still extant custom of pursuing swarms of bees with the 
 clangor of keys on pans and kettles in order to induce them to 
 settle down. Pliny argues that because this clatter is always 
 made when bees swarm, therefore they must be gifted with the 
 sense of hearing, which is rather curious logic. In " Tusser 
 Eedivivus" (1744) is a paragraph with considerably more good 
 sense : " The tinkling after them with a warming-pan, frying- 
 pan, or kettle is of good use to let the neighbors know you have 
 a swarm in the air, which you claim wherever it alights, but I 
 believe of very little purpose to the reclaiming of the bees, who 
 are thought to delight in no noise but their own." 
 
 Bells. In the larger sense of the word, bells are of unknown 
 antiquity. From the very earliest ages we hear of metal 
 instruments that yielded musical notes when struck by metal 
 wands or clappers, and the names of such instruments are usu- 
 ally translated as bells. But it is doubtful, for example, whether 
 the golden bells described in Exodus xxviii. 33-35 as part of 
 the apparel of Aaron were anything but jangling ornaments of 
 some sort worn by the high-priest. The same doubt hangs 
 around the tintinnabulating Egyptian instruments which were 
 used to announce the sacred feasts of Osiris, Nevertheless 
 small bronze bells were found by Layard in the palace of Mm- 
 roud in Nineveh. Bell-hke also in the modern sense were many 
 of the percussion instruments that we find described by classical 
 authors, from the tintinnabulum, and the petasus, or hat-shaped 
 bell, which invited the ancient Greeks to the fish-market and 
 the Romans to their public baths ; the codon, with which the 
 Greek sentinels were kept awake, and which was the prototype 
 of the signal which our bell-wether carries around its neck ; the 
 nola, which was appended to the necks of pet dogs and the feet of 
 pet birds : the campana, the first turret-bell ; the Dodoncei lebetes, 
 or caldrons of Dodona, by means of which, according to Strabo, 
 the oracles were sometimes conveyed ; down to the squilla, of 
 which Hieronymus seems to have known nothing save that it 
 was a smaller tintinnabulum. 
 
106 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Large bells appear to have originated in China. Tradition 
 asserts that popular justice bells were in use there in every large 
 town long before the birth of Christ. These were fixed to the 
 wall above the head of the prince or governor. A rope a mile 
 or so in length was attached to each, and laid so temptingly 
 along the main thoroughfare that the humblest sufferer from 
 injustice seldom hesitated to tug at it. As soon as the bell 
 sounded, the governor sent for the petitioner, and " serious busi- 
 ness, craving quick despatch," met with instant and honest 
 recognition. And even above the head of the Emperor himself 
 there was such a noisy friend to the people, but he who rang it 
 without sufficient cause — and His Celestial Majesty was often 
 difficult to please in this particular — was switched in a very 
 lively manner. 
 
 Bells were unused by the early Christians. During the heathen 
 persecutions it was of course impossible to call the faithful by 
 any signal which would have attracted public notice. After 
 Constantine's time, monastic communities used to signify the 
 hour of prayer b}^ blowing a trumpet, or by rapping with a 
 hammer at the cells of the monks. The invention of church- 
 bells is often ascribed to Bishop Paulinus of Nola in Campania, 
 who died in 431. From his native town and district came, it is 
 urged, the Latin names for a bell, nola and campana, the latter 
 still surviving in Italy. But more cautious historians think that 
 it was only the facile etymologies which suggested the ascription 
 of the invention to the bishop ; for in bis extant writings no 
 mention of bells is made, and it is quite certain that the terms 
 nola and campana are of a date anterior to the time of Paulinus. 
 
 Whoever the inventor, church-bells had come into use in some 
 parts of Europe before the seventh century. It was the bells 
 of St. Stephen's Church in Sens whose clangor frightened away 
 the besieging army of Clotaire II. in the year 610. Bede men- 
 tions their existence in England in his day. It has been asserted 
 that they were unknown to the Eastern Christians until the 
 ninth century, when Duke Ursus of Yenice sent twelve great 
 bells as a present to the Byzantine Emperor Michael, who erected 
 a belfry for them at the church of St. Sophia. In the East, 
 however, their general introduction was checked by the spread 
 of Islam, the Mohammedans forbidding their use even to the 
 Christians, partly from a kind of superstitious dread, and partly 
 because they might be used as signals for revolt. 
 
 In the Western Church, bells, like other church furniture, 
 were solemnly consecrated before being taken into use. This 
 custom still continues in Catholic countries. It is ecclesiastically 
 known as "blessing the bell," though it is more popularly called 
 " the baptism of the bell," a title by which the office is mentioned 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 107 
 
 as early as the tenth century. The bishop washes the bell with 
 holy water, signs it with the oil of the sick outside and with chrism 
 inside, and lastly places it under the thurible with burning in- 
 cense. He prays repeatedly that the sound of the bell may 
 avail to summon the faithful, to excite their devotion, to drive 
 
 Baptism of a Bell. 
 (From Picart.) 
 
 away storms, and to terrify evil spirits. Thus consecrated, bells 
 become spiritual things, and cannot be rung without the consent 
 of the ecclesiastical authorities. 
 
 It is not only large bells to be hung in steeples, but also the 
 smaller hand-bells rung at the elevation of the host (a practice 
 introduced about the twelfth century) and in other churchly 
 functions, which are thus baptized. 
 
 This ceremony was prohibited in England at the time of the 
 Eeformation, and was frequently burlesqued by a rabid No- 
 Popery rabble, which would seize upon a new bell, turn it upside 
 down, fill it with wine, and baptize it amid bacchanalian revels. 
 In recent times, however, the bishops of Oxford, Salisbury, and 
 other sees have set the example of dedicating the bells of their 
 churches with a simple form of prayer. 
 
 The church-bell had its civic as well as its religious uses. It 
 
108 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 summoned the soldiers to arms, it sounded the alarm in fire or 
 tumult. Often the chief bell in the cathedral belonged not to 
 the cathedral chapter, but to the town, and the rights of the 
 burghers were jealously guarded against ecclesiastical encroach- 
 ment. He who commanded the bell commanded the town, for 
 at a moment's notice its sound could rally and concentrate his 
 adherents. Hence a conqueror commonly acknowledged the 
 political importance of bells by melting them down ; and the 
 cannon of the conquered was in turn melted down to be used in 
 the suppression of revolts. 
 
 Other civil uses of bells may be briefly indicated. The curfew 
 {q. V.) was rung at or about eight o'clock to command the ex- 
 tinguishment of all lights. At Strasburg the Holy Ghost Bell, 
 dating from 1375, is rung when two fires are seen in the town 
 at once. The recall or storm bell warns travellers in the plain 
 of storms coming from the Yosges Mountains. The Thor or 
 gate bell, for closing and opening the gates of the city, has been 
 cast three times (1618, 1641, and 1651). 
 
 The inscriptions on old European bells are full of curious an- 
 tiquarian interest. Most common of all is that which Schiller 
 has used as the motto of his most famous lyric, " The Song of 
 the Bell :" 
 
 Vivos voco ; mortuos plango ; fulgura frango. 
 
 (" I call the living ; I mourn the dead ; I break the lightning.") 
 
 This is frequently expanded into the less epigrammatic form, — 
 
 Laudo Deum verum, plebem voco, conjugo clerum ; 
 Defunctos ploro, pestem fugo, festa decoro ; 
 Funera plango, fulgura frango, Sabbata pango ; 
 Excito centos, dissipo ventos, paco cruentos. 
 
 (" I praise the true Grod, I summon the people, I assemble the clergj' ; 1 
 mourn the dead, I put the plague to flight, I grace the feast ; I wail at the 
 funeral, 1 abate the lightning, I proclaim the Sabbath; I arouse the indo- 
 lent, I disperse the winds, I appease the revengeful.") 
 
 Yery old and very common is the following : 
 
 Gaudemus gaudentibus, 
 Dolemus dolentibus. 
 
 (" We rejoice with the joyous, we sorrow with the sorrowing.") 
 
 And this : 
 
 I to the church the living call, 
 And to the grave do summon all. 
 
 In many of the old spires of English churches are found 
 painted or written, in old English script, " Laws of the Belfry." 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 109 
 
 There is no more curious example extant than the following, 
 dated 1627, which is found in St. John's Church, Chester: 
 
 You ringers all observe these orders well, 
 
 He forflets 12 pence who turns ore a bell : 
 
 And he y^ ringes with either spur or hatt 
 
 His 6 pence certainely shall pay for y*, 
 
 And he that spoil or doth disturbe a peale 
 
 Shall pay his 4 pence or a cann of ale ; 
 
 And he that is hurde to curse or sweare 
 
 Shall pay his 12 pence and forbeare. 
 
 These customs elsewhere now are used 
 
 Lest bells and ringers be abused. 
 
 You gallants, then, y' on purpose come to ring 
 
 See that you coyne alonge with j^ou doth bringe ; 
 
 And further also if y* you ring here 
 
 You must ring truly with hande and eare 
 
 Or else your forfiets surely pay 
 
 Full speedily, and that without delay. 
 
 Our laws are old, yy are not new, 
 
 The sextone looketh for his due. 
 
 Avignon, the famous city in the south of France which during 
 the period of the Papal expatriation from Eome — 1305-1377 — 
 was the residence of seven successive Popes, has always been 
 especially famous for its bells. It was the ville sonnante^ the 
 "ringing city," of Eabelais. In its palmy days it had three 
 hundred bells, which were always ringing the offices of the 
 Church. Specially famous was the silver bell at the cathedral, 
 which even after the return of the Papal court to Eome would 
 ring out of its own volition to announce the accession or death 
 of a Pope, in the latter case tolling without cessation for the 
 space of twenty-four hours : 
 
 Then pealed the note of a silver bell. 
 And the great city her breath did draw 
 Quick, and the gunners paused in awe, 
 Waiting some portent ; for they know 
 The silver bell sends never so 
 From that high tower its single tone 
 Save when a Pope ascends a throne, 
 Or haply when Death calls for him. 
 
 (Mistral: Calendau.) 
 
 But such automatic action was necessarily rare, and for 
 ordinary occasions the bells, like all others, required the services 
 of bell-ringers, who became exceptionally proficient in their art. 
 These men were famous also for the personal affection which 
 they felt for their metal-tongued protegees, almost as if they 
 were sentient beings. An old ringer of St. Agricol, for example, 
 is said to have gone up to his bell to kiss it and bestow on it a 
 
110 cumosiTtBs OP 
 
 thousand terms of endearment. And when once the bell of the 
 White Penitents was temporarily interdicted, the peasant who 
 was used to ringing it ascended the tower, and, leaning against 
 his beloved bell, gave vent to his grief in sobbing and wailing, 
 which, reverberated by the sonorous metal, was heard all over 
 the city and far across the plain, and there he died, heart-broken, 
 still clinging to his bell. 
 
 The largest if not the most famous bell in the world is the 
 "great bell of Moscow," or Czar Kolokol ("emperor of bells"). 
 Its weight is about 440,000 pounds, and its cost in simple bell- 
 material is estimated at about $300,000, to which, it is said, 
 $1,000,000 was added in precious jewels, plate, etc., by the 
 nobles at the time of casting. This bell is about twenty-one 
 feet in height and twenty- two feet in diameter. It was cast by 
 the Empress Anne in 1733 from the metal of a gigantic prede- 
 cessor which had been greatly damaged. The beams which 
 held it were destroyed by fire in 1734, and it fell and broke. 
 Another story is that it was cracked in the furnace and was 
 never hung at all. It remained in the earth until raised by the 
 Emperor Nicholas in 1836. It is now consecrated as a chapel, 
 and through the opening of the break two men can pass at the 
 same time. 
 
 There is another monstrous bell in the cathedral, weighing 
 120,000 pounds. This is the largest in the world in actual use. 
 It is rung three times a year, when all the other bells are silent. 
 Its sound is like the roaring of distant thunder. In the same 
 tower are several other bells, some weighing man}^ tons. 
 
 The "great bell of China" in Pekin weighs 120,000 pounds, is 
 fourteen feet in height and twelve feet in diameter. In Nankin 
 there is a bell, now fallen to the ground, weighing 50,000 
 pounds. 
 
 A bell in Vienna weighs 40,000 pounds, and in Olmutz there 
 is one of equal weight. A bell in Eouen, France, weighs 36,000 
 pounds. The largest bell in England is the Westminster bell, 
 " Big Ben," weighing 30,000 pounds. A bell of the like weight 
 is in Erfurt, Germany. 
 
 The largest bell on the American continent is at Montreal, in 
 the cathedral, and weighs 25,000 pounds. One in Notre-Dame, 
 Paris, also weighs 25,000 pounds. St. Peter's, at Eome, weighs 
 17,500 pounds, and " Great Tom" at Oxford, England, weighs 
 17,000 pounds. The "Jacqueline," of Paris, cast in 1400, weighs 
 15,000 pounds, " Great Tom" at Lincoln, England, weighs 12,000 
 pounds, and St. Paul's, of London, 11,500 pounds. 
 
 The Independence Hall bell at Boston was cast in 1876 at 
 the Meneely Foundry, and weighs 13,000 pounds. The famous 
 "Liberty Bell," of Philadelphia, was cast in 1751. This is the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. Ill 
 
 bell which in July, 1776, rang out the announcement of the 
 adoption of the JDeclamtion of Independence. It was subse- 
 quently broken when ringing a fire-alarm. It is now suspended 
 b}' a chain of thirteen links from the ceiling in the hall of the 
 State-House in Philadelphia. 
 
 Bells were currently believed to calm storms, to avert light- 
 ning, to disperse pestilences, to extinguish fires, to exorcise 
 demons, and to drive away enemies. Among the superstitious 
 uses recorded to have taken place in Old St. Paul's Church in 
 London was the " ringinge the hallowed belle in great tempests 
 or lightnings." 
 
 Church-bells were and in some Catholic countries still are 
 tolled for the dying, or those who are passing out of the world, 
 Hence they were known as passing bells {q. v.). The custom 
 of tolling bells slowly and solemnly after deaths and before 
 funerals is still common in England. 
 
 Of the varied uses in times past and present of small bells only 
 a few can be chronicled here. The custom of hanging bells on 
 the necks of horses and cattle, in use among the Eomans, still 
 survives, especially in Switzerland. In Italy they are often made 
 of baked earth ; these have a very sweet sound, and cost but a 
 penny. The bells are useful in the dark, or when the animals 
 that wear them have strayed out of sight. Hunting-hawks 
 were formerly supplied with small bells to aid recovery. The 
 attaching of small spherical bells or crotals to driving- and 
 sleighing horses is common in many parts of Europe and 
 America. The crotals so used are often identical with those 
 found in British graves, which were suspended on the spears of 
 warriors. The dustman's bell survives in some rural localities 
 in England. So does the bell of the town crier, or bellman. 
 The five-o'clock postman, with his hand-bell to collect letters, 
 went out when the present postal system came in. On the other 
 hand, the muffin-bell, the railway-bell, the dock-bell, the stage- 
 bell, and the half- hour bells at sea, still survive. The hanging 
 of bells in private houses, to be rung by means of wires from 
 the different apartments, is a comparatively modern innovation, 
 dating from the reign of George L, but even this is rapidly dis- 
 appearing in favor of the electric bell system, where the push- 
 ing of a small knob or button arouses a current of electricity that 
 sets a small hammer in motion. Other new applications of the 
 same principle are revolutionizing ancient methods everywhere. 
 Nevertheless the whole of civilized life is still, as formerly, set to 
 bell-music in one shape or another. 
 
 Benares. The Holy City of India, and the Mecca of Hindoo 
 pilgrims. It has been described as a labyrinth of lofty alleys, 
 
112 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 rich with shrines and minarets and balconies and carved oriels 
 to which the sacred apes cling by hundreds. These apes have a 
 temple specially devoted to them, but are allowed to roam the 
 streets at will, together with the holy bulls. The traveller can 
 hardly make his way through the press of holy mendicants and 
 these not less holy animals. Broad and stately flights of steps, 
 known as ghats, descend from these swarming haunts to the 
 bathing-places along the Ganges, which are worn every day by 
 an innumerable crowd of worshippers, who believe that they 
 can expiate all the sins of the flesh by dipping their faces or 
 their bodies into the filthy but sacrosanct waters. 
 
 Every believer who can afford the expense brings his dying 
 relatives to Benares, so that the soul may take its flight from 
 the vantage ground of the Sacred City, which is held to be sixty 
 thousand miles nearer heaven than any other locality on earth. 
 Should the patient unexpectedly show signs of recovery, it is 
 whispered that his mouth is filled with sacred mud and the end 
 is hastened. He must not lose the opportune place and moment 
 for a heavenward flight. Indeed, a dying person who has once 
 been brought to the sacred banks of the Ganges can never be 
 taken home alive; therefore it would be awkward, expensive, 
 and inconvenient to allow him to defeat the obvious intentions 
 of Providence. Yet sometimes filial love triumphs over all other 
 considerations. Stories are occasionally told of devoted sons 
 who, after bringing their sick mothers or fathers to Benares, 
 have witnessed their recovery and have built little houses upon 
 the banks of the river and settled therein, so that the convales- 
 cents might await their end and die at their leisure. 
 
 It is for the same reason of propinquity to heaven that Hin- 
 doos come from all parts of India bearing the bodies of their 
 dead to be cremated on the burning-ghats that line the Ganges. 
 Each ghat has some fifteen or twenty hollow places scooped in 
 the soil, each about six feet long and two feet wide. Here the 
 funeral pyres are built of wood and straw. The bodies are 
 placed upon them. The nearest relative lights the fire, and in 
 two hours nothing is left but a heap of ashes, which are care- 
 fully swept up and thrown into the Ganges. 
 
 Poor people who cannot afford to burn their relatives light a 
 little wisp of straw, blacken their faces with it, and, if possible, 
 throw the bodies surreptitiously into the Ganges. This practice 
 is now forbidden by law, and the sight of floating bodies on the 
 sacred river is not so common as it used to be a dozen years 
 ago. 
 
 Hindoo theology teaches that after the body has been burned 
 the parts are all mystically joined together in the spirit-world 
 and must march through a river of mire and blood. A real 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 113 
 
 material cow given to a Brahmin will, however, greatly expedite 
 the journey. Next the soul comes to ground paved with fiery 
 hot copper. A gift of shoes to the Brahmin will help the soul 
 to pass over without blistering its poor feet. Next comes a road 
 full of spikes, but a bed-spread presented to the same kind gen- 
 tleman will olDviate any necessity for the spirit to sit upon these 
 spikes. Here the Brahminic ingenuity fails, or perhaps the 
 Brahminic avarice is satisfied, and the spirit is allowed to get 
 along as best it can for the rest oi the journey. 
 
 In Benares there are not iewer than from twenty to twenty- 
 five thousand Brahmins, or high-caste Hindoos. They have 
 control over the temples, the sacred wqIIs, streams, and reser- 
 voirs, and other holy places about the city. They superintend 
 the worship of the people, and give directions respecting the 
 numberless ceremonies which are performed. Every sacred spot 
 has some peculiarity connected with it ; and it is of great mo- 
 ment that no punctilio should be omitted. They receive the 
 oflPerings, the alms, the public dinners, and the good things which 
 devout Hindoos are ever willing to bestow. Some of them are 
 termed Sons of the Ganges, and are chiefly found on the banks 
 of that stream, aiding the devotions of the numerous worship- 
 pers daily resorting thither. 
 
 Devotees and pilgrims, separated or in crowds, enter or depart 
 from the city constantly throughout the year, especially on occa- 
 sions of great festivals. They come from all parts of India. 
 Many carry with them the sacred water of the Ganges in small 
 bottles hermetically sealed, placed in baskets hanging from the 
 extremities of poles which they bear upon their shoulders. (See 
 Pradakshina.) 
 
 Benedict, St. (Fr. Benoit ; It. Benedetto ; Sp. Benito), founder, 
 patriarch, and first abbot of the order of Benedictines. Born at 
 Norcia, in Spoleto, in 480, he died at Monie Casino, March 21, 
 543, and is commemorated on his death-day. He became a 
 hermit at fifteen at Subiaco, then a wilderness. But he was 
 greatly tempted by memories of his student life in Eome, espe- 
 cially of a beautiful woman he had seen there, insomuch that he 
 flung himself into a thicket of briers, wherein he rolled himself 
 until he was torn and bleeding. At the monastery of Subiaco 
 to this day roses said to have been propagated from these briers 
 are shown. The fame of his sanctity brought many other her- 
 mits around him, who lived in huts and caves, until at length 
 Benedict, for the sake of order, commanded them to build twelve 
 monasteries. In each he placed twelve monks. Later he with- 
 drew to Monte Casino, where he founded the monastery which 
 has always been regarded as the parent of all others of the 
 
 8 
 
114 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Benedictine order. Here he promulgated the rules of that 
 order. He was at last seized with fever, and ordered his grave 
 to be dug ; after standing on the edge of it in silent contempla- 
 tion, he was borne by his disciples to the altar of the church, 
 and after receiving the last sacrament there died. 
 
 Bernard of Clairvaux, St. (1091-1153), founder of the 
 abbey of Clairvaux in France, and one of the Fathers of the 
 Church. He is commemorated on August 20, his death-day. He 
 preached the second Crusade, was the adversary of Abelard and 
 of Arnold of Brescia, and a great authority in law as in religion. 
 Owing to his special championship of the Yirgin Mary, she is 
 reported to have visited him twice : once when, ill and unable 
 to write, she restored him by her presence ; and again when she 
 moistened his lips with the milk from her bosom and made his 
 eloquence irresistible. His attributes are the demon fettered 
 behind him, three mitres at his feet, as emblems of three bish- 
 oprics which he refused, and the beehive, as a symbol of elo- 
 quence. He was buried before Our Lady's altar in Clairvaux, 
 and numerous miracles performed at his shrine caused Alex- 
 ander III. to canonize him in 1165. 
 
 Bernard of Menthon, St. (923-1008). The founder of the 
 hospitals for travellers across the Alpine passes known as " The 
 Great St. Bernard" and "The Little St. Bernard," where some 
 of the regular canons of St. Augustine have for nine centuries 
 ministered charity and offered guidance to distressed travellers 
 lost in the snows. He is commemorated in the calendar on June 
 15, the day of his burial. He was Archdeacon of Aosta, and 
 i'or forty years was engaged on missions among the mountaineers. 
 His observations of the hardships which Alpine travellers had 
 to undergo suggested to him the idea of erecting places of refuge 
 for them"^. He died at Novara on May 28, 1008 
 
 A clever woman traveller has recorded in the Wew York Tribune 
 lier impressions of the Hospice St. Bernard as it now appears: 
 
 "One of the joys of my childhood was to contemplate with 
 wide-open eyes, night and morning, as I lay tucked up in my 
 little cot, an etching which hung above it, and which represented 
 the rescue of two unfortunate travellers half buried in eternal 
 snows, by a couple of magnificent, huge St. Bernard dogs. My 
 young imagination conjured up mountain disasters ceaselessly, 
 and then I took a solemn resolution to become, when I grew 
 older, a distinguished Alpine climber. Life decided otherwise 
 for me, and, although I have always retained my love for the 
 mountains and have spent many summers in the Tyrol, the Alps, 
 the Pyrenees, etc., my celebrity as a professional mountaineer is 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 115 
 
 yet to be born. Nevertheless, some time ago, returning from 
 Italy to Austria via Switzerland, I decided to go and investigate 
 for myself whether my childhood's admiration, the great St. 
 Bernard dog, was truly as majestic as he is painted when seen 
 in his native haunts and exercising his charitable and heroic 
 mission. 
 
 "The winter w^as almost over, but still the ascent of the snow- 
 covered giant was by no means an easy task. The Mont St. 
 Bernard is anything but easily accessible, but still, thanks to the 
 adroitness of the guides, we at last reached the refuge of 'la 
 Cantine de Proz,' a spot from which one can plainly see the 
 ancient monastery, looking grim and forbidding in its shroud of 
 snow and ice. 1 gazed with delight upon this scene, and so 
 great was my eagerness to reach the goal of my ambitions that 
 I urged my guides to proceed wnthout delay. Much to my 
 astonishment, and also, I confess, to my utter disgust, they ex- 
 plained to me, in that hideous mixture of patois, vile French, and 
 viler German, which is the idiom of Wilhelm Tell's fatherland, 
 that they had just telephoned to the abbot there yonder, in 
 order to obtain further reinforcements before attempting to cross 
 the last 'col' or pass, a peculiarly dangerous one. 
 
 " Telephone ! My amazement was so great that I stared help- 
 lessly and silently at my companions. Could I have misunder- 
 stood their vernacular? Telephone, from the pure, unsullied, 
 frozen summits of this proud peak ! But no, I had not mis- 
 taken the import of their words, for here behind me I suddenly 
 heard the familiar and exasperating tinkling of the telephone 
 bell, followed by the yet more exasperating 'Hullo! Hullo!' 
 which one finds acclimatized from Benares to Yokohama, San 
 Francisco, Melbourne, Teheran, or wherever else the invention 
 has penetrated. I may call the impression which I then received 
 my first disappointment, one, by the bye, which was speedily 
 capped by several more. Resigned for the time being, I sat 
 down on a bench before the glowing stove to await the coming 
 of the good monks' forces, and, after a space of time which 
 seemed long, a small procession of brown-robed figures, headed 
 by three or four enormous dogs, appeared in view. Little at- 
 tention did I grant to the saintly men, but the dogs! — the sweet- 
 tempered, noble, kind-hearted dogs! I literally flung myself 
 out of the door to meet them, and, with that impulsiveness 
 which has already cost me so many needless troubles, I flung 
 my arms about the neck of the first one I reached. There was 
 a low, vicious growl, a snap of the mighty jaws, a contemptuous 
 toss of the massive head, and had it not been for the timely 
 interference of a portly monk I should not only have stood there 
 unmercifully reproved but also cruelly bitten. So much for the 
 
116 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 kind-heartedness of the great St. Bernard breed, for, as my 
 rescuer explained to me in melodious Italian, the animals realize 
 that they are required only to save the lives of those perishing 
 in the snow, and that when they have done this occasionally 
 they do not see the need of showing any further amiability 
 toward the human race. He added mournfully that, anyhow, 
 the dogs are degenerating, and that they are very reluctant to 
 go out on their life-saving expeditions, quite unlike their sires, 
 for they were all fire and flame for the good cause. Disappoint- 
 ment number two having thus been inflicted upon me, I resumed 
 my voyage a wiser if a sadder woman. 
 
 " The road was arduous, snow was falling, and the wind howled 
 piteously over the vast frozen slopes; moreover, I was so tired 
 that I felt like lying down in the snow and pretending to be on 
 the point of death in. order to test the one remaining virtue of 
 the dogs who bounded in front of us. The sample which I had 
 had of their sweetness of behavior, however, encouraged me so 
 little to throw myself on their tender mercies that I reconsidered 
 my plan and faced the icy wind with renewed energy. 
 
 " I was expected, in spite of the lateness of the hour, and the 
 reception I met with touched me much. All that warmth, hot 
 wine, palatable food, and a grateful shelter from the outer blasts 
 of the weather could do for me was accomplished, and that in so 
 simple and charming a way that my heart was immediately won. 
 There, at least, was no disappointment ; the great granite hearth 
 whereon crackled and blazed enormous pine logs, the white- 
 bearded abbot who ministered in so kindly a way to my wants, 
 the solemn hush overspreading the entire rambling pile of build- 
 ing, interrupted alone by an intermittent burst of chanting which 
 was wafted toward us as the inside door of the neighboring 
 chapel opened and closed, were all as I had pictured them to be. 
 
 " The St. Bernard monks belong to the Augustinian order, 
 but do not resemble those of their brothers who live in the 
 plains. Amiable, learned, devoid of all intolerance, they remind 
 one, with their serious, weather-beaten countenances, of sailors 
 used to braving the elements and being ever on the alert for 
 some catastrophe of nature. A great peace surrounded us in 
 our mountain fastness, and a right pleasant evening did we 
 spend, the venerable abbot teUing me all about the monastery 
 which he loves so well. I learned that since the year 960, when 
 St. Bernard had founded this place of refuge for those lost in 
 the snow and ice of this, one of the most dangerous portions of 
 the European Alps, a record had been kept by the worthy monks 
 of all the lives saved. At the end of the sixteenth century this 
 record was transcribed in Latin on the parchment pages of some 
 old missal-like volumes, which are of the greatest interest, and to 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 117 
 
 this day the practice is faithfully kept up. Eather gruesome is 
 it to find that the corpses of the victims who have succumbed 
 in precipices, crevices, or avalanches, or from mere exhaustion 
 and snow-sickness, have been preserved, not under-ground, for 
 there is hardly any earth on the rocks of St. Bernard, but in 
 two caves, one being now reserved for Catholics, while the other, 
 as the abbot said, is tenanted by Protestants and other infidels. 
 
 " The next morning I was taken to see this mortuary ice- 
 house, which contains the stiff'ened corpses of many of Napoleon's 
 brave soldiers, gaunt grenadiers, even now half covered by the 
 snow which caused their death during the dreadful crossing of 
 the Alps in the train of Europe's greatest general. The sight is 
 not a pretty one, and for many a night I dreamed of the row of 
 rigid corpses I had gazed upon there. 
 
 " Far more to my taste was the museum contained in one 
 wing of the monastery. This museum is filled with the relics 
 discovered in the ruins of the temple of Jupiter, which once 
 stood on the edge of the tiny lake stretching its sheet of ice a 
 hundred yards from the portals of the holy edifice devoted to the 
 rescue of Christian souls and bodies. The ancient Romans cer- 
 tainly built this temple to meet the same purpose as did St. 
 Bernard the monastery bearing his name. It was used as a 
 refuge for travelling soldiers, and the excavations undertaken by 
 the Italian government brought to light a considerable amount 
 of riches, including two thousand five hundred pieces of gold 
 and silver, dating back as far as Julius Csesar, some magnificently 
 jewelled ex votos, and a statue of Jupiter which is a marvel of 
 sculpture. 
 
 " Filled with enthusiasm at what I had seen, I was stepping 
 back toward the refectory of the monks, where breakfast was 
 awaiting us, when I was startled by a sharp, clicking sound. 
 Peering out of the gloom which filled the narrow stone passage 
 I was traversing, I caught sight of a rubicund monk, who, in a 
 small cell-like room, was seated before a typewriter, rattling 
 away for dear life ! 
 
 " ' Enough ! Enough !' I almost cried, as 1 fled toward the 
 main hall. Julius Caesar, Roman coins, frozen corpses, kindly 
 abbot, vicious dogs, telephone, and typewriters, made up a mis- 
 cellaneous jumble in my head which threatened to turn me crazy. 
 'Oh, dear!' thought I, after having bidden my adieus to the 
 entire congregation and deposited my offerings in the alms-box 
 of the chapel, — the only remuneration one is permitted to give 
 for all one has received at the hands of the Augustinian monks, 
 — ' is there not one corner left in this wretched world of ours 
 where one can forget for once that one is unfortunate enough to 
 live at the latter end of the nineteenth century, and must one 
 
118 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 be pursued to the very topmost peaks of the Alps by all the 
 modern improvements ?' " 
 
 Bible Orchard. A piece of land in the parish of St. Ives, 
 Hants, England, which has a curious history. Dr. Eobert Wilde, 
 who died in August, 1678, bequeathed fifty pounds, the yearly 
 interest of which was to be expended in the purchase of six 
 Bibles, not exceeding the price of seven shillings and sixpence 
 each, which should be "cast for by dice" on the communion- 
 table in the church of St. Ives on the last Thursday in May by 
 six boys and six girls of the town. Hence the day is locally 
 known as Bible Thursday. The capital sum was invested in 
 what is now known as Bible Orchard. The legacy also provided 
 for the payment of ten shillings yearly to the vicar for preach- 
 ing a sermon on the occasion " commending the excellency, the 
 perfection, and divine authority of the Holy Scriptures." This 
 singular custom has been observed every year, with the excep- 
 tion that the dice-throwing now takes place on a table erected 
 at the chancel steps, the bishop of the diocese having decided in 
 1880 that the communion-table was not the proper place for a 
 raffle. 
 
 Biddenden Cakes. In the parish of Biddenden, Kent, Eng- 
 land, there still exists an endowment of unknown date. On 
 Easter Sunday some six hundred so-called Biddenden cakes are 
 distributed among parishioners who attended the afternoon ser- 
 vices at the church, and in addition some three hundred loaves 
 of bread, each of three and a half pounds weight, and each ac- 
 companied by a pound and a half of cheese. The endowment 
 is charged upon an estate known as the Bread and Cheese lands, 
 which, according to the best authorities, were some centuries 
 ago left to the parish for this purpose by two maiden ladies of 
 the name of Preston. The Biddenden cakes are impressed with 
 the figures of two females standing closely side by side in such 
 fashion that they appear to be bound together like the Siamese 
 Twins. On this hint tradition has founded a curious and cir- 
 cumstantial story. It has rebaptized the ladies under the names 
 of Mary and Elizabeth Chalkhurst, and asserts that they were 
 in fact joined by a ligature at birth and lived just thirty years, 
 when the death of one was followed in a few hours by the death 
 of the other. The whole storj^ is minutely told in a sort of 
 hand-bill still printed and sold on the spot, entitled "A Short but 
 Concise Account of Elizabeth and Mary Chalkhurst." It may 
 be mentioned in passing that a similar story is related of two 
 females whose figures appear in the pavement of J^orton St. 
 Philip Church in Somersetshire. Hasted in his " History of 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS 119 
 
 Kent" (1798) has examined the Biddenden myth, and decides 
 that it arose simply from the rude impression on the cakes, which 
 had been printed in this manner only within the preceding fifty 
 years. 
 
 Birthday. The celebration of the anniversary of an indi- 
 vidual's birth, though customary among the ancients, was origi- 
 nally frowned upon by the Christians. Nor was this to be 
 wondered at. To the early followers of Christ the world was a 
 hard and cruel one. They were oppressed and persecuted and 
 martyred alike by Jews and by pagans. It was no benefit to 
 them to be born. Death was the true deliverance. To die was 
 to pass from a life of sorrow and humiliation into endless glory. 
 Moreover, birth was in its very essence a degradation, inasmuch 
 as it implied an assumption of that heritage of original sin 
 which Adam has bequeathed to all his descendants. Thus, 
 Origen, in a homily on Leviticus xii. 2, assures his hearers that 
 "none of the saints can be found who ever held a feast or a 
 bktiquet upon his birthday, or rejoiced on the day when his son 
 or his daughter was born. But sinners rejoice and make merry 
 on such days. For we find in the Old Testament that Pharaoh, 
 King of Egypt, celebrated his birthday with a feast, and that 
 Herod, in the New Testament, did the same. But the saints not 
 only neglect to mark the day of their birth with festivity, but 
 also, filled with the Holy Ghost, the}- curse this day, after the 
 example of Job and Jeremiah and David." 
 
 It was not the birthdays but the death-days of the saints that 
 were made the occasions of the Church festivals in their honor. 
 Nevertheless the term birthday was applied by the early Church 
 to these festivals. "When you hear of a birthday of saints, 
 brethren," says Peter Chrysologus, "do not think that that is 
 spoken of in which they are born of earth, in the fiesh, but that 
 in which they are born from earth into heaven, from labor to 
 rest, from temptations to repose, from torments to delights not 
 fluctuating, but strong and stable and eternal, from the derision 
 of the world to a crown of glory. Such are the birthdays of 
 the martyrs that we celebrate." 
 
 While such was the temper of the leading teachers in the 
 Church, it is only natural that the Christians thought little even 
 of the immaculate birth of Christ or the equally immaculate 
 birth of the Virgin Mary. Indeed, it was not till the fourth and 
 ninth centuries respectively that even the dates of these events 
 were agreed upon. Not that this was the universal and un- 
 broken condition of thought and feeling in the Church during 
 the first three centuries. " There were some men in advance of 
 their age," says the Eev. Henry J. Yandyke in Harper's Maga- 
 
120 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 zine for December, 1885, " who had learned to think of the whole 
 life of Christ in its unity as a life for and wiih man, crowned by 
 His vicarious death and resurrection. Irenaeus in particular is 
 worthy of special mention and enduring honor as the first of the 
 Fathers to bring out the unfolding of all the stages of human 
 Hfe in Jesus Christ; and, even though he had never written 
 another word than this, he deserves to be immortal in the mem- 
 ory of the Church for having said, ' The Son of God became a 
 child among the children in order that childhood might be made 
 holy.'* 
 
 "This sentence holds the heart of Christmas. But it was not 
 until long after it was uttered, it was not until the latter half of 
 the fourth century, that the Church at large began to feel and 
 to unfold its meaning. Then it was that she emerged from the 
 storm of persecution into the sunshine of imperial favor. Then 
 she saw that she had a work to do here on earth in the cleans- 
 ing and adorning of human life with the beauty of holiness. 
 Then she realized that patient suffering and faithful death were 
 not the only duties of the Christian, but that, following God in 
 love, it was possible to begin in this world the purity and peace 
 of heaven. Then she began to feel the wondrous significance of 
 the Hving entrance of the Son of God into the hfe of man, and His 
 perfect pattern of holiness in every human relation. Then she 
 passed from the lower conception of a church saved out of the 
 world, to the higher conception of a world to be saved through 
 the ministry of the church, a natural year to be transformed by 
 reverent devotion and wholesome piety into the Christian year, 
 a redeeming life as well as an atoning death of Christ, to be 
 preserved in living remembrance by the perpetual commemora- 
 tion of its chief events. Then it was that, opening her heart 
 to the humanity of religion, she began to draw near to the 
 humanity of Jesus, and to seek with eager interest for the day 
 of His birth, that she might make it holy." 
 
 With the celebration of Christ's Nativity returned the celebra- 
 tion of the nativities of ordinary mortals. 
 
 Black- Letter Days. Minor holidays and saints' days whose 
 names appear in black instead of red letters in the calendar. 
 (See Red-Letter Days.) In the English (reformed) calendar the 
 black-letter days were retained in some cases because the person 
 commemorated was a public benefactor or a national hero, in 
 
 * Compare Ruskin : " From the moment when the spirit of Christianity had 
 been entirely interpreted to the Western races, the sanctity of womanhood 
 worshipped in the Madonna, and the sanctity of childhood in union with that 
 of Christ, became the light of every honest hearth and the joy of every pure 
 and chastened soul." 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 121 
 
 others because the day marked some civil date of importance. A 
 few have entered into the common speech of England, as Hilary 
 term, Martinmas summer, etc. 
 
 Black Monday. In English history this title is given specifi- 
 cally to Easter Monday, the 14th of April, 1360, on which day 
 Edward III. " with his hoast lay before the Citty of Paris, which 
 day was full darke of mist and haile and so bitter cold that many 
 men dyed on their horses with cold ; wherefore unto this day it 
 hath beene called the Blacke Munday." (Stow's Annals, p. 264.) 
 By extension the term was also applied to every Easter Monday. 
 It is used in this sense by Shakespeare : " Then it was not for 
 nothing that my nose fell a-bleeding on Black Monday last." 
 (Merchant of Venice, ii. 5, 25.) But at present Black Monday is 
 generally understood in England in its application to the first 
 Monday after the long vacation, when school-boys return to 
 their studies. The term was appropriate enough in those earlier 
 unhappy times when learning was considered a thing that could 
 be whacked in from above or spanked in from below, and only 
 scant attention was paid to the creature comforts of the victims. 
 These times are rather pleasantly recalled in an article on 
 " Black Monday" contributed to Dickens's Household Words, 
 vol. vi. p. 569 (1853). A few paragraphs may be quoted : 
 
 " Cases do now, I believe, frequently occur in which the pains 
 of school are more than counterbalanced by its pleasures ; in 
 such cases degenerate boys fly in the face of the poet, and go 
 willingly to school, abolishing the due observance of the ancient 
 institution of Black Monday. I am for due observance of all 
 fasts and festivals, and feel quite sure that there is no better 
 reason why Gunpowder Treason should be celebrated than why 
 Black Monday should never be forgot. 
 
 " There may be many who keep the day dull now, I don't deny 
 that I believe there are many ; but in my younger days the 
 proper celebration of it was a rule absolute, and there were no 
 exceptions. The eve of Black Monday used to be kept on Sat- 
 urday, when the school-box was packed. We then used to get 
 out our books with solemn faces. They were not done with yet, 
 we felt ; ere long they would give plague to us, and the first day 
 of plague would be the day most fitly called, on the same prin- 
 ciple that gave a title to the Black Assizes, Black Monday. 
 
 " Another penance undergone by school-boys of the last gen- 
 eration, that ought not to be shirked by boys in this, was the 
 great washing of feet and heads upon Black Monday Eve, the 
 Saturday night previous. Sunday intervened always as a day 
 of quiet rest. We were to go so clean to school that our legs 
 on that last Saturday night were parboiled, and our heads were 
 
122 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 scrubbed so that the skin felt to be coming off about our ears. 
 This penance was the more acutely felt as we knew well that 
 when we got to school on Black Monday evening our heads 
 would be again raked severely with a small-toothed comb. On 
 the Sunday before Black Monday was the Feast of Uncles, when 
 we would take care to go and say good-by to any relative who had 
 not paid his nephew's tax for the half-year then to commence. 
 Before getting into bed on Sunday night, we alw^ays counted up 
 our shillings and half-crowns, and put the money into a big 
 purse made by a little sweetheart with blue eyes and fairy feet, 
 then put the purse into a pocket of the new and strong school 
 trousers that lay, neatly folded by a mother's hand, ready for 
 wear next morning, on a chair by the bedside. Then we got into 
 bed, and lay awake so long that we caught the mother's face 
 over our own attempting a sly kiss at the grown people's bed- 
 time ; then we fell asleep. We dressed next morning, hurriedly 
 roused by candlelight, in frost and cold, were made to swallow 
 eggs and toast and ham and boiling coffee, and rolled off in a 
 hackney-coach through dark and snowy streets to the Swan with 
 Two Necks, Lad Lane. From that place we were booked — or 
 I was booked, for it will be seen that I have slipped insensibly 
 from generalities into a recollection of my individual experience 
 — from that place I was booked outside to Millstone." 
 
 But with the descent from the general to the particular the 
 article loses its value for the purposes of this compilation. 
 
 Black Rod. The name given to the official who carries mes- 
 sages from royalty to the Houses of Parliament. He presents 
 a picturesque appearance in his black tunic lavishly slashed 
 with gold embroidery, knee-breeches, silk stockings, and silver- 
 buckled shoes ; but neither the sword that dangles by his side 
 nor the short eponymic rod of black ivory with gold knob which 
 he carries in his right hand throws about him a sufficiently aggres- 
 sive dignity to explain the time-honored reception which always 
 greets him in the House of Commons. As he walks along the 
 lobby that lies between the chamber of the Lords and the cham- 
 ber of the Commons, his approach is heralded by an iron-throated 
 usher shouting, "Black Eod! Way for Black Eod!" But the 
 moment that stentorian cry reaches the ears of the sergeant-at- 
 arms in the House of Commons he springs from his chair, close 
 to the main entrance to the chamber, and, rushing to the open 
 door behind him, closes it with a most inhospitable bang, right 
 in the face of Black Eod, and securely locks and bolts it. The 
 sergeant-at-arms then peers out into the lobby through a grated 
 peep-hole, with a wooden slot, fixed in the stout oak door. Pres- 
 ently three faint knocks are heard at the door. They are ad. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 123 
 
 ministered by Black Eod. The petitionary appeal of this soft, 
 humble " rat-a-tat-tat" no one could resist ; and so, at a nod from 
 the Speaker, the doors are flung open by the sergeant-at-arms, 
 and in walks the royal messenger. 
 
 Blaise, St. (Lat. Blasius ; It. Biagio)^ patron of Eagusa, also 
 of wool-combers and against diseases of the throat. The Eoman 
 Church celebrates his martyrdom on February 3, the Greek on 
 February 11. He was Bishop of Sebaste, in Cappadocia, but 
 spent most of his time in retirement on a hill not far from the 
 city, where wild beasts used to come for his blessing. During the 
 persecution of the Christians under Licinius he was seized and 
 taken before the governor. On the way a woman besought the 
 saint to relieve her child, who was choking from a bone in its 
 throat. He laid his hand on the child's throat and prayed, and 
 it was healed. Alter being tortured by having his flesh torn 
 with wool-combers' irons, St. Blaise was beheaded (a.d. 316). 
 
 In England the saint was specially popular before the Eefor- 
 mation. The Council of Oxford, a.d. 1222, prohibited servile 
 labor on his feast. Its observance in England was marked by 
 curious ceremonies. Among others, a taper used to be offered at 
 high mass; and it was until lately the custom in many parts 
 of England to light bonfires on the hills on St. Blaise's Night. 
 These usages are sometimes referred to a pun on his name 
 (Blaise = blaze) ; but this seems erroneous, as they are not pecu- 
 liar to England. In some parts of Germany St. Blaise's Day is 
 known as Little Candlemas Day, from the bonfires that it was 
 usual to kindle on that night, or perhaps from the candles offered 
 in the churches. Googe's translation of " The Popish Kingdom" 
 has these lines : 
 
 Then followeth good Sir Blaze, who doth a waxen candell give, 
 And holy water to his men, whereby tliey safely live. 
 I divers barrels oft have seene, drawne out of water cleare, 
 Through one small blessed bone of this same Martyr heare, 
 And caryed thence to other townes and cities farre away, 
 Ech superstition doth require such earnest kinde of play. 
 
 Minsheu, in his Dictionary, under the word " Hocke-tide," 
 speaks of " St. Blaze his day, about Candlemasse, when countrj^ 
 women goe about and make good cheere, and if they finde any 
 of their neighbour women a spinning that day, they burne and 
 make a blaze of fire of the distaffe, and thereof called S. Blaze 
 his day." 
 
 Which shows that a bad pun has immortal life. 
 
 Both in Germany and in the United States special services 
 are held in the Catholic churches on St. Blaise's Day, when the 
 
124 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 throats of people suffering from bronchial or pulmonary troubles 
 are blessed. Candles are frequently brought to church by the 
 patients, which after receiving the priestly benediction are sup- 
 posed to have certain sanctifying and hygienic qualities. 
 
 Eeginald Scot, in his " Discovery of Witchcraft," ed. 1665, p. 
 137, gives us a charm used in the Eoman Church upon St. Blaise's 
 Day, that v^ill fetch a thorn out of any place of one's body, a 
 bone out of the throat, etc., to wit, " Call upon God, and remem- 
 ber St. Blaise." An ancient receipt " for a stoppage in the 
 throat" was the following: "Hold the diseased party by the 
 throat, and pronounce these words, Blaise, the martyr and ser- 
 vant of Jesus Christ, commands thee to pass up and down." 
 
 In England the wool-combers still acknowledge St. Blaise as 
 their patron. The flourishing communities engaged in this busi- 
 ness in Bradford and other English towns are accustomed to hold 
 a jubilee on the 3d of February every seventh year in honor of 
 Jason of the Golden Fleece and St. Blaise. At one time the 
 festival was conducted with immense state and ceremony. The 
 following was the order of the singular procession on this day : 
 The masters on horseback, with each a white sliver ; the mas- 
 ters' sons on horseback ; their colors ; the apprentices on horse- 
 back, in their uniforms; music ; mummers representing the king 
 and queen, the royal family, their guards and attendants ; Jason 
 and the golden fleece ; attendants ; Bishop Blaise and his chap- 
 lain ; their attendants ; shepherd and shepherdess ; shepherd's 
 swains, attendants, etc. ; foremen and wool-sorters on horseback ; 
 combers' colors; wool-combers, two and two, with ornamented 
 caps, wool wigs, and various colored slivers. See a further ac- 
 count in Hone's " Every Day Book," i. 210. 
 
 In Greek art St. Blaise is painted as an old man with a pointed 
 beard. In the West he appears in the vestments of a bishop, 
 with an iron comb of the sort used by wool-combers. 
 
 Blarney Stone. A famous piece of rock in Blarney Castle, 
 near Cork, Ireland. Father Prout calls it the palladium of Ire- 
 land, and humorously sums up the various legends concerning it, 
 — namely, that it was brought over by the Phoenician colony said 
 to have peopled the island ; that the Syrians and Carthagin- 
 ians, long its custodians, gave rise to the expression Punica fides 
 Syriosque hilingues from their labial devotion to the stone. He 
 adds that some Carthaginian adventurers, enamored of the relic, 
 stole it and carried it off to Minorca, and afterwards, driven by a 
 storm into Cork harbor, deposited it near the present spot. 
 
 Everybody knows that to kiss the Blarney Stone is to secure a 
 fluent, flattering, but not over-sincere tongue. 
 
 Every Irishman south of the Liffey is popularly supposed to 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 125 
 
 have enjoyed the renowned osculation, and, moreover, to have 
 tasen a dip in the Shannon, that makes perfect the quality of 
 impudence, or, as the natives euphemistically express it, civil 
 courage. The origin of the superstition about the stone is told 
 in numberless traditions. Crofton Croker states — and this is the 
 most plausible of all the stories — that in 1602, when the Span- 
 iards were urging the Irish chieftains to harass the English, one 
 Cormach M'Dermod Carthy, who held the castle, had concluded 
 an armistice with the Lord President on condition of surrender- 
 ing it to an English garrison. Carthy put off his lordship day 
 after day with fair promises and false pretexts, until the latter 
 became the laughing-stock of Elizabeth's ministers, and the 
 former's honeyed and delusive speeches were stamped w^ith the 
 title of Blarney. 
 
 The custodians of the castle all seem to have taken advantage 
 of the properties of the stone confided to their care. It is a 
 well-known trick of theirs to regulate their choice of the par- 
 ticular stone which shall for the nonce be passed off upon the 
 traveller, according to the latter's willingness and capacity to 
 climb. If he is old or feeble, they will inform him that the stone 
 has been knocked down by some indacent blayguard, and now 
 lies near the front door. But if he is young, vigorous, and alert, 
 they will tell him the truth, that it is situated at the northern 
 angle of the massive donjon, about one hundred and twenty-five 
 feet from the ground, and that to reach it with one's lips requires 
 that one should be held over the parapet by one's heels. The 
 stone bears the inscription, now very dim, " Cormach MacCarthy 
 fortis me fieri facit, a.d. 1446." 
 
 Blood and Blood Vengeance. In the forms of civilization 
 that preceded our own, and in some existing modern races of 
 lower type, there appear traces of a sense of wrong attaching to 
 any form of bloodshed whatever, whether of fair battle or of 
 base treachery, and calling for the purifying influences of expia- 
 tion and cleansing. In South Africa, for instance, the Basuto 
 returning from war proceeds with all his arms to the nearest 
 stream, to purify not only his own person but his javelins and his 
 battle-axe. The Zulu, too, practises ablutions on the same occa- 
 sion, and the Bechuana warrior wears a rude kind of necklace, 
 to remind him of the expiation due from him to the slain and 
 to disperse the dreams that might otherwise trouble him and 
 perhaps even drive him to die of remorse. The same feelings 
 may be detected in ancient times. The Macedonians had a 
 peculiar form of sacrificatory purification, which consisted in 
 cutting a dog in half and leading the whole army, arrayed in 
 full armor, between the two parts. As the Boeotians had the 
 
126 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 same custom, it was probably for the same reason. At Eome, 
 for the same purpose, a sheep, a bull, and a pig or a boar were 
 every year led three times round the army and then sacrificed to 
 Mars. In Jewish history the prohibition to King David to build 
 the temple was expressly connected with the blood he had shed 
 in battle. In old Greek mythology Theseus held himself unfit, 
 without expiation, to be admitted to the mysteries of Ceres, 
 though the blood that stained his hands was only that of thieves 
 and robbers. And in the same spirit Hector refused to make a 
 libation to the gods before he had purified his hands after battle. 
 " With unwashen hands," he said, " to pour out sparkling wine to 
 Zeus I dare not, nor is it ever the custom for one soiled with the 
 blood and dust of battle to offer prayers to the god whose seat 
 is in the clouds." 
 
 Blood- Covenant. A rite by which two persons absorb each 
 the other's blood, either by drinking or by transfusion to the 
 veins, whereby they become bound to each other in even a closer 
 connection than that of brotherhood. It prevails in many coun- 
 tries, civilized and uncivilized, and may be traced back to extreme 
 antiquity. It existed in the rites and literature of the ancient 
 Egyptians, and is frequently alluded to in the Bible. Dr. H. 
 Clay Trumbull, who has made a scientific examination of the 
 subject, holds that its origin is in the universally dominative 
 primitive convictions that the blood is the life ; that the heart, as 
 the blood-fountain, is the very soul of every personality ; that 
 blood-transfer is soul - transfer ; that blood-sharing, human or 
 divine-human, secures an interunion of natures; and that a 
 union of the human nature with the divine is the highest ulti- 
 mate attainment reached out after by the most primitive as well 
 as by the most enlightened mind of humanity. With savage and 
 barbarous peoples the rite lies at the foundations of cannibalism ; 
 it is the motive of sacrifices, in which the animal is offered to the 
 god as a substitute for the human blood. In one form the drops 
 of blood were put in wine or other draughts and drunken ; then 
 the wine was drunken without the actual presence of the blood ; 
 whence we have the use of wine in pledges of friendship and in 
 marriage. Among the Jews it is symbolized in circumcision ; 
 among Christians, in the use of wine in the sacrament. 
 
 Blood of Christ. Many cities profess to possess as a relic 
 some portion of the actual blood of Christ. St. Louis brought 
 particles to Paris which he had received from the Emperor of 
 Constantinople. Eeaders of Chaucer will remember " the blode 
 of Crist that it is in Hayles." This is probably the same men- 
 tioned by Matthew Paris as brought to England from Jerusalem 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 127 
 
 in the middle of the thirteenth century. The church of St. 
 John Lateran in Eome, the Imperial Monastery at Weingarten, 
 a church in Mantua, and the Chapel of the Precious Blood in 
 Bruges, all put forward similar claims. The two latter are con- 
 sidered the best authenticated. The relic of Mantua is supposed 
 to have been preserved by Longinus the centurion. It reposes 
 in a silver shrine attributed to Benvenuto Cellini. The precious 
 blood at Bruges, which is one of the most famous of all the city's 
 possessions, is reputed to have been collected from the wounds by 
 Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus when they took down the 
 body from the cross. It was brought to Bruges by Thierry of 
 Alsace, Count of Flanders, in 1147. He had received it from his 
 brother-in-law, Baldwin III., King of Jerusalem. 
 
 Against these legends, however, must be put the opinion of St. 
 Thomas Aquinas that all the particles of blood which Christ shed 
 
 Henry III. carrying the Precious Blood to Westminster. 
 (From a drawing by Matthew Paris.) 
 
 in his passion were reassumed by him in his resurrection, " and 
 that the blood which is kept in some churches as relics did not 
 flow from Christ's side, but is said to have flowed miraculously 
 from some image of Christ when struck." Benedict XIY., on 
 the other hand, admits the possibility that some particles of 
 Christ's blood may not have been reassumed and may remain as 
 relics. In this case they are not reunited to the Godhead, and it 
 would be the crime of idolatry to give them divine worship. 
 
 The feast of the Precious Blood was instituted and fixed for 
 the first Sunday of July by Pius IX. after his return irom 
 Gaeta. There were already a mass and an office for the Friday 
 after the fourth Sunday in Lent, but they were permitted only 
 for certain places. 
 
 Nearly six centuries ago, however, the extraordinary devotion 
 paid to the relic in Bruges by the inhabitants and visitors had 
 
128 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 induced the ecclesiastical and civil authorities to institute a 
 solemn procession in which it should be borne in the streets. 
 The first ceremony was performed on May 3, 1311. 
 
 A Confraternity of the Precious Blood, consisting of thirty 
 members, with a provost and four chaplains, was established to 
 guard it at all times. That confraternity still exists, though it 
 has unfortunately discarded the picturesque costume of mediaeval 
 times. 
 
 It would be impossible to describe the vicissitudes and dangers 
 to which the relic has been exposed. One legendarj- episode, 
 however, is sufficiently curious to record. Philip van Artevelde 
 marched on Bruges with five thousand men on May 2, 1382, and 
 encamped outside the city. The procession, which at that time 
 followed a route less protected than at present, was proceeding 
 on its way, when an irregular band of armed burghers rushed 
 out of the gates to attack the men of Ghent, and unintentionally 
 threw the procession into confusion. The clergy stood their 
 ground for a time, but were ultimately affected with the prevail- 
 ing panic and took to flight. The bearer of the sacred relic, 
 also losing his head, cast about him how he could save the 
 treasure, and, finding no other means, threw the crystal phial 
 into the canal which bounds the Beguinage. 
 
 The inhabitants, having recovered from their groundless alarm, 
 became inconsolable for the loss of their relic ; they conjectured 
 that the men of Ghent must have carried it off, and the misad- 
 venture seemed to them to presage further calamities. One day 
 a nun of the Beguinage who had gone to draw water saw some 
 glittering object at the bottom of the canal. With the help of 
 her superior the object was easily drawn out, and was found to 
 be the lost relic. The news was received with extraordinary 
 enthusiasm, and the Beguinage was besieged by enormous crowds 
 eager to bear their treasure back to its own chapel with special 
 pomp. This incident is the alleged cause of certain privileges 
 still enjoyed by the Beguines, and is represented in an ancient 
 picture in the church of their settlement. 
 
 In 1578 the Calvinists distinguished themselves in a manner 
 equalled afterwards only by the sansculottes of 1792. When 
 reading the accounts of their depredations in Bruges, especially 
 upon the Chapel of the Sacred Blood, the most persistent Prot- 
 estant may well shudder. Happily, the relic was carried off and 
 hidden by the provost Malvenda in his own house. The people 
 to this day hold in special respect those houses which at different 
 times have afforded an asylum to their beloved treasure. In 1792 
 the French entered Bruges and completed the havoc begun by 
 the Calvinists. The adventures through which the relic passed 
 read like some mediaeval romance, and the devotion and care be- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 129 
 
 stowed on it by the confraternity excite the moat sympathetic 
 interest. It was not until May 2, 1819, that it was restored to 
 its former resting-place and exposed for the veneration of the 
 faithful. 
 
 The solemn ceremonies were again established, and have been 
 continued without interruption up to the present day. The pro- 
 cession, though stripped of much of its ancient splendor, is ma- 
 terially the same ; and the enthusiasm surrounding it is not less 
 marked than it was six hundred years ago. 
 
 A correspondent of the Saturday Review describes the proces- 
 sion as he saw it in 1893. This being the jubilee year of the 
 Bishop of Bruges, it was a doubly important occasion. Five 
 members of the Belgian hierarchy, including the Cardinal Arch- 
 bishop of Malines, were present. " The graceful costume of the 
 seminaries, societies, and guilds of Bruges; the gorgeous crim- 
 son vestments of the priests ; the choristers, in scarlet cassocks, 
 swinging the heavy silver censers and chanting as they slowly 
 marched before the Sacred Blood, formed a most imposing spec- 
 tacle. Grayly painted or richly vested images of the patron 
 saints of Bruges, borne on litters, wore followed or preceded by 
 children carrying the emblems of their martyrdom and led by a 
 boy or girl dressed to represent the saint in life. Two little 
 boys, representing St. John the Baptist and the child Jesus, at- 
 tracted particular attention ; and a man in a purple robe, as 
 Christ bearing the cross, was an impressive figure. The long 
 procession, with its many tapers and brilliant banners, winding 
 through the streets of the old city, crossing and recrossing the 
 canals, presented an imposing spectacle. The official presence 
 of civil and military persons marked its unique character as the 
 great civic and popular as well as the most solemn religious cere- 
 mony of Flanders. After the procession the benediction was 
 given by the cardinal archbishop from an altar erected in the 
 open air, in the Place du Bourg, and in front of the Chapel of 
 the Sacred Blood." 
 
 The blood is contained in a crystal cylinder, closed at each 
 end by a golden crown : when the relic is exposed, this cylinder 
 is fastened to a silver chain hanging round a priest's neck. The 
 shrine in which the reliquary is carried is of very elaborate gold 
 and silver workmanship, made by Jean Crabbe, a goldsmith of 
 the city, in 1617. It consists of a hexagonal base covered by a 
 baldacchino which is supported by six slender fluted pillars ; 
 within stands the shrine proper, a coffer surmounted by a crucifix 
 and figures of the Blessed Virgin and St. John ; above the cru- 
 cifix hangs the enamelled crown presented by Mary of Burgundy 
 and worn by her on state occasions; upon the baldacchino are 
 three open, domed niches, also resting on little columns, contain- 
 
 9 
 
130 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 iDg the figures of the Saviour, St. Donat, and St. Basil ; the 
 centre niche is itself surmounted by a fourth, in which is an 
 image of the Madonna and Child ; above this, again, is the sym- 
 bolic pelican feeding her young. The figures are of solid gold, 
 the rest of the shrine being of silver gilt and thickly incrusted 
 with precious stones. 
 
 Blood Tax in the Pyrenees. There is a vague tradition 
 that some time in the thirteenth century, in the high pasture- 
 lands of Arias, in the Pyrenees, some shepherds of the valley of 
 Eoncal, in Navarre, were murdered by shepherds of the valley 
 of Bareton, in Beam. One is shown on an upland lawn on 
 French soil stones that are said to cover the graves of the vic- 
 tims, and the story lives on in a chanson still sung in the can- 
 ton of the Baretonnais. In consequence of this massacre, the 
 Baretonnais were condemned in perpetuity to the payment of a 
 tax to the Boncalais, and this they accepted apparently as an 
 alternative, or possibly as an end, to a vendetta. The tax has 
 been paid during the last six or seven hundred years. The ex- 
 traordinary thing is that it survived the Eevolution. 
 
 The scene of the ceremony is the Pierre de St.-Martin, a fron- 
 tier stone remote from roads and villages under the Pic d' Arias. 
 
 A correspondent of the London Pall Mall Gazette thus describes 
 the celebration in 1896 : " By nine o'clock in the morning a com- 
 pany of about one hundred and fifty had assembled, including 
 the sous-prefet of the Basses-Pyrenees, who attended, however, 
 merely as a spectator, the cure of one of the Baretonnais villages 
 and his vicaire, and some gardes des montagnes and douaniers. 
 The Spaniards were the last to appear, heralding their approach 
 by musket-shots, and on their arrival the business of the day 
 began. 
 
 " The two peoples drew up in line on either side of the frontier 
 stone in their respective territories. Immediately opposite the 
 stone was the alcade of Isaba, wearing a black coat edged with 
 crimson, with a hood and long false sleeves, and round his neck 
 a large white pleated collar, the whole costume dating from 1600. 
 He carried a black baton tipped with silver, the wand of his office 
 as chief-justice of the court. He was attended by a notary and 
 supported by the alcades of Urzainqui, Garde, and Ustarroz, — 
 the other villages of the Eoncal concerned, — habited in long, 
 full-skirted, black, eighteenth-century collarless coats, long waist- 
 coats, and the usual broad violet waistbands, knee-breeches, and 
 black stockings of the Navarrese. A number of their followers 
 were armed, and stood to attention with their guns loaded. A 
 herald by the side of the President carried a javelin to which 
 was attached a crimson streamer, — a sign of just revenge. On 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 131 
 
 the other side it must be confessed that the French presented a 
 less imposing appearance. They wore their blue blouses and 
 Bearnaise caps, and here and there were some in the red-striped 
 waistcoats said to be peculiar to the Baretonnais. The maires of 
 Arette, Lanne, Aramits, and Issor were to be distinguished only 
 by their tricolor scarfs, which they wore round their waists over 
 their blouses. (It was noticeable, by the way, that the national 
 colors were not displayed on the Spanish side.) The French 
 herald carried a javelin bearing a white streamer, — sign of the 
 pacific intentions of those for whom he acted, all of whom were 
 unarmed. 
 
 "The order of proceedings is fixed by a document bearing 
 the date of 1375. The President, the alcade of Isaba, speaking 
 in Spanish, demanded of the French if they desired peace. The 
 maires replied, 'Yes,' in the same language. Their herald then 
 advanced and laid his javelin on the top of the stone in line with 
 the frontier. The Spanish herald then drove his lance into 
 French soil close to the stone, the two lances thus forming a 
 cross. One of the French maires then placed his right hand on 
 the section of the cross on the stone, then an alcade his hand on 
 the Frenchman's, and so on in order, the alcade of Isaba's hand 
 being the last. Then on the pile of hands the latter rested the 
 baton of justice, and all took the oath of peace. The President 
 then cried three times, ^ Faz davans' ('Peace henceforth'), and 
 at this signal the Spaniards discharged their pieces over the 
 heads of the Frenchmen, and consequently in the direction of 
 France. Then followed Z'm^o^ 6?u 5<^n^. Originally the payment 
 was three white mares, but, these being difficult to procure, the 
 Baretonnais were allowed to substitute three heifers of a partic- 
 ular color and breed. Six or seven of these creatures had been 
 brought. The Spanish veterinary, having taken the oath by 
 placing his right thumb on the top of his baton that he would 
 deal fairly, proceeded to examine the animals. One of the three 
 first offered was rejected, and this gave rise to a very lively dis- 
 pute before the alcade, who, it maybe observed, with his shaven 
 face, serious judicial air, and perfect self-command, acted his 
 part to perfection. Unmoved, apparently, by the display of feel- 
 ing on both sides, he listened to all, spoke little, but apparently 
 to the point, and succeeded finally in quelling the storm. The 
 affair of the animals (which were valued at about six pounds 
 each) having been settled, and an account of it drawn up by the 
 notary, it was asked if the compact between the two valleys had 
 been observed during the past year, and if any one wished to 
 speak. No one replying, the alcade then presented his baton to 
 the two Spanish and to the two French gardes des montagnes^ 
 who, placing their right thumbs on it, swore as representatives 
 
132 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 to observe the convention. The notary then obtained the signa- 
 tures of the aicades and maires to his proces-verbal for lodgement 
 among the archives of the Eoncalais. This closed the proceed- 
 ings, and the assembly broke up." 
 
 Boar's Head, Bringing in the. In mediaeval England it 
 was customary to commence all great Christmas feasts by the 
 solemn ceremony of bringing in the boar's head as the initial 
 dish. The master-cook, preceded by trumpeters and other musi- 
 cians, and followed by huntsmen with boar-spears and drawn 
 falchions and pages carrying mustard, bore the smoking head 
 aloft on a silver platter, which he deposited at the head of the 
 table. The head was garnished and garlanded with rosemary 
 and laurel, and a lemon was placed between its grinning chops. 
 Holinshed tells us that in the year 1170 upon the day of the 
 young prince's coronation King Henry II. " served his son at the 
 table as server, bringing up the boar's head with trumpets before 
 it, according to the manner." (^Chronicles, iii. 76.) 
 
 The custom goes back to pre-Christian days. The Druids killed 
 a boar at the winter solstice and offered its head in sacrifice to 
 Freya, the goddess of peace and plenty, who was supposed to 
 ride upon a boar with golden bristles. Hence it was not unusual 
 even in Christian times to gild the head. The very lemon placed 
 in the boar's mouth was a Norse symbol of plenty. An orange 
 or an apple was sometimes substituted. The common practice 
 in England of eating sucking pig at Christmas has the same 
 origin. 
 
 Queen Victoria has retained the old custom. Her Christmas 
 dinner at Osborne House or Windsor has for over fifty years 
 consisted of a baron of beef and woodcock pie, — historic dishes, 
 — while the bringing ii^ of the boar's head is performed with all 
 the ancient ceremony. 
 
 In many of the public schools and universities the boar's head 
 is still retained as the great dish of the Christmas banquet. At 
 these institutions every diner rises and joins in the " Boar's 
 Song," which has been sung for centuries. The words are set 
 " to the common chant of the prose version of the psalms in 
 cathedrals." They run as follows : 
 
 A Carol bryngyng in the Boar's Head. 
 
 Caput apri defero 
 Reddens laudes Domino. 
 
 The bore's head in hande bring I, 
 With garlandes gay and rosemary, 
 I pray you all synge merely, 
 Qui estis in convivio. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 133 
 
 The bore's head I understande, 
 Is the chefe servyce in this lande 
 Loke wherer it be fande 
 Servite cum eantico. 
 
 Be gladde, lords, both more and lasse, 
 
 For this hath ordayned our stewarde 
 To cheer you all this Christmasse, 
 
 The bore's head with mustarde. 
 
 This carol is contained in Wynkyn de Worde's collection of 
 " Christmasse Carolles" (1521), but is there given as an old song. 
 Here is another carol which was anciently very popular ; 
 
 Ancient Boar's Head Canticle. 
 
 In die natiuitat. 
 
 Nowell, nowell, nowell, nowell, 
 
 Tydyng' gode y thynke to telle. 
 The borys hede that we bryng here, 
 Betokeneth a prince without pere, 
 Ys born this day to bye v'dere. 
 
 Nowell, etc. 
 
 A bore ys a souverayn beste, 
 And acceptab(l)e in eu'ry feste, 
 So mote thys lorde be to moste and leste. 
 Nowell, etc. 
 
 This ttorys hede we bring with song, 
 In w^orchyp of hym that thus sprang 
 Of a virgins to redresse all wrong. 
 Nowell, etc. 
 
 Queen's College, Oxford, is especially famous for its continued 
 retention of the Boar's Head ceremonial. The method as prac- 
 tised for five centuries is as follows : A large boar's head, weigh- 
 ing between sixty and seventy pounds, surmounted by a cross, 
 and wreathed with gilded sprays of laurel and bay, mistletoe and 
 rosemary, with small banners surrounding, is brought into the hall 
 by three bearers, whose entry is announced by trumpets. A pro- 
 cession of the Provost and Fellows precedes the entry of the 
 boar's head. The bearers are accompanied by the precentors, 
 who chant the " Caput apri defero," the Latin refrain being joined 
 in by the company. 
 
 There is a local legend to explain the institution of the cere- 
 mony. Some five hundred years ago, so the story runs, a student 
 of the college wandering near Shotover Hill in deep study of 
 Aristotle was attacked by a wild boar. Having no other means 
 of defence, he shoved his book down the animal's throat, exclaim- 
 
134 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 ing, " Graecum est !" The sage choked the savage, and his head 
 was brought home in triumph by the student. 
 
 Hone in his " Every Day Book" (1827, vol. ii. p. 1649) tells us 
 that the lessee of the tithes at Hornchurch in Essex, which is 
 attached to New College, Oxford, supplies every Christmas Day 
 a boar's head, dressed and garnished with bay-leaves, etc. In 
 the afternoon it is carried in procession into the mill-field ad- 
 joining the churchyard, where it is wrestled for, and after- 
 wards feasted upon at one of the public houses by the rustic 
 conqueror and his friends, with all the merriment peculiar to the 
 season. 
 
 A paragraph quoted by Thiselton Dyer (" British Customs," 
 p. 479) from the Daily News of January 5, 1852, shows that the 
 custom still survived at that date : " By ancient charter or usage 
 in Horn Church a boar's head is wrestled for in a field adjoining 
 the church, a boar, the property of the parish, having been 
 slaughtered for the purpose. The boar's head, elevated on a pole 
 and decorated with ribbons, was brought into the ring when the 
 competitors entered, and the prize was awarded." 
 
 Boat Sunday. In Kent, England, the Sunday (usually in 
 December) preceding the departure of the fishermen for the 
 herring-fisheries. All their friends from the neighboring vil- 
 lages attend the morning services to bid them farewell. When 
 later in the week the men start upon their expedition, they send 
 a piece of sea-beef on shore from each boat to such of their 
 friends at the public houses as they wish " weel beea." This 
 occasions "a bit of a supper," at which those who are going 
 away and those who remain enjoy good cheer heightened by 
 mutual good will. (Cole: History and Antiquities of Filey ^ 
 1828, p. 143.) 
 
 Bobolition Day. Bobolition was the negro attempt at pro- 
 nouncing "abolition," and was gleefully seized upon by the 
 enemies of the Abolition movement. During the earl}^ part of 
 the nineteenth century the negroes of Boston observed the 14th 
 of July to commemorate the introduction of measures for the 
 abolition of the slave-trade. Hence it was derisively called 
 Bobolition Day, and the orderly convention of black men that 
 annually assembled to do honor to the occasion was greeted with 
 a fusillade of rotten fruit and eggs and much jesting abuse. A 
 correspondent of the New York Nation writes that he remem- 
 bers having seen the Avord at least as early as 1824 " on a broad 
 sheet containing what purported to be an account of a boboli- 
 tion celebration at Boston, July 14. At the top of the broad 
 sheet was a grotesque procession of negroes." At one of these 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 135 
 
 Bobolition Day celebrations the famous Malapropian toast was 
 seriously given in honor of the newly elected governor : 
 •' Governor Brooks — May the mantelpiece of Caleb Strong fall 
 on the head of his distinguished predecessor." 
 
 Bodhi-druma. (Hindoo, " Tree of Understanding.") A big 
 tree of the peepul tribe in Gaya, India, still pointed out as the 
 identical tree under which Buddha accomplished the " medita- 
 tion of perfection" by which he achieved Nirvana. It is more 
 usually known to Europeans as the Bo-tree, a general term ex- 
 tended also to its offshoots. The earliest record of the original 
 tree is that preserved in the Chinese Hwen-Thsang's narrative 
 (about A.D. 637). He found it surrounded by an oblong walled 
 enclosure of brick, some twenty feet in height and five hundred 
 paces in circuit and girdled with umbrageous trees. In the 
 centre of this enclosure stood ihe Diamond Throne, dating from 
 the foundation of the world. When all the world quaked, this 
 throne alone was unmoved, and seated on it all the Buddhas of 
 past ages had achieved the divine climax of wisdom and power. 
 And there, immovable, it still remained ; only since the degen- 
 eracy of this latter Kalpa sand and soil had spread over the 
 precious adamant, and it was no longer visible. Above its site, 
 however, still grew the tree, which had undergone many vicissi- 
 tudes, but survived them all. According to the legend, the 
 leaves did not fall either in summer or in autumn, but the tree 
 suddenly denuded itself and as suddenly assumed an entirely 
 new leafage on the anniversary of the day of Buddha's Nirvana. 
 Every year on this day, kings, ministers, and magistrates assem- 
 bled around this tree, watered it with milk, illuminated it with 
 lanterns, and withdrew after gathering the leaves which had 
 fallen. 
 
 Other Bo-trees said to have been propagated from slips of the 
 great original are extant. A very famous one is in the sacred 
 city of Anarajapoora, in Ceylon, reputed to have been planted 
 in B.C. 228. Its leaves are carried away as treasures by pilgrims, 
 but it is too sacred to be touched with a knife : hence they are 
 gathered only when they fall. 
 
 A famous tree connected with Buddha-worship is that preserved 
 in front of the lamasery of Kunbum, in Northeastern Thibet, 
 near the sources of China's Yellow Eiver. It is a variety of 
 the elder, and on its leaves and bark are indelibly inscribed by 
 no earthly hand, the Lamas say, sacred formulae and images. 
 Father Hue first described this tree to Europeans. He made no 
 attempt to solve the mystery. Later travellers have made 
 various guesses, as that some insect works indistinct tracings in 
 which the faithful read what they choose. But the latest of all, 
 
136 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 M. Edouard Blanc, insists that the figures are unmistakable and 
 are an evident artifice of human hands. The fraud, he says, has 
 been handed down from one generation of Lamas to another. 
 They sell the leaves to pilgrims, claiming for them rare medici- 
 nal virtues. 
 
 Bodmin Riding. A festival kept until recently at Bodmin, 
 in Cornwall, Wales, on the Sunday and Monday following St. 
 Thomas's Day (July 7). In the preceding October an antici- 
 patory puncheon of ale had been brewed and bottled. On 
 Sunday morning two young men representing the " wardens" 
 bore these bottles in baskets around the town, attended by a 
 band of fifes and drums and sometimes other instruments. 
 Pausing before the house of every leading citizen, the crier 
 shouted the salutation, " To the people of this house a prosper- 
 ous morning, long life, and a merry riding." Then the musicians 
 struck up the riding-tune, and the householder was solicited to 
 taste the ale. He responded by taking in a bottle and paying 
 such sum as his means or his humor dictated. Monday morning 
 a procession was formed, — all who could afford it riding on a 
 horse or an ass, — and proceeded first to the Priory, to receive 
 two large garlands of flowers fixed on staves, and then through 
 the principal streets to the Town End. Here the festivities were 
 formally organized. Wrestling, foot-races, jumping in sacks, 
 and other games were practised. A curious kind of mock trial 
 was also one of the features, A Lord of Misrule was appointed. 
 Before him was dragged any unpopular person so unlucky as to 
 be captured, to answer to a charge of felony. Inculpatory 
 evidence was furnished by any breach of good manners, negli- 
 gence of attire, or other accident in his bearing or appearance. 
 The trial was conducted with much gravity, sentence was pro- 
 nounced, and the culprit was hurried off to receive his punish- 
 ment, which consisted " in some ungracious prank or other, more 
 to the scorn than hurt of the party condemned" (Carew: Sur- 
 vey of Cornwall, 1811, p. 296), and usually concluded by his 
 being dragged through the mire of Halgaver. The latter name 
 " signifieth the goat's moor, and such a place it is, lying a little 
 without the town, and very full of quagmires." (Ibid.) To this 
 day " Take him before the Mayor of Halgaver" and " Present 
 him in Halgaver Court" are Cornish sayings. 
 
 Boeuf Gras. (Fr., "Fat Ox.") The fete or procession of 
 the Fat Ox is the culminating Carnival festivity celebrated by 
 the butchers of Paris on Mardi-Gras, or Shrove Tuesday (q. v.). 
 Comparative mythologists trace the origin of the custom from 
 the processions in honor of the bull Apis among the Egyptians^ 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 137 
 
 though similar ceremonies in ancient Greece and Eome were 
 celebrated at the equinox of spring, when the sun enters the 
 sign Taurus, at which oxen or bulls were sacrificed. But a more 
 immediate ancestry may be found in the similar ceremonies 
 
 BcEUF GRAS of 1827. 
 (From the official programme.) 
 
 among the ancient Gauls, who likewise had a special cult for 
 this zodiacal sign and dressed the ox up for the occasion in an 
 ecclesiastical stole. As Christianity penetrated Gaul, the sacri- 
 fice of the ox lost its importance and its sacred character, as 
 well as its periodic recurrence. Under Charles Y. it had become 
 a mere occasional recreation, in which all classes joined. In 
 course of time a rivalry sprang up among the butchers as to 
 who should furnish the ox, and eventually the guild of butchers 
 took the matter under their charge and raised the necessary 
 funds. The procession, celebrated so early as 1512, is commemo- 
 rated in a contemporary stained-glass window presented by the 
 master-butchers of Ear-sur-Seine. Two butchers, in holiday 
 attire, lead the ox by means of a scarf wrapped around its neck ; 
 preceding them are two apprentices playing musical instruments, 
 while children shout and dance around them. 
 
 The modern date- of the procession was not fixed until the 
 introduction of the Carnival into France under Louis XIV., 
 when it was permanently settled on as the day before Ash 
 Wednesday. 
 
 A memorable procession was that of 1739. It started from 
 I'Apport, Paris. The ox was crowned with a garland of leaves, 
 and his shoulders were covered with tapestry. On his back sat 
 a naked child, decorated with a huge scarf of blue ribbon and 
 carrying a gilded sceptre in one hand, a drawn sword in the 
 other. The child was known as the King of the Butchers. 
 
138 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Fifteen butcher boys dressed in red and white formed the ox's 
 escort. Two led him by his horns, after the fashion of the 
 ancient sacrificers. Other butchers and their apprentices pre- 
 ceded and followed, all playing on viols, fifes, and drums. The 
 procession not only paraded the streets of Paris, but also invaded 
 the houses of various magistrates, who gave gifts of money to 
 the celebrants. The President not happening to be at home, the 
 Boeuf Gras was led up the steps of the Palace of Justice, and, 
 after being presented to the oflScial who in his red robe was 
 sitting on the judges' bench, was led back again into the streets. 
 The festivities on this occasion began on Monday and lasted 
 until Ash Wednesday. 
 
 The Eevolution put a temporary end to the Carnival and to 
 the Boeuf Gras. In 1805 Napoleon restored both by an ordinance 
 dated February 23. The ox was usually paraded through the 
 streets during the last three days of the Carnival. The little 
 King of the Butchers was transformed into a Cupid carrying a 
 quiver of arrows and a torch. The escort consisted of butcher- 
 boys disguised as mythological and historical characters. Eoy- 
 alty itself deigned to review the parade from the windows and 
 balconies of the Tuileries. 
 
 The choice of the ox itself became a matter of anticipatory 
 public interest. Eival butchers competed as to who should 
 submit the fattest, sleekest, and largest candidate. A jury of 
 twelve expert butchers was appointed. Their decision was 
 based upon height, breadth, weight, and general comeliness. 
 Here is how the choice made in 1846 was announced on the 
 programme for that year : " On the 12th of February, 1846, in 
 the midst of an immense crowd, took place the competition for the 
 choice of the Fat Ox which according to ancient custom is to do 
 the honors of the Carnival. At midday, 1607 oxen were ex- 
 hibited in the great fair-grounds. The jury selected from tliem 
 such as best fulfilled the triple conditions of strength, stature, 
 and adiposity. Then the oxen thus selected were led to the 
 court of the slaughter-house at Caisse de Poissy. Here the jury 
 rendered its final verdict, which declared that Dagobert, five and 
 a half years old, belonging to M. Cornet, of Caen, worthy suc- 
 cessor to his father, was the unanimous choice for the Carnival 
 of 1846. Dagobert in bulk has no rival save the elephant of the 
 Jardin des Plantes. He weighs five kilos more than Pere Goriot, 
 the Boeuf Gras of 1845." From 1848 to 1851 the procession was 
 suspended, mainly for monetary reasons. In the latter year 
 Arnault of the Hippodrome assumed all the expenses of a re- 
 vival. After 1855 there was an increase in the number and 
 gorgeousness of the paraders, and eventually not one but several 
 Fat Oxen took part, and the procession became one of the most 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 139 
 
 brilliant popular fdtes under the Second Empire. Like many 
 other things, however, it was dropped on account of the dis- 
 asters of 1870, and was not revived until 1893. 
 
 " The revival," says the correspondent of the New York Sun, 
 writing from Paris on February 18, " was on a grand scale. 
 Three oxen were provided, and the festivities were spread over 
 three days, the Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday before Ash Wed- 
 nesday brought in Lent. This time the procession was organ- 
 ized not by the butchers alone, but by the Food Syndicate, whose 
 president is M. Marquely, a well-known restaurant owner, assisted 
 by M. Zidler, the manager of two Parisian music-halls. In the 
 procession were seventeen carriages, drawn by ninety-two horses, 
 fourteen floats, each with six horses, one hundred and seventy- 
 eight horsemen in costumes, and seven hundred mummers on 
 foot. 
 
 " No expense was spared. It is even said that the actual cost 
 was more than double the original estimate. While some idea 
 may be formed of the magnificence of the procession, no words 
 can picture the animation of the great crowd shut in between 
 the high houses of the boulevards, over twenty -five miles long, 
 its enthusiasm, good humor, and extreme politeness, which on 
 those days even affected the policemen. They were seen smiling 
 at the showers of confetti, and even throwing them back occa- 
 sionally without roughness." 
 
 At Marseilles the Fat Ox is paraded through the streets not 
 on Mardi-Gras, but on the eve and the day of Corpus Christi. 
 Eufii's' "History of Marseilles" refers the origin of the custom 
 to the fourteenth century. The Confraternity of the Holy Sac- 
 rament, wishing to feast the poor on the day which they par- 
 ticularly honored, bought a huge ox and marched it through the 
 poorer quarters of the town as at once an advertisement and an 
 invitation. The procession gave so much pleasure that it was 
 kept up annually. Various superstitions grew around it. Old 
 women were careful to make children kiss the ox as a preser- 
 vative against sickness, everybody clamored to get some small 
 portion of the meat as an emblem of luck, and whenever the ox 
 paused before a house to attend to any of the functions of nature 
 the inmates were envied for the fortunate omen. 
 
 Bona Dea. (Lat., " The Good Goddess.") An ancient 
 Eoman festival in honor of the goddess Maia, celebrated May 1. 
 The word Maia is derived from the month in which her chief 
 festival was celebrated. On this occasion the Eomans seem to 
 have recognized the secret, mysterious forces of nature. The 
 cult of the goddess belonged especially to women. Besides the 
 regular festival on May 1, mysterious rites in honor of the Bona 
 
140 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Dea were performed by women during the early part of Decem- 
 ber. These mysteries were celebrated by the Eoman women 
 with great solemnity. They were held in the night, and in the 
 house either of the consul or the prsetor, who on this occasion 
 must be absent from his home, for no male was allowed to be 
 present. When Cicero was consul, B.C. 63, the celebration took 
 place at his house on the night of December 3. It will be re- 
 membered that on this day Cicero had made the speech which is 
 known as his third oration against Catiline, describing to the 
 people the capture of the conspirators. When the assembly was 
 dismissed, the people accompanied him home, as was usual, but, 
 his house being occupied by the women, he was obliged to go to 
 a friend's house to spend the night. Here he sat deliberating 
 with a few of his trusted counsellors what disposition should be 
 made of the prisoners, when a message came hastily from his 
 wife Terentia that an auspicious sign had occurred in the mys- 
 teries, at which he should take courage. The fire upon the altar 
 had blazed up with great brilliancy, and when the women were 
 terrified, the Yestal Virgins, who had the direction of this festi- 
 val, at once interpreted the event as a good omen, and urged 
 Terentia to send word to her husband to that effect. 
 
 The next year, b.o. 62, the mysteries were celebrated in the 
 house of Caesar, who was prsetor. Having lately been elected 
 Pontifex Maximus, he occupied the public residence which be- 
 longed to this officer, — the regia, or palace. This was on the 
 Sacred Way, adjoining the residence of the Yestal Virgins, to 
 whom this house was afterwards given by Augustus when he be- 
 came Pontifex Maximus. A young nobleman of profligate 
 character, named Publius Clodius, by an understanding with 
 Caesar's wife Pompeia, contrived to steal into the building in 
 the dress of a harp-player ; for the mysteries were celebrated to 
 the sound of musical instruments. But one of the slaves of the 
 household, undertaking to ask him some questions, detected him 
 by his voice, and called Caesar's mother, Aurelia, who at once 
 suspended the rites, when the women speedily drove the offender 
 out of the house. It was the greatest scandal in the history of 
 the republic. Clodius escaped punishment, — it was believed, by 
 bribery. Caesar at once divorced his wife, not assuming that she 
 was guilty, but asserting that Caesar's wife must be above sus- 
 picion. 
 
 Boniface, St. (680-755). The "Apostle to G-ermany," one 
 
 *of the greatest missionaries of the Church in the eighth century. 
 
 He is commemorated on his death-day, June 5. His real name 
 
 was Winfred, and he was a native of Devonshire, England. 
 
 Ordained a priest at thirty years of age, he resolved to become 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 141 
 
 a missionary to those parts of Germany which were still idola- 
 trous. At Fulda he founded the celebrated abbey, and he left 
 other ecclesiastical monuments to himself in Bavaria, Thuringia, 
 Saxony, etc. Gregory III. made him Archbishop and Primate 
 of Germany. He was massacred in Friesland by a band of 
 pagans who had sworn to take his hfe. He always carried in 
 his bosom a copy of the " De Bono Mortis" of St. Ambrose. 
 This copy, stained with his blood, was long preserved as a sacred 
 relic in the monastery at Fulda, where he was buried. A portion 
 of his skull is still kept there. At Dochum was long shown 
 another part of his skull, together with his cape and chasuble. 
 Other relics are at Louvain, Mechlin, Cologne, Bruges, Prague, 
 Eichfeld, and Erfurt. 
 
 Bounds, Beating the. A Protestant survival of the ancient 
 Catholic custom of processions on the Eogation Days (g. v.). 
 The processions, which originated in Gaul and were brought 
 over to England by St. Augustine, used to be performed with 
 great pomp. As every parish came to have its own procession, 
 which could not transgress the limits of that parish, the cere- 
 mony gradually and insensibly drew to itself some of the still 
 more ancient pagan practices of the Terminalia (q. v.), or Feast 
 of Boundaries. The lord of the manor in country places, or the 
 highest member of the parochial clergy in cities, led the way, 
 followed by surpliced ecclesiastics bearing crosses, and public 
 officials and other prominent parishioners with hand-bells, ban- 
 ners, and staves. They perambulated round the parish singing 
 rogations or litanies, stopping at crosses, forming crosses on the 
 ground, " saying or singing gospels to the corn," and allowing 
 "drinkings and good cheer." But good cheer did not mean 
 meat, inasmuch as the Eogation days were fasts, or at least days 
 of abstinence. 
 
 If the parish contained a fine oak-tree, the gospel was read 
 here, the tree receiving the name of Gospel Oak. In most 
 places a representation of the evil one, in the form of a dragon, 
 was a part of the procession. As often as a pause was made 
 for prayer the dragon was taken to a place quite out of earshot, 
 and left there until the procession moved on again. Hence 
 many rural parishes even to this day have their Dragon's Eock 
 or Dragon's Well, denoting the place where the dragon reposed 
 at prayer-time or where it was kicked, stoned, buffeted, and 
 finally pulled to pieces by the processionists at the close of the 
 third day's rogation. 
 
 The Eeformation did not abolish the processions, though it 
 altered their character, and eventually transferred them to 
 Ascension Day itself ' The Book of Common Prayer still enjoins 
 
142 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 such part of the ancient ceremony as relates to the perambulating 
 of the circuit of parishes, conformably to the regulation made 
 in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. " The people shall once a year, 
 at the time accustomed," says the injunction of that sovereign, 
 " with the curate and substantial men of the parish, walk about 
 the parishes as they were accustomed, and at their return to 
 church make their common prayers ; provided that the curate in 
 the said common perambulations, as heretofore in the days of 
 Rogations, at certain convenient places, shall admonish the people 
 to give thanks to God, in the beholding of God's benefits, for the 
 increase and abundance of his fruits upon the face of the earth, 
 with the saying of Psalm civ., Benedic, anima mea, etc. ; at which 
 time also the same minister shall inculcate this and such like 
 sentences, ' Cursed be he which translateth the bounds and dales 
 of his neighbour,' or such other words of prayer as shall be 
 hereafter appointed." 
 
 The religious sentiment gradually died out of these parochial 
 perambulations, and they degenerated into colossal junketings. 
 The traditional usage of always following in the old track gave 
 them at certain stages of their progress a blithesome steeple- 
 chase aspect. If a canal, for example, had been cut through the 
 old boundaries, some of the perambulators had to cross it, either 
 by swimming or in boats. So if a house had been erected over 
 the line the procession claimed the right to pass through it. 
 Chambers's " Book of Days" tells of a house in Buckinghamshire 
 which had an oven traversing the line. It was customary in 
 the perambulations to put a boy into the recess, to preserve the 
 integrity of the procession. Now boys everywhere looked on 
 Beating the Bounds as a more elaborate game of Follow my 
 Leader. The boys in this Buckinghamshire parish used to be 
 ambitious of the honor of invading the oven. They settled their 
 claims by lot as they approached the house. On one occasion 
 the perambulators found the oven heated up, baking bread. 
 There was a cry from the juvenile members, " Tom Smith is the 
 boy to go into the oven." Tom Smith uttered a wild shriek and 
 made off as fast as his legs would carry him. Another boy was 
 asked to climb over the roof of the oven, and thus the boundary 
 line was deemed to be sufficiently maintained. 
 
 On another occasion, in London, a nobleman's carriage hap- 
 pened to be standing across the boundary line. His lordship was 
 paying a visit in the opposite house. The coachman was re- 
 quested to move out of the way. He refused until his master 
 should tell him to move. The churchwarden calmly opened one 
 door of the carriage and passed through the other, followed by 
 the rest of the procession. 
 
 " Hone's Year Book" gives a rather humorous account of a 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 143 
 
 man who being asked whether such a stream were a boundary 
 replies, " Ees, that 'tis, I'm sure o't, by the same token that I 
 were tossed into 't, and paddled about there like a water-rat, till 
 I were hafe dead." 
 
 Sometimes the boys in the procession were whipped as they 
 reached the boundaries, to impress their exact location upon 
 plastic youth. At other times they were " bumped ;" i.e., the 
 senior perambulators took hold of them by the shoulders and 
 the heels and bumped what might be called the southern facade 
 of the juvenile body against the landmark. ISTot only boys but 
 strangers were frequently seized upon for the purpose. So re- 
 cently as January 10, 1830, the London Observer recorded the 
 trial of a case brought by an angler against the parishioners of 
 Walthamstow parish. On the preceding Ascension Day he had 
 been found angling in the Lea. The parishioners bethought them 
 that to bump a stranger would produce an independent witness 
 of parish boundary. But he relished neither the practice nor 
 the reason for it, and the jury so far agreed with him that they 
 rendered a verdict of fifty pounds damages. 
 
 In several parishes in London the bounds are still beaten on 
 Ascension Day. Men and boys make the tour of the parish 
 limits, beating the landmarks with peeled willow rods. 
 
 At Marlborough, in Devonshire, the mayor and the town- 
 councillors perform the function ; and it is on record that on one 
 occasion within the present centurj^ the mayor himself was thor- 
 oughly ducked during his progress, in order to insure his remem- 
 bering a certain bit of the river boundary. 
 
 " In beating the bounds of the city of Oxford," says Ditch- 
 field, " it is necessary for the mayor and corporation to take a 
 boat and go on the river. A few years ago we read that ' the 
 mayor and others were upset,' and later on the boat capsized. 
 Perhaps this ducking was in lieu of bumping." (" Old English 
 Customs," p. 116.) 
 
 On Ascension Day, says Mackenzie in his "History of New- 
 castle" (1827, vol. ii. p. 744), every year the mayor and bur- 
 gesses of Newcastle survey the boundaries of the river Tyne. 
 This annual festive expedition starts at the Mansion-House Quay, 
 and proceeds to or near the place in the sea called Sparhawk, 
 and returns up the river to the utmost limits of the corporation 
 at Hedivin Streams. They are accompanied by the brethren of 
 the Trinity House and the river jury in their barges. 
 
 The bounds of the parish of St. Mary's, Leicester, are beaten 
 every three years. The procession is composed of the vicar, 
 churchwardens, and other officials, and two or three hundred 
 boys. Formerly at one spot in the route a hole was dug, and 
 any newly appointed parish officer was seized and his head 
 
144 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 placed in the bole, while his body was thumped with a shoveL 
 A feast was held, and various sports followed, such as racing, 
 bobbing for apples in buckets of water, etc. ; but these have 
 been discontinued. 
 
 At Lichfield on Ascension Day the choristers of the cathedral 
 deck the houses and street-lamps in the parish of the Close with 
 elm boughs. After the midday service the clergy and choir 
 start in procession from the cathedral, properly vested, the boys 
 carrying small pieces of elm, and go round the boundaries of the 
 parish, making a halt at eight stations where wells exist or are 
 said to have existed. At each of these stations the Gospel for 
 the day is said by one of the priest-vicars in turn, followed by 
 the singing of one verse of Psalm civ. or c. On re-entering the 
 cathedral by the northwest door, the verse " Oh, enter then his 
 gates with praise" is sung, and the company gather round the 
 font, where the blessing is given, and the boys throw down their 
 boughs. On the same day the sacrist gives a bun to every 
 unconfirmed child in the parish. (Ditchfield: Old English 
 Customs.') 
 
 A queer variation of the custom is observed in Leighton Buz- 
 zard, in accordance with the will of a London merchant, who 
 founded ten almshouses in the town and who died in 1646. The 
 trustees, accompanied by the town crier and a band of boys car- 
 rying green boughs, beat the boundaries of the parish, stopping 
 at the properties from whose incomes the charities are sup- 
 ported. At all these places one boy stands on his head while 
 the will is read. After the procession plum rolls are given to 
 the boys. Until recently a half-pint of beer was given, but this 
 has been suppressed, rolls being distributed to all the school-chil- 
 dren instead. In the evening the trustees, the town crier, and 
 the inmates of the almshouses dine together. 
 
 In Scotland a similar ceremony is known as the Eiding of the 
 Marches (^. v.). 
 
 Boy-Bishop. One of the most curious observances of the 
 mediaeval Church, mingling the sacred with the profane and 
 seriousness with burlesque, was the election of a boy- bishop. 
 The origin of the custom is not clearly understood, but it is 
 known to have existed from the thirteenth century, both in 
 England and on the Continent. On December 5, the eve of the 
 festival of St. Nicholas, patron of children, all the boys who 
 sang in the choir or served at the altar met in every parish 
 church, cathedral, and nobleman's chapel, and elected from among 
 their number a bishop and his prebendaries, or, as they were 
 alternatively called, "a Nicholas and his clerks." These re- 
 mained in office until Holy Innocents' Day, December 28. During 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 145 
 
 this time, with the knowledge and sanction of his elders, the boy- 
 bishop exercised nearly if not quite the whole of the episcopal 
 functions, saying mass and vespers, giving benedictions, preaching 
 sermons, going on visitations, occasionally filling up vacancies, 
 and if he died during the time being buried with episcopal honors. 
 Moreover, these pseudo-clergy, arrayed in their vestments, per- 
 ambulated the neighborhood and demanded from passers-by and 
 householders some small money tribute, which was known as the 
 Bishop's Subsidy. Eoyalty itself deigned to be amused with the 
 burlesque ritual of the mimic prelate. In the year 1299 we find 
 Edward I., on his way to Scotland, permitting one of these boy- 
 bishops to say vespers before him on the 7th of December, the 
 day after St. Nicholas's Day, in his chapel at Hetton, near New- 
 castle-upon-Tyne, and making a considerable present to the said 
 bishop and certain other boys that came and sang with him on the 
 occasion. What was the custom in the houses of the nobles 
 may be learned from the "Northumberland Household Book," 
 which tells us that "My lord useth and accustomyth to gyfe 
 yerly, upon Saynt Nicolas-Even, if he kepe chapell for Saynt 
 Nicolas, to the master of his childeren of his chapell, for one of 
 the childeren of his chapell, yerely, vi^* viii^- ; and if Saynt 
 Nicolas com owt of the towne wher my lord lyeth, and my 
 lord kepe no chapell, than to have yerely iii'- iiij^-" 
 
 The fun grew faster and more furious in the last days of the 
 juvenile episcopacy. Towards the end of evensong on December 
 27 the little Nicholas and his clerks, arrayed in their copes, bear- 
 ing lighted tapers, and singing the words of the Apocalypse (chap, 
 xiv.), " Centum quadraginta," walked in procession from the 
 choir to the altar of the Blessed Trinity, which the boy-bishop 
 incensed ; afterwards they all sang the anthem, and he recited 
 the prayer commemorative of the Holy Innocents. Going back 
 into the choir, these boys took possession of the upper canons' 
 stalls, and those dignitaries themselves had to serve in the boys' 
 place, and carry the candles, the thurible, and the book, like 
 acolytes, thurifers, and lower clerks. Standing on high, wear- 
 ing his mitre, and holding his pastoral stafi" in his left hand, the 
 boy-bishop gave a solemn benediction to all present, and, while 
 making the sign of the cross over the kneeling crowd, said, — 
 
 Crucis signo vos consigno ; vestra sit tuitio, 
 Quos nos emit et redemit suae earn is pretio. 
 
 The next day, the feast itself of Holy Innocents, the boy- 
 bishop preached a sermon, which had been written for him, prob- 
 ably by some distinguished prelate. Thus, one from the pen of 
 Erasmus, " Concio de Puero Jesu," spoken by a boy of St. Paul's 
 School, London, is still preserved. 
 
 10 
 
146 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 The Eeformers looked askance at all these and similar " mum- 
 meries," and in 1542 Cranmer issued a sweeping proclamation 
 against them : " Whereas heretofoie dyverse and many supersti- 
 tions and childysshe observations have been used, and yet to this 
 day are observed and kept in many and sondry parties of this 
 realm, as upon Sainte Nicolas, Sainte Catheryne, Sainte Clem- 
 ent, the Holy Innocentes, and such like ; children be strangelye 
 decked and apparelid to counterfaite priestes, byshoppes, and 
 women ; and so ledde with songes and daunces from house to 
 house, bleassing the people, and gathcrynge of monye, and boyes 
 doo singe masse and preache in the pulpitt . . . the Kyng's 
 majestie willith and commaundeth that from henceforth all suche 
 superstitions be loste atid clyerlye exstinguished." 
 
 Queen Mary restored the ceremonial which her father had 
 abrogated. Strype in his " Ecclesiastical Memorials" informs us 
 that in 1556 on the 5th day of December " St. Nicholas, that is, 
 a boy habited like a bishop in pontificalibus, went abroad in most 
 parts of London, singing after the old fashion, and was received 
 by many ignorant but well-disposed people into their houses, and 
 had as much good cheer as ever was wont to be had before, at 
 least in many places." 
 
 With the final establishment of Protestantism in England the 
 pastime of the boy-bishop disappeared ; but the well-known 
 festivity of the Eton Montem appears to have originated in 
 and been a continuance under another form of the mediaeval 
 custom. 
 
 Brabo or Brabon of Brussels. A gigantic figure which, 
 with that of his wife Sumniana, is preserved in the City Hall of 
 Brussels and takes part in all the parades and processions held 
 on the feast of St. Grudula and other important occasions. (See 
 Giants, Processions of.) According to local tradition, Servius 
 Brabo was one of the generals of Julius Caesar, married to a niece 
 of the latter. He was likewise the first Duke of Brabant and 
 the first Marquis of Antwerp. This last dignitj^ he assumed after 
 encouraging seven young men from Antwerp to kill Antigonus 
 (g. !;.), a giant who was terrorizing Antwerp. Brabo, from whom 
 descended a long line of dukes and likewise the brothers Aymon 
 and Pepin of Landen, perished at Eome with Julius Caesar. 
 The legend is probably a distorted summary of many popular 
 fictions. 
 
 Bread, Holy. (Fr. pain benit ; Lat. panis benedictus.) The 
 distribution of holy bread is a Catholic rite entirely distinct from 
 the administration of the communion, yet the two are frequently 
 confounded together by Protestant travellers. In England be- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 147 
 
 fore the Eeformation the distribution used to take place every 
 Sunday after the principal mass. Probably this was the custom 
 all throttgh the Western Church. At present the ceremony is 
 only occasional. The holy bread has nothing sacramental in its 
 nature. It is ordinary leavened bread, cut into small pieces, 
 blessed, and given to the people after the manner of the love- 
 feasts of the early Church, as a symbol of the fellowship and 
 
 Distributing the Blessed Bread. 
 (From Picart.) 
 
 brotherly love which should exist among all who are of the same 
 household of faith. In some cases we have evidence that the 
 rich and powerful among the English relieved the parishioners 
 from the burden of providing the holy bread by taking it upon 
 themselves. Thus, on Palm Sun(iay in 1361, the then head of the 
 great house of Berkeley offered to Our Blessed Lady in Berkeley 
 Church a pound of virgin wax, ^^ pro candela caritatis'' and a 
 bushel of fine wheat, ^^ pro pane benedicto,'' an offering which was 
 continued for many generations. 
 
 The distribution of holy bread does not seem to have been* dis- 
 continued at once on the change of religion, for one of the rubrics 
 at the end of the communion office in the Praj^er Book of 1549 
 provides that "In such chapels annexed, where the people hath 
 not been accustomed to pay any holy bread, there they must 
 
148 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 either make some charitable provision for the iDearing of the 
 charges of the commanion, or else (for receiving the same) resort 
 to their parish church." 
 
 It appears from Foxe's "Acts and Monuments," ed. 1861, vol. 
 vii. p. 461, that Latimer reluctantly permitted the use of holy 
 water and holy bread in his diocese, because, his historian ex- 
 plains, the days were then " so dangerous and variable that he 
 could not in all things do what he would." With the Protestant 
 settlement under EHzabetb, holy bread, which had been restored 
 by Queen Mary, seems to have entirely disappeared from the 
 Anglican Church. 
 
 Many legends are preserved of miracles performed by the 
 saints with holy bread. A fragment of a holy loaf blessed 
 by St. Cuthbert cured an oflicer of King Egfrid's court of a 
 dangerous sickness. St. Bernard of Clairvaux used the holy 
 bread with great eflScacy in at least two cases. Laymen some- 
 times brought the bread home with them and used it as a charm 
 against the bite of mad dogs, and as a destroyer of rats. 
 
 It has furnished the French with certain figures of speech. 
 A well-merited disgrace is spoken of as ])ain benit, and there is 
 the idiom " C'est pain benit que d'escroquer un avare," which 
 Chambaud renders, " 'Tis nuts to one to cheat a covetous man." 
 (Edward Peacock, in The Antiquary, vol. xvii. p. 191.) 
 
 Brides of Venice. It was an ancient usage among the 
 Venetians for twelve poor virgins, endowed by the state, to be 
 united to their lovers, every year, on St. Mary's Eve, in the 
 church of St. Peter the Apostle at Olivolo. These virgins were 
 styled "the Brides of Venice," and upon the auspicious day 
 aforementioned the relatives and friends of the betrothed assem- 
 bled on the island of Olivolo, laden with presents for the happy 
 couples. During the reign of Pietro Sanudo 11. the corsairs of 
 Trieste, who were acquainted with the annual custom, resolved 
 to profit by the unarmed state of the joyful train and to ravish 
 the " Brides of Venice." The pirates concealed themselves in 
 an uninhabited portion of Olivolo, and when the bridal pro- 
 cession had entered the church they quitted their hiding-place, 
 forced their way into the church, tore the terrified maidens from 
 the foot of the altar, bore them to their vessels, and set sail for 
 Trieste. The Doge, followed by the injured lovers, summoned 
 the people to arms, and gave chase in a few vessels belonging to 
 the corporation of Trunk-Makers, who occupied a quarter in 
 the parish of Santa Maria Formosa, and who offered their ships 
 to the Doge and his companions. The pirates were overtaken 
 and destroyed, and the " brides" were borne back in triumph to 
 Olivolo, where great festivities celebrated their return. To 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 149 
 
 commemorate this event, a solemn procession of young virgins, 
 attended by the Doge and the clergy, paid a visit in each suc- 
 ceeding year to the parish of Santa Maria Formosa, where thej^ 
 were hospitably received by the Trunk-Makers. The heavy 
 reverses which were terminated by the battle of Chioggia led to 
 a discontinuation of the custom for a while, but it was after- 
 wards renewed. 
 
 Bridget or Bride, St. (450-521), patroness of Ireland, called 
 also Thaumaturga, or the " wonder-worker." Her festival is 
 celebrated on the reputed anniversary of her death, February 1. 
 Born at Fouchard, in the county of Louth, the illegitimate 
 child of an Irishman named Dulbach, she early took the veil 
 at the hands of St. Mel, a disciple of St. Patrick, and retired 
 into a cell at Kildare, — i.e., " the cell of the oak." Here she 
 was soon joined by so numerous a community that she was 
 compelled to separate the members into distinct bodies and to 
 build nunneries for them in different parts of the country, all of 
 which acknowledged her as their mother and foundress. To 
 these scanty historical particulars legend has added a mass of 
 fables. 
 
 St. Bridget's body was interred at the church of Kildare, 
 where her nuns for many years honored her memory by keeping 
 a fire forever burning. Hence the church was known as the 
 House of Fire, until in 1220 the Archbishop of Dublin, "to take 
 away all occasion of superstition," ordered the fire to be extin- 
 guished. Long before this the body had been translated to 
 Downpatrick. Here, in 1185, it was found in a triple vault with 
 the bodies of St. Patrick and St. Columba. The Pope's legate 
 caused all these relics to be translated, in the presence of fifteen 
 bishops and an immense concourse of clergy, nobilitj-, and people, 
 to a more honorable place in the cathedral of Down. This was 
 destroyed by Henry YIII. St. Bridget's head, however, was 
 saved by some of the clergy and carried to Neustadt in Austria. 
 In 1587 the Emperor Rudolf 11. gave it to the church of the 
 Jesuits at Lisbon. 
 
 Bruno, St., the founder of the Carthusian order of monks. 
 His feast is celebrated on the anniversary of his death, October 
 6 (1101). A member of the noble family of d'Hartenfaust, he 
 was born at Cologne about 1035. Embracing the clerical life, he 
 first became famous as the opponent of Manasses, who in 1067 
 obtained the archbishopric of Rheims by simoniacal methods 
 and whose fife had become a public scandal. At the Council 
 held in Autun in 1077 he and two other canons openly accused 
 the archbishop, who was suspended by the Papal legate, but 
 
150 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 for a period was able to defy the rulers of the Church and to 
 drive his accusers from their homes. They took refuge in the 
 castle of the Count de Eonci, where they remained until the 
 following year. 
 
 And now at length the indignation of the populace did what 
 the rulers of the Church could not do, for in 1079 the people of 
 Rheims drove the unworthy archbishop out of their city ; he 
 retired to the court of the King of Germany, and died there 
 outside the pale of the Church. 
 
 It is according to the Carthusian tradition that Bruno, shortly 
 after these events, was the witness of a miracle : this was nothing 
 less than the resurrection of Raymond, a learned doctor of 
 Paris, over whose body the funeral service was being read in the 
 church of Notre-Dame. In the middle of the service, says the 
 legend, Raymond rose upon the bier and called out, in terrifying 
 tones, " I am justly accused," again, " I am judged," and again, 
 " I am condemned." The tradition continues that Bruno was so 
 profoundly impressed by this occurrence that he determined to 
 spend the rest of his life in solitude, that he might by prayer 
 and penance bring peace to his soul. The story was at one 
 period widely believed, for it found a place in the Roman brev- 
 iary, but it has not even that substratum of fact which the 
 severest critic can discover in some alleged miracles of the 
 Middle Ages; for a long time, indeed, the best ecclesiastical 
 writers have rejected it, and Urban YIII. wisely expunged it 
 from the breviary. In a letter of which the text has been pre- 
 served, Bruno himself, writing to his friend Ralph le Yert, at 
 that time Church-provost and subsequently Archbishop of 
 Rheims, suggests a far simpler explanation of the whole matter: 
 his own heart's longings were more powerful than the doctor 
 and the miracle. 
 
 In 1084 Bruno at last carried out the dream of his life, and 
 with six companions founded his first oratory at Chartreuse, not 
 far from the spot where the first great monastery of the order 
 followed in 1137. This monastery, as well as those built to 
 replace it in later times (several of which were destroyed by 
 fire), has been known as La Grande Chartreuse, and has always 
 been recognized by Carthusians as the mother-house of their 
 order. Bruno himself died at another monastery which he 
 founded at Calabria. His body is in the church of St. Stephen 
 at Torre, but poriions of his bones have been distributed among 
 different churches of the order. A part of his jaw, with two 
 teeth, is at the Grande Chartreuse. 
 
 In 1514, four centuries after Bruno's death. Pope Leo X. 
 authorized the Carthusians to make use of a special office in 
 honor of their founder; this was regarded as equivalent to 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 151 
 
 beatification ; but Bruno was not canonized until 1623, during 
 the pontificate of Gregory XY. 
 
 The Carthusian is one of the austerest of monastic orders. 
 The original rules as recorded by contemporaries enjoined abso- 
 lute silence save on Sundays at dinner, and total abstinence from 
 flesh meat, a rule not relaxed even in case of sickness. On 
 Tuesdays and Saturdays they ate nothing but vegetables ; Mon- 
 days, Thursdays, and Fridays, only brown bread. On Sundays 
 and holidays they feasted on bread and cheese, and added fish 
 if these were presented to them. Meagre as their meals were, 
 they ate only once a day, save on Sundays and holidays. A 
 hair shirt was worn next to the skin, and next to the hair shirt 
 nothing save their white robes crowned with white hoods. 
 Their whole heads are shaven. One custom is peculiar to the 
 order. Once a week the coiivent gates are opened and all the 
 solitaries go forth in twos for a walk among the mountains, 
 through the forests, or over the flowery meadows. 
 
 Buddha, Sacred Tooth of. There are no fewer than twelve 
 dental relics of Gautama Buddha enshrined in India, and seven 
 in China. Far the most famous of all is the one preserved in 
 the Dalada Malagawa, or great temple of the Sacred Tooth, in 
 Kandy, Ceylon. It is the aim of every good Buddhist to make 
 a pilgrimage hither at least once in his lifetime. Innumerable 
 Buddhist royalties have enriched the shrine with costly gifts. 
 When the Portuguese occupied the island, the Eoman Catholic 
 priests, recognizing what a centre of Buddhism the temple was, 
 seized the sacred tooth and took it on board one of the Portu- 
 guese ships, where it was placed in a mortar, pounded to dust 
 by the Archbishop of Goa himself, and then cast into the river. 
 But all without avail. The particles came together again, and 
 next day the Buddhist priests found the relic, sound and whole 
 as ever, reposing within a lotos-leaf. It was carefully replaced 
 in the sanctuary of the temple, where it still remains. Only at 
 rare intervals, when ready money becomes necessary for the 
 sujoport of the many priests, is the relic exhibited. These occa- 
 sions attract immense crowds of pilgrims. Generous donors are 
 granted a prolonged stare, smaller donors are allowed to look 
 and move on, while the rest, whose offerings are insignificant, 
 but who are admitted on the principle that " mony a mickle 
 maks a muckle," are hurried past. 
 
 All that the visitor can do at ordinary times is to stare through 
 an iron grating at a huge silver-gilt bell-shaped shrine. This 
 encloses six other shrines of pure gold of decreasing sizes, one 
 placed within the other. Each is full of jewels and idols. The 
 last and smallest contains the sacred tooth. Burrows describes 
 
152 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 the latter as an " oblong piece of discolored ivory, tapering to 
 a point, and about one and one-fourth inches in length, "and 
 half an inch in diameter at the base. It is not in the least 
 like a human tooth, and more resembles that of a crocodile or 
 large pig." 
 
 Bunker Hill Day, also known jocularly and colloquially as 
 Boston's Fourth of July. The anniversary of the battle of 
 Bunker Hill (fought on June 17, 1775), which is celebrated with 
 great pomp throughout Massachusetts. In Boston itself the 
 centre of the commemoration is the monument on Bunker Hill. 
 
 It is only necessary briefly to sum up the story of the battle. 
 Enough that the yeomanry of Charlestown and the Boston sub- 
 urbs took up their position within a rough extemporized fortifica- 
 tion on Bunker Hill, in defiance of the British army ; that at 
 one o'clock of the afternoon of June 17 the red-coats landed in 
 good order at Moulton's Point, and immediately formed in three 
 lines, while the barges returned to Boston for more troops, who 
 arrived at three ; that the British, some three thousand strong, 
 advanced upon the American works ; that they were driven back 
 with fearful slaughter ; that they advanced again, with the flames 
 of the burning town to veil their movements, and were again 
 repulsed ; that they rallied again with reinforcements against the 
 Americans, who were not only worn down with labor and fasting, 
 but out of ammunition ; and at about five o'clock, after this 
 bloody conflict of an hour and a half with raw volunteers, these 
 picked soldiers of the British army took possession of the hill, 
 with more than a thousand dead and wounded as the price of 
 their victory, among these two hundred and twenty-six being 
 among the killed. The Americans had one hundred and forty 
 killed, two hundred and seventy-one wounded, and thirty cap- 
 tured, or four hundred and forty-one in all, in a force probably 
 not exceeding fifteen hundred men actually engaged. The 
 British had less than four thousand men engaged on the field, 
 according to Eichard Frothingham's excellent history of the 
 battle, but he apparently does not include the sailors and gunners 
 in the British ships who were so active in the fight, and who 
 killed the first American in the fort. 
 
 In 1794 the Freemasons of Charlestown built a monument of 
 brick and wood, twenty five feet high, upon the summit of the 
 hill. This was replaced in 1825, the semi-centennial of the battle, 
 by a massive obelisk two hundred and twenty-one feet high and 
 thirty feet square, the corner-stone being laid on Bunker Hill 
 Day in that year amid a concourse of fifty thousand people. The 
 presence of La Fayette as the guest of the occasion and of 
 Daniel Webster as its orator made this one of the great events 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 153 
 
 in American civic history. Webster's oration (together with the 
 oration that he delivered on Bunker Hill Day in 1843) is ranked 
 among his most masterly performances, and would alone serve to 
 immortalize the occasion. The centennial jubilee of the battle 
 was another memorable event, celebrated June 17, 1875, at 
 which Judge Charles Devens deHvered a notable address. 
 
 Burns Festival. A celebration in honor of the birthday 
 (January 25) of Eobert Burns (1759-1796), the great lyric poet 
 
 ^MMM&^MM^^^^ ^^ ^^&;^&i&&^^ ^^^ 
 
 
 Programme op the Burns Festival, 1896. 
 (Designed by John Leighton, F.S.A.) 
 
 of Scotland, is annually held in most of the large Scotch cities, 
 but especially at his native city of Ayr. Blackwood's Magazine 
 
154 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 for September, 1844, gives a long account of the earliest celebra- 
 tion of this sort. 
 
 It is curious to note that Burns himself had jocularly antici- 
 pated this. In a letter to his early patron Gavin Hamilton in 
 1786 he says, " For my own affairs I am in a fair way of becoming 
 as eminent as Thomas a Kempis or John Bunyan, and you may 
 expect henceforth to see my birthday inscribed among the won- 
 derful events in the Poor Eobin and Aberdeen Almanacks, along 
 with the Black-Monday and the Battle of Bothwell Bridge." 
 But even in his most burlesque mood he could not have exag- 
 gerated the interest which greeted the centennial anniversary 
 of his birth in 1859, when celebrations were held not only in 
 every town in Scotland, but wherever English is spoken, — in the 
 United States, in Canada, in Victoria, in Calcutta, in Hong-Kong, 
 in Natal. He could not even as a joke have anticipated that a 
 great festival would be held at the Crystal Palace, Sydenham, 
 nor that a perfect flood of Burnsiana should have inundated the 
 literary world. The centenary of his death was celebrated with 
 equal pomp on July 20, 1896. 
 
 Butchers' Leap. (Ger. Metzgersprung.) A festival cele- 
 brated once every three years by the butchers of Munich on 
 Fasching Montag (the Monday before Lent), in commemoration 
 of the manner in which their predecessors aided the coopers 
 (see Coopers' Dance) in suppressing the after-effects of the 
 plague of 1517. This was simply by leaping into the public 
 fountain, to prove to the people that the water was harmless. 
 
 The butchers begin the day by attending high mass at St. 
 Peter's Church, close to the Marienplatz, where the fountain is 
 situated. Then they form themselves into solemn procession. 
 First come the musicians, on foot, followed b}'- a baker's dozen 
 of chubby boys, sons of the master butchers, ranging in age from 
 four to six years, elaborately tricked out in green and scarlet, 
 and mounted on their fathers' great dray-horses, whose bridles 
 are held by the fathers themselves, the latter in dress-coats and 
 white gloves, carrying enormous bouquets in their hands. Then 
 ride ten butchers' apprentices (the leapersof the day), in scarlet 
 jackets and green hats, followed by another detachment of 
 master-butchers, on foot. Last of all walk two men in scarlet 
 jackets and flower-adorned hats, bearing aloft on their shoulders 
 two huge silver flagons, hung over with large silver medals, coins, 
 and chains. These flagons are of great antiquity and belong to 
 the butchers' guild. In this manner the j^rocession marches in 
 succession to the various royal palaces. Entering at each, they 
 present bouquets and tender a loving-cup to be passed around 
 among the princes and their families. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 155 
 
 By four o'clock in the afternoon the round of royalty has 
 been made, and everything is ready for the Leap. The ten 
 apprentices, their scarlet and gold exchanged for sheepskin gar- 
 ments all hung over with party-colored calves' tails, range them- 
 selves round the stone edge of the fountain, ready for the plunge. 
 A master-butcher puts them through a series of questions : as to 
 what they want ; if they know what an honor it is to belong to 
 the ancient, most loyal and honorable guild of butchers ; if they 
 are ready and willing to prove their courage and show them- 
 selves worthy of the privilege they ask, etc. ; to all of which 
 they answer in proper formula. Then a basket containing wine 
 and a number of small glasses is brought, and the master-butcher, 
 having filled a glass for each of the shaggy apprentices and one 
 for himself, tells them to drink to the health of H. E. H. the 
 Prince Eegent. A loud " Z/ebe hoch r rings out ; the eleven 
 glasses are emptied at the same moment, and thrown into the 
 fountain. More than fifty times this toasting is repeated (for- 
 tunately the glasses are very small, and the wine not of the 
 strongest quaHty), until the health of every member of the royal 
 family of Bavaria, young and old, is drunk, besides that of the 
 ministers, mayors, and principal authorities of Munich. 
 
 Then the master-butcher, giving the nearest apprentice a 
 sounding blow on the shoulder, tells him and his companions to 
 do their duty; which they d© by jumping, all ten, into the foun- 
 tain, at the same time, with a tremendous splash, and there 
 floundering about. Several baskets of apples and nuts are 
 emptied out into the small space round the fountain, which has 
 been kept clear by the police and soldiers from the invasion of 
 the crowd. 
 
 Then begins the tug of war. The youngsters in the crowd 
 commence pushing and squeezing themselves through, scram- 
 bling and fighting for the apples and nuts, while the ten monsters 
 in the fountain, catching up the little blue-and white buckets 
 there ready to hand, dash the water with a will over the shriek- 
 ing urchins, who, fleeing one moment before the deluge, return 
 the next, impelled by their overwhelming desire for the apples 
 and nuts, only to rush screaming away again as another drench- 
 ing shower greets their hardihood. 
 
 After this has continued about ten or fifteen minutes, and 
 the apace round the fountain is converted into a lake on which 
 floats the debris of the apples and nuts, the newly-made but- 
 chers come out of their bath, dripping like so many water- 
 dogs; a white cloth is tied round their necks, over which are 
 hung a quantity of silver medals as reward for their prowess, 
 and the Metzgersprung is over. {Catholic World, December, 1896, 
 p. 313.) 
 
156 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Butchers' Serenade. A sort of London Charivari (pace Mr. 
 Punch) anciently performed by the metropolitan butchers. These 
 made a point of attending in front of the house where a marriage 
 party was in progress. Each had a cleaver and a marrow-bone, 
 and by striking these instruments together they produced a rude 
 sort of music which was expected to draw forth gratuities from 
 the wedding guests. The group sometimes consisted of four, but 
 eight was considered the right complement. The cleaver of each 
 being ground to the production of a single note, a full band pro- 
 duced a complete octave, and if well trained the effect was not 
 unlike that of a peal of bells. When this serenade occurred in 
 the evening the men would be dressed in clean blue aprons and 
 w^ear an enormous wedding favor of white paper in their hats. 
 The men of Clare Market were reputed to be the best performers. 
 It cannot be added that the appearance of the serenaders was 
 always hailed with joy by the serenaded, but it was the delight 
 of the street-boys, who frequently joined in the music with tin 
 canisters filled with pebbles. Hogarth in the Marriage of the 
 Industrious Apprentice preserves what was no unusual spectacle 
 in his time, the arrival of the butcher serenaders, who in the 
 exercise of their ancient right push aside the legitimate musicians 
 that had been engaged for the occasion. Such affrays frequently 
 led to broken heads and the intervention of the police. (See 
 Charivari.) 
 
 Byzant, Bezant, Besant, or Byzantine. A coin of pure 
 gold, so named from having been first struck at Byzantium 
 (Constantinople) in the reign of the Emperor Constantine the 
 Great. These coins, or the gold circles representing them (for 
 they sometimes bore no impression), were introduced into Eu- 
 rope by the Crusaders, and became current from the ninth cen- 
 tury downward. In England they continued to circulate till 
 they were superseded by the noble of Edward III. (1327-1347), 
 and varied in value from fifteen pounds, when first introduced, 
 down to a sovereign, and finally to nine shillings four and one- 
 half pence. Owing to the association of the byzant with the 
 Crusades, — it was the coin in which the higher class of soldiers 
 that bore the cross were paid, — it acquired a sort of sacred 
 character. This accounts for the frequency of its appearance on 
 heraldic shields. Three byzants became the badge of the Medici 
 family, and were thence adopted as the national arms of Lom- 
 bardy. The Lombards became the first bankers or professional 
 money-lenders in England, and hence we have the three byzants 
 or balls now emploj^ed as the sign for a pawnbroker. The offer- 
 ing of gold made by the English sovereigns at the altar on re- 
 ceiving communion, and, on other occasions, was called their 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 157 
 
 byzant, and amounted to fifteen pounds ; and this sum the mon- 
 arch continued to present down to 1752. Sometimes, in a more 
 generous or penitent mood, his offering was a wedge of gold of 
 the vahie of thirty pounds. In the historical chronicle of the 
 Gentleman's Magazine for January 1, 1752, we find the following : 
 " Was a great court at St. James's to compliment his Majesty 
 and the royal family, but, on account of the mourning for the 
 Queen of Denmark (his Majestie's daughter), his Majesty did 
 not go to the royal chapel to offer the byzant." Camden, in his 
 "Eemains," article "Money," says that "a great piece of gold 
 valued at fifteen pounds, which the King offereth on high festival 
 days, is yec called a Byzantine, which was anciently a piece of 
 money coined by the Emperors of Constantinople ; but after- 
 wards there were two, purposely made for the king and queen, 
 with the resemblance of the Trinity, inscribed, 'J/i honorein 
 Sanctce Trinitatis,' and on the other side a figure of the Virgin 
 Marj', with the inscription, ' In honorem Sanctw Marice Virginis.' " 
 Byzants of this character continued to be used till the first year 
 of James I., who had new coins cast — one for the king and one 
 for the queen — with different inscriptions. A writer in 1779 
 says, " It is a very common idea (though not at the present 
 strictly true) that our kings offer on New Year s Day a byzant, 
 or wedge of gold. Whatever may have been the ancient cus- 
 tom, the present royal offering, whenever the king communi- 
 cates at the altar, is five guineas." He adds, " There is no offer- 
 ing on New Year's Day, but that made for the king by the lord 
 chamberlain on Twelfth Day is a box containing three purses, 
 wherein are separately contained leaf-gold, frankincense, and 
 myrrh, in imitation of the offerings of the Magi." The latter 
 custom is still kept up by the British sovereign on the feast of 
 the Epiphany {q. v.). 
 
 The town of Shaftesbury, in Dorsetshire, England, stands upon 
 the brow of a lofty hill, and till a comparatively recent period 
 its inhabitants had to depend for their water-supply on the little 
 village of Enmore G-reen, which lies below it in the valley. 
 Now, the burgesses of Shaftesbury w^ere frequently in the habit 
 of paying the lord of the manor of Enmore a stated sum 
 annually — not improbably an actual byzant — for the water- 
 privilege conceded them. But in process of time the byzant 
 became commuted into a different form, viz., into that of a 
 " trophy," the presentation of which constituted a formal ac- 
 knowledgment of obligation and indebtedness yearly made by 
 the mayor and town council of Shaftesbury to the lord of En- 
 more. On the morning of each Kogation Monday the town 
 authorities, leading burgesses, etc., went in solemn state and 
 procession to Enmore Green, where they were met by the 
 
158 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 steward of the manor. The mayor then formally presented the 
 "trophy" to him, along with a calf's head (uncooked), a gallon 
 of ale, two penny loaves, and a pair of gloves edged with gold 
 lace, craving, at the same time, permission to use the wells as 
 of old times. The steward, like a prudent man, retained the 
 comestibles, ale, and gloves, but returned the " trophy" to the 
 good people of Shaftesbury. Leave was granted to use the 
 wells, and the ceremony, of course, wound up with a dinner. 
 
 The "trophy," or byzant, which gave name to the festival, w^as 
 constructed of ribbons and peacock feathers, attached to a large 
 wooden frame, around which were hung jew^els, coins, and 
 medals, lent for the occasion by the gentry of the districts. 
 From a quotation in Brand's " Popular Antiquities," s.v. "Paro- 
 chial Perambulations in Eogation Week," it would seem that the 
 trophy was anciently called the Prize Besom (or Broom) ; and it 
 may be that Bezant in this connection is a corruption of Besom. 
 
 Latterly the festival degenerated, and, on the town falling 
 into the hands of the Superior of Enmore in 1830 and being 
 consolidated therewith, the ceremony was discontinued. 
 
 Cader Idris. (Welsh, " Chair of Idris.") Tennyson refers 
 to this chair in " Geraint and Enid :" 
 
 And when Geraint 
 Beheld her first in field, awaiting him, 
 He felt, were she the prize of bodily force, 
 Himself beyond the rest pushing could move 
 The chair of Idris. 
 
 On the summit of Cader Idris, a mountain-peak in Merioneth- 
 shire, Wales, there is a hollow, couch-like excavation, and this is 
 called the " Chair of Idris." The mountain is situated in what 
 was supposed to have been King Arthur's territory. It was a 
 tradition among the Welsh bards that whoever should pass the 
 night upon this seat would be found the next morning either 
 dead, mad, or endowed with supernatural powers. This tradi- 
 tion is alluded to in Mrs. Hemans's poem " The Eock of Cader- 
 Idris." 
 
 Idris figures in Welsh tradition as a prince, a magician, and an 
 astronomer. All authorities agree, however, upon his giant-like 
 proportions. In the " Lake of the Three Pebbles" near the base 
 of the mountain are three large blocks of stone which the giant 
 is said to have shaken out of one of his boots. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 159 
 
 Calendar. (From the Latin word Kalendce, or '' Calends.") 
 The standard by which aggregations of human beings agree to 
 measure the years, months, and days. Every Protestant and 
 Eoman Catholic nation now accepts what is known as the Gre- 
 gorian calendar, the most nearly accurate ever devised by the 
 wit of man. Japan has recently followed suit. But the Greek 
 Church adheres to the Julian calendar, and the Jews, Moham- 
 medans, and Chinese have each a different calendar, which will 
 be considered in turn. 
 
 As every one knows, the earth revolves round its axis, and 
 also travels round the sun, the one revolution causing the alter- 
 nation of day and night, the other that of the seasons. From 
 the earliest times men have made use of both these series of 
 changes as a means of reckoning time, and had there been a 
 simple numerical relation between them there need never have 
 been any trouble. 
 
 Unfortunately this is not the case. The number of revolu- 
 tions which the earth makes when it goes once round the sun, 
 instead of being a whole number, is a number and a fraction ; 
 or, in other words, the earth goes round the sun in three hun- 
 dred and sixty-five days, five hours, forty-eight minutes, and forty- 
 six seconds, or 365.2422 days. This was not discovered in a day. 
 Various guesses were made at the proper length of the year, and 
 calendars were drawn up in accordance with them. 
 
 The primeval system of reckoning time was based on the 
 moon's changes, as is shown in our word " month." By the 
 ruling of the moon months were reckoned with either twenty- 
 nine or thirty days. Soon the recurrence of the seasons sug- 
 gested the year. But now great difiiculty was experienced in 
 fitting the right number of days into a month, and the right 
 number of months into a year. One of the earliest means de- 
 vised was that in use among the Egyptians. By their arrange- 
 ment the year was made up of the seasons, and included three 
 hundred and sixty-five days, with twelve months of thirty days 
 each. To fill out the lack arising from this system of months, 
 five supplementary days were added at the end of the year. 
 
 The Jews reckoned their year as composed of twelve lunar 
 months of twenty-nine and thirty days alternately, and the re- 
 sulting discrepancy was relieved by the occasional introduction 
 of a thirteenth month. The Syrians, Macedonians, and kindred 
 peoples generally followed the Jewish method. In pursuing 
 this reckoning seven years in a cycle of nineteen have this inter- 
 calary month, and the number of days in any year varies from 
 three hundred and fifty-three to three hundred and eighty-five. 
 
 The ancient Greeks made their year to consist of twelve really 
 lunar months, but Solon in 594 B.C. made a law for the Athenians 
 
160 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 that the months should comprise twenty-nine and thirty days, with 
 the addition of an intercalary period occasionally. Afterwards 
 three times in eight years a month of thirty days was added, by 
 which means the average length of each year was made to be three 
 hundred and sixty-four and one-fourth days. Ancient Eome had 
 but ten months in the year, but in the time of its kings the lunar 
 year was introduced, numbering three hundred and fifty-five days 
 in the twelve months, an occasional intercalary month being em- 
 ployed to make the necessary rectification. The whole matter 
 was left to the College of the Pontifices, or priests who super- 
 intended the state rehgion. Theirs was the duty to watch the 
 seasons and ^ee when an intercalation was needed, and thus 
 keep the year balanced. Unfortunately, the Pontifices were poli- 
 ticians first and priests afterwards. Their judgment as to the 
 necessity of intercalation was governed largely by the considera- 
 tion whether to lengthen or shorten the year would accommodate 
 a friend or gratify a grudge. At last the year was so thoroughly 
 out of joint that Cicero speaks of being delayed by the equinoc- 
 tial storm in October. 
 
 This was the condition of things when Caesar, being Pontifex 
 Maximus and thus having the official direction of the calendar, 
 undertook a permanent reform. He consulted with Sosigenea, an 
 Egyptian astronomer. Basing his calculations upon the assump- 
 tion that the year is just three hundred and sixty -five days and 
 six hours long, he provided three years of three hundred and 
 sixty-five days followed by one of three hundred and sixty-six. 
 (See Leap- Year.) If the earth had any respect for round num- 
 bers, this arrangement would have been unimpeachable. But in 
 point of fact its solar revolution is performed in just about eleven 
 minutes less time than Caesar had imagined. Consequently the 
 Julian calendar made the year eleven minutes too long, the error 
 amounting to a day in one hundred and twenty-eight years. In 
 the course of the centuries the equinox gradually receded towards 
 the beginning of the year. 
 
 Now, the equinox was an important date in the Catholic 
 Church. The Council of Mce, which had assembled in 325 a.d,, 
 ordered, among other matters, that Easter should be celebrated 
 on the first Sunday after the full moon next following the vernal 
 equinox. This was a guide to other Church festivals. Advent 
 Sunday, Ascension Day, Whitsuntide, Trinity Sunday, the forty 
 days of Lent, the Ember days, the Eogation days, and others, 
 depended upon Easter. They had become, in the course of ages, 
 fasts and festivals intermingled with the daily concerns of life. 
 Planting and harvesting, dairy -work and sheep-shearing, felling 
 of timber and salving of kine, brewing ale, preparing conserves, 
 curing meats, housing garden-stufi's, distilling domestic spirits, 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 161 
 
 and drying medicinal herbs grew during tbe Dark Ages into 
 superstitious connection with certain holy days. But as every 
 revolving year failed to bring the earth quite back to the same 
 point in the ecliptic, the sun that warmed, the stars that were 
 supposed to vivify, and the elements that nourished the sown 
 seed grew slack in their work. The value of old traditions 
 decreased. Calculations failed. Farmers believed the seasons 
 to be changing. In the fifteenth century nine days of variation 
 had taken place, and the gap was constantly widening. 
 
 At last Pope Gregory XIII. effected a new reformation of the 
 calendar, in a bull dated March 1, 1582. 
 
 To restore the civil year to a correspondence with the astro- 
 nomical, he ordered that the 5th of October, 1582, should be 
 called the 15th. To prevent the intrusion of the same errors in 
 the measurement of time in future ages, and to secure the re- 
 currence of the festivals of the Church at the same period of 
 the year, he further decreed that every year whose number is 
 not divisible by four shall consist of three hundred and sixty- 
 five days ; every year which is so divisible, but not divisible by 
 one hundred, of three hundred and sixty-six days; every year 
 divisible by one hundred, but not by four hundred, of three 
 hundred and sixty-five ; and every year divisible by four hun- 
 dred, of three hundred and sixty-six. A more perfect corre- 
 spondence of the civil and astronomical years will probably 
 never be obtained. In the preparation of this rule every source 
 of disagreement is estimated, and as far as possible corrected. 
 The allowance of an extra day every fourth year is indeed a 
 small excess ; but this is not allowed to accumulate, for at the 
 commencement of every century the centennial year is not to 
 consist of three hundred and sixty-six days, or, in other words, 
 is not to be counted a leap-year, unless its number can be divided 
 by four hundred. Thus, the year 1600 was a leap-year, and the 
 year 2000 will be the same ; but the years 1700 and 1800 con- 
 tained, and the year 1900 will contain, only three hundred and 
 sixty-five days. 
 
 Pope Gregory's correction gives an average year of 365.2425 
 days, or twenty-six seconds longer than the true year. These 
 odd seconds will amount to a whole year in 3323 years, and 
 it has been proposed to allow for this error by providing 
 that the year 4000 and all its multiples shall be common years. 
 But this would be pedantic foresight, and it is unnecessary to 
 discuss the question whether the year 4000 ought or ought not 
 to be a leap-year. In ages yet to come, when the friction of the 
 tides shall have so retarded the rotation of the earth that three 
 hundred and sixty-five days will make a year, leap-years will be 
 unnecessary. But that is a still remoter contingency, and in the 
 
 11 
 
162 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 mean time Pope Gregory's calendar is likely to remain in its 
 present form. 
 
 And now an extraordinary bit of bigotry must be recorded. 
 The Gregorian calendar, exacted by necessity, founded upon 
 science, recommended by common sense, and universal in benefit, 
 was at first accepted only in Catholic countries. In the Protes- 
 tant states of Germany the Julian calendar was retained until 
 1700, and the Gregorian in its entirety was not received until 
 1774. In Denmark and Sweden the reformed calendar was 
 accepted in 1700. Scotland adopted it in 1600. But England 
 held out until 1751. It was then enacted that eleven days should 
 be omitted after the 2d of September, 1752, so that the ensuing- 
 day should be the 14th. The enactment was not carried out 
 without bitter popular opposition. Many honest Protestants 
 imagined that they were defrauded by some Papistical or devilish 
 ingenuity of the days omitted Irom the calendar. " Give us 
 back our eleven days," was a cry with which many an unpopular 
 statesman was greeted. Kussia, Greece, and the smaller states, 
 such as Servia, belonging to the Greek Church, are the only 
 countries now adhering to the Julian calendar, which is known 
 as Old Style, frequently abbreviated to O. S., while the Gregorian 
 is New Style, or N. S. " 
 
 At present — since 1800 was a leap-year according to Old 
 Stjde and a common year according to New Style — there is a 
 difference of twelve days between the styles. The resultant 
 inconveniences in Eussia and Greece are very great. Letters to 
 foreign countries, orders for shipments, times of departure for 
 steamers and sailing-vessels, news from abroad, advertisements 
 of the holding of international fairs, and one knows not what 
 besides, must all bear two dates, — Old Style and New. The 
 mariner cannot read the nautical almanac, nor the merchant 
 accept a draft from abroad, nor the broker determine foreign 
 exchanges, without having two dates at hand. Advices cannot 
 be understood, bills of lading cannot be made effective, telegrams 
 cannot be comprehended, without an extra labor, small in each 
 instance, but large in the aggregate, which the Julian calendar 
 in Russia imposes. "Does he mean Old Style or New?" is a 
 question asked in St. Petersburg and Moscow thousands of times 
 in a day. 
 
 The calendar underwent some fantastic changes at the time 
 of the French Revolution. The Convention charged its Com- 
 mittee of Public Instruction to mark the new era on which 
 France seemed to be entering by creating a new calendar, which 
 should be purely civil. The excuse was that it had degenerated 
 into a sort of record of saints' days and served chiefly to mark 
 the festivals of the Catholic Church. The new system was 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 163 
 
 presented and adopted in the autumn of 1793, or just at the 
 period of the Terror, with the exception of the names of the 
 months, which as first reported by the committee bore such 
 fantastic names as Jeu de Paume (" ball-playing"), Niveau 
 ("level"), Bastile, Bonnet, Pique ("pike"), etc. The Assembly 
 preferred to call the months first, second, third, etc., after the 
 present manner of the Quakers. The weeks, which represented 
 no natural divisions of time, but served only to perpetuate tlie 
 superstitions of ancient, astrologers, were suppressed, and the 
 month was divided into three decades or fractions of ten days 
 each. The year was divided into twelve months of thirty daj^s 
 each, and kept in its proper relation to the seasons by five days 
 added in ordinary years and six every leap-year. It was pro- 
 posed that the days should be divided into ten parts, a change 
 that could not be conveniently made at the moment, since it 
 would have rendered necessary the entire remodelling of every 
 clock in France. The new system, being dated backward, went 
 into operation on September^ 22, 1792, which was the year 1 of 
 the new epoch, but the first year was only three months long, 
 the second beginning on January 1, 1793. Great inconvenience 
 resulted immediately from its practical use. For instance, it 
 was found necessary to employ such phrases as the following : 
 " The first day of the first decade of the first month of the first 
 year of the republic," for which it appeared that life was far too 
 brief, especially when the Terror was beL!:inning to count its 
 victims by the thousand. So the poet Fabre d' Eglantine was 
 charged with the task of finding more suitable names for the 
 months and days. The system of the new almanac-maker was 
 based on nature itself, — that is, nature as seen in the north of 
 France, — and it was intended to serve as a manual of labor and 
 rural instruction for the present. 
 
 Here is the calendar as reformed on this educational basis : 
 
 Vendemiaire (Vintage), September 22 to October 21. 
 Brumaire (Eoggy), October 22 to November 20. 
 Frimaire (Sleety), November 21 to December 20. 
 Nivose (Snowy), December 21 to January 19. 
 Pluviose (Kainy), January 20 to February 18. 
 Ventose (Windy), February 19 to March 20. 
 Germinal (Budding), March 21 to April 19. 
 Floreal (Flowery), April 20 to May 19. 
 Prairial (Pasture), May 20 to June 18. 
 Messidor (Harvest), June 19 to Julv 18. 
 Thermidor (Heat), July 19 to August 17. 
 Fructidor (Fruit), August 18 to September 16. 
 
 The system of the decade was not changed, but each day 
 received a name according to its number, as Primidi (" first 
 
164 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 day"), Duodi (" second day"), etc. One extra day was called 
 Sans-Culottides, to honor the new aristocracy of the common 
 people. They formed half a decade of festal days in which 
 Virtue, Genius, Labor, Opinion, and Eewards were to be cele- 
 brated. Nothing can give an idea better than this almanac of 
 the peculiarly unpractical character of the French of that epoch 
 called upon to govern so suddenly after so many ages of abso- 
 lute servitude. This republican almanac was in use until the year 
 1806, — that is, nearly twelve years and three months, — when 
 Bonaparte, partly as a compliment to the Papal court, which he 
 desired to conciliate, put an end to it and restored the Gregorian 
 calendar. The change was accomplished in the form of a law 
 proposed to the senate by the government orators, and had the 
 effect of replacing things just where they were at the beginning 
 of 1793. This event occurred in the month Nivose of the so- 
 called year 14, which had lasted but one hundred days, as the 
 year 1 had had an existence of but three months. Such an 
 absurdit}' as this eifort to revolutionize the almanac can never 
 occur again, the inconvenience of a special calendar for a single 
 nation being recognized. 
 
 To Auguste Comte we owe the pregnant idea of a calendar for 
 the race, in which every day should recall to us the name of a 
 predecessor memorable in some one of the varied departments 
 of human activity, the whole forming a record of our progress 
 towards civilization intended to rouse gratitude and stimulate 
 effort. 
 
 The Jewish calendar is dated from the creation, which is con- 
 sidered to have taken place 3750 years and 3 months before the 
 commencement of the Christian era. The year is luni-solar, and 
 may be ordinary or embolismic. An ordinary year has twelve 
 lunar months, each of twenty -nine or thirty days ; an em- 
 bolismic year has thirteen. Thus, the duration of the ordinary 
 year is three hundred and fifty-four days, and that of the em- 
 bolismic is three hundred and eighty-four days. In either case 
 it is sometimes made a day more or a day less in order that cer- 
 tain festivals may fall upon proper days of the week for their 
 due observance. The names of the months are Tisri, Hesvan, 
 Kislev, Tebet, Sebat, Adar (with Yeadar in embolismic years), 
 Msan, Yiar, Sivan, Tamuz, Ab, Elul. The New Year, 1st Tisri, 
 occurs anywhere between September 5 and October 5 of our 
 computation. 
 
 The Mohammedan calendar is dated from the flight of Mo- 
 hammed from Mecca to Medina, which was in the night of Jul}" 
 15-16, 622. The years always consist of twelve lunar months. 
 They are partitioned into cycles of thirty years, nineteen of 
 which are common years of three hundred and fifty-four days 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 165 
 
 each ; the other eleven are intercalary years having an addi- 
 tional day appended to the last month. The mean length of ihe 
 year is therefore three hundred and fifty-four days, eight hours, 
 and forty-eight minutes. No attempt is made to square the 
 calendar with the astronomical year, so that the months retro- 
 grade through all the seasons in about thirty-two and one-half 
 years. The first day of Muharram is New Year, but it may of 
 course occur in midwinter or in midsummer or at any inter- 
 vening period. 
 
 The Hindoo year began with the new moon preceding the 
 beginning of the solar year, and when two lunar months began 
 within the same solar month the first one was intercalated. If 
 no lunar month began in a particular solar month, the year lost 
 an ordinary month, but two intermediate months were added. 
 Each Hindoo month had a particular name, and the new moons 
 served to fix the beginnings of the months and years. The 
 Hindoo years began with zero,^ the first year counting as 0, the 
 second as 1, and so on. These were arranged in cycles of sixty 
 years. The Hindoos reckoned their time by " ages," and these 
 were divided into periods. The first age, sometimes called the 
 age of gold and sometimes the age of innocence, was supposed 
 to be 1,728,000 years ; the second age, an age of silver, 1,296,000 
 years ; the third age, 864,000 years. The present age is the Kali 
 yuga, or the age of iron ; only 4985 years of it have passed, but 
 its total duration is supposed to be 432,000 years. 
 
 Some idea of the enormous length of the Hindoo calendar can 
 be gained from the following. The length of a patriarchate is 
 seventy-one maha vugas, or 306,720,000 years, to which is added 
 a twilight period of 1,728,000 years, making in all 308,448,000 
 years. Fourteen of these patriarchates, augmented by a dawn 
 of 1,728,000 years, give 4,320,000,000 years, which form a Kalpa, 
 or the seon of Hindoo chronology. Now, a Kalpa is only a day 
 in the life of Brahma, whose nights are also of the same dura- 
 tion. Brahma lives a hundred years of three hundred and sixty 
 days and three hundred and sixty nights. Accordingly it is 
 figured that the present epoch is the Kali yuga of the twenty- 
 seventh grand age of the seventh patriarchate of the first seon 
 of the second half of the life of Brahma, who is now in his 
 155,521,972,848,985th spring. But we should remember that the 
 whole life of Brahma is only a little longer than a single wink 
 of the great god Siva's eye! 
 
 The Chinese civil year is regulated by the moon, and from the 
 time of the Han dynasty, two centuries before Christ, has begun 
 with the first day of that moon, during the course of which the 
 sun enters their sign of the zodiac corresponding to our sign 
 Pisces. They have also an astronomical year which is solar, 
 
1G6 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 and for the adjustment of these solar and lunar years employ a 
 system similar to our leap-year plan, except that instead of an 
 intercalary day every fourth year, as in the Gregorian calendar, 
 they insert an intercalary month occurring alternately every 
 third and second year in periods of nineteen. The year, there- 
 fore, contains thirteen or twelve months according as it has or 
 has not an intercalary one. A month has either twenty-nine or 
 thirty days, the number of days being intended to correspond to 
 the number of days which the moon takes to make the revolu- 
 tion around the earth. A months indeed, means one moon^ the 
 same Chinese character being used to indicate both. So, too, the 
 number used to indicate the age of the moon at any time denotes 
 also the day of the month ; thus, there is always a full moon on 
 the 15th, no moon on the 1st, etc. Consequently the moon al- 
 ways presents the same appearance on the same day in any 
 month from year to year. This plan is particularly convenient 
 for farmers and sailors, whose memory is thus materially assisted 
 in remembering the changes of moon and tides. The era used 
 by the Chinese in their histories is, next to that of the Jews, the 
 oldest employed by any nation, as for over four thousand years 
 they have for chronological purposes made use of a series of 
 dail}', monthly, and yearly cycles of sixty. Each day, month, 
 and year has its own name in its cycle, and by compounding 
 these names a single one is made to express the date employed. 
 A new cjX'le began in 1864, But the common events of every- 
 day life among the Chinese have during these last twenty cen- 
 turies been dated from the year of the accession of the reign- 
 ing emperor. Some particular name, usually that of the new 
 sovereign, is given by official proclamation to each reign, the 
 years being numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. A record of these eras is 
 kept, called a Catalogue of the Nienh-hao. 
 
 Candle, Sale by. An old method of conducting an auction, 
 which has its most frequent survival in France. In sales of im- 
 portance the affair is placed in the hands of a notary, who for 
 the time being becomes an auctioneer. The auctioneer is pro- 
 vided with a number of small wax tapers, each capable of burn- 
 ing about five minutes. As soon as a bid is made, one of these 
 tapers is placed in full view of all interested parties and lighted. 
 If before the flame expires another bid is offered, it is imme- 
 diately extinguished and a fresh taper placed in its stead, and so 
 on until one flickers and dies out of itself, when the last bid be- 
 comes irrevocable. This simple plan prevents all contention 
 among rival bidders, and affords a reasonable time for reflection 
 before making a higher offer than the one preceding. By this 
 means, too, the auctioneer is prevented from exercising undue 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 167 
 
 influence upon the bidders or hastily accepting the bid of a 
 favorite. 
 
 The custom of selling by candle was once prevalent in Eng- 
 land. Pepys refers in his Diary to this in the following extract 
 (September 3, 1662) : " After dinner we met and sold the Way- 
 mouth, Successe, and Fellowship hulks, when pleasant to see how 
 backward men are at first to bid ; and yet, when the candle is 
 going out, how they bawl and dispute afterwards who bid the 
 most first. And here 1 observed one man eunninger than the 
 rest, that was sure to bid the last man, and to carry it ; and in- 
 quiring the reason, he told me that just as the flame goes out the 
 smoke descends, which is a thing I never observed before; and 
 by that he do know the instant when to bid last." 
 
 A few local survivals of the custom in England are noted by 
 Mr. Ditchfield : 
 
 " At Aldermaston, Berks, land is let by means of a lighted 
 candle. The villagers assemble in the schoolroom on the occa- 
 sion of the letting of the ' Church Acre,' a piece of meadowland 
 which was bequeathed some centuries ago to the vicar and 
 churchwardens of the parish for the expenses of the church. 
 The custom is as follows. A candle is lighted, and one inch 
 below the flame is duly measured ofi", at which point a pin is in- 
 serted. The bidding then commences, and continues till the 
 inch of candle is consumed and the pin drops out. Every three 
 years this ancient ceremony is performed. At Tatworth, near 
 Chard, a sale by hghted candle takes place every year, and at 
 Chedzoy the ' Church Acre' is let every twenty-one years by 
 this means. The land belonging to the parish charities in the 
 village of Corby, near Kettering, is let every eight years by the 
 sale of candle, and the procedure is similar to that which has 
 already- been described. Also in Warwickshire, where old cus- 
 toms die hard, the grazing rights upon the roadside and on the 
 common lands at Warton, near Polesworth, have been annually 
 let by the same means. This custom has been observed since 
 the time of George III., when an old Act of Parliament was 
 passed directing that the herbage should be sold by candle-light, 
 and that the last bidder when the flame had burned itself out 
 should be the purchaser. The surveyor presides at the auction, 
 and produces an old book containing the record of the annual 
 lettings since the year 1815. An ordinary candle is then cut 
 into five equal portions, about half an inch high, one for each 
 lot." 
 
 At Bremen a long-established custom was discontinued with 
 the end of 1893. Every Friday afternoon, in a room in the old 
 Exchange, a judge and his secretary took their seats, attended 
 by a crier and a servant dressed in a flame-colored coat, and 
 
168 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 supplied with a box of tiny matches, each of which was intended 
 to burn for one minute. At a given signal a candle was lighted, 
 and the bidding began. At each bid the burning candle was ex- 
 tinguished and a new one lighted, and the property was dis- 
 posed of only when the candle burned itself out before the 
 receipt of a fresh bid had been announced by the crier. 
 
 Candlemas Day, known also as The Purification of the 
 Blessed Virgin, Christ's Presentation at The Temple, 
 and colloquially in England as The Wives' Feast. A festival 
 
 Candlemas Procession in Rome. 
 (From Picart.) 
 
 celebrated in the Anglican, Eoman, and Greek Churches on 
 February 2. This, being the fortieth day after the birth of 
 Christ, was the day on which, according to Levitical rules, the 
 purification of the mother and the presentation of the son should 
 occur. (See Churching of Women.) The institution of the 
 festival is attributed to Pope Grelasius, in the latter part of the 
 fifth century. In many of its details it shows itself to be a 
 Christianization of the pagan Februalia celebrated in ancient 
 Eome at about the same period. In fact, this is expressly 
 acknowledged by Pope Innocent XTI. in the course of a sermon : 
 " Why do we in this feast carry candles ? Because the Gentiles 
 
 i 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 169 
 
 dedicated the month of February to the infernal gods, and as at 
 the beginning of it Pluto stole Proserpine, and her mother Ceres 
 sought her in the night with lighted candles, so they, at the 
 beginning of this month, walked about the city with lighted 
 candles. Because the holy fathers could not extirpate this 
 custom, they ordained that "Christians should carry about candles 
 in honor of the Blessed Virgin ; and thus what was done before 
 to the honor of Ceres is now done to the honor of the Yirgin." 
 In the Eastern Church the festival was adopted by the Emperor 
 Justinian in 542 under the name of 'TTranavrij, or "meeting," 
 because Simeon and Anna the prophetess met in the temple at 
 the presentation of Christ. (Luke ii.) The keynote of the 
 festival in the Greek Church is formed by these words of Simeon 
 addressed to the infant Christ, " A light to lighten the Gentiles, 
 and the glory of thy people Israel." In the West the Yirgin 
 came to be the most important figure of the day, and the words 
 of Simeon, " Yea, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul 
 also," were taken to denote the first of her seven sorrows, which 
 were often represented in a matter-of-fact way as seven swords 
 in the heart of the Mater Dolorosa. 
 
 The special services of the day among Eoman Catholics con- 
 sist of a blessing of candles by the priests and a distribution of 
 them to the congregation, by which they are afterwards carried 
 lighted in solemn procession. 
 
 Before the downfall of the Papacy, the Pope used to officiate 
 at this festival in the chapel of the Quirinal. When he had 
 blessed the candles he distributed them with his own hand 
 among those in the church, each of whom, going singly up to 
 him, knelt to receive it. The cardinals went first ; then followed 
 bishops, canons, priors, abbots, priests, and others, down to the 
 sacristans and humblest officers of the Church. Then the 
 candles were lighted, the Pope was seated in his chair and 
 carried in procession, with the, chanting of hymns, around the 
 ante-chapel ; the throne was stripped of its splendid hangings, 
 the Pope and cardinals took off their gold and crimson robes, 
 and the usual mass of the morning was sung. 
 
 It appears that in England, in Catholic times, a meaning was 
 attached to the size of the candles and the manner in which 
 they burned during the procession ; that, moreover, the reserved 
 parts of the candles were deemed to possess a strong super- 
 natural virtue. 
 
 Candlemas in the Middle Ages was the favorite time for the 
 ceremony among Christian mothers analogous to the Mosaic 
 presentation in the temple. Hence came the custom of bear- 
 ing candles for those services at other times of the year. In 
 England, however, men were not particularly attentive to the 
 
170 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 pious custom, for it is recorded that " Men seldom offer candles 
 at women's churcbynges saving our Ladle's, but reason it is that 
 she have some pieferement ;" and, even though she did have 
 some preferment, the English before the Eeformation were in- 
 clined to find fault because they were not allowed to eat flesh 
 every Saturday with joy and pardon in honor of the Virgin, as 
 was done in Flanders, saying, " the Pope is not so good to us," 
 and drawing the conclusion that there was as good reason for 
 them to eat flesh with the Flemish " as that we shuld bear our 
 Candel to her Churchinge at Candlemas with theym as they doe." 
 
 With the Eeformation there came a reaction against the high 
 honor paid the Virgin. John Bale in 1554 complained that it 
 was a Eomish error '' to beare their Candels soberly and to offer 
 them to the Saintes, not of God's makynge, but the Carvers and 
 Paynters," and in the thirtieth year of his reign Henry VIII. 
 issued a proclamation, saying, " On Candelmas Daye it shall be 
 declared that the bearynge of Candels is done in the memorie of 
 Christe, the spirituall lyghte whom Simeon dyd prophecye, as it 
 is redde in the Churche that daye." This brought the festival 
 back to the old Greek meaning. In the most ancient pictures 
 and mosaics Simeon is the figure of importance, as the type of 
 those who recognized and embraced the Messiah, and his song, 
 the " Nunc Dimittis," furnished one of the names by which the 
 day was known. 
 
 On Candlemas Eve all Christmas greens must be taken down. 
 Herrick has this little poem on the subject : 
 
 A Ceremony upon Candlemas Eve. 
 
 Down with the Eosemary, and so 
 Down with the Baies and Mistletoe ; 
 Down with the Holly, Ivie, all 
 Wherewith ye drest the Christmas Hall ; 
 That so the superstitious find 
 Not one least hranch there left behind, 
 For look, how many leaves there be 
 Neglected there. Maids, trust to me, 
 So many Goblins you shall see. 
 
 He also alludes to the reservation of part of the candles or 
 torches, as calculated to have the effect of protecting from 
 mischief: 
 
 Kindle the Christmas brand, and then 
 
 Till sunset let it burn, 
 Which quenched, then lay it up again, 
 Till Christmas next return 
 
 Part must be kept, wherewith to teend 
 
 The Christmas log next year ; 
 And where 'tis safely kept, the fiend 
 
 Can do no mischief there. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 171 
 
 Candlemas is everywhere a great day for weather prognos- 
 tications. But these prognostications, like dreams, go by con- 
 traries, fine weather on Candlemas foretelling a succession of un- 
 seasonably cold days and necessarily a failure of the crops, while 
 foul weather on that day is a sure promise of a bright spring, 
 with a summer to match. Numerous popular rhymes in England 
 and Scotland embody this superstition : 
 
 If Candlemas Day be dry and fair, 
 The half o' winter's to come and mair ; 
 If Candlemas Day be wet and foul, 
 The half o' winter's gane at Yule. 
 
 If Candlemas Day be fair and bright, 
 Winter will have another flight ; 
 But if it be dark with clouds and rain,_ 
 Winter is gone, and will not come again. 
 
 The hind had as lief see 
 
 His wife on the bier 
 As that Candlemas Day 
 
 Should be pleasant and clear. 
 
 " The Country Almanac" in 1676 came out with this version 
 of the story : 
 
 Foul weather is no news ; hail, rain, and snow 
 Are now expected, and esteem 'd no woe ; 
 Nay, 'tis an omen bad, the yeomen say. 
 If Phoebus shows his face the second day. 
 
 Though they expected foul weather, still the yeomen thought 
 that by that time the worst of the winter was past, and they had 
 the proverb, — 
 
 When Candlemas Day is come and gone, 
 The snow lies on a hot stone. 
 
 In Germany there are two proverbial expressions on this sub- 
 ject : " The shepherd would rather see the wolf enter his stable 
 on Candlemas Day than the sun." " The badger peeps out of 
 his hole on Candlemas Day, and when he finds snow walks 
 abroad ; but if he sees the sun shining he draws back into his 
 hole." 
 
 The Germans have brought over with thera to America the 
 superstition about the badger. But as the badger, even in its 
 distinctly American variety, is little known east of the Missis- 
 sippi Eiver, the fable has been transferred from its shoulders 
 to those of the woodchuck, or ground-hog. Farmers in the 
 (Middle States give the name of Ground-Hog Day to Candlemas. 
 \l'hcy will tell you that it is the day whereon the ground-hog 
 awakens from his hibernating slumber, stretches himself, and 
 
172 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 comes out of his hole to look for his shadow. If he finds it, — 
 that is to say, if the sun be shining out of a clear sky so that 
 the woodchuck casts a shadow, — he hurries back to his hole and 
 to sleep again, knowing that it is but a temporary meteorological 
 change, which must speedily be followed by a renewal of wintry 
 severity. But if the sky be overcast and the sun obscured, and 
 the day be cold and cheerless, and the ground-hog casts no 
 shadow, then he exults and disports himself, and counts his 
 slumbers at an end, for he knows that winter also is at its end. 
 
 The following rhymes, common in the rural parts of New 
 England, may be contrasted with the similar versified proverbs 
 of Old England and Scotland, in regard to the prophetic quality 
 of Candlemas weather : 
 
 As far as the sun shines out on Candlemas Day, 
 So far will the snow blow in before May ; 
 As far as the snow blows in on Candlemas Day, 
 So far will the sun shine out before May. 
 
 The ground-hog was not the only medium to foretell the future 
 on Candlemas. According to Martin, in his " Description of the 
 Western Islands," the Hebrideans observed this custom : " The 
 mistress and servants of each family take a sheaf of oats and 
 dress it up in women's apparel, put it in a large basket, and lay 
 a wooden club by it, and this they call ' Briid's Bed ;' and then 
 the mistress and servants cry three times, ' Briid is come ! Briid 
 is welcome!' This they do just before going to bed, and when 
 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 a bad omen." Briid may be a 
 corruption of Bridget, whose day occurs on the eve of Candlemas. 
 
 There is a custom of old standing in Scotland in connection 
 with Candlemas Day. On that day it is, or lately was, the uni- 
 versal practice for children attending school to make small pres- 
 ents of money to their teachers. The master sits at his desk or 
 table, exchanging for the moment his usual authoritative look 
 for one of bland civility, and each child goes up in turn and lays 
 his ofi'ering before him, the sum being generally proportioned to 
 the abilities of the parents. Sixpence and a shilling are the 
 common sums in most schools, but some give half and whole 
 crowns, and even more. The boy and girl who give most are re- 
 spectively styled king and queen. The children being then dis- 
 missed for a holiday proceed along the streets in a confused pro- 
 cession, carrying the king and queen in state. In some schools 
 it used to be customary for the teacher, on the conclusion of the 
 offerings, to make a bowl, of punch and regale each urchin with 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 173 
 
 a glass and a biscuit. The latter part of the day was usually 
 devoted to what was called the Candlemas bleeze, or blaze, — 
 namely, the burning of any piece of furze which might exist in 
 their neighborhood. 
 
 Another old custom in Scotland on Candlemas Day was to hold 
 a foot-ball match. On one occasion, not long ago, when the 
 sport took place in Jedburgh, the contending parties, after a 
 struggle of two hours in the streets,, transferred the contention 
 to the bed of the river Jed, and there fought it out amid a scene 
 of fearful splash and dabblement, to the infinite amusement of a 
 multitude looking on from the bridge. 
 
 Candles, Use of. A candle (Lat. candeo, " I burn") was origi- 
 nally made of wax, and wax candles are still used in the religious 
 ceremonies of the Roman, English, and Greek Churches. An 
 old legend of non-ecclesiastical origin asserts that bees derive 
 their origin from Paradise, and are especially blessed by the 
 Almighty; therefore mass ought not to be performed without 
 the aid of the wax derived from these favored creatures. St. 
 Luke (Acts xx. 7, 8) mentions the great number of lamps which 
 burned in the upper chamber while St. Paul "continued his 
 speech until midnight." The fact that Christian assemblies 
 during the ages of persecution were held before dawn made a 
 similar employment of lights necessary. Moreover, the early 
 Christians, familiar as they were with the Old Testament sym- 
 bolism, in connection with the candlestick in the tabernacle and 
 the temple, doubtless attached similar significance to the lights 
 which they burned during the sacred mysteries. This conjecture 
 is confirmed by the fact that the Church of the fourth century 
 still continued the religious use of lights when they were no 
 longer needed to dispel the darkness. " Throughout the churches 
 of the East," says Jerome, writing against Yigilantius, " hghts 
 are kindled when the Gospel is to be read, although the sun is 
 shining, not indeed to drive away the darkness, but as a sign of 
 spiritual joy." A similar custom prevailed in the West. The 
 mediaeval author of the " Micrologus" w^rites, " According to the 
 Eoman order, we never celebrate mass without lights, . . . using 
 them as a type of that light without which even in midday we 
 grope as in the night." 
 
 According to the present Catholic usage, mass cannot be cele- 
 brated without candles of pure wax and of white color, save at 
 masses for the dead, when candles of yellow wax are to be sub- 
 stituted. Two candles must be lighted at a low mass, unless the 
 mass be said for the convent or the parish, or on one of the 
 greater solemnities, when four may be used. Six candles are 
 lighted at high mass, seven at a bishop's mass. No less than 
 
174 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 twelve candles must be lighted at Benediction of the Blessed 
 Sacrament, or six if Benediction be given with a pyx. Candles 
 must also be lighted when communion is given either in a church 
 or in a private house, and one lighted candle is required at ex- 
 treme unction. The use of candles at funerals dates back to the 
 fourth century. 
 
 There are many instances during the Middle Ages of persons 
 having a candle made, as a special devotion, of the same height 
 or the same weight as themselves. Erasmus gibes at this in the 
 " Colloquies," where a Zealander is represented during a storm as 
 promising to St. Christopher a wax candle as large as the saint's 
 statue in the great church in Paris. 
 
 Louisa Costello in " A Summer among the Bocages," i. 341, 
 tells of the custom of presenting a very large candle to St, 
 Sebastian at his church on the Loire. It was placed in a boat 
 instead of a mast, and was borne with infinite ceremony to the 
 church. 
 
 In some parts of Ireland it was usual on Christmas Eve to 
 burn a large candle which no one was permitted to snuff except 
 those who bore the name of Mary. 
 
 There was at one time in England a due called wax-shot or 
 wax-scot, a gift of wax candles presented to churches three 
 times a year. What were called wax-rolls were pieces or cakes 
 of wax, flat circular disks, presented to churches, for the use of 
 which they were made into candles or tapers. Mr. Toulmin 
 Smith has published some interesting researches on this subject 
 gathered from the " Original Ordinances of more than One Hun- 
 dred Early English Guilds," compiled by order of a Parliament 
 held at Cambridge in the time of Richard II. 
 
 Wax candles, or wax to make into candles, are frequently 
 mentioned in the records, sometimes as presentations to churches, 
 abbeys, and convents, sometimes as forfeits or penalties. 
 
 The Guild of St. Katherine, Aldersgate, prescribed that five 
 round tapers of wax, of the weight of twenty pounds, were to 
 burn on high feast days to the honor of God, of the Virgin 
 Mary, of St. Katherine and all saints, and to be used to light 
 round the body of a dead brother, and in his funeral procession. 
 The wardens of St. Botolph's Guild, Norwich, stated in their 
 return that they had in hand twenty-six shillings and eightpence 
 for the maintenance of a light. The Guild of St. George in the 
 same city had in hand forty shillings for the support of a light 
 and the making of an image. In relation to St. Katherine's 
 Guild, another in old Norwich, "of the chattel of the guild shall 
 there be two candles of wax, of sixteen pounds weight, about 
 the body of the dead," whenever any brother or sister departed 
 this life. The Guild of Young Scholars at Lynn was established 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 175 
 
 chiefly to maintain an image of St. William, standing in a taber- 
 nacle in the church of St. Margaret, with six tapers of wax burn- 
 ing on festival days. The Guild of St. Elene at Beverley kept 
 three wax lights burning every Sunday and feast day, in honor 
 of St. Elene; while at the morning mass of Christmas Day thir- 
 teen wax lights were burned. There must have been a goodly 
 amount of wax consumed on the Feast of Candlemas by the 
 Guild of St. Mary at Beverley ; for the brethren got up a pageant, 
 in which two youths representing angels carried a chandelier or 
 compound candlestick containing twenty- four thick wax lights, 
 and the other members each carried a wax light. In the Guild 
 of the Eesurrection of Our Lord, at Lincoln, at the funeral rites 
 of a brother, thirteen wax lights were burned in four stands. In 
 the Guild of St. Katherine at Stamford a fine of one pound of 
 wax, plus twopence, was imposed on any member absent from 
 the guild feast; and, as the feast itself was valued at twopence 
 per head, the absentee paid for a dinner which he did not eat, 
 besides losing a pound of wax. 
 
 Wax lights were indispensable accompaniments to the other 
 adornments of the royal palace, the feudal castle, and the baro- 
 nial mansion of the olden time. In the Wardrobe Accounts 
 of Edward lY., somewhat less than four centuries ago, there 
 is a curious entry to the following effect: "William Whyte, 
 tallough chaiindeller, for iij dosen and ix lb. of p's candell, for to 
 light when the king's highness and goode grace on a nyght come 
 unto his sayd grete warderobe, and at other divers tymes." From 
 other entries it appears that p's was sometimes spelled peris, 
 sometimes pares, sometimes parys: it is believed that the lights 
 so used were called Paris candles. In that singular forerunner 
 of our modern books of etiquette called the "Boke of Curtasye," 
 written about the same period as the Wardrobe Accounts above 
 adverted to, there is distinct mention of wax candles and Paris 
 candles, but without any notification as to the materials whereof 
 the latter were made : 
 
 In chambre no lyght ther shall e be brent 
 But of wax, thereto yf ye take tent : 
 In halle at soper schalle candels brenne 
 Of Parys, therein that alle men kenne. 
 
 Here we are told of wax candles in the chamber and Paris 
 candles in the hall, the former probably more delicate and costly 
 than the latter. 
 
 In Paris, the police commissary of the district of St.-Germain- 
 I'Auxerrois receives annually a present of ten pounds of candles 
 from the Chamber of Notaries. " The origin of this observance 
 dates a long way back. It arose out of a dispute between the 
 
176 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 police commissary of the Chatelet and the Corporation of Nota- 
 ries. The duty of the former was to hold a lighted candle at 
 the door of the chamber as the legal gentlemen were entering it, 
 and on one occasion the commissary complained that it was 
 unfair for the expense of the candles to fall upon liim, contending 
 that he ought rather to receive an indemnity lor his services. 
 He gained his point, and from that time forward the commissary 
 was given three hundred pounds of wax annually. In the course 
 of time the three hundred pounds of wax have gradually melted 
 away and dwindled, till at the present day the ancient custom 
 has come down to the gift of a ten-pound box of composite 
 candles. Very likel}'' it will not be long before the offering of 
 this substitute for the original gift will be dropped." (^London 
 Standard, 1891.) 
 
 Canonization. An act of the Pope whereby he decrees, after 
 a regular form of inquiry, that a deceased servant of God be 
 enrolled among the saints and commended to the veneration and 
 invocation of all Catholics. The idea which underlies canoniza- 
 tion is one closely connected with the doctrine of the Communion 
 of Saints, and has existed from a very early period in the Church, 
 when the persecuted Christians were wont to collect and pre- 
 serve with reverence and affection the remains of those who bad 
 suffered for their faith. And there appears, from what St. 
 Jerome tells us, to have been, long before any regular practice 
 of invocation was established, a prevalent belief that the souls 
 of these martyrs hovered about the place w^here their bodies were 
 laid and were there somehow brought into contact with the liv- 
 ing. The departed were believed still to take an interest in their 
 old friends and the affairs of their earthly home, and to exercise, 
 through their intercession, a beneficent influence over them. At 
 the beginning popular admiration enjoyed, unchecked, the privi- 
 lege of canonization. A saint became a saint by acclamation. 
 That was the beginning of canonization, though the name itself 
 was of subsequent growth. Gradually, as these local and other 
 cults came to multiply beyond measure, the Popes assumed to 
 themselves the sole prerogative of advancing claimants to the 
 successive ranks of Beatitude and Sanctity. The canonized 
 saints thenceforth held no merely local or precarious dignity; 
 they were presented in solemn bulls and with rites of imposing 
 splendor to the general homage of Christendom. Of course there 
 were some saints, like the early martyrs, the four " great Doc- 
 tors" respectively of East and West, and some other conspicuous 
 bishops, confessors, and founders of religious orders, who may be 
 called the saints of the universal Christian world. But down to 
 the tenth century the popular voice, with the sanction of the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 177 
 
 bishop, was held to be sufficient authority for conferring the 
 honor. After that time the sanction of the Pope was required, 
 though bishops still for a time retained their initiative. The first 
 recorded canonization by Papal authority was that of Ulrich, 
 Bishop of Augsburg, raised to that honor by a bull of John XY. 
 in 993 at the request of Liutolf, Ulrich's immediate successor in 
 the see, who had, however, already established public veneration 
 for him in his own diocese. Pope John explained in an epistle that 
 this usage was introduced in order that by honoring martyrs and 
 confessors we may worship Him of whom they testified, and, being 
 conscious of our own imperfections, seek the aid of their merits 
 and prayers at the throne of God. But it was not until two cen- 
 turies later that the prerogative was assigned exclusively to the 
 Holy See by constitutions first of Alexander III. and then of 
 Innocent III. The canonization of St. Gaullier of Pontoise by 
 the Archbishop of Eouen in 1153 is the latest example of such 
 an act being accomplished by any lower authority. Innocent 
 III. finally announced that the decision in such matters apper- 
 tained exclusively to the legitimate successor of St. Peter. The 
 first canonization solemnized with anything like the present ritual 
 pomp was that of St. Francis of Assisi, in 1228. It was not till 
 fifty years later that the regular process, since developed into a 
 minute and searching investigation of each individual case, was 
 first exemplified in the canonization of St. Eaymond of Penna- 
 fort. 
 
 The process begins with an appeal for canonization supported 
 by the bishop of the diocese wherein the potential saint resided. 
 This appeal must be made at Eome in the presence of a promotor 
 fidei, better known as the advocatus diaboli, or devil's advocate, 
 whose duty it is to detect fiaws either in the character of the 
 candidate or in the evidence adduced. If the inquiry be satis- 
 factory and the eminent virtue of the candidate be certified by 
 miracles duly authenticated, he is elevated first to the rank of 
 Blessed, an act which is known as Beatification, and finally, after 
 some years have elapsed, during which at least two new miracles 
 have established the justice of the first verdict, three successive 
 congregations are convened, at the third of which the Pope pre- 
 sides and the public are admitted; the Papal consent is given, 
 and a day fixed for the canonization to take place at St. Peter's. 
 On that day a mass is said in honor of the new saint, his statue 
 is unveiled, and his place in the calendar is announced. 
 
 Caravaggio. This little village in Lombardy, half-way be- 
 tween Milan and Cremona, famous in art as the birthplace of the 
 painters Caravaggio, jumped into a new sort of fame in 1882 
 as the scene of apparitions of the Virgin in the church of the 
 
 12 
 
178 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Madonna. The manifestations continued s})oradically for sev- 
 eral years. They are thus described by a correspondent of the 
 London Court Journal writing in 1883 : " Every day, at noon, tbe 
 vision of the Virgin Mary rises from a dark recess behind one 
 of the pillars of the aisle, and the struggles of the thousands of 
 eager devotees to catch a glimpse of the apparition are most 
 extraordinary. The shrieks and screams of the victims who are 
 knocked down and trampled on amid the confusion are appalling. 
 Those who cannot approach near enough to the shrine throw 
 handfuls of copper coin against the iron grating which encloses 
 it, and the shock of the metallic sound, amid the deep monoto- 
 nous intoning of the priests, seems to produce a frenzy in the 
 crowd, many of whom rush wildly about, shrieking and tearing 
 their hair, and treading without mercy on the limbs of the pai-- 
 alytics outstretched on the pavement. The simple village church, 
 which is capable of containing only a few hundred people, is 
 made to hold ten thousand, who, although packed, suifocating, 
 perspiring, and trembling beneath the stifling atmosphere, yet 
 continue to howl out their invocations. Outside, on the piazza, 
 the scene is still more astounding. Around the fountain stand 
 groups of devotees of every grade of life. The paralytic, with 
 the maimed and crippled, are laid on the bare stones under a 
 burning sun, and in due time are lifted into the fountain, while 
 others, filling their little tin mugs with water, drink greedily, 
 without heed of the pollution it has undergone from the sick 
 who have been immersed therein. When the dismal bowlings 
 of the pilgrims within the church announce the appearance of 
 the misty vapor which precedes the apparition of the Virgin, 
 the whole crowd fall to the ground, and literally shriek forth 
 the litany composed for the occasion. The cripples fall back 
 upon the pavement, the tin mugs are left to float upon the foun- 
 tain, and the litany is succeeded by a dead silence." 
 
 Carmentalia. An ancient Eoman festival celebrated on the 
 11th of January. 
 
 Carmenta, or Carmentis, was an ancient goddess of Latium, 
 whose name points to prophetic powers, being of the same root 
 as carmen^ " song;" the early oracles were all expressed in verse. 
 The goddess is sometimes identified as the mother of Evander, 
 who came to Latium from Arcadia and is said to have brought 
 with him a knowledge of the arts, and the Latin alphabetical 
 characters as distinguished from the Etruscan. 
 
 A second festival, on the 15th, participated in chiefly by women, 
 recognized two Carmentes, Porrima and Postverta, whose names 
 were sometimes interpreted as referring to knowledge of both 
 past and future. Of this goddess little is said in historical times, 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 179 
 
 when the primitive Latin worship was obscured by a crowd of 
 Grecian and Oriental deities ; but she must have held a leading 
 place in early times, for she had a special priest, the Flamen 
 Carmentalis, and the gate near which her altar stood — just at 
 the foot of the Capitoline, between it and the river — was called 
 Carmentalis. Plutarch says that some supposed Carmenta to be 
 one of the Fates who presided over the birth of men. The Greek 
 title of the goddess was Themis. Into her chapel it was not per- 
 mitted 10 carry any part of a dead animal, — for example, any- 
 thing made of leather. It is related that the famous Marcus 
 Popillius, in the time of the Samnite wars, — the first plebeian who 
 ever obtained the honor of a triumph, — was flamen of Carmen- 
 tis. When one day he was performing a sacrifice, clad in the 
 Icena, or priestly robe, a tumult arose in the city. Popillius then 
 hastily left the sacrifice, clad as he was, made his way to the 
 assembly, and calmed the tumult by his authority and eloquence. 
 In memory of this, from the loena or robe which he wore, the 
 people gave him the name of Lcenas, which was borne by his 
 descendants ; for it was quite out of order to address the people 
 in any robe but the toga, the distinctive costume of a Eoman 
 citizen. 
 
 Carnival. (From the Latin words came vale, " farewell 
 meat.") A period of feasting, license, and merrymaking imme- 
 diately preceding Lent, to make up in anticipation for the gloom 
 and abstinence of the forty days of penance. Strictly the Car- 
 nival begins at Twelfth Day, but only the latter days are termed 
 High Carnival, when the public festivities wax fast and furious, 
 culminating in the revelry of Shrove Tuesday. Like the Christ- 
 mas mummeries, it has its roots in the pagan Saturnalia (q. v.). 
 The northern nations of Europe concerned themselves most with 
 Christmas, the southern with the Carnival ; and the latter season 
 now retains its hold only in Catholic localities. 
 
 In ancient times the Carnival was emphatically the season for 
 banquets. And these banquets, again, were the scenes of certain 
 rash and romantic vows, made by the lords of the feast and their 
 friends, and called vows of the swan, peacock, heron, pheasant, 
 etc., according to the bird which the principal swearer happened 
 to prefer. The ceremonies with which the oath was made were 
 always fantastic. Sometimes the bird was produced living, but 
 more frequently it formed the crowning dish. It was brought 
 into the banquet-hall when excitement ran highest, and always 
 with striking parade. The creature itself was profusely orna- 
 mented with jewels, a trumpet-blast announced its approach, a 
 herald in all the pomp of his costume preceded it, and a body of 
 knights, squires, and pages attended it ; in short, it was accorded 
 
180 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 all the stately ceremonial of a sovereign prince when visiting an 
 equal. The bird, living or dead, having been presented to the 
 host, the latter stood up, and, laying his hand upon it, pledged 
 himself to perform some remarkable feat before the year was 
 out, in honor of it and the ladies. For the most part these vows 
 
 Roman Carnival in 1861. 
 
 evaporated harmlessly. At times, however, the results were 
 serious. One made by Edward III. led to the battle of Crecy ; 
 another — by which Henry V. pledged himself to traverse France 
 from sea to sea with banners spread — produced the dangerous 
 march that closed so gloriously at Agincourt ; and a third by a 
 Duke of Burgundy sent his heir, John the Fearless, — he who was 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 181 
 
 afterwards murdered at Montereau, — to meet the Turk at the 
 iiatal battle of Nicopolis. 
 
 Mere feasting was but a portion of a Carnival banquet. 
 Through its whole course the guests were entertained by music, 
 juggling tricks, athletic feats, the wit and folly of jesters, and 
 pieces of show called entremets. Of these the last two were 
 most popular. The Chancellor I'Hopital has described in choice 
 Latin how a jester could enliven a banquet. " Covering himself 
 with the skin of a fox, and bedaubing his face with flour, he 
 went through the satyr's dance, in which he imitated the silly 
 movements of a clown at a village fete. Improving as he went 
 on, he perched himself on the end of a stick, and, grasping it 
 between his knees, spun round and round like a top. Many of 
 the pages and valets attempted to imitate this portion of the 
 performance, but they all tumbled down, to the amusement of 
 the company." Polished society in those days, it is clear, was 
 not fastidious. 
 
 The entremets consisted in the introduction of the model of a 
 ship, castle, or rock, elaborately decorated, and in the perform- 
 ance of its tenants. The latter represented fiends, fairies, Turks, 
 damsels, knights-errant, necromancers, etc. The apparatus was 
 wheeled into the hall with what a quaint writer terms " an fair 
 hurley-burley of minstrelsie," and the tenants, jumping out, 
 danced, sang songs, made complimentary speeches, imitated the 
 evolutions of a battle, or enacted a classic legend in dumb show. 
 They then returned to their receptacle, which was wheeled out 
 again in the midst of a deafening flourish of trumpets. Not 
 infrequently the cumbrous machinery broke down, and the 
 model stuck fast in some particularly inconvenient spot. In 
 such cases guests and actors united to trundle the thing out by 
 main force, — a sequel in which there was always more good fun 
 than in the performance itself 
 
 After the banquet came the ballet, — a matter in which every- 
 thing sacred and profane was reduced to a dance. It was de- 
 signed by the universal genius of the court, assisted by all the 
 talent he could press into the service ; it was rehearsed for 
 months previous to the grand exhibition; the performers were 
 all of gentle birth ; and not the least of its attractions was the 
 splendor of the dresses and the scenery. The Duke of Ossuna, 
 Viceroy of Naples 1616-20, was a great master of the art of 
 giving ballets. In one of these the actresses — twelve beauties 
 of high rank — were provided with every article of their superb 
 array at his expense. The whole cost amounted to seven thou- 
 sand two hundred ducats, or three thousand dollars apiece. The 
 Jenkins of the viceregal court went into ecstasies over the 
 results. Taking a liberty denied to his successors, he described 
 
182 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 the undergarments of the twelve as of white satin fringed with 
 gold lace. Their petticoats, which he takes care to let us know 
 were not too lengthy, consisted of the same material, and were 
 similarly fringed. They wore crowns of white satin and silver, 
 ornamented with heron-plumes, and their trains of silver brocade 
 huDg over their left arms. Thus garbed, they executed a torch 
 dance, which was enthusiastically applauded. 
 
 Of all Carnival entertainments decidedly the first in point of 
 taste was one given by Mazarin. After a repast which Made- 
 moiselle d'Orleans pronounced " no less elegant than abundant," 
 the cardinal led his guests — all the leading courtiers — into a 
 gallery full of beautiful toys and glittering trifles of every de- 
 scription. There were ornaments from China and Japan, rare 
 shawls from India, chandeliers of crystal, mirrors, tables, cabi- 
 nets, silver goblets, gloves, ribbons, lace, fans, etc., enough to 
 stock a dozen fancy warehouses. The ladies were delighted with 
 the spectacle, especially when their host handed each of them a 
 ticket for a lottery which was held a few days after and wherein 
 every one drew a prize, until the gallery was emptied of its 
 pretty store. It is stated that the whole affair cost Mazarin a 
 sum equal to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. 
 
 Not the least singular of the scenes which marked the Carni- 
 val of the past were its processions. They were moral, mythic, 
 historic, politic, and comic, according to the taste of those who 
 got them up. A specimen of these processions, whose exact 
 character it would be difficult to determine, was exhibited in 
 Paris during the supremacy of the League by the Walloon 
 soldiers of the Spanish garrison. It was called the Mask of the 
 Patience of Job. One of the Walloons representing the " good 
 man Job" was mounted on an ass, whose tail he held instead of 
 a bridle. In front of him went a crowd of musicians playing 
 with all their might, and after him followed some hundreds of 
 his comrades, naked to the waist, and painted like so many 
 Indians about to take to the war-path. Close behind Job came 
 two soldiers, got up to represent, the one the wife of the patri- 
 arch, and the other the evil spirit. And between the three was 
 maintained a conversation which grossly parodied those recorded 
 in the Bible. This farce was interrupted from time to time in 
 order that the "good man Job" might bestow his blessing — a 
 choice piece of low ribaldry — on the spectators. 
 
 A mask of another order — perhaps the most striking ever 
 witnessed — was exhibited at Florence during the Carnival of 
 1512, the Medici being then in exile. The night had already 
 closed round, and the streets were thronged with merrymakers, 
 when a low, deep, wailing sound was heard in the distance: 
 Every one paused and listened. The strange sound drew nearer, 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 183 
 
 and. a8 it did so, the " Miserere," chanted by many voices, fell 
 clearly on the ear. While the listeners were still wondering, a 
 procession came in view, like a river of fire, for everj- member 
 thereof carried a lighted torch. The concentrated blaze ren- 
 dered the torch- bearers strangely distinct, and the spectators 
 shuddered, for every one wore a snow-white death's-head mask 
 over an inky shroud. It seemed as if the grave had released its 
 dead to share in this particular Carnival. The thrilling interest 
 of the scene increased as the procession streamed along. In its 
 centre was a cart, drawn by four oxen, whose sides were grim 
 with pale crosses, skulls, and bones painted on a jet-black ground, 
 and from the roof six black banners, similarly blazoned, streamed 
 to the ground. On a pedestal in the centre of that roof stood 
 the figure of Death, with a scythe in his hand, the light stream- 
 ing through his hollow skull and empty ribs and glancing on his 
 bleached bones; and at the feet of Death lay six half-opened 
 sepulchres, in which were seen six dead bodies, partly decayed. 
 Immediately behind the car rode a troop of skeletons, mounted 
 on miserable horses, whose sable trappings were embroidered 
 with pale crosses and symbols of the grave ; and each ghastly 
 cavalier was attended by four squires, ghastly as himself, carry- 
 ing a blazing torch in one hand, and a black banner, sown with 
 white crosses and bleaching bones, in the other. Suddenly a 
 long, piercing trumpet-blast pealed. The spectators shrank, and 
 thought of the last judgment. At the call the dreary procession 
 ceased its chant and came to a dead halt. Then the sepulchres 
 on the car flew open, and the dead within, springing to their feet, 
 burst into a dismal song, one of whose verses ran as follows : 
 
 Morti siam', come vedete ; 
 Cosi morti, vedrem' vol : 
 Fummo gia, come voi siete, 
 Vol sarete, come noi. 
 
 (" Dead we are, as ye may see, 
 Dead like us ye soon shall be : 
 Once ourselves were just as ye, 
 Soon yourselves shall be as we.") 
 
 At the close of this song the trumpet rang again. Then the 
 dead sank back into their sepulchres, the maskers resumed their 
 chant, and the spectre march moved on. 
 
 But the usual character of Florentine Carnival processions 
 was not so lugubrious. Such subjects as the triumphs of Bac- 
 chus and Silenus or other mythic and allegoric groups Avere far 
 more popular. All these were produced in the most sumptuous 
 manner. The greatest painters were employed in designing 
 them, the greatest poets wrote the verses for the occasion. 
 
184 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 During the period of religious excitement produced by the 
 preaching of Savonarola the procession assumed a scriptural 
 tone. In every street Shrove Tuesda5^ beheld a repetition of the 
 patriarch David and his Israelites dancing around the ark. And 
 as they danced they sang a fantastic hymn with the following 
 refrain : 
 
 We dance and sing and prance and fling, 
 
 'Tis grace that makes us glad : 
 No greater bliss can be than his 
 Who piously goes mad, goes mad I 
 Then let us all go mad. 
 
 And mad they went accordingly. The whole city joined in the 
 madness. 'No better proof can be given than the sacrifice which 
 closed the Carnival of 1496. In answer to the demands of peri- 
 patetic enthusiasts, fine gentlemen and fair ladies surrendered 
 all their "vanities," their dresses, their jewelry, their lewd 
 paintings and lewd books, their musical and gambling instru- 
 ments, their padding, false hair, and rouge. Of the motley heap 
 a vast bonfire was made in the Piazza della Signoria, and around 
 it capered the mighty multitude, chanting its frantic chorus. 
 
 The Italian monk was not the only reformer who turned the 
 doings of the Carnival to account. At Wittenberg the Shrove 
 Tuesday of 1521 was signalized by a parody on the Papal pro- 
 cession through the Eternal City, which gave the Germans of 
 that quarter an opportunity of manifesting their anti-Eoman 
 sentiments. And on the Shrove Tuesday of 1522 a street-show 
 exhibited at Berne, which satirized all the oflScials of the older 
 Church, from the Pope down to the sexton, did much towards 
 effecting the triumph of the Eeformation in the sovereign canton. 
 
 The Carnival was always remarkable lor its rude sports. Cock- 
 fighting, bear-baiting, and other species of animal torture were 
 then allowed full swing. (See Shrove Tuesday.) 
 
 It was also a chosen season for practical jesting. At a Carnival 
 ball in the Louvre, Charles IX. once secretly let loose ten of the 
 most skilful pickpockets in Paris, giving them full leave to steal 
 whatever they could, and threatening them with punishment 
 only if they were detected. Then he looked on in great glee as 
 they plundered lord and lady alike, his delight at every dexter- 
 ous theft being increased by the dismay of the despoiled upon 
 missing their jewels, their girdles, their fans, their swords, or 
 their comfit-boxes. 
 
 Grimmer was the prank played by his predecessor Louis XI. 
 All round the old tiger's den, Plessis-les-Tours, stretched a wood, 
 and from nearly every tree of it dangled a dead body ; for Louis 
 was terribly ready with capital punishment, and he never al- 
 lowed the remains of such victims as died by strangulation to 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 185 
 
 be removed. On Shrove Tuesday night Louis commanded his 
 guards to rouse up the neighboring villagers and hurry them to 
 the castle. There he had already provided music, and, while his 
 fiddlers played, he compelled each of his unwilling guests to lake 
 a gibbeted corpse as partner and dance before it until dawn. 
 Nor did he forget to arrange the couples. There were many 
 there who had husbands, sweethearts, and relatives among the 
 dead, and good King Louis did not allow friends and relatives to 
 be separated at his nice ball. 
 
 Atrocious as was the jest of Louis XI., it was hardly more so 
 than many others which the chroniclers record of the great 
 seigneurs of the olden time. Among the few of these that will 
 bear quoting should be classed the feudal custom of causing every 
 plebeian bride to dance an unseemly dance and to sing a ludicrous 
 song in the church porch, and before the lord of the manor, 
 within a year of her wedding. The ceremony for the most part 
 took place during the Carnival. We find that it was observed in 
 France so late as 1620. We have now under our eyes the report 
 of a judgment of that date, which terminated a suit that had 
 lasted for nine years, by deciding which of the rival seigneurs 
 was entitled to preside at the " chansons.'' 
 
 Eome has always been the head-quarters of the Carnival. It 
 holds its pre-eminence even in these days when there, as else- 
 where, the custom is in its decadence. In the Middle Ages the 
 Corso was the scene of grand tournaments and stately pageants. 
 The palaces glittered with jewelled cloths, and their owners, in 
 festal raiment, crowded the tapestried balconies to pelt their 
 friends, neighbors, or sweethearts in the streets below. Although 
 the people took their part as spectators and jostled and jested 
 with one another in a struggling mass in the Corso, it was emi- 
 nently a feast provided for them by the aristocracy. The people 
 had little more to do with the active part of it than the rank and 
 file of the Achseans and Trojans had to do with the Homeric 
 battles, for much money had to be spent upon it. To-day all 
 is changed. The patrician and the grandee have gone out. II 
 Popolo Eomano has come in. The Corso now is its playground. 
 The Carnival, once the sport of Popes and cardinals, the play- 
 thing of princes, is now the people's pecuhar festival, their holi- 
 day of mirth. Fashionable Eomans disdain it, since the plebeian 
 is in possession. Only those modern Goths and Yandals, the 
 tourists, come to see the sport. 
 
 Nor do they go unrewarded. Even in its decadence a Eoman 
 Carnival is well worth seeing, as a pleasant bit of low comedy. 
 In the Corso the crowds swarm up and down, the masks and 
 dominos among them lighting up the grim palaces, whose balco- 
 nies, decorated with flowers and ribbons, and crowded with spec- 
 
186 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 tators of many nationalities, flash back an answering light. On 
 the last three days, including Shrove Tuesday, war breaks out 
 between the streets and the balconies, the missiles being showers 
 of confetti {q. v.), hard lime pellets of the size of a hailstone and 
 quite as hard, and coriandoli, or small bonbons. Battles of Flow- 
 ers (q. V.) are also a feature. 
 
 The Carnival ends in a blaze of hght. As night descends 
 on Shrove Tuesday every masker lights the moccoletto, or wax 
 taper, with which he has provided himself, and parades through 
 the streets seeking to blow out his neighbor's and retain his own 
 light. 
 
 The same general features are found in other Italian cities, 
 save of course in Venice, where an exceptional environment pro- 
 duces exceptional effects. A procession of gondolas and boats 
 along the Grand Canal, all brilliantly decorated and filled with 
 maskers, public dances in the Piazza of St. Mark, illuminated at 
 night for the purpose, and in the Kidotto, the ancient j;iall of the 
 Venetian dancers, feasting in private houses, grand balls in the 
 palaces of the nobility, and splendid receptions at the official 
 residences, — these occupy the full measure of the time from 
 Epiphany to Ash Wednesday. On Shrove Tuesday the ceremony 
 of burying King Carnival (q. v.) is performed. 
 
 For a score of years back Nice has been famous for its Car- 
 nival parades, in which King Carnival also appears. The Battle 
 of Flowers was long a unique feature here, but it has been caught 
 up and appropriated by other places. 
 
 Spain still enters into the spirit of the Carnival with naive 
 earnestness. Madrid in especial gives itself up entirely to the 
 enjoyment of the hour. The Corso lasts for four days, begin- 
 ning on the last Sunday before Lent. From noon until night 
 the great drive is crowded with a double line of carriages, and 
 between this double hne are the landaus of those who have paid 
 for the privilege of driving up and down free from the law of 
 the road. 
 
 A great variety of fantastic costumes are worn. All liberties 
 are pardoned to the maskers. They jump in and out of the 
 coaches, and dart about the drive. Turks, prophets, kings, 
 monks, devils, and a variety of other characters may be seen 
 wandering about in the festive throng. A democratic spirit pre- 
 vails everywhere. A duke may wander about in the dress of a 
 chimney-sweep, while a store clerk by his side may be decked in 
 the garb of a prince. A duchess may be hailed by her first 
 name by a peasant, and may accept bonbons from his hand with 
 no loss of dignity. 
 
 The gayety waxes fast and furious before it is finally quenched 
 in the gloom of Lent. Ash Wednesday is a day of merriment, 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 187 
 
 then three days of gloom follow, and on Sunday the Carnival 
 has a resurrection, and the gayest ball of the year takes place at 
 the Opera. After this ball Lent begins in earnest, and sackcloth 
 and ashes succeed the brilhant costumes of the Carnival. 
 
 In France the festivities are confined almost entirely to the 
 Shrove Tuesday or Mardi-Grras procession of the Boeuf Gras (^. v.) 
 and to certain student revelries. In Belgium, in Germany, and 
 in almost all other European countries and their dependencies 
 where the Catholic religion retains any hold, a more or less dim 
 survival from the past still flits through a ghost-like existence. 
 
 In Eussia the week before Lent is given up to Carnival gayc- 
 ties. The Eussians have no Ash Wednesday. With them Car- 
 nival begins and ends on Sunday. These eight days are crammed 
 full of performances, — national plays, native and foreign operas, 
 dramatized folk-tales, ballets, — some given in the regular theatres 
 and othets in huge temporary barn-like structures run up for the 
 occasion in the public squares. 
 
 There is out-door amusement in plenty. Coasting down ice 
 hills, riding in merry-go-rounds, feasting on the pancakes, ginger- 
 bread, sunflower-seed, and other dainties ofl'ered at sidewalk 
 stalls, or drinking tea from the huge samovars that stand hissing 
 in the snow, — such are the recreations of the open-air revellers 
 who parade the streets in masks and dominos or in their mere 
 Sunday best. 
 
 The New Orleans Carnival has been growing steadily since its 
 establishment in 1830, and is now one of the most brilliant of 
 the public and social festivities in the United States. A dozen 
 organizations, most of them secret societies, join to give eclat to 
 its last days, especially to the Monday and Tuesday before Lent. 
 The most important of these are the Eex, Momus, Proteus, and 
 Comus associations. 
 
 At sunset on Monday, bells, trumpets, whistles, and human 
 throats join in tumultuous din to welcome the announcement 
 that his Majesty Eex is approaching his well-loved city. At this 
 signal flags fly, and thousands of men, women, and children spring 
 as by magic from the banquettes. All are brimful of curiosity 
 to see the sovereign with his escort land at the foot of Canal 
 Street, visit the City Hall, receive the keys and homage from 
 the mayor, and then disappear till the morrow. By ten o'clock on 
 Tuesday morning (Mardi-Gras) every available inch of space 
 along the route of the procession is occupied. Finally a mighty 
 shout goes up, and far in the distance is heard the steady march 
 of the on-coming parade with the lilting notes of the kino;'s own 
 band. It was for the Eussian Grand Duke Alexis that Eex first 
 rode in his regal costume at the head of a body of Arabic troops. 
 This was in 1872, when all the day maskers were first united in 
 
188 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 a procession. The experiment was a success, and Eex became an 
 established ftivorite. The festivities in his honor close with a ball 
 at Artillery Hall. But the Rex organization already noted is 
 only one of a dozen, each of which contributes its share to the 
 festivities. Rex is not the only king, nor is his queen the only 
 queen. There are other royalties, whose subjects, although not 
 so numerous, are more powerful. The organization of the Mystic 
 Krewe of Oomus is the oldest of them all, and its parade, which 
 takes place after nightfall, is the most gorgeous. 
 
 Figures in the New Orleans Carnival Ball. 
 
 In 1857, coming apparently from nowhere and known to no 
 one, appeared the Mystic Krewe of Comus in a fantastic night 
 parade made up of gorgeous floats manned by masked revellers. 
 No one knew who the maskers were, and no one admitted that 
 he belonged to the organization. Every year since then, except 
 during the war, Comus has paraded and given his ball on the 
 night of Shrove Tuesday, and in some respects his Krewe is the 
 most interesting of all the Carnival companies. 
 
 In the first place, Comus outdoes them all in mystery, and 
 mystery is at a premium in these affairs. If you should ask a 
 man to get you an invitation to the Comus ball, he would per- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 189 
 
 haps say that " he thought he knew a man" who might be able 
 to get it for him. He never would hint that he himself was a 
 member of the organization, even though he might be at the 
 very head of it. The men who belong to the various organi- 
 zations are not known to the general public, and they are not 
 supposed to be known to any one outside of the limits of the 
 membership. 
 
 The people who go to the ball, the very queen herself and her 
 maids of honor, are not informed of the identity of the king. 
 They all guess, but the completeness of the disguise may be im- 
 agined from the statement of a woman who knows the men who 
 have filled the royal throne for several years. She said that she 
 had heard a great many guesses as to the identity of the king, 
 but she never had heard a correct one. So the people go on 
 from year to year, bowing to one king after another, and never 
 knowing who these kings are. As for the men who are the 
 kings, they seem to be just as anxious to keep up the game of 
 blindman's-buff as anybody is. They never tell about "when I 
 was king of Comus." 
 
 The queen is not masked. In fact, no one is masked except 
 the men who have taken part in the parade. There are no 
 women in the parade, all female characters being represented by 
 men. A woman wearing a mask would not be admitted to the 
 hall. 
 
 Carnival, King. A burlesque potentate, the lineal descendant 
 of the Abbot of Unreason and the Lord of Misrule, who in some 
 localities represents the Carnival as elsewhere Santa Claus 
 represents Christmas. But, as Santa Claus is a myth. King 
 Carnival is usually an of^gy. In this form he makes his most 
 famous appearances at Venice and at Nice, and has recently been 
 introduced into Eome, Paris, and other places. A flesh and blood 
 Xing Carnival, however, better known as Eex, is annually 
 named in New Orleans, to conduct the more popular of the fes- 
 tivities. This is purely an American innovation. 
 
 In Yenice, where King Carnival was born, he is born again 
 every year only to die. He does not put in an appearance until 
 the afternoon of Shrove Tuesday, and then at the end of a 
 few hours of vicarious gayety is laid on the funeral pyre. The 
 procession in his honor forms at the gardens of Napoleon : he 
 himself, a straw e^gy richly dressed and stuffed with fireworks, 
 is placed in a splendid palanquin which is borne on the shoulders 
 of a score or so of maskers. An army of attendants follow 
 him, an array of caricature and personification, — troops of 
 devils, troops of sprites, troops of outlandish creatures with 
 heads of bears, hogs, wolves, and bulls, hunchbacks and de- 
 
190 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 formities, some unnaturally large, others unnaturally tall or 
 crooked, still others elegantly and artistically attired in expen- 
 sive masks and vestments, bespeaking their position among the 
 higher classes. When the procession reaches the Piazza of St. 
 Mark it stops there. Dancing and revelry are conducted before 
 the kingly throne. As midnight approaches, a change occurs 
 in the appearance of his majesty. His hair is powdered white, 
 his festive robe and sceptre are exchanged for a long white sheet 
 or pall, his hands are pinioned upon his breast. The richly 
 decked car has become an execution-block and a bier. Slowly 
 and solemnly it is escorted to the Molo, and there, upon the spot 
 where were executed the state criminals of the old republic, 
 King Carnival's palanquin is set on fire and he and it are con- 
 sumed together. 
 
 An eye-witness of the Venetian Carnival of 1868, when the 
 ceremony was at its best, thus describes the final scene : 
 
 " As the great clock of St. Mark was striking the midnight 
 hour, the band ceased playing, and scarcely a sound was heard 
 in all that immense crowd. A moment of silence and darkness 
 intervened, and then a small light was seen to issue from one 
 corner of the high palanquin, which soon broke into a vari- 
 colored blaze of different hues, according to the various hidden 
 compounds ignited ; then a rocket shot up from the same frame- 
 work, and Eoman candles threw out their soft, beautiful balls 
 of fire, while fiery serpents sprang out in every direction from 
 the same hidden source, whence issued every variety of pyro- 
 technic fires. The flames now spread to every part of the 
 palanquin, igniting fieiy wheels, circles, and all manner of fig- 
 ures, giving to many of them an automatic movement quite 
 magical in appearance. The fire now surged in waves over the 
 bier and around the ghastly figure of the doomed monarch, who 
 stood immovable amid his dissolving glory, — his very throne 
 proving, like many another, to be a mine of destructive elements 
 to its possessor. Finally the discharge of rockets became so 
 rapid and so noisy, as they leaped into the dark vault overhead 
 with startling screeches and long trails of fire, that the crowd 
 who had been so attracted by the milder discharges of fireworks 
 at the beginning of the exhibition became terrified, swayed 
 back, very willing to retreat from so close a proximity to what 
 appeared to be, as it was in fact, an infernal machine. The 
 flames now reached the sacred person of the fated king, and, 
 climbing up his gaunt limbs, ignited innumerable fireworks con- 
 cealed in his legs and body, wrapping his pale visage in a blaze, 
 and, communicating with his combustible brain, caused the whole 
 figure to burst into a thousand fragments with a deafening ex- 
 plosion, ending in a brilliant coruscation of light in the national 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 191 
 
 colors. Thus died King Carnival, amid one of the finest and 
 most wonderful automatic pyrotechnical displays imaginable." 
 {Galaxy, ¥ehrusiry, 1869.) 
 
 In Greece the people on Shrove Tuesday take a block of wood 
 and dress it in old clothes to represent a very fat but armless 
 and legless personage. This is dubbed the Carnival. A rough 
 bier is made of four sticks of wood fastened together with ropes, 
 whereon the Carnival is placed, and half a dozen young men 
 bear this on their shoulders to the tomb, preceded by a com- 
 pany of others who, hand in hand and some ten abreast, dance 
 and sing ribald songs. The eflSgy is paraded through the streets 
 of town or village, every passer-by and every householder being 
 solicited for alms, and is then taken out into some open space 
 and buried with a burlesque of the rites of the Church. 
 
 King Carnival II. of Paris. (1897.) 
 
 The King Carnival of Nice was first introduced into the fes- 
 tivities in 1872. He makes his annual appearance on the second 
 Sunday before Shrove Tuesday, takes his place in the parade on 
 that day, stops at the Casino, where the keys of the city are de- 
 Hvered to him with a florid speech by the mayor, and is escorted 
 to his throne, there to remain for ten days, the monarch of ail 
 he surveys. When his brief reign is over he is dethroned and 
 burned amid the same rejoicings as those which had originally 
 welcomed him. 
 
192 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 This King Carnival is a huge effigy. Of recent times it has 
 been usual to make every year add to his stature, so as to retain 
 a record of his actual age. In 1897, for example, being then 
 twenty-five years old, he was twenty-five feet high. But it is 
 improbable that he will rise much higher. Every year also the 
 king takes on different accoutrements, but always he is meant to 
 be representative of the times. When the bicycle fever first 
 broke out he was a gigantic bicyclist, in 1896 he was perched on 
 an automobile carriage, etc. 
 
 In 1896 the Parisians introduced a king into their Carnival 
 festivities, which is an obvious importation from Nice. King 
 Carnival II. made his due appearance in 1897. 
 
 The burial of King Carnival has a curious affiliation with the 
 more ancient rite of the Burial of the Sardine {q. v.), and is no 
 doubt a collateral descendant of the latter. 
 
 Carols. Joyous songs for festive occasions, and specifically 
 for Christmas. They were anciently accompanied by dancing. 
 
 In an old vocabulary of a.d. 1440, Garal is defined as iSonge ; 
 in John Palsgrave's v^ork of a.d. 1530, as Chanson de Noel. The 
 word comes directly from the Middle English carolen, " to sing 
 joyously." The earliest carol in English, known under that 
 name, is the production of Dame Berners, Prioress of St. Albans 
 in the fourteenth century, entitled " A Carolle of Huntynge." 
 This is printed on the last leaf of Wynkyn de Worde's collection 
 of Christmas carols, a.d. 1521, and the first verse, modernized, 
 runs thus : 
 
 As 1 came by a green forest side, 
 
 I met with a forester that bade me abide. 
 
 Whey no bet, hey go bet, hey go how, 
 
 We shall have sport and game enow. 
 
 Milton uses the word " carol" to express a devotional hymn : 
 
 A quire 
 Of squadron 'd angels hear his carol sung. 
 
 And that distinguished light of the English Church, Bishop 
 Jeremy Taylor, speaks of the angels' song on the morning of the 
 Nativity as the first Christmas carol : " As soon as these blessed 
 choristers had sung their Christmas carol, and taught the 
 Church a hymn to put into her offices forever," etc. 
 
 According to Durandus, it was customary in early days for 
 bishops to sing with their clergy in the episcopal houses on the 
 feast of the Nativity : " In Natali prselati cum suis clericis 
 ludant, vel in domibus episcopalibus." 
 
 When the Mystery and Morahty Plays were in vogue as a 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 193 
 
 means of religious instruction and were represented in churches, 
 monasteries, and nunneries, carols grew in favor, since they were 
 to the olden play what the music between the acts is to the 
 modern drama. Companies of singers were retained to appear 
 before the stage and divert the audience with carols and other 
 songs, and thus the dreary time of waiting while a new scene 
 was in preparation was passed agreeably to the people, — so agree- 
 ably, in fact, that there was frequently no little disturbance 
 created by the rivalry between the singers and the players, each 
 party striving for more time. The people, fond of joining in 
 with the chorus, sometimes espoused the cause of the singers, 
 and on one occasion, in Chester, during the progress of a miracle 
 play, the stage was wrecked, the properties and dresses of the 
 performers were destroyed, and the players severely beaten by a 
 musical mob, who fancied their favorite carol-singers were ill- 
 treated by the managers of the play. 
 
 Difficulties of this kind were, it seems, not infrequent in Eng- 
 land, France, and Germany during the thirteenth and fourteenth 
 centuries, the result being that, to obviate all danger of a dis- 
 turbance, the carol-singing was incorporated in the play and the 
 singers were actors as well as musicians. They had their ac- 
 companiments also, for many churches had portable organs, car- 
 ried by a strap thrown over the shoulder of the performer, who 
 with one hand worked the bellows of the instrument and with 
 the other played the melody of the hymn. Thus accoutred, the 
 organist led the procession, the singers following him to and fro 
 on the stage, and sometimes the parade was continued through 
 the streets, the people falling in line and joining in the hymn. 
 
 Not all the Christmas carols, however, were religious in their 
 nature. Many were lively secular airs, some wedded to words 
 that were anything but devotional. Dancing was quite as much 
 a part of the Christmas entertainment as singing, and the same 
 tune often served both purposes. Convivial songs, songs of 
 pleasantry, love-songs, even merry ballads of questionable pro- 
 priety, were used at this season, and in one of Pepys's curious 
 volumes he gives a list of tunes that were sung at a social gath- 
 ering he visited, and in mentioning them he seems especially im- 
 pressed by one. All the people in a dancing set on the floor sang 
 a verse, then the instruments played the same tune, while all 
 danced during the interlude, then sang again. 
 
 Of all the carols, either religious or secular, which have come 
 down to us from the past, the most abidingly popular is the one 
 beginning 
 
 God rest you, merry gentlemen. 
 
 Let nothing you dismay, 
 For Jesus Christ in Bethlehem 
 "Was born upon this day. 
 13 
 
194 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Dickens in the " Carol" puts this old rhyme into the mouth of 
 Scrooge's unlucky caller on Christmas Eve, who, the reader will 
 remember, had a narrow escape from the mahogany ruler in the 
 hands of the irate old miser. It is still sung in England by 
 choruses of men and boys on their annual rounds in the evening 
 and far into the night before the great holiday. 
 
 Carol-singing on Christmas Eve is also as much in vogue in the 
 east end of London as ever it was a century or two ago. The 
 elder members of the various church choirs and the Sunday- 
 school children always parade the streets after midnight on 
 Christmas Eve, singing outside the dwelling-houses of the more 
 influential parishioners. They are usually invited into the houses 
 they visit, and regaled with tea, coffee, and hot toast. 
 
 In some of the cathedral churches of England carol-singing is 
 kept up as a part of the service, the choristers singing a Christ- 
 mas carol at the door, in some parts of the nave, or on one of 
 the towers. In one church in Kent a carol is sung every Christ- 
 mas morning, the choristers standing around a particular slab in 
 the floor which covers the remains of an old lad}^ who during 
 the reign of Elizabeth made a bequest to provide the church 
 choir with a Christmas dinner in consideration of this mark of 
 respect shown her memory. Such instances of the perpetuation 
 of the custom, are, however, rare. 
 
 Catherine, St., patron saint of Venice, of philosophy and 
 belles-lettres, of maidens, and against diseases of the tongue. 
 Her father, Castio, King of Egypt, died when she was fourteen, 
 and she succeeded to the throne. Urged by her subjects to 
 marry, she replied that her husband must have four gifts : he 
 must be so nobly born that all would worship him ; so great that 
 he would not be indebted to her for being made a king ; so beau- 
 tiful that angels should desire to see him ; and so benign as to 
 forgive all offences Then her subjects despaired, for they knew 
 of no such man. But the Virgin Mary appeared in a vision to 
 a hermit named Alexandria, and bade him tell Catherine that 
 her son was the husband she desired. The hermit gave Catherine 
 pictures of Mary and Jesus. And gazing on his face she loved 
 him, and could think of nothing else, and her studies became 
 dull to her. One night she dreamed that angels bore her to his 
 presence, but he turned away, saying, " She is not fair enough 
 for me." Waking she wept, and besought the hermit to tell her 
 how she might make herself worthy ; and he, finding that she 
 was a heathen, taught her the Christian faith, and baptized her. 
 That night the Virgin and Son appeared to her, and Mary pre- 
 sented her to Jesus, saying, " Lo, she hath been baptized, and I 
 myself am her godmother." Then Jesus smiled on her, and was 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 195 
 
 betrothed to her, and, waking, she found a ring upon her finger. 
 From that time she despised all worldly things. Soon alter 
 Maximin came to Alexandria and persecuted the Christians. 
 Then Catherine went to the temple and held an argument with 
 the tyrant and confounded him. He ordered fifiy learned men 
 
 St. Catheeine. 
 (From a mediaeval manuscript.) 
 
 to come from all parts of the world to dispute with her, but she 
 converted them all. Maximin in a great rage condemned them 
 to the stake, and Catherine stood by and comforted them while 
 they were burning. The Emperor fell in love with her beauty, 
 and when she would not yield her virtue cast her into a dungeon. 
 But angels ministered to her; and when, twelve days after, the 
 Empress and her hundred attendants opened the dungeon, a 
 bright hght filled the whole place. The Empress and two hun- 
 dred heathen were converted by the sight. Maximin put them 
 all to death, and Catherine, having indignantly refused his offer 
 of marriage, was bound between four spiked wheels, which turn- 
 ing in opposite directions would rend her to pieces. But fire 
 came down from heaven and consumed the wheels, and three 
 thousand persons were killed by flying pieces. Then Catherine 
 was scourged and beheaded. Angels bore her body to Mount 
 
196 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Sinai. She is represented as richly dressed, and her attribute is 
 the wheel, either whole or broken. She has also the martyr's 
 palm, the royal crown, and a book, symbolical of her learning. 
 
 The convent of St. Catherine, situated in a valley on the slope 
 of Mount Sinai, was founded by the Emperor Justinian in the 
 sixth century. A marble sarcophagus contains the supposed 
 relics of St. Catherine. Of these the skeleton of the hand, cov- 
 ered with rings and jewels, is exhibited to pilgrims and visitors. 
 
 St. Cathern favors learned men, and gives them wisdom high, 
 And teacheth to resolve the doubts, and always giveth aid 
 Unto the scolding sophister, to make his reason staid. 
 
 So runs Barnaby Googe's translation of " The Popish King- 
 dom." The same authority asks, — 
 
 What should I tell what sophisters on Cathern 's day devise? 
 Or else the superstitious joyes that maisters exercise. 
 
 But it was mainly as the patron of spinsters and an aid to 
 matrimony that St. Catherine was courted. So late as 1730 La 
 Motte in his " Essay on Poetry and Painting," p. 126, says, " St. 
 Catherine is esteemed in the Church of Eome as the saint and 
 ))atrones8 of the spinsters; and her holiday is observed, not in 
 Popish countries only, but even in many places in this nation : 
 young women meeting on the 25th of November and making 
 merry together, which they call Catherning." 
 
 A correspondent of the At hen ceum, October 31, 1840, recalls the 
 custom in Worcestershire, when he was a boy, of going a-Cat- 
 taring, in honor of St. Catherine and of St. Clement: "About 
 this season of the year," he says, " the children of the cottagers 
 used to go round to the neighboring farm-houses, to beg apples 
 and beer, for a festival on the above saints' days. The apples 
 were roasted on a string before the fire, stuck thickly over with 
 cloves, and allowed to fall into a vessel beneath. There were 
 set verses for the occasion, which were sung, in a not unmusical 
 chant, in the manner of carol-singing. I can only recollect the 
 first few lines : 
 
 Catt'n and Clement comes year by year. 
 
 Some of your apples and some of your beer ; 
 
 Some for Peter, some for Paul, 
 
 Some for Him who made us all. 
 
 Peter was a good old man. 
 
 For his sake give us some : 
 
 Some of the best, and none of the worst. 
 
 And God will send your souls to roost. 
 
 I well remember it always concluded with — 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 197 
 
 Up with the ladder and down with the can, 
 Give me red apples and I'll begone ; 
 
 the ladder alluding to the store of apples generally kept in a 
 loft or somewhere at the top of the house ; and the can, doubt- 
 less, to the same going down into the cellar for the beer." 
 E. Gulson has this paragraph in Notes and Queries : 
 " At a recent meeting of the Archaeological Institution, in 
 Dorset, a party visited the little Norman Chapel of St. Catherine 
 at Milton Abbey, when the Eev. C. W. Bingham told us of the 
 legend. On a certain day in the year the young women used to 
 go up to St. Catherine's Chapel, where they made use of the 
 following prayer : 
 
 A husband, St. Catherine ; 
 
 A handsome one, St. Catherine ; 
 
 A rich one, St. Catherine ; 
 
 A nice one, St. Catherine ; 
 
 And soon, St. Catherine. 
 
 " Mr. Beresford Hope, who at these gatherings is always equal 
 to any emergency, modestly proposed that all the gentlemen and 
 married ladies should retire from the chapel, so as to afford the 
 young ladies present the opportunity of using so desirable a 
 prayer." 
 
 Catherine of Siena, St., patroness of that Italian city. She 
 lived in the fourteenth ceniury, and was a woman of great 
 energy and influence in her time. It is certain that she procured 
 the return of Pope Gregory XI. from Avignon to Eome, and had 
 a voice in many important affairs of state. The house where 
 she was born is in one of the poorest and dirtiest parts of the 
 city, now, as anciently, the fullers' quarter, for St. Catherine was 
 the daughter of a dyer and fuller. It is near the old fountain 
 of Fontebranda, which Dante mentions. Yery little of the 
 saint's original dwelling remains, except the chamber, and within 
 is the cell which she inhabited. The latter is a little room about 
 seven feet by six, lighted only by the door which communicates 
 with the outer chamber. The brick floor is protected by a wooden 
 covering, with a plate of glass inserted above the stone which 
 formed St. Catherine's pillow. There is no furniture, and no 
 ornament save a crucifix. But the rest of the house is converted 
 into oratories gaudily decorated, with a few fine frescos repre- 
 senting the life of St. Catherine, and the miraculous crucifix 
 from which she is said to have received the stigmata. A fine 
 fresco by Sodoma, in one of the chapels of the church of San 
 Domenico, represents her as swooning beneath the heavenly 
 visitation. She is supported in the arms of two nuns, and the 
 divinely given w^ounds are seen in her hands. 
 
198 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Cattino, Sacro. (It., " Sacred Dish.") A once famous relic, 
 still kept in the church of St. Lawrence in Genoa, which used 
 to be reverenced as the emerald dish given by the Queen of 
 Sheba to King Solomon and afterwards preserved in the temple. 
 Tradition likewise asserted that from this dish Christ ate the 
 Last Supper. Found among the spoils of Csesarea on the capture 
 of that town by the combined armies of Genoa and Pisa in 1101, 
 the Genoese took the '• Sacro Cattino" for their share of the 
 booty, leaving to the Pisans the entire mass of filthy lucre. It 
 was brought to Genoa, where it continued to be held in such 
 veneration that twelve nobles were appointed to guard the 
 tabernacle which contained it, each a month in turn. It was 
 exhibited but once a year to the adoration of the crowd. Then 
 a priest held it alofi by a cord, while its twelve guardians 
 formed a circle around. In 1476 a law was enacted condemning 
 to death whoever touched the holy emerald with any substance 
 whatever. Unless the booty at Csesarea was very large, the 
 Genoese did not make a bad investment in their emerald, for 
 within fifty years the Jews lent them four millions of francs on 
 its security. In 1809, among the other valuables borrowed of 
 Italy by Napoleon, it travelled to Paris, where it remained until 
 1815, when it was restored without difiiculty, broken, and as- 
 certained to be glass. It is still preserved on account of its 
 souvenirs, and as a curious ancient dish ; but Genoa has lost, 
 in losing her belief in the relic, a capital of nearly a million of 
 dollars. 
 
 Cecilia, St., patron of music, and especially of sacred music. 
 Honored in both the Eastern and Western Churches, she is 
 counted as one of the four great Virgins of the Latin Church, 
 and is named along with only a few others in the canon of the 
 mass. Her festival is celebrated on November 22, the reputed 
 date of hei* martyrdom. 
 
 Authentic history has nothing to say about her. Legends 
 are plentiful. The most familiar makes her a native of Rome, 
 of noble parentage. Converted early to Christianity, she took a 
 vow of perpetual virginity. But she was forced by her parents 
 to marry a pagan, Yalerian. On the wedding night she took 
 him into her confidence and told him that she had a guardian 
 angel in perpetual attendance. He asked to see the angel, and 
 she promised that the vision should be revealed to him if he 
 became a Christian. So he sought out St. Urban, the Pope, and 
 was baptized. Then his eyes were opened. The angel extended 
 to the pair two crowns of roses and lilies, which he had brought 
 from paradise and which were invisible save to believers. But 
 their fragrance could not be concealed. It attracted the atten- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 199 
 
 tion of Yalerian's brother Tibertius, who was himself converted. 
 These three wrought many good deeds and wonders. Persecution 
 followed. Valerian and Tibertius, with an officer named Maximus 
 whom they had converted, were put to death. Their feast is 
 commemorated on April 14. Subsequently Cecilia herself was 
 brought before the wicked prefect Almachius and condemned to 
 death in a hot bath. But her life was miraculously preserved. 
 Then the headsman was called in, but the three strokes allowed 
 by the law failed to do their work ; the half-beheaded martyr 
 lived three days among her friends, and then died, bequeathing 
 her house to Urban for a church. The date of her martyrdom 
 is usually given as a.d. 230, which would place it within the 
 reign of Alexander Severus, who was not a persecutor. But 
 others substitute the year 180, which would be the time of 
 Marcus Aurelius. 
 
 It is certain, however, that there was a church dedicated to St. 
 Cecilia which had fallen into decay in 821. Pope Paschal I. re- 
 built it in that year. During the progress of the work the saint, 
 it is said, appeared to him in a vision and told him where her 
 body lay in the cemetery of Calixtus. He proceeded to the spot 
 and found it, clothed in a robe of gold tissue, with linen cloths at 
 the feet, dipped in her blood. With her were found the bodies 
 of Yalerian, Tibertius, and Maximus. All these, together with 
 the relics of Popes Urban and Lucius, lying in the adjoining 
 cemetery of Pretextatus, were translated to St. Cecilia's Church, 
 which is to-day known as Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, or St. 
 Cecilia beyond the Tiber. 
 
 When the church was again rebuilt in 1599 the body was 
 again found, in a marvellous state of preservation, and the 
 sculptor Stefano Maderno made it the model for his celebrated 
 recumbent statue which now surmounts the tomb of the Virgin 
 Martyr. 
 
 Alban Butler explains that St. Cecilia has been accepted as the 
 patron of church music " from her assiduity in singing the divine 
 praises, in which, according to her iVcts, she often joins instru- 
 mental music with vocal." But Herder asserts that the choice 
 came from the misunderstanding of a passage in these Acts or 
 legends. No saint, he says, ever came to renown more innocently 
 than Cecilia ; for instead of being described as a musician she is 
 said to have turned away from worldly music, to sing in her 
 heart only. The passage in question, imjDortant in several con- 
 nections, narrates that on the day of her marriage, et cantantihus 
 organis ilia in corde suo solo domino decantabat, dicens, Fiat Bomine 
 cor meum et corpus meum immacula.tum ut non fundar : or, in Cax- 
 ton's translation, " and she heeryng the organes makyng melodye 
 she sange in hir herte onelyc to God sayeng O Lord 1 beseche 
 
200 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 the that myn herte and body may be undefowled so that I may 
 not be confounded." 
 
 It is quite certain that the earlier artists did not depict her 
 with musical instruments, neither in the rude drawings of the 
 sixth or seventh century in the Catacombs, nor in the great 
 mosaic in her church at Eome, dating from about 817, nor in 
 the series of frescos of about the same date, nor in Cimabue's 
 picture of nearly five centuries later. The earliest important 
 representation is in the magnificent wing of Yan Eyck's Ghent 
 altar-piece, now in the Berlin Museum, painted about 1435, if 
 this be a saint, and not merely an angel, as some critics hold. 
 Nearly a hundred years later, in 1513, came Eaphael's famous 
 picture now preserved in Bologna. The moment chosen is that 
 characterized by the passage from the legend already quoted. 
 At the saint's feet lie the disregarded instruments of secular 
 music, the flute, violin, etc., while in her hands is a small portable 
 organ ; but she does not play it, being rapt in ecstasy as she sees 
 through the opened heavens a beautiful choir and hears their 
 song. Eaphael in his first drawing put instruments into the 
 hands of the heavenly musicians, but the idea of ihe choir is far 
 finer. After Eaphael's came other pictures of the saint as 
 musician or patron. In the seventeenth centurj^, following the 
 opening of the tomb in 1599, many painters were busy with the 
 subject, especially Domenichino, who was in Eome during the 
 enthusiastic period of the re-entombment. 
 
 It must be remembered that during this period of two centuries 
 the science and art of music were making great strides ; ideas of 
 harmony were growing up as the organs were slowly improved, 
 so that chords were endurable; but how far those were from 
 modern ideas will be suggested by recalling the fact that Pales- 
 trina was not born till after Eaphael's death. This growing art, 
 whose most conspicuous usefulness and triumph were thus far in 
 sacred song, deserved a patron saint quite as truly as the heathen 
 arts of whose uses every one was now hearing, thanks to the 
 revival of classical learning. And so, when a choice had once 
 been made, men everywhere accepted it eagerly. In a French 
 town early in the sixteenth century an association of musicians 
 was put by the magistrate under the patronage of St. Cecilia, 
 instead of St. Job's, as they had requested ; and in later times 
 countless musical societies and some journals have borne her 
 name. In Evreux, France, in 1571, musical festivals were 
 inaugurated, with contests and prizes for compositions, and 
 continued for some years. In England the celebrations of the 
 saint's day, beginning in 1683, carried on pretty regularly for 
 twenty years and intermittently in the next century, were 
 opened by religious services in some church, and then the com- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 201 
 
 pany adjourned to a hall for the further exercises. These 
 included an ode on some subject relating to music, the music 
 itself to which the ode was sung being written by some com- 
 poser of eminence. The words were likewise written by poets 
 of temporary and sometimes immortal repute. The most famous 
 of all are Dryden's two odes. The first was written for the 
 London celebration of 1687, and was set to music by Draghi. 
 
 Dryden's second ode, entitled " Alexander's Feast, or the Power 
 of Music," is one of the best know^n poems in the language : it 
 was written for the festival of 1697, with music by Clarke ; later, 
 Handel gave it a more fitting setting. Taine calls it "an admi- 
 rable trumpet-blast, in which metre and sound impress upon the 
 nerves the emotions of the mind ; a masterpiece of rapture and 
 of art, which Victor Hugo alone has come up to." 
 
 Addison's "Song for St. Cecilia's Day at Oxford" was written 
 for the celebration in 1692, when he was only twenty years old. 
 It is mainly an apostrophe to the saint to attend the celebration 
 and assist her " vocal sons of harmony." 
 
 Alexander Pope must not be left out of this short list, although 
 it has been severely said that he wrote " in praise of an art of 
 the principles of which he was ignorant, while to its eifects he 
 was insensible." His ode for the London festival of 1717, written, 
 however, in 1708, has some fine lines, but is far inferior to Dry- 
 den's. (JSfew York Evening Post, November 21, 1896. See also 
 Butler, Baring-Gould, Mrs. Jameson, etc.) 
 
 The empty shrine of St. Cecilia in the Catacombs of St. Calix- 
 tus is an object of special worship on the feast-day of the Virgin 
 Martyr. On that occasion only the catacomb chapel is thrown 
 open, and masses are said there in quick succession from early 
 dawn till noon. A correspondent of the Baltimore Sun writing 
 from Eome under date of November 22, 1895, gives this account 
 of the celebration in that year : 
 
 " It may be said that the majority of travellers and tourists at 
 present visiting Eome might be met with here in this cemetery 
 of Cahxtus, crowding the chapel of St. Cecilia and the galleries 
 and corridors near it, and attending with silent awe to the cere- 
 monies held here on this her feast-day beside the empty tomb of 
 that popular saint. Year by year the crowds that throng this 
 spot increase, and the decoration of the place becomes more 
 elaborate. 
 
 "This shrine, which once held the body of St. Cecilia, is a 
 rudely shaped, spacious cave, cut betieath the soil, at the entrance 
 to the catacomb, and it is to-day turned into a bower of beauty 
 by the profusion of flowers with which it is decorated. From 
 the conical shaped lucernario, or air-aperture, admitting faintly 
 the pale rays of sunlight, great long festoons of odoriferous box 
 
202 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 branches, interwoven with pale pink and flaming red roses, droop 
 in graceful outlines. The walls are of the crude tufa, — the vol- 
 canic stone of the soil around here, — and resemble the sides of a 
 quarry. To-day, the feast of St. Cecilia, they are ahnost hidden 
 behind wreaths harmoniously interwoven of chrysanthemum and 
 narcissus and nasturtium and tiny ferns. In the great cavity, or 
 niche, opening into the wall on a level with the floor the flowers 
 are most profuse. This was the spot where the remains of Cecilia 
 were entombed. Here stood the huge marble sarcophagus, and 
 within it the coflin of cypress wood in which she lay, just as she 
 died. Lights and flowers — the choicest flowers of all — render 
 this rude niche a fair shrine. And in the centre of it is a tiny 
 statuette, in alabaster, copied after the renowned statue by Ste- 
 fano Maderno, which lies beneath the high altar in the church 
 of St. Cecilia in Trastevere, in Eome, at the very spot to which 
 her remains were transferred in the ninth century. 
 
 " Very few saints have been so popular with artists as Cecilia. 
 On the rude wall, quite close to the place of her empty tomb, an 
 early artist's loving hand has depicted his ideal of what she might 
 resemble. The method of painting and other considerations 
 known or observed by archaeologists lead them to the conclusion 
 that this work of art should be attributed to the seventh century. 
 It is in fresco, and occupies the place of a mosaic demolished at 
 an earlier period. Some of the tiny cubes of mosaic are still to 
 be seen inserted in the wall around this fresco. The picture is 
 that of a young woman standing in a garden of flowers, tall red 
 roses blooming on each side of her. The face is beautiful ; clear 
 brown eyes, under high arched brows, look out calmly at the 
 spectator. 
 
 " Her rich golden hair, amid which large pearls gleam, is but 
 a shade darker than the yellow nimbus which encircles her head. 
 A crimson tunic, bound at the neck with many rows of pearls 
 and other jewels in rich settings, covers the body and is gathered 
 in at the waist by a cincture set with large pearls. The arms, 
 enclosed in sleeves tight at the wrists, are held wide open, in that 
 attitude of prayer so frequently met w4th in the catacomb figures 
 known as Orantes. 
 
 " For those who take an interest in the marvellous history of 
 early Christian Eome, or who are touched by the charming asso- 
 ciations of Ceciha with music, to-day's visitation of the catacomb, 
 where her remains were placed after her martyrdom, is a mem- 
 orable event. Many hundrecis of strangers from far-away lands 
 crowded these narrow passages, with the numberless empty 
 graves on either hand, where the darkness was dispersed by the 
 many lighted candles placed in wooden sconces at intervals along 
 the walls." 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 203 
 
 Century, End of. When does a century end? "When does 
 a new one begin ? This question agitated all the civilized world 
 at the end of the eighteenth century. It is again disturbing it 
 at the end of the nineteenth. 
 
 The London Times in August, 1896, makes this contribution to 
 the question : 
 
 " Let us suppose a person to be writing a letter some eighteen 
 months after the birth of Christ. How will he date his letter? 
 Will he write, say, July 10, year 1, or July 10, year 2 ? If he 
 writes the former, he will consistently hold that the next cen- 
 tury begins January 1, 1900; if he writes the latter, he will hold 
 that it begins January 1, 1901. The first view is based on the 
 theory that the time specified is one year, six months, and nine 
 days (and some hours, to be exact) after the birth of our Lord. 
 The second view is based on the theory that the time specified is 
 the second year, sixth month, and tenth day after the same event. 
 According to the first view, February 10, 1896, means 1896 years, 
 one month, nine days (and some hours) after the birth of Christ, 
 and we are consequently in the 1897th year. According to the 
 second view, February 10, 1896, means the 1896th year, second 
 month, and tenth day, and we are consequently in the 1896th 
 year. According to the first view, the number of the year is a 
 cardinal number; according to the second view, it is an ordinal 
 number. Both of these methods can conceivably be maintained, 
 and, as stated above, both are in use. If we write a letter in 
 the afternoon and wish to specify the exact time, we date, e.g.^ 
 4.30 P.M., which means four hours and thirty minutes after twelve 
 o'clock. There we use a cardinal number. We might equally 
 well write ' in the fifth hour,' but as a fact we do not so write. 
 Again, in walking, as soon as you reach the tenth milestone from 
 a given starting-place you have completed ten miles. So when a 
 boy is twelve years old we say he is in his thirteenth year, and 
 he does not have to wait another year before getting into his 
 teens. All these calculations are based on the reasonable ground 
 that in concrete reckonings of time and space we do not begin 
 with 1, but with 0, and that there is the same space between 
 and 1 as there is between 1 and 2. The question then is, When 
 we write 1896 are we using a cardinal or an ordinal number? It 
 is clear that if we are using a cardinal number the last day of 
 the century is December 31, 1899, while if we are using an ordinal 
 number the last day of the century is December 31, 1900." 
 
 The Times concluded in favor of December 31, 1900. Here 
 are its reasons : 
 
 " (1) In English we use the ordinal number in the day of the 
 month ; we say Ist, 2d, 3d, etc., and not 1, 2, 3, etc. The name of 
 the month also is equivalent to an ordinal number, because by 
 
204 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 February, e.g.^ we mean the second month. It would thus be 
 illogical to suppose that the year is a cardinal number when the 
 month and day are ordinal. (2) If we turn the year into Latin, 
 it is an ordinal number, — viz., anno millesimo nonagesimo sexto. 
 If it is objected that the Latin number may be ordinal and yet 
 the English be cardinal, the obvious reply is that by this num- 
 ber the Latin means the same year as we mean by 1896, and not 
 what we mean by 1895. (3) The parallel tables of years made 
 by chronologists in comparing one system of dating with an- 
 other make 1 B.C. followed immediately by 1 a.d. Thus, in 
 Zumpt's ' Annales' (to take a well-known book) the year of Eome 
 (a.tj.c.) 753 corresponds with B.C. 1, and the next year, 754, with 
 A.D. 1. And this is, of course, not an arbitrary calculation of 
 Zumpt, but he is merely carrying on the accepted mode of reck- 
 oning. Strictly speaking, a.d. (Anno Domini) is applicable only 
 to this mode of dating, for if a cardinal number is used it should 
 be p.c. (post Christum). On the whole, we may consider we are 
 tolerably safe in holding that the next century begins on January 
 1, 1901, though great names may be quoted on the other side." 
 
 Cerealia, or Feast of Ceres. An ancient Eoman festival, 
 lasting from the 12th to the 19th of April, or, according to some 
 authorities, from the 7th to the 14th. This festival was cele- 
 brated in honor of Ceres, whose wanderings in search of her 
 lost daughter Proserpine were represented by women, clothed in 
 white, running about with lighted torches. As the foreign Mega- 
 lesia was especially appropriated by the nobles, so the festival of 
 the Eoman goddess of agriculture belonged peculiarly to the 
 plebeians ; they feasted one another at this time, as the nobles 
 had done in the former festival. This was, indeed, a time of the 
 greatest hilarity and merriment, and for this reason the celebra- 
 tion of the Cerealia was omitted in times of public mourning, 
 and it was regarded as a great breach of propriety when on one 
 occasion the gladiatorial shows were given instead of the Circen- 
 sian games which properly belonged to the festival. The last 
 day, the 19th, was the great festival of the year for the common 
 people. They crowded in the Circus or race-course, where nuts 
 and other trifles were thrown among them ; and, besides the 
 horse-races, it was the practice to set foxes loose in the Circus 
 with lighted torches tied to their tails, — a symbol, it is thought, 
 of the red blight or rust that burns up the corn. 
 
 Both the Megalesia and the Cerealia were, like many other 
 festivals, originally celebrated for only one day ; and when the 
 Cerealia were extended over an entire week they were made to 
 embrace the ancient festival of the Fordicidia, when a sacrifice 
 was made to Tellus, goddess of the earth. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 205 
 
 Chalitzah or Halitza. (From the Jewish word halitz, " to 
 loosen," "to detach.") A Jewish ceremony which is fully de- 
 scribed in the twenty-fifth chapter of Deuteronomy. " If breth- 
 ren dwell together," says verse 5, " and one of them die, and 
 have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without 
 unto a stranger : her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and 
 take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of a husband's 
 brother unto her." The first-born of this marriage, the text 
 goes on to explain, shall be named after the dead brother and be 
 treated as his heir. But if the living brother refuse, he must 
 submit to the Chalitzah : " Then shall his brother's wife come 
 unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from 
 off his foot, and spit in his face, and shall answer and say, 'So 
 shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother's 
 house.' " The loosening of the recalcitrant brother's shoe was a 
 symbol that the widow took away in public court his right to 
 her and to the possessions of the deceased. It will be remem- 
 bered that anciently the possession of property was claimed by 
 planting the foot upon it, and its sale was consummated by the 
 original owners taking off his shoe and handing it to the new 
 proprietor. Among the orthodox Jews the ceremony of the 
 Chalitzah is still practised even in America. But in 1869 a Eab- 
 binical convention of the Eeformed Jews declared that brother- 
 in-law and sister-in-law were within the prohibited degrees of 
 kindred, and that the entire custom which involved the Chalitzah 
 was out of date. 
 
 Champion of England. At the coronation of an English 
 sovereign it was long usual for a man in armor to make his ap- 
 pearance on horseback just as the second course had been served 
 at the royal banquet in Westminster Hall. A herald proclaimed 
 that if anybody dared to deny that the recently crowned mon- 
 arch was not the lawful king of England " here was a cham- 
 pion that would fight with him." At these words the champion 
 would fling down his gauntlet. This ceremony was thrice re- 
 peated. No one answering after the third defiance, the cham- 
 pion found his way to the king's table, where his majesty drank 
 to him and presented him with the gilt cup to keep as his own. 
 By prescriptive right the perquisites of this important func- 
 tionary were " one of the king's great coursers, with the saddle, 
 harness, and trappings of cloth of gold ; one of the king's best 
 suits of armor, with cases of cloth of gold ; and all other things 
 belonging to the king's body when he goes into mortal battle ; 
 and the gold cup in which the king drinks to him, with its 
 cover." The arms provided for the royal champion at the coro- 
 nation of King James II. in 1685 are very particularly enumer- 
 
206 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 ated : " A complete suit of white armor, a pair of gauntlets, a 
 sword and hanger, a case of rich pistols, an oval shield with the 
 champion's arms painted on it, and a gilded lance fringed 
 about the handles. Also a field saddle of crimson velvet with 
 breastplate and other caparisons for the horse, richly laden with 
 gold and silver, a plume of red, white, and blue feathers, con- 
 sisting of eighteen falls and a heron's top, another plume for the 
 horse's head, and trumpet banners with the champion's own arms 
 depicted on them." AH this magnificence was the lawful fee 
 of the champion, with the understanding, however, that certain 
 compensation money would be allowed upon re-delivery of the 
 property to the Master of the jRoyal Armory for the time being. 
 
 The office is a very ancient one, and is popularly supposed to 
 have been brought to England by William the Conqueror. It 
 was originally vested in the Marmion family, said to have been 
 hereditary champions to the Dukes of Normandy long prior to 
 the Canquest, and later became one of the privileges that went 
 with their feudal manor of Scrivelsby, Lincolnshire. Upon the 
 death without male issue of Philip de Marmion during the reign 
 of Edward II., the manor of Scrivelsby became the property of 
 his younger daughter. By marriage with her heiress, Margaret, 
 Sir John Dyraoke acquired the estate and the hereditary oflSce, 
 and duly performed the duties of champion at the coronation of 
 Eichard II. Estate and office still remain in the Dymoke family. 
 At the coronation of King William IV., however, and of Queen 
 Victoria, the public banquet of the sovereign in Westminster 
 Hall was dispensed with, as well as the services of the champion, 
 in 1841 the then head of the Dymoke house being rewarded with 
 a baronetcy in return for waiving his claim. The last appear- 
 ance of the champion, therefore, was at the coronation of King 
 George lY., on July 19, 1821. Walpole, writing to George Mon- 
 tagu, says, "The champion acted his part admirably, and dashed 
 down his gauntlet with proud defiance. His associates, Lord 
 Effingham, Lord Talbot, and the Duke of Bedford, were woful. 
 Lord Talbot [the Lord High Steward] piqued himself on back- 
 ing his horse down the hall and not turning its tail towards the 
 king ; but he had taken such pains to drill it to that duty that it 
 entered backwards ; and at his retreat the spectators clapped. 
 A terrible indecorum, but suitable to such Bartholomew Fair 
 doings." 
 
 There is no lack of stories setting forth the acceptance of the 
 champion's challenge. Myths of this sort are associated with 
 every eighteenth-century coronation that took place while a 
 Pretender existed. Usually it is a woman who pushes her way 
 through the crowd, takes up the champion's gauntlet, and leaves 
 her own glove in its place. Sometimes the woman is described 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 207 
 
 as old and infirm and supported by crutches, and at other 
 times as young and beautiful. One version makes the Pretender 
 himself, disguised in female attire, accompHsh the daring feat. 
 Sir Walter Scott in " Eedgauntlet," it may be remembered, 
 avails himself of this curious legend. Obedient to the command 
 of her uncle, Eedgauntlet, Lilias, the heroine of the novel, on 
 the third sounding of the champion's challenge rushes through 
 the crowd, a lane being opened for her as though by word of 
 command, picks up the " parader's gage," and leaves another in 
 lieu thereof. 
 
 Chantry. (Lat. capellania ; Fr. chapeUenie.) The old English 
 name for an endowment of land or other revenues which were 
 to be used for the maintenance of a priest to say a daily mass 
 for the souls of the founder and his family or other benefactors. 
 By extension the name came to be applied to the chapel, aisle, 
 or part of an aisle in a church set apart for the offering of such 
 masses. ^ 
 
 Chantries formed the chief means of livelihood of thousands 
 of priests during the Middle Ages. The salary was seldom 
 more than seven or eight pounds a year. Yery rarely the priest 
 had a little house and garden, but, as a rule, he had nothing 
 better than a two-roomed hut, often with no fireplace beyond 
 a space on the ground on which he burnt some dried turf, and 
 with no chimney except a hole in the roof. A bench and a bed- 
 stead were usually his entire furniture. This, however, was the 
 case only where he held no other office and did not belong to a 
 religious order. Although his duties were sometimes confined 
 to his daily mass, he was often bound to act as village school- 
 master, or even as master of the town grammar-school. Where 
 the chantry priest said his mass in a cathedral, or in a collegiate, 
 parochial, or other church where the divine office was sung, by 
 the law of the English Church he was bound to assist at these 
 services, which entailed some three or four hours in choir during 
 the course of the day. Some foundations of chantries obliged 
 the priest to act as a librarian. The celebrated Whittington, 
 lord mayor of London, who established a library in the city, 
 also founded a chantry, binding the priest to act as librarian. 
 
 These were necessarih^ men of education; but there are 
 reasons for believing that many chantry priests were put 
 through a very simple course of theology, and were taught only 
 Latin enough to enable them to say their mass and their office. 
 Yery few of them had permission to preach, or faculties for 
 hearing confessions. Sometimes, however, chantries were given 
 to parish priests or their curates, and at other times to monas- 
 teries. A large number of chantries were attached to cathedrals, 
 
208 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 and very many were founded by bishops and ecclesiastics. 
 There were nearly one hundred chantries at St. Paul's Cathedral 
 alone ; but some that were insufficiently endowed were united, 
 and at the dissolution there were only fifty-four priests saying 
 mass daily in the cathedral. 
 
 Chantries were dissolved by Henry YIII. in 1545 and 1547, 
 although he was inconsistently anxious to take a personal and 
 selfish advantage of their possible benefits, as he willed that 
 masses should be said for his own soul " forever," enjoining all 
 his " heirs and successors who should be kings of this realm, as 
 they would answer before Almighty God at the dreadful day of 
 judgment," to carry out this bequest. 
 
 Chanuckah, or Hunuka. (Heb., " Feast of Lights ;" known 
 also as the Feast of Dedication.) A Jewish festival commencing 
 on the 23d day of Kislev and commemorating the recapture of 
 the temple and city of Jerusalem by the Maccabees. In the 
 summer of 165 B.C. the forces of the Maccabees met a large army 
 of the Syrians and vanquished them at Bethzur. After the triumph 
 Maccabeus with his army entered Jerusalem, only to find the 
 sacred city a place of desolation. The temple was deserted and 
 defiled by heathen altars, the gates had been thrown down, and 
 the sacred places desecrated. The pious work of purification 
 was begun, and on the 25th of Kislev, 165 B.C., it was finished. 
 The temple was once more consecrated, and the perpetual light, 
 which Antiochus had quenched, was lighted. A jar of sacred oil, 
 sealed with the ring of the high-priest, and sufficient for one 
 day's consumption, was discovered just when it was wanted. 
 Miraculously enough, it lasted for eight days. According to Jewish 
 tradition, it was then decreed that every year the eight days 
 beginning with the 25th of Kislev should be celebrated as a 
 festival to commemorate the event. 
 
 Among orthodox Jews the home celebration of Chanuckah 
 takes this form. On the first night two waxen tapers are lighted, 
 one as a torch, the other to symbolize the first day of the feast. 
 On the second night after sundown a second taper is lighted, and 
 so on successively until on the eighth night there are eight tapers, 
 exclusive of the torch. A modern innovation is to start with a 
 lighted taper for every member of the household, increasing the 
 number by one every night. These tapers remain lighted until 
 they burn out, and are not renewed. The inner meaning of the 
 observance is the increasing strength of spiritual light and 
 truth. In the Jewish synagogues there are prayers twice a 
 day, at sunrise and at sunset. No fast or mourning is allowed 
 during the eight days of the festival. 
 
 The week prior to its commencement is given up to the prep- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 209 
 
 aration of the wax tapers. These are made of genuine beeswax. 
 The head of the family softens the yellow wax in hot water so 
 that he can manipulate it, and moulds it into the form of tapers 
 around pieces of twine. These candles are not so smooth and 
 pretty as the store candles, but they are odd and quaint, and 
 seem more appropriate to the ceremonies which accompany the 
 lighting of them. These consist of the chanting of verses of 
 praise. The verses are repeated by each male, and begin as 
 follows : 
 
 " Blessed art thou, Lord our God, King of the world, who hast 
 sanctified us with thy commandments, and enjoined upon us to 
 light the lamps of the Feast of the Dedication." 
 
 The Jewish month of Kislev corresponds roughly with our 
 December. Hence the 25th of Kislev may and sometimes does 
 fall on the 25th of December, or at least our Christmas Day may 
 be included in the week of Chanuckah. There are some Jews 
 who have departed from the customs of their fathers sufficiently 
 to buy the colored wax tapers which Christians use on their 
 Christmas-trees, but your real orthodox Jew would look with 
 horror upon the use of such candles. In his eyes it would be 
 sacrilege. These candles are made of a composition by the 
 hands of Grentiles. Possibly — the thought is almost too hor- 
 rible to dwell upon — the composition may contain lard, the fat 
 of the beast which is most repugnant of all animals to the 
 Jew. 
 
 The coincidence of dates has led to some confusion between 
 Christmas and Chanuckah in the minds of the less instructed 
 Jews, and it is the aim of the orthodox rabbi to keep constant 
 guard against the Christian innovations which are only too 
 likely to enter into the Hebrew ceremonial. 
 
 Charivari (in local American usage frequently corrupted into 
 Chivaree or Shivaree). A French word of uncertain origin, 
 but probably onomatopoetie or imitative, signifying a mock 
 serenade with horns, kettles, saucepans, etc. In France sere- 
 nades of this sort were formerly inflicted upon newly married 
 couples and upon persons who had made themselves socially 
 or politically unpopular. The charivari still survives in spots 
 through the provinces. The French inhabitants of Louisiana 
 and of Canada brought the custom to America, and through 
 them it was pretty generally distributed over the United States, 
 where it is not yet altogether extinct. The same sort of con- 
 cert in Germany is called Katzenmusik (" cats' music"), and in 
 England Rough-music. 
 
 The chivaree was originally extended both in this country 
 and in France to all bridal couples, but more recently was limited 
 
 14 
 
210 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 to widows or widowers who remarried too hastily, to couples in 
 whom an unusual disparity of age existed, or to such other 
 unions as were either ridiculous or unpopular. Cases of notori- 
 ous domestic infelicity or infidelity called forth similar expres- 
 
 A Charivari in the Middle Ages. 
 (From Wright's " Caricature and Grotesque.") 
 
 sions of neighborly disapproval. In mediaeval times in many 
 European countries a wife who beat her husband was placed 
 upon a donkey, with her back to its head, its tail was grasped 
 by the lickspittle spouse who had allowed himself to be trounced, 
 and thus they paraded through the streets, greeted with shouts 
 and cries and beatings of tin pans. It is not impossible that here 
 was the germ idea of the charivari. Nor was it everywhere 
 entirely superseded by the latter. So recently as 1867 the Cour- 
 rier de VAin (quoted suh voce m La Eousse's Encyclopaedia) had 
 this paragrajjh : " On January 22, in the little village of Turgon, 
 a commune of Druillat, a large mob met together. Upon a 
 large cart whereto a pair of horses were harnessed sat sundry 
 individuals representing a court of justice, all in appropriate 
 costumes : a president in a toque and a red gown, five judges in 
 robes made of women's dresses or window-curtains, an officer of 
 the public ministry dubbed Procureur de la Cornaillerie, two 
 lawyers, a jury, two policemen, and two witnesses. Before the 
 solemn tribunal came a husband and wife, represented by two 
 other persons. The first was accused of having received, the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 211 
 
 second of having given, sundry blows from a broomstick. In 
 iront of a cart was a float whereon was the effigy of an ass, and 
 on this ass. seated with his face to the tail, was a man bearing 
 on his head the horns of a stag and in his hands a distaff" which 
 he was pretending to spin." A mock judgment was just about 
 to be delivered, when a party of genuine policemen burst on the 
 scene and brought the actors before the real justice, who fined 
 them forty sous apiece. 
 
 At the beginning of the seventeenth centurj^ charivaris were 
 forbidden by the Council of Tours under pain of excommunica- 
 tion. The French parliament also thundered against "the 
 tumults known as charivaris practised before the houses of those 
 who remarried." But neither Church nor "State could put an 
 end to the custom. 
 
 On the 31st of July, 1751, the eve of the feast of St. Peter in 
 Yinculis, whom the Parisian cobblers had taken as their patron, 
 a number of charcoal-burners determined to amuse themselves 
 ai the expense of such of their fellows as had married aged 
 widows, and with this object to present them with bouquets 
 amid a fanfare of musical instruments. The pretence was that 
 these unfortunates ought to acknowledge the same patron as 
 the cobblers, who dealt in second-hand leather. So they took 
 two donkeys which they adorned with the implements of their 
 trade and especially with old pieces of leather, old shoes, and 
 pendent ox-feet. Each was ridden by a mummer similarly 
 ornamented. A procession of charcoal-burners followed, walk- 
 ing two by two. All were grotesquely accoutred in similar 
 taste. The first cobbler before whose house they stopped re- 
 ceived them good-humoredly and opened beer for them. The 
 next took the affair as an insult to himself and his fellow-cobblers. 
 He informed the syndic of the guild, the cobblers gathered in 
 force and mobbed the procession, the two riders were thrown 
 into prison, and the courts punished them for inciting to riot. 
 
 Even so late as January, 1862, a troop of students of the 
 Latin Quarter, having done their sibilatory best to damn Ed- 
 mond About's play of " Gaetana" at the Odeon Theatre, marched 
 to his house and celebrated a charivari under his windows. 
 
 Alice T. Chase, in Americayi Notes and Queries, vol. i. p. 263, 
 has some interesting notes on the American shivaree. " Twenty 
 years ago," she says (she is writing in September, 1888), " it may 
 be safely said, there were very few hamlets or rural communities 
 of any size, from Pennsylvania west through the central belt of 
 States, where the custom was not known and more or less fre- 
 quently practised. Whether it ever gained much hold in Michigan, 
 Wisconsin, and the northern States of the West, I cannot say, 
 but I do know that it was most prevalent in Ohio, Indiana, and 
 
212 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Illinois, and that in some instances colonies from these States 
 transplanted it into Kansas and Nebraska. That it still prevails 
 in many districts, I could bring abundant evidence. You speak 
 of the custom as being French in its origin, as its name unques- 
 tionably is. I thought that we owed it to the class known as 
 ' Pennsylvania Dutch,' a class made up of diligent and sober cit- 
 izens, but altogether illiterate and unappreciative of the refine- 
 ments of civilized life. The ' shivaree' is described at length in 
 Eggleston's ' The End of the World.' I know of no other writer 
 who has ever tried to convert its unpleasant vulgarity into dra- 
 matic effect. It was a compliment extended to every married 
 couj^le on their nuptial night, and consisted of a serenade made 
 up of beating tin pans, blowing horns, ringing cow-bells, playing 
 horse-fiddles, caterwauling, and, in fine, of the use of every dis- 
 agreeable sound possible to make night hideous. This noise was 
 kept up often for hours, or until the bridegroom made his ap- 
 pearance and ' treated' the crowd. It was of no use for this luck- 
 less individual to attempt to wear out the crowd by an obstinate 
 refusal to appear. In that case the outside company would grow 
 riotous, would hurl stones and fire blank cartridges through the 
 windows, and after them, perhaps, dead cats and rotten eggs. 
 Nor was it of any use for a couple to have the ceremony per- 
 formed earlier in the day and start immediately on their bridal 
 tour ; the ' shivaree' would and did keep, and was served up to 
 them in all its unadulterated nastiness immediately upon their 
 return. Of course the actors in the ' shivaree' business were 
 mainly young men and boys. The older men of the community 
 protested against it, and all respectable women utterly loathed 
 it. But protests were of no avail, nor was it of any use to send 
 a constable around the next morning with warrants to arrest the 
 ringleaders. When brought before the judge they were simply 
 dismissed with a trifling fine, and were quite ready to repeat the 
 performance with emphasis on the occasion of the next wedding. 
 The fact was, the young men, having few diversions in their 
 quiet life, enjoyed these ' sprees,' and no one had moral courage 
 enough to interfere and forbid their amusement. The decadence 
 of this rough form of sport may be ascribed first to the general 
 diffusion of education and civilized customs that has been going 
 on of late years, and, secondly, to the great tendency of popu- 
 lation toward cities. This latter fact has acted in two ways: 
 it has taken the ringleaders away from the rural communities, 
 causing the custom there to die a natural death, and these char- 
 acters have not been able to transplant their amusement to their 
 new abodes, since there they come under the supervision of police 
 officers, whose business it is to interfere with such infractions of 
 the peace. The '■ shivaree' custom was unquestionably a survival 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 213 
 
 of semi-barbaric times ; the curious point to note is how nearly 
 this barbarous custom touches our advanced civilization of the 
 present day." 
 
 The natural result of the chivaree in many remote parts of 
 the United States has been to increase the number of secret 
 marriages. No one can be blamed for reticence which avoids 
 this harrowing experience. A correspondent of the JVew York 
 Evening Post (Februar}- 6, 1897, p. 13) finds in the mountains of 
 the Southern States " a general concealment of proposed connu- 
 biality and nuptial intent. It maybe generally known that Zeb 
 is ' keeping regular company' with Lize. Suddenly the town will 
 be apprised of the fact that ' Zeb and Lize done got married lasb^ 
 night.' This constitutes what might be called an anticipated 
 surprise. 
 
 "A man who was doing some work for me came to me one day 
 at noon, and asked permission to be absent until ' quartering 
 time,' half-past three o'clock. He said nothing to me or to his 
 associates of his purpose. He returned promptly on time, to 
 announce, in a casual and indifferent manner, that during his 
 absence he had been married, and, with the little furniture pos- 
 sessed by the pair, had settled in a cabin of his own. Again 
 and again have I seen the same plan followed in other cases." 
 
 Charlemagne, St., Festival of. (Fr. Fete de 8t. Charlemagne, 
 or, colloquially, La Sainte Charlemagne.) The title under which 
 the death- day of the Emperor Charlemagne is celebrated in all 
 the higher French educational institutions. Charlemagne was 
 born April 2, 742, and died January 28, 814. Of course his can- 
 onization is merely a jocular and scholastic one. But he took a 
 great interest in educational matters, and is the reputed founder 
 of the Paris University. It may be added, however, as a curious 
 coincidence, that Charlemagne was actually raised to saintship 
 by one of the antipopes. 
 
 On La Sainte Charlemagne all the students who have obtained 
 the first place in their class once, or the second place twice, are 
 invited to a grand breakfast, which is presided over by the prin- 
 cipal, and at which all the professors assist. At dessert the 
 principal makes an address. Then the scholars recite poems 
 composed by them for the occasion. Formerly these were in 
 Latin. Since the middle of the nineteenth century they have 
 been in French. In 1896 another change was introduced, 
 which Francisque Sarcey thus bemoans in the pages of the Cos- 
 mopolitan Magazine for April, 1896 : 
 
 " Up to this time it had always been the custom, when the 
 breakfast of the pupils was ended, that all the personnel of the 
 college should sit down to table, in their turn, and that the feast 
 
214 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 should begin over again for the professors. It was naturally out 
 of the funds of the Institute that the expenses of the repast — 
 which was of the most modest kind, indeed — were defrayed. 
 But the university is not rich, and the Minister of Public Instruc- 
 tion, with a view to economizing the educational fund, decided 
 in his wisdom that this year the professors, after making the 
 tour of the tables at which the students were celebrating the 
 feast of the saint, should return to their homes to eat their break- 
 fasts there. 
 
 " Between ourselves, I do not believe that the professors re- 
 gretted this measure. The breakfast, at a set price, was gener- 
 ally indiiferent ; and the professors have so many opportunities 
 every day of seeing and conversing with one another that the 
 pleasure of sitting at the same table together to drink champagne 
 at three francs a bottle was for them a very slight one. I know 
 some of them who thanked the minister in their hearts for his 
 niggardliness, which freed them from this extra duty. 
 
 " But we, who regard the matter from another point of view, 
 — a less selfish and a more general one, — cannot see without re- 
 gret this first attack upon an ancient custom which contributed 
 to the lustre and glory of the university. 
 
 " You cannot conceive how in former times this fete of Charle- 
 magne excited the minds and kindled the imaginations of all the 
 students. To have one's St. Charlemagne, as they used to say in 
 those days, was a sign that one was the first, or one of the first, 
 in his class. It was a great honor, ardently desired. At the 
 breakfast, which had been anticipated with joyful eagerness, the 
 professors looked on with an indulgent eye while the gayety 
 became more and more boisterous ; and they were ready to ex- 
 cuse all the pranks played by the young people under the exhil- 
 arating influence of the wine. 
 
 'f I shall never forget how, after leaving one of these love-feasts 
 in company with Edmond About, who was a little intoxicated by 
 the champagne, the talking, and the shouting, he and I went into 
 the bursar's garden, in which there was a large basin where gold- 
 fish were darting about. Using our handkerchiefs as nets, we 
 caught several of the poor little fishes and made ourselves a 
 glorious dish of fried fish. 
 
 " In the evening. — this was also a traditional custom, — as it 
 was a holiday, the boys made appointments with one another to 
 meet at the Theatre Frangais, whose manager they had requested 
 to give a play appropriate for the occasion. They filled the 
 house from top to bottom ; they applauded vociferously ; but if 
 by chance any actor appeared who failed to please them, he was 
 greeted with such a crowing of cocks and roaring of wild beasts 
 as might make nature tremble. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 215 
 
 " I greatly fear that the measure adopted by the minister, no 
 doubt with good intention, has dealt a fatal blow to this ancient 
 custom, which had already begun to fall into decadence. Now 
 it is the professors w^ho have lost their part in it ; soon it will be 
 the students." 
 
 Charles, St. King Charles I. of England is held by High 
 Church authorities to be the only saint oflScially enrolled in her 
 calendar by the Church of England since the Eeformation. The 
 anniversary of the date on which he was beheaded by order of 
 Cromwell and the Long Parliament (January 30, 1649) is cele- 
 brated by a mass. The vespers of a martyr are sung on the 
 preceding evening. 
 
 The ritualists hold that King Charles I. laid down his life as 
 a martyr for the Church of England. The argument, briefly 
 stated, is that if Charles had consented to the abolition of 
 Episcopacy by the Puritan Parliament his life would have been 
 spared. 
 
 This argument, of course, rejects the more common belief that 
 in fighting for his bishops Charles was fighting for his kingdom. 
 "No Bishop! No King!" was the programme of the Puritans. 
 The ritualists will not allow that any alloy of selfishness entered 
 into the motives of Charles I. 
 
 Accepting their argument, it is obvious that Charles deserved 
 to be canonized. But the ritualists go further. They insist that 
 he was actually canonized, and by the only authority within the 
 Episcopal Church which is empowered to do so, — i.e., by Convo- 
 cation. They acknowledge that this is the only instance in 
 which Convocation has ever exercised the power, but they assert 
 that the power itself is, has been, and always will be resident 
 within the Church, through its representative. Convocation. 
 Their presentation of the case is full of curious ecclesiastical 
 interest. 
 
 On May 29, 1660, eleven years after the martyrdom of Charles 
 I., his son rode back into power as King Charles II. Early next 
 year Convocation — the clergy, Lords, and Commons — united 
 with Charles II. in appointing a special service of prayer with 
 fasting " to be used yearly on the 30th of January, being the 
 day of the martyrdom of the blessed King Charles the First." 
 On the Prayer Book calendar the name of " King Charles, Mar- 
 tyr," was entered at January 30. The prayer applying specially 
 to the new martyr ran as follows : 
 
 " O Lord, we offer unto Thee all praise and thanks for the 
 glory of Thy grace that shined forth in Thine anointed, our 
 sovereign. King Charles, and we beseech Thee to give us all 
 grace by a careful, studious imitation of this Thy blessed saint 
 
216 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 and martyr, and all other saints and martyrs that have gone be- 
 fore us, that we may be made worthy to receive benefits by their 
 prayers, which they, in communion with the church catholic, 
 offer up unto Thee for that part of it here militant, through Thy 
 Son, our blessed Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen." 
 
 Here, then, are the documents in the case : Convocation 
 characterized the death of Charles as a " martyrdom ;" it caused 
 him to be enrolled in the calendar as "King Charles, Martyr;" 
 it set aside a special day for his commemoration, that day being, 
 as was the old custom of the Catholic Church, the death-day 
 and not the birthday ; and it sanctioned a prayer in which King 
 Charles was spoken of as God's " blessed saint and martyr." 
 Nothing can be clearer than that Convocation, by the legitimate 
 exercise of a function which it can legitimately claim, enrolled 
 King Charles I. in the calendar of its saints and martyrs, — in 
 other words, canonized him. 
 
 The Eev. John Keble, who wrote that once popular series of 
 hymns, " The Christian Year," was evidently of this opinion. 
 His hymn for January 30 begins as follows : 
 
 Our own, our Koyal Saint, — 
 True son of our dear mother, early taught 
 
 "With her to worship, and for her to die. 
 Nursed in her aisles to more than kingly thought, — 
 
 Oft in her solemn hours we dream thee nigh. 
 
 Nor was there wanting the confirmation of miracles to show 
 that heaven approved of the honors showered upon one of its 
 favorite sons. A handkerchief which had been dipped in his 
 blood at the execution was found to have antitoxine qualities. 
 Pilgrims who visited the tomb of the martyr in St. George's 
 Chapel at Windsor, where he was buried by permission of Oliver 
 Cromwell, testified that they had been relieved of scrofula, or 
 king's evil. For more than a century after the Eestoration 
 strict tories and Church of England men kept the 30th of Jan- 
 uary as a day of fasting and humiliation. 
 
 The first Lord Holland used to relate that during the lifetime 
 of his father, Sir Stephen Fox, upon the return of every 30th 
 of January the wainscot of the house was hung with black, and 
 no meal of any sort was permitted until after midnight. This 
 attempt at rendering the day melancholy by fasting had a 
 directly contrary effect on the children ; for the housekeeper, 
 fearing that they might suffer through so long an abstinence 
 from food, used to give the little folks clandestinely as many 
 comfits and sweetmeats as they could eat. Thus Sir Stephen's 
 intended fast was turned into a juvenile feast. (^Correspondence of 
 C, J. Fox, edited by Earl Eussell.) 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 217 
 
 There were others also among their adult contemporaries who 
 brought revelry into the day of mourning, and did so of malice 
 prepense. For there were certain enemies of the Church of 
 England and admirers of Cromwell, who formed themselves 
 into a secret society called the Calves'-Head Club which met 
 every 30th of January to rejoice over the death of the Martyr- 
 King. Little is known about the early history of this organiza- 
 tion. That little is to be gleaned from an anonymous pamphlet 
 of no great credibility entitled " The Secret History of the 
 Calves'-Head Club, or the Eepublicans Unmasked" (second 
 edition, 1703). The author asserts that " a certain active Whig" 
 had informed him " that Milton and other creatures of the 
 Commonwealth had instituted this club (as he was informed) in 
 opposition to Bishop Juxon, Dr. Sanderson, Dr. Hammond, and 
 other divines of the Church of England, who met privately 
 every 30th of January, and, though it was under the time of 
 the usurpation, had compiled a private form of service of the 
 day, not much different from what we now find in the Liturgy." 
 In the eighth edition, published in 1713, are added sonie particu- 
 lars as to the manner in which the day was spent: f Their bill 
 of fare was a large dish of calves' heads, dressed several ways, 
 by which they represented the king, and his friends who had 
 suffered in his cause ; a large pike with a small one in his mouth, 
 as an emblem of tj^ranny ; a large cod's head, by which they 
 pretended to represent the person of the king singly; a boar's 
 head, with an apple in its mouth, to represent the king. . . . 
 After the repast was over, one of the elders presented an Eikon 
 Basilike, which was with great solemnity burned upon the table." 
 Several thanksgiving songs or anthems are included, with the 
 information that they were sung at the anniversary meetings 
 in 1693-97. Here are a few agreeable references to Charles I. 
 from the 1696 anthem : 
 
 This monarch wore a peaked beard 
 
 And seem'd a doughty hero. 
 As Dioclesian innocent, 
 
 And merciful as Nero. 
 
 The Church's darling implement, 
 
 And scourge of all the people, 
 He swore he'd make each mother's son 
 
 Adore their idol steeple ; 
 
 But they, perceiving his designs. 
 
 Grew plaguy shy and jealous. 
 And timely chopt his calves' head off, 
 
 And sent him to his fellows. 
 
 The first note of public opposition to the anniversary as a 
 church festival was sounded in March, 1772, by Mr. Montague. 
 
218 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 He led an attempt in the House of Commons to repeal so much 
 of the Act of 12 Charles II. c. 30 as related to the ordering the 
 30th of January to be kept as a day of fasting and humiliation. 
 Mr. Montague declared his motive to be the abolition of any 
 absurdity from Church as well as State. He said that he saw 
 great and solid reasons for abolishing the observance of that day 
 by the Church, and hoped he should not be deemed to be speak- 
 ing too harshly if he should brand the prescribed service with 
 the name of impiety, particularly in those parts where Charles 
 I. is likened to the Saviour of mankind. On a division, there 
 being for the motion 97, and against it 125, it was lost by a 
 majority of 27. 
 
 On the very second day of her reign. Queen Yictoria, taking 
 advantage of the addition to the Prayer Book of a special 
 service " to be recited on the twentieth of June, being the 
 anniversary of the beginning of the Present Glorious Eeign," 
 promulgated the following order: 
 
 " Our will and pleasure is that these four forms of prayer and 
 service made for the fifth of November, the thirtieth of 
 January, the twenty-ninth of May, and the twentieth of June, 
 be forthwith printed and published and annexed to the book of 
 Common Prayer and liturgy of the United Church of England 
 and Ireland, to be said yearly on the said days in all cathedrals 
 and collegiate churches and chapels, in all chapels of colleges 
 and halls within our universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and 
 Dublin, and of our colleges of Eton and Winchester, and in all 
 parish churches and chapels within those parts of our United 
 Kingdom called England and Ireland. 
 
 " Given at our court at Kensington, the twenty-first day of 
 June, 1837, in the first year of our reign. 
 
 " By Her Majesty's command. J. Eussell." 
 
 Thus it is seen that one of the very first acts of Queen 
 Yictoria was to republish and declare the " Martyrdom of King 
 Charles the First," and, as the head of the Established Church, 
 to enjoin the use of this service, as appropriate fur the anniver- 
 sary of his death. 
 
 A little over two decades later the opposition to the festival 
 finally triumphed. At the meeting of Convocation in 1857 Dr. 
 Milman, Dean of St. Paul's, expressed doubts as to the propriety 
 in the present day of the special services for King Charles's 
 Martyrdom, the Gunpowder Treason, and the Eestoration. His 
 views were supported by Dr. Martin, chancellor of the diocese 
 of Exeter. In 1858 Lord Stanhope brought the matter before 
 the House of Lords, moving an address to the queen on the 
 subject. It was then stated that great objection to the ser- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 219 
 
 vices prevailed, and that many clergymen, including the dean 
 and chapter of Canteibury Cathedral, refused to read them, and 
 already omitted them, without waiting for royal or parliamen- 
 tary sanction to the course they adopted. Lord Stanhope was 
 supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of 
 London and Oxford, the Earl of Derby, and other peers on both 
 sides of the House. A similar address was voted by the House 
 of Commons. 
 
 On January 17, 1859, Queen Victoria took matters into her 
 own hands and issued a royal warrant abolishing the three ser- 
 vices. But it was perceived that, these services being appointed 
 by Acts of Parliament, clergymen might feel embarrassed by the 
 abolition being only the result of a royal warrant. A short Act 
 of Parliament was therefore introduced and passed the same 
 session, repealing the objectionable statutes. The services were 
 accordingly removed from the Prayer Book. 
 
 Not yet do the High Churchmen yield. Charles's removal 
 from the calendar was effected not by Convocation, or the clergy. 
 Lords, and Commons combined, but by Queen Victoria and the 
 House of Commons alone. It was, therefore, they contend, 
 illegal and of no effect. January 30 is still devoted rightfully 
 to the commemoration of St. Charles's martyrdom, they say, 
 and unless the removal from the calendar is sanctioned by Con- 
 vocation, an unlikely contingency, King Charles, Martyr, is en- 
 titled to the commemoration decreed to him by Convocation in 
 1661. 
 
 In 1894 the Hon. Mrs. Greville ]N"ugent founded the Society of 
 King Charles the Martyr, which numbers among its members 
 many persons of rank and influence. The prospectus sets forth 
 that the object of the society is " intercessory prayer for the 
 defence of the Church of England against the attacks of her 
 enemies," and continues, — 
 
 " The society is emphatically non-political. It is to the Church 
 in her spiritual aspect — the kingdom that is not of this world — 
 that its attention is principally directed, though it is prepared 
 also to resist anything that may tend to impair the usefulness 
 of the Church in the world. Those who join the society do not, 
 however, pledge themselves to more than the weekly use of the 
 annexed prayers (the first of which, being adapted from the 
 Eikon Basilike, may be regarded as the words of King Charles 
 himself), and to the observance in some way of the 30th of Jan- 
 uary, the day of the king's death (which will be the anniversary^ 
 of the society), especially by attending, when possible, in any 
 church where they have been revived, the services formerly ap- 
 pointed for the day in the Book of Common Prayer." 
 
 It is proposed to establish the society in all parts of the globe 
 
220 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 where the Episcopal Church exists, and nowhere is membership 
 to conflict with the existing form of government. 
 
 There are four churches in England dedicated to King Charles 
 the Martyr. In New York city the church of St. Mary the 
 Virgin and in Philadelphia the Church of the Evangelists cele- 
 brate the annual return of the martyrdom. A devotional picture 
 of the saint was solemnly unveiled in 1896 in the Philadelphia 
 church in the presence of Rt. Rev. William Stevens Perry, D.D., 
 Bishop of Iowa and Historiographer of the American Church, 
 who delivered a glowing panegyric, and of numerous prominent 
 Anglican ecclesiastics. The day was celebrated with equal pomp 
 in London. At the Anglican Church of St. Margaret Pattens a 
 solemn eucharist was celebrated. The altar and sacrarium were 
 vested in crimson and gold, the altar being ablaze with tapers, 
 while the rest of the church was darkened. Around the altar 
 were hung banners, one having a portrait of King Charles bear- 
 ing the martyr's palm-branch, with the words -' Sanctus Carolus, 
 Rex et Martyr," embroidered in gold. The celebrant was attired 
 in a crimson chasuble embroidered.with silver, and was attended 
 by a number of acolytes in scarlet cassocks and small caps. A 
 choir sang, the anthem being " Be thou faithful unto death." The 
 service was read from Laud's Book of Common Prayer, that ulti- 
 mately cost Charles his head. The congregation was dressed in 
 mourning and wore white Stuart roses. It included the Order of 
 the White Rose, the Order of St. Germain, the Jacobite Club, the 
 Legitimist Club, the Thames Valley Legitimists, the Society of 
 King Charles the Martyr, and other Stuart organizations. In 
 the evening there was a choral service, the clergy and choir 
 marching round the church in procession with the banners. A 
 great many wreaths of magnificent flowers, the inscriptions on 
 which had first been examined by the government officials, were 
 hung about King Charles's statue in Trafalgar Square. One 
 was inscribed "Remember," another, "I go from a corruptible 
 to an incorruptible crown." A Scottish society sent a wreath 
 tied with a tartan silk ribbon, with the legend "In memory of 
 the great-grandson of King Charles I., Charles Edward, died 
 January 31, 1788. Wha wadna follow thee, King of the Hie- 
 land heart, bonnie Prince Charlie?" The Legitimist Club at- 
 tached to a laurel wreath a long prayer, beseeching that the 
 guilt of the king's innocent blood might not be laid to the 
 people of the land. 
 
 The vault in which King Charles's coffin is interred was last 
 opened in 1813, on the occasion of the funeral of the Duchess of 
 Brunswick, the sister of George III. Before the reclosing of 
 the vault search was made for the coffin of King Charles, in the 
 presence of the Prince Regent. When found it was partially 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 221 
 
 opened. Sir Henry Halford, one of the witnesses, published in 
 the same year " An account of what appeared on opening the 
 coffin of King Charles I." (1813), from which it appears that the 
 body was found in good condition among the gums and resins 
 employed to preserve it : " At length the whole face was disen- 
 gaged from its covering. The complexion of the skin was dark 
 and discolored. The forehead and temples had lost little or 
 nothing of their muscular substance ; the cartilage of the nose 
 was gone; but the left eye in the first moment of exposure was 
 open and full, though it vanished almost immediately, and the 
 pointed beard was perfect. The shape of the face was a long 
 oval; many of the teeth remained. . . . When the head had 
 been entirely disengaged from the attachments which confined 
 it, it was found to be loose, and without any difficulty was taken 
 up and held to view. . . . The back part of the scalp was per- 
 fect, and had a remarkably fresh appearance ; the pores of the 
 skin being more distinct, as they usually are when soaked in 
 moisture; and the tendons and filaments of the neck were of 
 considerable substance and firmness. The hair was thick at the 
 back part of the head, and in appearance nearly black. ... On 
 holding up the head to examine the place of separation from the 
 body, the muscles of the neck had evidently retracted them- 
 selves considerably ; and the fourth cervical vertebra was found 
 to be cut through its substance transversely, leaving the surfaces 
 of the divided portions perfectly smooth and even." 
 
 Byron, it may be noted, has some virulent lines " On the oc- 
 casion of his Eoyal Highness the Prince Eegent being seen 
 standing between the coffins of Henry VIII. and Charles I. in 
 the royal vault at Windsor :" 
 
 'Famed for contemptuous breach of sacred ties, 
 By headless Charles see heartless Henry lies ; 
 Between them stands another sceptred thing — 
 It moves, it reigns — in all but name, a king : 
 Charles to his people, Henry to his wife, 
 In him the double tyrant starts to life : 
 Justice and Death have mixed their dust in" vain, 
 Each royal vampire wakes to life again. 
 Ah, what can tombs avail ! since these disgorge 
 The blood and dust of both — to mould a George I 
 
 Eobert Southey enters in his " Common-Place Book," " I find 
 in a newspaper, ' The sheet in which Charles's head was received 
 is preserved with the communion plate in the church at Ash- 
 burnham, and his watch also. The blood with which the sheet 
 was covered is now almost black.' " The entry is without date : 
 the newspaper quoted was probably very old. In the Scots Mag- 
 azine for October, 1743, occurs the following: '^ Died, The Hon. 
 
222 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Bertram Ashburnham. He bequeathed to the clerk of the par- 
 ish of Ashburnham and his successors forever the watch which 
 King Charles I. had in his pocket at the time of his death, and 
 the shirt he then wore, which has some drops of blood on it. 
 And they are deposited in the vestry of the said church." A 
 correspondent of Notes and Queries (1854), quoting the above, 
 inquires concerning the relics. He obtains no satisfactory reply 
 beyond a reference to Horsfield's "Sussex" (1835), wherein may 
 be read that ''in the chancel of Ashburnham Church are kept, 
 in a glass case, lined with red velvet, some relics of the unfortu- 
 nate Charles I. These consist of the shirt with ruffled wrists 
 (on which are a few faint traces of blood) in which he was be- 
 headed ; his watch, which at the place of execution he gave to 
 Mr. John Ashburnham ; his white silk drawers ; and the sheet 
 that was thrown over the body after the execution. These arti- 
 cles have certainly been carefully preserved. Long were they 
 treasured up as precious relics, fit only to be gazed upon by the 
 devotees of the Icon Basilike. At length, however, the charm 
 was broken by Bertram Ashburnham, Esq., who in 1743 be- 
 queathed them to the clerk of the parish and his successors for- 
 ever, to be exhibited as great curiosities." Mr. Horsfield adds, 
 in a note, that " the superstitious of the last, and even of the 
 present, age have occasionally resorted to these relics for the 
 cure of the king's evil." An objection has been taken to the 
 watch alleged to have been given to Mr. Ashburnham, by reason 
 of the absence of any proof that Mr. Ashburnham was near the 
 king on the morning of the execution : certainly he was not 
 upon the scaffold. 
 
 The difficulty in the way of acknowledging the genuineness 
 of many of these royal relics arises from the fact that the 
 owners invariably maintain that they were given away by the 
 king on the scaffold. To accept all these statements would be to 
 look upon Charles as a sort of gallows-bird Santa Claus dis- 
 tributing an infinite number of rings, watches. Bibles, prayer- 
 books, and even .backgammon-boards and sets of bed-hangings. 
 
 Undoubtedly he did have a fondness for accumulating watches 
 and clocks, many of which, though they did not all accompany 
 him to the scaffold, are still extant. In Sir Thomas Herbert's 
 " Memoirs of the Last Two Years of the Eeign of that Unpar- 
 alleled Prince of ever blessed Memory, King Charles I." (1702) 
 appears a particular account of the various gifts presented by 
 the king immediately before his execution. His gold watch was 
 confided to Herbert — who, with Bishop Juxon, was in almost 
 sole attendance upon the king after his trial — to be delivered to 
 the Duchess of Eichmond. A small silver watch that hung by 
 his bedside was carried by Herbert towards the place of ex- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 223 
 
 ecution. While passing through the garden into the park the 
 king "asked Mr. Herbert the hour of the day, and taking the 
 clock into his hand gave it to him and said, 'Keep this in 
 memory of me,' which Mr. Herbert kept to his dying day." 
 This watch descended as an heirloom to William Townley Mit- 
 ford in 1865. In Brayley and Britton's " Description of Cheshire" 
 mention is made of another watch at Yale Eoyal, the residence 
 of Lord Delamere, which it was stated had also belonged to 
 King Charles, and was given by him to Bishop Juxon on the 
 scaffold. This watch had come into the Cholmondeley family 
 by an intermarriage with the Cowpers of Overleigh, near 
 Chester, who were related to the Juxon family. 
 
 The king's Prayer Book is now in the possession of the Evelyn 
 family, of Wotton Park, near Dorking, descendants of the great 
 John Evelyn. The royal Bible was given by the king to Sir 
 Thomas Herbert. In the margin of the book " he had with his 
 own hand written many annotations and quotations, and he 
 charged that the same should be given to the prince so soon as 
 lie returned." Herbert's account differs from the usual narrative, 
 in which the Bible is bestowed by the king upon Bishop Juxon. 
 In that prelate's hands he also deposited his George of the Order 
 of the Carter, diamond, and seals, to be transmitted to his eldest 
 son. The word " Eemember" was presumed to have reference 
 to this charge. The Parliament, however, prohibited Juxon's so 
 dealing with the Ceorge. A pearl which he always wore in his 
 ear, as may be noticed in his portrait on horseback by Yandyck, 
 was taken out after his death, and (in Walpole's time) was in 
 the collection of the Duchess of Portland, attested by the hand- 
 writing of his daughter the Princess of Orange, and was given 
 to the Earl of Portland by King William. In another account 
 there is a little variation : " Charles wore pearl ear-rings, and 
 the day before his execution took one of great value from his 
 ear and gave it to Juxon in charge for his daughter the Princess 
 Eoyal." 
 
 Cherries, Feast of. A holiday occasion, now well-nigh 
 obsolete, which for centuries was observed in Hamburg, Ger- 
 many, in the early summer, by processions of little children, all 
 dressed in white, who passed through the streets, each one 
 bearing in the right hand a bunch of cherries. The custom was 
 said to celebrate an event in the siege of Hamburg by the 
 Hussite warrior Procopius the Great in 1432. He invested the 
 city with his army and waited for the inhabitants to be starved 
 into surrender. In this dilemma somebody proposed that an 
 attempt be made to soften the hearts of the enemy by sending 
 out the city's children to ask for food and mercy. The* plan was 
 
224 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 carried out, and the surprise of the outlying hosts may be 
 guessed when they saw the gates of the city open to let forth, 
 not armed soldiers with helmets and swords, but a long line of 
 children. Every one of this strange army was dressed in white, 
 the elder ones leading the way, and the tiny toddlers holding 
 their hands trustfully, wondering what it all meant, but showing 
 no fear. When the rough soldiers outside heard the pattering 
 of the little feet and saw the white-robed innocent throng sur- 
 rounding their tents, they thought of their own children at 
 home, and felt only love and kindness for their little visitors. 
 They looked around for something to give them, and, as the 
 trees of the great orchards in which they lay encamped were 
 heavj' with their burden of cherries, the soldiers broke off big 
 branches of the fruit and gave one to every child and sent the 
 little ones back to their parents with a message of peace and 
 good will. So the city was saved by the children. 
 
 Cherry Feast, or Cherry Fair. Festivals which are still 
 held in Worcester and some other parts of England in the 
 cherry-orchards, and " are almost always," says Halliwell 
 Phillipps, "the resort for lovers and the gay portion of the 
 lower classes." Hence they " may appropriately retain their 
 significant type of the uncertainty and vanity of things of this 
 world." His allusion is to Gower's lines in the " Confessio 
 Amantis," book vi. : 
 
 Sometime I draw unto memoire 
 How sorwe may nought ever last, 
 And so Cometh hope in atte last 
 When I none other fode know, 
 And that endureth hut a throw, 
 Right as it were a chery test. 
 
 Chester Cup. An annual race run in the first week in May 
 on the race-course in Chester known as the Eoodee or Eoodeye, 
 an equivalent of Eood-Tsle, because before the modern improve- 
 ments the course was surrounded by water. The cup is the 
 final survival through many changes of the mediaeval Chester 
 Mysteries. These were performed on Shrove Tuesday. The 
 festivities then consisted not only of the Mystery Plays them- 
 selves, full of quaint yet not intentionally irreverent burlesques 
 of scriptural episodes, but also of sundry " lawdable exercises," 
 including homages offered to or by the various guilds. 
 
 Conspicuous among these were two which constitute the re- 
 mote originals of the Chester cup. All persons married within 
 the past year "did offer unto the Companye of Drapers in 
 homage a ball of salte, of the quantitie of a boule, profitable for 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 225 
 
 few uses or purposes." This ball of salt was afterwards changed 
 into a silver arrow, a meet prize for archers, and contended for 
 by them on the Eoodee, the pleasant meadow which served in 
 winter for the pasture of cows, in summer as a recreation-ground 
 for the good citizens. 
 
 The saddlers' old homage to the drapers is thus set forth : 
 "Also whereas the company and occupation of the Sadlers 
 within the cittie of Chester did yearely by custom, time out of 
 the memory of man, did the same day (Shrove Tuesday), hower, 
 and place, before the said mayor unto the Companye of Drapers 
 in Chester, did offer, upon tlie truncheon of a staffe or speare. a 
 certain homa2;e, culled the Sadlers' ball, being a ball of salte of 
 the bignes of a bowle, which was profitable ior few uses and 
 purposes as it was, the which ball the said Drapers did cast up 
 among the throunge, to get it who could, in which throunge 
 muchhurt was done. The said mayor and aldermen with con- 
 sent of the drapers aforesaid did alter and change : that in place 
 thereof the said Company of Sadlers should offer before the 
 mayor unto the Drapers a bell of silver, the which bell was or 
 dained also to the reward for that horse which with speede run- 
 ning there should run before all others, and then presentlye 
 should be given the same day and place." Thus the race was 
 instituted, and in due time, through the influence of the Puri- 
 tan wave which overwhelmed England in the hundred years 
 ending with the Eestoration, the pagan associations of Shrove 
 Tuesday were got rid of by transferring the horse-race to St. 
 George's Day. By 1609 w^e find that the drapers and saddlers 
 have vanished into night, and the contest on the Eoodee be- 
 comes St. George's race. The change was due somewhat to 
 the public spirit of Mr. Eobert Ambrye, ironmonger, sometime 
 sheriff of Chester, who at his own cost offered three silver 
 hells, the first and second best to be given to the first and second 
 horses in the initial race, the third bell to be contested for sepa- 
 rately in another race. 
 
 St. George's races were celebrated with great pomp and cere- 
 mony. The programme of the civic march to the Eoodee is 
 minutely given in the Harleian MSS. First marched men in 
 ivy, with black hair and beards " veryowgly to behoulde," with 
 garlands and clubs. The duty of these " salvage men" — favorite 
 characters in all masques and mummings — was to scatter fire- 
 works abroad to make " way for the rest of the showe :" doubt- 
 less an effectual method of getting through a crowd. Follow- 
 ing these came St. George on horseback, with his attendants; 
 then Fame, also on horseback, with a trumpet and an oration 
 ready prepared for delivery. Next came Mercury, " to descend 
 from above in a cloude, his winges and all other matters in pompe 
 
 16 
 
226 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 and heavenlie musicke with him, and after his oration spoken to 
 ryde on horsebacke with the musicke before him." Then fol- 
 lowed one called Chester, "with an oration and drums," and 
 others bearing the arms of the king, and of the Prince of 
 Wales, Earl of Chester. Close behind these rode the prize- 
 bearers. The Cestrian population at the commencement of the 
 seventeenth century must have had a tremendous appetite for 
 speech-making, for Peace, Plenty, Envy, and Love all delivered 
 their orations before the mayor and his brethren in their best 
 apparel of scarlet. 
 
 A further change was effected in 1623 by Mr. John Brereton, 
 the mayor, who substituted a single bell, of more value than all 
 the former ones put together, which was "to be runne for on 
 St. George's Day forever." 
 
 Why and when St. George's Day, like Shrove Tuesday, was 
 abandoned for the first week in May, or under what circum- 
 stances the bell was changed for a silver cup, there is no evidence 
 to show ; in fact, a strange darkness hangs over the Poodee 
 from Mayor Brereton's time. The rectification of the calendar 
 is perhaps the best explanation of the former fact, as the first 
 week in May comes very near old St. George's Day. 
 
 Chicago Day. The anniversary of the great fire in Chicago 
 (1871) is celebrated in that city on October 9. " There has 
 been of late years," says Harper's Weekly for October 24, 1896, 
 " a growing tendency to make it a civic holiday, and its ob- 
 servance has been conducted upon an increasingly elaborate 
 scale. This year is the twenty-fifth since the devastation of the 
 city, and the celebration was carried out upon a scale far beyond 
 anything hitherto attempted." It will be remembered that this 
 was in the very thick of the McKinley-Bryan Presidential cam- 
 paign. It was inevitable, therefore, that the celebration should 
 have a political coloring. Both parties put forth their best efforts 
 to make display of their strength. The great day parade, in 
 which about seventy thousand citizens took part, was a sound 
 money demonstration of the most impressive sort. The business 
 portion of the city was given up to it, and all vehicles were ex- 
 cluded from the streets, as in Paris on the Jour de la Eepublique. 
 The advocates of repudiation made no attempt to take part in 
 this parade, but tried to offset its effect by the organization of a 
 sort of silver side-show in the evening. A procession of about 
 twelve thousand people was formed, and made all the noise it 
 could, but the anticlimax was too obvious. 
 
 Christmas. The reputed anniversary of the birth of Jesus 
 Christ, December 25, and as such one of the greatest festivals 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 227 
 
 of the Protestant, Catholic, and Greek Churches. It is essen- 
 tially a day of thanksgiving and rejoicing, — a day of good cheer. 
 Though Christians celebrate it as a Christian festival, though to 
 them it is the anniversary of the most solemn event in all 
 history, the meeting of heaven and earth in the birth of the 
 God-Man, the festivities that mark the epoch are part of the 
 universal history of the race. In pagan Eome and Greece, in 
 the days of the Teutonic barbarians, in the remote times of 
 ancient Egyptian civilization, in the infancy of the race East 
 and West and North and South, the period of the winter sol- 
 stice was ever a period of rejoicing and festivity. Even the 
 Puritanism of the Anglo-Saxon has not been equal to the task 
 of defending Yule-tide from a triumphant inroad of pagan rites 
 and customs, so that the evangelical churchman who is shocked 
 to see flowers decorating the sanctuaries at Easter would be 
 sorry to miss the scarlet berries that hang there at Christmas, 
 so that even austerest lovers of the plain-song tolerate and even 
 welcome " quips and cranks and wreathed smiles" in their Christ- 
 mas carols, so that joviality and merrj^making are the order of 
 the day at Christmas banquets, — a joviality sanctified and made 
 glorious by good will to all men. Yet the holly and the mistle- 
 toe are a survival of ancient Druidical worship, the Christmas 
 carol is a new birth, purified and exalted, of the hymns of the 
 Saturnalia, the Christmas banquet itself is a reminiscence of the 
 feasts given in honor of ancient gods and goddesses, when, as 
 Cato said of the analogous feasts in imperial Eome, commemo- 
 rating the birth of Cybele, the prospect that drew one thither 
 was "not so much the pleasure of eating and of drinking as 
 that of finding one's self among his friends and of conversing 
 with them." Nay, the very idea of the Child-God, which gives 
 its meaning to the Feast of the Nativity, was prefigured and 
 foretold not only in the vaticinations of sibyl, seer, and prophet, 
 but in the infant gods of the Greek, the Egyptian, the Hindoo, 
 and the Buddhist, which in different ways showed the rude 
 efforts of the earlier races to grasp the idea of a perfect human 
 child who is also God. 
 
 Great as the feast is, however, nobody knows anything defi- 
 nite about its origin, nobody knows who first celebrated it, or 
 when or where or how. And nobody even knows if December 
 25 be indeed the right anniversary of Christ's nativity. 
 
 This anomaly arises from the habit of the early Christians 
 to look upon the celebration of birthdays as heathenish. The 
 birthday of the Lord himself was not excepted. But after the 
 triumph of Christianity the old prejudice died out j and then the 
 date of the Saviour's birth became a matter of ecclesiastical in- 
 vestigation. St. John Chrysostom, writing in 386, relates that 
 
228 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 St. Cyril at the request of Julius (Bishop or Pope of Eome from 
 337 to 352) made a strict inquiry as to the exact date. Cyril 
 reported that the Western Churches had always held it to be 
 December 25. It is true that other communities of Christians 
 preferred other dates. In many Eastern Churches the 6th of 
 January had been fixed on as the anniversary not only of the 
 birth of Christ, but of his manifestation to the Gentiles. (See 
 Epiphany.) April 20, May 20, March 29, and September 29 
 were respectively accepted by small minorities. In short, as St. 
 Clement says, the matter was very uncertain. 
 
 Nevertheless it appears that Pope Julius was so far satisfied 
 with the report of Cyril that somewhere about the middle of the 
 fourth century he established the festival at Eome on December 
 25. Before the end of the century that date had been accepted 
 by all the nations of Christendom. This acceptance was facili- 
 tated by the fact that it is the date of the winter solstice, — the 
 turning-point of the year, when winter, having reached its apogee, 
 must begin to decline again towards spring, — when for unnum- 
 bered ages before the Christian era pagan Europe through all its 
 tribes and nations had been accustomed to celebrate its chief 
 festival. 
 
 Now, it was always the aim of the early Church to reconcile 
 heathen converts to the new faith by the adoption of all the 
 more harmless features of their festivities and ceremonials. With 
 Christmas the Church had a hard task. Though it aimed only 
 to retain the pagan forms, it found it could not restrain the 
 pagan spirit. In spite of clerical protests and papal anathemas, 
 in spite of the condemnation of the wise and the sane, Christmas 
 in the early days frequently reproduced all the worst orgies, the 
 debaucheries and indecencies, of the Bacchanalia and the Satur- 
 nalia. The clergy themselves were M'hirled into the vortex. A 
 special celebration called the Feast of Fools was instituted, — as 
 learned doctors explained, — with a view that " the folly which is 
 natural to and born with us might exhale at least once a year." 
 The intention was excellent. But in practice the liberty so 
 accorded speedily degenerated into license. The Council of 
 Auxerre was moved to inquire into the matter. A Flemish divine 
 rose and declared that the festival was an excellent thing and 
 quite as acceptable to Cod as that of the Immaculate Concep- 
 tion. There was great applause among his like-minded brethren. 
 Then Gerson, the most noted theologian of the day, made a 
 counter-sensation by retorting that " if all the devils in hell had 
 put their heads together to devise a feast that should utterly 
 scandalize Christianity, they could not have improved upon this 
 one." 
 
 If even among the clergy heathen traditions so strenuously sur- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 229 
 
 vived, what better could be expected from the laity ? The wild 
 revels, indeed, of the Chrislmas period in olden times almost 
 stagger belief. Obscenity, drunkenness, blasphemy, — nothing 
 came amiss. License was carried to the fullest extent of licen- 
 tiousness. 
 
 Memorable as an illustration of the manners of the French 
 court was a catastrophe that occurred in Paris in 1393. Eiot 
 and disorder had run wild all through the Christmas festivities. 
 But the court was not yet satisfied. Then Sir Hugonin de Gui- 
 say, most reckless among all the reckless spirits of the period, 
 suggested that as an excuse for prolonging the merriment a 
 marriage should be arranged between two of the court attend- 
 ants. This was eagerly agreed upon. Sir Hugonin assumed the 
 leadership, a post for which he was well fitted. He was loved 
 and admired by the disorderly as much as he was hated and 
 feared by the orderly. Among other pleasant traits, he was fond 
 of exercising his wit upon tradesmen and mechanics, whom he 
 would accost in the street, prick with his spurs, and compel to 
 creep on all fours and bark like curs before he released them. 
 Such were the traits which endeared him to the courtiers of His 
 Most Gracious Majesty and Christian King of France. The mar- 
 riage passed oif in a blaze of glory with an accompaniment of 
 attendant Gargantuan pleasantry. At the height of the cere- 
 monies Sir Hugonin quietly withdrew with the king and four other 
 wild ones, scions of the noblest houses in France. With a pot 
 of tar and a quantity of tow the six conspirators were speedily 
 changed into very fair imitations of the dancing bears then very 
 common in mountebanks' booths. A mask completed the trans- 
 formation. Five were then bound together with a silken rope. 
 The sixth, the king himself, led them into the hall. Their ap- 
 pearance created a general stir. " Who are they ?" was the cry. 
 Nobody knew. At this moment entered the wildest of all the 
 wild Dukes of Orleans. " Who are they?" he echoed between 
 hiccoughs. " Well, we'll soon find out." Seizing a brand from 
 one of the torch-bearers ranged along the wall, he staggered 
 forward. Some gentlemen essayed to stay him. But he was 
 obstinate and quarrelsome. Main force could not be thought of 
 against a prince of the blood. He was given his way. He 
 thrust his torch under the chin of the nearest of the maskers. 
 The tow caught fire. In a moment the whole group was in 
 flames. The young Duchess of Berri seized the king and en- 
 veloped him in her ample robe. Thus he was saved. Another 
 masker, the Lord of Nantouillet, noted for strength and agility, 
 rent the silken rope with a wrench of his strong teeth, pitched 
 himself like a flaming cornet through the first window, and dived 
 into a cistern in the court, whence he emerged black and smoking, 
 
230 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 but almost unhurt. As for the other four, they whirled hither 
 and thither through the horrified mob, struggling with one an- 
 other, fighting with the flames, cursing, shrieking with pain. 
 Women fainted by scores. Men who had never faltered in a 
 hundred fights sickened at the hideous spectacle. All Paris was 
 roused by the uproar, and gathered, an excited mob, about the 
 palace. At last the flames burnt out. The four maskers lay, a 
 black and writhing heap, on the floor. One was a mere cinder. 
 A second survived till daybreak. A third died at noon the next 
 day. The fourth — no other than Sir Hugonin himself — survived 
 for three days, while all Paris rejoiced over his agonies. " Bark, 
 dog, bark !" was the cry with which the citizens saluted his 
 charred and mangled corpse, when it was at last borne to the 
 grave. 
 
 But why dwell on only one side of the picture ? In the 
 coarser days of our ancestors riot and revelry did indeed go 
 hand in hand, but the revelry was of a lusty, vigorous, and 
 hearty sort unknown to these quieter times which have elimi- 
 nated the riot. As we read of the great feats performed by 
 these heroes of the trencher and the tankard, by these adepts in 
 all out-door sports, the Gargantuan good nature of the season 
 impresses us moi'e than the cruelty, gluttony, and drunkenness 
 which were apt to sully it. A race of jolly giants must needs 
 give and take harder blows than their pygmy descendants. 
 
 Merrie old England was the soil in which Merrie Christmas 
 took its firmest root. Even in Anglo-Saxon days we hear of 
 Alfred holding high revelry in December, 878, so that he allowed 
 the Danes to surprise him, cut his army to pieces, and send him 
 a fugitive. The court revelries increased in splendor after the 
 Conquest. Christmas, it must be remembered, was not then a 
 single day of sport. It had its preliminary novena which began 
 December 16, and it ended on January 6, or Twelfth-Night. All 
 this period was devoted to holiday-making. 
 
 It was a democratic festival. All classes mixed in its merry- 
 makings. Hospitality was universal. An English country gen- 
 tleman of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries held open house. 
 With daybreak on Christmas morning the tenants and neighbors 
 thronged into the hall. The ale was broached. Blackjacks and 
 Cheshire cheese, with toast and sugar and nutmeg, went plenti- 
 fully round. The Hackin, or great sausage, must be boiled at 
 daybreak, and if it failed to be ready two 3'Oung men took the 
 cook by the arm and ran her around the market-place till she 
 was ashamed of her laziness. 
 
 The women also had their privileges. In some places in 
 Oxfordshire it was the right of every maid-servant to ask the 
 man for ivy to dress the house withal, and if the man refused 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 231 
 
 or forgot, the maid stole a pair of his breeches and nailed them 
 to the gate in the yard or highway. In other places a refusal 
 to comply with such a request debarred the man from the 
 privilege of the mistletoe. 
 
 The gentlemen went to early service. in the church and re- 
 turned to breakfast on brawn and mustard and malmsey. Mus- 
 tard is your great provoker of a noble thirst. Brawn was a 
 dish of great antiquity, made from the flesh of large boars which 
 lived in a half- wild state and when put to fatten were strapped 
 and belted tight around the body, so as to make the flesh dense 
 and brawny. 
 
 With the rise of Puritanism the very existence of Christmas 
 was threatened. Even the harmless good cheer of that season 
 was looked upon as pagan, or, what was worse. Popish. " Into 
 what a stupendous height of more than pagan impiety," cried 
 Prynne in his " Histrio-Mastix," " have we not now degenerated!'' 
 Prynne's rhetoric, it will be seen, is not without an unconscious 
 charm of humor. He complained that the England of his day 
 could not celebrate Christmas or any other festival "without 
 drinking, roaring, healthing, dicing, carding, dancing, masques 
 and stage-plays . . . which Turkes and Infidels would abhor to 
 practise." 
 
 Puritanism brought over with it in the Mayflower the anti- 
 Christmas feeling to New England. So early as 1621 Governor 
 Bradford was called upon to administer a rebuke to " certain 
 lusty yonge men" who had just come over in the little ship For- 
 tune. " On ye day called Christmas day," says William Brad- 
 ford, " ye Gov"" caled them out to worke (as was used), but ye 
 most of this new company excused themselves and said it went 
 against their consciences to worke on ye day. So ye Gov'' tould 
 them that if they made it mater of conscience, he would spare 
 them till they were better informed. So he led away ye rest, 
 and left them ; but when they came home at noone from their 
 worke, he found them in ye streete at play, openly : some pitch- 
 ing ye barr, and some at stoole-ball and such like sports. So 
 he went to them and tooke away their implements, and tould 
 them that it was against his conscience that they should play and 
 others worke. If they made ye keeping of it matter of devo- 
 tion, let them kepe their houses, but ther should be no gameing 
 or revelling in ye streets. Since w^hich time nothing hath been 
 atempted that way, at least openly." 
 
 In England the feeling culminated in 1643, when the Eound- 
 head Parliament abolished the observance of saints' days and 
 " the three grand festivals" of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsun- 
 tide, "any law, statute, custom, constitution, or canon to the 
 contrary in any wise notwithstanding." The king protested. 
 
232 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 But he was answered. In London, nevertheless, there was an 
 alarming disposition to observe Christmas. The mob attacked 
 those who by opening their shops flouted the holiday. In several 
 counties the disorder was threatening. But Parliament adopted 
 strong measures, and during the twelve years in which the great 
 festivals were discountenanced there was no further tumult, and 
 the observance of Christmas as a general holiday ceased. 
 
 The General Court of Massachusetts followed the example of 
 the English Parliament in 1659 when it enacted that "anybody 
 who is found observing, by abstinence from labor, feasting, or 
 any other way, any such day as Christmas day, shall pay for 
 every such ofl'ence five shillings." 
 
 The restoration of English royalty brought about the restora- 
 tion of the English Christmas. It was not till 1681, however, 
 that Massachusetts repealed the ordinance of 1659. But the 
 repeal was bitter to old Puritanism, which kept up an ever atten- 
 uating protest even down to the early part of the present cen- 
 tury. (See Thanksgiving. Also see Boar's Head; Carols; 
 Mistletoe ; Misrule, Lord op ; Waits ; Yule-Log, etc., for 
 special Christmas festivities.) 
 
 There are many superstitions connected with the coming of 
 Christmas itself To the cock have from time immemorial been 
 attributed unwonted energy and sagacity at that season. Even 
 now in England it is common to hear one say, when the cock 
 crows in the stillness of the November and December nights, 
 " The cock is crowing for Christmas." He is supposed to do this 
 for the purpose of scaring off the evil spirits from the holy season. 
 
 The bees are said to sing, the cattle to kneel, in honor of the 
 manger, and the sheep to go in procession in commemoration of 
 the visit of the angel to the shepherds. 
 
 Howison in his " Sketches of Upper Canada" relates that on 
 one moonlit Christmas Eve he saw an Indian creeping cautiously 
 through the woods. In response to an inquiry, he said, '• Me 
 watch to see deer kneel. Christmas night all deer kneel and 
 look up to Great Spirit." 
 
 In the German Alps it is believed that the cattle have the gift 
 of language on Christmas Eve. But it is a sin to attempt to play 
 the eavesdropper upon them. An Alpine story is told of a 
 farmer's servant who did not believe that the cattle could speak, 
 and, to make sure, he hid in his master's stable on Christmas 
 Eve and listened. When the clock struck twelve he was sur- 
 prised at what he heard. " We shall have hard work to do this 
 day week," said one horse. " Yes ; the farmer's servant is heavy," 
 answered the other horse. " And the way to the churchyard is 
 long and steep," said the first. The servant was buried that 
 day week. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 233 
 
 An English writer says that two countrymen who watched the 
 cattle in the barns reported that two only knelt, but they fell 
 upon their knees with a groan almost human. His informants 
 were much angered that he received this story with incredulity. 
 These well-known lines from '• Hamlet" recognize these super- 
 stitions : 
 
 Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes, 
 "Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, 
 The bird of dawning singeth all night long ; 
 And then, they say, no spirit can walk abroad ; 
 The nights are wholesome ; then no planets strike, 
 No fairy lakes, nor witch hath power to charm, 
 So hallowed and so gracious is that time. 
 
 The salmon was a great Christmas favorite, and Sandys men- 
 tions a Monmouthshire tradition to the effect that on every 
 Christmas Day, in the morning only, a large salmon appeared in 
 the adjoining river, showed himself openly, and permitted him- 
 self to be taken and handled ; but it would have been the greatest 
 impiety to capture him. 
 
 Meteorological superstitions are embodied in the following 
 verses : 
 
 Now take heed, every man, 
 
 That English understand can. 
 
 If that Christmas day fall 
 
 Upon Friday, know well all 
 
 That winter season shall be easy. 
 
 Save great winds aloft shall fly ; 
 
 The summer also shall be dry 
 
 And right seasonable, I say. 
 
 Beasts and sheep shall thrive right well. 
 
 But other victuals shall fail ; 
 
 "What child that day is born 
 
 Great and rich he shall be of corn. 
 
 If Christmas day on Monday be, 
 A great winter that year you'll see. 
 And full of winds, both loud and shrill ; 
 But, in summer, truth to tell. 
 High winds shall there be and strong, 
 Full of tempests lasting long, 
 While battles they shall multiply. 
 And great plenty of beasts shall die. 
 
 It has been pointed out that this latter direful prophecy was 
 fulfilled in 1866, following the Christmas of 1865, which fell 
 upon Monday. 
 
 In some places, as in Suabia, it is customary for maidens, in- 
 quisitive as to their prospective lovers, to draw a stick of wood 
 out of a heap to see whether he will be long or short, crooked 
 or straight. At other times they will pour melted lead into cold 
 
CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 water, and from the figures formed will prognosticate the trade 
 or profession of the future husband. If they imagine they see 
 a plane, or a last, or a pair of shears, it signifies that he is to 
 be a carpenter, or shoemaker, or tailor; while a hammer or a 
 pickaxe indicates a smith or a common laborer. The maidens 
 of Pfullingen, when they wish to ascertain which of them will 
 first become a wife, form a circle, and place in their midst a 
 blindfolded gander, and the one to whom he goes first will soon 
 be a bride ; while the Tyrolese peasants, on the " knocking 
 nights," listen at the baking-ovens, and if they hear music it 
 signifies an early wedding, but if the ringing of bells, it fore- 
 bodes the death of the listener. Among many others, a favorite 
 method of forecasting the future is to sit upon the floor and 
 throw one's shoe with the foot over the shoulder, and then to 
 predict from the position it assumes what is about to happen. 
 
 In Poland, and elsewhere, it is believed that on Christmas 
 night the heavens are opened and the scene of Jacob's ladder is 
 re-enacted, but it is permitted only to the saints to see it. 
 Throughout Northern Germany the tables are spread and lights 
 left burning during the entire night, that the Virgin Mary and 
 the angel who passes when everybody sleeps may find some- 
 thing to eat. In certain parts of Austria they put candles in 
 the windows, that the Christ-Child may not stumble in passing 
 through the village. There is also a wide-spread opinion that a 
 pack of wolves, which were no other than wicked men trans- 
 formed into wolves, committed great havoc upon Christmas 
 night. Taking advantage of this superstition, it was not un- 
 usual for rogues disguised in wolf-skins to attack honest people, 
 rifle their houses, sack their cellars, and drink or steal all their 
 beer. As a specific charm, no doubt, against these wolfish 
 depredations, it was customary in Austria, up to a recent date, 
 after high mass on Christmas night, to sing in a particular tone, 
 to the sound of the large bell, the chapter of the generation of 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 In Germany the decoration of the house begins as early as 
 the morning of the 24th. One room, from which all save " die 
 Mutter" is rigidly excluded, contains the Christmas-tree and all 
 the presents, set in a shining row upon the table. Greens are 
 hung from window and door, and garlands upon the walls. 
 Upon the dining-table a great cold supper is spread. Family 
 and guests begin to gather at five o'clock. The childreij's eyes 
 are glued to the shding doors, which are presently to open and 
 disclose the tree. Six o'clock, — a bell rings. Back swings the 
 portal, and there it stands, resplendent wdth lights and tinsel. 
 The children pounce upon it, and are with difiiculty held back 
 while the presents are taken down from the branches and dis- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 235 
 
 tributed. Everybody kisses everybody else, and for two or 
 three hours the cares of life are forgotten. Then the late supper 
 and to bed. . Thus the Grerman Christmas is well over before 
 the day itself arrives. The family arise late on the morning of 
 the 25th. The day is spent in paying and receiving visits, at 
 which the children compare presents. In the evening there is a 
 dance, with much music and much merriment. 
 
 Christmas Eve is a fete in Paris, and the Grand Boulevard 
 possesses a character distinctive of the occasion. Late in the 
 evening the cafes become crowded, and the cafe-restaurants that 
 are to keep ojjen all night for the Christmas " reveillon" begin to 
 arrange their tables, many of which have been engaged in ad- 
 vance. The "reveillon," or Christmas Eve supper at midnight, 
 is more important to the Frenchman than the Christmas dinner, 
 and the indulgence in it may somewhat account for the general 
 atmosphere of almost gloomy abstinence that seems to hang over 
 Paris on Christmas Day. Oysters represent the favorite first 
 course, and any one interested in statistics may like to know 
 that half a million dozen oysters were sold at the Halles on 
 Christmas Eve in 1896, and of ecrevisse, that appetizing craw- 
 fish, sixty thousand represents the number consumed during the 
 '•reveillon." Impecunious clerks and reckless Latin Quarter 
 students go dinnerless, in the first instance a week beforehand, 
 and in the second often a month afterwards, that they may par- 
 take of a proper " reveillon" in a restaurant that is usually closed 
 to them by apparent bars of gold. The thoroughly up-to-date 
 Parisian divides his Christmas supper into many courses, taking 
 each at a different place, and perhaps reaching home for the last 
 cup of coffee, served in place of the " petit dejeuner." 
 
 In the rural life of Eussia Christmas Eve is an important 
 event. At sunset young and old assemble in the principal street 
 of the village, and, forming in a procession, visit the houses of 
 the resident nobleman, the mayor, and other village dignitaries, 
 where they sing carols and receive coppers in return. This part 
 of the ceremonies is called Kolenda, which means begging for 
 money or presents. A masquerade follows, in which the adults 
 transform themselves into imitation cows, pigs, goats, and other 
 animals, in remembrance of the Nativity in the manger. 
 
 As soon as the evening star appears above the horizon, a 
 colatzia, or supper, is served. A long table is covered with 
 straw, Over this a cloth is laid, on which the samovar is placed, 
 together with fish prepared in various ways, and different kinds 
 of cakes. The feast begins by dividing the blessed wafer, a small 
 portion of which is given to each person present. This is a 
 sacred rite in which none dare refuse to participate. The head 
 of each family is given his share first. The remaining members 
 
236 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 are served according to their ages, the little children, of course, 
 being left till the last. 
 
 At the conclusion of the evening-star celebration, a majority 
 of the peasants proceed to the house of the nobleman whom they 
 first visited, where an immense tree has been prepared for them. 
 This tree is laden with inexpensive presents of various kinds. 
 If the nobleman has any young children, he supplies them with 
 quantities of small coin, which they distribute among the peasant 
 guests. 
 
 In no land is Christmas more generally celebrated than in 
 Scandinavia. Peace and good will is the order of the season. 
 The courts are closed, old quarrels are adjusted, and feuds are 
 forgotten. A pretty symbol of the spirit that reigns is the Yule- 
 night practice of placing in a row every pair of shoes in each 
 household, typifying that during the year the family will live 
 together in peace and harmony. 
 
 Scandinavia is especially the land of the Yule-log, of Christmas 
 stories and legends of Thor and Odin. Then is the time for 
 skating, sledging, dancing, and a general frolic. It is customary 
 for every member of the family to take a bath on the afternoon 
 preceding Christmas, and oftentimes it is the only thorough 
 bath that is received during the year. When the eve comes, 
 the Bible is read in nearly every household and family service is 
 held. In many villages candles are left burning in the windows 
 all night, to give light to Kristin e, who brings the gifts. It is 
 also the custom to set a cake of meal out in the snow as a 
 Christmas offering. The birds of the air are thought of, and a 
 sheaf of wheat is placed on a pole in front of each house to 
 provide them with food. 
 
 On Christmas evening are the usual games. They are more 
 than likely to be interrupted by a knock at the door and the 
 entrance of four or five boys dressed in white. One carries a 
 colored star-shaped lantern, and another an ornamented glass 
 box containing two dolls, representing the Yirgin and Child. 
 The boys chant a carol or two, and after partaking of refresh- 
 ments are dismissed, to continue their journej^ to the next house. 
 The games are likely to be interrupted again by the coming 
 of another band of merrymakers. This time it is masked per- 
 formers, wearing tattered uniforms decked with tinsel, and 
 carrying wooden swords. They perform tricks and pantomime, 
 and go through a mock military review. These performances 
 are always enjoyed, and the performers never go away from a 
 house empty-handed. The festivities do not close until a late 
 hour. 
 
 From the frozen North, of the midnight sun, to the evergreen 
 South, of perpetual summer, is a long journey, but in all the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 237 
 
 distance there is found no land where the Christmas festival is 
 not celebrated. 
 
 A Christmas celebration in Peru has peculiar features. In the 
 cities, and more especially in Lima, there are bewildering scenes 
 of activity on Christmas Eve. The streets and squares are 
 crowded with a gayly dressed people. Droves of asses are to 
 be seen in every direction, laden with fruits, boughs from the 
 mountains, liquors, and other merchandise. Ice-stalls, provided 
 with chairs and benches, are crowded by the perspiring pleasure- 
 seekers, who find ice necessary on sultry Christmas. 
 
 As night approaches, the streets are packed with a noisy 
 people, and joke and jest and merry pranks become the rule. 
 These are participated in mostly by strangely attired persons 
 in masks. Music of guitars, clattering castanets, and pebbles 
 rattling in gourds fill the air with mingled discordant sounds. 
 No door is closed. There are music and dancing and the dis- 
 tribution of gifts in every house. All are welcome to enter. 
 Strangers are sure of a hearty welcome, and to be a foreigner is 
 to have a double claim on hospitality and to receive a double 
 welcome. All ceremony and restraint are absent. In many 
 houses the love of the Christmas drama is shown by theatrical 
 representations of the Nativity, with the same characters as are 
 seen the world over. 
 
 Suddenly the scene changes. The curtain falls on the play, 
 the music and dancing cease, and the people go from their 
 homes. The midnight bell at the cathedral has summoned all to 
 mass. The houses and streets are nearly deserted, while the 
 churches, with their decorations and blazing tapers, are thronged. 
 Worshippers are kneeling before the many shrines that line their 
 walls, and wherever they can find a place where one of the 
 many waxen images of the saints is displayed. With the 
 organ's peal, and the entering of the richly vested priests and 
 plainly attired monks, begins the celebration of the mass. 
 
 Again on Christmas morning the streets are crowded and the 
 markets are thronged, but at nine o'clock the churches are again 
 filled. After the services come the feast and the games and the 
 sports. Of all the sports, bull-fighting is the favorite, and the 
 Christmas fight is generally the best of the season, as eight or 
 ten bulls are frequently killed on that day, besides several horses, 
 and not infrequently one or two of the fighting-men. In this 
 sport the women appear to take more enthusiastic pleasure than 
 the men. 
 
 When night comes there is a grand procession, headed by the 
 priests and monks, who are followed by the soldiers and people. 
 All are gayly dressed, and many in fantastic costumes and 
 masks. Banners, flags, streaming ribbons, and green boughs 
 
238 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 are carried, and music fills the air. In the midst of the pro- 
 cession there is held aloft the figure of the Madonna bearing in 
 her arms the Holy Child. After a long march the procession 
 returns to the cathedral, there disbands, and the Christmas Day 
 celebration is at an end. 
 
 The ante-bellum period in the Southern States was signalized 
 by a special celebration at Christmas-tide, handed down from 
 those English folk, gentle and simple, w^ho first peopled Virginia 
 and the Carolinas, and whose descendants have spread over the 
 face of the country south of Mason and Dixon's line. 
 
 " There's no such thing as real Christmas now," sigh elder 
 folk, white and black, whose memories run back to the gay, 
 good days of slavery. Then, in truth, it was a two weeks' 
 saturnalia. ISTo master who respected himself, or hoped to keep 
 the respect of his neighbors, dreamed of asking his black people 
 to do more in the month of December than kill hogs and get up 
 a big Christmas wood-pile. 
 
 When the hauling was finished, a dozen axes flew, chopping it 
 in lengths for the big-throated open fireplaces. By and by there 
 was a procession of stout fellows with a log or a turn of small 
 sticks on the shoulder, setting up great piles of firewood beside 
 all the doors. After every exit to the great house was duly sur- 
 rounded, the back piazzas filled, and chips banked high in the 
 saddle-room, great sticks and small began to be heaped at the 
 cabin doors. By the time they were all fully furnished the 
 mountain of a wood-pile was sensibly smaller, though far from 
 exhausted. Usually this came to pass about midday of Decem- 
 ber 24. 
 
 To the mass of slaves their masters' concerns were as much a 
 matter of interest and of pride as they were to those affected 
 by them. Besides, the darky is a born gossip, likewise a born de- 
 tective. The shrewdest match-making maiiima was not quicker 
 to detect serious intentions in a promising young man visitor. 
 Where there were 3'oung ladies in the great house the young 
 man visitor was mighty plentiful about Christmas-time. He 
 came from far and near, — often across three counties. He rode 
 a high-stepping horse, and was nice in the matter of equipage. 
 Often he brought along his own black boy, likewise mounted, 
 and carrying behind him fat, bulging saddle-bags stuffed with 
 his master's wardrobe. For the j^oung man came to stay at least 
 the week, — most likely the fortnight, unless he "got the sack" 
 from the object of his affections and so rode away in a furious 
 huff. 
 
 Often, too, the old negroes went visiting on their own account. 
 No time like Christmas for a trip back to old Marster's or to see 
 the sister or brother who had been given to some other branch 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 239 
 
 of the family and so lived maybe twenty miles away. Duly 
 mounted, tricked out in Sunday best, with all sorts of queer 
 bundles dangling here and there, and a carpet-bag fat to burst- 
 ing swung at the horn of the saddle, Black Daddy and Black 
 Mammy rode a-Christmasing, and at the journey's end were as 
 welcome to whites as to blacks. 
 
 Nightfall brought sw^arms of visitors, both to house and 
 kitchen. Very often there was a dance in both as soon as it 
 was fairly dark. In every cabin there were laughter, singing, 
 and good cheer. In many of them revelry went on through 
 the night. The dancing lasted maybe to one o'clock ; after that 
 there was singing to the accompaniment of a gourd banjo, with, 
 a little later, tale-telling in the light of the waning fire. 
 
 The pious among the slaves sang and j^^'^y^d the night 
 through. But their piety did not take the form of a prohibition 
 sentiment. With a psalm yet hot in the mouth they were as 
 ready as their fellows to troop up to the great house at daylight 
 and drink their share of Christmas eggnog. Small blame to 
 them, either, since the eggnog of those days was a mighty 
 seductive thing to any who had a nice taste in drinks. 
 
 Christmas Card. Legitimately, a piece of card-board of any 
 handy size, breathing pictorial and verbal benevolence in every 
 variety of tone from the religious to the comic, which is sent to 
 a friend or relative on Christmas. At present the term has been 
 enlarged so as to include almanacs and even pamphlets illuminated 
 with gay colors and obscured with maudlin prose and doggerel 
 verse that has no earthly connection with the season. 
 
 The Christmas card is the legitimate descendant of the " school 
 pieces" or " Christmas pieces" which were popular from the 
 beginning to the middle of the nineteenth century. These were 
 sheets of writing-paper, sometimes surrounded with those hide- 
 ous and elaborate pen-flourishes forming birds, scrolls, etc., to 
 which writing-masters still have an unnatural and inexplicable 
 attachment, and sometimes headed with copperplate engravings, 
 plain or colored. They were used by school-boys at the approach 
 of the holidays for carefully written letters exploiting the pro- 
 gress they had made in composition and chirography. 
 
 A publisher writing to JVotes and Queries in 1871 (Fourth 
 Series, vi. 462) tells us that some thirty years previous the sale 
 of these was very considerable. " My father published some 
 thirty different subjects (a new one every year, one of the old 
 ones being let go out of print). There were also three other 
 publishers of them. The order to print used to average about 
 five hundred of each kind, but double of the Life of Our Saviour. 
 Most of the subjects were those of the Old Testament. I only 
 
240 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 recollect four subjects not sacred. Printing at home, we gener- 
 ally commenced the printing in August from the copperplates, 
 as they had to be colored by hand. They sold, retail, at six- 
 pence each, and we used to supply them to the trade at thirty 
 shillings per gross and to schools at three shillings sixpence per 
 dozen.' Charity boys were large purchasers of these pieces, and 
 at Christmas time used to take them round their parish to show 
 and at the same time solicit a trifle." 
 
 The Christmas card proper had a tentative origin in 1846. 
 Mr. Joseph Cundall, a London artist, lays claim to being the 
 publisher of the first one. He acknowledges, however, that the 
 idea was another's. " The first Christmas card ever published," 
 he wrote in the London Times of January 2, 1884, " was issued 
 by me in the usual way, in the year 1846, at the ofiSce of Felix 
 Summerly 's Home Treasury, 12 Old Bond St. Mr. Henry Cole 
 (afterwards Sir Henry) originated the idea. The drawing was 
 made by J. C. Horsley, E.A., it was printed in lithography by 
 Mr. Jobbins of Warwick Court, Holborn, and colored by hand. 
 Many copies were sold, but possibly not more than one thousand. 
 It was of the usual size of a lady's card." 
 
 Not until 1862, however, did the custom obtain any foothold. 
 Then experiments were made with cards of the size of an 
 ordinary carte de visite inscribed simply " A Merry Christmas" 
 and " A Happy IS'ew Year." After that there came to be added 
 robins and holly branches, embossed figures and landscapes. 
 " I have the original designs before me now," wrote " Luke Lim- 
 ner," or John Leighton, to the London Publishers' Circular, De- 
 cember 31, 1883 ; " they were produced by Goodall & Son. See- 
 ing a growing want, and the great sale obtained abroad, this 
 house produced (1868) a Little Eed Eiding-Hood, a Hermit and 
 his Cell, and many other subjects in which snow and the robin 
 played a part." 
 
 The Christmas card has some advantages. It is an inexpen- 
 sive method of exchanging Christmas remembrances between 
 people of moderate means. But it has been degenerating into 
 something akin to a nuisance. It is a real inconvenience to 
 business-men to find their correspondence interrupted by the 
 flood of cards which chokes the mail-bag through the Christmas 
 season, and even to people of leisure it is an annoyance. More- 
 over, in this case the actual annoyance is aggravated by a feeling 
 of sentimental injury. If the Christmas card were an honest 
 tribute of regard or admiration, we might be content to tolerate 
 it as a well-meaning nuisance ; but it is felt at best to be a 
 threadbare convention, and it is often little better than an im- 
 pudent fraud. It frequently serves as a cheap and unworthy 
 substitute for the turkey, the Stilton, the barrel of oysters, or 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 241 
 
 even the check, in which the healthier benevolence of former 
 days found expression at Christmas time. It comes upon us in 
 the specious guise of a letter ; but in this respect it shares all 
 the reprehensible peculiarities of the whited sepulchre. The 
 new woman may cherish a fine scorn for social frivolities ; the 
 old woman, however (if she happens to be a young one), is not 
 cast in the same heroic mould, and grievous is her disappoint- 
 ment when the stiff envelope disgorges a simpering Christmas 
 card, instead of, as she had fondly hoped, " a ball." 
 
 Even from an artistic point of view the Christmas card is not 
 free from reproach, since the imagination of the artist in its 
 search for the beautiful has somewhat unduly neglected the 
 appropriate. The traditional robin in a snow-storm is more or 
 less in keeping with the associations of the season, and he is 
 still to be found among Christmas cards, but in steadily de- 
 creasing numbers. His place is being taken by summer seas, 
 winding rivers, spring lawns, and other similar suggestions of 
 the past and the future which tend to make the average man 
 profoundly discontented with the immediate present. 
 
 Christmas-Tree. Many countries have their popular legends 
 claiming for them the honor of having given the Christmas-tree 
 to the world. Though of no historical value, these have their 
 antiquarian interest. 
 
 A Scandinavian myth of great antiquity speaks of a " service- 
 tree" sprung from the blood-drenched soil where two lovers had 
 been killed by violence. At certain nights in the Christmas 
 season mysterious lights were seen flaming in its branches, that 
 no wind could extinguish. 
 
 The French have their legend as well. In a romance of the 
 thirteenth century the hero finds a gigantic tree whose branches 
 are covered with burning candles, some standing erect, the others 
 upside down, and on the top the vision of a child with a halo 
 around his curly head. The knight asked the Pope for an expla- 
 nation, who declared that the tree undoubtedly represented man- 
 kind, the child the Saviour, and the candles good and bad human 
 beings. 
 
 Wolfram von Eschenbach, the famous minstrel, sings of a pre- 
 vailing custom of welcoming guests with branches ornamented 
 with burning candles. 
 
 One tale bestows the honor upon Martin Luther. One Christ- 
 mas Eve, travelling alone over the snow-covered country, the sky, 
 with its thousands of glittering stars, made such a deep impres- 
 sion upon the Ee former that after arriving at home he tried to 
 explain it to his wife and children. Suddenly an idea suggested 
 itself to him. He went into the garden, cut off a little fir-tree, 
 
 16 
 
242 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 dragged it into the nursery, put some candles on its branches, and 
 lighted them. 
 
 One of the most popular of German engravings represents 
 Martin Luther sitting in the bosom of his family with a lighted 
 Christmas-tree on the table before him. 
 
 An older German legend makes St. Winfrid the inventor of the 
 idea. In the midst of a crowd of converts he hewed down a 
 giant oak which had formerly been the object of their Druidic 
 worship. 
 
 " Then the sole wonder in Winfrid's life came to pass. For, 
 as the bright blade circled above his head, and the flakes of 
 wood flew from the deepening gash in the body of the tree, a 
 whirling wind passed over the forest. It gripped the oak froni 
 its foundations. Backward it fell like a tower, groaning as it 
 split asunder in four pieces. But just behind it, and unharmed 
 by the ruin, stood a young fir-tree, pointing a green spire towards 
 the stars. 
 
 " Winfrid let the axe drop, and turned to speak to the 
 people. 
 
 " ' This little tree, a young child of the forest, shall be your 
 holy tree to-night. It is the wood of peace, for your houses are 
 built of the fir. It is the sign of an endless life, for its leaves 
 are ever green. See how it points upward to heaven. Let this 
 be called the tree of the Christ-child ; gather about it, not in 
 the wild wood, but in your own homes; there it will shelter no 
 deeds of blood, but loving gifts and rites of kindness.' " 
 
 But, myths aside, the historj^ of the Christmas-tree is difficult 
 to trace. It may have some remote connection with the great 
 tree Yggdrasil of Norse mythology. It may be a revival of the 
 pine-trees in the Roman Saturnalia which were decorated with 
 images of Bacchus, as described by Yirgil in the Georgics : 
 
 In jolly hymns they praise the god of wine, 
 
 Whose earthen images adorn the pine, 
 
 And these are hung on high in honor of the vine. 
 
 {Dry den's translation^ 
 
 Two other suggestions are oflPered by Sir George Birdswood in 
 the Asiatic Quarterly Review (vol. i. pp. 19-20). " It has been ex- 
 plained," he says, " as being derived from the ancient Egyptian 
 practice of decking houses at the time of the winter solstice with 
 branches of the date-palm, the symbol of life triumphant over 
 death, and therefore of perennial life in the renewal of each 
 bounteous year ; and the supporters of these suggestions point to 
 the fact that pyramids of green paper, covered all over with 
 wreaths and festoons of flowers and strings of sweetmeats, are 
 often substituted in Germany for the Christmas-tree. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 243 
 
 " But similar pyramids, together with similar trees, the latter 
 usually altogether artificial, and often constructed of the costliest 
 materials, even of gems and gold, are carried about at marriage 
 ceremonies in India and at many festivals, such as the Hull, or 
 annual festival of the vernal equinox. These pyramids represent 
 Mount Meru and the earth, and the trees, the Kalpadrama, or 
 Tree of Ages, and the fragrant Parijata, the tree of every perfect 
 gift, which grew on the slopes of Mount Meru ; and in their en- 
 larged sense they symbolize the splendor of the outstretched 
 heavens, as of a tree, laden with golden fruit, deep-rooted in the 
 earth. Both pyramids and trees are also phallic emblems of life, 
 individual, terrestrial, and celestial. Therefore, if a relationsiaip 
 exists between the Egyptian practice of decking houses at the 
 winter solstice with branches of the date-palm, and the German 
 and English custom of using gift-bearing and brilliantly illumi- 
 nated evergreen trees, which are nearly always firs, as a Christ- 
 mas decoration, it is most probably due to collateral rather than 
 to direct descent ; and this is indicated by the Egyptians having 
 regarded the date-palm not only as an emblem of immortality, 
 but also of the starlit firmament." 
 
 The suggestion as to collateral rather than direct descent is 
 eminently plausible. The legends already quoted show that even 
 in mediaeval times there was a tradition of holiness investing an 
 illuminated tree which made it mystically appropriate to the 
 season of the winter solstice, — i.e., the season which Christianity 
 had recently redeemed from paganism by making it the birth - 
 time of Christ. These traditions may have been strongly influ- 
 enced by the fact that about this time the Jews celebrated their 
 feast of Chanuckah (q. ?;.), or Lights, also known as the Feast of 
 the Dedication. Lighted candles are a feature of the Jewish feast. 
 Innumerable lights must therefore have been twinkling in every 
 Jewish house in Bethlehem and Nazareth at about the reputed 
 time of the Saviour's birth. It is worthy of note that the Ger- 
 man name for Christmas is Weihnacht, the l!^ight of Dedication, 
 and that the Greeks call Christmas the Feast of Lights. 
 
 These vague traditions merging together finally led to the per- 
 manent establishment of the Christmas-tree. As a regular insti- 
 tution, however, it can be traced back only to the sixteenth cen- 
 tury. During the Middle Ages it suddenly appears in Strassburg. 
 A valuable authentic manuscript of 1608, by a Strassburg burgher, 
 now in a private collection in Friedberg, Hesse, describes the tree 
 as a feature of the Christmas season. The manuscript of a book 
 entitled "The Milk of Catechism," by the Strassburg theologian 
 Dannhauer, mentions the same subject in a similar way. For 
 two hundred years the fashion maintained itself along the 
 Ehine, when suddenly, at the beginning of this century, it 
 
244 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 spread all over Germany, and fifty years later had conquered 
 Christendom. 
 
 The first description of a Christmas-tree in modern literature 
 is to be found in " The Nut-Cracker," a fairy-tale, by Fouque and 
 Hoffmann. 
 
 In 1830 the Christmas-tree was introduced by Queen Caroline 
 into Munich. At the same time it beat its path through Bo- 
 hemia into Hungarj^ where it became fashionable among the 
 Magyar aristocracy. 
 
 In 1840 the Duchess Helena of Orleans brought it to the Tuile- 
 ries. Empress Eugenie also patronized it, but by the middle class 
 it was still considered an intruder of Alsatian origin. In 1860 
 the German residents of Paris could procure a Christmas-tree only 
 with the greatest difficulty. However, nine years later the trees 
 were regularly sold in the market. In 1870 the German army 
 celebrated Christmas in the church of Notre-Dame, and to-daj^ 
 Paris uses fifty thousand trees each year, of which only about 
 one-fourth part are bought by Swiss, Germans, and Alsatians. The 
 French plant the entire tree, with its root in a tub, so as to 
 be able to preserve the tree until New Year, when it is " plun- 
 dered." 
 
 It was the marriage of Queen Victoria to a German prince 
 which led to the introduction of the German custom into Eng- 
 land. But a Christmas-tree, or something like it, is known to 
 have played an important part in a Christmas pageant given in 
 honor of Henry YIIL, and Greville's Memoirs under date of 
 December^ 29, 1829, mentions that " on Christmas the Princess 
 Lieven got up a little fete such as is customary all over Germany. 
 Three trees, in great pots, were put upon a long table covered 
 with pink linen ; each tree was illuminated with three circular 
 tiers of colored wax candles, — blue, green, red, and white. Be- 
 fore each tree was displayed a quantity of toys, gloves, pocket- 
 handkerchiefs, workboxes, books, and various articles, — ^presents 
 made to the owner of the tree. It was very pretty. Here it 
 was only for the children ; in Germany the custom extended to 
 persons of all ages." 
 
 In America the German emigrant brought the tree with him, 
 and it was soon taken up by all classes. 
 
 A modern writer describes how a Christmas-tree is set up for 
 all the children of the neighborhood in the great hall of an Eng- 
 lish country squire's house. At nightfall on Christmas Eve the 
 children, marshalled by the vicar and the village school-mistress, 
 made their way to the hall, where they took their appointed 
 places. The Christmas-tree had been drawn back into the bay- 
 windows, and was hidden by the sheet now hung up for the magic 
 lantern. "The squire was the showman, who expounded the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 245 
 
 successive men and beasts, ships and comets, and their eccentric 
 performances, with appiopriate comic gravity. The children 
 listened in admiring silence, which now and then broke into a 
 half-suppressed murmur of delight, especially when the rat ran 
 into the mouth of the old gentleman asleep in his bed, and con- 
 tinued to repeat the feat over and over again. Then the last 
 disk of light upon the sheet disappeared, and was succeeded by 
 the twinkling of minute lights behind. There was breathless 
 expectation ; the sheet was drawn back, and the tree in all its 
 glory was brought into the middle of the hall. The murmur of 
 half-suppressed delight came again from the rows of children, 
 some of whom saw the fairy scene for the first time, while to 
 others the renewal of the pleasure was perhaps even greater than 
 its first awaking ; and one little one whispered, in an awe-sub- 
 dued voice, 'I think it is like heaven.' On the very top shoot 
 stood an angel, with a Union Jack in one hand and a lighted red 
 taper in the other ; on every branch were like tapers of red, blue, 
 yellow, white, and green, skilfully fixed and counterpoised so 
 that they should not set fire to the tree, nor to the smaller toys 
 and trinkets hung upon the branches. All round the foot of the 
 tree, and on a table near, were the larger toys for the children 
 and the more useful presents for their elders. Behind was the 
 gardener, with a bucket of water and a garden-syringe, — happily 
 not to be needed. These fruits of the magic tree had already 
 been labelled with the name of a boy or girl, children of the 
 farmers or the cottagers, or the squire's grandchildren. Each 
 name was called out in succession, and the hall soon resounded 
 with joyful voices intermingled with the sound of the crackers 
 which were drawn with exclamations of surprised triumph : paper 
 caps, and aprons, and bonnets, and mottoes in the most execrable 
 verse that ever wit of man has devised. There was a due quota 
 of penny whistles, trumpets, and accordions. The oranges and 
 bonbons from the tree were followed by slices of cake from the 
 table, till the hands and arms of every child were laden and over- 
 laden. Then they gathered round the dismantled tree with its 
 tapering lights and sang Hark the herald angels. This was fol- 
 lowed by God save the Queen, and then the procession re-formed, 
 and the happy little ones went home in the moonlight." (^Atlantic 
 Monthly, December, 1894.) 
 
 Chrysanthemums, Feast of. (Japanese, Kiku-no-Sekku.) A 
 Japanese holida}' celebrated on the ninth day of the ninth month, 
 or towards the end of October in our calendar, and therefore at a 
 season when the kiku, or chrysanthemum, is almost the only 
 flower in full bloom. A cheerful and gayly dressed multitude 
 streams out to visit tiic places devoted to its cultivation and sale. 
 
246 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 At all the family repasts during the day the leaves of chrysan- 
 themum flowers are scattered over the cups of tea. It is be- 
 lieved that libations so prepared have the power of prolonging 
 life and strength. 
 
 Churching of Women. This is a survival of the Jewish rite 
 of purification after childbirth from ceremonial uncleanness. It 
 is not enjoined as matter of obligation by either the Eoman or 
 the English Church, but is recommended as a pious and laudable 
 custom. In the Roman ritual the woman, wearing a veil, kneels 
 at the door of the church, holding a lighted candle with holy 
 water. The priest sprinkles her, and, having recited the 23d 
 Psalm, puts the end of his stole in her hand and leads her into 
 the church, saying, " Come into the temple of God. Adore the 
 Son of the blessed Virgin Mary, who has given thee fruitfulness 
 in child-bearing." The woman then advances to the altar and 
 kneels before it, while the priest, having said a prayer of thanks- 
 giving, blesses her, and again sprinkles her with holy water in 
 the form of a cross. The rite is given only to women who have 
 borne children in wedlock. 
 
 In England after the Reformation the place where the woman 
 must kneel was shifted to the altar rails. The office was not used 
 for unmarried women till they had done their penance, and even 
 then could take place only on a Sunday or holy-day. These re- 
 strictions have been abolished ; but it is required of a cleric that 
 he satisfy himself of the woman's penitence. 
 
 The idea of uncleanness attached to pregnancy is ancient and 
 wide-spread. It took curious forms in England. Thus, in Ellis's 
 " Historical Letters," Third Series, ii. 226, occurs the following : 
 " There is a certain superstitious opinion and usage among 
 women, which is that in case a woman go with child she may 
 christen (that is, be sponsor to) no other man's child as long as 
 she is in that case." In 1880 a woman with child refused to take 
 an oath at a police court, — probably an unreasoning survival of 
 the same thought. (JSfotes and Queries, Sixth Series, iii. 48.) 
 
 Churruk Poojah. (Swinging Festival.) An out-door relig- 
 ious fete celebrated in honor of the goddess Kali by the Hindoos 
 in many parts of India. The main feature is the swinging in 
 the air of self-immolated victims on iron hooks depending from 
 a cross beam, which in its turn seesaws across the top of a huge 
 upright pole. The hooks are passed into about two and a half 
 inches of the skin and flesh of the back. They are fastened by 
 ropes to the end of the cross-pole, lowered by tilting for the 
 purpose. Then the victim is lifted up into the air, the body 
 fairly hanging by the hooks without any auxiliary support, and 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 247 
 
 made to gyrate in wide circles. The victims genera*lly remain 
 up, swinging about, for fifteen or twenty minutes, but they are 
 lowered at any time on their making a sign. Instances some- 
 times occur in which the flesh and muscles of the back give way, 
 and the devotee is dashed to the ground with fatal violence. 
 Accidents are rare, however. In many cases the saint^ are " old 
 hands," who perform this rite from motives of gain and reputa- 
 tion, and who go through their martyrdom with great cheerful- 
 ness and self-satisfaction. But in many other cases they are 
 novices, who offer themselves in fulfilment of a vow made to 
 Siva or his spouse Kali. 
 
 Seldom do even novices wince when the hooks are fastened, 
 and the subsequent swinging in the air is invariably borne with 
 composure, often with enthusiasm. Sometimes the devotee 
 smokes his pipe while whirling in his lofty gyrations. It is usual 
 for the devotee to take up with him fruits and flowers in his 
 girdle, which he throws down to the crowd, who, — especially the 
 female portion, — laughing and shouting with delight, rush eagerly 
 to catch them in their hands or in umbrellas inverted to receive 
 them. Sterile women are especially anxious to obtain the fruit 
 scattered by these devotees of Siva, as a means of wiping away 
 their reproach ; and wealthy childless ladies frequently send 
 their servants to the festival to procure some of the auspicious 
 fruit for their mistresses to eat. 
 
 A writer in Household Words^ v. 506, describes a Churruk 
 Poojah which he witnessed some time in the early fifties. The 
 spot was an extensive valley in the neighborhood of one of the 
 leading cities of Bengal. Far as the eye could reach, it teemed 
 with human life. Thousands flocked from many a point and 
 pressed to where the gaudy flags and beating drums told of the 
 approaching Poojah. Here a number of bamboo and leaf sheds 
 had been erected, where amusements of various sorts were in 
 progress or preparation. But what fixed his eye were " several 
 huge poles standing at a great height, with ropes and some ap- 
 paratus attached to them, the use of which I knew from report 
 alone." Eeport was speedily to be confirmed by experience. A 
 young and pretty girl was the first victim. " It appeared that 
 her husband had, months since, gone upon some distant dangerous 
 journey, and that, being long absent, and rumors raised in the 
 native bazaar of his death, she, the anxious wife, had vowed to 
 Siva, the protector of life, to undergo self-torture on his next 
 festival if her loved husband's life should be spared. He had 
 returned, and now, mighty in faith and love, this simple-minded, 
 single-hearted creature gave up herself to pain such as the 
 stoutest of our sex or race might shrink from. She sat looking 
 fondly on her little infant as it lay asleep in the arms of an old 
 
248 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 nurse, all unconscious of the mother's sacrifice, and, turning her 
 eyes from that to her husband, who stood near in a wild, excited 
 state, she gave the signal that she was ready. The slout-limbed, 
 burly-bodied husband rushed like a tiger at such of the crowd as 
 attempted to press too near the sacrificial girl; be had a staif in 
 his hand, and with it played such a tune on bare and turbaned 
 
 Churruk Poojah in a Bengal Village. 
 
 heads and ebony shoulders as brought down many an angry 
 malediction on the player. The nurse with the infant moved 
 farther away among the crowd of admiring spectators. Two or 
 three persons, men and women, pressed forward to adjust the 
 horrid-looking hooks. Was it possible, I thought, that those 
 huge instruments of torture, heavy enough to hold an elephant, 
 were to be forced into the flesh of that gentle girl ! I felt sick 
 as I saw the poor child stretched upon her face, and first one and 
 then the other of those ugly, crooked pieces of iron forced slowly 
 through the flesh and below the muscles of her back. They 
 lifted her up, and as I watched her I saw big drops of perspira- 
 tion starting from her forehead ; her small eyes seemed closed at 
 first, and, for the moment, I fancied she had fainted ; but as they 
 raised her to her feet and then quickly drew her up in the air 
 high above us, hanging by those two horrid hooks, 1 saw her 
 looking down quite placidly. She sought her husband out, and, 
 seeing him watching her eagerly, gave him a smile, and, waving 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 249 
 
 her little hands, drew from her bosom small pieces of the sacred 
 cocoanut and flung them amidst the gazing crowd. To scramble 
 ior and obtain one of these precious fragments was deemed a 
 fortunate thing, for they were supposed to contain all sorts of 
 charmed powers. 
 
 "And now the Poojah was fairly commenced. The ropes 
 which carried the iron hooks were so arranged that by pulling 
 one end — which passed over the top of the pole — it swung round 
 a plate of iron which set in motion the other ropes holding the 
 hooks and the living operator. Two men seized on this rope, and 
 soon the poor girl was in rapid flight over the heads of the crowd, 
 who cheered her on by a variety of wild cries, and shouts, and 
 songs. Not that she seemed to need encouragement ; her eyes 
 were still bent towards her husband ; I almost fancied she smiled 
 as she caught his eye. There was no sign of pain, or shrinking, 
 or yielding : she bore it as many a hero of the old world would 
 have been proud to have done, scattering beneath her flowers 
 and fruit among the busy throng. 
 
 " I felt as though a heavy weight were off my mind when I 
 perceived the whirling motion of the ropes first to slacken, and 
 then to cease, and finally the girl, all bleeding, relieved from the 
 cruel torture. They laid her on a mat beneath some shady trees : 
 the women gave her a draught of cool water in a cocoanut-shell. 
 But her thoughts were not upon herself: she looked anxiously 
 around, and could not be satisfied until her husband sat beside 
 her and their little swarthy infant was placed within her arms. 
 The only care her deep and open wounds received was to have 
 them rubbed with a little turmeric powder and covered with the 
 fresh tender leaf of a banana." 
 
 Another votary was an aged niother, v^hose prayers (she be- 
 lieved) had saved the life of her son. The vow had been made, 
 and the deliverance effected, eleven years before ; but the poor 
 people had never been able till then to incur the expenses of the 
 offering to the god and the feast with which these solemnities are 
 always closed. With the utmost heroism this aged woman en- 
 dured the whole, shouting aloud with the spectators, and scat- 
 tering her flowers with flurried enthusiasm. Her son, a man of 
 thirty years, was present, and in a state of greater excitement 
 than his mother, to whom he paid the most anxious attention, and 
 to whose devotion he evidently believed he owed the continuance 
 of his life. 
 
 Other victims, of all ages and both sexes, followed, and bore 
 their self-chosen tortures with similar equanimity. The British 
 government has made several attempts to suppress the Chiirruk 
 Poojah, but so recently as 1893 an artist correspondent of the 
 Illustrated London News forwarded an illustrated description to 
 
250 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 that paper of a festival of this sort witnessed in the neighbor- 
 hood of Calcutta. 
 
 Circumcision. According to Genesis xvii. 9-14, Grod gave 
 Abraham the command to circumcise every male child on the 
 eighth day after birth, " and it shall be a token of the covenant 
 betwixt me and you." Christian commentators look upon this 
 rite as a token that through the shedding of the blood of the 
 future Eedeemer remission of the original sin inherited from 
 Adam could alone be obtained. It also signified that the Jews 
 were cut off and separate from all other nations. By circumcis- 
 ion a Jew became a party to the covenant, was consecrated to the 
 service of God, and agreed to accept his revelation and obey his 
 commandments. In other words, this outward sign admitted 
 him to true knowledge of God, true worship of God, and true 
 obedience to God's moral law. But, inasmuch as it pointed to 
 the coming of Christ, it was abolished with his advent and its 
 place was taken by baptism, which also is a sign of covenant 
 with God, admitting to true worship, true knowledge, and true 
 obedience. But baptism is more than circumcision ; it is more 
 than a mere covenant ; it is a sacrament, whereby supernatural 
 power, or grace, is given to the child to enable it to carry out the 
 covenant. Christ submitted to circumcision, not because he had 
 inherited the sin of Adam, or needed grace, but because he came 
 to fulfil all righteousness, to accomplish the law, and for the letter 
 to give the spirit. 
 
 By the Jews circumcision is still practised with all the ancient 
 ceremonies. Sometimes when the child is ill or weak it is de- 
 ferred beyond the eight days mentioned in the law. A godmother 
 brings the child to the place and carries it back again. But 
 neither she nor any other woman is admitted to the ceremony. 
 The place may be a private house as well as the synagogue. The 
 godmother delivers the infant at the door to the godfather, and 
 when borne within it is greeted with cries of " Baruc Habba !" 
 or " Welcome !" The Mohel, or Circumciser, is waiting among a 
 circle of male friends. In a dish are all the necessaries, — a razor, 
 astringent powder, rags, cotton, and oil of roses. The operation 
 over, the Mohel takes a cup of wine, blesses it once, and then 
 repeats a second benediction for the child, who now receives the 
 name chosen for him. 
 
 The 128th Psalm is now repeated, and then the child is handed 
 back to the godmother. 
 
 Among the Mohammedans circumcision is practised, but not 
 until the boy is old enough to make his own profession of faith. 
 It was a legacy from the pre-Mohammedan Arabs, who are said 
 to have learned it from the Ishmaelites, the descendants of the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 251 
 
 son of Hagar. The custom is also derived from the Jews by the 
 Egyptians, Colchians. Phoenicians, and Ethiopians, but rather as 
 a method of promoting health and warding off certain diseases 
 than as a religious rite. 
 
 In the " Eomance of Lady Burton's Life" a rather amusing 
 paragraph is quoted from a letter written from Damascus : 
 
 " We went to every kind of ceremony, v^hether it was a cir- 
 cumcision, or a wedding, or a funeral, or a dervish dance, or any- 
 thing that was going on ; and we mixed with all classes, and 
 religions, and races, and tongues. I remember my first invitation 
 was to a grand /e^e to celebrate the circumcision of a youth about 
 ten years of age. He was very pretty, and was dressed in gor- 
 geous garments covered with jewelry. Singing, dancing, and 
 feasting went on for about three days. The ceremony took place 
 quite publicly. There was a loud clang of music and firing of 
 guns to drown the boy's cries, and with one stroke of a circular 
 knife the operation was finished in a second. The part cut off 
 was then handed round on a silver salver, as if to force all pres- 
 ent to attest that the rite had been performed. I felt quite sick, 
 and English modesty overpowered curiosity, and I could not look. 
 Later on, when I grew more used to Eastern ways, I was forced 
 to accept the compliment paid to the highest rank, and a great 
 compliment to me as a Christian, to hold the boy in my arms 
 whilst the ceremony was being performed. It was rather curious 
 at first to be asked to a circumcision, as one might be asked to a 
 christening in England or a ' small and early.' " 
 
 Clavie, Burning of the. A curious semi-jocular ceremony, a 
 relic of some ancient pagan rite, celebrated on the 11th of Jan- 
 uary (the last day of the year, Old Style) in the fishing town of 
 Burghead, situated on the south shore of Moray Firth, Moray- 
 shire, Scotland. The headland on which Burghead is situated 
 was for ages held by the marauding Norsemen, even after their 
 final overthrow by Malcolm II. in 1010. Before the Norsemen 
 set foot upon it, it is believed to have been held by the Eomans, 
 and to have been the northernmost point reached in Britain by 
 the conquerors of the world. 
 
 On the evening of the 11th of January all the fishermen of 
 the village assemble about dusk and proceed to some shop, where 
 they demand a strong empty barrel. This is usually surrendered 
 at once, but, if refused, it is taken by force. Another barrel, for 
 breaking up, and a quantity of tar, are procured in the same way. 
 A hole about four inches in diameter is made in the bottom of 
 the strongerbarrel, through which a stone pole five feet in length 
 is inserted. The barrel is filled with tar and set on fire. The 
 remaining barrel is then broken up, and stave after stave is 
 
252 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 thrown into the bonfire. The Clavie, burning fiercely, is now 
 shouldered by one of the fishernien, who rushes along one of the 
 streets, followed by the crowd. At the end of the street he is 
 relieved by another fisherman. In this way every street in the 
 village is gone through, the Clavie being replenished from time 
 to time. Formerly the procession visited all the fishing- boats, 
 but this has been discontinued for some time. When the pro- 
 cession has passed through the village, the Clavie is deposited 
 on the top of a little mound called the Durie. This mound is 
 interesting as being a portion of the ancient fortifications, spared 
 probably for use in this particular ceremony. On this mound 
 the present proprietor (1897) has erected a small round column, 
 with a cavity in the centre for the admission of the fire end of 
 the pole. Here the Clavie is left to burn far into the night. It 
 is then broken up and the embers are scattered. The people 
 rush upon the pieces. Every fragment is carefully gathered up 
 and carried home to be preserved as a charm against witchcraft. 
 At one time superstition invested the whole proceedings with all 
 the solemnity of a religious rite. The whole fishing population 
 joined in it as an act necessary to the welfare of the little com- 
 munity during the year about to commence. 
 
 No landsman can take part in the programme. Even strange 
 fishermen are forbidden to participate. About 1830 a colony of 
 fishermen from Campbelltown (Inverness-shire) settled in Burg- 
 head. After a few years' residence they were allowed to accom- 
 pany the procession. The strangers grew and multiplied until 
 they became almost as numerous as the Burgheaders. Feeling 
 their strength, they decided that it would be more in accordance 
 with the fitness of things if the Clavie were burnt on the evening 
 of the 3l8t of December instead of the 11th of January. The 
 innovation was fiercely resisted, and after a protracted struggle 
 the strangers had to succumb. A curious superstition connected 
 with the ceremony is that should any one fall in the rush along 
 the streets it is a sign that he will never be present at another 
 Clavie-burning. So sure are they of this, that should the Clavie- 
 bearer for the time fall, another at once seizes the fiery mass, 
 and, without waiting for the fallen man to rise, the crowd rushes 
 onward, at the imminent risk of trampling him under foot. 
 
 This remnant of paganism, now slowly dying out in the lone 
 village of Burghead, was once common throughout Scotland. 
 Some say that it is of Scandinavian origin, and others that it is 
 purely Celtic. There is no authority for either statement. The 
 ceremony was probably performed by both races. It is certain 
 that in the beginning of the last century the kirk-session of In- 
 veravon forbade the "heathenish custom" and took steps to put 
 it down. A minute to that effect is recorded in the session-books. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 253 
 
 Inveravon is a parish in the Highlands of Banffshire, where 
 probably the foot of Norseman never trod, thus showing that the 
 ceremony was practised by the Highlanders. 
 
 It is believed that the mysterious rite was originated for the 
 purpose of frightening witches. No doubt the belief in it among 
 the fishermen degenerated into something like that; but the 
 origin of the Clavie lies deeper. The use of a stone hammer in- 
 stead of an iron one in constructing the Clavie is by sonie held 
 as indicating that the ceremony was in existence in the stone 
 age. The Clavie, in short, appears to be the remnant of a religious 
 belief, and is probably connected with fire-worship. {Notes and 
 Queries^ Second Series, vol. ix. pp. 38, 106, 169, 269 ; Book of 
 Days, vol. ii. pp. 789-791. See also John the Baptist, St.) 
 
 Clebach's Fountain. A holy well in the southern slope of 
 Cruachan, near Roscommon, Ireland. The legend is that St. 
 Patrick met here the two daughters of King Leoghaire, Fedelm 
 and Ethna, as they came from the royal palace of Bath Crua- 
 chan to bathe in the fountain. The maidens wondered at sight 
 of the venerable stranger, surrounded by his monks, and they 
 questioned him eagerly as to who he was, and whence he came, 
 and what king he served. When Patrick told the lofty message 
 that he bore, the grace of God touched the hearts of the maidens, 
 so that they believed and were baptized in the waters of the 
 fountain, which the saint blessed for the purpose. They begged 
 for the eucharistic bread, and after it was given them they prayed 
 that they might be united to their spouse and king forever. And 
 the flush of health left their cheek, and they calmly sank to sleep 
 in death. Their bodies were laid side by side at Clebach's foun- 
 tain, which became one of the holy wells of Erin, famous for the 
 miracles that were wrought by its waters. 
 
 Clement, St., patron of farriers and blacksmiths. Little 
 authentic is known about him, but ecclesiastical tradition repre- 
 sents him as a blacksmith who was converted to Christianity in 
 the reign of Domitian, became Bishop of Rome, and was mar- 
 tyred November 23, a.d. 100, by being bound to an anchor and 
 cast into the sea. Hence the anchor is his attribute in art. The 
 church of St. Clement Danes in London had formerly an anchor 
 for a vane, the parish boundaries are still indicated by an anchor, 
 while the beadles bear an anchor on their staves and buttons. 
 
 Popular English myth has added some astonishing details to 
 this saint's legend. He is represented as the son of St. Catherine, 
 as the first founder of brass, iron, and steel from the ore, and as 
 the first man who ever shoed a horse. It is added that he was 
 crowned king of all trades by Alfred. 
 
254 CVRtOSlTlES OF 
 
 His festival on November 23 is still celebrated in rural Eng- 
 land by the children in what is known as Clemmening, which 
 consists in a house-to-house quest for gratuities of apples. For- 
 merly this was the custom of the blacksmiths, who added beer 
 or wine to their desiderata. Hence the bibulous survival in the 
 following doggerel which the children of Staffordshire sing during 
 their rounds : 
 
 Clemany ! Clemany ! Clemany mine ! 
 
 A good red apple and a pint of wine, 
 
 Some of your mutton and some of your veal, 
 
 If it is good, pray give me a deal ; 
 
 If it is not, pray give me some salt. 
 
 Butler, butler, fill your bowl ; 
 
 If thou fill'st it of the best, 
 
 The Lord'll send your soul to rest ; 
 
 If thou fill'st it of the small, 
 
 Down goes butler, bowl and all. 
 
 Pray, good mistress, send to me 
 
 One for Peter, one for Paul, 
 
 One for Him who made us all : 
 
 Apple, pear, plum, or cherry. 
 
 Any good thing to make us merry ; 
 
 A bouncing buck and a velvet chair, 
 
 Clement comes but once a year ; 
 
 Off with the pot and on with the pan, 
 
 A good red apple and I'll be gone. 
 
 {Notes and Queries, First Series, vol. viii. p. 618.) 
 
 Owing to the proximity of St. Clement's feast to that of his 
 " mother" (November 25), Catterning and Clemmening are often 
 merged into one ceremony which spreads over three days. In 
 Sussex the children sing this rhyme : 
 
 Cattern and Clemen be here, here, here, 
 Give us your apples and give us your beer. 
 I One for Peter, two for Paul, 
 
 Three for Him who made us all. 
 
 Clemen was a good man, 
 
 Cattern was his mother : 
 
 Give us your best, 
 
 And not your worst. 
 
 And God will give your soul good rest. 
 
 The blacksmiths in England still celebrate St. Clement's Day 
 locally by dressing up an effigy or one of their own number in a 
 long cloak, an oakum wig, a long white beard, and a mask. This 
 figure, knowai as Old Clem, is placed in a chair with a wooden 
 anvil in front of him and in his hands a pair of tongs and a 
 wooden hammer. Sometimes he is raerelj^ made the subject of 
 toasts and the presiding oflScer of the merrymakings. At other 
 times he is taken round on an eleemosynary quest. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 255 
 
 Such a procession, with a live Old Clem at its head, was cele- 
 brated as late as 1826 (see " Every Day Book," vol. i. p. 1501) 
 by the blacksmiths' apprentices of the dock-yard at Woolwich. 
 The Old Clem of the occasion was made to recite the following 
 speech : 
 
 " I am the real St. Clement, the first founder of brass, iron, and 
 steel, from the ore. I have been to Mount Etna, where the god 
 Yulcan first built his forge, and forged the armor and thunder- 
 bolts for the god Jupiter. T have been through the deserts of 
 Arabia; through Asia, Africa, and America; through the city 
 of Pongrove, through the town of Jipmingo, and all the north- 
 ern parts of Scotland. I arrived in London on the 23d of No- 
 vember, and came down to his Majesty's dock-yard at Wool- 
 wich to see how all the gentleman Yulcans came on there. I 
 found them all hard at work, and wish to leave them well on the 
 24th." 
 
 Old Clem's memory is still kept green in many of the govern- 
 ment dock-yards by mumming and feasting. The master-black- 
 smiths often give their employees a wayz-goose, a leg of pork 
 stuffed with sage and onions, on this day. The Brighton Eail- 
 wa}' Company's smiths hold an annual supper at White Horse 
 Inn. The anvils used to be fired with gunpowder, but this part 
 of the ceremonial has now been discontinued. 
 
 Coat, Holy. This is the general name given to certain relics 
 which are said to have been garments worn by Christ during his 
 earthly life. The most famous of these is the Holy Coat pre- 
 served at Trier, or Treves, in Germany, claimed to be the seam- 
 less garment for which the Eoman soldiers cast lots during the 
 crucifixion. It is a tunic about five feet long, cut narrow at the 
 shoulders and gradually widening towards the knees. It is 
 woven in one piece without seams. The material is supposed to 
 be linen, but its great age prevents any exact examination. It 
 is enclosed in an outer casing of purple and gold cloth, supposed 
 to have been added some time in the seventh century in order to 
 preserve the relic. Many miracles are claimed to have been 
 performed by this robe, and it is said still to possess great merit. 
 
 Its history for the last seven hundred years is clear enough. 
 But darkness shrouds the story of the relic prior to the twelfth 
 century. The Church relies for proof of its authenticity upon 
 a tradition that it Avas one of a chest-full of relics sent as a gift 
 to the church at Treves by the Empress Helena to celebrate the 
 conversion to Christianity of her son the Emperor Constantine. 
 She herself had found the coat while on her pilgrimage to Jeru- 
 salem in search of the true Cross (see Cross, Invention of the). 
 The cathedral in which it is now housed was built a.d. 550 on the 
 
256 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 site (still according to legend) of an ancient Roman palace which 
 was the birthplace of St. Helena. The legend goes on to say 
 that in the ninth century the Holy Coat was concealed from the 
 Normans in a crypt of the cathedral. There it remained for- 
 gotten until 1196, when it was rediscovered and placed in the 
 high altar. Just about here authentic history supersedes legend. 
 Jn 1512 Leo X. ordered that the coat should be exposed to the 
 veneration of the faithful. The multitudes who flocked to see it 
 
 St. Helena and the Holy Coat. 
 
 were so great that the Pope decided on a public exposition every 
 seven years. But the disturbances that followed the Reforma- 
 tion prevented the regular observance of this great religious 
 festival, and during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the 
 coat was deposited for safety in the castle of Ehrenbreitstein, on 
 the Rhine. In 1810, with the permission of Napoleon, the 
 Bishop of Treves, Mgr. Mann ay, brought the sacred relic back 
 to his own city, and, in spite of the confusion of the times, a 
 multitude of pilgrims, numbering over two hundred thousand, 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 257 
 
 visited Treves to celebrate this joyful restoration. In granting 
 the desired permission, Napoleon added the characteristic condi- 
 tion that " the working of miracles was to be forbidden." Hence 
 a revival of the famous epigram, — 
 
 De par le Koi, defense a Dieu 
 De faire miracle en ce lieu. 
 
 In 1844 a still more successful exposition of the Holy Coat 
 took place. 
 
 Since the Middle Ages no such pilgrimage had been known, 
 and no mediaeval shrine could have attracted the same number 
 of people in the same space of time, — from August 18 to October 
 6, — for it is said that one million five hundred thousand devotees 
 visited the high altar on which the coat was placed. They came 
 from all quarters, many from long distances, travelling on foot, 
 preceded by their village priests and by surpliced boys bearing 
 banners. All the inns and lodging-houses of the town were 
 crammed, and not a vacant room which the owners were willing 
 to let could be had after the first week for either love or money. 
 But it was summer, and there was little hardship in sleeping on 
 staircases, in outhouses, or even in the streets and squares, with 
 the pilgrim wallets for pillows. Every morning at early dawn 
 the eager sight-seers took up their posts by the cathedral doors, 
 until a line of more than a mile in length was formed, so that it 
 was difiicult for any save the head of the procession to reach the 
 coat much under three hours. The heat, dust, and fatigue ex- 
 hausted many, who fainted by the way, while the pent-up excite- 
 ment of others gave way to hysteria as they made their oblations 
 before the sacred object. 
 
 There being no Napoleon to forbid miracles, they broke out 
 with great violence. The most noteworthy case w^as that of a 
 young woman, the Countess of Droste Yischering, who ap- 
 proached the altar on crutches, one of her legs having been con- 
 tracted by a scrofulous swelling of the knee, and after praying 
 before the relic succeeded in bringing her foot to the floor and 
 walking out of the cathedral, though her leg had been bent at 
 an angle of nearly forty-five degrees for years. Naturally, so 
 astounding a case caused a commotion in medical as well as re- 
 ligious circles. The miraculous nature, as well as the permanency, 
 of the cure was disputed. It was an excellent subject for scien- 
 tific inquiry, but none was made. A month after the sensational 
 scene in the cathedral a physician certified that the improvement 
 miraculously begun (it was not claimed that she was instantane- 
 ously cured, but only that through the rehc she had received the 
 power to stretch the contracted member) was still in progress. 
 Then the countess, who was a grand-niece of the Bishop of 
 
 17 
 
258 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Cologne, whose cathedral is also rich in relics, entered a cloister, 
 and the world heard nothing more of her except that she per- 
 formed the duties of a Sister of Mercy. She and her story live 
 in a Commersbuch of the German students in a ballad beginning, — 
 
 Freifrau von Droste Vischering, 
 
 Vi va Vischering, 
 Zum Hell "gen Kock nach Triere ging, 
 
 Tri tra Triere ging. 
 
 The scenes of 1844 were repeated and magnified in 1891, 
 when the Holy Coat was once more exposed to public adoration. 
 The ceremonies began on August 20, and lasted six weeks. They 
 opened in an impressive manner. " After the provost had read 
 the protocol of the last locking-up of the relic last year," writes 
 a correspondent of the London Standard^ "the cathedral archi- 
 tect and two other gentlemen opened the high altar and broke 
 large masses of stone out of it with heavy crowbars. A box 
 about two metres long was then lifted out and opened, and a 
 long document and a smaller box, covered with leather, were 
 taken out. The latter was opened, when a third box, of metal 
 closed with six seals and containing the sacred garment, came to 
 hght. On this third box lay another document. Bishop Korum 
 then threw a red cloth over the third box, and bore it himself, 
 assisted by the provost, to the treasure-chamber, where it was 
 opened after the seals had been examined and found intact. The 
 bishop then took out the sacred garment, which was enveloped 
 in blue, red, and white silk wrappers. These the bishop re- 
 moved, and then spread out the coat on the table. He then read 
 the passage in St. John's Grospel referring to the coat, and then 
 admitted the persons invited to see it. Nobody, however, was 
 allowed to touch it, this privilege being reserved for the bishop 
 alone." 
 
 The relic was exhibited in its full length and breadth, hanging 
 in an oaken shrine, lined with white silk, open in front, and 
 draped with costly silk, adorned with braid and tassels of gold. 
 On the main spire of the cathedral had been erected a large flag- 
 staff, from which, during the exposition of the reHc, there 
 flouted a flag with a red cross on a white ground. A thousand 
 citizens of Treves watched beside the relic during the exposition. 
 
 The Berlin correspondent of the New York Herald cabled as 
 follows under date of August 20,1891: "The garment known 
 as the Holy Coat was exposed to view this morning in the cathe- 
 dral at Treves. Two Knights of Malta in full costume, with 
 drawn swords in their hands, stood on either side of the shrine 
 enclosing the Holy Coat case, which was surrounded by tall 
 lighted candlesticks and surmounted by a large gold cross. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 259 
 
 There was an impressive scene in the sanctuary. Over a hun- 
 dred priests assisted in the pontifical high mass which fohowed 
 thfe unveiling of the Coat. The cathedral was richly decorated 
 for the occasion, and was packed to the doors with people. The 
 white surplices of the choir, the gorgeous vestments of the 
 priests, the scarlet uniforms of the Knights of Malta, the count- 
 less hghts flickering in every nook and coiner, the prismatic rays 
 filtering through the old windows, the strange congregation com- 
 posed of people of many nations and all walks of life, formed a 
 picture not often seen. Bishop Korum during the course of his 
 address earnestly urged the faithful to unite in revering the gar- 
 ment from which power and virtue proceed. The nave of the 
 cathedral was then cleared, so as to enable the municipal author- 
 ities and the parochial societies to march up to the shrine of the 
 Holy Coat and venerate that relic. Treves is overflowing with 
 pilgrims and with visitors. The streets are filled with proces- 
 sions of all descriptions, and sacred banners, crosses, and lighted 
 candles are to be seen on all sides. During the whole time the 
 Holy Coat is on exhibition about twenty excursion trains a day 
 will arrive at Treves, a very great number for a Continental city, 
 and a large temporary railroad station has been built for the 
 pilgrims ; but in order that the town may not be overcrowded 
 the difl'erent bands of pilgrims, led by their priests, will only be 
 permitted to remain one night in town. Arriving, say, in the 
 evening, they will march the next morning in procession to the 
 cathedral, and must leave town the same evening, in order to 
 make way for other religious bodies of people," 
 
 Next to the relic at Treves the most famous of all Holy Coats 
 is that at Argenteuil. This also claims to be the seamless gar- 
 ment of Christ. Legend traces it back to the Roman soldier who 
 won it by lot. The record declares that it was bought from this 
 soldier and guarded vigilantly in various countries till it came 
 into the possession of the Empress Irene, who sent it to Charle- 
 magne. The latter presented it to his daughter Theodrada, Ab- 
 bess of Argenteuil. 
 
 This coat is about five feet long by three and a half feet 
 wide. The left sleeve is missing, and a large piece has been 
 taken from the left side. The garment is hand-woven, and is of 
 camels' hair. It lies in a casket, and has a reddish tone like that 
 of a dried rose. Every afternoon from Ascension Day to Whit 
 Monday the shrine in which the relic is kept is carried in pro- 
 cession through the Argenteuil church. The garment is ex- 
 hibited in its entirety only at rare intervals, as it is placed under 
 seal by the Bishop of Versailles, in whose diocese Argenteuil is. 
 He alone has authority, with the sanction of the Pope, to open 
 the casket. In the year 1862 Pope Pius IX. secured a small 
 
260 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 fragment of the garment, and the other two small pieces were 
 cut off ^t the same lime. These pieces are in two small caskets 
 which the faithful are allowed to kiss while kneeling at the altar. 
 It is said that the relic has recently been examined with a 
 microscope, and that traces of what was believed to be blood 
 were found on it. Miraculous cures are alleged to have been 
 effected by means of this relic. Lord Clifford's eldest son, the 
 Count de Damas, and the Marquis of Harcourt, are among those 
 said to have been cured. 
 
 " The Holy Coat of Argenteuil has recently been submitted by 
 the Bishop of Yersailles to a close examination at the hands of 
 experts of the Gobelins Factory. They report that the cloth is a 
 sort of bunting, the texture of which is not close, but soft and 
 light. The warp and weft are of exactly the same thickness 
 and nature. The garment has been woven on a loom of the most 
 primitive kind. The raw material of the texture is fine wool. 
 They found a complete identity, both as to raw material and 
 manufacture, in the fabric examined and in the ancient fabrics 
 found in Christian tombs of the second and third centuries of 
 our era. Samples of the coat were also submitted to several 
 distinguished chemists, who report that the stains in them were 
 produced by human blood. From all the circumstances of the 
 analysis they presume this blood to be very ancient." (Antiquary, 
 December, 1893.) A paper contributed by Emile Gautier to the 
 JVew Science Review (New York) for October, 1894, gives further 
 particulars. 
 
 Other coats said to have belonged to Christ are preserved at 
 Moscow, Yenice, and other places. The pious Catholic explains 
 their existence by saying that Christ probably had several gar- 
 ments during the thirty- three years of his life. Therefore they 
 may all be genuine. As to the question which is the seamless 
 coat gambled for by the soldiers, the majority of Catholics will 
 cast their vote for the relic at Treves. 
 
 Coat of Mohammed. This Mohammedan counterpart to the 
 Holy Coat of Treves is preserved at Constantinople in the shrine 
 of Eski-Serai, and is exhibited to the adoration of the faithful 
 twice in every hundred years. The last exposition was in 1896. 
 The Holy Coat of Mohammed, according to tradition, was pre- 
 sented by the Prophet to a Yemen dervish, Was-ul-Karani, as a 
 token of gratitude for his services in discovering the use and 
 preparation of coffee. It is a kind of chukva, or robe, with flow- 
 ing sleeves somewhat similar to Western dressing-gowns, which 
 is worn in the Levant by those whom foreigners are accustomed 
 to designate as Turks of the old school. It is needless to add 
 that its color is green, — the hue above all others sacred to the^ 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 261 
 
 Prophet. The extent to which the garment is venerated by all 
 true behevers may be estimated from the fact that the most cher- 
 ished title of the Sultan is Hadum-ul-Haremeen, or guardian of 
 the holy relic. The coat was brought to Constantinople by the 
 Sultan Selira I., along with the keys of the holy cities of Mecca 
 and Medina, from Cairo, where all had been preserved until that 
 time in the keeping of the Caliphs. The shrine in which it was 
 placed by Sultan Selim, and where it has remained ever since 
 until this day, is within the precincts of the Imperial Treasury 
 at Gulchane. 
 
 The last exposition of the Prophet's coat was made in 1895. 
 The Sultan left bis palace in company with old Osman Grhazi 
 Pasha, the hero of Plevna. Alighting at the Bab-ul-Saida, or 
 Sublime Porte, he, with his own hands, unlocked, by means of a 
 massive golden key, the silver grating or cage which protects 
 the Holy of Holies from intrusion by the profane. With an- 
 other key of the same precious metal he proceeded to open a 
 huge cupboard or box composed of the purest and most massive 
 gold, and to extract therefrom a bundle, which he placed on a 
 silver table of great beauty. One by one the Sultan then re- 
 moved the forty outer cloths in which the Holy Coat was 
 wrapped up, until the last but one was reached. The latter 
 consists of some thin, transparent kind of gauze, and is left 
 intact. For no mortal eye may behold nor human lips touch 
 the sacred relic unshrouded. Eeverently, and with every token 
 of the utmost veneration, the Sultan bent and kissed the dingy- 
 looking bundle, his example being followed by the Sheik-ul- 
 Islam, the Grand Vizier, and the various chief dignitaries of the 
 realm according to their rank, during which time verses of the 
 Koran were chanted by the ulema. 
 
 Subsequently all the men withdrew, and, under the guidance 
 of his highness Yaver Aga, the grand eunuch of the imperial 
 seraglio, the Yalide Sultana, or mother empress, along with the 
 various wives of the monarch and princesses of the family, ap- 
 peared upon the scene and likewise paid their respects to the 
 Holy Coat. As soon as they had closed their devotions and 
 departed, the Sultan carefully wrapped up the bundle again in 
 the nine-and-thirty wrappers which he had removed, after which 
 he replaced it in its gold cupboard, locked it, as well as its silver 
 cage or grating, and returned to his palace at Yildiz Kiosk be- 
 tween a double line of troops, who kept a path open through the 
 vast multitude of people for the imperial procession. In the 
 evening the Sultan sent to all those who had been present at 
 this ceremony small white cambric handkerchiefs with the verses 
 of the Koran embroidered on them, which had been specially 
 consecrated at Mecca for the purpose. 
 
262 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Besides this, splendid presents were made by the Padishah to 
 the Sheik-ul-Islam, the primate of the Turkish Church, and also 
 to Yaver Aga, a coal-black and gigantic negro, who is addressed 
 as " Your Highness" and ranks with the Grand Vizier and bears 
 the title of " Dar ul Sadr Aghassi," which rendered in English 
 means " he whose post is behind the door of the sanctuary of 
 bliss." The Grand Yizier and the ministers also received 
 tokens of imperial good will in the shape of jewelry and decora- 
 tions. 
 
 Cocoanut Day. A Hindoo festival celebrating the concilia- 
 tion of land and sea. It is thus described by the Times of India, 
 September, 1896 : 
 
 " Cocoanut Day — the conciliation of Neptune — has just been 
 celebrated in India. God Neptune is a most important deity, 
 and it is always advisable to keep him in good humor. There is 
 no saying otherwise how his friend Yaruna may blow the mon- 
 soons. The cocoanut day, of course, marks the subsidence of 
 god Neptune's playfulness, when the hoary deity made some fun 
 by leading the ' floating palace' of the humans a nice little dance 
 on his frisky waves. 
 
 " We set about god Neptune's propitiation in right royal style. 
 Brahmins, of course, come in as the pivot of the affair. We all 
 of us — unless we are too old, or sickly, or lame, or too much 
 engrossed in self-admiration — repair to the sea-shore, taking 
 with us a lot of materials of worship, as an offering to the water- 
 deity. We move some distance into the water; the Brahmin 
 stands in the middle and recites hymns; and we, surrounding 
 him, respectfully offer our cocoanuts, and flowers, and milk, and 
 sugar-candy, and fragrant powders, to the sea-god. One supreme 
 honor still remains behind, and we render it. We make lights, 
 and wave them before the pacified divinity. Most of us formerly 
 used to throw the cocoanuts right into the sea, but, as the Brah- 
 mins took them up and made them their own, we now, in order 
 to save trouble to the holy men, give them straight into their 
 hands. 
 
 "In Kurrachee and other ports they throw the cocoanuts into 
 the sea, where Mussulman boat-people get hold of them and sell 
 them later to the Bunnias in the bazaar, whence they come back 
 to us as edibles. These Mohammedan boat-wallahs are expert 
 swimmers ; and though the little Arab fellows at Aden and Port 
 Said, we are told, perform some marvellous feats of diving, in 
 bringing up silver coin thrown to them, their Moslem confreres 
 of the Indian ports are not less expert in personal navigation. 
 Once our offerings to the deity are made, it matters not to whom 
 they go. So it is perfectly indifferent to us whether the Brah- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 263 
 
 min youngsters eat the cocoanuts or Moslem boat-people collect 
 them in boatfuls. 
 
 "There is no particular reason why cocoanuts, of all nuts, 
 should be oifered to the water-deity. Any other fruits too may 
 be offered. Only the cocoanut is the tropical fruit par excellence, 
 and, as it is pre-eminently ' watery,' we imagine god Neptune 
 may just fancy it better. But we do not simply give the cocoa- 
 nuts to the Brahmins : we accompany them with some money 
 present. Nothing can be given to the Brahmins unless her 
 majesty's coin accompanies the gift. But they eminently de- 
 serve it, on some occasions. In ceremonies in which ablutions 
 or any sort of ' water- taking' comes in, we do the thing and 
 pass on. But the Brahmins remain constantly in the water, 
 ministering to every succeeding batch, — which means standing 
 several hours together in wet. And yet they never develop 
 bronchitis. I suppose it is a case of adaptation to the spiritual 
 environment." 
 
 Collop Monday. The Monday before Shrove Tuesday, so 
 called because, says Hone, " it was the last day of flesh-eating 
 before Lent, and our forefathers cut their flesh meat into collops, 
 or steaks, for salting and hanging up until Lent was over." 
 Polydore Yirgil says of this season " that it sprang from the 
 feasts of Bacchus, which were formerly celebrated in Eome at 
 the same period." Collop Monday, therefore, may be only an 
 adaptation from the heathen. In confirmation it may be added 
 that at this period the Eton boys write verses to Bacchus. 
 
 Yerses are still written and put up on this day, but the young 
 poets are not confined to eulogiums on the god of wine. Never- 
 theless the day still retains its old name of Bacchus. In Corn- 
 wall the day is termed Hall Monday. About the dusk of the 
 evening it is the custom for boys, and in some cases for those 
 who are above the age of boys, to prowl about the streets with 
 short clubs, and to knock loudly at every door, running oft' to 
 escape detection on the slightest sign of a motion within. If, 
 however, no attention be excited, and especially if any article 
 be discovered negligently exposed or carelessly guarded, then 
 the things are carried away, and on the following morning are 
 discovered displayed in some conspicuous place, to expose the 
 disgraceful want of vigilance supposed to characterize the owner. 
 The time when this is practised is called "Nickanan night;" and 
 the individuals concerned are supposed to represent some imps 
 of darkness who take advantage of unguarded moments. 
 
 On the following evening (Shrove Tuesday) the clubs are 
 again in requisition ; but on this occasion the blows on the door 
 keep time to the following chant : 
 
264 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Nicka, nicka, nan ; 
 
 Give me some pancake, and then I'll be gone. 
 
 But if you give me none, 
 
 I'll throw a great stone, 
 
 And down your doors shall come. 
 
 {Report of the Royal Institution of Cornwall for 1842 : 
 Notes and Queries, First Series, vol. xii. p. 297.) 
 
 In the neighborhood of Bridestow, Okehampton, England, 
 the children go round to the different houses in the parish on 
 this day, generally by twos and threes, and chant the following 
 verses, by way of extracting from the inmates sundry contri- 
 butions of eggs, flour, butter, halfpence, etc., to furnish out the 
 Tuesday's feast : 
 
 Lent Crock, give a pancake, 
 
 Or a fritter, for my labor. 
 
 Or a dish of flour, or a piece of bread. 
 
 Or what you please to render. 
 
 I see by the latch 
 
 There's something to catch ; 
 
 I see by the string 
 
 There's a good dame within. 
 
 Trap, trapping throw, 
 
 Give me my mumps, and I'll be go [gone]. 
 
 The above is the most popular version, and the one indigenous 
 to the place ; but there is another set, which was introduced 
 some years ago by a late school-mistress, who was a native of 
 another part of the country, where her version was customary : 
 
 Shrovetide is nigh at hand, 
 
 And we are come a-shroving ; 
 
 Pray, dame, give something. 
 
 An apple, or a dumpling, 
 
 Or a piece of crumple cheese. 
 
 Of your own making. 
 
 Or a piece of pancake. 
 
 Trip, trapping throw. 
 
 Give me my mumps, and I'll be go. 
 
 This custom existed also in the neighborhood of Salisbury. 
 (Wotes and Queries, First Series, vol. v. p. 77 ; Popular Antiquities, 
 1849, vol. i. p. 62.) 
 
 Columban, St. (543-615.) A famous Irish saint, a native of 
 Leinster, who about 595 with twelve brother monks travelled 
 into France, founded the monasteries of Luxeuil and Fontaine, 
 was banished by King Theodore (ostensibly because his views 
 on mooted points of faith did not agree with those of the Frank- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 265 
 
 ish Church, but really because of the freedom he used in repri- 
 manding that prince for his libertinism), and finally retired into 
 Italy, where he founded a religious house at Bobbio, near Naples. 
 At the latter place he died on November 21, 615, which is the 
 date on which he is commemorated. 
 
 A small fragment of the original tomb of St. Columban, with 
 its inscription, still remains in the church dedicated to the saint 
 at Bobbio. The body itself was removed from its original grave 
 in 1482, and placed in a new^ marble shrine beneath the altar in 
 the midst of the crypt or subterranean church at Bobbio. But 
 the entire body of the saint was not suffered to remain there. 
 In accordance with a custom that prevailed in the latter part of 
 the Middle Ages, the head or skull was in 1514 detached and 
 placed in a beautifully wrought silver shrine that takes the 
 form of a mitred bust. It is now kept in the sacristy of the 
 church that bears his name. Other relics of the saint kept in 
 the same sacristy are wooden cups, a little bell, and a knife, the 
 latter of such virtue that bread cut with it is never liable to cor- 
 ruption or putrescence, " and if women eat this bread when 
 nursing it causes an abundance of milk, and moreover has great 
 efficacy against the bites of mad dogs and against fevers." 
 (Margaret Stokes : Six Months in the Apennines.) Miss Stokes 
 adds a full account of the hermitage of La Spanna, near Bobbio, 
 where, on the summit of a cliff, is a hand-print in the rock, said 
 to have been marked by the impression of the palm (spanna) of 
 St. Columban's hand, which is still believed to possess healing 
 virtues for sufferers who place their palms upon it. 
 
 Commencement. In English and American colleges, the 
 day when degrees are conferred, the day when the graduating 
 classes commence bachelors (or lawyers, or doctors, or what not). 
 The term is now extended to academies and primary schools of 
 all grades. In the mediaeval universities graduation was simply 
 the conferring of a qualification and right to teach (or, in the 
 case of law and medicine, to practise). 
 
 Commencement, then, existed at first for those taking what 
 are now called the higher degrees, and was the time when young 
 men ceased to be pupils and commenced to teach. The bach- 
 elor's degree marking the end of the trivium, or preparatory 
 course, was first given at Paris ; and it seems that the bachelors 
 were required to serve an apprenticeship at teaching, as a part 
 of their preparation for the master's degree. The student hav- 
 ing performed the requirements of the trivium, he was named a 
 bachelor by the masters of that subject, and had now the right 
 to wear a round cap, and not only the right, but the obligation, 
 to teach freshmen. He was then said incipere in artibus (" to 
 
266 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 commence in arts"). Hence, even when extended to the gradu 
 ation of bachelors, Commencement still carried the implication 
 of commencing to teach. The requirement that all graduates 
 should serve as teachers was gradually relaxed, till teaching was 
 made entirely optional, and Commencement came to be, as at 
 present, simply the occasion when degrees of all grades were 
 conferred. 
 
 "There is no season more delightful than Commencement. 
 Every year that long, sparkling billow of youth breaks upon the 
 shore of manhood, and each successive wave is as fresh and beau- 
 tiful as all its predecessors. The president of a college annually 
 confronting the graduating class, under the same circumstance 
 of summer and roses, with the same associations, the same tender 
 recollections, the same eager and proud anticipations, must feel 
 himself to be a perpetual youth ; and if he gives a blessing to 
 the class, not less does the class leave with him its benediction. 
 His attitude, indeed, is that of Mentor, but he must feel that his 
 counsel springs from experience, and, being addressed to those 
 who have experience yet to gain, it is, after all, a kind of fairy 
 lore, a singing in an unknown tongue. 
 
 " But there has gathered around Commencement a multitude 
 of delightful occasions all related to scholarly sympathy and 
 association, and taking precedence even of the especial function 
 of the season. The class-day exercises of the graduating class, 
 the reunions of alumni, with their orations and dinners, the social 
 festivals of the Greek-letter societies, from that of the venerable 
 Alpha or Phi Beta Kappa down to the very last Omega of the 
 mystic characters, and all these held at the chapter houses or 
 rooms, for a day or two preceding Commencement Day itself, 
 with every form of literary exercise and social entertainment in 
 the most enchanting moment of the year, combine to throw a 
 spell of June romance over young and susceptible hearts, which 
 is not only delightful, but permanent, and gives to the Com- 
 mencement season a singular power." (G-eorge W. Curtis.) 
 
 Commercial Day. On December 19, 1895, a banquet was 
 held at Delmonico's in New York by three hundred of its promi- 
 nent citizens, under the auspices of the Commercial List afid 
 Price Current, to celebrate not only the centenary of the publi- 
 cation of this the oldest commercial paper in the country, but 
 also that of the passage of the treaty of amity, commerce, and 
 navigation between Great Britain and the United States which 
 led directly to the founding of the newspaper on December 19, 
 1795. At that banquet it was determined that the 19th of De- 
 cember should henceforth be denominated Commercial Day and 
 should be celebrated by an annual banquet of the leading mer- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 267 
 
 chants and business-men of New York, in honor of the com- 
 mercial treaty. 
 
 The treaty itself, however, it should be borne in mind, has no 
 direct connection with the day. The treaty had been negotiated 
 by John Jay, of New York, who had been sent over for the 
 purpose by Washington as Envoy Extraordinary of the United 
 States, was ratified by the Senate, and formally approved by the 
 President. 
 
 The treaty secured to the United States freedom on the seas, 
 privilege to trade with Great Britain, the withdrawal of all 
 British posts from our territories, and a policy of non-inter- 
 ference by the mother-country in affairs concerning the United 
 States. 
 
 The confidence it inspired in the business world by its recog- 
 nition of this country as a treaty power, and the immediate ad- 
 vantages it brought to American commerce, are shown in the 
 fact that the foreign trade of the United States almost doubled 
 in the single year following its making. But unfortunatelj^" it 
 was arranged at a time when the American people were smarting 
 under a sense of bitter wrong inflicted by Great Britain. Hence 
 its many advantages were not at first fully appreciated. Polit- 
 ical partisanship attacked it blindly, and the great party then 
 clamoring for an alliance with France denounced it fiercely. In 
 its support the calmer counsels of such statesmen as Washing- 
 ton and Hamilton, representing the conservative and substantial 
 elements of the nation, finally prevailed, and the treaty was 
 adopted. Time has too fully demonstrated the wisdom of this 
 measure to make necessary a discussion of the long-since refuted 
 arguments by which its consummation was opposed. The era it 
 ushered in was for the nation one of progress and prosperity 
 unprecedented. 
 
 Confetti. This is an Italian word signifying, literally, " con- 
 fectionery," and as such entirely applicable to the small hard 
 bonbons which were formerly exchanged as missiles during the 
 Carnival. These bonbons are now, however, known as coriandoU, 
 and the term confetti is applied to their cheaper and therefore 
 more popular substitutes, — hard lime pellets of the size of a hail- 
 stone and quite as hard, — which are carried around in a bag by 
 maskers and thrown with a tin ladle. Originally the confetti 
 were done up in paper, to mitigate the sting of their impact, but 
 this mercy is seldom observed at present. The custom has passed 
 over to Paris, and is especially practised at the fetes of Mi-Careme 
 (Mid-Lent, q. v.) and Mardi-Gras (Shrove Tuesday, q. v.). But 
 there only the paper and the name confetti are retained. The 
 hard missiles have been eliminated. French confetti (the name 
 
268 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 is properly plural, like macaroni) are made out of thin paper of 
 all colors, cut into pieces of the size of a leather tack head. 
 
 Miss Constance Fenimore Woolson, in an article in Harper's 
 Magazine, has given a pleasant description of the manner in 
 which confetti-throwing is practised during the Eoman Car- 
 nival : 
 
 " In watching some of the more dexterous throwers about me," 
 she says, " I was amused to see what a test of organization and 
 temperament confetti-throwing could resolve itself into. Across 
 the way was a young Eussian lady who in the fury of her at- 
 tacks had warmed into the excitement of a Bacchante. There 
 was an English girl next her, whose pure fresh face, timid but 
 accurate shots, and calm sobriety of demeanor were as typical 
 of her nationality as a Du Maurier drawing. On our own bal- 
 con}'- there was such a spirit of jollity and vivacious enjoyment 
 in the sport as make the American girl the ideal of a man's re- 
 sponsiveness in fun. The crowd below, despite its canaille char 
 acter, was now full of enchanting Italian gaj^ety. There were 
 laughter and mirth, and quick return charges of confetti fire ; 
 there were young French art students filling their bags with 
 shot, and young German officers bringing Yon Moltke's tactics 
 to bear on their tin-ladle throwing. Even Romans themselves, 
 much as they may scorn Carnival sports, cannot resist this last 
 riot of mimic fighting. Itahan officers, at least, are men before 
 they are Eomans, too much men not to try their luck before the 
 battery of discriminating eyes. For the hail of confetti is to be 
 taken as something personal and complimentary. Its intensity 
 is in proportion to the attraction of the object. A whitewashed 
 coat and battered hat are to be looked upon as proofs of the 
 sincerest flattery. 
 
 " Few features of the fun are more amusing to watch than the 
 flirtations that grow out of it. On the balcony on my right 
 there was a young Italian whose admirable shooting announced 
 hira an expert. His fire had been at first indiscriminate in 
 its aim, hitting the Neapolitan model in the head as unerringly 
 as he had pelted a pretty contadina in the nose. But soon his 
 practised eye discovered a target worthy of his skill. Half bid- 
 den behind the scarlet cuitains draping a box directly opposite 
 was the figure of a beautiful young woman, whose nationality 
 betrayed itself in the dusky glory of her dark eyes and the child- 
 like naivete with which she abandoned herself to the enjoyment 
 of the scene. She was quite unprotected. Her wire mask lay 
 in her lap, her dipper beside it, and behind her huge feather fan 
 she was laughing heartily at some of the nonsense before her. 
 With the aim of true science my young neighbor covered the 
 bt-auty with a shower hke hail. She, with the quickness of the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 269 
 
 Italian temperament to take fire, dropped her fan, seized her 
 dipper, and, seeing then what manner of man her antagonist 
 was, loaded it to the full, and returned a shot as effective as his 
 own. For the next half-hour the fight went on, the most serious 
 damage resulting from the now equally active interchange of 
 glances. There is nothing more characteristic of the Carnival 
 season than these swiftly born mimic fights, beneath the artifice 
 of which there as suddenty leaps into life the flashing fire of 
 a flirtation." 
 
 Compare the Roman custom with the more chic and gracious 
 confetti-throwing of the French as described by a correspondent 
 of the Louisville Courier-Journal writing from Paris under date 
 of March 18, 1896. " Confetti," he says, " are thrown on you to 
 make you beautiful, and before a fete is over you are very beau- 
 tiful indeed, both inside and out, as confetti get down your back, 
 and when you disrobe at night there is a shower of confetti, 
 and, behold, the inside of your undershirt is like a flower-garden 
 in the spring, and the bottoms of your shoes shine darkly with 
 confetti, and you wonder whether you will have to go to a doc- 
 tor to-morrow to have that piece of confetti taken out of your 
 eye, and whether confetti are digestible, and try to swallow that 
 papery dryness at the bottom of your throat. The French all 
 delight to make strangers beautiful first. Every one has a hand- 
 ful of confetti for the American, and so you warm with the 
 pretty compliment, and a red eye and a dry throat are nothing, 
 for you see the stars and stripes waving in a shower of confetti 
 thrown by the French people. 
 
 " Generally there are three days of confetti-throwing before 
 Lent begins. This year more confetti were thrown than ever 
 before. It was estimated by one of the daily papers that one 
 million five hundred thousand pounds were sold the three days 
 preceding Lent. The price of confetti varies. On the fashion- 
 able boulevards where the rich walk, the price is from thirty to 
 forty cents a pound. In the poorer quarters they sell for from 
 fifteen to thirty cents a pound. The last day the price gener- 
 ally goes up ten cents a pound everywhere. Striking an average 
 of twenty cents a pound, three hundred thousand dollars was 
 spent in three days to make people beautiful. 
 
 " Confetti were introduced in Paris five years ago. They came 
 out at a ball at the Moulin Rouge. A little cupful cost two sous, 
 and none were thrown in the streets that year. The confetti 
 were such a success that a great deal was manufactured the next 
 year, and the price came down, and the poor could buy confetti 
 and give the rich back handful for handful. Since then each 
 year the streets have been covered with a deeper and deeper 
 layer of confetti. Until this year it was the custom when the 
 
270 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 confetti were an inch deep in the streets to grab up handfuls and 
 throw them. The authorities ordered this stopped, because dust 
 was mixed with the confetti and dust will not make one beauti- 
 ful. Mainly on account of this order, the confetti were much 
 deeper this year than before. In the Boulevard des Italiens they 
 were five inches deep the last night of the fetes. Walking was 
 more fatiguing than in six inches of snow. 
 
 " At Mi-Careme and Mardi-Gras there is a parade, and the 
 people all come out to see it, and when it has passed right then 
 begins the difference between France and the IJnited States. In 
 America the whole show is over, and the people go home won- 
 dering whether it was really worth waiting an hour after the 
 advertised time to see. In France the parade is just an incident, 
 and the real fun and confetti-throwing begin after the parade 
 has gone by. Every one buys a sack of confetti and starts out 
 looking for those whom they make beautiful. The men throw 
 at the women, and the women at the men. A pretty woman is 
 soon covered with confetti, a handsome man too. Many a battle 
 takes place. A woman receives a handful of confetti in her face 
 and looks and sees around her innocent-looking men, all with 
 their hands down. She looks closer, and detects a smile under 
 the black moustache of the young man in the gray overcoat. A 
 second later that young man's face is full of confetti, and before 
 he can defend himself another handful blinds him. The young 
 woman thinks she has won, and passes on, but before she has 
 taken four steps a hand from behind douses her face in confetti. 
 She turns, and there is that young man in the gray overcoat, 
 daring her to come on. She goes down into her sack of con- 
 fetti, and tries to get hold of enough to bury that young man,- 
 who, when struck, utters a cry as if his heart was pierced, and 
 flies, and the young woman, flushed with success, pursues him. 
 He turns suddenly and finds her unprepared and empties his 
 whole sack of confetti in her face. Before she has recovered her 
 breath he has bought another sack of confetti and emptied that 
 on her, and unless she confesses herself beaten in a contest where 
 it is most winning and womanly to be weakest, he may buy out 
 the whole stock of the confetti market. 
 
 " No one must get angry, for that is impolite, and impoliteness 
 is shocking on a fete-day in Paris. Here is the reprimand which 
 a young woman received who did not smile and say 'thank you' 
 when a young man got the best of her. At first the young 
 woman had the upper hand in the confetti-throwing, and it was 
 great fun. However, the j'oung womun did not have overcoat- 
 pockets, and her confetti soon gave out. But she did have an 
 umbrella, and, rushing out of the dense cloud of confetti, she 
 gave the young man a poke in the ribs. The crowd indignantly 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 271 
 
 interfered at once, telling her that she was no proper young 
 woman. The umbrella had dropped from her hands. A man 
 picked it up, and, opening it and raising it above his head, said 
 that an umbrella was to keep off the sun and rain. ' See,' he 
 said, pointing to the end of the handle, ' this is not sharp, and 
 cannot be used effectively as a sword,' and, bowing low, he re- 
 turned the umbrella to her. Then the crowd told her to go 
 home and to learn how to behave herself before she came out 
 on another fete-day. 
 
 "The shopkeepers have fun with one another. One loads up 
 with confetti and rushes into his neighbor's store and rushes out 
 again, leaving behind him a man in a cloud of confetti. Later 
 the compliment is returned, and several such visits back and 
 forth are made during the day. A party of men and women 
 enter the cafe, and from their innocent bearing one would never 
 suspect that they are on mischief bent. There is a signal, and 
 with a'Yive la Eepublique' enthusiasm the men and women 
 blow off confetti as if they were so much pent-up steam. The 
 patron is surrounded, and becomes the middle of a pillar of con- 
 fetti. Such visits explain why they say in Paris that you find 
 confetti in your soup a month after a fete. The policemen are 
 a favorite mark for confetti, and they must stand all day and 
 receive gusts of confetti in their faces, followed b}" mischievous 
 ripples of laughter from women, with never the pleasure of 
 throwing a handful in return. The children have a great time 
 with confetti. From the beginning to the end of a fete the chil- 
 dren and the confetti are so mixed that when a mother wants 
 her child she feels around in the confetti until her hand rests on 
 a head. If the head is that of her own child and not that of her 
 neighbor's child, she leads the young one home. Many houses 
 in Paris have balconies. Those who live in the apartments come 
 out on the balconies and have battles with a street-full of people 
 for spectators, who have a cheer for the woman whenever she 
 gives the man a blinding handful. Others who live in upper 
 stories sift confetti on the crowds, with a sackful now and then 
 for one that interests them." 
 
 Consualia. An ancient Eoman festival, celebrated on Au- 
 gust 21, in honor of the god Consus. This festival was sup- 
 posed to be the precursor of the Ludi Circenses, and was cele- 
 brated annually in the Circus by the symbolical ceremony of 
 uncovering an altar .dedicated to the god, which was buried in 
 the earth. Romulus was considered as the founder of the fes- 
 tival, and was said to have discovered an altar upon the spot 
 where this ceremony took place. The festival was associated 
 with the tradition of the rape of the Sabine women, by which 
 
272 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 it was believed that the founders of Eome procured wives for 
 themselves, by violence, from the neighboring Sabines. The 
 Sabines, it was related, had come to Rome to see the spectacle ; 
 and their hosts, in the midst of the games, seized upon the Sabine 
 maidens and carried them to their homes. The tradition assumes 
 the existence of the games at this early epoch. They were 
 celebrated, under the direction of the Pontifices, with chariot- 
 and horse-races ; and it was a holiday for animals as well as men, 
 horses and asses being allowed to rest, and being adorned with 
 garlands. Who this god Consus was, the ancients themselves did 
 not know. He was generally identified with the equestrian 
 Poseidon, or Neptune of the Greeks ; but there was nothing in 
 his cult that reminds of Neptune. 
 
 Contribution-Box in Churches. The contribution-box is 
 an American invention, or, rather, a gradual evolution. In the 
 early colonial days no contribution was taken up in the churches, 
 but the support of the minister and his family depended upon 
 the gifts of the people. Cord-wood and pumpkins, fresh pork 
 and dried apples, were given in sufficient abundance to keep the 
 preacher from season to season. But as the Church advanced 
 a demand arose which could not be satisfied by these merely 
 bucolic contributions. One could not, for instance, send mission- 
 aries abroad on a capital of pork and potatoes. Then it was 
 voted to " pass around the hat," but, as the colonial hat was not 
 considered dignified enough for that purpose, one of the tithing- 
 men conceived the idea of substituting the old-fashioned warm- 
 ing-pan. With this the collector could stand at the door of the 
 square, box-like pews and gather in all the shekels with ease, 
 the coin as it dropped in the brass warming-pan gauging the 
 generosity of the giver. It may have been some of the thriftier 
 members of the congregation who decided that the warming pan 
 was too noisy and clamored for an improvement. In answer to 
 this appeal came the corn-popper, whose wire meshes served to 
 deaden the noise. This was used until the rise of an artistic 
 sense called for something more aesthetic as well as more con- 
 venient in the handling. So at length was invented the modern 
 contribution-box, the long handled square box with which the 
 vigilant deacon can reach to the extreme end of the pew. These 
 were not lined until the old complaint about the attendant noise 
 caused them to be lined with some soft material, the Methodists 
 and Baptists generally using flannel and the Presbyterians and 
 Congregationalists preferring velvet. These boxes are still ex- 
 tensively used throughout the country towns. As the offertory 
 is usually accompanied by a selection from the choir, the accom- 
 paniment of jingling coins adds greatly to the service. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 273 
 
 Coopers' Dance. (Ger. Schdfflertanz.) A curious ceremony 
 performed by the coopers of Munich, Bavaria, every seven years, 
 during the last days of the Carnival, and ending on Shrove 
 Tuesday. According to popular tradition, the custom originated 
 in the year 1517, when Munich was ravaged by a terrible plague. 
 Desolation and despair reigned. Fear took possession of the 
 citizens, so that even when the plague began to abate they durst 
 not open their w^indows or doors or leave their houses, fearing 
 that the air and the water were tainted with the disease. Finally 
 the master coopers and the master-butchers put their heads to- 
 gether and decided to reassure their unfortunate fellow-citizens 
 by public shows and amusements. So one day the whole town 
 was startled by a procession marching to the sound of merry music. 
 First came the coopers, dressed in bright red jackets and waving 
 fresh green garlands in time with the music, while they called to 
 the people to open their doors and windows and come out in 
 the open air. Then followed the butchers, also dressed in bright 
 costumes and mounted on their dray-horses. Curiosity and ex- 
 citement overcame fear. The people rushed out and followed 
 the procession to the market-place. There the coopers danced 
 in a circle, whilst the butchers' apprentices leaped into the foun- 
 tain to prove that the water was innocuous. Thus was public 
 confidence once more restored. 
 
 Since that period the coopers once every seven years dance 
 their Schafllertanz in commemoration of the event, and once every 
 three years the butchers' apprentices perform the Butchers' Leap. 
 
 The last time the Coopers' Dance was performed was in 1893. 
 A contributor to the Catholic World (December, 1896) who was 
 an eye-witness gives an account here condensed. He was fortu- 
 nate enough to obtain a place at a window of the palace of 
 Prince Ludwig Ferdinand in the Wittelsbacherplatz. This was 
 one of the palaces visited by the coopers. They perform before 
 the royal palace for the prince regent, and before the houses of 
 all the other princes in turn. They also dance opposite the 
 Eathhaus, and the houses of the ministers and principal mag- 
 nates of Munich. But they must keep in Munich ; outside the 
 limits of the city they are not allowed to roam. They receive 
 twenty-five dollars from each royal personage before whose 
 palace they dance, and from ministers, etc., never less than fif- 
 teen dollars. The festivities as witnessed from Prince Ludwig 
 Ferdinand's windows in 1893 were but a repetition of what 
 happened before the other houses. 
 
 "The Schaflfler, about twenty young men, came marching up 
 the platz, dressed in close fitting scarlet jackets trimmed with 
 silver lace, black velvet knee-breeches, white stockings, and 
 buckled shoes ; they had httle, short leather aprons, one corner 
 
 18 
 
274 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 tucked back, tied round the waist with a broad crimson silk 
 sash, the gold-fringed ends of which hung down at one side. On 
 their heads they wore green velvet turned-up caps, adorned with 
 a tuft of blue and white feathers, and carried large half-arches 
 of fresh box-trees in their hands. The musicians followed with 
 fife and drum, and another scarlet- coated individual, who bore 
 a black and yellow banner (the colors of Munich), with the 
 coopers' arms — a beer-barrel, with hammer and nails — painted 
 on it. At the end of the procession walked a harlequin (^Hans- 
 wurst), clearing the way with a long pole, striped with blue and 
 white, with a ball and cross at the top. 
 
 " The musicians stood at one side, while the dancers arranged 
 themselves in a circle in the centre of the platz, opposite the 
 palace. The performance began by their all dancing round in a 
 ring, each holding one end of his own and his neighbor's arch 
 in his right hand, while his left was placed jauntily at his side. 
 The harlequin stood with his pole in the centre of the ring, and 
 the Schaffler wound in and out, out and in, in intricate mazes ; 
 but little by little, out of the seemingly hopeless confusion, they 
 formed with their green arches a huge royal crown of which 
 the centre was the harlequin's cross and ball. The next figure 
 was an arbor, then a monster beer-barrel round which the per- 
 formers danced, while they tapped it with little hammers, keep- 
 ing time with the music. Then followed a variety of figures, 
 all ingeniously formed out of the verdant arches. 
 
 "The figures finished, the harlequin brought forward a gay- 
 looking little barrel, painted blue and white, and two hoops, 
 also blue and white, with three holes in each, in which were 
 placed three small glasses of wine. One of the Schaflier 
 jumped lightly upon the barrel and began to swing about the 
 hoops from one hand to the other, over his head and under 
 his knees, in time with the music, without spilling a drop of 
 the wine. He then took out one of the glasses, and, having 
 handed the hoops to the harlequin, who emptied the others by 
 throwing the contents on the ground, he drank ' Jjebe hoch F to 
 Prince Ludwig Ferdinand. The swinging of hoops and drinking 
 were continued until the health of the eight members of the 
 royal family present had been drunk. After each toast the 
 empty glass was tossed over the drinker s shoulder and caught 
 behind by the harlequin in his cap. Then the dancers marched 
 gayly away as they had come. The Schiifflertanz will be seen 
 no more in this century. When its seven years come round again 
 it will be 1900." 
 
 Copacabana, Nuestra Senora de. (Sp., "Our Lady of 
 Copacabana.") One of the most famous shrines in South Amer- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 275 
 
 ica. The Bacred city (ciudad bendita) of Oopacabana is a large 
 and rambling town on the peninsula of the same name in 
 Bolivia. It lies within the neighborhood of the sacred islands 
 of the ancient Incas, and was a holy spot long before the advent 
 of Christianity. Its chief edifice is the splendid church contain- 
 ing the miraculous image of Our Lady of Copacabana. This 
 stands in the camarin, a large room behind the great altar, ad- 
 mission to which among the natives must be prefaced by confes- 
 sion and the payment of a small sum of money. The former 
 condition is not exacted from heretical visitors. All round the 
 walls are ranged votive offerings, from the diamond hilted sword 
 and gold-mounted pistols of General Santa Cruz and the jewels 
 of his wife, to little rude representations in silver of arms, 
 legs, hearts, and eyes, deposited here by grateful Indians and 
 whites as emblematic tokens of the cures wrought by Nuestra 
 Senora. 
 
 She herself stands in an alcove, behind a heavy curtain of 
 embroidered velvet, and shut off from too close approach by a 
 stout silver railing. At stated times the curtain is rolled back 
 and she stands revealed to sight. She is a wooden image 
 scarce three feet high, elaborately dressed in gay satins and 
 loaded with gold and jewels. Her head is a mere mite in com- 
 parison with the blazing crown which it supports. The legend 
 runs that the image was carved in 1582 by Tito Yupanqui, a 
 Hneal descendant of the ruling Incas, who had no previous in- 
 struction in art, but who was inspired by the Virgin. Our Lady 
 even favored him with a special sitting, so that the portrait is 
 celestially guaranteed to be accurate. 
 
 Little wooden crosses are hung around the neck of Nuestra 
 Senora, and, having thus become imbued with special virtues, 
 are distributed to pilgrims. As many as thirty thousand devo- 
 tees have been known to visit the shrine in a single season, 
 coming from all parts of Catholic America, and even occasionally 
 from Spain or Portugal. 
 
 Copacabana — the word in ancient Peruvian means a precious 
 stone that gives vision — derives its name more immediately 
 from an idol carved of blue stone which lent sanctity and fame 
 to the spot in the days of the Incas. This idol was buried by 
 the Indians after the arrival of the Spaniards, but was subse- 
 quently disinterred by the latter and broken in pieces. The 
 temples of which the early writers speak have disappeared and 
 left only few and unsatisfactory traces. Yet in the suburbs of 
 the town near the cemetery are found a number of niches, 
 steps, and what appear to be seats, cut in the rocks, which 
 may have had some connection with the ancient worship. 
 
 The Catholics have raised a number of subsidiary shrines 
 
276 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 along the approaches to Copacabaria, in which pilgrims through 
 prayer and penance prepare themselves to encounter the greater 
 sanctities that await them in the sacred village. 
 
 Corn-Dance. An ancient festival among the Indians of 
 North America, which is still kept up, especially among the 
 Senecas of New York, It is held at the coming of the harvest 
 season (about the end of August) as a sort of thanksgiving to 
 the Great Spirit for the return of the crops. The date of the 
 festival is usually announced by a carrier, fantastically dressed, 
 with painted face and bespattered hair, who rides from house 
 to house all over the reservation. At the appointed time the 
 entire tribe gather at their council-house, where the materials 
 of the feast have been prepared. The braves sit at one end of 
 the hall, the squaws at the other. The ceremonies open with 
 speeches delivered by the elders. Then follows a banquet. 
 Huge caldrons filled with choice Indian delicacies — dog meat, 
 cabbage, succotash, etc, — are placed on the floor. Behind the 
 kettles stand officers of the nation. As each member of the 
 assembly comes up, carrying a tin pail or a wooden dish, he or 
 she is helped to a portion from each of the kettles. Then all 
 retire to the shade of near-by trees and bushes to dispose of 
 the eatables. When sated, they fall back in a sleep which lasts 
 nearly all the afternoon. As evening approaches, the feasters 
 again gather in the council-house for the dance. The musicians 
 are seated on benches in the centre of the room. The instru- 
 ments are horns or shells filled with shot, and drums made by 
 stretching a hide over a hoop. The drums produce a dull 
 booming sound, and the horns give out a sharper rattling noise. 
 The dance is led by an elder of the tribe, and is a sort of exag- 
 gerated cake-walk, except that grotesqueness rather than grace 
 seems to be aimed at in the movements. All the men and 
 women form in a circle about the players and follow exactly with 
 limbs and body the movements of the leader. At first the circle 
 moves very slowly in a sedate and stately march, but as the 
 musicians get warmed up to their work they rise from their 
 seats and sway their own bodies in unison with those of the 
 dancers. The time becomes faster and faster. The leader be- 
 gins to execute grotesque figures, throwing out his arms and legs 
 and at every few steps emitting a yell, and all the time is faith- 
 lully imitated by his followers. The movement of the circle 
 becomes more and more rapid until the whole line is whirling at 
 a dizzy speed. Often men and women sink exhausted, but the 
 line continues until the leader gives the signal to stop. After a 
 short rest another number follows, and the dance is continued 
 until late at night. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 277 
 
 Corn-Shucking or Husking-Bee. The harvesting or " husk- 
 ing" of corn which occurs in late October or early November is 
 one of the most popular festivals in rural America from Maine 
 to Florida. The stalks are cut in full fruit and stacked in the 
 fields to mature, after which they are carried into a large barn, 
 where all the lads and lasses of the neighborhood are already 
 assembled ; here they strip the ears from the parent stem, and, 
 removing the outer sheaths, cast them into open bins, to be 
 further selected and " shucked" before they are finally garnered. 
 Several days are occupied in this way, and many are the jests 
 and merry the laughter while dexterous fingers tear apart the 
 sheaths and bright eyes look expectantly at each concealed ear 
 as it comes to light; for he or she who first finds a red ear of 
 corn is made king or queen of the revels that follow. When all 
 the ears are stripped and lie heaped together in open bins, and 
 the red ear has been proclaimed, a procession is formed, headed 
 by the farmer and his wife, who walk in triumph followed by all 
 their hands, leading the victorious maid carrying her patent of 
 royalty — the red ear — in her hand, from the " huskins" barn to 
 another large granary which has been effectively decorated with 
 green boughs and corn-ears. At one end stands the throne, and 
 the rough plank floor has been plentifully strewn with sawdust. 
 Here the ceremony of crowning takes place, and the subsequent 
 enthronement. The throne is usually some treasured old chair, 
 high-backed, and so tall in the seat as to be approached only by 
 a companion footstool or " cricket," carved very resplendently 
 about the legs. 
 
 A corn dinner may follow. On each guest's plate lies a small 
 napkin, spread cornerwise, and beside it are tiny cruets of salt 
 and pepper, and a small plate holding a roll of fresh butter. 
 Ears of corn, white and smoking hot, are served up. Then come 
 corn fritters, succotash, roasted corn, corn cooked in cream, 
 hunks of corn bread, and heaping plates of corn cakes. Toasts 
 are given and drunk in cider, or light wines, or punch, or may- 
 hap champagne. Then follow dances and other revels, and the 
 party is at an end. 
 
 Such are the corn-shuckings of the present. But in the old 
 slavery days there was an added element of picturesqueness in 
 the festival as practised in the Southern States. An excellent 
 reminiscent interview on these ante-bellum glories held with an 
 ex-slaveholder by a JVew York Sun rejDorter appeared in that 
 paper for November 11, 1895, whence the following paragraphs 
 are quoted : 
 
 " My father owned about three hundred negroes, and as I was 
 the oldest boy of course I was known on the plantation as 
 ' young marster.' The event of the year down in the negro ' quar- 
 
278 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 ters' was the corn-shuckin', and when corn-shuckin' time came 
 they were permitted to invite their friends on the neighboring 
 plantations, and would go miles and miles to attend one of these 
 frolics. The season is just at hand for them now. Yes, boys, 
 it's corn-shuckin' time in Dixie, and I wish I was there. I can 
 see the woods, all crimson and brown and gold, and the blue 
 haze of Indian summer over it all, and I can hear the birds as 
 they stop over on their way to the far South. 
 
 " As soon as a corn-shuckin' was talked about, all the darkies 
 would begin to sing, — 
 
 *' Ha, ha, ha, you and me. 
 Little brown jug, don't I love thee ! 
 
 They all knew that the little brown jug would be on hand. 
 When the night of the shuckin' arrived, the darkies poured in 
 from every direction. They travelled paths in those days and 
 took near cuts, and they had signals by which to let each other 
 know that they were on the way. Most plantations had a 
 bugler who owned an old wooden bugle five or six feet long. 
 These bugles were made generall}' of poplar wood coated with 
 tar and kept under water for several days. Soaking it kept the 
 instrument from shrinking, and gave it a resonant sound which 
 could be heard for miles on a clear night. The bugles were car- 
 ried to the corn-shuckin's, and the coming darkies would blow 
 and blow, and be answered by the bugler at the corn-pile, and 
 as he did so he would say, ' Dar's the niggers comin' from Byers's 
 plantation,' ' Dar dey is from Elliott's.' As they drew nearer to 
 the pile of corn the bugle-blowers would stop and give wa}^ to 
 quill- or reed-blowers. A set of from three to seven reeds of dif- 
 ferent sizes and lengths were always on hand, and those darkies 
 could play any tune they'd ever heard on 'em by shifting 'em 
 across their lips. The roads and paths would resound with the 
 weird music of the quill-blowers as they came in from many 
 directions. They used these instruments, too, in going to their 
 wives' houses at night. You know, fellows, the darkies had right 
 smart intuitive sense about some things. They preferred to have 
 a w^ife on some other man's plantation than their marster's, and 
 would only visit her on Wednesday and Saturday nights. You 
 could hear them going and coming, blowing their quills for all 
 they were worth. 
 
 " The corn was divided into two piles as big as a house, and 
 two captains were appointed. Each chose sides, just us the cap- 
 tains in spellin'-matches do, and then the fun began. There was 
 always whiskey enough to please 'em, and not enough for any 
 drunkenness. A man was entitled to trample the jug every time 
 he found a red ear of corn, and also to kiss any dusky damsel 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 279 
 
 that he fancied. It was astonishing how many red ears some 
 of 'em managed to find, and very funny to see how anxious the 
 young wenches were for the red ears to come to light. The 
 young marster was always on hand to see that the drams were 
 given out judiciously, and to see that all got a taste. The side 
 which shucked out their pile first got the prize, and it was usu- 
 ally plug tobacco. While the shuekin' was going on the darkies 
 would sing, talk, and dance. A leader would mount on top of 
 one pile of corn and call, and all would join in the chorus. The 
 leader at every corn-shuckin' I ever attended began, ' I will start 
 the holler,' and the crowd yelled the response, ' Bugleloo !' 
 
 " I will start the holler ! 
 
 Bugieloo ! 
 I will start the holler I 
 
 Bugleloo ! 
 Oh, doan' yer hear my holler? 
 
 Bugleloo ! 
 Massa's got er bugler, 
 
 Bug-leloo ! 
 A ten-cent bugle, 
 
 Bugleloo ! 
 
 " There were about fifty stanzas to this song, or else the leader 
 improvised as he went on, and he would call until the crowd 
 grew thoroughly sick and wanted a change. They brought him 
 down by throwing ears of corn at him. Sometimes a fellow 
 that was very much stuck on his voice would mount to call, and 
 it took devilish rough treatment to get him down. Then another 
 caller would take the lead. He would probably ' hist' a religious 
 tune, such as — 
 
 " Lord, I can't stay away. 
 
 Lord, I can't stay away ; 
 
 Lord, I can't stay away. 
 
 And the crowd, with groanings and moanings, would half sing, 
 half chant, — 
 
 " Oh, I mus' come to jedgment to stan' my trial : 
 Oh, I mus' come to jedgment to stan' my trial ! 
 I can't stay away. 
 
 The leader again called, — 
 
 " Lord, I can't stay away ; 
 
 Lord, I can't stay away. 
 Oh, my God, gwine ter rain down brimstone an' fire, 
 
 1 can't stay away. 
 Gwine ter walk on dat glass all mingled wid fire, 
 
 I can't stay away ; 
 
 Lord, 1 can't stay away ; 
 
 Lord, I can't stay away ; 
 
280 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 I'm gwine ter jine dat heav'nly choir, 
 
 I can't stay awa3^ 
 John saj's he seed forty an' fo' thousan' ; 
 
 I can't stay away. 
 Jesus is comin' wid forty an' fo' thousan' ; 
 
 I can't stay away. 
 
 " At the end of each vei'se the crowd would join in with the 
 chorus, swaying their bodies and nodding their heads in time to 
 the music. Their dreadful earnestness in singing of the judg- 
 ment and brimstone could only arise from a profound belief in 
 such things. Many of the girls and women would clear aw^ay a 
 space and pat and dance. The night would wear on, and as the 
 pile of unshucked corn grew smaller and smaller the spirits of 
 the darkies would rise. They hate work, even when mixed with 
 fun, and as the corn-pile disappeared the crowd would yell, — 
 
 " Lookin' fur de las' year, 
 
 Bang-a-ma-lango ! 
 Lookin' fur de las' year, 
 
 Bang-a-ma-lango ! 
 Eoun' up de co'n, boys, 
 
 Bang-a-ma-lango ! 
 Eoun' up de co'n, boys, 
 
 Bang-a-ma-lango ! 
 
 "They always say 'year' for ear, and as the last one was 
 shucked there was a mighty rush and scramble. Three or 
 four strapping bucks would lift the young marster to their 
 shoulders and the crowd would fall in line behind. Then they 
 would march three times around the ' big house,' as the marster's 
 house was always called, singing as they marched, coming to a 
 halt at the tables under the trees, where they were sure of find- 
 ing a feast of good things. A beef and a mutton were always 
 killed for a corn-shuckin' supper, and then there was an abun- 
 dance of bacon and cabbage, sweet and Irish potatoes, stewed 
 pumpkin, fruit pies, and pecks and pecks of ginger-cakes and 
 biscuits, and gallons of molasses. Darkies 'jes' naterally love 
 coffee,' as they say themselves, and every one bad as much as he 
 or she wanted in corn-shuckin' time. It was served in bowls. 
 They would eat awhile and then rest and eat again. And while 
 they were resting some would pat and sing, play the jewsharp 
 or quills, while others pulled ears and danced. Others would 
 wrestle and box, and the old men and women would settle them- 
 selves about the numerous fat-pine bonfires and talk about ' ole 
 marse and ole missy an' young marster,' or sing the old negro 
 melodies that they love so well. Ah, they felt as grand and as 
 free as they've ever felt since, boys, and such music as they made ! 
 There has never been anything like it since, and there never will 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 281 
 
 be anything to take its place. The old slaves are dying with the 
 old Confeds that fought to keep them. Already ' ole marster an' 
 ole missy' and Mammy Liza and Daddy Hannibal have passed 
 away, and it is almost time for young marster and the young 
 darkies to go, too. I want to go back, boys. I want to go back 
 to one more corn-shuckin' in the cotton-growin' section ; all made 
 up of darkies. I don't want to go to one where the crowd is 
 mixed, part black and part white. Do you know, I'd hke to 
 feel that I was the young marster once more. You can have all 
 the tickets to hear Melba, Nordica, and Eames, and the De 
 Eezskes and Paderewski, if you'll just let me hear the blowin' 
 of the bugles and quills and the old corn-shuckin' songs; but 
 what's the matter with us all taking a pull at the little brown jug 
 before we go back to work ?" 
 
 Coronation Stone. A rough block of stone preserved in 
 Westminster Abbey, inside an oaken chair, known as the Coro- 
 nation Chair, chair and stone alike being looked upon with sin- 
 gular veneration by the English people. It is in this chair that 
 every English sovereign, from Edward I. to Queen Victoria, has 
 been inaugurated. Only once has it been moved out of the 
 Abbey. When Cromwell was installed as Lord Protector in 
 Westminster Hall, he was placed in the chair, which had been 
 transferred there for the purpose. The early history of the Coro- 
 nation Stone is involved in obscurity. It is certain that it was 
 brought from Scone, in Scotland, to Westminster by Edward I., 
 who built for it the chair that still contains it. It is also certain 
 that Scone, as fur back as the tenth century, was the place where 
 the Scottish kings were inaugurated by being placed in " the 
 royal chair of stone," and it is very likely, therefore, that this 
 shapeless block was a portion of the chair and was brought over 
 by Edward as a trophy of victory. Further than this authentic 
 history says nothing. But, dating from about the fourteenth 
 century, strange legends began to cluster around the stone, and 
 were gradually wrought into a consistent narrative. English 
 chroniclers gravely asserted that it was the pillow upon which 
 Jacob slept at Bethel, and which his descendants had carried 
 to Egypt. A Scottish fable stepped in to afford an explana- 
 tion how it had been translated to JSTorthern latitudes. It seems 
 that a Greek, named Gathelus, had married Scota, a daughter 
 of Pharaoh, and after the destruction of the Egyptians in the 
 Red Sea had fled with her and the remnant who had escaped 
 drowning along the north coast of Africa, and, crossing the 
 Straits of Gibraltar, had founded a kingdom at Brigantium, 
 now Compostella. His royal seat, and that of his successors, 
 was a stone, fashioned like a chair and known as the " Stone of 
 
282 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Destiny," which, wherever it was found, promised sovereignty 
 to the Scots, the descendants of the eponyraic Scota. Just here 
 Scotch and English traditions were neatly welded together by 
 identifying the Stone of Destiny with Jacob's pillow and sup- 
 posing that it had been brought by Grathelus from Egyj)t. Simon 
 Breck, a descendant from Gathelus, carried the chair with him 
 from Spain to Ireland, and was crowned in it as king of that 
 country. After having been used for the coronation of a long 
 series of Irish kings, it was transferred to Scotland by Fergus, 
 the Irish king who subdued that country, and remained there 
 till it fell into the hands of the EngUsh Edward. 
 
 N'ow, it happens that the Irish, too, had their Coronation 
 Stone, their Stone of Destiny, the Lia Fail of Tara, which also 
 had a legendary history connecting it with the East. Nothing 
 could be more flattering to their national pride than to imagine 
 that the English Coronation Stone was in effect their own Lia 
 Fail, and that the long line of English monarchs who have been 
 inaugurated upon it were mere upstarts, mere creatures of yes- 
 terday, in comparison with the illustrious .dynasty of ancient 
 Irish kings who took their seat upon the same stone in the heroic 
 ages. By the dropping of inconvenient details the Irish legend, 
 therefore, was merged into the Scotch, and it was held to be the 
 Lia Fail that Fergus had taken over to Scotland, in spite of the 
 fact that the Lia Fail was never removed from Tara, but remains 
 there to this day. It may be mentioned, further, that the Coro- 
 nation Stone has been examined by geologists, who agree in de- 
 scribing it as a block of old red sandstone, similar in all respects 
 to the sandstone found in the neighborhood of Scone, and that 
 it is quite impossible it should have come from the rocky forma- 
 tions of either Tara, Bethel, or Egypt. The whole matter is 
 thus summed up by Mr. Skene, in the concluding paragraph of 
 his essay on the Coronation Stone : 
 
 " It was the custom of Celtic tribes to inaugurate their kings 
 on a sacred stone, supposed to symbolize the monarchy. The 
 Irish kings were inaugurated on the Lia Fail, which never was 
 anywhere but at Tara, the ' sedes principalis' of Ireland ; and 
 the kings in Scotland, first of the Pictish monarchy and after- 
 wards of the Scottish kingdom which succeeded it, were inaugu- 
 rated on this stone, which never was anywhere but at Scone, 
 the ^ sedes principalis' both of the Pictish and Scottish king- 
 doms." 
 
 When a sovereign is to be crowned the coronation chair is 
 carried around the screen and placed in the sacrarium before the 
 altar. A robe of cloth of gold and ermine is thrown over it. 
 A companion chair as nearly like it as possible was provided 
 when at the coronation of William and Mary it was necessary 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 283 
 
 that two thrones of equal importance be employed. Although 
 the chairs are of nearly the same size, the seat of the newer one 
 is quite four inches higher than the old. For William was a 
 short man and Mary a tall woman ; hence the seat of the 
 chair in which he was to sit had to be made high enough to 
 bring his head on a level with that of the queen. 
 
 Cut boldly in the solid oak seat, in scrawling letters such as 
 a school-boy might make with his knife, is the legend " P. Abbott 
 slept in this chair Jan. 4, 1801." P. Abbott, in fact, w^as a West- 
 minster School boy, and a tradition, which there is every reason 
 to believe is true, tells that he made a wager with a school-mate 
 that he dare stay in the Abbey all night, alone. In order to 
 win his wager he hid in some corner of the old building until 
 the doors were locked for the night, and thus was left alone 
 there. Fearing, however, that when morning came the boy 
 with whom he had made the bet would disbelieve his statement 
 that he had won it, he determined to leave some proof of the 
 fact, and so spent the hours of the early morning in carving on 
 the coronation chair the sentence which even now, nearly a cen- 
 tury after, bears witness for him. 
 
 Corpus Christi. (Lat., " Body of Christ." Known also in 
 France as Fete-Dieu, and in Germany as the Frohnleichnamsfest.) 
 One of the greatest festivals of the Catholic Church, held on 
 the Thursday after Whitsunday in memory of the institution 
 of the eucharist and in honor of the doctrine of transubstantia- 
 tion. Logically it should have been celebrated on Holy or 
 Maundy Thursday, the anniversary of the Lord's Supper. But 
 the Church at that season is occupied with the consideration of 
 the mournful aspects of the Passion, and a joyous festival would 
 have jarred upon the tone of mind so produced. The doctrine of 
 transubstantiation was formally adopted at the Lateran Council 
 in 1215. It was immediately felt that it should be made the 
 occasion of a great holy-day. None felt this need more acutely 
 than a certain religious of Liege named Juliana. No wonder, 
 therefore, that a vision should have appeared to her. She saw 
 the moon fully illuminated, with the exception of one dark spot, 
 and was told that this dark spot referred to the lack in the 
 Church of a festival in honor of the Transubstantiation. When 
 in 1230 she became prioress of her order she urged upon the 
 local ecclesiastical authorities the appointment of such a festival. 
 In 1246 Eobert, Bishop of Liege, acceded to her wishes, and 
 the Thursday after Whitsunday became known through his 
 diocese as Corpus Christi Day. An office for the day was com- 
 piled by Juliana. For almost a score of years the feast remained 
 a local one. In 1261 a former archdeacon of Liege became Pope, 
 
284 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 under the name of Urban lY. Juliana was then dead, but a 
 holy woman named Eve, who had been in her confidence and 
 who knew of the friendship that had existed between Juliana 
 and the new Pope, induced Henry, then bishop of Liege, to 
 petition Urban IV. for the celebration of the feast throughout 
 the Church. The Pope had not quite made up his mind, when a 
 miracle that occurred in Bolsena in 1264 precipitated his assent. 
 A priest celebrating mass spilt a drop of the communion wine 
 after consecration. He strove to conceal the accident by cover- 
 ing the place on which it fell with the corporal. Suddenly the 
 corporal was covered with red spots in the shape of a host. 
 The corporal is still preserved at the neighboring town of Or- 
 vieto, where the Pope was then temporarily holding his court. 
 Another account (embalmed in a famous picture b}^ Eaphael in 
 the Vatican) makes a drop of blood appear upon the consecrated 
 host to convince the doubting priest of the truth of the doctrine 
 of transubstantiation. Both accounts, however, agree that the 
 miracle led the Pope to delay the institution of the feast no 
 longer. He therefore published a bull commanding its celebra- 
 tion throughout the Church. But as he died shortl}- afterwards 
 it is possible that the bull was never published (no mention of 
 Corpus Christi being found in Durandus, who lived twenty-two 
 years after Urban), although it is pretty well established that 
 Urban himself and the Eoman Court celebrated the festival. 
 The office which is still used was composed by St. Thomas Aqui- 
 nas at the bidding of Urban IV. Clement V. in the Council of 
 Vienne confirmed Urban's constitution, and succeeding Popes 
 promoted the devotion to Corpus Christi by grants of indul- 
 gences ranging from forty to one hundred days. 
 
 The carrying of the Blessed Sacrament in procession on this 
 festival has been almost from the first a recognized part of the 
 ceremonial, if it was not, as some Catholic authorities believe, 
 actually appointed by Urban IV. But it is borrowed from a 
 still older procession of the same sort which had been instituted 
 by Louis VIII. in 1226 on the feast of the Exaltation of the 
 Cross (g. V.) in the city of Avignon, and which to this day is 
 celebrated by the Cray Penitents of that city. 
 
 In media3val times the Corpus Christi procession was celebrated 
 throughout Christendom with much picturesque detail. Nao- 
 georgus in his " Popish Kingdom" has left us a vivid description 
 of the ceremonial as practised in Germany. First came a priest 
 attired as St. John the Baptist, pointing backward to another 
 who bore the silver pyx wherein was enshrined the eucharist. 
 The arms of this second ecclesiastic were upheld by two of the 
 wealthiest and most influential of the citizens, while four others 
 bore a silken canopj^ over the pyx, — 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 285 
 
 least that some filthie thing 
 Should fall from hie, or some mad birde her doung thereon should fling. 
 
 Two angels walking beside the canopy cast flowers upon the 
 pyx. Then followed St. Ursula and St. George. A float repre- 
 senting bell came next, 
 
 wherein there doth appere 
 A wondrous sort of damned sprites, with foule and fearful looke. 
 
 Then came St. Christopher bearing the infant Christ upon his 
 shoulders, St. Sebastian transfixed with numerous arrows, St. 
 Catherine with her wheel, and St. Barbara with her " singing 
 cake." 
 
 And sundry other pageants played, in worship of this bread. 
 
 That please the foolish people well : what should I stand upon 
 
 Their banners, crosses, candlesticks, and reliques many on, 
 
 Their cups and carved images, that priestes with countenance hie, 
 
 Or rude and common people beare about full solemnie ? 
 
 The common ways with boughes are strawde and every street beside 
 
 And to the walls and windowes all are boughes and branches tied. 
 
 The monkes in every place do roame, the nonnes abrode are sent. 
 
 The priestes and schoolmen lowd do rore, some use the instrument. 
 
 The straunger passing through the streete, upon his knees doe fall : 
 
 And earnestly upon this bread, as on his God, doth call. 
 
 For why, they count it for their Lorde, and that he doth not take 
 
 The form of flesh, but nature now of breade that we do bake. 
 
 A number great of armed men here all this while doe stande. 
 
 To looke that no disorder be, nor any filching hande : 
 
 For all the church goodes out are brought, which certainly would bee 
 
 A bootie good, if every man might have his libertie. 
 
 The Blessed Sacrament was exposed in the churches for eight 
 days, a custom still kept up. In the interim the St. John of the 
 procession, carrying the consecrated host in a bag slung around 
 his neck and accompanied by the peasantry bearing crosses and 
 banners, passed from field to field, reading texts from the gospel 
 in each, all which was held to protect the cr<tp from storm and 
 blight. 
 
 In old Catholic England the Corpus Christi processions were 
 largely participated in by the various guilds of each city. York 
 was especially celebrated for the splendor of these shows. Har- 
 grove in his " History of York," 1818, vol. ii. p. 494, tells us that 
 they consisted of a solemn procession, in remembrance of the 
 Sacrament of the Body of Christ, the symbolic representation 
 being borne in a shrine. Every trade in the city was obliged to 
 furnish a pageant at its own expense, and join the procession, 
 and each individual had to personify some particular passage in 
 the Old or New Testament, and to repeat some poetry on the 
 
286 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 occasion. The whole was preceded by a great number of lighted 
 torches, and a multitude of priests in their proper habits ; after 
 which followed the mayor and citizens, surrounded by an im- 
 mense concourse of spectators. Commencing at the great gate 
 of the priory of the Holy Trinity, they proceeded to the cathe- 
 dral church and thence to St. Leonard's Hospital, where they 
 left the sacrament. There are several public orders yet remain- 
 ing in the old register of the city relative to the regulation of 
 this ceremony ; and indulgences were granted from the Pope 
 to those who contributed to the relief of the fraternity, or who 
 observed the annual ceremony in the most devout manner, par- 
 ticularly if they personall}^ attended from the country. Jn 
 York the custom was not abolished until 1584. 
 
 Corpus Christi Day was formerly celebrated at Dublin with 
 high veneration. In the Chain-book of the City of Dublin are 
 several entries to that purpose. We are told that there was a 
 grand procession, in which the glovers were to represent Adam 
 and Eve, with an angel bearing a sword before them. " The 
 corrisees (perhaps curriers) were to represent Cain and Abel, 
 with an altar and their offering. Mariners and vintners, Noah 
 and the persons in his Ark, apparelled in the habit of carpenters 
 and salmon-takers. The weavers personated Abraham and 
 Isaac, with their offering and altar. The smiths represented 
 Pharaoh with his host. The skinners, the camell with the chil- 
 dren of Israel, etc." (See Harris, "History of Dublin." 1766, p. 
 147.) 
 
 In the "Eoyal Entertainment of the Earle of Nottingham, 
 sent Ambassador from his Majestic to the King of Spaine," 1605, 
 p. 12, it is stated that on Corpus Christi Day, " the greatest daj^ 
 of account in Spaine in all the yeare," at Yalladolid, where the 
 court was, " the king went a procession with all the apostles very 
 richly, and eight giants, foure men and foure women, and the 
 cheefe was named Gog-magog." 
 
 It was usual in earlier times to conclude the day with Mystery 
 Plays, in w^hich th^ chief characters of the procession made their 
 appearance. The Cotton MS., Yesp. D. viii., contains a collection 
 of dramas in old English verse (of the fifteenth century) re- 
 lating principally to the history of the New Testament. Sir 
 William Dugdale mentions this manuscript under the name of 
 "Ludus Corporis Christi," or "Ludus Coventrise," and adds, "I 
 have been told by some people, who in their younger years were 
 eye-witnesses of these pageants so acted, that the 3'early con- 
 fluence of people to see that shew was extraordinary great, and 
 yielded no small advantage to this city." (See "Antiquities of 
 Warwickshire," p. 116.) It appears by the latter end of the pro- 
 logue that these plays or interludes were played not only in 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 287 
 
 Coventry, but in other towns and places upon occasion. This 
 MS. was edited by Mr. Halliwell in 1841 for the Shakespeare 
 Society. The elder Heywood thus alludes to the devil as a 
 character in these mysteries : 
 
 For as good happe wolde have it chaunce, 
 Thys devyll and I were of olde acqueyntaunce ; 
 For oft in the play of Corpus Christi 
 He hath played the devyll at Coventry. 
 
 In most Catholic countries the Corpus Christi processions 
 still parade through the streets, though without the attendant 
 mummers of the old days. The pyx is carried by an ecclesiastic 
 under a canopy, as of yore, and is followed by the citizens 
 bearing candles. Apjn'opriate hymns and psalms are sung, 
 among them the " Pange lingua gloriosi Corporis mysterium," 
 known in " Hymns Ancient and Modern" as " Now my tongue, 
 the mystery telling," But in Protestant countries the Catholics 
 confine their processions to the church itself, or at the most it 
 debouches from the front door, and, passing through the church- 
 yard, re-enters by the door of the sacristy. 
 
 In the gala times of the Papacy the Corpus Christi procession 
 around the colonnade of St. Peter's Square was one of the most 
 gorgeous functions of the year ; and it still retains a semblance 
 of its former glory. 
 
 In Spain especially and in the colonies founded by Spain it is 
 the greatest ecclesiastical holiday of the year. Work is abso- 
 lutely suspended, and the entire population dons its holiday 
 garb. In the cities the host is carried in solemn procession 
 through the principal streets, attended by the highest local 
 magnates (even royalty itself, as in Madrid), civic and military 
 officials in fresh bright uniforms, and a vast array of ecclesiastics 
 in gorgeous stoles and chasubles. A vanguard of silver bell 
 ringers announces the coming of the host. "As the superb 
 structure of filigree gold goes by, a movement of reverent wor- 
 ship vibrates through the crowd. Forgetful of silks and broad- 
 cloth and gossip, they fall on their knees in one party-colored 
 mass, and bowing their heads and beating their breasts they 
 mutter their mechanical prayers." (John IIay: Castilian 
 Days.) 
 
 A unique Corpus Christi ceremonial, performed at the cathe- 
 dral of Seville, is known as the dances of the sixes (las danzas 
 de los seises). An eye-witness thus describes it in the Rosary 
 Magazine for July, 1897 : 
 
 " We reached the cathedral at an early hour in the evening. 
 There were other visitors, like ourselves, anxious for an advan- 
 tageous point from which to observe the dance. We secured 
 
288 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 positions very near the railing of the chapel. Quite a time had 
 elapsed when the clerics and canons, followed by the cardinal- 
 archbishop, filed into the sanctuary. The canons seated them- 
 selves, some to the right, others to the left of the altar, and the 
 cardinal-archbishop occupied what appeared to be a desk, rather 
 than a throne. Very soon the organ back of the altar was in- 
 toned, and the singers, all men, stationed themselves in an adjoin- 
 ing alcove. Twelve boys (whence the Spaniards say, ' Z/as dan- 
 zas de los seises,' dances of the sixes), — choir-boys, — equal in size 
 and apparently in age, placed themselves in two groups of six 
 each in the space left them in the sanctuary immediately in front 
 of the Blessed Sacrament, which was exposed. These boys were 
 dressed as royal pages, and their rich apparel suggested the idea 
 that they were sons of nobles. In their hats were long feathers, 
 which waved gracefully as they made their obeisance before the 
 Blessed Sacrament. They sang a strophe so harmoniously that 
 it excited devotion throughout the immense gathering, where all 
 was quiet and recollected. The refrain was accompanied by 
 the organ, and the boys danced to its melody with wonderful 
 grace, beating time with castanets, to which their movements 
 responded so perfectly that music, dance, and song produced 
 complete harmony. As they moved backward and forward, 
 they apparently mingled in confusion, yet there was an ele- 
 gance and a regularity in their motions which proved the art 
 and beauty of movement and manifested the fact that dance 
 is to the Spaniard what music is to the Italian, — a national 
 trait. 
 
 " Suddenly the boys stood again in line, but now facing each 
 other, six on each side. Several times they resumed this posi- 
 tion, singing each time a strophe, and dancing to the music of 
 the chorus." 
 
 The custom comes down from immemorial times, and, though 
 the Spanish authorities have frequently protested against it, 
 Eome has allowed it to continue. 
 
 Vienna runs a close second with Madrid in its celebration of 
 the Corpus Christi processions. Every shop and place of busi- 
 ness is closed. The Emperor of Austria in person takes his 
 place in a procession, faUing into the ranks behind the clergy, 
 followed by the court, the ministers, the municipal authorities, 
 and the trade guilds. There are waving plumes, caparisoned 
 horses, with all the noble Hungarian body-guard glittering in 
 their mediaeval trappings. There are benedictions and genu- 
 flections at the successive stations; and as the crosses and the 
 sacred symbols are held on high, the people drop devoutly on 
 their knees in the mud or the dust. 
 
 A pretty custom at Aix in Savoy is described by a contributor 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 289 
 
 to All the Year Bound for August 31, 1878. The Fete-Dieu pro- 
 cession there consisted mainly of little children, — " atoms of two 
 and three years old, just able to creep, in robes of ghstening gold, 
 each carrying a golden flower, or a wheat-ear, a star, or a palm. 
 Some tiny children, with careful mothers, added a parasol for 
 the sun. The parasols marred the effect of the rich robes and 
 glossy childish curls, so well combed out and frizzed down the 
 little backs, and the flower garlands placed on the innocent little 
 heads. 
 
 " What is so delightful about the golden children is that there 
 are so many of them. The gravity and indifference with which 
 they step out is surprising. Were these little children fresh from 
 the courts of heaven ? and was this Fete-Dieu but an echo of 
 the pageants at which they had so lately figured in paradise ? 
 Who can tell ? 
 
 " Seeing these miraculously steady golden babies so adapted to 
 their work, I was by no means amazed to behold a fat fair child, 
 — three years old, perhaps, — of a most comfortable aspect, file by 
 alone, its flaxen curls set with a crown of big spiked thorns, its 
 innocent, chubby little face bespattered with daubs of red paint, 
 a dark-colored cross lying on one shoulder. ISTor was I amazed, 
 either, to see this little personage followed by another infant, 
 stripped to its waist, wearing a strip of white curly lamb-skin 
 over one little shining shoulder, leaving the other bare. A pil- 
 grim's flask dangled on its lamb-skin skirt, and a toy lamb, on 
 red wooden rollers, was tucked under one tiny arm. ^ot at all 
 surprised was 1, 1 assure you, nor was the child. St. John had 
 a miraculous gift of gravity, and a swing in his walk, quite 
 delightful to behold, as emblematic of the desert. The easy con- 
 tempt with which he treated that toy lamb on red rollers under 
 his arm was perfect. St. John was a very pretty child, about 
 four, and appeared as an old and practised hand repeating a 
 well-known performance." 
 
 Corpus Ohristi in mediaeval times was everywhere and nowa- 
 days in all Latin countries is emphatically a Feast of Flowers. 
 The Diocesan Synod of Worms, for example, held in 1610, 
 among other decrees relating to the celebration of Corpus 
 Christi, enacted that boys wearing wreaths on their heads should 
 walk in the processions appointed for the day. And Serarius 
 in his elaborate treatise is at great pains not only to lay down 
 the rules for the due solemnization of the Corpus Christi pro- 
 cessions in the diocese of Mayence, with clergy and laymen, 
 girls and boys, all wearing wreaths and garlands composed of 
 roses and various other flowers, and oak and ivy ; but he also 
 defends the use of wreaths against the mockery of some and 
 the condemnation of others who, far from considering it a fes- 
 
 19 
 
290 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 tive and joyful rite giving glory and honor to God, — which he 
 maintained it was, — cried it down on account of its long-stand- 
 ing connection with the licentious and idolatrous usages of 
 paganism ; and he naively concludes his lengthy argument with 
 the somewhat utilitarian plea that "the wreaths serve another 
 purpose than the honor and glory of God : they protect the head 
 from the rays of the sun, which at the time is scorching hot ;" 
 but even this, he exultingly adds, " may be referred to the end set 
 forth above, for as all walked bareheaded in honor of Christ, so 
 likewise for His glory they ought in a measure to consult the 
 interests of their bodily health. Where is the harm ? Is it not 
 rather a praiseworthy act thus to combine prudence with reli- 
 gion and piety ?" The whole city of Mayence on this occasion, he 
 says, was made one single temple ; the walls, the houses, every 
 place available for decoration, was ornamented with flowers and 
 foliage ; and all the roadways were strewed with them. Even 
 the Emperor w^ore a floral crown at such times ; for we learn 
 from Sarnelli's letters that Ferdinand the Second used to take 
 part in the solemnity " sola florea redimitus corolla." 
 
 The same practice was, moreover, general in France and Italy. 
 Indeed, wherever the festival of Corpus Christ! was kept flowers 
 were in great request. In the Eoman Eitual edited by Catalani 
 at the command of Benedict XIY. it is strictly enjoined that 
 each of the laymen bearing the baldacchino on Corpus Christ! 
 Day should be crowned with wreaths of flowers; that boys walk- 
 ing two and two with garlands on their heads should scatter 
 rose-leaves before the Blessed Sacrament ; that men carrying 
 lamps should likewise wear roses twined round their heads ; 
 and that the other boys and gii-ls of the procession should also 
 have wreaths. 
 
 The little village of Genzano near Eome and Villa Orotava 
 in Teneriffe are especially famous for the flower-carpets which 
 are there spread all over the streets where the Corpus Christi 
 processions pass. Andersen in the " Improvisatore" has given a 
 charming description of the Genzano celebration. In that vil- 
 lage the church stands on rising ground, with two converging 
 streets starting from its very doors. The procession of monks 
 and clergy, school-children and confraternities, issues down 
 one of these avenues and returns by the other, walking all 
 the time on a thick carpet of flowers. These are for the most 
 part wild flowers, skilfully formed into tapestry patterns of 
 strange accuracy, each house on the street being, by imme- 
 morial custom, bound to design and perfect a square corre- 
 sponding to its own line of frontage. The armorial bearings of 
 the lords of the soil, of the cardinal bishop of the diocese, and 
 of the Holy See, figure very often in this marvellous carpet. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 291 
 
 Fanciful patterns of all kinds abound, and this broad strip of 
 novel tapestry is guarded on each side by " railings" of box 
 wreaths hung in festoons. A narrow space is left on either side 
 for the spectators, of whom there are hundreds, some from Eome 
 and many from the surrounding villages. 
 
 The flower-carpets at Villa Orotava are even more elaborate. 
 For weeks before the great day, flowers of all kinds are assidu- 
 ously collected in baskets 
 from the inexhaustible gar- 
 dens round about. After 
 these have been sorted, ac- 
 cording to color, they are 
 torn to pieces and converted 
 into opulent heaps of fra- 
 grant petals. 
 
 At dawn on the morning 
 of the fiesta, moulds of wood 
 and carpet are placed in posi- ... -,. . ,..,,,^^_^ 
 tion ; and, later, the baskets t==.:^=«,^i^ jjIj Mr;jQfft 
 of petals are brought for- 
 ward by scores of willing 
 workers. Then, patiently 
 and skilfully, the jDractised 
 artists begin to fill in the 
 designs with glowing petals. 
 The background — the full 
 width of each street except- 
 ing the footpaths — is usu- 
 ally of an effective dark 
 green composed of chopped 
 heather. As a rule, one de- 
 sign runs the whole length 
 of a street, carried out in 
 many combinations of color. 
 But every new street introduces a new design. 
 
 The street-corners are adorned with larger and more ambi- 
 tious pictures, and several houses are noted for their own indi- 
 vidual efforts. When all the coloring is deftly fitted in, the 
 moulds are withdrawn, leaving the streets carpeted with many- 
 colored flowers. The whole is then carefully sprinkled with 
 water, so as to keep it fresh until the procession shall come and 
 tread it out of existence. 
 
 "Presently the entire pageant comes into view, — white-robed 
 boys, priests in splendid vestments, and serried lines of chanting, 
 crimson-robed ' Brothers of the Lord.' At this moment the dif- 
 ferent effects of color are very striking, as the procession moves 
 
 ff'W- 
 
 •% 
 
 
 '<^/ 
 
 
 
 ;/ 
 
 Flower-Carpet at Villa Orotava. 
 
292 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 through the flower-carpeted street. Seen from above, the red 
 kerchiefs which cover the women's heads form a glowing mass, 
 rivalling the wide spread petals in variety, if not in beauty, of 
 coloring. 
 
 " But the procession has faded in the distance now ; the band 
 strikes up a march, and the crowd surges into its wake. Coach- 
 men rush off by side-streets to get their vehicles, and then one 
 realizes, swiftly, the full extent of the floral holocaust. ISTothing 
 remains but a scattered, pitiful covering of bruised petals, from 
 which a faint perfume is wafted up appealingly to those who 
 have witnessed the strange scene." (W. l!T. Keid, in The Strand 
 Magazine, December, 1896.) 
 
 Cracknut Sunday. The Sunday before Michaelmas Day was 
 so known in Kingston-upon-Thames, for on that day the congre- 
 gation, old and young alike, attended church with their pockets 
 stufled with nuts, which they cracked during the service, the 
 noise at times becoming so loud that the reading or sermon had 
 to be suspended. The practice was with much difficulty sup- 
 pressed about the end of the last century. The association of 
 nuts with Michaelmas is a prevalent one. It may be remem- 
 bered that Dr. Primrose's parishioners, retaining " the primeval 
 simplicity of manners," among their other simple customs 
 "religiously cracked nuts on Michaelmas Eve." 
 
 Creeling the Bridegroom. A rather indelicate pastime once 
 very common in Scotland, and not yet entirely extinct. It is 
 most commonly practised just after a marriage. Early next 
 morning a party of young men, including the most intimate 
 friends of the happy man, provide themselves with a "creel" or 
 wicker basket full of stones and take their station outside the 
 door of the bridal chamber. Here they await the coming forth 
 of the bridegroom, who, according to the rules of the game, 
 must perform the ceremony of ablution in the waters of a run- 
 nmg brook. This he attempts by a dart past his sentinels. 
 Should the stream be at a distance, the chase thither is highly 
 amusing. Not unfrequently, however, he eludes his wary friends 
 by making his escape through a window or over the roof. 
 Should all his attempts fail and the luckless wight be caught, 
 the creel is then fastened firmly on his back, where it remains 
 till the bride appears and declares that she has no cause of com- 
 plaint against him, whereupon she is allowed to take it off". In 
 some parts of Scotland creeling is done by wholesale. 
 
 Once a year, or oftener, according to circumstances, all the 
 men who have been married within the last twelve months or 
 so are creeled. This consists in having a large basket of the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 293 
 
 breadth of a man's back attached by a rope to the victim's 
 shoulders. He has to run with all his speed from his own 
 house to that of his next new-married neighbor. He is pursued 
 by the unmarried men, who endeavor to fill his basket with 
 stones. The wife following, armed with a knife, strives t.) re- 
 lieve her husband of his burden by cutting the rope which 
 attaches the basket to his person. 
 
 In 1876 the marriage of Miss Whitelaw to Mr. ATthur St. 
 Quintin Forbes took place in the parish church, Athelstane- 
 ford. According to a report in the Glasgow Weekly Ifej'ald, 
 September 9, 1876, " After the marriage cerftrsony was performed 
 by the father of the bride it was stated tliat the newly-married 
 pair left on their marriage trip in the 'afternoon, the bridegroom 
 having first to go through the ancient custom of bearing the creel." 
 
 Crispin and Crispinian, Sts., patrons of shoemakers. Their 
 festival is celebrated on October 25, the anniversary of the 
 translation of their remains to Eome in the ninth century. At 
 Osnabriick, in Westphalia, the anniversary of an earlier trans- 
 lation is kept on June 20. In the Anglican reformed calendar 
 St. Crispin appears alone. 
 
 Crispin and Crispinian are said to have been brothers, natives 
 of Rome, who came to Soissons to preach the gospel and sup- 
 ported themselves by shoemaking. In 284 Maximinus Hercules 
 visited Soissons. Hating Christians, he caused the two brothers 
 to be cast into prison. An abbey called Saint-Crepin-en-Chaie 
 (in caved) is said to mark the spot where they were immured. 
 The prefect of Gaul, Eictiovarus, was charged with their execu- 
 tion. He had a hard time of it. First he ordered splinters of 
 wood to be thrust between their nails and the quick. But the 
 sphnters flew out and stabbed their tormentors, killing several. 
 Millstones were tied around the brothers' necks and they were 
 cast into the river Aisne. They swam across, bearing the mill- 
 stones with them. Boihng lead was poured in vain over the 
 indomitable shoemakers, and they were plunged into a bubbling 
 caldron of pitch, oil, and fat. They emerged, refreshed. Eictio- 
 varus, in disgust, pitched himself into the caldron and perished 
 there. Then the martyrs, seeing their chief persecutor disposed 
 of, placidly yielded their necks to the sword, and their heads 
 were struck off without difliculty. 
 
 The bodies of the martyrs are said to have been buried in Sois- 
 sons where afterwards stood the church of St.-Crepin-le-Petit. 
 It is customary at Soissons at Eogations for the procession to 
 halt before the house No. 14 Eue de la Congregation, which oc- 
 cupies the site of this old chapel, and there to chant an antiphon 
 and collect of Saints Crispin and Crispinian. Charlemagne in 
 
294 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 the eighth century translated the main portion of the relics to 
 Osnabriick, and in the ninth century these were taken to Eome 
 and buried in the church of St. Lawrence. Nevertheless the 
 church at Soissons exhibited during the Middle Ages, if not all 
 the bones of the martyrs, at least a considerable number of them. 
 These were scattered and lost during the Eevolution, save only a 
 portion of the skull, a thigh-bone, and some bony splinters. Other 
 relics are 'at Fulda. 
 
 According to a Kentish tradition, the bodies of the martyrs 
 were cast into the sea by their persecutors and were washed ashore 
 at Eomney Marsh i:> that county. 
 
 In France a cobblei^'r VH of tools was known as his Saint- 
 Crepin. The bootjack was J^. '^H-^pin's stole, the awl St. Crispin's 
 lance. Of a person too tightly booted it is said that he is "in the 
 prison of St. Crispin." Formerly the cobblers worked at night 
 with a large spherical bottle full of water between them and 
 their candle or lamp. This was known as St. Crispin's lamp, and 
 its invention was attributed to Crispin himself. 
 
 French cobblers from the Middle Ages down to recent times 
 celebrated the feast of SS. Crispin and Crispin ian with much 
 pomp. They were roused in the morning by the bells of the 
 church dedicated to their patron or containing a chapel so dedi- 
 cated, whither they repaired in procession in the wake of a great 
 crucifix and a monster wax candle. At Bourges the master-cob- 
 blers who absented themselves without a legitimate excuse were 
 fined a pound of wax, to be delivered at the chapel. After 
 high mass had been heard, the paraders returned in similar 
 order to sit down to a monster banquet, where the affairs of 
 the guild were discussed. All this disappeared with the Eevo- 
 lution. In Troyes the confraternity of St. Crispin was reorgan- 
 ized in 1820 and established an annual festival which was cele- 
 brated in the church of St. Urban on the Monday following the 
 25th of October. The staff which is raffled off for the benefit of 
 the guild is still borne to the church with great pomp. In other 
 places St. Crispin is no longer commemorated. 
 
 Up to 1870, however, the shoemakers of Moncontour met to- 
 gether at a tavern and walked in pairs to the church, where holy 
 bread was distributed to them at the mass and formed the chief 
 feature of the subsequent banquet at the tavern. Street Arabs 
 used to follow them, crying. — 
 
 To-day is Monday, 
 
 My friend. 
 The shoemakers dress up 
 To visit St. Crispin, 
 
 My friend, 
 Who used to work in his shirt. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 295 
 
 The children still sing this song, which remains the sole relic 
 of the festival. 
 
 In Provence there is a legend that on the day when St. Cris- 
 pin's feast was first celebrated by the shoemakers their patron 
 was so pleased that he asked God to allow the best of them a 
 glimpse of paradise. The Almighty consented, and St. Crispin 
 lowered from heaven a long ladder garnished with peas. But 
 the best men held back through humility, and the vainglorious 
 ones scaled the miraculous ladder. Now, it happened that 
 when they arrived the feast of St. Peter was being celebrated in 
 the upper regions, with Peter himself as the officiating minister 
 at high mass. St. Paul had been left in charge of the gates. 
 As the eager mob pressed upward, St. Peter had just reached 
 the Sursum corda, which St. Paul, being slightly deaf since his 
 fall on the way to Damascus, misunderstood as Zou sus la cordo I 
 So he cut the cord. The shoemakers fell to earth, and though 
 God, who is good, would not allow them to be killed, many 
 were badly hurt. And that is how it happens that so many 
 shoemakers are cripples or hunchbacks. 
 
 In England St. Crispin's Day has an additional significance 
 as the anniversary of the battle of Agincourt (1415). Shake- 
 speare's lines will occur readily to memory : 
 
 This day is called the feast of Crispian : 
 He that outlives this day and comes safe home 
 "Will stand a-tiptoe when this day is named, 
 And rouse him at the name of Crispian. 
 He that shall live this day and see old age 
 Will yearly on the vigil feast his friends, 
 And say, To-morrow is St. Crispian. 
 ******* 
 And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, 
 From this day to the ending of the world, 
 But we in it shall be remembered. 
 
 {Henry V., Act iv. Sc. 3.) 
 
 These lines show that St. Crispin's Day had been honored 
 even before Agincourt. But the victory gave it an additional 
 impetus, so that it survived after every other trade festival had 
 died out. The custom was for the brethren of the craft to march 
 in a great procession with banners and music, while various 
 characters representing King Crispin and his court were sus- 
 tained by different members. The processions at Edinburgh 
 and Stirling were especially elaborate. At the former place the 
 mock king was dressed in a very fair imitation of the royal 
 robes, while at the latter both Houses of Parliament followed the 
 pseudo-monarch, as well as officers and men-at-arms without 
 number. In London, during the mayoralty of Sir Simon Eyre 
 
296 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 who had once been a shoemaker, an imitation king of the City 
 followed very closely upon the heels of the imitation monarch 
 in the shoemakers' annual procession, and ever afterwards the 
 lord mayor was generally represented. The procession over, a 
 dinner invariably took place, and the day closed with a dance, 
 led off by the workman who had played the part of king. 
 
 The last survival of the ancient procession is mentioned in 
 Notes and Queries^ First Series, vol. vi. p. 243, as occurring at 
 the town of Hexham, in Northumberland : " The shoemakers 
 of the town meet and dine by previous arrangements at some 
 tavern; a King Crispin, queen, prince, and princess, elected 
 from members of their fraternity of families, being present. 
 They afterwards form in grand procession (the ladies and their 
 attendants excepted), and parade the streets with banners, 
 music, etc., the royal party and suite gayly dressed in character. 
 In the evening they reassemble for dancing and other festivities. 
 To his majesty and consort, and their royal highnesses the prince 
 and princess (the latter usually a pretty girl), due regal homage 
 is paid during that day." 
 
 At one time the cordwainers of Newcastle celebrated the 
 festival of St. Crispin by holding a coronation of their patron 
 saint in the court of the Freemen's Hospital at the West-gate, 
 and afterwards walking in procession through the principal 
 streets of the town. This caricature show produced much 
 laughter and mirth. (Mackenzie : History of Newcastle^ 1827, 
 vol. i. p. 88.) 
 
 In the parishes of Cuckfield and Hurstpierpoint, in Sussex, St. 
 Crispin's Day is kept with much rejoicing. The boys go round 
 asking for money in the name of St. Crispin, bonfires are lighted, 
 and it passes off very much in the same way as the 5th of 
 November. It appears from an inscription on a monument to 
 one of the ancient family of Bunell, in the parish church of 
 Cuckfield, that a Sir John Bunell attended Henry Y. to France 
 in the year 1415 with one ship, twenty men-at-arms, and forty 
 archers, and it is probable that the observance of this day in 
 that neighborhood is connected with that fact. {Notes and 
 Queries^ First Series, vol. v. p. 30.) 
 
 At Tenby, in Wales, it was customary on the eve of St. Cris- 
 pin's Day to make an effigy of the saint and suspend it from 
 the steeple or some other elevated place. In the morning it 
 was formally cut down and carried in procession throughout the 
 town. In front of the doors of each member of the craft the 
 procession halted, when a document purporting to be the last 
 will and testament of the saint was read, and in pursuance 
 thereof some article of dress was left as a memento of the noisy 
 visit. At length, when nothing remained to be distributed, the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 297 
 
 padding which formed the body of the Q^gy was made into a 
 football, and kicked about by the crowd till they were tired. As 
 a sort of revenge for the treatment of St. Crispin, his followers 
 hung up on St. Clement's Day the eflSgy of a carpenter, which 
 was treated in a similar way. 
 
 Cross. (Lat. Crux; Fr. Croix ; It. Croce.) No symbol, either 
 in art or in religion, is so universal as the cross. It appears 
 twice in our alphabet, as the letter T and the letter X. It is 
 worn by priests on their sacrificial robes, by distinguished lay- 
 men as a sign of distinction on occasions of state, and by male 
 and female nonentities as taste may direct. It is graven on 
 eucharistic vessels, embroidered on altar-cloths, and cut in relief 
 on tombs and monuments. Some of the greatest churches and 
 cathedrals of Christendom are fashioned in its shape. In Eu- 
 ropean countries it is common to see large crosses erected in 
 public places. The famous Charing (chere reine) Cross, in 
 London, derives its name from the fact that it was one of the 
 places at which King Edward I. set up a cross to mark where 
 the body of his Queen Eleanor rested during the progress of the 
 funeral cortege to Westminster. 
 
 Yet it is a mistake to suppose that the cross has only a Chris- 
 tian history. 
 
 It was used as a religious symbol by the aborigines of North 
 and South America, as well as by the most ancient nations of 
 the Old World. Prescott tells us that the Spaniards found the 
 cross as an object of worship in the temples of Mexico. Ee- 
 searches in Central America and Peru prove that it was used in 
 the same way by the inhabitants of those countries. Dr. Brinton, 
 in " Myths of the New World," informs us that the Indians 
 regard the cross as a mystic emblem of the four cardinal points 
 of the compass. 
 
 The ancient Phoenicians, Persians, Assyrians, and Brahmins 
 looked upon the cross as a holy symbol, as is abundantly shown 
 by the numerous hieroglyphics and other pictorial representa- 
 tions on their monumental remains. Osiris by the cross gave 
 liijjht eternal to the spirits of the just, beneath the cross the 
 Muysca mothers laid their babes, trusting by that sign to secure 
 them from the power of the evil spirits, and with that symbol 
 to protect them the Etruscans, the ancient people of Northern 
 Italy, calmly laid them down to die. 
 
 The Thau of the Jews and the Tau of the Greeks, whence 
 came the T of the Eoman alphabet, were held to be not merely 
 letters, but sacred symbols, on account of their being suggested 
 by a cross. 
 
 Among the Scandinavians Thor was the thunder, and the 
 
298 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 hammer was his symbol. It was with this hammer that Thor 
 crushed the head of the great Mitgard serpent; that he de- 
 stroyed the giants ; that he restored to hfe the dead goats, which 
 ever after drew his car; that he consecrated the pyre of Baldur. 
 This hammer was a cross. In Iceland the cross of Thor is still 
 used as a magical sign 'in connection with storms of wind and 
 rain. Longfellow tells us how King Olaf kept Christmas at 
 Drontheim : 
 
 O'er his drinking-horn the sign 
 
 He made of the Cross Divine, 
 
 As he drank, and muttered his prayers ; 
 
 But the Berserks evermore 
 
 Made the sign of the Hammer of Thor 
 Over theirs. 
 
 l^either King Olaf nor his Berserkers, nor, indeed, Longfellow 
 himself, seem to have realized that the two symbols were iden- 
 tical. 
 
 Comparative mythologists draw various deductions from these 
 remarkable facts. Let us, however, appeal to a man who is not 
 only a comparative mythologist, but a Christian priest. " For 
 my own part," says the Eev. S. Baring Gould, " I see no difficulty 
 in believing that the cross formed a portion of the primeval 
 religion, traces of which exist over the whole world, among 
 every people; that trust in the cross was a part of the ancient 
 faith which taught men to believe in a Trinity, in a war in 
 heaven, a paradise from which man fell, a Flood and a Babel, a 
 faith which was deeply impressed with a conviction that a Virgin 
 should conceive and bear a Son, that the dragon's head should 
 be bruised, and that through shedding of blood should come re- 
 mission. The use of the cross as a symbol of life and regenera- 
 tion through water is as widely spread over the world as the 
 belief in the ark of Noah. Maybe the shadow of the cross was 
 cast further back into the night of ages, and fell on a wider 
 range of country, than we are aware of" 
 
 It was only natural that the early and mediaeval Christians, 
 finding the cross a symbol of life among the nations of antiquity, 
 should look curiously into the Old Testament to see whether 
 there were not foresh ado wings in it of " the wood whereby right- 
 eousness Cometh." Nor was their search unrewarded. In Isaac 
 bearing the wood of the sacrifice they saw prefigured both 
 Christ and the cross. They saw the cross in Moses with arms 
 expanded on the Mount, in the pole with transverse bars upon 
 which was wreathed the brazen serpent, in the two sticks gath- 
 ered by the widow of Sarepta. But plainest of all they read it 
 in Ezekiel ix. 4, 6 : " Go through the midst of the city, through 
 the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 299 
 
 men" that are to be saved from destruction by the sword. The 
 word here rendered " mark" is in the Yulgate " signa than." 
 The Thau was the old Hebrew character, shaped like a cross, 
 which was regarded as the sign of life, felicity, and safety. 
 
 Yet the cross was not always a symbol of honor. Among the 
 Phoenicians and Syrians, and later among the Eomans, it was a 
 punishment inflicted on slaves, robbers, assassins, and rebels, — 
 among which last Jesus was reckoned, on account of his proclaim- 
 ing himself King, or Messiah. The person sentenced to this pun- 
 ishment was stripped of his 'clothes, except a covering around 
 the loins. In a state of nudity he was beaten with whips. 
 Such was the severity of this flagellation that numbers died of 
 it. Jesus was crowned with thorns, and was made the subject 
 of mockery; but insults of this kind were not common. In 
 this instance they were owing to the petulance of the Eoman 
 soldiers. 
 
 The criminal, having been beaten, was condemned to the 
 further suffering of carrying the cross to the place of punish- 
 ment, which was commonly a hill near the public highway and 
 out of the city. The place of crucifixion at Jerusalem was a 
 hill to the northwest of the city. The cross, otherwise called 
 the "post," — the unpropitious or ominous tree, — consisted of a 
 piece of wood erected perpendicularly, and intersected by an- 
 other one at right angles near the top. The crime for which the 
 culprit suffered was inscribed on the transverse piece, near the 
 top of the perpendicular one. There is no mention made by the 
 ancient writers of anything on which the feet of the crucified 
 person rested. It is known, however, that near the base of the 
 perpendicular beam there projected a piece of wood, on which 
 he sat, and which answered as a support to the body, — since the 
 weight of the latter might have otherwise torn the hands by the 
 nails driven through them. 
 
 The cross, when driven firmly in the ground, rarely exceeded 
 ten feet in height. The victim was elevated, and his hands were 
 bound by a rope around the transverse beam and nailed through 
 the palm. His feet were also nailed. He thus remained fastened 
 until death ended his sufferings. While he exhibited any signs 
 of life he was watched by guards ; but they left him when it 
 appeared that he was dead. If there was no prospect that the 
 victim would die on the day of execution, the executioners 
 hastened the end by kindling a fire at the foot of the cross, so 
 as to suffocate him with smoke ; or by letting loose upon him 
 wild beasts; or occasionally, when in particular haste, by break- 
 ing his bones upon the cross with a mallet, as upon an anvil. It 
 was at one time customary to offer the criminal, before the com- 
 mencement of his sufferings, a medicated drink, compounded of 
 
300 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 wine and myrrh. The object of this was to produce intoxica- 
 tion, and thereby to lessen the suffering. 
 
 Crucifixion was not only the most ignominious, but by far the 
 most cruel, mode of punishment. The victim sometimes lived 
 until the seventh day. The thieves who were executed at the 
 same time with our Saviour were broken with mallets on the 
 same day ; and in order to ascertain the condition of Jesus a 
 
 lance was thrust in his 
 side, but no signs of life 
 appeared. 
 
 There is preserved in the 
 museum of the Collegio 
 Eomano at Rome a curious 
 caricature which was found 
 in the ruins of the ancient 
 psedagogium for the impe- 
 rial pages. This is a mock 
 crucifix roughly scratched 
 with a stylus. It was 
 probably the work of some 
 
 page, 
 
 done to deride a 
 
 ce Bet v 
 
 Ancient Roman Caricature of the Cross. 
 
 Christian comrade. It rep- 
 resents a man with the 
 head of an ass hanging on 
 a cross, and to the left 
 another figure in an atti- 
 tude of adoration . A super- 
 scription runs 'AXe^a/xevoq 
 ffejSers 0eov. The Greek is 
 a trifle shaky (ae^ere should 
 be (Ts/Ssrai), but the obvious meaning is " Alexamenos worships 
 God." The character of the letters indicates that the caricature 
 dates from the early part of the third century. Thus it is evi- 
 dent that even at that early period pagan Rome identified the 
 cross with Christianity. 
 
 Cicero says the very name of the cross should be removed 
 afar " not only from the body, but from the thoughts, the eyes, 
 the ears, of Roman citizens, for of all these things, not only the 
 actual occurrence and endurance, but the very contingency and 
 expectation, nay, the mention itself, are unworthy of a Roman 
 citizen and a free man." Hence the force of St. Paul's frequent 
 allusions to the humiliation which Christ endured when he suf- 
 fered death upon the cross. 
 
 It was precisely this idea which made the early Christians 
 seize upon the cross as the emblem of their faith. That which 
 had been the symbol of shame now became their glory. The 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 301 
 
 instrument of Christ's passion, by his death upon it, became 
 hallowed for all time. The mediaeval Christians, desiring to see 
 the cross identified still more closely with the Jewish Church, 
 inserted a legend to supplement the Old Testament. 
 
 The story runs that Seth received from the angels three seeds 
 of the forbidden tree which he saw standing, though blasted, 
 upon the spot where sin had been first committed. Taking the 
 seeds away with him, he put them in the mouth of the dead 
 Adam, and so buried them. The young trees that grew from 
 them, on the grave of Adam in Hebron, were carefully tended 
 by Abraham, Moses, and David. After they were removed to 
 Jerusalem the Psalms were composed beneath them, and finally 
 they slowly grew together and formed a single giant tree. This 
 tree was felled by the order of Solomon, in order that it might 
 be preserved forever as a beam in the temple. The plan failed, 
 however, for the carpenters found they could not manage the 
 mighty beam. 
 
 When they raised it to its intended position they found it too 
 long ; then they sawed it, and it proved too short ; they spliced 
 it, but to no purpose, they could not make it fit. This was taken 
 as a sign that it was intended for some other purpose, and they 
 laid it aside in the temple. On one occasion it was improperly 
 made use of as a seat by a woman named Maximella, and she 
 was at once enveloped in flames. She invoked the aid of Christ, 
 and was driven from the city and stoned to death. In the 
 course of its eventful history the beam became a bridge over 
 Cedron, and, being then thrown into the stream of Bethesda, it 
 gave to the waters healing virtues. Finally from it was made 
 the cross of Christ. After the crucifixion it was buried in 
 Calvary, and exhumed three centuries later by the Empress 
 Helena, the mother of Constantine, who was miraculously 
 directed to the spot where it lay. (See Cross, Invention of the.) 
 
 Cross, Exaltation of the. A festival now celebrated on 
 September 14 by the Latin and Greek Churches. In England it 
 was known as Holy Cross or Holy Eood Day. Like the feast 
 of the Invention, it was removed at the Eeformation, and remains 
 only as a black-letter day. As such, with the Invention, it first 
 reappeared in Queen Elizabeth's Calendar of 1561, and is again 
 found in King James's Prayer Book of 1604. It was instituted 
 in ancient times in memory of the miraculous apparition which 
 Constantine saw as he was preparing to fight against Maxen- 
 tius (October 26, 312). He beheld in the daylight a luminous 
 cross in the heavens with the Greek inscription ' Ev toutoj utxa 
 (" Conquer by this"), or, as the more familiar Latin freely trans- 
 lates it, In hoc signo vinces (" By this sign thou shalfc (conquer"). 
 
302 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Eusebius, who is not always trustworthy, assures us that he had 
 heard the story related on oath by Constantine himself. {Vita 
 Constanta., i. 28.) Thomassin suggests that Constantine himself 
 instituted the feast. (Traite des Festes, ii. 124.) The day was 
 kept with greater solemnity after 629. The 14th of September 
 in that year marked the conclusion of a series of festivals in 
 honor of the true cross. In order to understand these it is 
 necessary briefly to recapitulate the events that immediately 
 preceded. 
 
 In June, 614, then, the Persian Emperor Chosroes captured 
 and plundered Jerusalem. The churches, even that of the Holy 
 Sepulchre, were burnt, and among other precious relics carried 
 away was that portion of the true cross which had been left 
 there by St. Helena. Only the sponge with which the soldiers 
 gave our Saviour vinegar to drink, and the lance which pierced 
 his side, were saved from the wreck and sent to Constantinople 
 for safe-keeping. The sacred sponge was exposed to the view 
 of the faithful in St. Sophia's Church on the Feast of the Exal- 
 tation of the Cross in that year, and on the 26th of October a 
 similar exposition was made of the lance. Then Heraclius de- 
 clared war against Chosroes, and after many years of varying 
 success finally cut the Persian army to pieces at Nineveh, Decem- 
 ber 12, 627, The fragment of the true cross was recovered and 
 brought to Constantinople in the spring of 629. Heraclius in 
 person restored it to Jerusalem. He would fain have carried it 
 upon his own shoulders into the city with the utmost pomp, but 
 stopped suddenly at the entrance, and found that he was not able 
 to go forward. The patriarch Zachary, who walked by his side, 
 suggested to him that this pomp seemed not agreeable to the 
 humble appearance which Christ made when he bore his cross 
 through the streets of that city. The Emperor accepted the 
 reproof He laid aside his purple and his crown, put on mean 
 clothes, went along barefoot with the procession, and devoutly 
 replaced the cross where it stood before. It still continued in 
 the case in which it had been carried away, and the patriarch 
 and clergy, finding the seals whole, opened the case with the key. 
 Venerated it, and showed it to the people. Many miraculous 
 cures are reported to have followed. (Butler : JLives of the 
 JSaints, under date September 14.) 
 
 On his return to Constantinople the Emperor paid due honors 
 to that portion of the cross which was preserved there. The 
 festivities closed on September 14. Thereafter similar ceremo- 
 nies were performed every year. Butler quotes from the Em- 
 peror Constantine Porphyrogenitus ("De Ceremoniis Aulse Con- 
 stantinopolitanse," edition of 1751, Leipsic, folio II. ch. xxii. 
 p. 74) as follows : 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 303 
 
 " About seven days before the 1st of August the holy cross 
 was taken out of the hoh^ treasury in which it was kept with 
 other precious relics and rich holy vessels, betwixt the third and 
 the sixth ode of matins then singing. It was laid on the ground, 
 that the protopapa, or chief priest of the palace, might anoint 
 it all over with balsam and precious perfumes. Then it was set 
 up in the church of the palace of Our Lady of the Pharos, ex- 
 posed to the veneration of the people. After matins the clergy 
 of the palace assembled before it, singmg hymns in praise of the 
 cross. The chief priest then took up the cross on his head, and, 
 attended by the clergy and others in procession, carried it through 
 the golden hall, before the oratory of St. Basil, placed it to be 
 venerated by all the senate ; then proceeded to the palace of 
 Daphne and exposed it in the church of St. Stephen. On the 
 28th of July the priests began to carry the cross through all the 
 streets and to all the houses, and afterwards round the walls of 
 the city, that by the devotion of the people and their united 
 prayers God would, through the cross and merits of his Son, 
 bless and protect the city and all its inhabitants. On the 13th 
 of September it was brought back to the palace and placed on 
 a rich throne in the golden hall, where the clergy sung the 
 hymns in praise of the cross during its exaltation there. It 
 was afterward carried through all the apartments of the palace, 
 and then deposited in the chapel of St. Theodorus. In the 
 evening it was delivered back to the keeper of the sacred 
 treasure. Next morning it was carefully cleansed by the pro- 
 topapa and the keeper, and again deposited in the rich case in 
 the treasury." 
 
 A famous procession of the Blessed Sacrament was instituted 
 in Avignon on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross a cen- 
 tury before the similar processions on Corpus Christi Day were 
 appointed generally by the Church. This was in the year 1226. 
 France was in the throes of the Albigensian war. The Albigen- 
 ses held possession of Avignon. Louis YIII. besieged the town, 
 and took it on September 8. By way of atoning for the heretical 
 desecration of the Catholic churches, he ordered a general pro- 
 cession of the Corpus Domini on the feast of the Exaltation. 
 The Bishe)p of Avignon bore down the holy sacrament from the 
 church of the Doms, and the king himself, clad in sackcloth and 
 girded with a rope, his head bare and a torch in his hand, took 
 part in the procession, attended by Cardinal St. Angelo, the papal 
 legate, and the whole court, as well as the magistrates and chief 
 men of the city, all in penitential garments. With torches and 
 incense and solemn invocation they traversed the entire city and 
 went to the small church of the Holy Cross, then without the 
 walls, where a few devout people were in the habit of assem- 
 
304 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 bling every Friday in honor of the Passion. The bishop placed 
 the host in a stone niche at the side of the altar, and left it 
 exposed to the veneration of the people, but veiled, after the 
 custom of that time. The king visited the church daily during 
 his stay in the city, and his example was followed by multi- 
 tudes. 
 
 This devotion induced the papal legate to authorize the con- 
 tinued exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, and he ordered the 
 citizens, by way of reparation for giving countenance to the 
 Albigenses, to visit the church every Friday for a year and there 
 recite the Seven Penitential Psalms. This gave rise to the order 
 of the Gray Penitents, the oldest company of the kind in the 
 Church, — the one at Eome not being established till twenty years 
 later. They constituted a kind of body-guard that took turns, 
 day and night, to watch and pray before the Divine Host. They 
 wore the sackcloth tunic to which the pious king had given 
 consecration, and met in a body every Friday for special exer- 
 cises of devotion and penance, and on account of their frequent 
 scourgings were often called the Battus de la Croix. (See Separa- 
 tion OP THE Waters.) 
 
 The exposition of the host in the church of the Holy Cross, 
 at first intended only to be temporary, was prolonged from time 
 to time, and finally became perpetual, and has been continued to 
 our day — that is, for six hundred and sixty years — without any 
 other interruption than that caused by the French Eevolution 
 and the First Empire. 
 
 Cross, Invention or Discovery of the. A festival cele- 
 brated by the Latin and Greek Churches on May 3, because on 
 or about that day in the year 326 St. Helena, mother of Con- 
 stantine the Great, is reputed to have discovered the cross on 
 which Christ suffered. The story runs that the venerable lady, 
 visiting the Holy Land in her seventy-ninth year, was guided 
 to the site of Calvary by an aged Jew who had treasured up 
 the local traditions which the anti-Christian animosity of the 
 heathen conquerors of Jerusalem had failed entirely to obliter- 
 ate. On excavation at a considerable depth three crosses were 
 found, and with them, but lying apart by itself, was* the title 
 placed by Pilate's command on the cross of Christ. The problem 
 now presented itself, which was that cross? It was solved 
 through the instrumentality of Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem. 
 He suggested that the three crosses be carried to the bedside of 
 an invalid woman in the city, not doubting but that Christ's cross 
 would be discovered by its healing powers. The crosses were 
 applied singly to the patient, who was immediately and per- 
 fectly recovered by the touch of one of them, the other two 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 305 
 
 having been tried without effect. The greater part of the cross, 
 80 vindicated, was deposited in a church built on the spot of the 
 Invention. Here it was enshrined in a splendid silver case. 
 The remainder Helena took to her son in Constantinople, whence 
 a portion was sent by Constantine to Rome. 
 
 The first mention of the Invention, without any mention, 
 however, of St. Helena's share in it, is by St. Cyril of Jerusalem, 
 about the year 350. From this it is evident that the cross was 
 exhibited at Jerusalem when St. Cyril was a priest. The next 
 authority is St. Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan, who in a funeral 
 sermon on the Emperor Theodosius in 395 gives St. Helena the 
 credit of the discovery. As we go later the story is amplified 
 and all the details are given with wonderful minuteness. 
 
 But Eusebius, who lived at the time when the cross is said to 
 have been found, and who in his Life of Constantine mentions 
 St. Helena's visit to Palestine, has not a word about the Invention. 
 What makes it more extraordinary is that Eusebius was present 
 in 335 at the dedication of the Church of the Eesurrection, and 
 has described the ceremonies, but is still silent about the cross. 
 Further, a pilgrim named Burdigala who visited Jerusalem in 
 333 has left behind him a minute record of all extant Christian 
 relics, again with no word about the cross ; so that it is evident 
 it could not have been shown in 333. Constantine died in 337 : 
 so the finding of the cross must have occurred between 333 
 and 337, if we accept St. Cyril's word for it that the finding 
 occurred in the reign of that emperor. But St. Helena was in 
 Jerusalem in 326. Thus stands the case. Any definite conclu- 
 sion is impossible. 
 
 Both in Constantinople and in Eome churches were built ex- 
 pressly to receive so precious a relic. The former was known 
 as the Basilica of the Holy Cross; the latter, the church of 
 Santa Croce, still stands, and retains the relic which gave it its 
 name. A festival to commemorate the Invention soon followed, 
 Eome taking the lead in the fifth century, but it is not quite 
 certain whether the date selected, May 3, was the anniversary 
 of the Invention itself, or of the dedication of Santa Croce, or 
 of Constantine's vision. Then came pilgrimages undertaken in 
 order to obtain a sight of the cross. Lastly fragments of the 
 sacred wood were sold at high prices to wealthy purchasers, it 
 having been discovered that the wood exercised a power of 
 miraculous self-multiplication, " ut detrimenta non sentiret, et 
 quasi intacta permaneret." (Paulinus, Ep. XI. ad Lev.~) St. 
 Cyril of Jerusalem, twenty-five years after the discovery, 
 affirmed that pieces of the cross were spread all over the earth, 
 and compares this marvel to the miraculous feeding of five 
 thousand men, as recorded in the Gospel. 
 
 20 
 
306 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 In A.D. 637 Jerusalem was reconquered by the Saracens, and 
 nothing has since been heard of the fragment of the cross that 
 had been left there. In the thirteenth century during the reign 
 of St. Louis what remained of the portion taken by Helena to 
 Constantinople was removed to Paris, and is still preserved in 
 the Sainte-Chapelle. Sergius I. is said to have placed a portion 
 of the cross in a silver box in St. Peter's Cathedral about 690. 
 A reputed relic of the true cross was kept in the Tower of London 
 as late as the reign of James I. 
 
 The enemies of the Roman Church have made merry at the 
 self-multiplying powers of the cross, which Paulinus and Cyril 
 accepted as marvels not to be questioned. " To be short," says 
 Calvin, "if a man would gather together all that hath been found 
 of this cross, there would be enough to freight a great ship." 
 Swift repeats and expands the jest. 
 
 On the other hand, M. Eohault de Fleury, who calculates that 
 the total volume of the wood of the original cross must have been 
 somewhere about 178,000,000 cubic millimetres, has made a list 
 of all the relics in Europe and Asia of which he can find any 
 record, and the sum of their measurements amounts to only 
 3,941,975 cubic millimetres, — a very small portion indeed of any 
 cross that could sustain a man. 
 
 Of places where relics of the Holy Cross have accumulated, 
 Mount Athos stands pre-eminent with a total volume of 878,360 
 cubic millimetres ; then Eome, with 537,587 ; Brussels. 516,090 ; 
 Venice, 445,582 ; Ghent, 436,450 ; Paris, 237,731. 
 
 All England can boast of but 30,516 cubic millimetres, of which 
 8287 belong to Lord Petrie in two pieces. At St. Mary's, York, 
 is a pectoral cross of the tenth century which contains two 
 fragments. 
 
 In the United States there is not an authenticated relic of the 
 cross as large as half a lead-pencil, and there are many so minute 
 as to be visible only through the aid of a microscope. The church 
 of St. Francis Xavier in New York has a fragment which is 
 exposed for veneration on Easter Sunday, as is the custom in 
 European churches. Another fragment at the cathedral is shown 
 on Good Friday. This relic is in a crystal and gold casket set 
 with precious stones, and forms the centre of a handsome altar 
 cross. The French church of St. John the Baptist in East 
 Seventy- Sixth Street also possesses a relic of the cross. 
 
 Every church which is the custodian of a portion of the cross 
 is also in possession of a document bearing the seal of the Vati- 
 can and testifying to the authenticity of the relic. The relic 
 itself is most carefully sealed in an air-tight receptacle. If the 
 seals were once broken the relics would lose their historical value, 
 as identification would thenceforth be impossible. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 307 
 
 Nevertheless M. de Fleury had an opportunity of microscopi- 
 cally examining some of the larger fragments through the glass 
 which encloses them, and he comes to the conclusion that the 
 wood was either pine, or something closely allied to it. 
 
 With Catholics this ought to settle a matter that has been 
 much disputed. Wise theologians and simple country-folk have 
 held many and various opinions as to the material of the cross. 
 From Anselm, Aquinas, and others, we learn that the upright 
 beam was made of the "immortal cedar;" the cross-beam, of 
 cypress ; the piece on which the inscription was written, of olive ; 
 and the piece for the feet, of palm : hence the line 
 
 Ligna crucis palma, cedrus, cupressus, oliva. 
 
 Sir John Mandeville's account of the legend diifers from this. 
 He says the piece athwart was made of " victorious palm ;" 
 the tablet, of "peaceful olive ;" the trunk, of the tree of which 
 Adam had eaten ; and the stock, of cedar. Some versions say 
 that it was made of fir, pine, and box; others, of cypress, cedar, 
 pine, and box ; one names cedar for the support of the feet, cy- 
 press for the body, palm for the hands, and olive for the title. 
 Southey, in his " Common-Place Book" and " Omniana," says that 
 the four kinds of wood were symbolical of the four quarters of 
 the globe, or all mankind. Some afiirm that the cross was made 
 entirely of the stately oak. Chaucer, speaking of the Blessed 
 Virgin, says, — 
 
 Benigne braunchlet of the pine tree. 
 
 Popular superstition in many countries favors the idea that it 
 was made of the elder-tree ; therefore, although fuel may be 
 scarce and these sticks plentiful, the poor people will not burn 
 them. In Scotland the elder is called the bourtree, and the fol- 
 lowing rhyme is indicative of peasant beliefs : 
 
 Bourtree, bourtree, crooked rung, 
 Never straight and never strong, 
 Ever bush and never tree, 
 Since our Lord was nailed on thee. 
 
 Chambers's " Book of Days" records an instance of the belief 
 that a person is perfectly safe under the shelter of an elder-tree 
 during a thunderstorm, as the lightning never strikes the tree 
 of which the cross was made. Experience has taught that this 
 is a fallacy, although many curious exceptional instances are 
 recorded. James Napier, in his " Folk-Lore of the Northern 
 Counties of England," tells us of a peculiar custom. The elder 
 is planted in the form of a cross upon a newly-made grave, and 
 
308 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 if it blooms it is a sure sign that the soul of the dead persou is 
 happy. Dyer, in his "English Folk-Lore," says that the most 
 common belief in England is that the cross was made of the 
 aspen {Populus tremula)^ the leaves having trembled ever since at 
 the recollection of their guilt. Another legend is that all the 
 trees shivered at the crucifixion except the aspen, which has been 
 doomed to quiver ever since. An extract from Mrs. Hemans's 
 " Wood Walk and Hymn" is worthy of quotation here as illus- 
 trating the first idea : 
 
 Father. Hast thou heard, my boy, 
 The peasant's legend of that quivering tree ? 
 
 Child. No, father ; doth he say the fairies dance 
 Amidst its branches ? 
 
 Father. Oh, a cause more deep, 
 More solemn far, the rustic doth assign 
 To the strange restlessness of those wan leaves. 
 The Cross he deems, the blessed Cross, whereon 
 The meek Kedeemer bowed his head to death. 
 Was formed of aspen wood ; and since that hour 
 Through all its race the pale tree hath sent down 
 A thrilling consciousness, a secret awe, 
 Making them tremulous, when not a breeze 
 Disturbs the airy thistle-down or shakes 
 The light lines from the shining gossamer. 
 
 In Ulster the aspen is called " quiggenepsy," — z.e., "quaking 
 aspen." In support of these beliefs the aspen still flourishes near 
 Jerusalem. In the west of England there is a tradition that 
 the cross was formed of the mistletoe, which before that event 
 used to be a fine forest tree, but has since been doomed to lead 
 a parasitical existence. The gypsies believe that it was made 
 of the ash-tree. In Cheshire the Arum maculatum is called 
 " Gethsemane," because it is said to have been growing at the 
 foot of the cross, and to have received some drops of blood on its 
 petals. 
 
 In Scotland it was formerly believed that the dwarf birch is 
 stunted in growth because from it were fashioned the rods with 
 which Christ was scourged. 
 
 The title in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin is said to have been 
 found by St. Helena with the cross. It was brought to Eome 
 and deposited in the basilica of Santa Croce. It is said to have 
 been hidden in the time of Yalentinian lest it should be stolen 
 by the Goths ; but it was seen in or about 570 by Antoninus 
 Martyr, after whose time it disappeared, to be discovered again 
 built up in an arch near the roof, enclosed in a leaden box, on the 
 cover of which these words were engraved : " Hie est titulus 
 verse crucis." It was found to be a little board about a hand's 
 breadth and a half, much decayed, covered with a partially legi- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 309 
 
 ble inscription in Latin and Greek, the writing being from right 
 to left, Hebrew fashion. A line of writing has been broken off 
 the upper part, but parts of a few letters which remain may have 
 been those of the Hebrew title. 
 
 The nails used at the crucifixion, the crown of thorns, and the 
 lance which pierced Christ's side were all included in the Inven- 
 tion. All have their own legendary history. 
 
 One of the original four nails is said to have been thrown by 
 the Empress Helena into the Adriatic during a storm, which it 
 instantly quelled. A second, after having been placed either in 
 his crown or his helmet by Constantine, somehow found its way 
 in a mutilated state to the church of Santa Croce in Eome. The 
 two others were made into a bit by Constantine, whose possession 
 is disputed by Milan and Carpentras. But Mr. John Ashton, in 
 his book on "The Legendary History of the Cross," enumerates 
 no fewer than thirty-two of these nails in twenty-nine towns, in- 
 cluding three at Venice, two at Eome, a point at Compiegne, and 
 the famous Iron Crown preserved at Monza, which is a circlet of 
 gold " indebted for its name of ' Iron' to a thin band of that 
 metal" within. The crown is too small to be actually worn ; but 
 Charlemagne was crowned with it in 774, and " Napoleon did not 
 think himself King of Italy until he had placed this precious 
 diadem on his head in 1805." 
 
 Butler explains that " some multiplication of these relics has 
 sprung from the filings of that precious relic put into another 
 nail made like it, or at least from hke nails which have touched 
 it." He points out that the true nail in Santa Croce has been 
 manifestly filed, and is now without a point. 
 
 Cross, Sign of the. In the Eoman and Greek Churches it 
 is customary for the faithful to make the sign of the cross by 
 manual gesture on various public and private occasions, as before 
 and after prayer, and in conferring baptism, blessing, etc. The 
 most usual form of this rite, practised by the clergy and laity 
 alike, is to place the thumb or the forefinger on the forehead, say- 
 ing, " In the name of the Father ;" on the breast, saying, " and of 
 the Son ;" on the left shoulder, saying, " and of the Holy Ghost ;" 
 and lastly on the right shoulder, with the concluding word, 
 " Amen." The sign is also made in the air by the officiating cler- 
 gyman at baptisms, at the consecration of the emblems in the 
 mass, and at blessings, always in the direction of the object of the 
 ceremonial. St. Basil refers the custom to apostolic times, and 
 it is certain that it was a familiar one by the beginning of the third 
 centur}-, for Tertullian says, " At every step and motion, when we 
 go in and out, when we dress or put on our shoes, at the baths, at 
 the table, when lights are brought, when we go to bed, when we 
 
310 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 sit down, whatever it is which occupies us, we mark the forehead 
 with* the sign of the cross." (De Coron. Mil., iii.) In the Eoman 
 Church the sign is usually made with the thumh, in the Greek 
 Church with the forefinger, and among the Armenians and the 
 Easkolnik with index and middle fingers. In the Lutheran 
 Church the custom of making the sign of the cross was retained 
 to a limited extent at the Eeformation. In the Church of Eng- 
 land it is only prescribed to be used in baptism, but it is used by 
 some at holy communion, as well as privately, its object being 
 "to remind a Christian of his profession." 
 
 A very similar rite is practised by the higher Lamas of Thibet 
 before commencing any devotional exercises. " The Lama gently 
 touches his forehead either with the finger or with the bell, utter- 
 ing the mystic OM ; then he touches the top of his chest, utter- 
 ing AH ; then the epigastrium (pit of the stomach), uttering 
 HUM, and some Lamas add SYA-HA, while others complete the 
 cross by touching the left shoulder, uttering DAM and then 
 YAM. It is alleged that the object of these manipulations is to 
 concentrate the parts of the Sattva, namely, the body, speech, 
 and mind, upon the image or divinity which he is about to 
 commune with." (Waddall : The Buddhism of Thibet.) 
 
 The sign of the cross made by gesture is entitled the crux usu- 
 alis. But when the sign is actually impressed on some material, 
 as with a pen on a piece of paper, it becomes a crux exemplata, 
 which is a name common to all representations of the cross, 
 whether written, painted, or sculptured. In the fifth century it 
 became customary to apply a cross mark at the beginning of 
 treaties, diplomatic notes, etc., in lieu of the customary invoca- 
 tion of the name of God, and at the end, beside the name of 
 the signer, as a token of trustworthiness. Ecclesiastics always 
 used it in this way, and the primates of the Church still con- 
 tinue the practice. The Greek Emperor used a red cross be- 
 fore his name in signing ; the Byzantine princes, a green ; the 
 English kings, a golden. 
 
 Crossing the Lfine, i.e., either the equator or the Arctic cir- 
 cle, was formerly the occasion, not only among merchant vessels 
 and men-of-war, but also among whalers, for curious ceremonies 
 that are now well-nigh obsolete. The details of the performance 
 varied even among the ships of the same waters, but it always 
 took the form of some tribute to Neptune e:5%cted from such of 
 the officers, passengers, or crew as had never hefore crossed the 
 line in question. Captain Marryat, in " Frank Mildmay," gives 
 a description which covers all the essential points. He repre- 
 sents the ship as being hailed from the supposed depths of the 
 sea the evening before the line ^ to be reached, and the captain 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 311 
 
 is given the compliments of Neptune and asked to muster his 
 novices for the sea-lord's inspection. The next day the ship is 
 hove to at the proper moment, and Neptune, with his dear Am- 
 phitrite and suite, comes on board over the bow, or through a 
 bridle-port, if the weather permits. " Neptune appears," writes 
 Marryat, " preceded by a young man dandily dressed in tights 
 and riding on a car made of a gun-carriage drawn by six nearly 
 naked blacks, spotted with yellow paint. He has a long beard 
 of oakum, an iron crown on his head, and carries a trident with 
 a small dolphin between its prongs. His attendants consist of 
 a secretary, with quills of the sea-fowl ; a surgeon, with lancet 
 and pill-box ; a barber, with a huge wooden razor, with its blade 
 made of an iron hoop ; and a barber's mate, with a tub for a 
 shaving-box. Amphitrite, wearing a woman's night-cap with 
 sea- weed ribbons on her head, and bearing an albicore on a 
 harpoon, carries a ship's boy in her lap as a baby, with a mar- 
 linspike to cut his teeth on. She is attended by three men 
 dressed as nymphs, with curry-combs, mirrors, and pots of 
 paint. The sheep-pen, lined with canvas and filled with water, 
 has already been prepared. The victim, seated on a platform 
 laid over it, is blindfolded, then shaved by the barber, and finally 
 plunged backward into the water. Ofl&cers escape by paying a 
 fine in money or rum." 
 
 To this day it is the roughest sort of rough man-handling, 
 but it is a short shrift for those who take it good-naturedly, 
 and, like bear-baiting, affords great amusement to the specta- 
 tors. 
 
 Cucking- Stool. This is sometimes confounded with the 
 ducking-stool, but was entirely dissimilar. Its exact construc- 
 tion cannot be explained in these pages. Let it suffice to say 
 that it was a seat of even flagitious indelicacy upon which of- 
 fending females were exposed at their own doors or in some 
 public place as a means of putting upon them the last degree 
 of ignominy. The cucking-stool, in fact, was analogous to the 
 Sedes Stercoraria in which a new Pope was formerly placed 
 during the installation ceremonies, to remind him that he was 
 human. 
 
 Curfew. (Fr. Couvre-feu.) A bell tolled at evening as a sig- 
 nal to the inhabitants to cover fires, extinguish lights, and retire 
 to rest. It is erroneously said to have been instituted in Eng- 
 land by William the Conqueror as an arbitrary bit of tyranny, 
 and the nursery historian has waxed sentimental over the wrongs 
 of the conquered Saxon, and conjured up pictures that must be 
 balm to the down-trodden Celt. Even Thomson tells uS; — 
 
312 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 The shivering wretches at the curfew sound 
 Dejected sunk into their sordid heds. 
 
 But the couvre-feu was known before William's time, both in 
 England and on the Continent. He did, indeed, issue an edict 
 on the subject, and, although this edict may incidentally have 
 helped to put down the Saxon beer-clubs, which were hotbeds of 
 political conspiracies, its primary aim was as a precaution against 
 fire. That danger was an ever-present one in those days of 
 chimneyless wooden houses. 
 
 The ancient city ordinances of London abound in stringent fire 
 regulations. None of them, however, was more effective than 
 the " cover-fire" bell, which as far back as the time of King 
 Alfred was rung in certain places in England. William's edict 
 rendered compulsory an ancient custom. But it was a wise legis- 
 lative act, and not a bit of arbitrary tyranny. We find plenty 
 of early traces of the custom or its equivalent, as, for instance, 
 the blowing of a horn at the market-place in Continental 
 Europe. 
 
 It is a curious instance of the conservative tendency of the 
 rural mind in England that the cusjbom of ringing the curfew 
 should have so long survived its original significance. 
 
 Curfew is still religiously tolled in many hundreds of towns 
 and villages, either all the year round or — which is still more 
 usual — from September to April. No part of the kingdom can 
 claim it as a special proof of its adherence to a primitive simplicity. 
 Geographically considered, its survivals are by no means unin- 
 structive. It tolls from the Isle of Wight in the south through 
 Kent and Surrey, Middlesex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Lincoln, York, 
 Durham, and Northumberland, and even across the border, in 
 the Scotch lowlands. And it can be traced again through Cum- 
 berland and Lancashire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Stafford, Notts, 
 Leicestershire, Worcestershire, Shropshire, Hertfordshire, Mon- 
 mouthshire, down to Devon and Dorset. 
 
 It is, in short, perpetuated all over the kingdom. Here and 
 there it has become identified with local customs. At Newcastle, 
 until it was discontinued, it was the signal for shutting the shops. 
 At Durham, again (where it is tolled at nine o'clock), it heralds 
 the closing of the college gates ; while in many Cheshire and 
 Yorkshire villages it has for hundreds of years warned farmers 
 to lock up their cattle for the night. The almost universal hour 
 at which it is tolled is eight o'clock in the evening, although here 
 and there it is rung instead at seven and nine o'clock. In some 
 places, too, there is a morning curfew, — a curious variation. At 
 Stow, for instance, it is, or was lately, rung as early as four 
 o'clock in the morning, and at Tamworth at the more seasonable 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 313 
 
 hour of six o'cloelc. At Waltham in the Wolds, again, a grateful 
 farmer, who was lost in the snow and found his way home by 
 its sound, left a field to endow a five o'clock curfew forever. 
 
 The facts, indeed, plainly show that the custom has kept its 
 hold on the popular sympathies through all the ages. The 
 Pilgrims and the Puritans brought it over with them to New 
 England, where the curfew bell is still rung in many towns and 
 villages. In the "Bells of Lynn" Longfellow appeals to the 
 " curfew of the setting sun" as heard at Nahant, and other al- 
 lusions are freely found in our native poets. 
 
 Nay, so firmly has the curfew intrenched itself in parts of New 
 England that in 1894 there was a popular uprising at the old 
 seaport town of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, when the more 
 progressive residents sought to abolish the ringing of the bell of 
 the North Church at nine o'clock every night. This bell rang 
 when General Washington stopped over-night in the town, and 
 also when Daniel Webster was reading cases in a law oflSce there. 
 It had sent generations to bed. Should it be silent now ? " No !" 
 cried the old-timers, as they rose in their wrath and kept on 
 ringing it. 
 
 It was about the same time that the curfew habit spread to 
 the West, and, later, to the South. It started at Stillwater, 
 Minnesota, and by July, 1895, about twenty other towns in that 
 State had passed curfew ordinances. Not only that, but other 
 towns in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, South Dakota, Nebraska, 
 Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Indiana, and Georgia had followed 
 the leader. 
 
 The general principle of the curfew ordinances is the same 
 wherever they have been adopted, but the ordinances differ in 
 details. The idea is to provide that children under a certain age, 
 varying in different towns from eighteen down to fifteen years, 
 shall not be on the streets of the town after a stated time, 
 ranging from half-past seven p.m. to nine p.m., unless accompanied 
 by a lawful guardian. The penalty for violation of the ordi- 
 nance also varies in different towns. 
 
 Throughout Minnesota children under sixteen years of age are 
 required to be at home by nine o'clock at night, or very soon 
 after. Curfew is sounded by tolling nine strokes on the fire-bell 
 of the town. Any child found on the streets after that hour 
 unaccompanied by a guardian may be arrested, and for the first 
 offence taken home to his parents and cautioned. If arrested a 
 second time, a fine of from three to ten dollars, or imprisonment 
 of from three to ten days in jail, at the discretion of the magis- 
 trate, is the penalty. 
 
 In most other Western States the curfew rings earlier than in 
 Minnesota. Usually it is rung at either eight or half-past eight 
 
314 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 o'clock. Warrensburg, Missouri, rings the curfew at half-past 
 seven p.m. Topeka, Kansas, puts the age- limit at sixteen years ; 
 Wallace, Idaho, puts it at fifteen years. Chanute, Kansas, re- 
 quires children to be off the streets as early as seven o'clock. 
 Way Cross, Georgia, permits children to be abroad until ten 
 o'clock. A unique addition to the curfew ordinance at Pierce, 
 Nebraska, makes it unlawful for any boy when spoken to to 
 return other than a civil answer. 
 
 Custom of the Country. The name popularly given to a 
 custom said to have flourished in France, Scotland, and England 
 during the feudal ages which gave to the lord of the manor the 
 right to deflower the daughters of his vassals upon their mar- 
 riage night. Aubrey De Yere alludes to this right in his play 
 of "St. Thomas of Canterbury:" 
 
 Customs ! Customs ! 
 Custom was that which to the lord of the soil 
 Yielded the virgin one day wedded. 
 
 Beaumarchaia, with an abuse of dramatic license, makes the 
 custom an episode of his play " The Marriage of Figaro," though 
 it certainly never existed in Spain. A comic opera, " Le Droit 
 du Seigneur," produced half a century ago at the Opera Comique 
 at Paris, is still occasionally played. There is also a well-known 
 picture of the same name by Jules Garnier. A wedding party 
 has just left the church, and the lord is leading away the unwill- 
 ing bride. Two monks are striving to reconcile the groom to 
 the inevitable : one of them holds up three fingers, possibly to 
 signify the number of days that must elapse before his bride will 
 be restored to him. Literature, art, and the drama have com- 
 bined to impress upon the mind the existence of this custom. 
 Yet the real historical evidence is not convincing. It is possible 
 that such a right may have been asserted by some semi- savage 
 lord here and there, but that it ever existed as a recognized and 
 established custom is highly incredible. Louis Yeuillot, in " Le 
 Droit du Seigneur au Moyen-Age" (" The Eight of the Lord in 
 the Middle Ages"), published in 1854, treats the subject exhaust- 
 ively, and comes to the above conclusion. There was indeed a 
 Droit du Seigneur, or jus primce noctis, but the Seigneur in ques- 
 tion was the Lord in heaven, and the jus, established by the 
 Council of Carthage in 398, ordained that out of respect for the 
 nuptial benediction, and for the greater glory of God, a newly 
 married couple should remain continent on their wedding night. 
 Later, in conformity with the advice given by the archangel 
 Eaphael to the son of Tobit (Tobit vi, 16-22), the precept was 
 extended to three days immediately foll6wing the marriage. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 315 
 
 According to several rituals of the fifteenth century, more espe- 
 cially at Liege, Limoges, and Bordeaux, the jus primoe noctis 
 seems to have been in Ibrce up to that time, but by the sixteenth 
 century it had come to be a mere religious counsel. It is possi- 
 ble that the myth, if myth indeed it be, arose from a misinterpre- 
 tation of the Latin words jus primce noctis. 
 
 A curious reversal of this custom is quoted by Lagrize in his 
 " Histoire du Droit dans les Pyrenees" (1868). He finds his au- 
 thority in a charter of 1330. When the Seigneur de Sadirac mar- 
 ried, his vassal, the Seigneur de Brorden, was bound to meet the 
 bride at the boundary of his lands, accompanied by his tenants. 
 There the vassal was to dismount from his horse, to salute the 
 lady, assist her to alight, kiss her, and strip her of all her clothes 
 to the chemise, keeping them as his perquisite. If he politely 
 vouchsafed to lend her the garments until she reached her home, 
 the ceremony of disrobing her might be postponed until then, 
 but the spoils still belonged to him. 
 
 Cuthbert, St., patron saint of Durham, England, and of its 
 cathedral. The anniversary of his death, March 20, was a great 
 festival in the early English Church, which commemorated also 
 the 4th of September as the anniversary of the translation of 
 his body to Durham. Originally a shepherd boy in the valley 
 of the Lauder, a vision which he saw, while tending his flocks, 
 of St. Aidan's soul being received into paradise, induced him 
 to enter the neighboring monastery of Old Melrose. As an 
 evangelist he shares with King Oswald and St. Aidan the honor 
 of the conversion of Northeastern England. He became prior 
 of Melrose, then was for twelve years a simple monk at Lindis- 
 farne, and for nine years an austere hermit in a rude hut on 
 House Island, one of the Fame group, then Bishop of Hexham, 
 and in 685 Bishop- of Lindisfarne. Two years later he resigned 
 his bishopric and returned to his hut on House Island, where he 
 died March 20, 687. 
 
 By his own desire, he was buried in the monastery of St. Peter 
 in Lindisfarne. Many miracles were reported at the tomb, and 
 Cuthbert's fame grew even greater after death than before. Bede 
 relates that in 698 the monks disinterred his body and found it 
 uncorrupted. It was put in a fresh coffin, which contained also 
 the skull of St. Oswald, and placed in the ground. In 875 the 
 monks fleeing before an invasion of the Danes carried the sacred 
 relics with them, and for many years wandered with them from 
 place to place throughout Northumbria and Southern Scotland, 
 everywhere willingly supported by the faithful, until finally in 
 883 they reached Durham. Here St. Cuthbert caused his coffin 
 to remain immovable for three days, and then made known his 
 
316 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 wish to be sepultured where the cathedral now stands. The 
 first church was built of wood, but at the end of four years this 
 was replaced by one of stone. In 1104 the present cathedral 
 had sufiiciently advanced towards completion to allow of the 
 reinterment of the saint in a magnificent shrine, which shared 
 with that of St. Edward at Westminster and St. Thomas at 
 Canterbury the homage of England. 
 
 This shrine, we are told, was of green marble, partly gilt, and 
 so rich in offerings and jewels that it was allowed to be one of 
 the most sumptuous in England. In the base were worked four 
 seats where cripples and invalids might get rest and healing. 
 Over the shrine waved the famous banner of St. Cuthbert, crim- 
 son and green, with a square of white velvet in the centre, and 
 within the square a sacred relic, the corporal-cloth wherewith 
 St. Cuthbert used to cover the chalice when he said mass. This 
 banner was at the battle of Brankenfield in Henry the Eighth's 
 time, and brought home with it the royal banner of Scotland, 
 and many Scottish noblemen's banners, which were hung in the 
 feretory. This consecrated standard was thought by north- 
 country people to be one of the most magnificent relics in Eng- 
 land, and was carried out only on great processions, such as 
 Easter Day, Ascension Day, Whitsunday, Corpus Christi Day, 
 and St. Cuthbert's Day. 
 
 The corporal- cloth which the banner of St. Cuthbert con- 
 tained was that which the night before the battle of Nevill's 
 Cross Prior Fossour had been commanded in a vision to mount 
 on a spear and carry to the Eed Hills to abide the battle on 
 the morrow. The great victory that followed, and the death of 
 seven Scottish earls and fifteen thousand Scotchmen, were nat- 
 urally attributed to St. Cuthbert and his corporale, and in this 
 battle was taken that famous Scottish relic, the black rood of 
 Scotland, a silver cross miraculously brought by a deer to a 
 Scotch king who was hunting. The sacred banner is said to 
 have been contemptuously burnt by the French wife of that 
 sacrilegious dean, Whittingham. 
 
 At the west end of the shrine stood an altar for mass to be 
 said on St. Cuthbert's Day, when the prior and all the brethren 
 kept open house in the fratry. At this feast they used to draw 
 up the gilt and painted wooden cover of the shrine with a rope 
 whence depended six silver bells which " made a goodly sound." 
 
 Anciently no women were allowed to approach the shrine. A 
 blue line of stone in the floor of the nave still marks the limit 
 beyond which they dared not go. 
 
 Nor was any tomb save that of St. Cuthbert tolerated within 
 the church until the first exception was made in 1310 in favor of 
 Bishop Anthony Bek. A tradition (which architectural evidence 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 317 
 
 proves false, but which is significant none the less) says that even 
 his body might not be carried through the church, and that a 
 breach was made in the chapel wall to admit it. 
 
 In 1542, at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries under 
 Henry YIII., the shrine was destroyed, and the tomb broken 
 open. -' They found many goodly and valuable jewels, especially 
 one precious stone, which was of value sufficient to redeem a 
 prince. After the spoil of ornaments and jewels, they ap- 
 proached near to the saint's body, expecting nothing but dust 
 and ashes ; but, perceiving the chest he lay in strongly bound 
 with iron, the goldsmith with a smith's great forge-hammer broke 
 it open, when they found him lying whole, uncorrupt, with his 
 face bare, and his beard of a fortnight's growth, and all the 
 vestments about him, as he was accustomed to say mass, and his 
 metwand of gold lying by him." 
 
 The marvel was reported to the king, who, more lenient than 
 in the case of the rival saints Thomas a Becket and Edward 
 the Confessor, ordered the body to be returned to the prior. 
 The latter buried it beneath the place where the shrine had stood. 
 
 In 1827 the tomb was again opened. In it were found the 
 coffin made in 1542, within this the successive fragments of two 
 other coffins answering to the dates of the two interments in 698 
 and 1104, and then an entire skeleton w^rapped in the rags of 
 once-rich robes, and a second skull, obviously that of St. Oswald. 
 The bones were piously replaced. Fragments of the episcopal 
 garments, together with a comb and other relics found in the 
 coffin, are now shown in the cathedral library. A sapphire ring, 
 one of the spoils wrested from the tomb by the officers of 
 Henry VIII., passed after a series of adventures to the monas- 
 tery of English canonesses at Paris, which also preserves a tooth 
 of St. Cuthbert. 
 
 Cwnstree. In Wales an ordeal through which a shrewish 
 wife was obliged to pass if in the course of a connubial tiff she 
 struck her husband with any unaccustomed weapon, as, for ex- 
 ample, a pair of tongs. Fer contra^ a poker was a recognized 
 implement of domestic warfare. Husband and wnfe were both 
 represented by attorneys in a special court (their personal appear- 
 ance there being disallowed), which was usually held in the town 
 court. When a verdict of guilty had been returned by a proper 
 jury of twelve good men and true, the sentence of death was 
 passed by the judge. An effigy of the woman was then con- 
 veyed to a gibbet below the town hall clock, and, after being 
 hanged, was fired at until completely destroyed by the crowd. 
 It is said that the custom did much towards preventing family 
 quarrels. 
 
318 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Dance of Torches, Royal. A distinctive feature at all wed- 
 dings in the roj-al house of Prussia. After the bridal couple 
 have been pronounced man and wife, the musicians are placed 
 on the solid silver stage of the White Hall in the royal palace of 
 Berlin, and the couple, preceded by six ministers of state and six 
 lieutenant-generals, two by two, all holding white torches, make 
 the tour of the hall, saluting the company as they go. The 
 bride then gives her hand to the Emperor, he in turn to the 
 Queen-mother, the bridegroom extends his to the Empress, and 
 she in turn to the best man. The princes and princesses, follow- 
 ing, lead up the dance in like professional manner. After the 
 dance follows the distribution of the bride's garter among the 
 guests. In place of the real garter, however, are substituted 
 pieces of silk, three inches long, woven in the colors of the 
 bride's hose, stamped with her monogram, and fringed with silver. 
 
 Dart, Throwing of the. A ceremony performed triennially 
 on the first Thursday of September in Cork Harbor, Ireland. 
 By virtue of a clause in the citj^'s charter, the mayor of Cork 
 is constituted Admiral of the Port, but every three years he must 
 claim jurisdiction over it by throwing a dart into the sea. The 
 weapon is generally made of mahogany tipped and winged with 
 bronze. At two o'clock in the afternoon the members of the 
 Cork Town Council embark on board a steam-vessel, attended by 
 all the civic officers and the band of the Cork civic artillery. A 
 number of ladies also attend. The steamer proceeds out to sea 
 until she reaches an imaginary line between Poor Head and Cork 
 Head, which is supposed to be the maritime boundary of the 
 borough. Here the mayor dons his official robes and proceeds, 
 attended by the mace and sword-bearer, the city treasurer, and 
 the town clerk, all wearing their official robes, to the prow of 
 the vessel, whence he launches his javelin into the water, thereby 
 asserting his authority as lord high admiral of the port. The 
 affair winds up with a banquet in the evening at the mayor's 
 house. The entire ceremony has a remarkable analogy to the 
 Marriage of the Adriatic (^. v.') which was anciently performed 
 by the Doges of Venice. A similar custom also once existed in 
 Dublin, where it was called "Riding the Fringes" (franchises), 
 in which the lord mayor and corporation, after riding round the 
 inland boundaries of the borough, halted at a point on the shore 
 near Bullock, whence the lord mayor hurled a dart into the sea, 
 the spot where it fell marking the limit of the maritime juris- 
 diction. (See also Bounds, Beating the.) 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 319 
 
 David, St. (446-549), patron of Wales. The anniversary of 
 his death on March 1 is celebrated by Welshmen wherever a 
 sufficient number are congregated in any part of the world. 
 Welsh legends relate many marvels of this saint, as that he was 
 a descendant of the Virgin Mary in the eighteenth generation, 
 and also an uncle of King Arthur, that an angel foretold his 
 birth thirty years before it happened, that another angel accom- 
 panied him through life and administered to all his wants, that 
 when he was baptized b}^ Alicas, Bishop of Munster, at Porth- 
 claes, a spring miraculously bubbled up for the purpose (it is still 
 reverenced as a holy well), and that when he preached, the 
 ground beneath his feet rose to form a natural pulpit. But in 
 fact his -hfe and work were sufficiently notable without these 
 accretions of myth. He was a great preacher and controver- 
 sialist, and as Archbishop of Carleon and Primate of Wales an 
 able organizer and disciplinarian. The uncompromising enemy 
 of Pelagianism, he succeeded in stamping out that heresy in 
 Wales. St. David transferred the archiepiscopate from Carleon 
 to Menevia, now St. David's. Here he was buried, but in 964 
 his body was transferred to Glastonbury. It was destroyed when 
 Henry YIII. dismantled that abbey. The empty shrine still 
 stands in the choir of St. David's Cathedral. In the front of it 
 are four quatrefoil apertures, through which pious votaries de- 
 posited their offerings, which the monks secured in strong iron 
 boxes behind. 
 
 Pope Calixtus, who canonized the saint in 1120, declared that 
 two visits to St. David's were as good as one visit to Eome, 
 according to the old monkish lines, — 
 
 Meneviam pete bis, Komam procedere si vis ; 
 
 ^qua tibi merces redditur hie et ibi : 
 
 Koma semel quantum, bis dat Menevia tantum. 
 
 Among those who made the pilgrimage to St. David's shrine 
 were William I., Henry II., and Edward I. :iDd his queen 
 Elean6r, if the local tradition is worthy of belief 
 
 Various reasons are assigned by the Welsh for wearing the leek 
 on his anniversary. The most usual legend runs that in a great 
 battle against the Saxons where St. David led his people on to 
 victory he caused them to wear leeks in their hats to distinguish 
 them from the enemj'. Nevertheless the Welsh themselves have 
 another and more humorous legend. Wales in early days was 
 troubled by orang-outangs, who proved too much for the inhabit- 
 ants. So they sent over iPor assistance to England. But when 
 the English arrived they found it difficult to tell orang-outangs 
 from their Welsh neighbors, and at last, after numerous disas- 
 
320 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 trous mistakes, asked the latter to wear a leek in their hats as a 
 distinguishing mark. 
 
 Shakespeare in his play of Henry Y., Act iv. Sc. 7, seems to 
 imply that the custom originated at Orecy or Poitiers. Fluellen, 
 addressing the monarch, says, — 
 
 "Your grandfather of famous memory, an't please your 
 majesty, and your great uncle Edward, the plack prince of 
 Wales, as I have read in the chronicles, fought a most prave pattle 
 here in France. 
 
 " K Hen. They did, Fluellen. 
 
 " Flu. Your majesty says very true : if your majesty is remem- 
 bered of it, the Welshmen did goot service in a garden where 
 leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps ; which, 
 your majesty knows, to this hour is an honorable padge of the 
 service ; and I do believe your majesty takes no scorn to wear 
 the leek upon St. Tavy's day." 
 
 This allusion by Fluellen to the Welsh having worn the leek in 
 a battle under the Black Prince really proves nothing save that 
 when Shakespeare wrote Welshmen wore leeks. In the same 
 play the well-remembered Fluellen's enforcement of Pistol to 
 eat the leek he had ridiculed further estabhshes the wearing as 
 a common usage in Shakespeare's time. 
 
 Is it not sufficient to hold that the leek became the national 
 insignia of the Welsh because it was thei'r favorite vegetable ? 
 As far back as we can trace his domestic history, Taffy and the 
 leek are inseparable. Caxton's "Description of Wales" has 
 these lines : 
 
 And again : 
 
 They have gruell to potage, 
 And leekes kynde to companage. 
 
 Atte meete, and after eke, 
 Her solace is salt and leeke. 
 
 Worlidge says, " I have seen the greater part of a garden there 
 stowed with leeks, and parts of the remainder with onions and 
 garlic." 
 
 The observance of St. David's Day was long countenanced by 
 royalty in England. Even economical Henry YII. could dis- 
 burse two pounds "To the Walshemen towardes their feste" 
 {Med. ^vi Kalend., vol. i. p. 268) in 1494, and among the house- 
 hold expenses of the Princess Mary for 1544 is an entry of fif- 
 teen shillings to the Yeomen of the King's Gruard for bringing a 
 leek to Her Grace on St. David's Day. William III. always 
 joined his Welsh subjects in wearing a leek on this day, witness 
 the following paragraph in The Flying Fost, 1699 : " Yesterday 
 being St. David's Day, the King, according to custom, wore a 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 321 
 
 leek in honor of the ancient Britons, the same being presented 
 to him by the sergeant-porter whose place it is, and for which he 
 claims the clothes His Majesty wore that day ; the courtiers in 
 imitation of His Majesty wore leeks also." 
 
 Gilt leeks are now worn in the hat or carried in procession 
 by the Welsh branches of charitable societies on the saint's day, 
 and every mantel-piece in the principality is decorated with the 
 genuine vegetable. 
 
 It appears to have been at one time customary in England 
 for eflSgies of Welshmen to be burned on this day. These effi- 
 gies were known as Taffies. Pepys has_ the following entry in 
 his Diary, under the date of March 1, 1667: "In Mark Lane 
 I do observe (it being St. David's Day) the picture of a man 
 dressed like a Welshman, hanging by the neck upon one of the 
 poles that stand out at the top of the merchants' houses, in full 
 proportion : and very handsomely done, which is one of the 
 oddest sights I have seen, a good while." The custom was not 
 extinct in the middle of the eighteenth century : 
 
 But it would make a stranger laugh 
 
 To see the English hang poor Taff : 
 
 A pair of breeclies and a coat, 
 
 Hat, shoes, and stockings, and what not, 
 
 All stuifed with hay to represent 
 
 The Cambrian hero thereby meant : 
 
 With sword sometimes three inches broad, 
 
 And other armor made of wood, 
 
 They drag hur to some puhlick tree, 
 
 And hang hur up in effigy. 
 
 The goat has by time honored custom been attached to the 
 regiment of the Eoyal Welsh (23d) Fusiliers, and the following 
 extract, taken from the Graphic (No. 171, March 8, 1873), shows 
 how St. David's Day is observed by the officers and men of this 
 regiment : 
 
 " The drum-major, as well as every man in the regiment, wears 
 a leek in his busby ; the goat is dressed with rosettes and rib- 
 bons of red and blue. The officers have a party, and the drum- 
 major, accompanied by the goat, mnrches round the table after 
 dinner, carrying a plate of leeks, of which he offers one to each 
 officer or guest who has never eaten one before, and who is 
 bound to eat it up, standing on his chair, with one foot on the 
 table, while a drummer beats a roll behind his chair. All the 
 toasts given are coupled with the name of St. David, nor is the 
 memory of Toby Purcell forgotten. This worthy was gazetted 
 major of the regiment when it was first raised, and was killed in 
 the battle of the Boyne." 
 
 21 
 
322 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Dead, P'estival of the (Japanese, Bon Matsuri), in Japan. 
 This is celebrated fiom the 13th to the 15th of July. Foreigners 
 often call it the Feast of Lanterns, from the lanterns which form 
 a prominent feature in the celebration. It is believed that on 
 these days the dead come back and mingle with their relations. 
 Early on the morning of the 13th offerings of fruit and vegeta- 
 bles are laid upon the altars in churches and the little shrines 
 before which the morning and evening prayers are said in every 
 believing home. Clear water is sprinkled from time to time, and 
 tea is poured out every hour for the viewless visitors. So for 
 three days the dead are feasted. At sunset pine torches are 
 kindled to guide their steps, and lanterns are suspended over 
 houses and tombs. 
 
 On the third night the ghostly visitants are supposed to return 
 to their abodes, and all the living can do is to speed ihem on 
 their journey. Little boats, barely a foot in length, are launched 
 on canal, river, or lake, each with a miniature lantern glowing 
 at the prow and incense burning at the stern, and so they are 
 allowed to float down to the sea. A recent law, however, has 
 forbidden the launching of these shoryobuni, or " boats of the 
 blessed ghosts," in the large seaport towns, owing to the danger 
 to the shij^ping. There is some analogy both in the object of 
 the feast and in the lighting of the lanterns with the Christian 
 feast of All Souls. (See All Souls' Day, and Halloween.) 
 
 Dead, Festival of the Unforgotten. (Chinese, Ching Ming 
 C/iieh.) The Chinese All Souls' Day. Ancestor-worship is the 
 
 most prominent feature of 
 the Chinese religion. It 
 was sanctioned by Con- 
 fucius. Like the ancient 
 Egyptians, the Chinese 
 hold that every person has 
 three souls. At death, one 
 soul goes into the unseen 
 world, the second remains 
 with the body in the tomb, 
 the third takes up its abode 
 in the ancestral tablet, 
 which is the holiest thing 
 in the household. This tab- 
 let is simply a narrow piece 
 of wood, about a foot long, 
 two or three inches wide, and half an inch thick, set in a low 
 pedestal, and on one side are inscribed the ancestral names. The 
 eldest son has charge of the tablet and its worship. It is jilaced 
 
 Festival op the Unforgotten Dead. 
 (By a Chinese artist.) 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 323 
 
 in the main hall of the house, offerings are presented before it, 
 and incense is burned to it every day. The son regards this 
 tablet as in very truth the abode of a personality which is far 
 more to him for weal or woe than all the gods of the empire. 
 The gods are to be feared and their favor is to be propitiated ; 
 but ancestors are loved and their needs in the spirit-world are 
 generously supplied. Food is offered daily before the tablet, in 
 order to satisfy the hunger of the spirit, while paper money, 
 suits of paper clothes, and paper figures representing men- 
 servants and maid-servants are burnt to ashes, — the idea being 
 that thus sublimated they pass without difficulty to the souls in 
 the regions of the blest. 
 
 Twice in the year — the first time in the third month, when also, 
 as we learn from the Gospels, it was customary to sweep and gar- 
 nish the tombs in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, and again in 
 the seventh — the males of every family of standing betake them- 
 selves to the graveyards, and, having cleansed and embellished 
 the tombs, offer sacrifices of food and burn paper representations 
 before an altar in front of the graves. Each worshipper bows re- 
 peatedly with bis head to the ground, as though in the presence of 
 a deity, and brings his devotions to an end by pouring libations of 
 wine over the altar and firing volleys of crackers to drive to a dis- 
 tance any evil spirits that may be lurking in the neighborhood. 
 But there are other evil spirits in the company of the deceased, 
 who, being beyond the reach of the sound of fireworks, have to 
 be propitiated. Lepers and beggars are believed to haunt the eter- 
 nal regions, and, as th^se might become annoyingly clamorous if 
 the offerings and presents were confined to the deceased alone, 
 food, consisting of small cakes, and offerings of paper money are 
 presented to them. But even these do not exhaust the unseen 
 powers which have to be propitiated in order to secure the undis- 
 turbed repose of the dead. '' To leave out of count the local deity 
 would be almost to invite the disturbance of the genial influences 
 secured by the position of the tomb. Three dishes of food, three 
 cups of wine, three incense-sticks, two candles, and three packets 
 of paper money are supposed to satisfy his wants, and these are 
 readily offered at his shrine. When the service is over and the 
 spiritual essence of the food offered has been consumed by the 
 spirits, the worshippers gather round the altar and partake of 
 the more material portion of the viands. This is but a prelude 
 to a subsequent feast, which is held in the ancestral hall of the 
 clan." (Prof. E. K. Douglass, in Good Words for January, 1895.) 
 
 In Formosa the feast in honor of the dead was differently 
 conducted. The food was tied row upon row on great cone-like 
 structures of bamboo poles, from five to ten feet in diameter 
 at the base, and sometimes fifty or sixty feet high. 
 
324 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 When the spirits had consumed the spiritual part, the carnal 
 became the property of a vast mob that always assembled on the 
 grounds. A gong gave the signal for the latter to rush in. 
 " Scarcely had the first stroke fallen," says George Leshe 
 Mackay, speaking of a Seventh Moon Feast he had witnessed 
 at Bang-Kah, " when that whole scene was one mass of arms 
 and legs and tongues. Screaming, cursing, howling, like demons 
 of the pit, they all joined in the onset. A rush was made for 
 the cones, and those nearest seized the supports and pulled 
 now this way, now that. The huge, heavily laden structures 
 began to sway from side to side until with a crash one after 
 another fell into the crowd, crushing their way to the ground. 
 Then it was every man for himself. In one wild scramble, 
 groaning and yelling all the while, trampling on those who had 
 lost their footing or were smothered by the falling cones, fight- 
 ing and tearing one another like mad dogs, they all made for 
 the coveted food. It was a very bedlam, and the wildness of 
 the scene was enhanced by the irregular explosion of the fire- 
 crackers and the death-groan of some one worsted in the fray. 
 As each secured what he could carry, he tried to extricate 
 himself from the mob, holding fast to the treasures for which 
 he had fought, and one of the less successful in the outskirts 
 of the crowd would fain plunder him. Escaping the mob, he 
 hurried to his home, expecting every moment to be attacked 
 by those who thought it easier to waylay and rob the sohtary 
 spoilsman than to join in the general scramble in the plain." 
 
 These barbarities were aboUshed in 1894 by the Chinese gov- 
 ernor, Lin Ming Chuan. 
 
 December. Like the three preceding months, December de- 
 rives its name from the place which it held in the old Eoman 
 
 December. Threshing and Winnowing. 
 (From an eleventh-century MS.) 
 
 calendar, which divided the year into ten months, December 
 (the tenth) being the last. The ancient Saxons called this the 
 Wintermonath, or Winter Month, but after their conversion to 
 Christianity they changed the name to Halig Monath, or Holy 
 Month, in honor of the Christmas anniversary on the 25th. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 325 
 
 For the same reason the modern Germans style it alternatively 
 Christmonat. 
 
 At Craig-Madden, in Stirlingshire, there is a triangular hole 
 beneath the Druidic stones. Persons who crawl through this 
 hole avoid the danger of dying childless. Probably these are the 
 last extant survivals in the British Isles of the numerous rock- 
 crevices which in the Middle Ages were held to bestow blessings 
 of various sorts upon those who resolutely squeezed through 
 them. 
 
 An interesting coincidence pointed out by Forbes-Leslie and 
 Miss C. F. Gordon-Cumming is that c1t*evices which superstition 
 has dowered with similar attributes are not uncommon in India. 
 Hindoo pilgrims from all parts of the empire throng to the tem- 
 ple of Malabar Point, at Bombay, where the priests assure them 
 that by squeezing through a narrow opening between two great 
 rocl^s they will leave their sins behind them and wdll also insure 
 having descendants to perform their funeral rites. Analogous 
 also was the ancient superstition which gave a ritual value to 
 all manner of perforated stones, some so large that people could 
 pass through them, some so small that they were worn as amu- 
 lets, or tied to the key of the stable-door to prevent the witches 
 from riding the horses at night. 
 
 Declan, St. The festival, or, as it is better known, the 
 patern, of this saint is celebrated at Ardmore, Ireland, on July 
 24. On that day and on the Sundays immediately preceding 
 and following it, the countrj^-people flock into the village, which, 
 decorated with booths and stands, has the appearance of a fair. 
 The ruined church and holy well of St. Declan, half-way be- 
 tween the village and Ardmore Head, are visited, as well as the 
 cell near the old cathedral and round tower, said to be the 
 tomb of the saint. But the most famous custom — that of pass- 
 ing under the St. Declan Stone — has been discouraged by the 
 Church authorities, and is now practised only by strangers. 
 This holy rock stands in Ardmore Bay, whither it is said to 
 have been wafted over the ocean from Eome, at the time when 
 the saint was building his church, bearing on its top a large 
 bell for the church tower and vestments for the saint himself 
 It rests on a number of smaller stones. At low water it is not 
 difiicult for men and women to pass under it by stretching 
 themselves full length on face and stomach and squeezing or 
 dragging through with a motion somewhat like swimming. 
 Once on the other side, the devotees proceeded on bare knees 
 over a number of little rocks round again to the place of 
 entrance, until they had passed under the stone three times. 
 
 St. Declan, according to the hagiologists, was the first bishop 
 
326 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 of Ardmore in Ireland. Baptized by St. Colman, he preached 
 the gospel in that country some time before the arrival of St. 
 Patrick. 
 
 / Decoration or Memorial Day. In most of the Northern 
 States of the Union May 30 is set apart by statute as a day 
 for decorating the graves of the soldiers v^ho fell in the civil 
 war, for holding military parades, and for listening to an oration 
 by some famous orator appointed for the occasion. The origin 
 of the observance was thus told by Chauncey M. Depew in a 
 famous Decoration Day address made in the Metropolitan Opera- 
 
 House in New York on May 30, 1879 : " When the war was over 
 in the South, where under warmer skies and with more poetic 
 temperaments symbols and emblems are better understood than 
 in the practical North, the widows, mothers, and children of the 
 Confederate dead went out and strewed their graves with flowers ; 
 at many places the women scattered them impartially also over 
 the unknown and unmarked resting-places of the Union soldiers. 
 As the news of this touching tribute flashed over the North it 
 roused, as nothing else could have done, national amity and love 
 and allayed sectional animosity and passion. , . . Thus out of 
 sorrows common alike to North and South came this beautiful 
 custom." But its growth was a gradual one. There was no 
 general celebration and no settled date until, in 1868, General 
 John A. Logan, commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the 
 Republic, issued an order that on May 30 of that year every 
 post, from East to West, should engage in fitting ceremonies 
 and scatter tokens of respect over the resting-places of their 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 327 
 
 comrades in arms. Later the Legislatures took up tbe matter, 
 until at present (1897) it is a legal holiday in the following 
 States and Territories : Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecti- 
 cut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, 
 Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minne- 
 sota, Misssouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, 
 New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsyl- 
 vania, Ehode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, 
 Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. In Kansas and Nevada, 
 which have no statutory holidays, it is universally observed. It 
 is also celebrated by Grand Army men and others on all the 
 battle-fields of the South where National cemeteries have been 
 established for the Federal dead. ^ 
 
 Decoration Day is a sort of lay All Souls' Day. " Decoration 
 Day," says the Illustrated American for June 21, 1890, " is not 
 merely a holida}^ in the modern acceptation of the word ; it 
 realizes its etymological significance as a holy day. It is our 
 All Saints' Day, sacred to the memory of the glorified dead who 
 consecrated themselves to their country, were baptized in blood, 
 were beatified and canonized as martyrs for the right. It is 
 well that, in the hurry and press of our times, when the higher 
 soul within us is choked and stifled by the more sordid cares of 
 the hour, by the selfish struggle for place and pelf, we should 
 pause for a period to dwell upon the memory of the illustrious 
 dead who gave their lives for their country, and who typifv that 
 higher and truer Americanism which lies within us still, dormant 
 and latent indeed, yet ready to spring again to the surface when- 
 ever the needs ot the country issue a new call to arms. It is 
 well that we should do them honor which honors ourselves in 
 the doing. But it is well, also, that we should remember what 
 was their true mission and their higher success : that they fought 
 not through enmity to a gallant and mistaken foe, but through 
 love for the Union, which recognized no North and no South. 
 That Union they have restored, and union means peace, har- 
 mony, mutual good will. If they had merely pinned together 
 with bayonets the two divided sections of the country, they had 
 fought and bled and fallen in vain. Northern hatred for the 
 South, Southern hatred for the North, is disloyalt}^, is treason 
 indeed to the Union which they re-established. A few political 
 ' leaders' — ' leaders' who are far in the rear of public sentiment 
 — have sought to make political capital out of the lact that 
 Southerners cherish the memory of the heroes who fought on 
 their side, and have raised statues to commemorate them. But 
 we who remember with pride the achievements of our soldiers 
 are proud to acknowledge that they had foemen worthy of their 
 steel, and that a common country gave birth to both. The 
 
328 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 arbitrament of the sword has settled forever the questions over 
 which no other tribunal had jurisdiction, and the nation went 
 through the throes of a civil war for the benefit of North and 
 South alike." 
 
 Not only is Decoration Day allied to the Christian All Souls' 
 Day, but through and behind All Souls' Day to various pagan 
 rituals. 
 
 Among the Greeks and Eomans flowers were intimately asso- 
 ciated with the honors paid to the dead. When a Greek died, 
 the nearest female relatives assembled to perform the last offices, 
 which were concluded by crowning the head with flowers. In 
 addition to this, the Romans sometimes covered the couch on 
 which the dead body lay with leaves and flowers. It was like- 
 wise a universal custom for the relatives and friends of one just 
 dead, especially if the deceased was young, to carry wreaths of 
 flowers to the house or place of burial of such a one. At the Xoai^ 
 the ceremon}^ at the grave, libations of milk, honey, water, and 
 wine, and oiferings of flowers and olives, were made ; and after 
 burial the grave was constantly crowned and adorned with 
 wreaths. Moreover, the springing of flowers from the tomb 
 of the dead was welcomed as an earnest of their happiness; and 
 it was the universal wish that the tombstones of departed friends 
 might be light to them, and that a perpetual springtide of all 
 kinds of sweet flowers might encircle their graves. 
 
 More closely analogous to the modern Decoration Day and All 
 Souls' Day are the ancient Parentalia (g. y.). The Eomans were 
 strict in their observance of them ; and even the hateful Cara- 
 calla, when he visited Achilles' grave, laid garlands of flowers 
 upon it. And when he himself died, to the great joy of his 
 people, some were found who for a long time afterwards decked 
 his tomb with spring and summer flowers : '• Non defuerunt, 
 qui per longum tempus vernis sestivisque floribus tumulum ejus 
 ornarint." And Antony dying begged to have roses scattered 
 on his tomb : 
 
 Manibus est imis rosa grata, et grata sepulchris, 
 Et rosa flos florum. 
 
 So too Ovid, writing from the land of his exile, prayed his wife, 
 "But do you perform the funeral rites for me when dead, and 
 offer chaplets wet with your tears. Although the fire shall have 
 changed ray body into ashes, yet the sad dust will be sensible 
 of your pious affection." 
 
 Dedication Festival. The anniversarj^ of the consecration 
 of a church. In Catholic countries it is observed as a feast of 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 329 
 
 the highest rank. It must not be confounded with a patron day 
 (q. v.), which is the feast of the patron saint in whose honor the 
 church is dedicated. The mass and oflSce for the anniversary of 
 the dedication exist by themselves, are of singular beauty, and 
 have nothing to do with the patronal feast. At the time of the 
 actual consecration the bishop may fix a day other than the 
 actual anniversary for the feast of the dedication, in all future 
 times ; but after the consecration Papal permission is required 
 to change the day. 
 
 Deisul, or Deasil. A custom, now almost extinct, but once 
 very prevalent, in the Scotch Highlands. It consisted in going 
 three times around a person or an object in a rightwise direction, 
 — that is, keeping that person or object alwaj'S on the right side. 
 This was considered, and is considered all over the world, as the 
 sunwise direction. To perform the circuit in this manner was 
 to bring down a blessing, to perform it in the opposite manner, 
 or, as the Celtic word ran, widdershins, or withershins, was to 
 invoke a curse. Witches were said to approach sacred places 
 and advance towards the demons whom they served in widder- 
 shins fashion. This was in opposition to what at one time must 
 have been an established religious duty. — i.e., to perform all acts 
 in accordance with the sun's apparent motion. It was sunwise 
 that the Celts approached a consecrated place, and all their re- 
 ligious processions moved in that direction. Martin in his "De- 
 scription of the Western Islands of Scotland" (1703) mentions 
 the common practice of carrying fires deasil or sunwise around 
 persons or property in order to preserve them from any malig- 
 nant influence. For the same reason boatmen rowed their boats 
 round sunwise before proceeding in the direct course. To insure 
 happiness in marriage the bride was conducted deasil towards 
 her future spouse, and it was in the same manner that a corpse 
 was conveyed to the grave or funeral pyre. On Martin's arrival 
 in the island of Eona, one of the inhabitants gave him a blessing, 
 at the same time going round him sunwise. Lachlan Shaw tes- 
 tifies to a continuance of these ceremonies at the end of the 
 eighteenth century in the Lowland district of Moray. He men- 
 tions witnessing " Deas soil" processions made round the churches 
 at marriages, churchings of women, and burials; as well as pro- 
 cessions with lighted torches made in like manner around the 
 corn-fields, in order to obtain a blessing on the crops. (History 
 of Moray.) 
 
 In short, while this custom of deisul endured among the High- 
 landers there seem to have been few events in their lives at 
 which it was not performed. But the most common rite was 
 that whose object was to call down blessings upon an individual 
 
330 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 by making a sunwise circuit around him. Scott affords numer- 
 ous instances in his novels. The old woman in " The Two 
 Drovers" asks permission to " walk the deasil" around Robin 
 Oig, "that you may go safe out into the foreign land, and come 
 safe home." Sir Walter explains that " it consists in the person 
 who made the deasil walking three times round the person who 
 is the object of the ceremony, taking care to move according to 
 the course of the sun." Again, he describes how the Highland 
 doctor came when Waverley had been wounded : " He observed 
 great ceremony in approaching Edward, and, though our hero 
 was writhing with pain, would not proceed to any operation 
 which might assuage it until he had perambulated his couch 
 three times, moving from east to west, according to the course 
 of the sun. This, which was called making the deasil, both the 
 leech and his assistants seemed to consider as a matter of the 
 last importance to the accomplishment of a cure." (^Waverley, 
 chap, xxiv.) And in a note he adds, " To go round a person in 
 the opposite direction, or withershins, is unlucky, and a sort of 
 incantation." Dr. Macleod also records that when a boy in the 
 Highlands the parishioners all came to his father's manse on New 
 Year's Day and performed deisul round the house to bring good 
 luck to the minister and his family for the ensuing year. 
 
 Miss Constance F. Gordon-Cumming has recorded some survivals 
 of the deisul rite even in our own times. One is at Kilbar, in 
 the isle of Barra, where on St. Barr's Day (September 25) all 
 the Eoman Catholic population attend mass in the chapel at 
 Borve in honor of their titular saint, and then ride across the 
 island to Kilbar, the ancient burial-place of the McNeils, where 
 they march thrice round the ruins to secure luck for the island 
 in the coming year. Another is at Inverness. A long hill, look- 
 ing not unlike a boat turned upside down, and known as the 
 Fairies' Hill, was some years ago made into a modern cemetery, 
 with winding walks leading to the graves. It bo chanced that 
 the turn in the principal path went sunwise, but the portion of 
 the cemetery in which the poor were buried could be reached by 
 a shorter cut. At first this route was taken, but it was observed 
 that this path turned in the opposite direction to what is sun- 
 wise, and this raised such an outcry that the poor are now taken 
 by the longer way, to save them from the dire results of being 
 carried " withershins" to the grave. (From the Hebrides to the 
 Himalayas, vol. i. p. 210.) 
 
 A quaint survival in the very heart of English civilization is 
 that of "passing the bottle sunwise" at table, which is insisted 
 upon by all good topers. Perhaps another may be found in the 
 well-nigh universal gambler's habit of turning a chair or walking 
 round it in order to bring about a change of luck. It may be 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 331 
 
 noted that this turning is always sunwise. In Ireland when 
 any one falls he springs up and turns about three times to the 
 right. 
 
 The custom of deisul is at least as old as the sixth century. 
 William Eeeves in his " Life of St. Columba," p. clxiii, refers to 
 the famous relic known as the Cathach, a copy of the Psalms in 
 the saint's own handwriting, richly bound in silver and gold, and 
 quotes from O'Donnell : " If it be sent thrice rightwise round 
 the army when they are going to battle, they will return safe 
 with victory; and it is on the breast of a coward or a cleric, 
 who is to the best of his power free from mortal sin, that the 
 Cathach should be, when brought round the army." This story 
 takes the deisul as a rite back at least to the times of St. Co- 
 lumba, and it is probably much older than that period. Mr. Wil- 
 liam Simpson in his admirable book on " The Buddhist Praying- 
 Wheel," to which indebtedness for most of these references is 
 here acknowledged, sees a close analogy between the deisul and 
 the Hindoo rite of Pradakshina, and refers both back to a common 
 origin, sun-worship. 
 
 Denis, St. (Lat. Dionysius ; It. Dionisio or Dionlgi), patron 
 saint of France. His festival is celebrated on October 9. St. 
 Denis is said to be the apostle of France and the first bishop of 
 Paris. Among the many traditions about him it is difficult to 
 arrive at any certain information. The legend which confuses 
 St. Denis, Bishop of Paris in the third century, with Dionysius 
 the Areopagite, is so universally represented in art that it must 
 be related. Dionysius was an Athenian philosopher who went 
 to Egypt to study astrology. AVhile there, it is related, he was 
 much perplexed by the sudden darkening of the world which 
 took place during the crucifixion. On his return to Athens 
 he heard St. Paul preach, and was converted. He travelled to 
 Jerusalem to visit the Virgin Mary, and in some letters he is 
 said to have left an account of her death and burial. He next 
 travelled to Eome, where he beheld the martyrdom of St. Paul, 
 and from thence was sent by St. Clement to preach in France, 
 where he made many converts. After his arrival in Paris, ac- 
 cording to the legend, he was called Denis. A more probable 
 account is that St. Denis came to Paris about the year 250. He 
 was brought with two priests before the Eoman governor, and 
 all three were beheaded. The bodies were left for wild beasts 
 to devour, but legend asserts that St. Denis arose, and, taking 
 his head in his hands, walked for two miles to the place now 
 called Montmartre. The relics of the three martyrs were trans- 
 lated to the Abbey of St. Denis in the reign of Dagobert. The 
 name of St. Denis was the war-cry of the French armies, and 
 
332 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 the oriflarame, the standard of France, was consecrated at his 
 tomb. His particular attribute in art is the severed head. 
 
 Derby Day. The second and most important day of the great 
 Spring Meeting at Epsom, in Surrey, England, which begins with 
 the first Tuesday after Trinity Sunday. Derby Day itself thus 
 always falls on Wednesday. It is then that the famous Derby 
 stakes are contended for. These consist of fifty guineas each 
 entry. When the first Derby was run for, there were oxAj 
 thirty-six entries (with twenty-five pounds forfeit in case of 
 non-starters) ; but the number of subscribers is now so large 
 that the value of the stakes sometimes amounts to six thousand 
 pounds. 
 
 Epsom may lay claim to be the first of English race-courses. 
 So early as 1663 Pepys records in his Diar}^ that he was pre- 
 vented by an important sitting of the House of Lords from at- 
 tending " some famous horse-races" on Banstead Downs, part 
 and parcel of the Epsom range. This was a year or two before 
 Charles II. had set about establishing the meeting at New- 
 market. 
 
 But the Derby stakes and Derby Day are of later origin. 
 About the middle of the last century a certain Captain Bur- 
 goyne (who afterwards, as G-eneral Burgoyne, was to surrender 
 to the American forces at Saratoga) made a clandestine marriage 
 with a daughter of the then Earl of Derby, which was event- 
 ually recognized by the family. He purchased a little house at 
 Epsom, — some say it was at the time an ale-house, — and, having 
 altered and improved it, called it " The Oaks." Here he re- 
 sided for some time, and eventually he sold the property to a 
 relative in the person of the eleventh Earl of Derby. This noble 
 lord was the one who took as his second wife the famous Miss 
 Eliza Farren, known to the theatrical world as the finest Lady 
 Teazle that ever stepped upon the stage. Lord Derby seems 
 to have taken a fancy to Epsom, and he founded in 1779 an 
 annual race, to be known as the Oaks stakes, after his resi- 
 dence, and a year later the Derby stakes, which have made the 
 family name famous in every part of the civilized world. 
 
 Lord Beaconsfield, as everybody will remember, called the 
 Derby stakes the Blue Ribbon of the turf To win them is to be 
 for the moment the foremost man in all England. While still 
 an undergraduate, Lord Eosebery announced that he had three 
 ambitions, — to marr\^ the richest woman in England, to become 
 prime minister, and to win the Derby. The first he achieved 
 very early by his union with a daughter of the Eothschilds, 
 whilst the last and culminating glory was thrust upon him at 
 almost the very mon^ent that he had achieved the second. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 333 
 
 Derby Day, in fact, is the national holiday of England. It 
 comes at the very apogee of the season. The proximity of 
 Epsom to London makes the Downs easily accessible. Hence 
 royalty, Parliament, the aristocracy, the middle classes, and the 
 mob flock thither bj^ rail and in all sorts of conveyances, from 
 the four-in-hand drag to the one-horse shay. A vast stock of 
 pigeon pie is baked for the occasion, and gallons of wine and 
 spirits are bought and consumed. Hence the more elegant 
 among sporting writers are fond of calling it the Epsom Carnival 
 and the Saturnalia on the Downs. 
 
 The scenes that characterize Derby Day before, during, and 
 after the race are sufficiently amusing. The procession of con- 
 
 Announcing the Derby Winner. 
 
 veyances along the high-road is itself motley and various. When 
 the huge crowds of pilgrims have at length arrived at the scene, 
 " they find the ring a cloud of dust, a very pandemonium of 
 shouts and yells. Books are opened ; heavy bets are laid ; and, 
 as the satin-coated heroes of the day are led into the paddock, 
 the odds chop and change about in bewildering fashion. Eoar- 
 ing and pencilling go on apace ; the course is cleared ; and then, 
 after the canter, the noise redoubles as the favorite is observed 
 to go ' like a bird,' or ' a lion,' to step along with sweeping stride, 
 or to go 'short and stilty.' Murmurs, shouts, and deep-drawn 
 breaths proclaim the various false starts until the flag drops, the 
 bell rings, and eyes — some bright enough, others reddened with 
 
334 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 excitement — watch the turn into the great light-green ribbon 
 which stretches from Tottenham Corner to the winning-post. 
 Then the shouts recommence, never to cease until the mighty 
 steeds, ' clothed in thunder,' pass the winning-post. Then hats 
 fly high in air, and everybody drinks, and drinks deeply, — the win- 
 ners for joy, the losers to drown their grief Among the vulgar 
 everybody eats also. Lobsters, chickens, and pigeon pies disap- 
 pear with fearful rapidity ; cham2:)agne-corks fly aloft; and the 
 gathering puts on the appearance of a gigantic picnic, continued, 
 with intervals of amusements proper to the hour, till the last 
 race is run and holiday London streams back to its bed. 
 
 " Thus far all has gone merrily enough. The national holi- 
 day has been a great success. Money-making and losing, eat- 
 ing and drinking, — especially drinking, — have occupied at least 
 a quarter of a million of people from early morning till far 
 into the night. Perhaps it is as well not to remain on the 
 course till the last of the flushed and excited crowd have 
 driven townward, and left the downs to the nomad population, 
 whose tents are pitched there for the nonce, for the spectacle 
 then presented is apt to awaken other emotions than those of 
 joy. As the moon rises over the grand stand, — staring over 
 the deserted race-course with its empty boxes, like the ghosts 
 of departed fortunes, — queer sights ma}^ be seen on the downs. 
 Out of the drinking-booths, towards the wagons and the tent 
 carts posted in the neighborhood, reel strange figures, carica- 
 tures of humanity, hiccuping snatches of the ribald songs which 
 have shocked ears polite during the day. Like the spoilers 
 of the slain on the battle-field, hover other loathsome objects 
 picking up eagerly the waifs and strays, the crumbs which have 
 dropped from the Derby luncheon. The policeman's lantern 
 turned on hedge and ditch reveals shapeless masses of pre- 
 sumedly human origin crouched down in drunken sleep. It 
 is better, perhaps, not to see the last of the Derby. Let us, 
 therefore, hie back to town, in spite of the dust and noise, and 
 observe the ' fun of the road.' Is it funny to mark the faces 
 pale with fatigue or flushed with strong drink? Is there 
 anything |)articularly sportive and light-hearted in the practice 
 of flinging dolls and pin cushions, bags of flour, rotten eggs, or 
 china dogs, at one another? Perhaps it is, if the spectator 
 have taken care to drink himself up or down to the Derby 
 level ; but otherwise the scene is as coarse and uninviting as a 
 Dutch fair, — a fit theme for Teniers or Jan Steen. It is not 
 wise to tarry by the wayside. The ' fun of the road,' if not 
 ready, is rough enough in all conscience, but it is edifying 
 when compared with the scenes in tavern-gardens by the road. 
 As night creeps on, the most riotous members of the long pro- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 335 
 
 cession to London wax tired of shouting and yelling, the last 
 bottle of champagne is drunk, and the cold butt-end of the last 
 cigar drops from parched lips into the dust of the road, un- 
 heeded by the bloodshot eyes now closed in feverish slumber. 
 A few case-hardened roysterers, those who have done their 
 spiriting gently in the earlier part of the day, ' stay' better, and 
 wake the echoes of the quiet streets, as they drive homewards, 
 after a last halt at Cremorne, with shouts of laughter, and 
 snatches of ' Tommy make room for your uncle.' " (^All the Year 
 Bounds June 3, 1876.) 
 
 Dervishes. It is usually said that what the monkish orders 
 are to the Catholic religion the dervishes are to the Moham- 
 medan. This is true in a broad and general way, but, like all 
 general statements, it has its qualifications. The Catholic monks 
 are under the discipline and supervision of the Church ; they 
 are bound to accept its dogmas and to yield impHcit submission 
 to the Pope acting through their superiors. The dervishes, on 
 the other hand, hold themselves in many ways independent of 
 the Sultan, and even of some doctrines of the Mohammedan 
 faith. They do not recognize the legal exposition of the Koran, 
 nor acknowledge the authority of any other than their spiritual 
 chief, or of Allah himself speaking directly to them. They even 
 set at naught the teachings of the Koran in regard to spirituous 
 liquors, and during their public performances often drink wine 
 or brandy to stimulate their flagging energies. 
 
 There are other particulars, however, in which they resemble 
 the. Catholic monks. They live in monasteries. They take vows 
 of poverty, chastity, and obedience, although the second of these 
 vows is occasionally so far relaxed as to allow certain individ- 
 uals among them to go out from their monasteries and marry. 
 But even the few benedicts must pass at least two nights every 
 week within the convent walla. Like the mendicant friars, they 
 support themselves by begging from door to door. The very 
 name dervish indicates this. It comes from a Persian word 
 meaning "door-sill." 
 
 An alternative name by which they are known is Mevelavites, 
 from their founder, Mevelava. This venerable gentleman flour- 
 ished in the thirteenth century. He was a poet of some emi- 
 nence, but was mainly distinguished for his acrobatic feats. It 
 is recorded that on one memorable occasion he spun round and 
 round like a sacrosanct humming-top for fourteen days at a 
 stretch. No wonder that at the close of this extraordinary per- 
 formance he fell into an ecstasy and had visions in which Allah 
 revealed his wishes concerning the settlement of the order. The 
 modern dervishes strive in their poor \\ii\Q fin-de-siecle manner 
 
336 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 to imitate their great protagonist. But the best they can do is 
 to whirl around tor an hour or so every Tuesday and Friday to 
 the accompaniment of flutes and tambourines. The flute is espe- 
 cially esteemed by them, inasmuch as its use was sanctified by 
 Jacob and other shepherds of the Old Testament. 
 
 These bi-weekly seances are public, and constitute one of the 
 " sights" to visitors in the East. Fanatical as they are, the 
 people witness them with the deepest earnestness. Some years 
 back a fearful tumult was raised in Cairo because in the middle 
 of the spinning one of the dervishes stopped short and declared 
 that a European was laughing at them. The person gifted with 
 this too abundant sense of humor narrowly escaped being torn 
 to pieces by the mob. 
 
 The dervishes are divided into two classes, the whirlers, or 
 dancers, and the howlers. The former are many of them persons 
 of high rank. But if they do not go beyond the first stage 
 they may fill all requirements by saying a few prayers at home 
 and wearing for a few minutes every day the sacred white cap 
 or " tag." If, however, they aim at the attainment of the full 
 dignity, they must undergo a novitiate of hard labor for a thou- 
 sand and one days. During this probationary period they have 
 to submit to the additional indignity of being styled "jackals." 
 When the term has expired the jackal emerges into a full- 
 fledged Mevelavite. In token of this he receives a woollen belt, 
 with its cabalistic " stone of contentment," the tag, the ear-rings 
 shaped like the horseshoe of Ali, and the rosary with the ninety- 
 nine names of God. 
 
 In the public services the dancers wear high hats without a 
 rim, and short skirts which stand out at right angles to their 
 bodies as they whirl around upon the left heel, ring within ring, 
 without touching one another, their hands outstretched, their 
 eyes fixed ecstatically, all the time quietly but closely watched 
 by the sheik. They keep up this extraordinary performance, 
 with brief intervals of rest, for an hour. 
 
 Meanwhile the howling dervishes are not idle. These wear 
 white felt hats and long gowns encircled by a belt in which are 
 two or three big stones. Over their shoulders is a mantle edged 
 with green. They sway themselves backward and forward, 
 either in line or a ring, shouting the name of Allah ever faster 
 and louder as the music gets more uproarious, until the whole 
 sounds like the baying of multitudinous hounds; then two or 
 three make a dive at the bare walls, striking them again and 
 again with their heads until somebody seizes the frenzied fanatics 
 and lays them, just breathing, on their backs. Running daggers 
 through the cheeks is still done, though rarely, but the mystery 
 remains how they escape all injury, and how the butting of the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 337 
 
 head against marble walls leaves any brains. It must be that 
 the excitement sustains the system, — that fervor of feeling 
 makes up for the injur}- done to the frame. 
 
 In their daily life the dervishes practise the utmost austerities. 
 They go about almost naked, and fast every Thursday from 
 sunrise until sunset, besides the ordinary fast of Eamadan. 
 
 Besides the members of the regular orders, there are many 
 dervishes in the Mohammedan world who wander about and 
 support themselves and even acquire considerable wealth from 
 the voluntary contributions of the faithful. They cure diseases 
 or drive away evil spirits by incantations, charm snakes, or per- 
 form feats of legerdemain and other kinds of more or less con- 
 scious imposture. 
 
 It is in Egypt and Hindostan that the extreme degrees of 
 squalor, fraud, and also of self-mortification are found among 
 the peripatetic dervishes. Some spend their lives in absolute 
 nakedness, their bodies smeared with wood-ash, their unkempt 
 hair twisted into a turban : some roll head over heels for hun- 
 dreds of miles ; some spend hours in contemplating the tips of 
 their noses in eighty-four different postures. 
 
 Discovery Day. This is celebrated on October 21 in com- 
 memoration of the discovery by Columbus of the island of San 
 Salvador in 1492. This was the first revelation of the existence 
 of the New World to the Old. Columbus sailed from Spain on 
 Friday, August 3 (Old Style), 1492, at eight o'clock in the morn- 
 ing. He was in command of three ships, the Santa Maria, the 
 Pinta, and the Nina, carrying in all one hundred and twenty 
 men. Various discouragements attended the voyage, but on 
 September 18, while bearing to the southwest, many birds were 
 seen, indicating the neighborhood of land, and on October 11 a 
 cane, a log of wood, a stick wrought with iron, a board, and a 
 stake covered with dog-roses were fished up. At ten o'clock at 
 night Columbus saw and pointed out a light ahead. At two 
 o'clock on the morning of the 12th land was sighted. This 
 proved to be an island, which Columbus named San Salvador. 
 He landed in the morning, bearing the royal banner of Spain, 
 which he planted into the soil. The above dates are all Old 
 Style. To make them correspond with the modern calendar nine 
 days should be added. Discovery Day is not a general holiday 
 in the United States, but is celebrated locally with speeches and 
 appropriate festivities. The 21st of October, 1892, however, as 
 the fourth centennial of the discovery, and in recognition of the 
 fact that it preluded the great World's Fair at Chicago (which 
 had been postponed from the centennial year to 1893), was by 
 authority of Congress recommended to the people of the United 
 
 22 
 
338 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 States by President Benjamin Harrison in a proclamation issued 
 on July 21 of that year as a day to be observed throughout 
 the United States " by public demonstration and by suitable ex- 
 ercises in their schools and other places of assembly." The 
 proclamation was honored in nearly every State, and the day 
 was kept as a general holiday. The Board of Managers of the 
 World's Fair dedicated their buildings on that day. But the 
 New York celebration had been already fixed for the 12th, and 
 this could not be changed without calling an extra session of the 
 Legislature. Hence New York's celebration preceded that of 
 the rest of the nation. 
 
 Distaff's Day, St., or Rock Day. This name was in an- 
 cient England given to the 7th of January, which, following as 
 it did Twelfth Night, or Epiphany, the conclusion of the Christ- 
 mas season, was the date at which women were expected to re- 
 sume the rock or distaff, as well as other household duties. The 
 hired men postponed their definitive resumption of work until 
 Plough Monday {q. v.), the first Monday after Twelfth Night, 
 which frequently left a lee-way of several days, in which they 
 amused themselves by playing pranks upon the maids, such as 
 setting their flax or tow a-burning. In requital, the maids 
 soused the men from the water-pails. 
 
 Partly work and partly play 
 You must on St. Distaff's Day. 
 From the plough soon free the team, 
 Then come home and fother them ; 
 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. 
 
 Doed-Koecks. (Dutch, meaning literally " dead-cakes.") A 
 sort of cookies served in old New York to the attendants at 
 funerals. Alice Morse Earle, in " Colonial Days in Old New York," 
 cites an old receipt for their manufacture : " Fourteen pounds 
 of flour, six pounds of sugar, five pounds of butter, one quart 
 of water, two teaspoon fuls of pearlash, two teaspoonfuls of 
 salt, one ounce of caraway seed. Cut in thick slices four 
 inches in diameter." Sometimes the cakes were marked with 
 the initials of the deceased. Friends and acquaintances fre- 
 quently carried them home to retain them for years as memen- 
 tos of the occasion. In Albany, a well-known bakery made a 
 specialty of these cakes ; but they were frequently of domestic 
 manufacture. Families of extra good breeding sometimes sent 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 339 
 
 a couple of the cakes, with a bottle of wine and a pair of gloves, 
 as a summons to the funeral. 
 
 Burial-cakes were not unknown in England, and, indeed, they 
 are still baked in Lincolnshire and Cumberland, to be served at 
 funerals. So late as 1748 they are advertised by a Philadelphia 
 baker. 
 
 Dog- Days. According to the ordinary computation, these 
 begin on July 3 and continue to August 11. They derive their 
 name from the heliacal rising and setting of Sirius, the dog-star, 
 and properly should be made to conform thereto in the calendar. 
 
 The heliacal rising means the time when the star, after being 
 practically in conjunction with the sun and invisible, emerges 
 from the light so as to be visible in the morning before sunrise. 
 
 We must" look to Egypt for the origin of the observance of these 
 days. The rising of Tayout, Sihor, or Sirius coincided in ancient 
 times with the summer solstice and the overflowing of the Nile ; 
 and, as the latter was the source of the fertility of Egypt, the 
 period was regarded as sacred, and the influence of the dog-star 
 was deemed peculiarly auspicious. The superstitious feelings gen- 
 erated in Egypt with regard to the dog-days gradually spread 
 throughout the world, and made themselves felt like many other 
 ancient superstitions. But, while the rising of the dog star was 
 the harbinger of plenty and prosperity to the Egyptian, it was 
 just the reverse to the Roman, who looked upon the dog-days as 
 unfortunate and even prejudicial to life, coming as they did in 
 the most unhealthy period of the year. The dog-days are still 
 talked about, not only in Europe [but in America; but it does 
 not require Gassendi's grave argument to convince people that 
 the dog-star cannot possibly exercise any good or bad influence 
 upon the earth. Popular prejudices linger a long time even after 
 light has begun to break. To this day many sensible persons 
 believe that the weather is affected by the moon, and that equi- 
 noctial storms attend the sun's imaginary passage across an 
 imaginary line. Yet the fixed stars combined do affect the earth. 
 They are original sources of light and heat ; their force is iden- 
 tical with that of the sun, and they daguerrotype themselves. 
 Without the additional heat furnished by the fixed stars the sun 
 would not render the earth habitable. Sirius is a sun superior to 
 Sol himself; but, individually, he can but give a name to the 
 dog-days. 
 
 Doggett's Coat and Badge. A trophy annually rowed for, 
 August 1, on the Thames between London Bridge and Chelsea, 
 against the tide, by six young watermen whose apprenticeship 
 comes to an end on that day. The trophy is provided out of a 
 
340 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 fund left for the purpose by Thomas Doggett (1670-1721), a 
 famous comedian and zealous Whig, to commemorate " the happy 
 accession to the throne" of George I. on August 1, 1714. The 
 first race was run in 1716. 
 
 Colley Gibber describes Doggett as a most original actor. He 
 borrowed from none, though he was imitated by many. He 
 was, in stage parlance, an excellent dresser; the least article of 
 whatever habit he wore seemed in some degree to speak and 
 mark the special humor he represented at the time. He could 
 with great exactness paint his face to resemble any age, from 
 manhood to extreme senility, which led Sir Godfrey Kneller to 
 say that Doggett excelled him in his own art ; for he could only 
 copy nature from the original before him, while the actor could 
 vary his face at will and yet always preserve a true resem- 
 blance. 
 
 Doggett wrote one comedy, " The Country Wake," 1696, 4to, 
 in which he played the leading character; and Steele, in the 
 Spectator, JS'o. 502, pays this high tribute to the excellence of the 
 performance : " There is something so miraculously pleasant in 
 Doggett's acting the awkward triumph and comic sorrow of 
 Meb, in different circumstances, that I shall not be able to stay 
 away whenever it is acted." And from the Spectator, No. 446, 
 by Addison, we gather that Doggett excelled in grave or elderly 
 men, knights and baronets, country squires, and justices of the 
 quorum. Congreve was a great admirer of Doggett, and wrote 
 for him the characters of Fondlewife in " The Old Bachelor" and 
 Ben the Sailor in " Love for Love ;" the latter the earliest humor- 
 ous and natural personation of the English sailor on our stage. 
 
 Doggett grew rich, and became a member of the Fishmongers' 
 Company. He died September 22, 1721, at Eltham, in Kent, 
 where his remains are interred. He had continued to give the 
 coat-and-badge prize yearly ; and he bequeathed a sum of monej-, 
 the interest of which was to be appropriated to the same pur- 
 pose annually forever on August 1 ; and, with the minute atten- 
 tion to costume which distinguished him as an actor as well as 
 in political principle, he directed that the color of the coat should 
 be orange, and the White Horse of Hanover badge should be 
 adhered to. The Fishmongers' Company have very properly 
 taken charge of the bequest. They view the boats to be rowed 
 a short time previous to August 1, when they hold a court to 
 start the watermen ; and the coat and badge are presented to 
 the winner after a banquet given at Fishmongers' Hall in the 
 evening. The Company have also added four money prizes. 
 Incidentally, by providing a well-equipped and fully provis- 
 ioned steamer to follow the race, it keeps alive the interest of 
 the public, or of a part of it, in the pleasantest possible manner, 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 341 
 
 and each year the race makes an agreeable little stir in the 
 thronged waterway from the Pool to Pimlico. 
 
 Thus has the old comedian had his memory kept green by the 
 annual rowing for the Coat and Badge ; the Hanoverian suc- 
 cession may have been commemorated by observances more 
 pretentious than the river prize, but certainly not with more sin- 
 cerity. In the water-side parishes the name of Doggett became 
 a sort of household word; and some fifteen years after the 
 player's decease there were written upon a window-pane in a 
 house at Lambeth the following lines : 
 
 ; Tom Doggett, the greatest sly droll in his parts, 
 In acting was certain a master of arts ; 
 A monument left, — no herald is fuller, — 
 His praise is sung yearly by many a sculler. 
 Ten thousand years hence, if the world lasts so long, 
 Tom Doggett will still be the theme of their song, 
 When old Noll with great Louis and Bourbon are forgot, 
 And when numberless kings in oblivion shall rot. 
 
 Dog- Whip Day. A curious custom of whipping dogs on 
 certain anniversaries has existed in many parts of England. In 
 York the occasion used to be St. Luke's Day (October 18), hence 
 kno\yn as Dog- Whip Day, when school-boys took delight in 
 thrashing all dogs that were found on the streets. Tradition 
 explains that once in Catholic days a priest accidentally dropped 
 the eucharist while celebrating mass on this festival. It was 
 snapped up and eaten by a dog. The dog was promptly killed, 
 and all its brethren were doomed to a periodical flagellation in 
 memory of the sacrilege. The same custom also existed at 
 Manchester on the first day of Acres Fair, which was held about 
 the same time. In Hull the 10th of October was selected. 
 Every boy procured a whip for the unlucky dogs found running 
 in the streets. This custom dates back to the fairs which were 
 formerly held on October 11 in Hull. The good monks in. the 
 monasteries were wont to provide liberally for the poor way- 
 farers who tramped it to the fair. On one occasion, on the eve 
 of the fair, a dog found its way into the monasterial larder and 
 made off with a good-sized joint. But he was intercepted by 
 a crowd of suppliants at the gate, who beat him soundly and 
 rescued the meat. Hence it grew to be the custom to beat off 
 any dog who appeared in the streets on the day before the fair, 
 and the custom survived among the boys of Hull until the advent 
 of the new police. 
 
 Dog-Whippers. Church officials who in mediaeval times 
 went about during the time of public worship to drive out any 
 stray dogs that might have happened within the church, and 
 
342 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 also incidentally to keep the congregation awake. The 
 whipper was especially useful in the rural districts, where the 
 parish was extensive, and some of the worshippers from solitary 
 farm-houses, living miles away from the church, would bring 
 their dogs with them to the Sunday services. So long as the 
 dog crouched under his master's seat he was allowed to remain 
 undisturbed, but if he entered into any altercation with his 
 fellows, the dog-whipper bore down upon the canine rioters and 
 reduced them to silence. In city churches dogs were not al- 
 lowed at all. The dog-whipper's usual instrument consisted of 
 a long ash stick to which was fastened a thong of leather three 
 feet long. But he often combined with this duty that of slug- 
 gard-waking, and for that purpose was armed with a rousing- 
 stick (q. v.). Not a few people in bygone ages felt it a duty to 
 leave part of their worldly wealth to pay dog-whippers and slug- 
 gard- wakers. At Claverley, Shropshire, one Eichard Dovey, in 
 the year 1659, left certain property near the church on condition 
 that eight shillings per year be paid out of the rent to a poor 
 man to awaken sleepers in the church and to drive out dogs. 
 At Chislet, Kent, is a piece of land known as " Dog-Whipper's 
 Marsh," from which a payment of ten shillings a year was to be 
 devoted to paying for the services of keeping order in the church 
 during the time of public worship. Other instances may be 
 found in Andrews's " Curiosities of th© Church," p. 173. 
 
 The Antiquary for August, 1886, has the following note: 
 "Amongst the officials of Exeter Cathedral, until a few years 
 ago, was the dog-whipper, whose duty was to keej) dogs out of 
 the building. On his death the office, having become a sinecure, 
 was abolished. His widow has since been employed as care- 
 taker at the prebendal house in the cloisters, but was a few days 
 ago provided with one of the Dingham free cottages, of which 
 charity the dean is a leading trustee. The office of dog-whipper 
 formerly existed in many large churches, but the late function- 
 ary at Exeter Cathedral was the last survivor of his order." 
 
 Dole. This word comes from the same root as the verb "to 
 deal." and means a portion of money, food, or other things 
 dealt out in charity. In early Christian times, as St. Chrysostom 
 assures us, " doles were used at funerals to procure the rest of the 
 soul of the deceased, that he might find his judge propitious." 
 In time the amount and quantity of such doles came to be spe- 
 cially described and appointed in the will of the dying person. 
 At first these were distributed among the actual attendants at 
 the funeral. Thus, in 1399, Eleanor, Duchess of Grioucester, ap- 
 pointed that fifteen poor men should bear torches at her funeral, 
 " each having a gown and hood lined with white, breeches of blue 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 343 
 
 cloth, shoes, and a shirt, and twenty pounds amongst them." 
 Again, in 1428, Thomas, Lord Poyning, prescribed that twelve 
 poor men should bear torches at his funeral, and each was to 
 receive a gown of black cloth and twelve pence in money ; and 
 in 1423 twenty-eight poor men who attended the funeral of 
 Andrew, Lord Windsor, were rewarded with a frieze gown and 
 sixpence each. 
 
 Later doles were appointed to be sent to the homes of the 
 inhabitants of the village in which the donor had died. The 
 practice was sometimes to bequeath it by will, but, w^hether so 
 specified or not, the ceremony was seldom omitted. A small loaf 
 was sent to every person, without any distinction of age or 
 circumstances, and not to receive it was a mark of particular 
 disrespect. 
 
 The final evolution of this custom came in the custom of leav- 
 ing money or lands the interest or rent of which was annually 
 to be devoted to some form of charity, usually, but not always, 
 at the tomb or in the church where the donor was buried. Thus, 
 William Eobinson, who died at Hull on October 8, 1708, left 
 sufficient money to purchase a dozen loaves of bread, costing a 
 shilling each, to be given to twelve poor widows at his grave 
 every Christmas Lay. In the churchyard of Kildale, Yorkshire, 
 is a tomb bearing the following inscription : " Here lyeth the 
 body of Joseph Lunn, who dj^ed ye 10th day of March 1716 aged 
 82 years. He left to ye poor of Kildale xx.s. ; of Commondale 
 XX s. ; of Lanby xx.s. ; of Westerdale xx.s. to be paid upon his 
 gravestone by equal portions on ye Ist May and ye 11th Novem- 
 ber for ever." 
 
 Lenten doles were frequent in the Catholic past. John Thake, 
 in a will drawn up in 1537, left his property with the condition 
 that a barrel of white herrings and a cade of red herrings be 
 given to the poor of Clavering, Essex, to help them tide over the 
 austerities of the fast. Similar bequests were left by Eichard 
 Stevenson, of Dronfield, Derbyshire, and David Salter, of Farnham 
 Eoyal, Bucks, the latter adding the annual sum of two shillings 
 to be laid out in the purchase of a pair of kid gloves for the par- 
 son on the first Sunday in Lent. 
 
 Every year in the crypt beneath St. Peter's Church, Walworth, 
 London, a Christmas dinner is given to three hundred poor peo- 
 ple of the district. No one may be invited who is under sixty 
 years of age, and both sexes are eligible for the treat. The dark, 
 arched crypt of a London church is a curious place for a Christ- 
 mas feast, but by means of holly, evergreen, bunting, and a good 
 supply of lamps the place is made to look pleasant and cheery. 
 Tables are arranged up and down under the arches, and on these 
 a plentiful supply of roast beef, plum pudding, and other Christ- 
 
344 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 mas fare is placed. The dinner is unique in that it is cooked 
 in the church. 
 
 There is an ancient payment made by the chamberlain of the 
 corporation of Stafford of an annual sum of money, generally 
 six shillings, at Christmas, for the purchasing of plums, to be 
 distributed among the inhabitants of certain old houses in the 
 liberty- of Forebridge. The origin of this payment is ascribed 
 by general reputation to the bounty of some individual who 
 heard from some poor children a complaint on Christmas Day 
 that they had no plums for a pudding ; and it is reported that 
 he counted the houses then in the place and made provision for 
 the supply of a pound of plums for each house. The money 
 received is laid out in plums, which are divided into equal quan- 
 tities, and made up into parcels, one for each of the houses, 
 fifteen or sixteen in number, entitled b}^ the established usage 
 to receive a portion, without reference to the circumstances of 
 the inhabitants. {Old English Customs and Charities^ p. 5.) 
 
 Peter Symonds, a London mercer, by his will, dated 1586, left a 
 sum of money for a sermon to be preached on Good Friday in the 
 church of All-Hallows, Lombard Street, at the close whereof sixty 
 scholars of Christ's Hospital are to be presented with a bunch 
 of raisins and a bright penny. He further left property for pur- 
 chasing sixty loaves of bread to be given on Whitsunday to poor 
 persons on his grave in Liverpool Street. The railway now 
 covers the site of his tomb, and the bread is distributed in front 
 of the school-room in Bishopsgate churchyard. Symonds like- 
 wise left several charities to his natal city of Winchester, and 
 directed that " Leave was to be obtained from the bishop or the 
 dean to place his picture in the body of the cathedral, with a 
 small table before it, on which were to be placed twelve penny 
 loaves of good wheaten bread, which immediately after the ser- 
 vice were to be given to twelve poor persons at the will of the 
 mayor, except on one Sunday, in each quarter, when the bishop 
 or dean was to nominate the recipients." 
 
 A pilgrim's dole of bread and ale is offered to all wayfarers at 
 the Hospital of St. Cross at Winchester. Thk is said to have 
 been established by William of Wykeham. (Emerson when in 
 England paid a visit to the hospital, claimed and received the 
 victuals, and cited the incident as a curious proof of the stability 
 of English institutions. 
 
 The washing of Molly Grime was the object of a curious be- 
 quest whose conditions were observed until 1832. Molly Grime 
 was the current name for a tomb in the parish church of Glen- 
 tham, Lincolnshire. Seven old maids of the parish received 
 annually a small sum for washing this tomb with water brought 
 annually from Newell Well. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 345 
 
 A notable charity left by Eobert Dove in 1705, and still in 
 the custody of the vicar of St. Sepulchre's Church in London, 
 directed that a bell shall be tolled previous to every execution at 
 Newgate. 
 
 The sexton appeared in Newgate at midnight on the eve of 
 the execution to deliver the following cheerful and beautiful 
 exhortation : 
 
 fYe prisoners that are within 
 For your wickedness and sin, 
 Watch all and pray ; the hour is drawing near. 
 That ye hefore the Almighty must appear. 
 Examine well yourselves, in time repent, 
 That you may not to eternal flames he sent. 
 And when St. Sepulchre's bell to-morrow tolls, 
 The Lord above have mercy on your souls. 
 
 Doubtless Mr. Dove was the author of this literary gem, and 
 deemed that his legacy of fifty pounds bought a cheap immor- 
 tality for them. 
 
 During the days of slavery doles were frequently left whose 
 interest was to be expended in the redemption of English slaves. 
 The Belton charity, and the Alicia, Duchess Dudley's bequest, 
 are the most famous of them. Both are now diverted to other 
 uses. 
 
 Money has frequently been left for the benefit of servant- 
 maids, the interest to be thrown for with dice by a certain num- 
 ber of selected candidates. This was the method adopted at 
 Guildford according to the will of John How, made in 1674, and 
 at Eeading, under the wills of John Kendrick and John Bla- 
 grave. The throwing of dice has, however, now been discon- 
 tinued. 
 
 One of the strangest of strange bequests is that of John Knill, 
 who died in 1811 and had a building called Knill's Mausoleum 
 erected near St. Ives. He left sundry bequests of a useful 
 nature, but ordered that every five years five pounds should be 
 divided among the girls, not exceeding ten years of age, who 
 should between ten and twelve o'clock in the forenoon of St. 
 James's Day dance for a quarter of an hour at least on the 
 ground near the mausoleum, and after the dance sing Psalm C. 
 of the old version to "the fine old tune" to which the same was 
 then sung in St. Ives Church. He provided also white ribbons 
 for breast-knots for the girls and a cockade for the fiddler, and 
 gave other evidences of vanity and eccentricity. 
 
 Charities have been founded and still exist for the preaching 
 of sermons on the defeat of the Spanish Armada, the discovery 
 of the Gunpowder Plot, the victories of Nelson at the Nile and 
 
346 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Trafalgar, the victories of Wellington, the commemoration of 
 tlie accession of George lY., and other national events. There 
 are also bequests for the encouragement of matrimony and 
 horse racing, providing portions for poor maids, catechising chil- 
 dren, buying Bibles, for repeating the Lord's Prayer, Apostles' 
 Creed, and Ten Commandments, strewing the church with 
 rushes, to awaken sleepers and whip dogs out of church, to 
 dress graves with flowers, to plant rose-trees in churchyards, to 
 promote peace and good will among neighbors, and to achieve 
 many other desirable and excellent objects. 
 
 Figs and ale were provided for the poor scholars of the Free 
 School in Giggleswick on St. Gregory's Day by the will of Wil- 
 liam Clapham in 1603, and at Harlington, Middlesex, the ringers 
 received a leg of pork for ringing on November 5. White peas, 
 rye, oatmeal, malt, barley, appear in other bequests. A small 
 piece of land, called Petticoat Hole, at Stockton, Yorkshire, is 
 held subject to an ancient custom of providing a petticoat for 
 a poor woman of Stockton. In the same county there is an 
 ancient payment of three shillings fourpence as the value of a 
 pound of pepper due from the occupier of a farm at Yapham 
 foi- taking care of the parson's horse, which he is bound to do 
 whenever the parson goes there to do duty. 
 
 The most famous dole in the United States is that which is 
 designated in the register of Trinity Church, New York, as the 
 "Leake Dole of Bread." John Leake was a millionaire and 
 philanthropist who in 1792 left one thousand pounds to Trinity 
 Church "to be laid out, in the annual income, in sixpenny 
 wheaten loaves of bread and distributed every Sabbath morning 
 after divine service, to such poor as shall appear most deserving." 
 The wish has been faithfully carried out, with one exception. 
 About 1855 the distribution station was transferred from Trinity 
 Church to the vestibule of old St. John's at 46 Yarick Street, 
 and the weekly day of distribution from Sunday to Saturday 
 Every Saturday morning, between seven and eight o'clock, sixty- 
 seven loaves are distributed. 
 
 Dolls, Festival of. (Japanese, Hina-no-Sekku.) A Japanese 
 festival, specially dedicated to girls, and celebrated on the third 
 day of the third month, which in our calendar may correspond 
 with the middle or last day of April. As the sakura-trees, 
 which are somewhat similar to our peach-trees, burst into bloom 
 at this period, Europeans have named this the festival of peach- 
 flowers. On this day girls and women array themselves in holi- 
 day attire. The mothers adorn the chamber of state with blos- 
 soming sakura boughs, and arrange therein an exhibition of all 
 the dolls which their daughters have received. The children 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 347 
 
 prepare a banquet for them, which is eaten by the grown folks 
 in the evening after the dolls are supposed to have had a surfeit. 
 
 Dominic, St. (It. Domenico ; Fr. Dominique; Sp. Domingo)^ 
 founder of the order of Dominicans, or Preaching Friars. His 
 festival is celebrated August 4. St. Dominic was born in 1170 
 at Calahorra in Old Castile. He was of noble parentage. At 
 his baptism, legend says, a star descended from heaven to 
 crown his brow. He studied at Yalencia, and joined the order 
 of St. Augustine at an early age. He went to France and 
 preached against the Albigenses, making many converts. It 
 was in consequence of the danger which seemed to threaten the 
 Church that St. Dominic founded a religious order whose chief 
 business it should be to preach the gospel, convert heretics, and 
 defend and disseminate the faith. This is known as the order 
 of Dominicans. In 1218 St. Dominic was commissioned by the 
 Pope to reform the nunneries at Eome. He made a new rule, 
 which was adopted, and from this originated the order of 
 Dominican nuns. He died at Bologna in 1221, and was canon- 
 ized by Gregory IX. in 1234. Legend says that his portrait was 
 brought from heaven by St. Catherine and Mary Magdalene to a 
 convent of Dominican nuns. His remains lie at Bologna in a 
 splendid shrine in the church of his order. Legends attribute 
 many miracles to him. It is related that once when at the 
 monastery of St. Sabina in Eome there was not sufficient food. 
 St. Dominic made all the brothers sit at the table, and blessed 
 what food there was ; immediately two angels appeared, bring- 
 ing bread and wine. His attributes in art are a dog by his side, 
 a star on or above his head, a lily in one hand, and a book in the 
 other. 
 
 Doorga, Festival of. One of the greatest of Hindoo poojahs, 
 or feasts. Doorga is the name under which the goddess Kali is 
 worshipped as the female principle in creation. Her special fes- 
 tival in autumn consists of three days of great rejoicing wound up 
 by one of ceremonial lamentation. All business is suspended 
 throughout India, the houses of the wealthy Hindoos are at night 
 splendidly illuminated and thrown open to visitors of all kinds, and 
 numerous buifaloes, sheep, goats, and other animals are sacrificed 
 in the temples ; and after all the animals have been slain the mul- 
 titude daub their bodies with the mud and gore, and indulge in 
 bacchanalian and lascivious dances. For Doorga is then believed 
 to be married, and these dances are meant to entice her to the 
 propagation of children, who are to fight with and overcome 
 the evil spirits who injure mankind. An image of the god- 
 dess made of straw and clay and profusely decorated is the 
 
348 . CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 centre of all the worship. It is supposed to be animated by the 
 divine spirit until the fourth day, when nothing remains but to 
 consign it to some sacred river or lake. Borne on the shoulders 
 of stout porters, the idol is paraded through the streets with 
 great pomp. The neighborhood resounds with music and sing- 
 ing. The acclamations of the worshippers are heard above the 
 din. xit length, arrived at the water, the image with all its 
 trappings and tinsel ornaments is cast into the waters, the poor 
 subsequently vying with one another in rifling the goddess of 
 her decorations. On returning from the immersion the priest 
 sprinkles the votaries with holy water and offers them his bene- 
 dictions. They embrace with enthusiasm, and usually wind up 
 the festivities with draughts of a solution of hemp leaves, which 
 produces a slight intoxication. 
 
 Dough-Day. (From <iow^/i, a slang term for money.) A semi- 
 humorous name applied in New York and other States of the 
 Union to the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of the second 
 week before election. These were the days for the distribution 
 of campaign funds from head-quarters to the workers in every 
 county. IJntil that time the rural leaders lived and worked on 
 expectations. On the appointed days they swarmed down from 
 the counties, each with a gripsack, to carry back the cash for 
 rewards to the faithful. 
 
 The word " money" has always been carefully avoided by 
 shrewd leaders. It has a bad sound to the public, they say. 
 Some unknown politician adopted the word " dough" as meaning 
 campaign cash, and it stuck. From it grew the appellation of 
 •'bake-shop" for the treasurer's office, and "dough-day" for the 
 welcome time of distribution. 
 
 The general adoption of the Australian or secret ballot system 
 has done away with Dough-Day, because it has restricted the 
 possibilities of bribery, to which purpose the " dough" was 
 chiefly applied. 
 
 Dragon-Boats, Feast of. The story runs that in about the 
 fourth century before Christ one Ku-Yuan, minister of the State 
 of Tsu, was disgraced and deposed on account of his virtuous 
 persistence in pointing out the evil doings of his master. There- 
 upon he published a poetical lament in which he reiterated his 
 charges, and forthwith drowned himself in the Milo Eiver, de- 
 spite the efforts of an eye-witness, a fisherman, who launched 
 his boat to save him. Ever since on the anniversary of the 
 suicide the fisherman's attempt at rescue has been commemorated 
 by a procession of dragon-boats over the inland waters of China. 
 Each of these boats is owned by a clan, and the occasion has 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 349 
 
 Feast of Dragon-Boats. 
 (By a Chinese artist.) 
 
 now become the excuse for a boatmen's holiday. The proces- 
 sions of the past have developed into races between rival clans. 
 The boats, which are from fifty to a hundred feet long, are built 
 more or less in the form of 
 dragons. The rowers may 
 number between fifty and 
 sixty, and they are timed 
 by a drummer in the cen- 
 tre, who beats his instru- 
 ment faster and faster as 
 the fun grows furious. In 
 the bow stands a man who 
 with one hand waves a flag 
 while with the other he 
 goes through the dumb 
 show of casting rice upon 
 the waves as a method of 
 appeasing the evil spirits 
 who would otherwise wreak 
 their malevolence upon a 
 drowning man. Sometimes prizes are awarded to the winners ; 
 but the decisions of the judges in close cases often create more 
 tumult and quarrelling than even those of the American base- 
 ball umpire. 
 
 Ducking- Stool. An instrument for the punishment of scolds 
 and other unquiet women. It was much in use among the chi- 
 valric inhabitants of Great Britain, and occasionally in other 
 countries of Europe, during the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- 
 turies, and had a sporadic survival even into the nineteenth. 
 There were two kinds of ducking-stools. One was merely a 
 strong chair into which the offender was securely fastened 
 and then exposed at her own door or in some public place, as 
 the market or the town gates. The other and more popular 
 was a chair afiixed to the end of a plank or depending from a 
 cross-beam, and was used for ducking the culprit in a contiguous 
 pond or stream. The exact antiquity of this method of correc- 
 tion, as well as its origin, whether in England or on the Con- 
 tinent, is uncertain. But it undoubtedly dates from Anglo-Saxon 
 times, as it is mentioned in the Doomsday Survey in the account 
 of the city of Chester. So late as 1809 Jenny Pipes was carried 
 about Leominster in a ducking-stool and then immersed in the 
 Lug, near Kenwater Bridge, at the instance of the magistrates. 
 Sarah Leeke of the same town would have been served similarly 
 in 1817 if the river had not just then been too low, luckily 
 for her. These are the latest instances on record. Though 
 
350 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 usually consecrated to the correction of shrews, the ducking- 
 stool was occasionally occupied by brewers ot undrinkable beer, 
 bakers of bad bread, and millers who pilfered wheat. That its 
 use sometimes proved fatal is not to be wondered at. In 1731 
 its remedial efficacy was tried, by order of the mayor of Not- 
 tingham, on a courtesan of that place, with the result that she 
 died soon afterwards. A chap-book of uncertain date tells its 
 story on the title-page: "Strange and Wonderful Eelation of 
 the Old Woman who was drowned at Eatcliff Highway a fort- 
 night ago." 
 
 There is an old tradition of a Gloucestershire scold whose 
 obstinate disposition defied the ducking-stool. 
 
 After the first sousing in the village horse-pond, her husband 
 exclaimed, " Molly ! Molly ! Woot thee promise I never to scold 
 at I again ?" 
 
 As soon as Molly recovered her breath, she replied in a thun- 
 dering voice of moroseness, "No, I won't do nothing o' th' 
 zort !" 
 
 Molly had another souse, and the husband met with the same 
 acrimonious response to his anxious interrogations. The sous- 
 ing was repeated ; but Molly continued to be obdurate and con- 
 tumacious. 
 
 " You may drown I," shouted Molly, " but I wool never give in." 
 
 They did not run the risk of drowning Molly, but released 
 her, for the husband was convinced that she would "rather 
 drown than refuse to wag her red rag at un" whenever she felt 
 incHned to do so. It did not cure Molly. She became as great 
 a scold as ever she had been before her pubHc sousing. 
 
 Some years after that critical punishment, the lord of the 
 manor met John at a court-leet, and inquired, " Well, John, bow 
 does Molly get on now with her scolding?" 
 
 " Oh, squire, her be pretty nearly cured on't." 
 
 "Did the ducking-stool do that business?" 
 
 " Oh, no ; I let her jaw on as long as her liked. I ged her no 
 back answers. I zot quiet and blowed me bacca, and her soon 
 dropt her scolding and be now as good a woman as they be 
 made." 
 
 Dumb-Cake. A cake famous in English folk-lore whose con- 
 stituents may vary with different seasons, so long as the essen- 
 tial of perfect silence during the making and the baking be main- 
 tained. Thus prepared, it is invaluable for matrimonial divina- 
 tions. Its greatest efficacy is on Halloween, St. John's Eve, and 
 St. Faith's Eve, but it also has been put to a successful test on the 
 eves of St. Agnes, St. Valentine, and St. Mark. The Halloween 
 cake is generally made of an eggshell- full of salt, an eggshell- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 351 
 
 full of wheat meal, and an eggshell-full of barley meal. Any 
 number of young women may join in the concoction. The meal 
 must be made into a dough without the aid of spring water. 
 Every one of the comjDany rolls it up, and spreads it thin and 
 broad, and then, at some distance from the others, marks the 
 initials of her name with a large new pin towards the end of the 
 cake. The cake is then set before the fire, and each person sits 
 down in a chair as far distant from the fire as the room will ad- 
 mit, not speaking a single word all the time. This must be done 
 soon after eleven at night; and between that and twelve o'clock 
 each person must turn the cake once, and in a few minutes after 
 the clock strikes twelve the husband of her who is first to be 
 married will appear, and lay his hand on that part of the cake 
 which is marked with her name. Silence must be strictly pre- 
 served throughout this operation. 
 
 The eating of the dumb-cake on St. Mark's Eve as practised in 
 Northamptonshire is attended with all sorts of somnolent results. 
 The number of the party never exceeds three; they meet in 
 silence to make the cake, and as soon as the clock strikes twelve 
 they each break a portion off to eat, and when done they walk 
 up to bed backward without speaking a word, for if one speaks 
 the spell is broken. Those that are to be married see the likeness 
 of their sweethearts hurrying after them, as^if wishing to catch 
 them befpi^e they get into bed ; but the maids being apprised of 
 this beforehand (by the cautions of old women who have tried 
 it) take care to unpin their clothes before they start, and are 
 readj^ to slip into bed before they are caught by the pursuing 
 shadow. If nothing is seen, the desired token may be a knock- 
 ing at the doors, or a rustling in the house, as soon as they have 
 retired. To be convinced that it comes from nothing else but 
 the desired cause, they are always particular in turning out the 
 cats and dogs before the ceremony begins. Those that are to die 
 unmarried neither see nor hear anything; but they have terrible 
 dreams, which are sure to be of newly-made graves, winding- 
 sheets, and churchyards, and of rings that will fit no finger, or 
 which, if they do, crumble into dust as soon as put on. There is 
 another dumb ceremony, of eating the yolk of an Qgg in silence 
 and then filling the shell with salt, when the sweetheart is sure 
 to make his visit in some way or other before morning. (^Every 
 Day Book, vol. i. p. 523.) 
 
 On St. John's Eve, likewise, the party of girls must number 
 three, and absolute silence must prevail through the whole of 
 the operation. 
 
 Two make it, 
 Two bake it, 
 Two break it. 
 
352 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 At midnight each maid eats a portion of the cake and takes a 
 portion in her hand, walks to bed backward, and sleeps with the 
 dumb cake under her pillow. Of course she sees plainly in her 
 dreams her future husband. On St. Faith's Day, though the 
 number of participants is the same, the custom somewhat varies ; 
 the cake must be made of spring water, flour, sugar, and salt. 
 The cake must be turned three times by each person during the 
 baking. It is then divided into long strips and passed three 
 times through a wedding-ring borrowed from a woman who has 
 been married at least seven years. All this in silence ; but as the 
 husband-hunter eats her dumb-cake she says, — 
 
 And bring to me my heart's delight, 
 Let me my future husband view, 
 And be my vision chaste and true. 
 
 Then all three maids get into bed together, with the wedding- 
 ring tied to the head of the bed. Three widows can also try 
 this charm. 
 
 In the " Journal of the Young Lady of Yirginia" we find the 
 gay group of young Southern beauties, with much fear and 
 trembling, eating the " dum-cake" in Mr. Washington's house. 
 
 Dunmow Flitch. At the church of Dunmow, in Essex 
 County, England, a flitch of bacon used to be given to any mar- 
 ried couple who after a twelvemonth of matrimony would come 
 forward and make oath that during that time they had lived in 
 perfect harmony and fidelity. The origin of the custom is lost 
 in the mists of antiquity. By some it is dubiously referred to 
 Eobert Fitzwalter, a favorite of King John, who revived the 
 Dunmow Priory at the beginning of the thirteenth century ; but 
 it seems quite as likely that the good fathers themselves, re- 
 joicing in their celibacy, instituted the custom as a jest upon 
 their less fortunate fellows. The earliest recorded case of the 
 awarding of the flitch is in 1445, when Eichard Wright, of 
 Bradbury, Norfolk, a laborer, claimed and obtained it. But 
 that there had been earlier cases of similar success is clearl}^ evi- 
 denced by many references in early English literature, the first 
 being in the " Vision of Piers Plowman," about 1362. 
 
 The passage, translated from its primitive tongue, reads, — 
 
 ; Many a couple since the Pestilence 
 ■ Have plighted them together ; 
 
 The fruit that they bring forth 
 
 Is foul words, 
 
 In jealousy without happiness, 
 
 And quarrelling in bed ; 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 353 
 
 They have no children but strife, 
 And slapping between them ; 
 And though they go to Dunmow 
 (Unless the devil help !) 
 To follow after the Flitch, 
 They never obtain it ; 
 CAnd unless they both are perjured, 
 They lose the Bacon. 
 
 Though it is clear from this that both husband and wife had to 
 take the oath, antiquaries hold that during the fifteenth and 
 sixteenth centuries it became customary to present the flitch to 
 the husband alone, as the reward ot patience. They cite in 
 evidence Chaucer's " Wife of Bath," who relates how she treated 
 her husbands, and says, — 
 
 The bacoun was not fet for hem, I trowe, 
 That som men ban in Essex at Dun mo we. 
 
 But by the end of the sixteenth century the original custom 
 had re-established itself, with the following addiiional cere- 
 monies. A jury of six bachelors and six maidens was empan- 
 elled. Before them came the competing couple, who were forced 
 to kneel on two sharp-pointed stones and assent to this metrical 
 oath : 
 
 / You shall swear by custom of confession 
 
 That you ne'er made nuptial transgression ; 
 
 Nor since you were married man and wife, 
 
 By household brawls or contentious strife, 
 
 Or otherwise at bed or at board 
 
 Offended each other in deed or in word, 
 
 Or in a twelvemonth and a day 
 
 Kepented not in thought any way, 
 
 Or since the parish clerk said amen 
 
 Wished yourselves unmarried again, 
 
 But continued true in thought and desire 
 
 As when you joined hands in the quire. 
 
 The jury was not satisfied with the mere taking of the oath. 
 Witnesses were questioned and tests applied. Few indeed went 
 scathless through the ordeal. 
 
 An amusing incident is related of a couple who were on the 
 very point of receiving the prize, when, as a final test, the flitch 
 was suspended at the top of a greased pole, and the happy hus- 
 band was bidden by the jury to climb there and get it. The 
 worthy fellow hesitated, and then frankly explained that he had 
 his best clothes on, which if he should spoil, his wife would 
 scold him soundly. .He was told to be ofl*, as a fraud, matri- 
 monial and porcine. 
 
 If the couple proved successful, the flitch was finally awarded 
 with these words : 
 
 23 
 
354 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Since to these conditions without any fear 
 Of your own accord you do freely declare, 
 A whole flitch of bacon you shall receive, 
 And bear it hence with love and good leave : 
 « For this is our custom at Dunmow, well known,* 
 Though the pleasure is ours, the bacon's your own. 
 
 Thrifty couples took full advantage of the freedom conveyed 
 in the latter clause, by selling slices of the bacon at good prices 
 to the crowd of merrymakers present. 
 
 The custom seems to have lapsed and been revived from time 
 to time at considerable intervals until 1762, when John and 
 Susan Gilder, having applied for the flitch, found admission re- 
 fused. Next year the lord of the manor removed the symbolical 
 " swearing stones" upon which the couple knelt to take the oath. 
 
 Nothing more was heard of the flitch till February 11, 1841, 
 when it was rumored that the lord of the manor offered the 
 flitch to the queen and prince consort, who had then been mar- 
 ried a year and a day. [It is said to have been declined^" In 
 1851, Mr. and Mrs. Hurrell having applied, the lord of the manor 
 pleaded desuetude, and the villagers supplied the flitch. This 
 awakened the interest, amid which Ainsworth's novel " The 
 Flitch of Bacon" appeared, which book led to a meeting at 
 Dunmow and a correspondence with the novelist, who consented 
 to co-operate in a formal revival of the custom and to pay for 
 the flitch on the occasion. The result was the celebrated festival 
 of July 19, 1855. But the popular interest could not be re- 
 awakened, and though in 1857, in 1876, in 1877, and in 1880 the 
 flitch was again contested for, the contemporary reports tell 
 us that " the attendance was poor and the true joyous spirit was 
 absent." 
 
 The custom of awarding a prize of this sort for wedded faith- 
 fulness is not peculiar to Dunmow. For a century the abbots 
 of St. Meleine, in Bretagne, gave a like trophy. The idea was 
 known in Vienna, where, beneath the Eed Tower, a flitch of 
 bacon used to hang, beneath which were the following lines : 
 
 Befind' sich irgend hir ein Mann 
 Der mit den Wabrheit sprecken kann, 
 Dass ihm sine Heurath nischt gerowe, 
 Und fiircht' sich nischt vor sine Frowe, 
 Der mag desen Backen herunter howe. 
 
 Cj'Is there to be found a married man 
 ,' That in verity declare can 
 That his marriage him doth not rue. 
 That he has no fear of his wife for a shrew, 
 He may this bacon for himself down hew.") 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 355 
 
 The manor of Wbichmore, in Stafford, was in the time of 
 Edward III. granted by the Earls of Lancaster to Sir Philip de 
 Somerville on condition that he should maintain and sustain one 
 bacon flyke to be given to every man or woman after the day 
 and year of their marriage were past who could take this oath : 
 " Hear ye, Sir Philip de Somerville, Lord of Whichmore, mayn- 
 tener and gyver of this baconne, that I, A, sithe I wedded B, 
 my wyfe, and sythe I hadd hyr in my keepyng and at my wylle 
 by a yere and a day after our marryage, I wo'd not haue chaunged 
 for none other, farer ne fowler, rycher ne pouter, ne for none 
 other descended of greater lyneage, slepyng ne wekyng, at noo 
 tyme. And yf the said B were sole, and I sole, I wolde take 
 hyr to be my wyfe before all the wymen in the worlde, of what 
 condicions soever they be, goode or evylle, so helpe me God and 
 his sayntis, and thys fleshe and all fleshes." This was for a 
 tenure, and in remembrance of it a piece of wood in the form of 
 a flitch of bacon hangs in the new mansion, the estate being no 
 longer in possession of the Somervilles. (See also Bacon.) 
 
 Dusserah Festival. One of the greatest annual events 
 among the Hindoos, celebrated in honor of the goddess Kali. 
 The sacrifice of a bullock is the chief feature. The Brahmin 
 priests begin by burning incense and making offerings to the 
 goddess. The victim is then led to the stake, a man throwing 
 water from a jar on its neck until it is tied up and held in posi- 
 tion for the death-stroke. Two men pull the beast forward by 
 ropes attached to the horns, and two others behind pull in the 
 opposite direction with ropes which are passed round the neck. 
 A Goorkha then advances with a razor-edged " kookrie" and 
 severs the head at a blow. The sacrifice is completed by the 
 burning of incense. 
 
 Du"walee Festival. A Hindoo celebration marking the close 
 of the mercantile year, when those engaged in commerce care- 
 fully cleanse and decorate the exteriors of their houses, and at 
 night there is a universal illumination. " The city then appears 
 like a creation of the fire-king, the view from the water afford- 
 ing the most superb and remarkable spectacle imaginable. The 
 outlines of the whole city are marked in streams of fire ; and 
 the coruscations of light shoot up into the dark-blue sky above, 
 and tremble in long undulations on the rippling waves below." 
 
366 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Easter. The Sunday on which Christian Churches com- 
 memorate the resurrection of Christ. The name, which is in 
 use only among the English- and German-speaking peoples, is 
 derived, in all probability, from that of a goddess of the heathen 
 Saxons, Ostara, Osterr, or Eastre. She was the personification 
 of the East, of the morning, of the spring. The month of 
 April was dedicated to her, and was called Eastermonath among 
 the Saxons and Angles, and is still known in Germany as Oster- 
 monat. Her worship struck deep root in Northern Germany, 
 was carried to England by the Saxons, and still survives in some 
 obscure customs in feasts to celebrate the return of the spring. 
 
 Non-Teutonic nations cling to the Semitic word derived from 
 the Aramaic word pesach, " to pass by," which has been trans- 
 lated into English as Passover (q. v.). Thus the Spanish say 
 Pascua, the French Pdques, and the Italians Pasqua. Never- 
 theless the Scandinavians say Paaske, and the Dutch Paasch. 
 In England the Semitic form survives in many terms applicable 
 to the season, as pass-flower, paschal lamb or pass-lamb, and 
 pasch, pace, or pase eggs. (See Pasch Egg.) These terms re- 
 mind us that our Christian festival is the successor to the Jewish 
 Passover, while the word Easter carries us back through the 
 Saxons to the more ancient celebrations which from the earliest 
 ages of man have expressed the universal outburst of rejoicing 
 over the reawakening of nature after the long sleep of winter. 
 
 In the early Church Easter was identical in date with the 
 Passover, as in fact the two festivals are identical in their root. 
 But the opposition of the Christians to the Jews led to a change. 
 The records of the Nicsean Council of a.d. 325 show that this 
 opposition was most acute. The very call for the Council 
 breathed hostility against the Jews and those Christians who 
 celebrated Easter on the day on which the Jews kept passover. 
 These Christians were called Quartodecimanians, because they 
 celebrated Easter on the 14th day of Nisan, the first month of 
 the Jewish year. But the opposition to the Quartodecimanians 
 of Asia was more zealous than intelligent ; for the artificial 
 day chosen for Easter fell occasionally, as in 1805 and in 1825, 
 on the 14th day of the Jewish Nisan, and the Christian Fathers, 
 while bitterly opposed to the Jews, adopted without hesitation 
 the Jewish mode of reckoning time by lunations. To make the 
 matter worse, these lunations do not tally with the facts of as- 
 tronomy. The result is that Easter calculations are so extraor- 
 dinarily difiicult as to lead to occasional mistakes, like that of 
 1818, when Easter was kept on the wrong day. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 357 
 
 It was determined, in the first place, that Easter must invari- 
 ably fall on the first Sunday after the fourteenth day of the moon 
 that happens to be reigning at the time of the vernal equinox. 
 Then it was declared that the date of the equinox should be arbi- 
 trarily made March 21, although the equinox really comes some- 
 times a little earlier or a little later than the 21st. For example, 
 suppose the equinox moon is just fourteen days old on the 2l8t 
 of March and that this day falls on Saturday ; then the next day, 
 Sunday, would fill the condition noted above, and consequently 
 be Easter. The festival may thus be as early as March 22 or as 
 late as April 25. In 1761 and 1818, Easter fell on March 22, but 
 neither in this nor in the following century will this be the case. 
 In 1913, however, it will fall on March 23, as it did in 1845 and 
 1856. The latest Easters in this century and the twentieth are 
 April 25, in 1886 and 1943. When the right day for Easter is 
 finally found, it determines a long series of ecclesiastical days, 
 from Ash Wednesday to Trinity Sunday. 
 
 The Christian Easter was originally a sort of thanksgiving 
 observance lasting eight days. This conformed somewhat to 
 the length of time devoted by pagans to their spring festivities, 
 and approached the duration of the Jewish paschal observances. 
 The eight-day period was after-wards cut down to three days, after 
 that to two, and finally it became, as we have it now, a single / 
 day commemorative of the resurrection. 
 
 It was the invariable policy of the early Church to give a 
 Christian significance to such of the extant pagan ceremonies as 
 could not be rooted out. In the case of Easter the conversion 
 was peculiarly easy. Joy at the rising of the natural sun, and 
 at the awakening of nature from the death of winter, became 
 joy at the rising of the Sun of righteousness, at the resurrec 
 tion of Christ from the grave. Some of the pagan observances 
 which took place about the 1st of May were also shifted to corre- 
 spond with the celebration of Easter. Many new features were 
 added. It was a time of exuberant joy. Gregory of Kyssa 
 draws a vivid picture of the joyous crowds who, by their dress 
 (a feature still preserved) and their devout attendance at church, 
 sought to do honor to the festival. All labor ceased, all trades 
 were suspended. It was a favorite time for baptism, the law 
 courts were closed, alms were given to the poor, slaves were 
 freed. Easter Sunday became known as Dominica gaudii (" Sun- 
 day of joy"). In the reaction from the austerities of Lent, 
 people gave themselves up to enjoyment, popular sports, dances, 
 and farcical entertainments. In some places the clergy, to in- 
 crease the mirth, recited from the pulpit humorous stories and 
 legends for the purpose of exciting the risus Paschalis, or " Easter 
 smile." Monks and clerics used to have regular games of ball in 
 
358 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 church, and in England the winners received tansy cakes as 
 prizes. Feasts were served in churches, till the consequent 
 excesses and disorders became past endurance. People ex- 
 changed the Easter kiss and the salutation " Christ is risen," to 
 which the reply was made, "He is risen indeed," — a custom 
 kept up to this day in some parts of the world. 
 
 In England there was a custom in the thirteenth century of 
 seizing all ecclesiastics who walked abroad between Easter and 
 Pentecost (because the apostles were seized by the Jews after 
 Christ's Passion) and making them purchase their liberty by 
 money. 
 
 One of the oldest and most wide-spread of Easter supersti- 
 tions is that which makes the sun participate in the general 
 felicity by dancing in the heavens. Sir John Suckling wrote, in 
 "The Bride,"— 
 
 But, oh, she dances such a way, 
 No sun upon an Easter Day- 
 Is half so fine a sight. 
 
 The question whether the sun really did dance was solemnly 
 discussed and combated by grave old scholars, who took the 
 trouble to demonstrate, by irrefutable arguments and at great 
 length, that while the sun might sometimes shine more brightly 
 on Easter morning than on another, it was simply by accident, 
 and that in any event there was no dancing and could be none. 
 " In some parts of England they call it the lamb playing," wrote 
 one, "which they look for, as soon as the sun rises, in some clear 
 spring or water, and is nothing but the pretty reflection it makes 
 from the water, which they may find at any time, if the sun 
 rise clear and they themselves early and unprejudiced with 
 fancy." The question was definitively settled by the sun him- 
 self, thus, in doggerel, in " The British Apollo," in 1708 : 
 
 Q. — Old wives, Phoebus, say 
 That on Easter Day 
 To the music o' th' spheres you do caper ; 
 If the fact, sir, be true. 
 Pray let's the cause know, 
 When you have any room in your paper. 
 
 A. — The old wives get merry 
 
 "With spiced ale and sherry 
 On Easter, which makes them romance ; 
 
 And whilst in a rout 
 
 Their brains whirl about, 
 They fancy we caper and dance. 
 
 This idea of the sun dancing on Easter Day may easily be 
 traced back to heathen customs, when the spectators themselves 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 359 
 
 danced at a festival in honor of the sun, after the vernal 
 equinox. 
 
 Devonshire maidens still get up early on Easter morning to 
 see not onlj- the dancing sun, but also a lamb and a flag in the 
 centre of its disk. 
 
 In Scotland the sun was even more active, for there it vras 
 expected to whirl round like a mill-wheel and give three leaps. 
 One way of looking at the sun's unusual feat was to watch for 
 its reflection in a pond or a pail of water, when any movement 
 on the surface would materially strengthen the illusion. In a 
 similar way, the credulous would be deceived by the morning 
 vapor, through which the rising sun would appear to flicker. 
 
 Other superstitions have^ clustered round this festival, some 
 of which still linger on. It is considered by many unlucky to 
 omit wearing new clothes on Easter Day, and in East Yorkshire 
 young people go to the nearest market town to buy some new 
 article of dress or personal ornament, as otherwise they believe 
 that birds — notably rooks or " crakes" — will spoil their clothes. 
 To see a lamb on first looking out of the window on Easter 
 morning is a good omen, especiall}^ if its head be turned in the 
 direction of the house; but it is not so fortunate if it be lying 
 down or looking the other way. It must be remembered, how- 
 ever, that to meet a lamb at any time is lucky, as, according to 
 the popular notion, the devil can take any other form than that 
 of a lamb or a dove. 
 
 If the wind is in the east on Easter Day, it is regarded 
 in some places as a wise plan to draw water and wash in it, 
 as by this means one will avoid the various ill effects irom 
 the east wind throughout the remaining months of the year. 
 The same superstition exists on the Continent. Thus, in the 
 neighborhood of Mecklenburg, on Easter morning the maid- 
 servants fetch Easter water, or on the evening preceding spread 
 out linen clothes in the garden, and in the morning wash them- 
 selves with the dew, rain, or snow that may have fallen on them. 
 This is said to be a preservative against illness for the whole 
 year. In Sachsenburg the peasants ride their horses into the 
 water to ward off sickness from them. The Easter water, how- 
 ever, has virtue only when while drawing it the wind is due 
 east. Much importance is attached to rain falling on Easter 
 Day, for, according to an old proverb, — 
 
 A good deal of rain on Easter Day 
 
 Gives a crop of good grass, but little good hay. 
 
 Again, if the sun shines on Easter morning it will, we are told, 
 shine on Whitsunday. A Sussex piece of weather-lore goes 
 
360 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 further, and tells us that if the sun shines on Easter Day it will 
 shine a little every day all the year round ; while there is a 
 corresponding notion that if it rains it will rain a little, if only 
 a few drops, every day during the ensuing year. 
 
 A curious custom, called " sugar-cupping," was formerly kept 
 up on Easter Day at the Dripping Torr, near Tideswell, in 
 Derbyshire. The young people assembled at the Torr, each 
 provided with a cup and a small quantity of sugar or honey, 
 and, having caught the required supply of water, they mixed 
 the sugar with it, and then drank it, meantime repeating a 
 doggerel verse. 
 
 A singular ceremony formerly prevailed at Lostwithiel, in 
 Cornwall, on Easter Day. The freeholders of the town and 
 manor having met together, either in person or their deputies, 
 one among them, each in his turn, gayly attired, with a sceptre 
 in his hand, a crown on his head, and a sword borne before him, 
 and attended by all the rest on horseback, rode through the 
 principal streets in solemn state to the church. At the church- 
 yard the officiating minister met him, and then conducted him 
 to the church to hear divine service. On leaving the church he 
 repaired, with the same pomp and retinue, to a house previously 
 prepared for his reception. Here a feast, suited to the dignity 
 he had assumed, awaited him and his suite, at the conclusion 
 of which the prince was disrobed, and so the ceremony ended. 
 This custom, it is said, originated in the actual appearance of the 
 prince, who resided at Restormel Castle, in former ages. On 
 the removal of royalty this mimic grandeur stepped forth as its 
 shadowy representative, and continued for many generations as 
 a memorial to posterit}^ of the princely magnificence with which 
 Lostwithiel had formerly been honored. 
 
 Such is the explanation given by Kitchens in his " History of 
 Cornwall" (1824, vol. i. p. 717). But in truth the appearance 
 of a symbolical Easter King was frequent at this season in con- 
 tinental Europe. There is in confirmation the old story of 
 Charles Y., who while riding through a village in his Spanish 
 kingdom was met by a peasant attired in the fantastic robes of 
 the Paschal monarch, with a tin crown upon his head and a 
 spit for a truncheon. Not knowing who the rider was, the 
 peasant commanded him to doff his hat. " My good friend," 
 responded the Emperor, as he complied with the request, " I 
 wish you joy in your new office : you will find it a troublesome 
 one, 1 can assure you." 
 
 TJntil recently an immemorial custom called " chipping the 
 block" was observed at University College, Oxford. A block in 
 the form of a long wooden pole, decorated with flowers and ever- 
 greens, was placed outside the door of the hall, leaning against 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 361 
 
 the wall of the buttery opposite. After dinner on Easter Day 
 the college cook and bis attendant, dressed in white paper caps 
 and white jackets, took their stand on either side of the block, 
 each bearing a pewter dish, one supporting a blunt chopping-axe 
 from the kitchen, the other in readiness for the fees expected on 
 the occasion. As the members of the college came out of the 
 hall, each took the axe and struck the block with it, and then 
 placed in the pewter dish the usual fee to the cook. According 
 to one tradition mentioned by Mr. Henderson, any one who 
 could chop the block in two was entitled to lay claim to all the 
 college estates. 
 
 In Eome Easter Sunday is celebrated with elaborate cere- 
 monies ; though since the fall of the temporal power these have 
 been shorn of much of their magnificence. The day is ushered 
 in by the firing of cannon from the castle of St. Angelo, and 
 about seven o'clock carriages with ladies and gentlemen are be- 
 ginning to pour towards St. Peter's. That magnificent basilica 
 is richlj^ decorated for the occasion, the altars are freshly orna- 
 mented, and the lights around the tomb and figure of St. Peter 
 are blazing after their temporary extinction on Good Friday. 
 Formerly the Pope officiated this day at mass in St. Peter's. 
 From a hall in an adjoining palace of the Vatican he was borne 
 into the church. Seated in his Sedia Gestatoria, his vestments 
 blazed with gold ; on his head he wore the tiara, a tall round 
 gilded cap representing a triple crown, understood to signify 
 spiritual power, temporal power, and the union of both. Beside 
 him were borne the flabelli, or large fans, composed of ostrich 
 feathers, in which were set the eye-like parts of peacocks' 
 feathers, to signify the eyes or vigilance of the Church. Over 
 him was carried a silk canopy richly fringed. Thus he was 
 escorted to his throne, which stands far back in the distance 
 behind the altar. Lining the avenue from it to the shrine of the 
 apostles stood the Noble Guards in full uniform, a living hedge 
 of athletic men. The tribunes built up in the transepts con- 
 tained all those official persons whose duty it was to be present 
 on this occasion, and all wore uniform. The ladies were in black, 
 and their long lace veils, which were de rigueur in their costume 
 for the ceremonies, lent a softening tone to the bright splendor 
 of the uniforms and colored robes of office. The crown of the 
 whole great pageant, however, was the unrivalled Papal choir, 
 which now outdid itself in its magnificently calm rendering of 
 the solemn church chant. At the elevation of the sacred host, the 
 word of command was rung out in a clarion-like voice by one of 
 the officers, and the military in the body of the church all pre- 
 sented arms as they suddenly dropped on one knee. The Noble 
 Guards drew their swords and lilted them up in a bristling hedge 
 
362 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 of steel, while they also were on their knees ; and from the lofty 
 tribune under the dome issued the sound of the silver trumpets, 
 the only instrumental music allowed during the Papal functions. 
 Again at the moment of the communion the same evolutions 
 were gone through, save that the trumpets no longer sounded, 
 and that in perfect silence a cardinal bore the consecrated host 
 to the foot of the Papal throne, where the Pontiff knelt to 
 receive it. 
 
 No sooner was the mass over than the Pope was with the 
 same ceremony and to the sound of music borne back through 
 the crowded church to the balcony over the central doorway. 
 There, rising from his chair of state and turning first to the east 
 and then to the west, he pronounced a benediction, with indulgence 
 and absolution. The crowed was most dense immediate^ under 
 the balcony at which the Pope appeared, for there papers were 
 thrown down containing a copy of the prayers that had been 
 uttered, and ordinarily there was a scramble to catch them. 
 
 "At night," says a spectator of the ancient glories, "civic fes- 
 tivities follow the religious pageant of the morning. St. Peter's 
 is illuminated by means of hundreds of thousands of tiny oil 
 lamps, whose white gleam has given the name of ' silver illumi- 
 nation' to this part of the show. These lamps are placed at 
 short intervals along every prominent line and curve of the 
 colossal building, and produce an effect as of a fairy architect's 
 plan. After about half an hour, a gun suddenly booms from the 
 castle of St. Angelo, and the ' silver' is changed almost instantane- 
 ously to a 'golden' illumination. This magical effect is produced 
 by the sudden kindling of large hanging pans full of resinous 
 matter, also disposed along the architectural lines and curves 
 of the basilica, and completely outshining in their strong, fiery 
 glare the more delicate radiance of the little lamps. One man 
 has no more than two or three of these pans to attend to, so 
 that it is easy for him to fire them all almost simultaneously. 
 The numberless dark figures moving aloft with cat-like agility 
 among the massive shadows of the basilica are plainly visible 
 to those stationed in the balconies of the piazza; but a far more 
 satisfactory way of seeing the illumination is to go to the Monte 
 Pincio, at the opposite side of the town ; the great dome of fire 
 stands out in weird magnificence against the sky. and the sudden 
 change, of which no human agency can be seen at that distance, 
 has in consequence a proportionately enhanced effect upon the 
 imagination." 
 
 All this is now changed. It is the cardinal arch-priest who 
 says mass in St. Peter's. The Pope himself officiates at a private 
 mass in the Consistory within the Vatican palace. It needs 
 what in Yankee is called " a pull" to obtain an invitation. The 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 363 
 
 costume required is full dress for men spectators and a Spanish 
 mantilla tlirown over the dress for women. The ceremony 
 begins at eight o'clock. Two prelates assist the Pope. 
 
 A ceremony which survives in many of the Spanish-American 
 countries is thus described by a traveller who witnessed it in 
 Cuba : 
 
 " At the great cathedral was drawn up an escort of troops. 
 Soon comes forth a full-sized wax figure of the Saviour, with 
 open wounds, standing upon a platform or pedestal, highly deco- 
 rated, and borne upon the heads of men who are shielded from 
 the public gaze by a deep curtain, reaching nearly to the ground. 
 With music playing, the procession, with priests, crosses, candles, 
 etc., moved slowly along the street. 
 
 " Soon appeared, coming in an opposite direction, a full-sized 
 figure of Mary Magdalene, borne on the shoulders of four priests. 
 It approaches the image of the Saviour, until a seeming recogni- 
 tion takes place, when it turns suddenly round, and, by the pecu- 
 liar running motion of the priests, the image appears to run 
 very hard up the street, wnth her long curls shaking in wild con- 
 fusion. She meets the image of the Virgin Mary, and tells her 
 of the resurrection, when they both return down the street, the 
 Yirgin Mary being in advance. 
 
 " When the Yirgin Mary arrives near the Saviour, by the sud- 
 den motion of the forw^ard bearers each figure is made to bow 
 to the other several times, and they all proceed onward to the 
 church from which the two Marys were taken. Both images of 
 the Marys are dressed ver}- gaudily. The dress of the Virgin 
 Mary was of yellow satin, trimmed with gold, and she had a 
 crown upon her head. Mary Magdalene was dressed in blue. 
 
 " After entering the church, the troops fired a feu~de-joie, and 
 slowly the crowd of wondering spectators dispersed." 
 
 Midnight mass is said in churches of the Grreek faith. A con- 
 tributor to the National Review thus describes the ceremony as 
 he witnessed it in the cathedral at Tiflis : 
 
 " The service commences in the dull gloom, for, with the ex- 
 ception of a few lights upon and in the vicinit}^ of the altar, the 
 church is unlit. But this gloom tends to heighten the effect of 
 the group of richlj^-robed and mitred priests that throng the 
 steps, chanting in turn with the choir of unaccompanied boys' 
 and men's voices the music of the service. In contrast to the 
 group about the altar steps was the dark heaving crowd, half 
 hidden in the filmy clouds of the incense and the dusk of the 
 building. At length, as midnight approached, the priests and 
 choir filed down the church and left the building by the main 
 entrance, one or two alone remaining within. Then, as a rocket 
 without gave the sign of midnight, a loud knocking commenced 
 
 4. 
 
364 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 at the door, which was repeated several times. On the gate 
 being opened, the priests and choir hurried in, crying out again 
 and again, ' Christ is risen ! Christ is risen !' Each bore in his 
 hand a lighted taper, from which the nearer members of the 
 crowd lit their own, passing the flame from candle to candle, for 
 every one in the building bore a taper. It took but a minute to 
 change the entire scene, and as the priests made their way to the 
 altar, swinging their censers as they went, the gloom of the 
 church disappeared, and the building was lit by thousands upon 
 thousands of candles ; where, before, the dusk had prevented one 
 seeing either the church or the crowd, every picture and detail 
 of the decoration of the building and every figure in it became 
 distinct. The seething mass of humanity took form and shape, 
 and where, before, one recognized only dark figures in an incense- 
 laden twilight, one recognized now the officers of the govern- 
 ment, in uniforms bespangled with orders, accompanied by their 
 wi ves and daughters." 
 7 The celebration of Easter in the United States is now an 
 ! established practice. ^New England was the last section to adopt 
 a festival upon which the settlers of Puritan Massachusetts looked 
 with particular abhorrence. Some of the States, like Virginia 
 and Louisiana, have always kept Easter after a fashion, and so 
 have certain denominations, like the Catholics, the Anglicans, 
 and the Lutherans. But fifty years ago these denominations 
 were neither strong nor popular in this country, and the influence 
 of Virginia and Louisiana upon the manners of the American 
 people was not great. 
 
 It is impossible to name the exact time when Easter began to 
 commend itself to many people and many Churches that had 
 looked upon the Christian festival as a Catholic or quasi-Catholic 
 error. It appears that about the time of the war the P^igsbyte- 
 rians began lo preach Easter sermons and to adorn their churches 
 with Easter flowers. These churches seem to have followed the 
 example set to them by their sister societies. It had been cus- 
 tomary to embellish the sanctuary with flowers, and the war 
 period made it natural for many people to remember with special 
 fervor the Christian lesson of the resurrection. The movement 
 thus begun was aided by the season in which the older Churches 
 celebrated the resurrection of Christ, while all nature proclaimed 
 the revival of spring, its flowers and its hopes. Even now, how- 
 ever, it is in the cities rather than in the country that Easter is 
 most generally celebrated. 
 
 By a singular coincidence, polite society- and the Churches 
 have entered upon a quiet agreement to make Easter a marked 
 day. When Lent begins, society gives up dancing-parties, and 
 all ladies, who choose, may rest from their social labors. This 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 365 
 
 period of comparative quiet ends on Easter Day. On that day 
 the spring season of society begins, and young women appear for 
 the first time in their spring bonnets. 'MilHners, caterers, dress- 
 makers, and flower-dealers understand this law of the social 
 world. Latterly the manufacturers and dealers in Easter cards 
 have developed a taste both novel and popular. Indeed, Amer- 
 ican Easter cards have fairly outstripped the English article ; and 
 the American consumption of these pretty commodities exceeds 
 that of England. 
 
 Easter Hare. In Germany the Easter hare is almost as im- 
 portant a figure in nursery lore as the Christmas St. Nicholas. 
 Children are taught to believe that if they are good and mind 
 their parents and are truthful and kind to one another, a white 
 hare will steal into the house on Easter Eve, when everybody is 
 asleep, and secrete any number of beautifully colored eggs in odd 
 corners for the good little children. 
 
 When the housewife comes in from her marketing on the 
 fateful evening, the " kinderkins" do not see the heaps of eggs in 
 the basket. They can think of nothing but the white hare. 
 Has Maya been naughty ? Has Hans been good ? Those are 
 the questions that agitate their little minds all through the even- 
 ing meal. 
 
 Soon afterwards they are tucked nicely in bed, but not to sleep. 
 They are watching for the white hare. Meanwhile the house- 
 wife is in the kitchen boiling the eggs in many gay patterns of 
 cheap print cloth, which ultimately leaves them decked in all the 
 hues of the rainbow. There are blue eggs, green eggs, and red 
 eggs, and eggs that are all three colors, and more besides. 
 
 When the eggs are all nicely done the parents take them and 
 hide them away in various corners where they cannot easily be 
 found. Then perhaps the chuckling couple go around the corner 
 to a beer-saloon to enjoy the music and drink beer. Sometimes 
 in the midst of the music and the clink of mugs they think of 
 the kinderkins at home listening for the white hare, and they 
 laugh and are happy. 
 
 It is almost dawn before the children fall asleep. When they 
 awake it is broad daylight and Easter morning. How about the 
 white hare ? Has anybody seen it ? The mother is certain she 
 heard a noise. The father is not quite sure whether they have 
 been good enough or not. When they are dressed he leads them 
 all over the house in search of the eggs left by the white hare. 
 They are nowhere to be found. Alas ! they have been bad chil- 
 dren. Just then, over in a dark corner, the father spies a gor- 
 geous red egg. How the children shout as they carry the prize 
 into the light. What a marvellous Qgg it is! Then more and 
 
366 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 more are found, until there can be no possible doubt that the 
 wonderful white hare thinks them very good children. 
 
 The connection between Easter and the hare springs from the 
 latter's connection with the moon. Easter, inasmuch as its date 
 depends upon the moon, is in a sense a lunar holiday. Now, 
 from very ancient times the hare has been a symbol for the 
 moon. There are many reasons for this. A few ow\y need be 
 given. The hare is a nocturnal animal, and comes out at night 
 to feed. The female carries her young for a month, thus repre- 
 senting the lunar cycle. Both hare and moon were thought to 
 have the power of changing their sex. The new moon was 
 masculine, the waning moon feminine. The superstition about 
 the hare is mentioned by Pliny, Archelaus, and others. It is 
 crystallized in the lines of Beaumont and Fletcher ("Faithless 
 Shepherdess," Act HI.),— 
 
 Hares that yearly sexes change, 
 Proteus, altering oft and strange, 
 Hecate with shapes three, 
 Let this maiden changed be. 
 
 Here again we have the hare in close connection with Hecate, 
 or the moon. 
 
 But a more important reason for the identification of the hare 
 with the moon lay in the fact that its young are born with their 
 eyes open, unlike rabbits, which are born blind. The name of 
 the hare in Egyptian was wn, which means "open," "to open," 
 " the opener." Now, the moon was the open-eyed watcher of 
 the skies at night, and the hare, born with open eyes, was fabled 
 never to close them ; hence the old Latin expression somnus 
 leporinus and the identification of the open-eyed hare with the 
 full moon. The old principle of cure by sympathies led to the 
 prescription in- the early English folk-lore of the brains and eyes 
 of the hare as a cure for somnolency. 
 
 The Egyptian wi meant not only " hare" and " open," but 
 " period," and for this reason the hare became the type of peri- 
 odicity, both human and lunar, and in the character of opener 
 was associated with the opening of the new year at Easter, as 
 well as with the beginning of a new life in the youth and maiden. 
 Hence the hare became connected in the popular mind with the 
 paschal eggs, broken to signify the opening of the year. 
 
 Even in America we may see in the confectioners' windows 
 the hare (or rather a rabbit) wheeling his barrow full of eggs 
 or drawing one large one as a sort of triumphal chariot. In 
 some parts of Europe the Easter eggs are made nj) into cakes in 
 the shape of hares, and the little children are told that babies 
 aie found in the form of hares. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 367 
 
 Among English popular customs celebrating Easter are many 
 traces of the hare myth. In Warwickshire, at Coleshill, if the 
 young men of the parish can catch a hare and bring it to the parson 
 before ten o'clock in the morning of Easter Monday (the moon- 
 day), he is bound to give them a calf's head, one hundred eggs, 
 and a groat, the calf's head being probably a survival of the 
 worship of Baal, or the sun, as the Golden Calf 
 
 The Leicester custom of hunting the hare is also in point. 
 On Easter Monday the mayor and the city officials, in their 
 scarlet robes, used to go to Black-Annis' Bower Close for the 
 ostensible purpose of hunting a hare. But, as there were no 
 hares to be hunted at this season, a feeble compromise was ef- 
 fected by trailing a dead cat soaked in anise-seed water before 
 a pack of hounds, amid the shouts of the spectators. Although 
 this form of drag-hunting has long been discontinued, an annual 
 fair held in the neighborhood preserved until recently many 
 traces of the Leicester Hare Hunt. 
 
 Most curious of all is the Hallaton Hare Scramble and Bottle- 
 Kicking which occurs annually on Easter Monday. C. J. Bill- 
 son, in " County Folk-Lore, Leicestershire and Eutland" (1895), 
 tells us that " at a remote period," unidentifiable to modern an- 
 tiquaries, a piece of land was bequeathed to the rector, condition- 
 ally that he provided annually two hare pies, a quantity of ale, 
 and two dozen penny loaves, to be scrambled for on each suc- 
 ceeding Easter Monday at the rising ground called Hare-Pie 
 Bank, about a quarter of a mile south of the village of Hallaton. 
 Of course, hares being out of season at this time of the year, 
 pies of mutton, veal, and bacon are substituted. A benevolent 
 rector of the last century made an effort to have the funds ap- 
 plied to a better use ; but the village wags were equal to the 
 occasion, and raised the cry^and chalked on his walls and door, 
 as well as on the church, "No pie, no parson, and a job for the 
 glazier." Other subsequent; efforts alike failed. " Easter Mon- 
 day at Hallaton is the great carnival of the year. The two 
 benefit societies hold their anniversary at the ' Eoyal Oak' and 
 the ' Fox Inn,' and bands accompany the processions to the parish 
 church, where the ' club sermon' is preached. After dinner at 
 the inns, a deputation is sent to the rectory for the ' pies and 
 beer,' and then the procession is formed in the following order : 
 
 " Two men abreast, carrying two sacks with the pies cut up. 
 
 " Three men abreast, carrying aloft a bottle each ; two of 
 these are filled with beer; they are ordinary field wood bottles, 
 but without the usual mouth, iron-hooped all over, with a hole 
 left for drinking from; the third is a dummy. Occasionally a 
 hare is carried, in a sitting posture, mounted on the top of a 
 pole. 
 
368 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 " The procession increases greatly in numbers as it approaches 
 Hare-Pie Bank, where the pies are pitched out of the sack and 
 scrambled for. The spectators amuse themselves by throwing 
 the contents of the pies at each other. Then follows the well- 
 known ' Hallaton bottle-kicking.' One of the large bottles con- 
 taining ale is thrown into the circular hollow on the mound, and 
 the ' Medbourne men,' or other villagers who care to join in the 
 sport, try to wrest the bottle from the Hallatonian grasp. A 
 fierce contest then ensues, in compaiison with which a foot-ball 
 scrimmage is mere child's play. It is useless to describe the 
 battle that ensues, the Hallatonians striving to kick the bottle 
 to their boundary-line over the brook adjoining the village, while 
 their opponents endeavor to convey it towards the Medbourne 
 boundary. The victors, of course, claim the contents of the 
 bottle. Then ' the dummy' is fought for with unabated zest, for 
 the Hallaton people boast that this has never been wrested 
 from them. The third bottle is taken in triumph to the market- 
 cross and its contents drunk with accustomed honors. The 
 bottles are carefully kept from year to year, and those now in 
 use have done duty for more than thirty years." 
 
 The Easter hare myth has reached America. Here, however, 
 as in other countries where the hare is scarce or unknown, it 
 has been transformed into its near relation the rabbit. Perhaps 
 this was originally due to the confectioners, who are rarely ex- 
 perts in natural history. 
 
 Another form of the hare myth is the curious superstition 
 among the negroes as to the talismanic virtues of the left hind 
 foot of a graveyard rabbit killed in the dark of the moon. 
 
 Easter Monday and Tuesday. In England and Ireland 
 Easter Monday is a holiday (see Bank Holiday), and on the 
 continent of Europe the following day is also a popular holiday. 
 The curious custom of heaving or lifting on Easter holidays 
 still survives in some parts of England, In imitation of the sun, 
 supposed to rise on Easter morning in three leaps, the men lift 
 the women on Easter Monday and the women return the com- 
 pliment on Easter Tuesday, the victim being lifted three times, 
 and then kissed and let off for a consideration. The lifting is 
 sometimes done by means of a chair, sometimes by the lifters 
 joining their hands at the wrist so as to improvise a seat, upon 
 which the person to be lifted is placed, and at other times less 
 decorously by the lifters taking hold of the victim by the arms 
 and legs. The custom is an old one, as appears from a record in 
 the Tower entitled " Liber Contrarotulatoris Hospicii," referring 
 to an event in the eighteenth year of the reign of Edward I. (1290). 
 On the Easter Monday seven of Queen Eleonora's ladies un- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 369 
 
 ceremoniously invaded Longahanks's chamber, and, seizing their 
 majestic master, proceeded to heave him in his chair till he was 
 glad to pay a fine of fourteen pounds to regain his liberty. 
 
 Brand in his " Popular Antiquities" quotes a correspondent 
 who under date of 1799 gives a graphic description of a heaving 
 to which he was subjected in Shrewsbury. " I was sitting 
 alone," he says, " last Easter Tuesday at breakfast at the Talbot 
 in Shrewsbury, when I was surprised by the entrance of all the 
 female servants of the house handing in an arm-chair, lined with 
 white, and decorated with ribbons and favors of different colors. 
 I asked them what they wanted. Their answer was, they came 
 to heave me. It was the custom of the place on that morning, 
 and they hoped I would take a seat in their chair. It was im- 
 possible not to comply with a request very modestly made, and 
 to a set of nymphs in their best apparel, and several of them 
 under twenty. I wished to see all the ceremony, and seated 
 myself accordingly. The group then lifted me from the ground, 
 turned the chair about, and I had the felicity of a salute from 
 each. I told them I supposed there was a fee due upon the 
 occasion, and was answered in the aflSrmative ; and, having 
 satisfied the damsels in this respect, they withdrew to heave 
 others. At this time I had never heard of such a custom ; but, 
 on inquiry, I found that on Easter Monday, between nine and 
 twelve, the men heave the women in the same manner as on the 
 Tuesday, between the same hours, the women heave the men. I 
 will not offer any conjecture on the ground of the custom, be- 
 cause I have nothing like data to go upon ; but if you should 
 happen to have heard anything satisfactory respecting it, I 
 should be highly gratified by your mentioning it." 
 
 A Warwickshire correspondent in a later edition of the same 
 book_(1849) adds this note : 
 
 '(Ji?he women's heaving day was the most amusing. Many a 
 time have I passed along the streets inhabited by the lower 
 orders of people, and seen parties of jolly matrons assembled 
 round tables on which stood a foaming tankard of ale. There 
 they sat in all the pride of absolute sovereignty, and woe to the 
 luckless man that dared to invade their prerogatives ! as sure as 
 he was seen he was pursued, as sure as he was pursued he was 
 taken, and as sure as he was taken he was heaved and kissed, 
 and compelled to pay sixpence for ' leave and license' to depart." 
 
 No one, no matter what his age or dignity, could escape. 
 Chambers's " Book of Days," vol. i. p. 425, tells an amusing story 
 in point : 
 
 , A grave clergyman who happened to be passing through a 
 town in Lancashire on an Easter Tuesday, and having to stay 
 an hour or two at an inn, was astonished by thr^e or four lusty 
 
 24 
 
370 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 women rushing into his room, exclaiming they had " come to lift 
 him." " To lift me !" repeated the amazed divine ; " what can 
 you mean ?" " Why, your reverence, we've come to lift you, 
 'cause it's Easter Tuesday." " Lift me because it's Easter Tues- 
 day ! I don't understand you. Is there any such custom here ?" 
 '' Yes, to be sure ; why, don't you know ? All us women was 
 lifted yesterday, and us lifts the men to-day in turn. And, in 
 course, it's our rights and duties to lift 'em." After a little 
 further parley, the reverend traveller compromised with his fair 
 visitors for half a crown, and thus escaped the dreaded compli- 
 ment. 
 
 Variants of the custom exist, or used to exist, in certain parts 
 of England and Wales. Thus, in many Yorkshire villages the 
 young men on Easter Sunday used to take off the young girls' 
 buckles, and on the Easter Monday the young men's shoes and 
 buckles were taken off by the young women. On the Wednes- 
 day they were redeemed by little pecuniary forfeits, out of which 
 an entertainment called a Tansy Cake was provided, and the 
 jollity concluded with dancing. At Eipon, where this custom 
 also prevailed, it is reported that no traveller could pass the town 
 w^ithout being stopped, and, if a horseman, having his spurs 
 taken away, unless redeemed by a little money, which was the 
 only means to get them returned. 
 
 Cole in his "History of Filey" (1828, p. 136) mentions a sim- 
 ilar custom as practised in that place. He says the young men 
 seize the shoes of the females, collecting as many as they can, 
 and on the following day the girls retaliate by getting the men's 
 hats, which are to be redeemed on a subsequent evening, when 
 both parties assemble at one of the inns and partake of a rural 
 repast. (^Gentleman's Magazine^ 1790, vol. Ix. p. 719.) 
 
 Durand tells us that on Easter Tuesday wives used to beat 
 their husbands, on the day following the husbands their wives. 
 The Hocktide {q. v.) customs were remotely analogous to these 
 of Easter. 
 
 That all had a root in some common custom in the remote 
 past is evident from the fact that similar rites are not unknown in 
 Germany. Thus, at Warth the boys go about flogging the girls 
 on Easter Monday, in return for which the boys must give them 
 fish and potatoes on Easter Tuesday and provide the music for a 
 general dance. 
 
 A custom called " clipping the church" was kept up in War- 
 wickshire on Easter Monday until the beginning of the nine- 
 teenth century. It was performed by the children of the different 
 charity schools, who at a certain hour flocked together for the 
 purpose. The first comers placed themselves hand in hand with 
 their backs against the church, and were joined by their com- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 371 
 
 panions, who gradually increased in number, till at last the chain 
 was of sufficient length to surround the sacred edifice. As soon 
 as the hand of the last of the train had grasped that of the 
 first, the party broke up, and walked in procession to the 
 other church (for in those days Birmingham boasted of but 
 two churches), where the ceremony was repeated. {Hone's 
 Every Bay Book, vol. i. p. 431.) 
 
 In the days of the temporal power of the Papacy the giran- 
 dola, or monster exhibition of fireworks, took place on Easter 
 Monday on the slope of the Pincian Hill in Rome. A covered 
 tribune opposite the ascent to the Pincio, divided into boxes 
 and stretching the whole length of the Piazza del Popolo, was 
 reserved for official personages. The piazza itself was crowded 
 with a surging crowd arrayed in all sorts of picturesque garbs. 
 j' It is impossible," says Lady Blanche Murphy in the Galaxy for 
 April, 1873, " to give an idea of the scale on which these fire- 
 works were ofi'ered gratis as a public spectacle to the people by 
 the Papal government, and it was certainly a scale which would 
 dwarf and shame the most elaborate exhibition of pyrotechnics 
 in any other capital. Foremost in the programme was always 
 some stately architectural device. One year we had a view of 
 Pompeii, with its delicate temples and Grecian columns rising 
 gracefully one behind the other, the whole flooded with quivering 
 light, and looking like the realization of a classic dream, while 
 in the piazza below the band of the Papal chasseurs played the 
 march out of ' Tone,' an opera founded on Bulwer's ' Last Days 
 of Pompeii.' Another year the architectural device was a grand 
 temple, more graceful than St. Peter's and more perfect than 
 St. Paul's (London), its dome uplifted like a great fiery bell, in 
 perfect proportion with the rest of the airy building. Turning 
 to the programme, I found it was a representation of Michael 
 Angelo's original plan of St. Peter's, now preserved in the Vati- 
 can Library." 
 
 An ancient custom still observed by the boys of Christ's Hos- 
 pital, London, on Easter Tuesday, is that of paying a visit to the 
 Mansion House to receive from the lord mayor what are known 
 as the Easter Bobs. The ceremony annually attracts a good deal 
 of public attention, as the boys march " in fours" through the 
 streets of the City to the Mansion House, where they are forth- 
 with regaled with two buns apiece. Thus fortified, they file 
 before the lord mayor, who, from sundry piles of new money on 
 the table before him, presents each " Grecian" with a sovereign, 
 and all the other boys, according to their standing, with coins of 
 lesser value. Before they retire, the boys have a glass of lemonade. 
 At one time the alternative of sherry was permitted. This form 
 of "local option," liowever, has been abolished. 
 
372 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 After the ceremony the lord mayor and the rest of the civic 
 authorities, in the customary state, accompany the boys to 
 Christ Church, Newgate Street, where a sermon is preached. 
 This sermon still retains the name of the second Spital sermon, 
 
 Easter Bobs at the Mansion House. 
 
 although the first, which used to be preached on Easter Monday, 
 has been discontinued. 
 
 In the Tyrol a peculiar bit of drollery similar to our April 
 fool custom is practised on Easter Tuesday. The bauer awakes 
 in the morning to find his manure-heap carefully laden on a cart 
 and hoisted onto his roof, along with ploughs, flails, harrows, 
 and other farming-utensils. The milkmaid seeks her pails in 
 vain, for they are lying in the trough of the village pump, with 
 the churn to keep them company. The church is completely 
 barricaded with wagons, benches, doors, fafi^ots, etc. Mich'l 
 misses his new pipe, and neighbor Jos'l his brindled cow; but 
 the latter's absence is easily accounted for when the priest's good 
 old housekeeper goes into the garden to water the lettuces. She 
 might have saved herself the trouble, for the brindled cow has 
 made short work with the vegetables. It may easily be con- 
 ceived that the sufferers are not choice in their language towards 
 the perpetrators of the mischief; but there the matter rests. 
 No harm is done, and the missing goods and chattels are soon 
 recovered by their rightful owners. 
 
 Easter Sepulchre. A stone or wooden structure more 
 common in the ancient churches of the Roman faith than in the 
 modern. In general design it resembled a tomb, and usually 
 stood on the north side of the chancel. Though in use only two 
 days in the year, it was frequently adorned with a wealth of 
 paintings, sculptures, and bas-reliefs. Easter sepulchres were 
 especially popular in Catholic England, and more or less muti- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 373 
 
 lated remains are still extant in some of the great cathedrals 
 and churches. 
 
 On Maundy Thursday it is still the Eoman custom for the 
 priest celebrating mass to consecrate three hosts, one for recep- 
 tion that day, another for use on Good Friday, and still another 
 to be shut up in the pyx, or, where the church contains an 
 Easter sepulchre, to be buried therein on Good Friday. Often 
 the crucifix exposed for adoration on Good Friday accompanies 
 it. In many places numerous candles are lighted, and a contin- 
 ual succession of watchers stand by the sepulchre or other recep- 
 tacle until the dawn of Easter Day. Then crucifix and host 
 are once more removed to the altar, and the church re-echoes 
 with joyous praise. 
 
 In a curious work entitled " The Ancient Eites and Monu- 
 ments of the Monastical and Cathedral Church of Durham," 
 collected from ancient monasteries about the time of the sup- 
 pression, and published by J. D. (J. Davies) of Kidwelly in 1672, 
 there is a minute account of a Good Friday ceremonial of this 
 sort as celebrated at Durham Cathedral. Its value is enhanced 
 by the fact that the book was probably written by one who had 
 acted as a participant. " Within the church of Durham, upon 
 Good Friday, there was a marvellous solemn service, in which 
 service time, after the Passion was sung, two of the ancient 
 monks took a goodly large crucifix, all of gold, of the picture 
 of our Saviour Christ, nayled upon the cross. . . . The service 
 being ended, the said two monks carried the cross to the sepul- 
 chre with great reverence, which sepulchre was set up in the 
 morning on the north side of the quire, nigh the high altar, be- 
 fore the service time, and they did lay it within the said sepulchre 
 with great devotion, with another picture of our Saviour Christ, 
 in whose Breast they did enclose, with great reverence, the most 
 holy and blessed Sacrament of the Altar, censing and praying 
 unto it upon their knees, a great space ; and setting two hghted 
 tapers before it, which did burn till Easter Day in the morning, 
 at which time it was taken forth. . . . There was very solemn 
 service betwixt three and four of the clock in the morning, in 
 honor of the Eesurrection, w^here two of the eldest monks in the 
 quire came to the sepulchre, set up upon Good Fryday, after the 
 Passion, all covered with red velvet embroidered with gold, and 
 did then cense it, either of the monks, with a pair of silver cen- 
 sers, sitting on their knees before the sepulchre. Then they, 
 both rising, came to the sepulchre, out of which, with great 
 reverence, they took a marvellous beautiful image of our Saviour, 
 representing the Eesurrection, with a cross in his hand, and on 
 Br the breast was enclosed, in most bright crystal, the Holy Sacra- 
 B ment of the Altar, through which crystal the Blessed Host was 
 
 I 
 
374 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 conspicuous to the beholders. Then after the elevation of the 
 said picture carried by the said two monks, upon a fair velvet 
 cushion, all embroidered, singing the anthem of Christus Besur- 
 gens, they brought it to the high altar." 
 
 Elsewhere in England, as well as on the Continent, it was 
 often the custom to wash the cross, after its adoration on Good 
 Friday, with wine and water. The ablution was given to the 
 priest and people to drink, in memory of the blood and water 
 which flowed from the side of the crucified Redeemer. After 
 washing, the cross was carried to the sepulchre, thence to be 
 triumphantly taken to the high altar on Easter morning, the 
 choir meanwhile singing the anthem " Surrexit Dominus." 
 
 Both usages, the burial of the host and of the cross, were 
 practised in Eouen in 1079. They have local survivals in Cath- 
 olic Europe, but the name sepulchre is not always given to the 
 place of temporary deposit. (See Good Friday.) 
 
 The Greek Church celebrates a somewhat similar ceremony. 
 Upon Good Friday evening a procession starts from every 
 church, headed by a military band playing a funeral march, 
 priests, choristers, and others following immediately after it, 
 chanting a melancholy dirge during all the intervals of military 
 music, Then comes an effigy of the Saviour borne upon a bier 
 (or sometimes only a painting upon white satin), as if going to 
 burial. As the dead are alwaj's carried in Greece in an unclosed 
 coffin, with the body exposed to view, so the effigy is carried low 
 by slings, that all may see it. Members of the several congre- 
 gations in great numbers follow it, bearing lighted tapers, and 
 thus they perambulate the streets, only stopping at the cor 
 ners of some of the principal thoroughfares for the reading of 
 certain prayers and for singing low, monotonous chants. 
 
 In the Church of the H0I3" Sepulchre at Jerusalem the Greeks 
 on Good Friday bear in procession, in lieu of the image, a piece 
 of brocade embroidered with a representation of the body of 
 our Saviour, which is placed in the tomb, and after a short 
 repose there is brought out again and carried into the Greek 
 chapel. 
 
 Edmund, St., King and Martyr. His festival is celebrated 
 on the day of his death, November 20. . Son of the King of 
 Saxony, he was chosen by Offa, King of East Anglia, to succeed 
 him, and landed in England in 856. After a peaceful reign of 
 fifteen years his kingdom was invaded by the Danes, and he was 
 defeated in the battle of Hoxne. He was offered life and liberty 
 if he would abjure his faith, but he refused, whereupon he was 
 bound by the Danes to a tree, shot with arrows, and finally 
 beheaded (November 20, 870). Legend says that when the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 375 
 
 Christians who had hidden came forth to bniy the king his head 
 could not be found, till at last it was discovered guarded by a 
 wolf, who allowed them to take it and followed it to the burial. 
 Being placed on the body, it united instantly. A great church 
 and monastery were built over the shrine of the saint, and the 
 town about was called Bury St. Edmunds, a name it still retains. 
 During a Danish war in 1010 the bones of St. Edmund were 
 borne to London, and legend has it that as the relics passed 
 through Cripplegate the lame were restored to the use of their 
 limbs. The body was taken back to Bury St. Edmunds in 1013. 
 The shrine of St. Edmund is memorable as the place where the 
 English barons banded together to obtain Magna Charta from 
 King John. 
 
 Edward, St., King and Martyr (962-978). His festival is 
 celebrated on his death-day, March 18. When only thirteen 
 years of age he succeeded his father Edgar on the throne of 
 England, despite the opposition of his step-mother Elfrida, the 
 late king's widow, who had formed a party in favor of her own 
 son, Ethelred. Under the guidance of St. Dunstan, he ruled 
 well, but only for three years. One day he was out hunting in 
 the neighborhood of Corfe Castle, in Dorsetshire, Queen Elfrida's 
 residence. He stopped there for refreshment, and while drink- 
 ing was treacherously stabbed, — it is said, by order of his 
 step-mother. She had him buried without any royal honors at 
 Wareham. Many miracles are said to have been performed at 
 his grave. Two years later his body was removed, with much 
 pomp, to King Alfred's minster at Shaftesbury. The title of 
 Martyr was given to him partly on account of his unjust and 
 cruel murder, and partly because of the favor he had won from 
 the monks and clergy. 
 
 Edward the Confessor, St. (1004-1066), King of England. 
 He was canonized by Pope Alexander III. in 1161. His festival 
 was first kept on his death-day, January 5, but later was trans- 
 ferred to October 13, in honor of the solemn translation of his 
 body performed in 1163 by Thomas a Becket in the presence of 
 Henry II. The National Council of Oxford in 1222 ordered this 
 feast to be kept in England as a holy day. 
 
 King Edward succeeded his half-brother Hardicanute on the 
 English throne in 1042. Shortly after his accession he married 
 Edith, daughter of Earl Godwin, who proved an unruly subject 
 and a refractory father-in-law. But in the end Edward tri- 
 umphed over all opposition, rather by winning gentleness than by 
 any great strength of character. He relieved his subjects of the 
 Danish tax. Legend explains that after gathering a large part 
 
376 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 of it he saw the devil dancing upon the receipts, and so decided 
 that it was unholy, tjle founded Westminster Abbey in 1049, 
 and was the first to be buried there, as he died the year after 
 its consecration. His wife Edith was subsequently buried with 
 him. CBoth declared that though married they had respected 
 each other's virginity.' Hence the Church has always looked 
 upon the couple as models of saintly purity. He reposes in a 
 noble mausoleum which was substituted by Henry II. for the 
 plain sarcophagus in which the body was originally deposited. 
 
 Edward was tbe first English king to touch scrofulous sores 
 and swellings. (See Touching.) Many came to him, and 
 every one who asserted that he was healed was rewarded with a 
 gold medal. On his death-bed the king gave his ring to the 
 Abbot of Westminster, who kept it as a precious relic and foimd 
 that it cured the falling sickness. Subsequently it passed to the 
 chapel of Havering (so called from this very possession), near 
 Eumford, in Essex. This had been one of his hunting-seats. 
 His successors on the English throne used to bless rings on Good 
 Frida}^ against cramp and falling sickness. Out of respect to 
 the memory of St. Edward, the kings of England have always 
 kept up the custom at their coronation of putting on his dalmatic 
 and maniple as part of the royal robes. The crown itself still 
 bears his name, though a new one was long since substituted. 
 
 On October 13, 1885, a curious scene was enacted before St. 
 Edward's shrine in Westminster Abbey, which proved the pre- 
 cedent for similar ones afterwards. A large congregation had 
 been present at the high mass said by Cardinal Manning in the 
 Catholic church of St. Edward. The sermon was for the most 
 part a consideration of the probabilities of the return of the 
 English nation to the Roman Catholic faith. At its close a pil- 
 grimage was organized in furtherance of this object to the shrine 
 of the Confessor. At the request of the cardinal, the appearance 
 of a demonstration was avoided as far as possible, but the sud- 
 den inroad of the band of devotees indulging in adoration at the 
 tomb of the historic saint excited general curiosity. The vergers 
 and authorities of the Abbey did not interfere with the visitors, 
 who finally retired in good order, but the question of the pro- 
 priety of the affair was immediately taken into consideration 
 by the dean and chapter. It was decided, however, to take no 
 action in the matter. 
 
 Effigy, Burning or Hanging in. In modern times, even in 
 the most civilized countries, the hanging or burning of a figure 
 made out of straw or wood, dressed up to imitate some unpopular 
 personage, is a favorite method of expressing the scorn and loath- 
 ing of a mob. Many Presidents, generals, and politicians in the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 377 
 
 United States have been the objects of this form of contumely. 
 Two remarkable examples of the annual recurrence for centuries 
 of this vicarious punishment are afforded in the burning of Gruy 
 Fawkes (q. v.) in England, and of Judas (q. v.) in Portuguese 
 countries. Benedict Arnold was treated in the same way in 
 Philadelphia and New York for many successive years after the 
 Eevolution as a part of the Fourth of July festivities. Giant 
 Pope in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries used to be 
 burned on the anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth 
 in England. The custom is a survival from a more brutal super- 
 stition of ancient and mediaeval times, that the individual whose 
 effigy was offered up suffered pain or death in his own proper 
 person as a result. 
 
 --— -^ -^— -^* 
 
 Burning Benedict Aknold in Effigy. 
 (From an old Philadelphia print.) 
 
 Among the Greeks, as we learn from Theocritus, the sorcerers 
 killed their enemies by magic rites performed over an ef^gy of 
 the person who had offended them. 
 
 Yirgil's lines, too, will be remembered, where not death but 
 love is to be obtained through the mediation of the clay and wax 
 images : 
 
 As fire this image hardens, made of clay, 
 And this of wax with fire consumes away, 
 Such let the soul of cruel Daphnis be, 
 
 In the days of witchcraft persecution one of the most frequent 
 charges was that the witches made waxen images of tfieir ene- 
 mies which they melted before a fire and so caused the dissolu- 
 tion of the originals. 
 
 In Japan the ef^gy is still regarded as a means of punishment 
 to faithless lovers. 
 
 " The maiden who is jilted," we are told by Mr. A. B. Mitford, 
 
378 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 in " Tales of Old Japan," " rises at two o'clock in the morning, 
 dresses herself in white, and carries a little straw figure— the 
 effigy of the faithless one — to the sacred grove around some 
 Shinto shrine. The trees are supposed to be under the special 
 protection of the god to whom the shrine is dedicated, and any 
 injury done to them arouses him to vengeance. Taking the effigy 
 in her left hand, and hammer in the right, she sacrilegiously nails 
 the figure to one of the holy trees, praying the god to slay the 
 traitorous youth, and vowing that if he grant her prayer she 
 will pull out the nails which ofi'end the god by w^ounding his 
 consecrated tree. Night after night she strikes in two or more 
 nails, believing that every nail will shorten her unfaithful lover's 
 life, because the god will be sure at the last, in order to save his 
 tree, to strike the young man dead." 
 
 In France, up to the time of the first Eevolution, execution by 
 Q^gj was a solemn legal institution. M. Bourcher d'Argis, an 
 assistant of Diderot and D'Alembert in the " Encyclopedic," tries 
 to find an explanation of this in the custom which Plutarch 
 mentions of substituting an effigy for the person to be sacrificed 
 at a triumph. 
 
 In France, at the time of Louis VI., in the beginning of the 
 twelfth century, punishment by effigy was exercised in the case 
 of Thomas de Marne, who was a foe of the bishops and con- 
 demned by the monarch for high treason. The Ordonnance 
 Criminelle of 1670 permitted punishment by effigy ox\\j when the 
 criminal was condemned to death. When the criminal was con- 
 demned to the galleys, perpetual banishment, the lash, or the 
 wheel, and took to flight, his name and crime were to be written 
 on a card and set up in some public place as a warning to the 
 people and as a means of disgracing him. This is analogous to 
 the Greek punishment of the stele. IJnder the same ordonnance, 
 if a criminal condemned to death managed to make his escape, his 
 effigy was delivered into the ptison, the executioner entered the 
 cell with his escort and the apparatus of punishment, and the 
 figure was led to the place of punishment and solemnly executed. 
 It is possible that under this law there was a provision that there 
 should be but one Q^gj, although prior to this date, in the year 
 1639, the Duke of La Yalette, who was condemned to the block, 
 was beheaded in three different cities, Paris, Bordeaux, and 
 Bayonne, on the same day. The criminal, meanwhile, was safe 
 in England. 
 
 At the time of the Eevolution the legal punishment by effigy 
 was abolished, but the burning and hanging of representations 
 of objects of popular hatred continued. In Kheims, for instance, 
 in 1793, the Pope, the " coalesced tyrants," and La Fayette were 
 all burned together in effigy at the Revolution Feast. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 379 
 
 In the Low Countries the same custom of popular vengeance 
 prevailed, and Catholic and Protestant burned each other in 
 effigy with fierce theologic zeal. The confessor of Charles Y. 
 was convicted of heresy by the Inquisition, but died before sen- 
 tence could be pronounced upon him, and his crime was punished 
 by a burning of his doll counterfeit. 
 
 In England, on the first anniversary of Restoration Day, which 
 celebrated the restoration of the monarchy and of the Church, 
 there was great activity in effigy-punishment. The Kingdom's 
 Intelligencer and the Mercurius Fublicus announce that on the 
 29th of May, 1661, at Bury St. Edmund's, the common hang- 
 man led the ef^gy of the courageous and eccentric Parliamen- 
 tarian chaplain, Hugh Peters, followed by the entire populace, 
 and the common beadle whipped it through the streets. At 
 Halesworth, Oliver Cromwell was pilloried in effigy and after- 
 wards burned in a bonfire of five hundred fagots. At Exeter 
 "a counterfeit of the Covenanter" was drawn to the gibbet " on 
 a poor jade." At Reading the Covenant itself was incarcerated 
 as soon as condemned by Parliament, and kept in prison until 
 the 29th of May, when it was dragged through the streets by a 
 rope and burned in the market-place. ' 
 
 So late as 1756, at Gateshead, Sunderland, Shields, and ^N'ew- 
 castle, in England, the luckless Admiral Byng was hanged and 
 burned in effigy. In the last-named place the figure was drawn 
 through the streets on a donkey, with the legend, " This is the 
 villain that would not fight;" after which it was hanged on a 
 gallows, mutilated, and finally burned. 
 
 In the time of Louis XY. the Princess of Monaco was a lady 
 who loved much and many. But among the many her own 
 husband was not included. She would not even live with the 
 latter, preferring the artificial delights of Yersailles to the nat- 
 ural beauties of Monaco. He nevertheless kept himself informed 
 about her goings-on, and found a solace in erecting gibbets all 
 around his principality whereon he hanged effigies of his wife's 
 lovers. The principality was small (though larger then than it 
 is now), and the number of courtiers who enjoyed the favors 
 of the prince's flighty spouse was very great: so that finally 
 the gibbeted effigies formed a continuous line all along the 
 frontier. 
 
 Famous are the wax effigies preserved in Westminster Abbey 
 in a little oratory above the Ishp chapel. These are mementos 
 of a strange old-time ceremony. Long ago, when some great 
 personage died, it was the custom to model a representation of 
 the deceased, dressed as in life, which was carried in the funeral 
 procession. After the burial the effigy was set up in church, as 
 a temporary monument. One odd feature of the practice was 
 
380 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 that during the time that the effigy was on exhibition it was 
 customary to affix to it, by means of paste or pins, short poems or 
 epitaphs complimentary to the person represented. In the case 
 of a sovereign the statue was usually left in position for a month 
 only, though after Charles II. died his wax figure stood for two 
 centuries over his tomb in the chapel of Henry YII., and was 
 the only monument he had. 
 
 The royal effigies in Westminster date back to the fourteenth 
 century ; but all the oldest ones are so mutilated and defaced 
 that they are not shown. Many of them were of wood, and 
 have been wantonly stripped of the rich garments which they 
 wore. About a dozen of the later figures are still preserved, 
 each standing stiffly in a glass case by itself, and, decked as they 
 are in faded silk and tarnished tinsel, they form so startling a 
 contrast to their stately marble successors on the tombs below 
 that it seems as if the coming up of this one short flight of steps 
 had translated the visitor from the consecrated atmosphere of 
 the Abbey into the vulgar air of Madame Tussaud's establish- 
 ment. 
 
 The oldest figure is that of Charles II. It is dressed in the 
 blue and red velvet robeS of the Garter, trimmed with superb 
 old point lace. By his side, in another case, is the figure of 
 General Monk, clad in armor. The head of the figure is now 
 bare, but it originally wore the famous cap mentioned in the 
 " Ingoldsby Legends :" 
 
 I thought on Naseby, Marston Moor, and "Worcester's crowning fight, 
 When on mine ear a sound there fell, it filled me with affright, 
 As thus in low, unearthly tones I heard a voice begin : 
 " This here's the cap of Gen'ral Monk ! Sir, please put summat in." 
 
 In the last century the vergers, when showing these figures 
 to visitors, came to use this cap as a gentle hint that their none 
 too large wages might be acceptably increased by a small coin 
 dropped into it. Goldsmith, who has recorded an account of his 
 visit to the Abbey, says of this cap, in an account of a con- 
 versation with the verger who was his guide, " ' Pray, friend, 
 what might this cap have cost originally ?' ' That, sir,' says 
 he, 'I don't know ; but this cap is all the wages I have for my 
 trouble.' " 
 
 The two latest figures, those of the Earl of Chatham and 
 Admiral Nelson, were unquestionably put in by the officers of 
 the Abbey merely for show purposes, to increase the attractive- 
 ness of the exhibit. That of Lord Nelson is interesting from 
 the fact that it is dressed in a suit of clothes which the admiral 
 once wore. There seems good reason to believe this to be true, 
 since when Maclise borrowed the figure as a model while he was 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 381 
 
 painting his famous painting " The Death of Nelson" he found 
 attached to the lining of the hat the eye-patch without which 
 the admiral, who was blind in one eye, never appeared. 
 
 Einsiedeln, Black Virgin of. A miraculous image of the 
 Virgin, whose shrine in the church at Einsiedeln, Switzerland, 
 attracts a vast concourse of pilgrims on the great annual festival 
 of September 14. The founder of Einsiedehi (literally, " a her- 
 mitage") was St. Meinrad, Count of Sulgen (797-861), a Ilohen- 
 zollern, and an ancestor of the present Emperor of Germany. 
 Studious, pious, and gentle, he shrank from the world, and passed 
 from one cloister to another, and finally, as an " einsiedler" or 
 hermit, retired to a little hut built for him by a pious lady on a 
 lonely peak of the Etzelberg. Driven thence by the increasing 
 number of those who sought his advice and help, he retreated to 
 the then wild forests of the Finsterwald, and made his cell where 
 now the great church and convent stand, risen in abundant har- 
 vest from the little seed of good. Here he received in solemn 
 gift from Hildegarde, foundress and abbess of the great Zurich 
 convent, and daughter of King Louis, the grandson of Charle- 
 magne, a sacred image of the Virgin and Child, which from the 
 ninth century to the present day has reigned at Einsiedeln. 
 
 On September 14, 861, he was murdered in his cell by two rob- 
 bers seeking for imaginary treasures. Tracked by two ravens 
 which the saint had kept, the assassins were detected, and were 
 tried and executed at Zurich, where, in memory of ^this miracle, 
 long stood the Eaven's Hotel, now the Hotel Bilharz. The thou- 
 sandth anniversary of the saint's death was celebrated with 
 great pomp at Einsiedeln in 1861. 
 
 A convent was founded here in the year 900. Grradually, too, 
 a great church rose above and enclosed the little chapel with the 
 sacred image. In 948 Conrad, Bishop of Constance, came, with 
 an immense train of priests and nobles, to consecrate the finished 
 building. At midnight before September 14, the day fixed for 
 the ceremony, he went to the church to spend the early hours in 
 prayer; but at the door he was stayed by the sound of heavenly 
 music, and, looking in, beheld a multitude of angels going 
 through all the forms of consecration. In the Virgin's chapel 
 he saw our Lord officiating in priestly dress, surrounded and 
 assisted by saints ; before the altar stood the Blessed Virgin, 
 robed in light. The vision faded with the dawn ; but Conrad, 
 spellbound, knelt in the same spot till midday, in spite of en- 
 treaties to begin the service. Then he told what he had seen ; 
 but the}^ held it for a dream, and urged him to proceed to the 
 consecration. As he at last did so, a voice spoke from above, 
 thrice repeating, " Brother, stay ; the chapel is consecrated by 
 
382 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 God." Then, with reverence, they forbore their persuasions, and 
 Conrad consecrated only the great church which stood over the 
 chapel. 
 
 Such is the legend of the " Engelweihe." Sixteen years later 
 Conrad went, with the Emperor Otho I., to Eome, and laid before 
 Leo YIII. the question whether the chapel should receive regu- 
 lar consecration. This, after consultation with many bishops, 
 the Pope decided against, acknowledging as valid the miraculous 
 work of the angels. 
 
 Great, after this, were the glories of Einsiedeln. Emperors 
 and kings sent rich gifts and made over land. Abbot Gregory, 
 nephew of the English King Alfred, and brother-in-law of Otho 
 the Great, was created a prince of the Empire, which dignit}', by 
 a further decree of Eudolph of Hapsburg, descended to his sue 
 cessors ; they are prince-abbots to the present day. Distinguished 
 pilgrims flocked to Einsiedeln. Otho the Great was there in 
 965, the Emperor Sigismund in 1417, Ferdinand III. in 1442 ; 
 St. Nicholas came in 1480, St. Charles Borromeo in 1576. The 
 visitors' list is nine centuries long, and rich in the names of 
 princes. Marie Louise came in 1814; Queen Hortense came 
 year by year, and hither brought her son Louis to receive his 
 first communion. The Bourbon princes came in 1859, the Or- 
 leans in 1863. The Catholic members of the Hohenzollern 
 family visit frequently the foundation of their holy ancestor St. 
 Meinrad. 
 
 Yet, for all these royal favors, Einsiedeln has had times of 
 trouble. Many times has it been robbed or burnt in the conflicts 
 of the adjacent cantons. Worst of all, the French army came 
 there in 1798, and, after their unfaiKng habit in those days, car- 
 ried off all they could, and burnt the rest. Even the sacred 
 image they packed up and sent home ; but the monks, forewarned 
 of the coming danger, had hidden away the true Virgin, and it 
 was a counterfeit which travelled to Paris. The real image wan- 
 dered long, into various graves : buried first at Alpthal, then at 
 Haggenegg, next it travelled across the Bhine to Bludenz, then 
 b}' sea to Trieste, later to Bludenz again. In some places where 
 it had been concealed the peasants built chapels to commemorate 
 the fact. At length, in 1802, it was brought back in triumph to 
 its ancient home. 
 
 Since that time the pilgrimages have been kept up uninter- 
 ruptedly. Baedeker estimates that the pilgrims who come from 
 Switzerland, Bavaria, Suabia, Baden, and Alsace number about 
 one hundred and fifty thousand annually. Strangely enough, 
 few tourists visit the j)lace, though it lies in the most frequented 
 part of Switzerland. A writer in Macmillan's Magazine who 
 was present at the great September festival in 1891 says that 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 383 
 
 bis own party comprised the only English present. His ad- 
 mirable description of the scene is here condensed : 
 
 " The Platz, where the ceremonies of the daj^ were to take 
 place, was a space like in shape and size to Trafalgar jSquare, 
 though rather larger, and, like Trafalgar Square, planting 
 down-hill. At the upper side stand the long lines of the con- 
 vent, straight and monotonous, and in their centre the church, 
 double-towered, of immense size but no very beautiful design. 
 In front of these the ground is raised to form a level terrace, 
 which is approached in the centre by a broad flight of steps, 
 and under the brow of which arcades are built stretching down 
 to right and left in a broad semicircle. At the lower side the 
 Platz is bounded by a line of hotels. As we saw the scene, on a 
 bright cloudless day, it was very attractive. The pilgrims were 
 everywhere, — clustered round the arcades, swarming up and 
 down the steps, leaning over the balustrades at the terrace edge. 
 And, lest the word 'pilgrim' should suggest 'travel-stained gar- 
 ments' and ' sorrowful countenances,' it must be added that they 
 looked a well-contented set of holiday-makers ; though, as they 
 were Swiss, without much vivacity or personal beauty. There 
 were traces of picturesque costume among the women. The 
 men were, as usual, soberly dressed. 
 
 " A large fountain is in the centre of the Platz, whence, by 
 fourteen separate spouts, water flows out and splashes on the 
 pavement round. The legend is that from one of these our Lord 
 once drank, but which one is not known : so we saw the more 
 devout among the pilgrims gravely going all round and drinking 
 from every spout in succession. One old man had a ginger- 
 beer bottle, which he was gradually filling up with a few drops 
 from each of the fourteen spouts. 
 
 " We went on to the church, and found it very big and gaudily 
 bright. The side aisles were, as usual, occupied with numerous 
 chapels ; and for this high festival the relics were exposed on 
 every altar. There, through a glass side in every coflin, we saw 
 the withered bodies of saints and martyrs, wreathed about with 
 strings of beads, flowers, and gilt ornaments; the outline of the 
 features traced in pearls, rings put on the fingers, a crown on the 
 head, and the instrument of martyrdom laid in the clinched hand. 
 
 " Standing in the centre of the nave, facing the west door, was 
 the famous angel-consecrated chapel, crowded aboutwith pilgrims. 
 It was made of black marble, and, like a great birdcage, shut in 
 behind, and partly at the sides, and wired round the front with 
 iron rails, through which, as through prison-bars, we saw the 
 lighted altar, and above ' Maria Einsiedeln' herself, so swathed 
 and sunk in cloth of gold, lace, and satin that onlj- the faces of 
 the Virgin and Child were visible ; all jet black, as it apparently 
 
384 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 behooves ancient and sacred images to be. The rest of the tiny- 
 edifice was wreathed witli paper flowers and covered with scarlet 
 and white inscriptions in German, — pious rhymes mostly, about 
 the angel-consecration. 
 
 " As it grew dusk, the aspect of the church was very strange. 
 Each chapel was besieged by a little crowd : women swaying to 
 and fro, as they passed the rosary beads through their slow 
 fingers; some few ecstatic, kneeling with outstretched arms; 
 some in groups, a large family or party of friends, were making 
 the round of the chapels, pausing to repeat at each their monot- 
 onous rote of prayers. The sacred chapel was pressed on from 
 all sides ; hundreds of votive offerings were strung on the iron 
 bars, long rows of lighted tapers were stuck on the ledge below, 
 and pilgrims knelt all round, while old women, asleep from sheer 
 fatigue, rested their heads against its walls. Nor was there the 
 usual silence of Eoraan Catholic churches, for the low hum of 
 praying voices was rising like a storm, in a strange, monotonous, 
 wordless way, coming one hardly knew whence or how, and 
 beating all on one wailing note. 
 
 " We saw them begin to illuminate the church. It was a curi- 
 ous eff'ect when, at the end of the long dark vista, a brilliant 
 fiery cross glided slowly up from the ground and hung suspended 
 over the high altar. Outside, when all was complete, the scene 
 was one hard to describe, harder still to forget. Every available 
 place was illuminated uniformly with small, clear oil-lamps. 
 With their soft golden lustre, the lower line of every window in 
 the long convent fagade was traced out, displaying the rare 
 beauty of a great concerted illumination, falling in regular 
 ordered lines. The church porch was very brilliant, massed 
 round with lamps, and surmounted by the sacred monogram 
 and a large cross. Moreover, the arcades, the hotels below, and 
 all the houses within sight Avere traced with the same lustrous 
 golden lines ; and high on the hills a large brilliant cross seemed 
 in the darkness to float in the air. In the lower right-hand part 
 of the Platz was a great altar. Behind stood an illuminated 
 transparent picture of the Madonna, and above this a smaller 
 sketch of angels' heads; the golden-tinted lamps surrounded 
 both with a deep border, tracing out arches and pillars of light. 
 The altar was raised on steps covered with scarlet cloth ; it faced 
 the cathedral with all the wide stretch of the Platz between, 
 and seemed to wait, as the multitude of people were waiting, for 
 what was to come. 
 
 " Inside the church there was now scarcely standing-room. 
 The gallery was traced round with lamps. Behind the choir- 
 screen all was brilliant light, figures moving to and fro, clouds 
 of incense floating up, dimming the gorgeous vestments of the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 385 
 
 oflSoiating priests, broken pieces of chant caught up and an- 
 swered by an organ at the further end of the church. Last 
 came the solemn elevation of the host ; and then the gates were 
 opened, and slowly down the centre of the church moved the 
 long-expected procession. First the chanting choristers with 
 lighted tapers ; next the bishops, priests, visitors, a hundred or 
 more ; and then, under a splendid canopy, in traihng robes stiif 
 with gold, came the prince-abbot, bearing in a high jewelled 
 chalice the consecrated host ; and, as he passed, all fell on their 
 knees or bowed to the very ground. 
 
 " I wish, and hopelessly wish, I could describe the scene on 
 the Platz. It was a perfect summer night, with neither moon 
 nor cloud, and the dark dome of the sky seemed to quiver with 
 the multitude of the stars. The convent and the church, the 
 arcades and the hotels, all were sketched out with long, brilliant 
 lines of light ; the great cross on the distant hill, with no visible 
 standing-point, looked like a new wonder of the heavens. On 
 every side, silent and bareheaded, some ten thousand people were 
 waiting ; and what they waited for was coming, — a long proces- 
 sion with glimmering lines of tapers slowly moving out from 
 the church doors, across the terrace, down the steps, then curving 
 round towards the illuminated altar. As the abbot came out of 
 the church, the low chant of the choristers was caught up by a 
 sudden burst of military music ; as he passed down, the close- 
 pressing lines of people knelt on both sides. He came to the 
 altar, and there praj^ed, under the starlit sky, with bishops, in 
 vestments only less gorgeous than his own, grouped round him. 
 In the balcony of a house near was a picturesque band of priests 
 with various instruments, and of choristers who accompanied 
 the service with some beautiful mass-music; the effect was 
 heightened by the soft, distant tones of a hidden organ, which 
 filled every interval. As if to leave no emotion untouched, one 
 was startled now and then by the sudden thunder of cannon 
 from the hills behind. The climax came when the music was 
 hushed, and, amid such silence that his every tone was heard, 
 the prince-abbot turned round to the people, and, three times 
 raising the host on high, three times blessed them in the Holy 
 Name, while three times, as he paused between, the tolling 
 sound of the cannon shook the air, and the whole multitude 
 knelt on the ground, as if a sudden gentle wind were passing 
 over a field and bending every blade of grass. 
 
 " Then the procession was formed again, and made its way 
 back to the church." 
 
 Eisteddfod. (Welsh, " a session," " a sitting." The plural is 
 Eisteddfodan.) A national congress of Welsh bards and musi- 
 
 25 
 
386 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 cians, whose objects are to encourage the music, poetry, and gen- 
 eral literature of Wales, to sustain ancient customs and traditions, 
 and to foster a patriotic spirit. The institution in its modern form 
 dates from the time of Owain ap Maxen Wledig, chief sovereign 
 of the Britons at the close of the fourth century. But it did not 
 receive its modern name until about the twelfth century. A 
 congress of this sort held in the sixth century under the auspices 
 of Maelgwn Gwynedd, Prince of North Wales, is especially 
 noted in early Welsh history on account of a trick played by 
 that wily potentate* He had undertaken to prove the superiority 
 of vocal over instrumental music. So he offered a reward to 
 such bards and minstrels as should swim over the Conway. Of 
 course the minstrels found on arriving at the; opposite shore that 
 the strings of their harps were hopelessly out of tune, while the 
 vocal cords of the bards were uninjured. 
 
 The Eisteddfodan of the early and middle ages were held 
 every three years. No one could be accounted a bard unless he 
 had passed with approval through an Eisteddfod ; nothing could 
 be accounted poetry save under its rules. Bard and harpist were 
 sternly differentiated ; the two professions could not be united in 
 one man. But these high standards could not be maintained 
 forever. Gradually abuses crept in. By the time of Queen 
 Elizabeth they had become intolerable. From a royal proclama- 
 tion issued in her reign it appears that " expert mynstrells and 
 musicons" had grown so scarce, and sham " Eithmors and 
 Barthes" so plentiful, that the whole tribe were summoned to 
 appear on a certain day " to shew forth their learnings" before 
 "such expert men in ye faculte of Welsh musick as shall be 
 thought convenient." Those found unworthy were to be com- 
 manded " that they returne to some honest labor such as they be 
 most apte unto, upon pain to be taken as sturdie vagabonds." 
 As a result of this proclamation the bardic congresses were dis- 
 continued for about two hundred years. They were revived in 
 the eighteenth century with great and lasting enthusiasm. At 
 present the national Eisteddfodan are held annually, alternately 
 in North and in South Wales. They are under the patronage of 
 the highest in the land, beginning with the sovereign, and the 
 judges are sought for among the most distinguished and com- 
 petent in their respective departments. 
 
 The modern Eisteddfod has a very wide scope. It includes 
 competitions in poetry, prose essay, fiction, and translation, and 
 in the composition and performance of music. The prizes range 
 from two hundred and fifty pounds to one pound. In the United 
 States the Eisteddfod is almost exclusively a musical festival. A 
 few recitations are always on the programme, but the poem and 
 the essay rarely find a place there. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 387 
 
 Welsh-Americans who wish to attain the rank of bard must 
 send their work to Wales. If a sufficient number are found 
 deserving of honors, and if they are unable lo cross the ocean to 
 receive them, a commission of bards comes over here and bestows 
 the bardic accolade. The attendant ceremonies are performed in 
 a circle of stones. A book of runes is read aloud, an ancient 
 sword is laid upon the shoulders of the kneeling candidate, and 
 a bit of blue ribbon (the nineteenth-century survival of the blue 
 robe with which the bard was anciently invested) is presented to 
 him, to be tied in a knot in his button-hole. 
 
 Elephant, Lord White. An elephant of uniform white, or 
 rather gray, which is honored in Burmah as a minister of state 
 of semi-divine attributes. He has a palace or state apartment, 
 with a humbler every- day residence, and sheds for the vulgar 
 herd of the same species, and brick godowns in which the state 
 carriages and golden litters are stowed away. He is a regular 
 " estate of the realm," having a woon or minister of his own, 
 four gold umbrellas, — the white umbrellas which are peculiar to 
 royalty, — with a suite of attendants said to be thirty in number. 
 Like many other sinecurists and " estates of the realm," he does 
 not seem to flourish much under his dignities, but would doubt- 
 less be a happier elephant if he could exchange his palace and 
 his umbrellas for coverts, forests, and overhanging trees. The 
 possession of a white elephant is a sort of ensign of universal 
 sovereignty, and the discovery of one is hailed as a good and 
 happy omeu for a reign. The slightest blemish, however, — a few 
 black hairs in the tail, or some such matter, — at once mars its 
 claims to sanctity. 
 
 Elizabeth's Day, Queen. The 17th of November, as the 
 anniversary of the accession of the.yirgin Queen to the English 
 throne (1558), was formerly celebrated in England as emphati- 
 cally a Protestant holiday. The custom appears to have begun 
 in the twelfth year of her reign (1570), and to have been kept 
 up intermittently for over a century, — whenever the anti-Popery 
 sentiment proved particularly rampant. Eventually it was 
 merged into Guy Fawkes's Day, which had borrowed some of its 
 characteristics. The main feature of the day was a procession 
 of mummers bearing an ef^gj of the Pope in a chair of state, 
 behind which stood a masker dressed as the devil, who lavished 
 affectionate caresses upon His Holiness. In Queen Anne's time 
 an effigy of the Pretender was added to that of the Pope. The 
 festivities wound up by the burning of the effigy or effigies amid 
 great rejoicings. 
 
 During the reigns of James I. and Charles I. the close proximity 
 
388 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 of Guy Fawkes's Day, on November 5, caused the suspension of 
 the Pope-burnings, but in the years 1679-1681, when the murder 
 of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey and the pretended discovery by 
 Titus Gates of tlie Popish Plot had aroused a frenzy of excite- 
 ment, they were revived as a welcome opportunity for reduphca- 
 tion of Protestant zeal. A rare pamphlet, " London's Defiance 
 to Eome," quoted in Chambers's " Book of Days," vol. ii. p. 588, 
 describes " the magnificent procession and solemn burning of the 
 Pope at Temple Bar, November 17, 1679." We learn that " the 
 bells generally about the town began to ring about three o'clock 
 in the morning ;" but the great procession was deferred till night, 
 when "the whole was attended with one hundred and fifty flam- 
 beaus and lights, bj^ order; but so many more came in volun- 
 teers, as made up some thousands. ... At the approach of 
 evening (all things being in readiness), the solemn procession 
 began, setting forth from Moorgate, and so passing first to Aid- 
 gate, and thence through Leadenhall Street, by the Eoyal Ex- 
 change, through Cheapside, and so to Temple Bar, Never were 
 the balconies, windows, and houses more numerously lined, or 
 the streets closer thronged, with multitudes of ])eople, all ex- 
 pressing their abhorrence of popery with continued shouts and 
 exclamations, so that 'tis modestly computed that, in the whole 
 progress, there could not be fewer than two hundred thousand 
 spectators." The way was cleared by six pioneers in caps and 
 red waistcoats, followed by a bell-man bearing his lantern and 
 stafl', and ringing his bell, crying out all the way in a loud but 
 dolesome voice, " Eemember Justice Godfrey !" He was followed 
 by a man on horseback, dressed like a Jesuit, carrying a dead 
 body before him, "representing Justice Godfrey, in like manner 
 as he was carried by the assassins to Primrose Hill." It will be 
 remembered that Godfrey was a Jjondon magistrate, before whom 
 Titus Gates had made his first deposition. He was found mur- 
 dered in the fields at the back of Primrose Hill with a sword run 
 tiirough his body to make it appear that by falling upon it 
 intentionally he had committed suicide. But wounds in other 
 parts of his person, and undeniable marks of strangulation, 
 testified to the fact that he had been murdered, and it required 
 only a slight stretch of the Protestant imagination to conjure up 
 pictures of monks and priests as his assassins. 
 
 Another performer in the procession was habited as a priest, 
 " giving pardons very plentifully to all those that should murder 
 Protestants, and proclaiming it meritorious." He was followed 
 by a train of other priests, and " six Jesuits with bloody daggers ;" 
 then, by way of relief, came " a consort of wind-musick." This 
 was succeeded by a long array of Catholic church dignitaries, 
 ending with " the Pope, in a lofty glorious pageant, representing 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 389 
 
 a chair of state, covered with scarlet, richly embroidered and 
 fringed, and bedecked with golden balls and crosses." At his 
 feet were two boys with censers, " at his back his holiness's privy- 
 councillor (the degraded seraphim, Anglice, the devil), frequently 
 caressing, hugging, and whispering him, and ofttimes instructing 
 him aloud to destroy his majesty, to forge a Protestant plot, and 
 to fire the city again, to which purpose he held an infernal torch 
 in his hand." When the procession reached the foot of Chancery 
 Lane, in Fleet Street, it came to a stop; "then, having enter- 
 tained the thronging spectators for some time with the ingenious 
 fireworks, a vast bonfire being prepared just over against the 
 Inner Temple gate, his holiness, after some compliments and 
 reluctances, was decently toppled from all his grandeur into the 
 impartial flames ; the crafty devil leaving his infallibilityship in 
 the lurch, and laughing as heartily at his deserved ignominious 
 end as subtle Jesuits do at the ruin of bigoted lay Catholics whom 
 they have themselves drawn in." This concluding feat was 
 greeted by " a prodigious shout, that might be heard far beyond 
 Somerset House," where Queen Catherine was lodged at that 
 time ; but the ultra-Protestant author of this pamphlet, anxious 
 to make the most of the public lungs, declares " 'twas believed 
 the echo, by continued reverberations before it ceased, reached 
 Scotland, France, and even Rome itself, damping them all with 
 a dreadful astonishment." 
 
 This show proved so immensely popular that it was repro- 
 duced in succeeding years, with additional political pageantry. 
 
 In 1683, however, it was suppressed through royal influence 
 brought to bear upon the mayor, who was a mere creature of 
 Charles II. during the temporary suppression of the City charter. 
 "Thus ended these Diavolarias," comments Roger North. 
 
 ISTot yet, however, had they received their final quietus. During 
 the excitement caused in Que^n Anne's reign by the claims of 
 the High Church party under Dr. Sacheverell and the fear of the 
 Pretender, sporadic efi'orts were made for the revival of the 
 pageants. Efligies of the Pope, the Pretender, and the devil 
 were in fact publicly burnt, although the vigilance of the police 
 prevented the general observance of the day which was planned 
 in 1711 and again in 1713. These minor celebrations are alluded 
 to in an epigram by one Bishop, quoted in Sir Henry Ellis's 
 notes to Brand's " Popular Antiquities :" 
 
 Qu^RB Peregrinum. 
 
 Three strangers blaze amidst a bonfire's revel : 
 The Pope, and the Pretender, and the Devil. 
 Three strangers hate our faith, and faith's defender: 
 The Devil, and the Pope, and the Pretender 
 
390 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Three strangers will be strangers long, we hope : 
 The Devil, and the Pretender, and the Pope. 
 Thus, in three rhymes, three strangers dance the hay : 
 And he that chooses to dance after them may. 
 
 A correspondent of Notes and Queries (Fii'st Series, vol. iv. p. 
 345) says that when he was at Christ's Hospital a curious custom 
 prevailed on Queen Elizabeth's Day : " Two or more boys would 
 take one against whom they had any spite or grudge, and, having 
 lifted him by the arms and legs, would bump him on the hard 
 stones of the cloisters." He believes that the bumpee repre- 
 sented the Pope or one of his emissaries, and the bumpers stout 
 and loyal Protestants. (See Stone of Infamy for an analogous 
 Italian ceremony with a totally different meaning.) 
 
 Elizabeth of Hungary, St. (It. Elisaheta de Ungheria ; Sp. 
 Isabel.) Her festival is celebrated on November 19, the anni- 
 versary of her death. St. Elizabeth (1207-1231) was the daugh- 
 ter of Alexander II., King of Hungary. Being betrothed at 
 the age of four years to Louis, son of the Landgrave of Thu- 
 ringia, she was sent to that court to be brought up. When she 
 was nine years old the landgrave died, and the government 
 passed to his wife during the minority of Louis. The land- 
 gravine disliked Elizabeth and treated her with contumelj'. 
 When Louis was twenty years of age the nuptials took place. 
 But her accession to royal rank did not swerve her from the life 
 of asceticism and good works to which she had vowed herself 
 Legend asserts that once as she was proceeding to a state ban- 
 quet a beggar appealed to her charity and she took off her royal 
 mantle and gave it to him. Just as she was confessing to her 
 husband what she had done, her maid came bearing her mantle, 
 which was found hanging in her wardrobe. The legend has it 
 that the beggar was Christ himself. On another occasion, it is 
 related, St. Elizabeth found a poor leprous child, and took it 
 in her arms and laid it in her own bed. The landgravine was 
 enraged, and called Louis to see, but when the latter came he 
 found instead of a leper a radiant infant who smiled on him 
 and vanished. These legends are obvious variants of the more 
 famous miracle of the Roses. 
 
 At one season there was a great scarcity of crops throughout 
 the land, and caution and economy in the use of the royal stores 
 had been advised even in the palace. Elizabeth could not bear 
 to know of unrelieved suffering among her people ; so, by close 
 economy in her own wants, she managed to furnish food for 
 many others. On one occasion a very pressing case of necessity 
 reached her ; and, not wishing to encourage her servants in dis- 
 obedience to the general command, she started alone on her 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 391 
 
 errand of mercy, with some lighter articles of food concealed in 
 the folds of her dress. Just as she reached the foot of the stairs, 
 however, she met her husband, with several gentlemen, return- 
 ing from the chase. Astonished to see his wife alone and thus 
 burdened, he asked her to show him what she was carrying; 
 but as she held her dress in terror to her breast, he gently dis- 
 engaged her hands, and, behold, "it was filled with white and 
 red roses, the most beautiful he ever saw." 
 
 In Thuringia to this day there is a species of rose that is uni- 
 versally cultivated by the poorest peasant as well as the richest 
 landholder ; and if anybody asks of them a question as to its 
 origin, the answer is, " Oh, that is the rose of the dear St. Eliza- 
 beth, our former queen, and was grown from one of the sprigs 
 given to her b}^ the angels." 
 
 In 1226 Louis set out with Frederick Barbarossa for the Holy 
 Land, but died on the way. His brother Henrj^ seized the 
 government, and drove Elizabeth from the palace. She found 
 a shelter for her children, and supported herself by spinning 
 wool. When the knights who had accompanied Louis returned 
 they dethroned Henry, and made Elizabeth's son, Herman, land- 
 grave. The city of Marburg was bestowed on Elizabeth. She 
 parted with her children in order to devote herself entirely to 
 the religious life, and bound herself to observe the third rule of 
 St. Francis. She died November 19, 1231, in the twenty-fourth 
 year of her age. She was canonized by Gregory IX. in 1235. 
 Her relics were translated to Marburg in 1236, where they were 
 enshrined in the church of St. Elizabeth. Philip, Landgrave of 
 Hesse, during the Eeformation, removed the relics and buried 
 them in some secret spot. The Carmelites of Brussels claim to 
 have some of the bones of the saint, and some more are exhibited 
 in a shrine at Hanover. Many stories are current of remarkable 
 cures effected through the invocation of this saint, and the nuns 
 of the third order of St. Francis chose her for their patroness, 
 being sometimes known as " the nuns of St. Elizabeth." There 
 are many pictures of this saint, the most celebrated of which is 
 one by Murillo for the church of La Caritad at Seville. 
 
 Elmo, St. (An Italian corruption, through Sanf Ermo, of 
 the name of St. Erasmus.) An Italian bishop of the reign of 
 Domitian and Maximin. History has little to say of him, but 
 the hagiologies assert that he suffered a cruel martyrdom on the 
 wheel, June 2, ad. 304. His death has been a favorite subject 
 with artists, Poussin's repulsive yet powerful picture in the 
 Vatican and Hans Burgkhmair's equally unpleasant one in Munich 
 being the most famous. St. Erasmus, or St. Elmo, has from time 
 immemorial been invoked by sailors on the Mediterranean in 
 
392 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 time of storms, and the electrical appearances known as St. 
 Elmo's fire are held to be signs of his beneficent interference. 
 These appearances are most frequently seen in southern climates 
 during thunder-storms, and take the form of stars or brushes of 
 light at the tops of masts, spires, or other pointed objects. The 
 phenomenon was familiar to the Greeks, who when the light was 
 double styled the twin flames Castor and Pollux. The general 
 superstition that one light is unlucky and two are lucky may 
 be traceable to this identification with the Dioscuri. When it 
 appears on the deck, however, instead of at the mast-head, it is 
 less welcome, and assumes something of the characteristic of a 
 corpse-candle. 
 
 Bartolommeo Crescentio says it was called St. Elmo's hght 
 because of its reflections on the helms of the soldiers, — which 
 only shows that Bartolommeo was a pre-scientific etymologist. 
 Varenius, a Dutch writer, knew^ all about it in the spirit of your 
 more modern man of science. It was produced by " some sul- 
 phurous and bituminous matter which, being beaten down by the 
 agitation of the air, is kindled and gathered as butter is gathered 
 by the agitation of cream." But other authorities were equally 
 sure that it came from " thin, clammy vapors rising from the 
 salt seas and ugly slime." 
 
 In modern Greece (and this is curious, considering the old 
 Dioscuri belief) it appears to have a wholly evil significance, but 
 you can get rid of it there by pulling the tail of a pig. Some- 
 times each light had a name, — St. Elmo for the first, and St. 
 Nicholas and St. Anne for the second and third. The Chinese, 
 with their usual perversity, reverse the European rule about St. 
 Elmo. With us, as long as the light is aloft it is a good sign and 
 when it descends it is an evil. Those who go down to the sea in 
 junks hold the exact contrary. 
 
 Eloy, St. (Lat. Eligius ; Eng. Loo ; It. Aid or Lb, Eligio')^ 
 patron saint of Bologna, Dunkerque, and ]^[oyon, and of gold- 
 smiths and all other metal-workers (a.d. 588-659). His festival 
 is celebrated on December 1, the anniversary of his death. 
 
 St. Eloy was born at the village of Chatelat, two leagues from 
 Limoges. He learned the trade of a goldsmith, and evinced such 
 talent that he received a commission to make a golden throne 
 set with pearls for King Clotaire II. Out of the materials given 
 him Eloy made two thrones instead of one, which so pleased the 
 king that Eloy was intrusted with affairs of state. Dagobert, 
 successor to King Clotaire, made Eloy Master of the Mint, and 
 later he was made Bishop of Noyon and Tournay. He was re- 
 markable for his eloquence, and was sent to preach in Belgium. 
 By some he is held to have been the first to carry the gospel to 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 393 
 
 Sweden and Denmark. Legend relates of him, as of St. Dun- 
 stan, that he seized the devil by the nose with a pair of red-hot 
 pincers. One of the miracles attributed to this saint is repre- 
 sented in the exterior of Or San Michele at P'lorence. A horse 
 being brought to him to be shod, which was possessed by the 
 devil, he cut off the horse's ]og and put on the shoe ; then he 
 made the sign of the cross and replaced the leg. 
 
 When St. Eloy fell ill of his last sickness, the queen Bathildes 
 set out from Paris with a numerous retinue, but did not arrive 
 at Noyon until the morning after his death. She would have 
 taken the body to her monastery at Chelles, but desisted at the 
 earnest request of the saint's flock. The body was thereupon 
 deposited in the church of St. Lupus of Troyes, soon after called 
 St. Eligius's, and later translated to the cathedral of St. Eloy 
 at Dunkerque. Queen Bathildes placed a repa or small canopy 
 of gold and silver over his tomb, and as it shone very brightly 
 it was covered in Lent with a linen cloth bordered with silk. It 
 is reported that a certain liquor which dropped from this cloth 
 cured various distempers. The head of St. Eloy is in the parish 
 church of St. Andre at Chelles. Other relics ai-e at the cathedral 
 at Bruges, the church of St. Martin at Tournay, and the church 
 of St. Pierre at Douai. In the cathedral at Paris an arm of the 
 saint is preserved. In art he is represented as a farrier with a 
 horse's leg in his hand. 
 
 Emancipation Day. This was formerly a great festival 
 among the colored people of several of the Atlantic and contiguous 
 States in the Union, and was celebrated on August 15. The event 
 which it commemorated was not the issuing of the Emancipation 
 proclamation b}' Abraham Lincoln (September 22. 1862), but the 
 earlier emancipation of the slaves in the British West Indies. 
 The act of abolition was presented on behalf of the government 
 by Lord Stanley on August 28, 1833 ; it was passed by Parliament 
 on August 1, 1834, and the proclamation was made on August 15 
 of the same year. (There have been no celebrations of Emanci- 
 pation Day since the death (circa 1875) of Abe Trower, a colored 
 man in the employ of Messrs. Eobbins, of Fulton Market, through 
 whose efforts the event was commemorated each August by a 
 grand picnic at Myrtle Avenue Park, Brooklyn, that gave the 
 cue to colored people in many of the neighboring States. 
 
 Ember Days, known in the ecclesiastical calendar as quattuor 
 tempora, because these fasting days recur in each quarter of the 
 year. The name may come from the Anglo-Saxon ymbrcn, a 
 "revolution" or "circuit," or may be a corruption of tlie Latin 
 quattuor tempora. The Dutch quatertemper, (Jerman quatember., 
 
394 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 and Danish kvatember exhibit the process of the corruption. The 
 Ember Days are recognized by both the Roman and the Angli- 
 can Church. The Book of Common Prayer defines them as " days 
 of fasting, on which the Church requires such a measure of absti- 
 nence as is more especially suited to extraordinary acts and 
 exercises of devotion." They occur on the Wednesday, Friday, 
 and Saturday after the first Sunday in Lent, and after the feasts 
 of Pentecost, of the Exaltation of the Cross, and of St. Lucy. 
 The Ember Days were certainly observed in Rome in the time 
 of St. Augustine of Hippo. St. Leo ascribes to them an apos- 
 tolic origin. As the synagogue regularly observed four fasts 
 in the year, — in the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months, — it 
 seems not impossible that the apostles should have handed down 
 the Jewish custom to the Church. The fasts were introduced 
 into England hy its apostle St. Augustine at the end of the sixth 
 century. At first the weeks in which the Ember Days occur were 
 not definitely fixed, and even in the eleventh century a Gorman 
 council speaks of the Ember fast as jejunium incertum. According 
 to ancient custom in the Roman Church the clergy are ordained 
 only on the Saturdays of the Ember weeks, and in the Anglican 
 on the Sundays following. Hence the Ember Days are especially 
 a period of preparation for candidates for holy orders. 
 
 Emeric, St. The eldest son of St. Stephen of Hungary, 
 commemorated in the calendar on the anniversary of his death, 
 November 4, when he was prematurely cut ofif in the lifetime of 
 his father. He is associated with the latter in the veneration of 
 the Hungarians. His celebrity popularized his name, which in 
 the Italianized form of Amerigo was conferred upon the navigator 
 Yespucci ; and, as the name of America is generally derived 
 from Amerigo, St. Emeric may be looked upon as the eponymic 
 patron of America. 
 
 Emmet, Robert. The birthday of this ill-fated Irish pa- 
 triot is celebrated in Ireland and (mainly under the auspices of 
 the Clan-na-Gael) in New York, Chicago, and other American 
 cities. Born March 4, 1778, in Dublin, Emmet in 1803 planned 
 an unsuccessful insurrection, and escaped to the Wicklow Moun- 
 tains. Returning for a last interview with his sweetheart, Sarah 
 Curran (daughter of the famous John Philpot Curran, and hero- 
 ine of Moore's song " She is far from the Land" and of Irving's 
 story " The Broken Heart"), he was arrested, put on trial on 
 September 19, 1803, condemned to death, and hanged on the 
 following day. Just before receiving sentence he delivered a 
 speech full of the most noble and pathetic eloquence, which is 
 still a favorite for recitation. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 395 
 
 In 1896 a double celebration was held in New York at the 
 Grand Central Palace under the auspices of the Clan-na-Gael and 
 at Cooper Union under the auspices of the Irish Nationalists and 
 Irish National Alliance. The orator of the occasion at the first 
 was W. Bourke Cockran, at the second John E. Fitzgerald. 
 The first regiment of Irish volunteers and the members of the 
 69th Eegiment took part in the celebrations, as usual. 
 
 England, Conquest of. This event, which was secured by 
 the battle of Hastings, fought on October 14, 1066, between Wil- 
 liam, Duke of Normandy, and Harold, King of the Saxons, is 
 celebrated annually at Falaise, the birthplace of the Conqueror, 
 on September 28, — that being the anniversary of the latter's 
 landing on English soil. A writer in Once a TT^eeA: for November 
 6, 1875, gives this picture of the festivities as he witnessed them 
 in that year : 
 
 "I happened last September to be at Falaise, in Normandy. 
 At the station I was met by an immense crowd. William the 
 Conqueror had landed in England, and it was certain that we 
 should all be vanquished. A hundred blue blouses were shouting 
 at the ticket-receiver to know the last train. The young princes 
 looked very well in an open cart. Arlette was not there, her 
 washing days were over, and Count Eobert was dead. No, I 
 have not got a copper for the poor this time. Hotel prices risen ? 
 Never mind ; get into the omnibus du Grand Cerf ; give up your 
 luggage- ticket to the conducteur before you are hustled to pieces, 
 and drive on. Flags on both sides, fir-trees, suddenly trans- 
 planted and lining the streets, sound of drums, trumpets, and 
 shouting. What is it all about ? 
 
 " I arrive at the ' grand stage.' All heads on both sides out 
 of the window. William the Conqueror has just come by ; after 
 him went a very large ship with fine green calico waves, and 
 oars very much in everybody's way, knights in chain armor, 
 seated uneasily on oppressed and recalcitrant horses, and his- 
 torical personages mixed up with all sorts of posterity. 
 
 " This is too much ! For once I am indifferent to the price of 
 rooms. I fling my travelling bag to the gargon, bolt out of the 
 omnibus with an umbrella, — I don't happen to have a halberd 
 about me, — and, shouting the. daring war-cry of ' Sauve qui pent F 
 which strikes terror into the breasts of all the Norman apple- 
 women on the road, I rush down a by-lane in order to intercept 
 the procession before it gets to the Place de la Mairie. But just 
 in time. A row of horses' tails, wriggling and tossing behind 
 the unaccustomed chain armor, show me plainly that the pageant 
 has arrived before me. The ship, full of armed men, reels peril- 
 ously in front of me and stops. The drums and trumpets cease. 
 
396 CURIOSITIES OP 
 
 The cavalcade becomes unmanageable. Carts, with counts and 
 young princes, and Norman dukes, in flowing silk and velvet, 
 and coats of mail, are met astray in all directions. It is clear 
 the game is over, and the reign of long-restrained confusion has 
 set in. 
 
 " I get a good footing on a curb-stone, collar a terrific and 
 truculent Norman, and ask after William the Conqueror. He 
 tells me that Britain is a small island; that the Channel is 
 a trackless and well-nigh unnavigable ocean; but that Duke 
 William, having entered a big pasteboard ship, soon mastered 
 both, shot Harold, and set himself down on his throne. Hence 
 consumption of cakes and ale, immense slaughter of fat oxen, 
 collections for the poor, illuminations at night, and band, ad- 
 mission 1 fr." 
 
 Engracia, St. (from the Latin Encratis or Encratides), was 
 the daughter of Ont Camerus, to whom the Eomans had given 
 the city of Norba Caesarea, in Spain. She was brought up a 
 Christian, and while still a young girl was betrothed to a gov- 
 ernor on the Gallic side of the Pyrenees and sent to him with 
 suitable escort. Their way lay through Csesarea Augusta, the 
 modern Saragossa, where the governor, Publius Dacianus, one 
 of the bloodiest ministers of the tenth persecution, was at that 
 time endeavoring to extirpate Christianity. Engracia visited him 
 for the purpose of remonstrating on his cruelty. When Dacia- 
 nus learned that she was a Christian he seized her and had 
 her put to the torture. Some accounts make her survive the 
 rack, but the favorite legend represents her as having fallen a 
 victim to torture. Angels are said to have descended at her 
 death and to have officiated at her funeral, bearing tapers and 
 thuribles and singing hymns of triumph. During the Moorish 
 captivity her relics disappeared, but they were discovered in 
 1389, during the excavations necessitated by the rebuilding of 
 an old church dedicated to the martyrs of Saragossa. Seventy 
 years afterwards Juan II. declared that by St. Engracia's inter- 
 cession he was cured of a complaint in his eyes, — in consequence 
 of which he resolved to enlarge the church and build a monas- 
 teiy adjoining it and dedicate the whole to St. Engracia. He 
 began the work, but died before completing it, leaving that 
 charge by will to his son, Ferdinand, the Catholic King, who 
 continued the building, but it was not finished till the reign 
 of Charles Y. 
 
 Epiphany. (Gr. ^7Tt<pdv£ia, "manifestation," "appearance.") 
 A festival celebrated on January 6, the twelfth day after Christ- 
 mas, hence known popularly in England as Twelfth Night. It 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 897 
 
 is the anniversary of three different occasions whereon Christ 
 manifested his glory : (1) in his adoration in the manger by 
 the three Wise Men from the East, or Magi; (2) in his bap- 
 tism, when a voice from heaven proclaimed him the Son of God ; 
 (3) in the marriage at Cana, when he began his miracles by 
 changing water into wine. 
 
 The word Epiphany, being Greek, establishes the fact that this 
 festival is of Eastern origin, and in fact in the Greek Church it 
 has always been held the most important next to Easter. The 
 first mention of it occurs in the year 200, in the writings of 
 Clement of Alexandria. In the fourth century we find that in 
 Gaul it was kept as a separate festival from Christmas. There 
 is no doubt that in the early days the story of the Wise Men did 
 not receive the prominence, in the different instances in which 
 Christ manifested himself to the world, that it has now. Indeed, 
 it appears from St. Gregory Nazianzen that the baptism of Christ 
 was the chief event commemorated on the Epiphany. Hence, 
 })robably, the alternative Greek name for the feast, " the holy 
 day of lights" (27 dyia rwv <pa>Twv y][xipa)^ which refers to the " illu- 
 mination" of baptism, or possibly to an ancient tradition that 
 at Christ's baptism lights appeared on the Jordan. However, 
 the Breviary hymn for the day, composed by Prudentius in the 
 fourth century, proves that the threefold commemoration on the 
 Epiphany is ancient in the West. 
 
 In course of time the incident of the Wise Men's visit came to 
 be loosed upon as typical of the extension of the gospel to the 
 Gentile world, and consequently as of preponderant importance 
 to all of Gentile race. By the twelfth century romantic addi- 
 tions had been made to the simple Biblical narrative. The un- 
 named Wise Men had risen to specific regal rank as Caspar or 
 Jaspar, King of Tarsus, the land of myrrh, Melchior, King of 
 Arabia, where the land is ruddy with gold, and Balthasar, King 
 of Saba, where frankincense flows from the trees. (See Wise 
 Men of the East.) When they beheld the star of Bethlehem 
 they gathered together their retinue and set out on their journey. 
 They reached Jerusalem and interviewed Herod, who was greatly 
 impressed with their story. Then as they went out towards 
 Bethlehem they came across an old woman who was cleaning 
 her house. She asked them whither they were going. And when 
 they told her she besought them to tarry until she had finished 
 her task, and she would accompany them. They answered that 
 they could not wait, and bade her follow after them. When she 
 had finished she did strive to do so. But they were lost to sight ; 
 and ever since that day she has been wandering about the earth 
 seeking for the child Jesus. And on the eve of Epiphany, ac- 
 cording to Eussian and Itahan folk-lore, she comes down the 
 
398 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 chimneys of the houses, leaving gifts for the little ones, in imi- 
 tation of the kings' fine gifts to the infant Christ, and hoping 
 against hope that she may find Him whom she still seeks. In 
 
 The Star of Bethlehem. 
 (From Wright's " Caricature and Grotesque.") 
 
 Italy she is known to this day as the Befana (a corruption of 
 Epiphania), and in Eussia as the Baboushka. 
 
 In the Greek Church, however, Christ's baptism is the most 
 important event commemorated in the ceremonial of the day. 
 Solemn baptism was given on the vigil of the Epiphany. At 
 the present day among the Oriental sects it is usual for the 
 clergy to bless the rivers at this time, the devout plunging into 
 the icy waters, at imminent pulmonary risk. (See Jordan, 
 Fete op the.) 
 
 In memory of the Magi's offerings, it is even to this day the 
 custom for the British sovereign to make gifts of gold, frankin- 
 cense, and myrrh in the Chapel Eoyal, St. James. For many 
 centuries this was done by the sovereign himself. George III., 
 however, was the last king who appeared in person. Now^ the 
 offerings are presented by two ofiicers of the Lord Chamberlain, 
 attended by the Yeomen of the Guard, while the offertory sen- 
 tences are being read ; the representatives of royalty bring up 
 three purses and lay them on the alms-dish held by the celebrant, 
 who presents them on the altar. 
 
 The Twelfth Cake was another long-established feature of the 
 day, not only in England, but in France. This cake contained 
 hidden within it a bean or a silver penny. At the family gath- 
 ering around it, the cake was divided by lot, and whoever got 
 the piece containing the bean was accepted as king. 
 
 A correspondent in the Universal Magazine for 1774 thus de- 
 scribes the method at that date of drawing for King and Queen 
 of Twelfth Night. The ceremony of the cake and the bean had 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 399 
 
 been outgrown in England. " I went to a friend's house in the 
 country to partake of some of those innocent pleasures that 
 constitute a merry Christmas. I did not return till I had been 
 present at drawing King and Queen and eaten a slice of the 
 Twelfth Cake, made by the fair hands of my good friend's con- 
 sort. After tea, yesterday, a noble cake was produced, and two 
 bowls, containing the fortunate chances for the diiferent sexes. 
 Our host filled up the tickets ; the whole company, except the 
 King and Queen, were to be ministers of state, maids of honor, 
 or ladies of the bedchamber. Our kind host and hostess, 
 whether by design or accident, became King and Queen. Ac- 
 cording to Twelfth Day law, each party is to support their 
 character till midnight." 
 
 Hone in his '• Every Day Book," vol. i. p. 51, describes the 
 drawing as it was conducted in 1823 : " First, buy your cake. 
 Then, before your visitors arrive, buy your characters, each of 
 which should have a pleasant verse beneath. Next, look at your 
 invitation list and count the number of ladies you expect; and 
 afterwards the number of gentlemen. Then take as many female 
 characters as you have invited ladies ; fold them up, exactly of 
 the same size, and number each on the back, taking care to 
 make the king No. 1 and the queen No. 2. Then prepare and 
 number the gentlemen's characters. Cause tea and coffee to be 
 handed to your visitors as they drop in. When all are assembled, 
 and tea over, put as many ladies' characters in a reticule as there 
 are ladies present ; next, put the gentlemen's characters in a hat. 
 Then call a gentleman to carrj^ the reticule to the ladies, as they 
 sit, from which each lady is to draw one ticket, and to preserve 
 it unopened. Select a lady to bear the hat to the gentlemen for 
 the same purpose. There will be one ticket left in the reticule 
 and another in the hat, which the lady and gentleman who car- 
 ried each is to interchange, as having fallen to each. Next 
 arrange your visitors according to their numbers, — the king No. 
 1, the queen No. 2, and so on. The king is then to recite the 
 verse on his ticket, then the queen the verse on hers, and so the 
 characters are to proceed in numerical order. This done, let 
 the cake and refreshments go round, and hey! for merriment!" 
 
 On Twelfth Day, 1563, Mary Queen of Scots celebrated the 
 pastime of the King of the Bean at Holyrood, but with a queen 
 instead of a king. The lot fell to the real queen's attendant, 
 Mary Fleming, and the mistress arrayed the servant in her own 
 robes and jewels. The English resident, Eandolph, who was in 
 love with Mary Beton, another of the queen's maids of honor, 
 wrote in excited terms about this festival to the Earl of Leicester. 
 " Happy was it," says he, " unto this realm that her reign endured 
 no longer. Two such sights in one state in so good accord I 
 
400 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 believe was never seen, as to behold two worthy queens possess 
 without QYiYj one kingdom, both upon a day. I leave the rest 
 to your lordship to be judged of. My pen staggereth, my hand 
 faileth further to write." 
 
 The Twelfth Mght festivities in old England were of a riotous 
 sort. The nobility amused themselves by blowing up pasteboard 
 castles and letting claret flow like blood out of a stag made of 
 paste. Pasteboard castles were bombarded from a pasteboard 
 ship, with cannon, in the midst of which the company pelted 
 one another with egg-shells filled with rose-water; and large 
 pies were made, filled with live frogs, which hopped out upon 
 some curious person lifting up the lid. At court gaming was 
 a costly feature. Evelyn records that on Twelfth Night, 1662, 
 according to custom, his majesty (Charles II.) opened the revels 
 of that night by throwing the dice himself in the Privy Cham- 
 ber, where was a table set on purpose, and lost his hundred 
 pounds. (The year before he had won fifteen hundred pounds.) 
 The ladies also played very deep. Evelyn came away when the 
 Duke of Ormond had won about one thousand pounds, and left 
 them still at passage, cards, etc., at other tables. 
 
 Among the lower orders also the day was given up to revelry ; 
 and among them this has had a greater tenacity of life. In Lon- 
 don, where the pastry-cook shops and confectioners' stalls with 
 their Twelfth cakes were the great attraction, the boys of the 
 street used to dehght in nailing the coat-tails of spectators to 
 the window-frames, or in pinning them together. Sometimes 
 eight or ten persons found themselves thus connected. The dex- 
 terity of the nail-driving was so quick and sure that a single 
 blow seldom failed of doing the business effectually. With- 
 drawal of the nail without a proper instrument was out of the 
 question, and consequently the person nailed was forced either 
 to leave part of his coat as a cognizance of his attachment, or 
 quit the spot with a hole in it. At every nailing and pinning 
 shouts of laughter arose from the perpetrators ; yet it often hap- 
 pened to one who turned and smiled at the duress of another 
 that he also found himself nailed. Efforts at extrication in- 
 creased mirth ; nor was the presence of a constable, who was 
 usually employed to attend and preserve free " ingress, egress, 
 and regress," sufiiciently awful to deter the offender. {Every Day 
 Book, vol. i. p. 50.) 
 
 Up to a comparatively recent date itinerant minstrels with 
 bowls of lambs' wool would appear in the rural parts of Eng- 
 land on the eve of the Epiphany. (See Wassail.) In Stafford- 
 shire the star that led the Magi was represented by a lighted 
 hill-fire. Seemingly in connection with this, though it is not 
 easy to trace the train of ideas, are the customs that still prevail 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 401 
 
 on the borders of Gloucestershire and Herefordshire. At Paunt- 
 ley, near Newent, the men of a farm would assemble in a field 
 sown with wheat, and, after making twelve fires of straw in a 
 row, would, standing round one much larger ihan the rest, drink 
 a glass of cider to the master's health. Then, returning to the 
 farm-house, they were regaled on cakes soaked in cider. 
 
 The same ceremony went on on the other side of the boundary 
 line of the counties, with a little more drinking, hallooing, and 
 chorusing round the fires. At the supper afterwards there was a 
 plum-cake with a hole in the middle which the bailiff (or head 
 of the oxen) took to the wain-house. There the master pledged 
 the best ox in a curious toast, the company following his example 
 with all the other oxen, addressing each by name. The cake 
 was placed on the ox's horn. If the ox, when tickled, tossed it off 
 backward, the cake fell to the mistress ; if forward, to the bailiff. 
 
 A kindred recognition of the twelve lights of the world, the 
 apostles, and the Saviour in their midst, was customary in West- 
 meath in the seventeenth century ; and so much of the custom 
 as concerns the ox and the health-drinking formula seems also 
 to have been in use at Tretire, near the Wye-side, the ox's toss 
 arbitrating between the boys and the men as to the ownership 
 of the cake. 
 
 A curious custom obtained at the Isle of Man in olden days, 
 when the Christmas festivities were kept up throughout the whole 
 twelve days and every parish hired a fiddler at the public charge. 
 On Twelfth Day the fiddler would lay his head in the lap of one 
 of the girls, and then a third person would ask whom such and 
 such a maid would marry, and the fiddler had to predict, and 
 whatever he said was regarded as oracular, even though he 
 coupled a pair who detested each other. This was called cutting 
 off the fiddler's head, as from that night he was dead until the 
 following Christmas. 
 
 In France, where it probably originated, the Twelfth Night 
 cake still survives. It is known there as La Galette du Roi 
 ("the king's cake"). This cake is generally made of pastry, 
 and baked in a round sheet like a pie. The size of the cake de- 
 pends upon the number of persons in the company. In former 
 times a broad bean was baked in the cake, but now a small china 
 doll is substituted for the bean. The cake is the last course in 
 the dinner. One of the youngest people at the table is asked to 
 say to whom each piece shall be given. This creates a little 
 excitement, and all watch breathlessly to see who gets the 
 doll. The person who gets it is king or queen, and immediately 
 chooses a king or queen for a partner. As soon as the king and 
 queen are announced they are under the constant observation of 
 the other members of the party, and whatever they do is imme- 
 
 26 
 
402 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 diately commented upon. In a short time there is a perfect 
 uproar: '^ The king drinks," "The queen speaks," "The queen 
 laughs," etc. This is kept up for a long time ; then there are 
 games, music, and dancing. 
 
 In many parts of France, Belgium, and Holland processions 
 of children tramp through the ^Streets bearing a large paper star 
 illuminated from within by a candle. 
 
 As already noted, the Baboushka in Eussia and the Befana 
 in Italy are the respective representatives of our Santa Glaus, 
 
 performing their functions 
 on the eve of the Epiphany 
 in lieu of Christmas Eve. 
 Italian children carefully 
 hang their clothes with 
 emp'ty pockets around the 
 hearth, and the Befana fills 
 them with confectionery and 
 other presents if they have 
 been good, and with charcoal 
 ashes or birch rods if they 
 have been bad. In Florence 
 a procession of the Befana 
 used to be held on the eve 
 of Epiphany. She was per- 
 sonified by a colossal puppet 
 representing a sorceress in 
 flowing garments, the figure 
 being so contrived as to ap- 
 pear taller or shorter at the 
 pleasure of the bearer, whose 
 person was concealed by the 
 draperies. This monstrous 
 effigy frightened the chil- 
 dren by looking in the open 
 windows of the houses. She 
 was borne through the principal streets of Florence, preceded 
 by a burning broom, as a reminder of the work of sweeping 
 which she refused to abandon for the sake of the infant Christ, 
 and followed by a torchlight procession beating drums and 
 blowing long glass trumpets. Finallj^ she was throwm from a 
 bridge into the Arno, amid the acclamations of the multitude. 
 The glass trumpets are still a discordant element in the Epiphany 
 celebration. It is also customary for the Florentine shops 
 to blossom out at Epiphany with puppets representing the 
 Magi, amid which the grinning blackamoor face of Balthasar 
 is especially conspicuous. 
 
 Twelfth Night Pbocession in Holland. 
 (From Picart.) 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 403 
 
 At Eome the special fun of Epiphany Eve is found in the 
 Piazza Eomana, where the din grows fast and furious at night- 
 fall. Story describes it as almost deafeniug. " The object of 
 every one is to make as much noise as possible, and every kind 
 of instrument for this purpose is sold at the toy-booths. There 
 are drums beating, tambourines thumping and jingling, pipes 
 squeaking, watchmen's rattles clacking, penny trumpets and tin 
 horns shrilling, the sharpest whistles shrieking, and mingling 
 with these are heard the din of voices, screams of laughter, and 
 the confused burr and buzz of a great crowd. Companies of 
 people are marching together in platoons, or piercing through 
 the crowd in long files, and dancing and blowing like mad on 
 their instruments. It is a perfect witches' Sabbath." 
 
 In Milan the feast of the Wise Men is observed with great 
 parade and flourish. Three kings, brilliantly dressed and mounted 
 on beautiful horses which are gayly accoutred, attended by showy 
 pages and escorted by a large guard and followed by throngs of 
 people, march through the streets. In front of the procession is 
 borne a gold star, carried on a tall mast. The march is continued 
 until the manger is found, when the gifts are presented to the 
 infant Christ. 
 
 In Spain also Epiphany is the great holiday for the children. 
 Here, however, it is not the Befana nor the Baboushka, but one 
 of the three kings — no less a person, indeed, than Balthasar — 
 who is the purveyor of gifts. He is always represented as a 
 blackamoor, and as such he survives in Spanish legend. On the 
 eve of the Epiphany the children leave their shoes and boots out 
 in some convenient spot near the chimney, to find them laden 
 with gifts in the morning. 
 
 Another curious ceremony w^hich exists in Spain on the eve 
 of the Epiphany is similar to one that in England and France 
 was practised on the eve of St. Valentine's {q. v.). 
 
 " In the burgher society of Castile," says John Hay, " each little 
 social circle comes together in a house agreed upon. They take 
 mottoes of gilded paper and write on each the name of some one 
 of the company. The names of the ladies are thrown into one 
 urn, and those of the cavaliers into another, and they are drawn 
 out by pairs. These couples are thus condemned by fortune to 
 intimacy during the year. The gentleman is always to be at the 
 order of the dame, and to serve her faithfully in every knightly 
 fashion. He has all the duties and none of the privileges of a 
 lover, unless it be the joy of those who stand and wait." 
 
 The same authority tells us that the eve of the Epiphany is 
 celebrated in Madrid by a bit of practical joking known as " the 
 Kings." A crowd of men of the lower orders, playing on dis- 
 cordant horns and thumping drums, surround the first simple 
 
404 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 fellow who happens to pass and persuade him that he must join 
 them in the search for the Magi, who are expected to enter the 
 city by one of the gates that night. Over the yokel's head they 
 throw a mule-collar to which dozens of bells are attached. He 
 is then made to carry a ladder through the streets, and first at 
 one gate and then at another is commanded to halt and climb up 
 to see if the kings are anywhere in sight. Sometimes when he 
 reaches the top he is allowed to fall, at the risk of a broken head 
 or limb. But if he escapes injury the exquisite jest is kept up 
 until suspicion supplants faith in the mind of the neophyte, and 
 the farce is over. 
 
 Charles V. instituted in Spain the custom for the reigning 
 sovereign to offer three gold chalices on Epiphany. Each chalice 
 is worth about three hundred ducats. A piece of gold is placed 
 in one, incense in the second, and myrrh in the third. After 
 the offering one of these chalices is sent to the sacristy of St. 
 Lawrence in the Escorial, and the other two to such churches or 
 monasteries as the king may designate. 
 
 Epulum Jovis in Capitolio. An ancient Eoman festival in 
 honor of Jupiter, celebrated on the 13th of November. This 
 festival took the form of a luxurious banquet which was held 
 in the Capitol under the direction of a special board of seven, 
 known as Epulones, and was participated in by the entire Sen- 
 ate. The statues of the three Capitoline deities, Jupiter, Juno, 
 and Minerva, were taken down upon this occasion and allowed 
 to participate in the feast. Their hair was arranged, a mirror 
 being held tip before them, that they might satisfy themselves as 
 to their looks, their bodies were anointed, and their cheeks were 
 colored with vermilion, and then they were placed at the table, 
 — Jupiter reclining on a couch, after the manner of men, the 
 goddesses erect in chairs, which was thought the proper attitude 
 for women. 
 
 At this feast it happened once that the greatest Eoman gen- 
 eral of his time, Scipio Africanus, and Tiberius Gracchus, a young 
 man of great promise, sat side by side. They had for a long 
 time been unfriendly, but Gracchus on this day had spoken in 
 the Senate in defence of Scipio's brother, and the two enemies 
 were reconciled. In token of the reconciliation, Scipio betrothed 
 his younger daughter to Gracchus ; and when he returned home 
 at night and informed his wife that he had promised her in 
 marriage, she remonstrated, saying that, even if it were to Tibe- 
 rius Gracchus, the mother of the girl ought to have been con- 
 sulted. The maiden thus summarily disposed of was Cornelia, 
 mother of the Gracchi, and her sons were the famous tribunes, 
 Tiberius and Caius Gracchus. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 405 
 
 Eric, St. (or St. Henry), patron saint of Sweden, whose fes- 
 tival on the anniversary of his death, May 18, is still celebrated 
 as a national holiday, was an historical character, King of Sweden 
 and of Norway, the ninth of the name. He was a Christian, and 
 built numerous churches. He attempted an unsuccessful cru- 
 sade against the Finns, and then wisely turned his attention to 
 domestic legislation. He compiled a code of laws from the an- 
 cient constitutions of the nation, and " St. Eric's Law" was long 
 spoken of in Sweden with that kind of reverence with which 
 the laws of St. Edward the Confessor were regarded by the 
 English people under the rule of the foreign Normans. He was 
 slain in battle on Ascension Day, 1151. He was in church when 
 news was brought him that Magnus of Denmark had landed on 
 the coast and was marching against him. He said, calmly, " Let 
 us at least finish the sacrifice ; the rest of the festival ,1 shall 
 keep elsewhere." When the mass was ended, he went forth at 
 the head of his guards, and fell after a brave defence. His tomb 
 remains to this day at Upsal, undefiled. The title of saint was 
 given him by a popular and national canonization, and was after- 
 wards confirmed by the Church. He is also knovvn as "the 
 Pious" and " the Legislator." 
 
 Escalade. The great annual festival of Geneva, held on De- 
 cember 11 and 12. It keeps alive the memory of the repulse of 
 a sudden and secret assault on the city by its hereditary ene- 
 mies the Savoyards. 
 
 During the night of the 11th of December, 1602, large forces 
 marched from their several strongholds in Savoy, crossed the 
 river Arve, and began to scale the town walls. At the moment 
 the alarm was given, the citizens sprang from their beds and 
 rushed out in the scantiest of attire, and proceeded to repel the 
 attack. Some of the enemy had actually got into the town, 
 but, thanks to the narrow, tortuous streets and their absolute 
 darkness, had lost their way, and were soon overcome. Those 
 climbing the walls were driven back, the women, who had also 
 hastened to take part in the defence, pouring hot soup and water 
 down on their heads. By noon of the 12th the Savoyards were 
 completely routed and driven back into the fastnesses of their 
 own country. 
 
 " Ever since then," writes Percy Gordon in the Wew York 
 Evening Post for February 15, 1896, " Geneva has celebrated the 
 11th and 12th of December with unfailing regularity; and to- 
 day, nearly three hundred years later, the time of the JEscalade, 
 as it is called, is observed with a hilarity which shows no signs 
 of having spent itself. Men, women, and children, after dark of 
 the 11th and 12th, dress up in the most ludicrous of costumes, 
 
406 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 putting on the absurd Carnival masks, and walk the principal 
 streets, throwing confetti at each other and the passers-by, until 
 midnight, when the older folk adjourn to the Kursaal to indulge 
 until morning in the dance and frolic of a masquerade ball. Woe 
 to all unsuspecting foreigners who venture on the streets without 
 costume! It is a traditional privilege of the gallants to kiss any 
 Avoman caught on the streets unmasked. Last year an Amer- 
 ican gentleman escorted three pretty American ladies to see the 
 sights, unconscious, of course, of this tradition. The little party 
 was soon surrounded by a laughing crowd of maskers, w^ho 
 caught hands and danced around them, enjoying their confusion, 
 until one bolder than the rest caught and kissed the prettiest of 
 the three, when they all swung off with a merry laugh to go and 
 annoy other unwary sight-seers. During this season very little 
 work of any kind is done, of course. It is, in fact, the Genevese 
 Thanksgiving Day, when, as with us, turkeys are fattened and 
 killed, and the individual members of the various families gather, 
 when they can, round the common ancestral boards. In the 
 confectioners' shops are chocolate bonbons in the shape of little 
 iron pots with lids on which are stamped the date 1602 and that 
 of the current year. These little dainties serve to keep alive the 
 incident of the patriotic soup-pouring by the women of the be- 
 sieged city. It is indeed a merry time for all." 
 
 Ethelreda, St., also called St. Audrey. Her festival is 
 celebrated on October 17, the anniversary of the translation of 
 her relics in 695. St. Ethelreda was a princess of East Anglia. 
 Her kinsmen forced her to marry Tombert, King of the Gervii, 
 and after his death Egfrid, King of Northumbria. (Eut she re- 
 tained her virginity with both. After twelve years, with the 
 consent of Egfrid she withdrew to the convent of Coldingham. 
 Later Egfrid wished her back and tried to drag her from her 
 retreat, but Ethelreda fled to a rock, since called St. Ebb's Head. 
 Her husband pursued her, and legend says that the tide sud- 
 denly rose and rendered the rock inaccessible. Egfrid gave up 
 the chase and married another wife. Ethelreda crossed the 
 Humber, and had a dream in which she thought that, having 
 stuck her staff in the ground, it put forth branches and blos- 
 somed into a large tree. Shortly afterwards she founded the 
 cathedral and monastery of Ely, on the island of that name, 
 and was the first abbess. She died June 23, 679. She made a 
 dying request that she should be buried with the other sisters 
 without any mark of distinction, but in 695 Sexburga, her sis- 
 ter, who had succeeded as abbess, ordered her relics to be en- 
 closed in a stone monument. In 1106 Eobert of Ely had the 
 relics removed to the cathedral church of Ely. Her shrine 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 407 
 
 perished during the Eeformation. It is related that four hun- 
 dred years after her death a wicked man repented and vowed 
 to serve God in the monastery of Ely. On his way thither he 
 was taken and imprisoned for his crimes, but on his invoking 
 St. Ethelreda she appeared in the night with St. Benedict and 
 liberated him. 
 
 Eucharist. (From the Pauline word eucharistia, " thanks- 
 giving.") The name given to the consecrated bread used in the 
 communion services. To Catholics it is also known as the host 
 (Lat. hostia, " a victim"). With them it takes the form of a 
 circular wafer made of unleavened wheat. They claim to follow 
 the use of Christ himself, for leavened bread could not have 
 been employed at the paschal supper. But their own authori- 
 ties differ as to the ancient Christian usage. Perha])s Bona is 
 right in his opinion that, whereas the Greeks have always used 
 leavened bread, the Latins in the early ages used either leavened 
 or unleavened bread according to convenience, and that the use 
 of the latter was not obligatory among them till the tenth cen- 
 tury. As Catholics believe that the host after consecration be- 
 comes the actual body of Christ, they guard it with the most 
 anxious reverence. " We are full of anxiety," says Tertullian, 
 " lest anything of our chalice and bread should fall to the 
 ground." Severe penalties were imposed, both in the East and 
 in the West, upon the ministers of the altar, if through their 
 negligence any accident happened to the Blessed Sacrament. 
 Catholics are obliged to pay to the eucharist, present on the altar, 
 reserved in the tabernacle, or carried in procession, that supreme 
 worship which is due to God alone. "The eucharist," says the 
 Council of Trent, " is not the less to be adored because Christ 
 instituted it in order that it might be received ; for w^e believe 
 that that same God is present in it of whom the eternal Father, 
 bringing him into the world, said, ' Let all the angels of God 
 adore him ;' that God whom the Magi adored falling down before 
 him ; who, finally, was adored by the apostles in Galilee, as the 
 Scripture bears witness." 
 
 It was on account of this reverence due to the host that the 
 devil-worshippers of France and other antichristian and Jewish 
 societies have always been reputed anxious to secure the conse- 
 crated wafers in order to inflict indignities upon them. So re- 
 cently as 1894, it is asserted, two ciboria, containing one hundred 
 consecrated hosts, were carried off by an old woman from the 
 cathedral of Notre-Dame under circumstances which indicated 
 that the vessels were not the objects of the larceny. Similar 
 depredations are said to have increased in an extraordinar}' 
 manner during recent years, and have occurred in all parts of 
 
408 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 France. No less than thirteen churches belonging to the dio- 
 cese of Orleans were despoiled in the space of twelve months. 
 
 Alleged miracles of the host bleeding when profanely lacer- 
 ated by malevolent Jews, to whom in the Middle Ages was 
 ascribed a fatal fascination for meddling with the Christian 
 eucharist, have been chronicled at Paris in 1290 ; at Deckendorf 
 in Bavaria, 1337 ; at Brussels, 1369 ; at Posen, 1399 ; at Nivelles, 
 Brabant, 1405 ; and at Brandenburg, 1510, In most cases, with 
 incredible obstinacy, the son of Israel denied his guilt, and was 
 delivered over to the authorities to be burned. His possessions 
 were confiscated ; his wife and children were either converted or 
 killed. 
 
 In the Paris case the accused, a Jew named Johnathas, was 
 alleged to have craftily obtained the host from a poor woman 
 wdiose goods he held in pawn. He first stabbed it with a knife, 
 when it bled profusely, and then he successively placed it in the 
 fire, whence it leaped out, and in a pot of boiling water, where 
 it assumed in miniature the appearance of the crucified Saviour. 
 Ultimately it was rescued by a pious woman and adored by multi- 
 tudes. Many Jews were converted by it. Johnathas was burned 
 alive. Clementina, second wife of Louis le Hutin, by her will 
 (1328) left a bequest of ten Parisian pounds to the convent in 
 Paris where God was boiled (" oii Dieu fut bouliz"). (See Notes 
 and Queries, Eighth Series, vol. ix. p. 269.) 
 
 In the " Secret Archives of the Vatican," 133, Epist. 294, the 
 same authority found " a long, interesting, and possibly yet un- 
 published letter" from Benedict XII., dated Avignon, August 
 29, 1338, to Albert, Duke of Austria, written in response to the 
 duke's inquiry how he should proceed concerning a case where 
 a bleeding host had been discovered at the doors of a Hebrew's 
 house. The Pope wisely and humanely refers to instances of 
 similar happenings where the evidence was of a doubtful nature, 
 and suggests that certain evil-minded laics may have done the 
 thing. 
 
 There is still preserved at Dijon a consecrated host sent to 
 Philip III., Duke of Burgundy, by Eugenius IV. This w^as 
 stained with blood, it was alleged, by reason of having been 
 repeatedly struck by the knife of an unbeliever. Many miracles 
 have been ascribed to it, its own incorruptibility heading the 
 list. 
 
 In Orvieto, Italy, is preserved a corporal cloth which is said 
 to have been splashed with blood while a doubting priest was 
 ofiiciating at mass. (See Corpus Christi.) 
 
 Physicians have suggested that the bacillus prodigiosus is 
 responsible for these stories of bleeding hosts. It forms red or 
 pink patches not only upon breads but also upon cooked meat 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 409 
 
 and fish. In 1843 it became almost an epidemic in Paris, where 
 it grew more especially on the bread made in military barracks. 
 (See Woodhead's Bacteria and their Products, 1891.) 
 
 Euphemia, St. (patroness of Chalcedon, and one of the 
 chief martyrs of the Greek Church). Her festival, celebrated 
 on September 16, is a holiday over almost all the East. She was 
 martyred near Byzantium about 307. After being cruelly tor- 
 tured, she was cast first into a den of lions, who licked her fieet 
 and refused to do her any violence, and then into the fire, which 
 would not burn her : so she was finally despatched with a sword. 
 Within a century after her death many churches were dedicated 
 to her, both East and West. The most famous was in Chalcedon, 
 which contained her relics. Here in 451 was held the fourth 
 general Council, that condemned Eutyches. The fathers who 
 took part attributed to the intercession of the saint much of the 
 credit for the happy issue of that afi'air. Her shrine became so 
 popular that for the convenience of pilgrims the relics were 
 transferred to St. Sophia in Constantinople. In 813 Leo the 
 Iconoclast ordered them to be thrown into the sea, but the sea 
 gave them back again, and the faithful concealed them until after 
 Leo's death. They are now preserved at Syllebria, on_ the Pro- 
 pontine shore. A small portion is also possessed by the church 
 of the Sorbonne at Paris. 
 
 Another St. Euphemia was abbess of the monastery of St. 
 Yictor in Marseilles. During an irruption of the Saracens she 
 and her virgins all suffered martyrdom, after having first cut off 
 their lips and noses to render themselves physically distasteful 
 to the heathen invaders. 
 
 Evacuation Day. A holiday celebrated in New York city 
 on E"ovember 25, in commemoration of the day in 1783 when 
 the British soldiers, who had still held possession of the city, 
 finally evacuated it and left America to her new destiny. The 
 war of the Eevolution practically closed with the surrender 
 of Cornwallis at Yorktown in October, 1781. It is true that 
 neither side relaxed its vigilance, but neither attempted serious 
 aggressive operations. Six months after Yorktown came the 
 first acknowledgment from England that she had seen the 
 beginning of the end. 
 
 Wilmington, North Carolina, was evacuated in May, 1782, 
 Savannah in June, Charleston in December. These steps were 
 significant and most acceptable to that war-worn section of the 
 country, but they were not final. The abandonment of the 
 South did not certainly foreshadow England's intentions. 
 
 With the opening of 1783 matters took a definite shape. All 
 
410 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 doubts were soon removed. There was to be a final peace, based 
 upon the absokite independence of the American States, with all 
 their material claims to rights and territory recognized and ac- 
 cepted by Great Britain. The great news reached America offi- 
 cially in March, and on the 19th of April following Washington 
 proclaimed to the army the cessation of hostilities. The war 
 was over. What remained to be done of a military nature was, 
 for the Americans, the adjustment of the soldiers' pay and dis- 
 charge of the greater part of them from the service, and, for the 
 British, the settlement of claims according to treaty, the dispo- 
 sition of Tories, the gathering up of paraphernalia, and final 
 departure. 
 
 At the time of the peace announcement the enemy occupied 
 but two points on the coast of the thirteen States, — New York 
 and the mouth of the Penobscot. The latter post they had held 
 since 1779 as a protection for English settlers and refugees, and 
 to secure a valuable lumber region. New York had been in 
 British hands since September 15, 1776. It had ever since been 
 their head-quarters and base of operations. 
 
 There were many and vexatious delays, but finally at eight 
 o'clock on November 25, 1783, the American troops under Wash- 
 ington marched into the city, and by noon the last guards of the 
 English had evacuated it. The last boat-load of Britishers pre- 
 sumably carried away the British flag that had so long waved 
 from Fort George at the Battery. The Continentals hoisted in 
 its place the flag of the thirteen States and saluted it with thir- 
 teen rounds fired from John Bull's guns. 
 
 Up to the middle of the nineteenth century Evacuation Day 
 was one of the greatest of New York's holidays. But its close 
 proximity to Thanksgiving led to its gradual fading away before 
 the more national celebration. Nowadays it is marked only by 
 a parade of the Old Guard of New York down to the Battery, 
 where a flag-raising is held on the old site of Fort George. 
 The person who raises the flag has always been a lineal descend- 
 ant of the sailor-boy who raised it in 1783. 
 
 Eve, Even, or Vigil. In their present acceptation these 
 words apply to the whole day which precedes a feast. Origi- 
 nally Christians were in the habit of keeping vigils, i.e., watch- 
 ings, on the evenings prior to certain festivals, and by extraor- 
 dinary devotions preparing for the better celebration of the 
 feast on the following day. The words eve or even and vigil 
 thus grew to be almost synonymous. By the ninth century or 
 thereabouts the practice of fasting on vigils, at first a voluntary 
 devotion, had grown to be obligatory. The eves of Christmas 
 and Easter were considered the most important during the year, 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 411 
 
 and the midnight mass on the first date is a relic of the old cus- 
 tom. But none of the festivals which occur between Christmas 
 and Candlemas nor between Easter and Whitsuntide is preceded 
 by a vigil, the period being regarded as one of joy and not proper 
 for tasting. Hence the familiar New Year's Eve is, ecclesiasti- 
 cally, a misnomer. The feast of Michaelmas and All Angels as 
 commemorating the bliss of heaven is also without a vigil, as is 
 that of St. Luke because preceded by the feast of St. Ethelreda. 
 
 Eve, Tomb of. The Arabs assert that Eve's tomb is at 
 Jiddah, the seaport of Mecca. The temple, with a palm growing 
 out of the solid stone roof (a curiosity which is of itself the 
 wonder of the Orient), is supposed to mark the last resting- 
 place of the first woman. According to Arabian tradition, Eve 
 measured over two hundred feet in height. Her tomb, in a 
 graveyard surrounded with high white walls, which has not been 
 opened for a single interment for over a thousand years, is the 
 shrine of thousands of devoted Ishmaelites, who make a pil- 
 grimage to the spot once every seven years. It is hemmed in 
 on all sides by the tombs of departed sheiks and other worthies 
 who have lived out their days in that region of scorching sun 
 and burning sands. Once each year, on June 3, which is, accord- 
 ing to Arabian legends, the anniversary of the death ot Abel, 
 the doors of the temple forming a canopy over this supposed 
 tomb of our first mother remain open all night, in spite of the 
 keeper's efforts to close them. Terrible cries of anguish are said 
 to be emitted thence, as though the memory of the first known 
 tragedy still haunted the remains which blind superstition 
 believes to be deposited there. 
 
 Excommunication. The formal exclusion of a person from 
 religious communion and privileges. Excommunication, often 
 with very severe consequences, was practised in various ways by 
 the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Jews. It is still in use among 
 Mohammedans. In the early Christian Church it consisted sim- 
 ply in the exclusion of an offending member from fellowship by 
 some formal action. This is still the practice among most Prot- 
 estant denominations. As the power of the Church increased, 
 excommunication became more complicated in method and severe 
 in effect. In the Eoman and related Churches excommunication 
 may be either partial or total, temporary or perpetual. By the 
 partial, or excommunicatio mi7ior, the culprit is merely excluded 
 from the sacraments ; by the total, or excommunicatio major, he 
 is excluded from the mass, from all intercourse with Christians, 
 from ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and from burial in consecrated 
 ground. Bell, book, and candle are the three instruments em- 
 
412 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 ployed in the formal ceremony of excommunication. The ring- 
 ing of the bell apprises the faithful within the church of what is 
 
 Ceremony of Excommunication. 
 (From Picart.) 
 
 about to happen, the sentence is read out of the book, and the 
 lighted candle is then extinguished to denote the spiritual dark- 
 ness in which the excommunicated person must for the future 
 abide. 
 
 Expectation of the Confinement of Our Lady. A 
 
 Catholic festival celebrated on December 18 in many churches of 
 France and Spain, and generally among the Cistercian, Domini- 
 can, Franciscan, and Carmelite monastic orders. The festival 
 was ordered b}^ the tenth Council of Toledo, in 654, in the time 
 of King Rechaswinth, because the feast of the Annunciation 
 generally falls in Lent, when the Church is engaged on other 
 solemnities, and cannot celebrate that mystery with the applica- 
 tion it deserves. In France the day often goes by the name of 
 "Notre-Dame de I'O," because on it begins the antiphon " O 
 Sapientia," the first of the eight Greater Antiphons, all begin- 
 ning with O. Similarly in England, though the Reformed Church 
 does not recognize the festival, the daj' is known as " O Sapientia." 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 413 
 
 Fair. An assemblafije of men and women, gathered together 
 at periodical intervals, primarily for the purpose of traffic and 
 barter, but also for affording an outlet for the exuberant animal 
 forces which are characteristic of the populace of most nations. 
 It would seem, indeed, that the holiday idea preceded the work- 
 day. The origin of fairs was in ancient Egypt. When the an- 
 nual overflow of the Nile converted the lower level of its valley 
 into a watery waste, the entire population would crowd in 
 barges to the various festivals held in the principal towns or in 
 the neighborhood of the great temples. Bustle and activity pre- 
 vailed here, products and manufactures found a ready market, 
 priests played lucratively upon popular superstition, and mummers 
 and fakirs found ready gratuities. This periodical flocking to 
 the great festivals, with the attendant mingling of traffic and 
 amusement, still survives among the Hindoos and other Asiatic 
 races. The Greeks and Eomans had their fairs also, when labor 
 and law-pleadings were for the nonce suspended. 
 
 In the Middle Ages fairs sprang up in Europe just as they had 
 done in Egypt. They were the result of the gatherings of pil- 
 grims to sacred places at fixed seasons. Those sacred places 
 were often in the country, remote from houses of public enter- 
 tainment, and thus tents were pitched and stalls set up for the 
 lodging and refection of worshippers. Tradesmen naturally 
 flocked hither to dispose of their wares. The priors were entitled 
 to certain tolls, and to render the festivals more attractive they 
 speedily introduced various amusements. Indeed, it was at such 
 places that the best entertainment was to be found which was 
 within men's reach in the Middle Ages. The fairs were fre- 
 quented by lords and j)rince8. Those of Beaucaire, Frankfort, 
 and Leipsic amused the nobles of Normandy and Germany ; the 
 great fairs of England — Bartholomew Fair, Greenwich Fair, 
 Peterborough Fair, and Edmonton Fair — attracted royalty itself. 
 
 Thus the fair was originally bound to the life of the nation by 
 the three ties of rehgion, trade, and pleasure. But the time 
 came when the tie of religion was loosened : then it was a 
 place for trade and pleasure. A few more generations having 
 lived and waned, trade was no longer bound to it. The nation 
 still grew, and at last broke from it even as a pleasure-place. 
 
 The history of Bartholomew Fair is in essentials if not in 
 details the history of all English fairs. 
 
 The old priory and church of St. Bartholomew in Smithfield 
 were founded in March, 1123, by one Eaycr, who had been jester 
 to Henry I. He had not forgotten his juggling tricks when he 
 
414 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 became an abbot. The numerous miracles performed at the 
 shrine were even by many of his contemporaries regarded as 
 the result of Eayer's ingenuity. From the time of the estab- 
 lishment of his priory a fair had begun to be held in the grave- 
 yard and open space before it on St. Bartholomew's Day. Thus, 
 in the beginning we have a fair full of worshippers, among whom 
 were the sick and maimed, praying for health about its altar ; a 
 graveyard full of traders loudly magnifying their wares ; and a 
 place of jesting and edification where women and men caroused 
 together, where the minstrel and the story-teller and the tumbler 
 gathered knots about them, where the 3'oung men bowled at 
 nine-pins, while the clerks and friars peeped at the young maids, 
 where mounted knights and ladies curveted and ambled, where 
 oxen lowed, horses neighed, and sheep bleated among their pur- 
 chasers, where great shouts of laughter answered to the ho ! ho ! 
 of the devil on the stage, while a band of pipers and guitar- 
 beaters added music to the din. 
 
 After the Eeformation the priory went down, but the fair con- 
 tinued. Lord Eich, the nian who helped to rack Anne Askew, 
 bought the priory and all its rights for £1064. The Eeformed 
 Church took no notice of the fair, but it was supported by munici- 
 pal patronage. The lord mayor, sheriffs, and aldermen, going 
 to Smithfield in a procession, opened the fair with a solemn 
 proclamation ; and after they had drunk a cup of ale, the sports 
 and business commenced. 
 
 The license of the Eestoration extended the fair from a three 
 days' market to a fortnight's riot of amusement. 
 
 In 1697 the lord mayor on St. Bartholomew's Day published 
 an ordinance recorded in the Fostman "for the suppression of 
 vicious practices in Bartholomew Fair, as obscene, lascivious, and 
 scandalous plays, comedies, and farces, unlawful games and inter- 
 ludes, drunkenness, etc., strictly charging all constables and other 
 officers to use their utmost diligence in persecuting the same." 
 In 1698 a Frenchman, Monsieur Sorbiere, visiting London, says, 
 'f I was at Bartholomew Fair. It consists mostly of toy-shops, 
 atso fiacres and pictures, ribbon-shops, no books ; many shops of 
 confectioners, where any woman may be commodiously treated. 
 Knavery is here in perfection, dexterous cutpurses and pick- 
 pockets. I went to see the dancing on the ropes, which was 
 admirable. Coming out, I met a man that would have took off 
 my hat, but I secured it, and was going to draw my sword, crying 
 out, ' Begar ! damn'd rogue ! morbleu !' etc., when on a sudden 1 
 had a hundred people about me, crying, ' Here, monsieur, see 
 JejphthaKs Rash Vow f 'Here, monsieur, see The Tall Butch- 
 woman ;' ' See The Tiger '^ says another ; ' See The Horse and No 
 Horse^ whose tail stands where his head should do;' 'See' the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 415 
 
 German Artist^ monsieur;' 'See The Siege of Wamur, monsieur;' 
 so that betwixt rudeness and civility I was forced to get into a 
 fiacre, and, with an air of haste and a full trot, got home to my 
 lodgings." 
 
 In 1701 Bartholomew Fair was presented as a nuisance by the 
 Grand Jury of London, and in 1750 it was reduced to its original 
 three days. In consequence of the alteration of the calendar in 
 1752, the fair in the following year was, for the first time, pro- 
 claimed on September 3. 
 
 A few years later things had come to this, that " by every 
 thief living in London Bartholomew Fair was regarded as an 
 annual performance for his benefit." Decency could hardly 
 venture there ; and the deterioration of the shows is proved by 
 the factJhat nearly all of them charged but a penny for admis- 
 sion. (^At the beginning of the nineteenth century a favorite 
 amusement of the assembled blackguards was to surround some 
 respectable woman and tear her clothes off her back. 
 
 In 1849 Bartholomew Fair contained only a dozen gingerbread- 
 stalls. In 1850 the lord mayor, quietly walking to Smithfield, 
 proclaimed the fair for the last time. In 1855 the form of 
 proclamation, done for the last five times by deputy, ceased to be 
 observed. The single relic of the great fair is an annual fee of 
 three shillings and sixpence paid by the city to the rector of St. 
 Bartholomew the Great. And thus passed away an observance 
 which had its day, and which served its end, and which died out 
 naturally when its day was over. 
 
 In the earlier days all the great fairs were almost identical in 
 their main features. Yet in course of time as the fairs lost their 
 usefulness they developed picturesque idiosyncrasies. Edmonton 
 Statute Fair, for example, became the most profoundly useless 
 of them all. It was a combination of three fairs in one, all 
 " unmixed," says Mr. E. H. Home, " with the sale of pigs, cattle, 
 or ' baser matter ;' nothing of the least utility or permanent 
 value was to be found there, everything being of the most 
 ostentatious gorgeous finery, gilt and painted trumpery, and 
 grotesque absurdity." Of course he is speaking of the fair as it 
 appeared in his own boyhood. Of Greenwich Fair the same 
 authority reports that it had many striking peculiarities, besides 
 the usual number of large shows. First there was the noble old 
 hospital and the frequent presence of old pensioners in their 
 quaint old-fashioned sombre uniform of navy blue, with the 
 three-cornered cocked hat, knee-breeches, and square-toed shoes 
 with huge plated buckles. The other great feature was the 
 " Crown and Anchor" booth, which, varying its size at different 
 fairs, invariably put forth its utmost magnitude and its fullest 
 splendors for Greenwich Fair. 
 
416 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 " The Crown and Anchor booth was so long that a full band 
 played for dances at the top, by the bar, another at the bottom 
 of the booth, and a third in the centre ; and though they often 
 played different dances, different airs to suit, and in different 
 keys, you could only hear the music of your own dance, the pre- 
 dominant accompaniment to each being the measured muffled 
 thunders of the boots of the fair-going Londoners. At these 
 high moments it may be supposed that the fun was too fast and 
 furious for the gentler beings of creation, — of course with some 
 rather conspicuous exceptions." The last great specialty was 
 the roll down Greenwich Hill. " Many persons at home as well 
 as abroad have never seen that celebrated hill, never rolled down 
 it, and some, perhaps, may not even have heard of it. But a 
 word or two will suffice to make them in some degree aware of 
 the pleasure they have lost. A number of fair-going young 
 people of both sexes — but most commonly lovers or brothers and 
 sisters — seated themselves on the top of thi-s steep and beauti- 
 fully green hill, and, beginning to roll down slowly, they pres- 
 
 £/te» PciiWuifr 
 
 
 jUm UTtMitf *t C»ftt 
 
 Frost Fair of 1683. 
 (From a contemporary print.) 
 
 ently found that the rolling became quicker and quicker, — that 
 they had no power to govern their rapidity, still less to stop ; 
 and they invariably rolled to the bottom. It didn't agree with 
 everybody." 
 
 Peterborough Market Fair was celebrated for only one pecu- 
 liarity, its immense quantities of woodwork for farming opera- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 417 
 
 tions. There you might see piles on piles of axe-, hoe-, fork-, 
 rake-, and sj)ade-handles ; also handles for smiths' and carpenters' 
 hammers ; also tires and spokes for cart-wheels, window-frames, 
 wheelbarrows, and dense arrays of field-gates, hurdles, and fences. 
 
 The London frost fairs which resulted from the occasional 
 freezing over of the river Thames had a character and individu- 
 ality of their own. One of the most remarkable of these was 
 that held in the winter of 1683-4, when the frost lasted without 
 a moment's cessation from early in December to February 4. 
 The Thames was congealed into a solid mass of ice, eleven inches 
 in thickness. A new city sprang into existence on the river. A 
 contemporaneous print has the following legend : 
 
 "A WONDEEFUL FAIE, or a FAIE OF WONDEES; 
 being a new and true Illustration and Description of the several 
 things acted and done on the river Thames in the time of the 
 terrible frost, which began at the beginning of December, 
 1683-4, and continued till the 4th of February, and held on with 
 such violence that men and beasts, coaches and sledges, went 
 common thereon. There was also a street of boothes, built from 
 the Temple to South-wark, where was sold all sorts of goods ; 
 there likewise were bulls baited, a fox hunted, and an ox roasted 
 whole, and many other strange things, as the Mapp and Descrip- 
 tion doth plainly shew." 
 
 This fair was known as the Blanket Fair, from the fact that 
 the booths were formed of blankets, a fact celebrated in a dog- 
 gerel ballad of the day which anticipates a famous conceit of 
 Goldsmith's : 
 
 Like Babel, this fair's not built with brick or stone, 
 Though here, I believe, is a great confusion. 
 Now blankets are forced a double duty to pay, 
 As beds all the night, and for houses all day. 
 
 The booths supplied every conceivable kind of commodity, 
 Buch as goldsmiths' work, books, toys, cutlery, ornaments, and 
 refreshments, for which they charged exorbitant prices, a fact 
 the rhyming historians of the scene have not failed duly to 
 chronicle : 
 
 And such a fair I never yet came near, 
 
 "Where shop-rents were so cheap and goods so dear. 
 
 Llandaff has the greatest fair in Wales. Tradition dates its 
 origin back to the first century of the Christian era. At the 
 most prosperous period of its career it was prolonged for many 
 days. Monks and laymen flocked to it from many miles around. 
 Llandaff churchyard was one scene of buying and selling, in 
 tents and booths. Nowadays booths are not set up in the 
 
 27 
 
418 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 churchyard, but they occupy the streets of the decayed cathe- 
 dral city, even to the very walls of the bishop's palace. This 
 fair legally commences on Whit Monday, which is the greatest 
 of Welsh feasts, and lasts until Wednesday. But in point of fact 
 the revels commence with Whitsunday. 
 
 No cries of hawkers rend the air, but a thriving trade is done 
 in oranges, nuts, and gingerbread, all the same. Keepers of 
 shows surreptitiously take pence and pass people quietly into 
 their tents to see the African serpents, the wax-works, and the 
 rest. As the hours pass, matters grow worse. After dusk, the 
 beer begins to flow, and with the falling darkness the license 
 becomes greater. At midnight there are uncountable crowds 
 on the scene. The following morning the fair ostensibly begins ; 
 before noon it is roaring with bustle ; Punch and Judy squeak ; 
 hawkers howl ; exhibitors of curiosities bawl at the highest 
 pitch of their voices. There are curiosities enough here, — fat 
 women, living skeletons, wax-works, pygmies, giants, performing 
 dogs and monkeys, an endless array of idle and profitless diver- 
 sions. Merry go-rounds whirl their laughing, shrieking freight 
 through the air, — " warranted to make you sea-sick for a penny." 
 Shooting-galleries, and even perambulating photograph-galleries, 
 are there. 
 
 The pre-eminently great fair in Ireland was that held at Don- 
 nybrook, a village a few miles outside of Dublin. The familiar 
 song which makes the " shillelah"' the all-in-all of the fair belongs 
 to a traditionary period. " A few fights and broken heads," says 
 Mr, Home, " inseparable from all English as well as Irish fairs, 
 of course always took place, but the crowd was too dense to 
 allow of much damage being done. There was not only no 
 room for ' science,' but no room to strike a blow of a real kind 
 from the shoulder and ' using the toes.' We saw no blood 
 flow." 
 
 The fair, as to its great shows and booths, was held in a large 
 hollow or basin of green ground, on descending into which you 
 found the immediate skirtings occupied by a set of very little, 
 very low-roofed, tomb-like booths, where a busy trade was car- 
 ried on in fried potatoes, fried sausages, and oysters, cold and 
 scalloped. But what amused Mr. Home most were the scenes 
 in the village itself. 
 
 " The houses were all very small, the largest generally rising 
 no higher than one floor above the ground-floor rooms, and every 
 house being entirely appropriated to the use of the fair-coming 
 people. The rooms below were devoted to whiskey-drinking, 
 songs, jokes, politeness, and courtship, with a jig in the middle ; 
 and very much the same, but with more elaborate and constant 
 dancing, in the rooms above. Every house presented the same 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 419 
 
 scene, — yes, every house along the whole village : and when you 
 came to the narrower streets the effect was peculiar and ludi- 
 crous in the extreme. For, observe, the rooms being all crowded 
 to the last man and woman and child they could hold, and the 
 * dancing,' especially above-stairs, being an absolute condition, 
 there was no room left for the fiddler. We say there was no 
 room left for him, and yet he must be among them. There was 
 room for him as a man, be it understood, but not as a fiddler. His 
 elbow required space enough for another man, and this could not 
 be afforded. The problem, therefore, was solved by opening the 
 window up-stairs : the fiddler sat out upon the window-sill, and 
 his elbow worked outside. The effect of this ' elbow' playing 
 outside the window of every upper floor, sometimes out of both 
 upper and ground floor, of every house in a whole street, and 
 on both sides of the way, and playing a similar kind of jig, sur- 
 passed anything of that kind of humor in action it had ever 
 been my fortune to witness. If that is not merry fun, show 
 me what is ! The elbows all played so true a time that, if you 
 had not heard a note, you would have known that it was an 
 Irish jig by the motion of all these jaunty and ' knowing' elbows ! 
 '' A last word on Donnybrook shall be devoted to one more 
 custom, characteristic of the kindliness as well as the humor of 
 the nation, which was manifested in a way never seen elsewhere. 
 Once every hour or so a large, close-covered police van was 
 driven through the fair to pick up all the very drunken men 
 who were rolling about, unable to govern their emotions. They 
 were at once lifted into the van, and here many of them again 
 found their legs, and you heard the muffled singing and dull 
 thunder of their dancing inside as the philanthropic van passed 
 along." 
 
 Fairlop Oak Festival. The Fairlop oak stood in Epping 
 Forest, Essex. Its branches spread three hundred feet, and its 
 girth, at three feet from the ground, was thirty-six feet. Tradi- 
 tion traced this oak back to the ninth century. It was acci- 
 dentally set on fire in 1805. A part of it was used in the manu- 
 facture of St. Pancras New Church in London. The rest of the 
 tree stood for many years, all trunk and bare dry boughs. Not 
 a leaf had ever been seen by the oldest inhabitant. It stood 
 there a colossal skeleton, a monument of itself, by the sheer 
 strength of its bulk, and was pulled down at last by teams of 
 oxen and long ropes, lest some fair-day a huge limb or so might 
 fall and crush several theatres, menageries, peep-shows, and holi- 
 day people. Myriads of snuff-boxes, tobacco-boxes, and fancy 
 boxes were made of the wood, — or said to have been made of 
 the wood, — and are sold as such to this day every fair-day. 
 
420 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 For the fair still coDtinues in the Deighborhood, though the 
 oak around which it once centred has disappeared. The fair 
 owes its origin to one Daniel Day Good, familiarly known as 
 Good Day, a London block- and pump-maker of the early 
 eighteenth century, who purchased a small estate near Epping 
 Forest. Thither he was in the habit of repairing shortly after 
 midsummer to collect the rent. But he did not go alone. He 
 invited his London acquaintances to take an outing with him. 
 The immense tree hard by his own estate was a grand trysting- 
 place, and here the little company would assemble in July. 
 Visitors came in increasing numbers with the rolling years. 
 Public curiosity was excited by the flocking people, as well as 
 by the account of Nature's marvellous production. So long ago 
 as the year 1725 the spot presented the appearance of a regular 
 fair with the customary booths and wares and amusements. The 
 founder of the festival himself provided a large quantity of 
 bacon, with several sacks of beans, which he distributed from 
 the trunk of the tree. Boats began running to the place on 
 Fairlop Festival Day. During the years of the slow decay of 
 the great oak, when the trunk below became hollow, the cavity 
 was cleared, smoothed, papered, hung with pea-green drapery, 
 and furnished with a circular table and a circular bench, where 
 ten or a dozen happy fair-going people sat round to dinner, and 
 sometimes to pipes and grog. 
 
 Fairlop Day is still observed for a procession and an annual 
 outing on the Fairlop boat. The return journey, when the boat 
 is brilliantly illuminated, is so timed that the procession arrives 
 in Mile End Eoad late in the evening, where the toiling masses 
 join in with lighted torches. 
 
 Fakirs. Self-torturing Buddhist fanatics, the greater por- 
 tion of whom perambulate the country as solitary mendicants. 
 Monks and saints of Christendom have otten subjected the body 
 to grievous penance, secluding themselves from the happy com- 
 munion of their fellows, fasting oft, and daily kneeling on the 
 rocky floor of their cells before a crucifix, while they lacerated 
 their backs with stripes. But all such triumphs over the in- 
 stincts of our nature fade out of sight before the tremendous 
 self-imposed tortures to be witnessed among the Indian popula- 
 tion. Asceticism there counts its votaries by thousands. Some 
 of these strange beings keep one or both arms extended above 
 their heads till the muscles become so rigid and fixed as to be 
 incapable of motion ; some keep their hands closed till the nails 
 make their way through the flesh and completely perforate the 
 hand ; others hold up their faces to the sky till the muscles of 
 the neck contract so as to retain the head in that position. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 421 
 
 These faDatics usually belong to the Saiva sect; they mat or 
 twist their hair so as to make it rise above the head, and go 
 about either in a state of nudity or with only a small wrapper 
 stained with ochre. The extraordinary feats of these fanatics 
 are fully described by the Eev. P. Percival in his " Land of the 
 Yedas" from personal observation. " Some were literally in- 
 terred," he says, "in an^ordinary posture; others were buried 
 with the head downward, and only the legs from the knees 
 above ground ; one sat on an iron frame in which were fixed 
 iron spikes which pierced his flesh; some had a pan of burning 
 coals on the head, and bore it along in the crowd ; while others 
 lay prostrate on their backs, with a vessel full of burning embers 
 on the breast, and one was performing the penance of the Five 
 Fires, being seated in the midst of four, with the fifth, the burn- 
 ing sun, pouring its rays on his naked head. One man had an 
 iron collar round his neck on whose margin were planted iron 
 spikes." Sometimes a devotee, stretching himself on the ground 
 on his back, places a handful of moist earth on his under lip, 
 plants in it some grains of mustard-seed, and then, lying per- 
 fectly motionless, without food or drink, exposes himself to the 
 heat of day and dews of night till the seed germinates, which is 
 generally about the fourth day. The Hindoo of a fanatical tem- 
 perament takes to such practices from a native instinct ; he trains 
 himself to them with as much satisfaction as our pugilists and 
 athletes feel in practising their various forms of gymnastics, 
 and the crowds at the festivals look at these exhibitions of the 
 triumph of soul over flesh as hilariously and complacently as an 
 Anglo-Saxon assembly witnesses the feats of the circus. 
 
 Fast- Days. Strictly speaking, fasting means total absti- 
 nence from food and drink for a given period. The fasts of 
 Mohammedans and orthodox Jews are of this character. In the 
 Catholic and Greek Churches, however, one full meal is permitted 
 within the twenty-four hours, and Catholics are now allowed a 
 very light collation morning and evening. Flesh meat is strictly 
 forbidden. Days of abstinence (such as Friday throughout the 
 year) are distinguished from fast-days by the fact that abstinence 
 from flesh meat is the only requirement. 
 
 Though the English Prayer Book notes " days of fasting or 
 abstinence," there are no limitations prescribed as to eating or 
 drinking, the matter being left to the individual conscience. In 
 the reign of Elizabeth, however, eating of flesh on fish-days (i.e., 
 Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays) was forbidden by statute. 
 Public fast-days used to be appointed by the sovereign. 
 
 On the 19th of October, 1803, during the invasion scare pro- 
 duced by Napoleon's threat to cross over to England, the religious 
 
422 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 panacea of a general fast was tried and " was observed with the 
 utmost decorum" in London and elsewhere. The Volunteers 
 especially won the gratifying encomiums of the Times for their 
 goodness in going to church. Thereafter annual fasts were of 
 regular occurrence, though at irregular dates. The 25th of May 
 was appointed in 1804, the 20th of February in 1805, the 26th 
 of February in 1806, etc. From a contemporary account of the 
 1804 fast it would appear that the people generally were accus- 
 toming themselves to proper behavior on these occasions: "Yes- 
 terday, being the day appointed for the observance of a solemn 
 Fast, was duly observed in the Metropolis, at least as far as out- 
 ward show and decorum can go. Every shop was shut ; for 
 those who on similar occasions kept their windows open have 
 probably learned that to offend against public example and 
 decency is not the way to insure either favor or credit. Most 
 of the Volunteer Corps attended at their several churches, where 
 sermons suitable to the day were preached." But it is obvious 
 that different people have different views of national fasting and 
 chastening, for it is recorded of the 1805 fast, after the customary 
 tribute to the church -going Volunteers, that " a very elegant and 
 fashionable display of equestrians and charioteers graced the 
 public ride about three o'clock. The Countesses of Cholmondeley 
 and Harcourt were noticed for the first time this season, each of 
 whom sported a very elegant landau. Mr. Buxton sported his 
 four bays in his new phaeton, in a great style, and Mr. Chartres 
 his fine set of blacks." 
 
 In the ]N'ew England States days of "public humiliation, fast- 
 ing, and prayer" were proclaimed by the respective governors 
 usually about the middle of April. Massachusetts abolished the 
 custom in 1895, and substituted a holiday known as Patriot's 
 Day, on April 19. Maine and New Hampshire still have their 
 periodical Fast-Day. But the spirit has gone out of it. In- 
 stead of being observed as a day of fasting, it is a day of gen- 
 eral feasting. In 1897 Governor Ramsdell of IN'ew Hampshire 
 urged the law-makers of that State to ibllow the example of 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 " The observance of Fast-Day," he said in his message, " in 
 accordance with the design of the worthy men by whose efforts 
 a day was originally set apart for special fasting, humiliation, 
 and prayer, by the Governor, with assent of the Council, having 
 ceased, I recommend that Fast-Day be abolished as a legal holi- 
 day, and the words ' Fast-Day' be stricken out of the statutes 
 wherever they occur, and any other amendments made necessary 
 to the practical abolition of Fast-Day." 
 
 In Maine the custom is likewise generally disapproved. There 
 is a story current that one April the governor, in the absence of 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 423 
 
 his secretary, intrusted the drawing up of a Fast-Day proclama- 
 tion to his messenger. The latter, being a bit of a wag, instead 
 of penning a stately and pious document, wrote out the follow- 
 ing; 
 
 'LHaving consulted my Council and learned that none of them 
 has an engagement to dine on that day, and feeling fully assured 
 that I shall receive no invitation to dine out until the high school 
 graduating exercises begin and field strawberries get down to 
 eight cents a quart, I do hereby appoint Thursday, the 17th day 
 of April, as a day of public humiliation, fasting, and prayer. 
 While the scoffers in our sister State are holding horse-races, 
 playing baseball, and gorging themselves with forbidden food, 
 let us thank our stars that we know when we have enough, and 
 feel grateful for the empty stomachs and clear heads we shall 
 have the morning after. Though I am unable to say what the 
 Council will do on that day, for myself I shall attend church if 
 I can find a minister who will stay long enough to preach to me. 
 Given in the Council chamber," etc. 
 
 The messenger, having made a rough draught, copied it on a 
 new sheet in an engrossing clerk's handwriting, and took it to 
 the governor, who signed it without reading a line. From here 
 the messenger carried the proclamation down to the secretary 
 of state, who tried to affix his signature, but could not do so on 
 account of a bad pen. While he waited for a clerk to bring him 
 a box of new pens he cast his eyes down the sheet, discovered 
 the unusual phraseology, and read the document from beginning 
 to end. Then he gave the messenger a piece of his mind, telling 
 him it was bad enough to make light of Fast-Day, but when he 
 began to trifie with the feelings of the chief magistrate, who 
 was also commander-in-chief of the army, no State could endure 
 such an outrage. The messenger argued that it was nothing but 
 an April joke, and the bigger the man it hit the better the joke 
 was. This remark led the secretary to look at his calendar, and 
 when he found it was April 1 he forgave the messenger, who 
 retained his job through the administration. 
 
 February. (From Lat. februare, to " expiate" or " purify," 
 because the Eoman festival of purification was celebrated in this 
 month.) The month was introduced by Nuraa into the Eoman 
 calendar as the closing month of the year, but in b.c. 452 the 
 decemvirs changed it from this position and placed it after Jan- 
 uary as the second month. When Julius Caesar reformed the 
 calendar (q. v.) he ordered that each alternate month from 
 January on should have thirty-one days, and the intermediate 
 months thirty, with the exception of February, which was given 
 thirty days in leap-year and twenty-nine in the other years. But 
 
424 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Augustus, unwilling that the month named after him should be 
 shorter than its predecessor, took a day from February and added 
 it to August, and, in order that three months of thirty-one 
 
 February. Pruning Trees. 
 
 days should not come together, he reversed the lengths of the 
 four succeeding months. 
 
 The ancient Saxons called this month Sprout-kale, from the 
 sprouting of the cabbage at this season. Later it was known as 
 Solmonat, or Sun Month, the sun having now returned from the 
 low latitudes to its higher course. 
 
 Felicitas, St., patroness of male heirs. Her festival is cele- 
 brated on November 23, that of her sons on July 10. According 
 to the legend, St. Felicitas was a widow belonging to an illus- 
 trious Eoman family. She had brought up her seven sons in 
 the Christian faith, and was herself so eminent for her virtues 
 that many were converted through her example. This was in 
 the reign of the emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus; though 
 other authorities state that it was under Antoninus Pius. When 
 the great persecution of the Christians took place she was one 
 of the first to be cited before the tribunal of the prefect Publius. 
 But she steadily refused to deny Christ and sacrifice to false 
 gods. Then the prefect called the sons before him and com- 
 manded them to abjure Christ on pain of torments and of death, 
 but their mother encouraged them to persevere in resistance. One 
 after another they were put to death, on July 10, 173. Janua- 
 rius, the eldest, was scourged with leaded thongs ; Felix and 
 Philip were beaten with clubs; Sylvanus was thrown from a 
 rock; Alexander, Yitalis, and Martial were beheaded. The name 
 of Juvenal is in some legends substituted for one or other of 
 the sons. During their sufferings the mother stood heroically 
 by and ceased not to comfort and encourage them ; and when 
 they were dead she thanked God that she had given birth to 
 sons who had been deemed worthy of paradise. Four months 
 later she was tortured in various ways, and then beheaded, or, 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 425 
 
 as some say, thrown into a caldron of boiling oil. In art she is 
 represented hooded or veiled as a widow, bearing the martyr's 
 palm, and accompanied by her seven sons. St. Felicitas is fre- 
 quently confounded with St. Symphorosa (q. v.), and it is not 
 improbable that her legend was merely a Christian recrudes- 
 cence of the Jewish story. 
 
 Mother and sons have each left behind a bewildering number 
 of bodies. Pope Benedict IX. gave the bodies of three of the 
 latter saints, Philip, Juvenal, and Felix, to the Bishop of Pader- 
 born. The body of a fourth, Alexander, was translated by Wal- 
 bert, son of Witikind, to Wildeshusen, in Westphalia. In the 
 Middle Ages the body of St. Felicitas was among the relics pos- 
 sessed by the church of Minden. So far, so good. But all seven 
 of the bodies of the sons are shown in the church of St. Stephen 
 at Bologna, and the full complement of eight bodies, mother and 
 sons, is preserved in Bavaria, in the monastery of Ottobeuren, 
 whither they were translated in the ninth century, and in Italy 
 both in the cathedral of Montefiascone and the church of St. 
 John at Pavia. 
 
 According to Saussaye, the bones of all eight were likewise 
 translated to Sens, in France. Their loss at the French Eevo- 
 lution would have been greatly to be deplored had not all of 
 these holy people left so many replicas of their bodies scattered 
 among the churches of Christendom. 
 
 Ferragosto, a relic of the ancient Augustan games which 
 still survives locally in Tuscany and the Eoman provinces. It 
 is celebrated on the 1st of August with rustic games and dances, 
 the master of ceremonies being a mummer known for the nonce 
 as Ferragosto, crowned with a cap of gilt paper and bearing a 
 bed-quilt by way of mantle, who personifies the festival. This 
 figure reappears on other rural fetes, such as May 1 {Calendi 
 Maggio), Mid-Lent {Mezza Quaresima), and the Epiphany. He 
 is usually called upon to recount the marvellous history of him- 
 self and of his brother and sister holidays. 
 
 Festspiel of Rothenburg. An annual festival celebrated in 
 Eothenburg in honor of the liberation of the town after its cap- 
 ture by Tilly during the Thirty Years' War. 
 
 At that time, and indeed until 1803, Eothenburg was a free 
 city. It took an active part in the Peasants' War of 1525, and 
 in the Thirty Years' War of the following century. It was in 
 the course of the latter, in 1631, that the celebrated Tilly ap- 
 peared before Eothenburg and demanded its capitulation. This 
 the citizens refused, with the result that the gallant little town 
 was besieged and taken. Tilly and his generals proceeded to 
 
426 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 the Eathhaus, and demanded the municipal keys of the burgo- 
 master. At the same time Tilly imposed a fine of thirty thousand 
 thalers, and garrisoned the town with his soldiers. 
 
 vThe burgomaster pleaded in vain for some mitigation of the pen- 
 alty, until the victorious general, after remaining for some time 
 unmoved by his entreaties, conceived the extraordinary idea 
 of offering to restore the freedom of the town on condition that 
 one of the inhabitants should come forward and empty at one 
 draught an immense beaker of wine, containing about three and 
 a half litres (over three quarts). This was an unheard-of feat 
 even in those hard-drinking days, and for some time his offer 
 remained unaccepted. The opportunity of freeing the town 
 from a foreign yoke seemed, however, too important to be lost, 
 and accordingly a patriotic citizen named Nusch resolved to 
 attempt the difficult task imposed by the conqueror. As a 
 matter of fact, he drained the beaker at one draught, and, al- 
 though tradition relates that a severe illness followed the feat, 
 still he saved the town, for Tilly kept his word, and restored 
 the independence of Eothenburg. 
 
 Fierucolone. A festival which until recent years took place 
 in Florence on the 7th of September, the day before the Nativity 
 of the Virgin, when the female peasants of Casentino and the 
 mountains of Pistoja came to offer up their prayers before the 
 miraculous image of the Madonna dell' Annunziata. " During 
 this festival, the streets of Florence, and especially those near 
 L' Annunziata, present the appearance of a city given up to fire 
 and plunder. Crowds of boys run about shaking their blazing 
 fierucolone, which are torches of oiled paper fixed at the end of 
 long reeds. These noisy urchins pursue each other with sticks, 
 and the streets resound with shrill whistles and the clangor of 
 pieces of old metal, accompanied by the discordant shouts and 
 bowlings of the populace. There is in this strange festivity 
 a remarkable affinity with the game of torches celebrated in 
 ancient days at Athens. The players ran about the city with 
 torches, which they transferred to each other, without pausing 
 in their career ; and those who ceased to run, or whose torches 
 were extinguished, were hooted at and even beaten by the pop- 
 ulace. Lucretius drew from this game a simile which he applied 
 to the course of human life and the rapid extinction of successive 
 generations : 
 
 Et quasi cursores, vitse lampada tradunt." 
 
 {Blackwood's Magazine^ July, 1829, p. 59.) 
 
 Fillan, St. A popular Scotch saint, said to have been an 
 abbot of Pittenweem, Fife, in the seventh century. He retired 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 427 
 
 to lead a hermit life in the wilds of Glenmorchie, Perthshire, 
 where, when the oil ran dry and his lamp failed him, he could 
 extract sufficient light from his left hand to guide his right in 
 setting down the substance of his pious meditations. His fes- 
 tival occurs on the reputed anniversary of his death, January 9 
 (649). 
 
 His name is still attached to the ruins of a chapel, a bed of 
 rock, and a holy pool or well, at a place called in honor of the 
 saint Strathfillan. The waters of St. Fillan's Well had peculiar 
 efficacy in cases of insanity. The manner in which patients 
 were treated is thus described by the minister of the parish in 
 1843: 
 
 " The ceremony was performed, after sunset, on the first day 
 of the quarter, O. S., and before sunrise next morning. The 
 dipped persons were instructed to take three stones from the 
 bottom of the pool, and, walking three times round each of three 
 cairns on the bank, throw a stone into each. They were next 
 conveyed to the ruins of St. Fillan's Chapel, and in a corner 
 called St. Fillan's Bed they were laid on their back, and left tied 
 all night. If the next morning they were found loose, the cure 
 was deemed perfect, and thanks returned to the saint. 
 
 " The pool is still visited, not by parishioners, for they have no 
 faith in its virtue, but by people from other and distant locaHties. 
 We have not heard of any being cured; but the prospects of the 
 ceremony, especially in a cold winter evening, might be a good 
 test for persons pretending insanity." (JVew Statistical Account 
 of Scotland, vol. x. p. 1088.) 
 
 Another well of St. Fillan is in the county of Eenfrew, which 
 issues from a rock near the church of Houston and Eillolan. 
 
 This spring spurted originally, according to tradition, from the 
 top of a hill, but removed itself to the base of the rock about a 
 quarter of a mile farther south. The minister of the parish 
 says, towards the end of last century, — 
 
 " It is still visited by valetudinary people, especially on the 1st 
 of May and 1st of August. No fewer than seventy persons 
 visited it in May and August, 1791. The invahds, whether men, 
 women, or children, walk or are carried round the well three 
 times in a direction deisul (q. v.), that is, from east to west, ac- 
 cording to the course of the sun. They all drink of the water, 
 and bathe in it. These operations are accounted a certain rem- 
 edy for various diseases. . . . All the invalids throw a white 
 stone on the saint's cairn, and leave behind, as tokens of their 
 confidence and gratitude, some rags of linen or woollen cloth. 
 The rock on the summit of the hill formed of itself a chair for 
 the saint, which still remains. Those who complain of rheuma- 
 tism in the back must ascend the hill, sit in the chair, then lie 
 
428 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 down on their back and be pulled by the legs to the bottom of 
 the hill. This operation is still performed, and reckoned very 
 efficacious." {Old Statistical Account of Scotland^ vol. xi. p. 181.) 
 
 Shortly after this account was written the well was filled up 
 with stones, to put an end to the superstition. 
 
 One of the most interesting of ancient relics, the Quigrich or 
 crosier of St. Fillan, came to light in 1782 in an accidental man- 
 ner. An Englishman travelling in the Highlands in that year 
 was asked at Killin, on the borders of Loch Tay, if he would 
 like to see the Quigrich, — a relic much respected in those parts. 
 He was taken to a poor cottage, where, to his amazement, he was 
 shown the crook of a crosier made of silver, richly chased with 
 delicate cuttings, and jewelled. Besides its interest as an ancient 
 relic, the article was intrinsically valuable, for it weighed some 
 seven or eight pounds. No less remarkable than the discovery 
 of so valuable a piece of plate in a poor Highland cottage was 
 the history connected with its possession. It was in the hands 
 of a descendant of the house of Dowe, the hereditary keepers 
 of the relic, who in their poverty had not deserted their charge. 
 In the fifteenth century a solemn inquisition was held to decide 
 where the privilege of the custody of the relic was vested. A 
 royal letter of the same century by James III. confirms it to 
 the family of Dowe ; and so lately as the year 1734 we find this 
 letter produced and recorded in the public register like a title to 
 landed property. Though the house of Dowe were enabled to 
 keep their trust, it was not their good fortune to retain their 
 country. The poor cottager emigrated, and took the crosier 
 with him, and now, if it still exists, it is somewhere in Canada. 
 
 The conditions under which it was said to have fallen into the 
 hands of its hereditary custodiers were indeed sufficient to inspire 
 them with a proud tenacity. It was connected with the most 
 glorious event in the national history. King Robert the Bruce 
 desired that the relics of St. Fillan should be borne before him 
 in the field of Bannockburn. Accordingly, the shrine in which 
 they were usually contained was placed in the king's tent. "As 
 he was making his prayers', the case suddenly opened and clapped 
 to again. The king's chaplain, being present, astonished there- 
 with, went to the altar where the case stood, and, finding the arm 
 within it, he cried to the king and others that were present, how 
 there was a great miracle wrought, confessing that he brought 
 the empty case to the field, if anything chanced to the army 
 otherwise than well. The king, very joyful of this miracle, 
 passed the remnant of the night in prayer and thanksgiving.' 
 Thus speaks Hector Boece ; and the family of Dowe asserted 
 that their ancestor had been appointed custodier of the relics on 
 the field of battle in place of the faithless priest. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 429 
 
 The ancient bell of the chapel believed to have been St. Fillan's 
 bell continued till the beginning of the nineteenth century to lie 
 loose on a grave-stone in the churchyard, ready to be used, as 
 it occasionally was, in the ceremonial for the cure of lunatics. 
 Popular belief asserted that it was useless to attempt to carry it 
 away, as it would always return. A curious and covetous Eng- 
 lish tourist put this belief to the test, and the bell has never 
 since been heard from. 
 
 Filomena, Filumina, or Philomena, St. A supposititious 
 virgin martyr who has achieved great popularity in Naples, 
 Florence, Yenice, and even Paris, where her festival is celebrated 
 on August 10. The legend upon which her saintship is based 
 is a modern and very curious one. In the year 1802 a tomb 
 containing the skeleton of a young female and the mutilated in- 
 scription •' — lumina pax te cum fi — " was discovered in the cata- 
 comb of Priscilla at Eome. It was transferred to the Lateran. 
 A priest in the train of a Neapolitan prelate despatched to con- 
 gratulate Pius YII. on his return from Paris begged for some 
 relics. The newlj' discovered treasure was given to him, the 
 inscription being filled up and translated as " Saint Philumena, 
 peace be with you." 
 
 " Another priest," says Mrs. Jameson, in her " Sacred and 
 Legendary Art" (s. v.), " whose name is suppressed because of his 
 great humility, was favored by a vision in the broad noonday, in 
 which he beheld the glorious virgin Filomena, who was pleased 
 to reveal to him that she had suffered death for preferring the 
 Christian faith, and her vow of chastity, to the addresses of the 
 Emperor, who wished to make her his wife. This vision leaving 
 much of her history obscure, a certain young artist, whose name 
 is also suppressed, — perhaps because of his great humility, — was 
 informed in a vision that the Emperor alluded to was Diocletian ; 
 and at the same time the torments and persecutions suffered by 
 the Christian virgin Filomena, as well as her wonderful con- 
 stancy, were also revealed to him. There were some difficulties 
 in the way of the Emperor Diocletian, which inclines the writer 
 of the historical account to adopt the opinion that the young 
 artist in his vision may have made a mistake, and that the 
 Emperor may have been his colleague, Maximian. The facts, 
 however, now admitted of no doubt ; and the relics were carried 
 by the priest Francesco da Lucia to Naples ; they were enclosed 
 in a case of wood resembling in form the human body. This 
 figure was habited in a petticoat of white satin, and over it a 
 crimson tunic, after the Greek fashion ; the face was painted to 
 represent nature ; a garland of flowers was placed on the head, 
 and in the hands a lily and a javelin with the point reversed, to 
 
430 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 express her purity and her martyrdom ; then she was laid in a 
 half-sitting posture in a sarcophagus, of which the sides were 
 glass ; and after lying for some time in state, in the chapel of 
 the Torres family in the church of Saint Angiolo, she was car- 
 ried in procession to Magnano, a little town about twenty miles 
 from Naples, amid the acclamations of the people, working 
 many and surprising miracles by the way. Such is the legend 
 of St. Filomena, and such the authority on which she has become 
 one of the most fashionable saints in Italy. Jewels to the value 
 of many thousand crowns have been offered at her shrine, and 
 solemnly placed round the neck of her image, or suspended to 
 her girdle." 
 
 The cult of St. Filomena received a great impetus from the 
 famous Jean Marie Baptiste Yianney (1786-1859), the cure of 
 Ars, in France, who seems to have taken her as a symbol of the 
 ideal woman. The good cure established her worship at Ars 
 with great enthusiasm, and was persuaded that she did great 
 things for him and for everybody whom he recommended to her. 
 One of the most frequent miracles which he wrought through 
 her intercession was a repetition of the miracle of the loaves 
 and fishes, with the fishes left out. He would turn a small quan- 
 tity of meal into an enormous number of loaves. A fine church 
 dedicated to St. Philomena in Ars preserves the memory alike of 
 the saint and of her saintly worshipper. 
 
 First-Born, Ransom of the. Among the Jews the first-born 
 son in every family was solemnly consecrated to the Supreme 
 Eeing who had spared the Jews while he destroyed the first-born 
 of the Egyptians. Hence a priest or descendant of Aaron visited 
 the household on the thirtieth day after the birth, and, seizing 
 the child, made a feint of carrying it off; but it was invariably 
 ransomed by the father for such sum as seemed adequate to his 
 means. In case the father, however, died before the thirtieth 
 day, the widow was not obhged to pay the ransom. She merely 
 hung around the infant's neck a little plate of silver on which 
 were engraved words indicating that he had not been ransomed 
 and that he belonged to the great Sacrificator. He was obliged 
 to ransom himself when he came of age. 
 
 First- Foot. In the folk-lore of Great Britain, the first person 
 who steps across the threshold on Christmas or New Year, also 
 the first person met on certain occasions. Good or ill luck is 
 supposed to follow according to the personality of the first-foot. 
 
 In the north of England it is ill luck for an inmate to go forth 
 from a house on New Year till some one has entered it, and good 
 luck or ill luck for the year depends on whether man or woman 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 431 
 
 enters first. In Lancashire a light-haired man is as unlucky as 
 a woman, and it has even become a special calling for dark- 
 favored men to hire themselves out for liquor and an alms to 
 "take the New Year in." In Worcestershire luck is insured by 
 laying hands on the first carol-singer who presents himself at 
 the front door, leading him through the house, and letting him 
 out at the back. 
 
 At Filey, England, on Christmas morning before break of day 
 there existed formerly the greatest uproar, by numbers of boys 
 going round from house to house, rapping at every door, and 
 roaring out, " I wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new 
 year," which words were vociferated again and again till the 
 family awoke and admitted the clamorous visitor, — who, if he 
 were the first^ was treated with money or cheese and ginger- 
 bread, which were also distributed, but less liberally, to subse- 
 quent visitors. No persons (boys excepted) ever presumed to go 
 out of doors till the threshold had been consecrated by the 
 entrance of a male. Females had no part in this matter, and 
 if a damsel lovely as an angel entered first, her fair form was 
 viewed with horror as an image of death. (Cole : Antiquities 
 of Filey, 1828, p. 137.) 
 
 In Sheffield, a male must be the first to enter a house on the 
 morning of both Christmas Day and New Year's Day ; but there 
 is no distinction as to complexion or color of hair. In the houses 
 of the more opulent manufacturers, these first admissions are 
 often accorded to choirs of workpeople, who, as " waits," proceed 
 at an early hour and sing before the houses of their employers 
 and friends Christmas carols and hymns, always commencing 
 with that beautiful composition, — 
 
 Christians, awake, salute the happy morn 
 Whereon the Saviour of mankind was born. 
 
 On expressing their good wishes to the inmates, they are gen- 
 erally rewarded with something warm and occasionally with a 
 pecuniary present. 
 
 Among the class called " respectable," but not manufacturers, 
 a previous arrangement is often made, — that a boy, the son of a 
 friend, shall come and be first admitted, receiving for his good 
 wishes a Christmas-box of sixpence or a shilling. The houses 
 of the artisans and poor are successively besieged by a host of 
 gamins, who, soon after midnight, spread themselves over the 
 town, shouting at the doors, and through key-holes, as follows : 
 
 (j^u wish ya a murry Chrismas, 
 A 'appy new year, 
 A pockit full of money 
 An' a cellar full o' beer. 
 
432 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 V God bless the maester of this 'ouse, 
 
 The mistriss all-so, 
 An' all the little childrun 
 That round the table go. 
 
 A apple, a pear, a plom, an' a cherry ; 
 A sup o' good ale mak' a man murry. 
 
 The same house will not admit a second boy. One is sufficient 
 to protect it from any ill luck that might otherwise happen. A 
 penny is the usual gratuity for this service. (JVotes and Queries, 
 Third Series, vol. v. p. 395.) 
 
 In Scotland first-footing used to be a far more complicated 
 aff"air than in England, involving hot pint, — i.e., spiced ale and 
 spirits, — cakes, short-bread, and what not ; to say nothing of a 
 more tender interpretation of the custom, when the first-comer 
 by prearrangement met his sweetheart and obtained the privi- 
 lege of a kiss as her first-foot. Often it was the maiden who 
 made the first advances. If she had reason to believe that some 
 likely lad looked kindly upon her, she would coax him to be her 
 first-foot on New Year's morning, and the hint when accepted 
 generally ended by a marriage on some succeeding New Year's 
 Day. In Edinburgh even to this day domestic servants invite 
 their sweethearts to be their first-foot — for good luck, and, if 
 need be, for marriage. The hour of visit of the first-foot was as 
 near as possible just after midnight. In some instances parties 
 of young men would visit a house where there were several 
 young girls, when a carousal would take place, with drinking, 
 eating, singing, and dancing, and sometimes a fight at the end 
 between jealous rivals. 
 
 The family visited of course expected some one to be their 
 first-foot, and had made preparations accordingly in the shape 
 of refreshments. Sometimes the household were aroused by the 
 visitor, sometimes only the juvenile femininity who happened to 
 be his object. 
 
 The whiskey-bottle has nowadays entirely superseded the more 
 picturesque, but probably hardly less intoxicating, hot pint. The 
 reason for both is the same. Everywhere it seems to have been 
 considered most important for luck in the coming year to the 
 family on which he calls that the first-foot should not make his 
 entry empty-handed. Another analogous superstition is that 
 nothing must be carried out of a house in the morning of the 
 new 3'ear till something has been brought in. Sometimes in 
 addition or in lieu of his whiskey-bottle the first-foot carries 
 short-bread, oatcakes, or sowens, — the latter being a concoc- 
 tion made from the husks of oats, which are allowed to steep 
 till they become sour. The sowens is frequently sprinkled for 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 433 
 
 good luck on the doors and windows of the house visited, with 
 a brush similar to that used by whitewashers. 
 
 Besides New Year's Day and Old Yule there were other occa- 
 sions when some attention was paid to the first person met, and 
 omens were drawn regarding the fortune or misfortune which he 
 or she boded to any particular enterprise in hand, as, for instance, 
 when going to or from a wedding, when taking a child to church 
 to be baptized, when taking the first yoking of oxen to plough 
 in spring, or when going fishing or fowling. The following class 
 of persons were considered lucky first-footers : friends, neigh- 
 bors, and all well-wishers, a kind man, a good man, a sweetheart, 
 people who spread out their feet, those born with their feet fore- 
 most, a man on horseback, a man with a horse and cart. The 
 list of persons unlucky as first-footers is much larger, and com- 
 prises deformed people and criminals, red-headed people, and 
 women in general, though there are gradations of unluckiness 
 attached to different women. 
 
 First-foot was a term also applied in Scotland to the winner in 
 the race known as " running the braize," which was an old wedding 
 custom. The bridal party would return from kirk in the follow- 
 ing order : first the fathers of the contracting parties, then the 
 newly married couple, behind them the best man and the first 
 maid, and the rest in couples as might be mutually arranged. 
 When some distance from the young couple's house, where the 
 mother of the groom was waiting, a few of the young men 
 would start on a race home. The one who reached home first 
 and announced the completion of the ceremony was presented 
 with a bottle of whiskey and a glass, with which he returned to 
 meet the marriage procession. The bride was entitled to the 
 first drink from the bottle, and all esteemed it an honor to par- 
 take of the hospitality of the " first-foot," as the winner was 
 called. This custom is but a relic of the Scandinavian usages of 
 the earliest ages. 
 
 Flag-Day. June 14, as the anniversary of the adoption of 
 the stars and stripes by the Continental Congress in the year 
 1777, is observed as a holiday under this name in many of the 
 States. In ]N'ew York it is especially celebrated by the public- 
 school children. At nine o'clock in the morning every school 
 raises a flag on its roof. The principal then gives a lecture to 
 the pupils on the origin, history, and significance of the flag. 
 
 The first recognition of Flag-Day by the New York schools 
 was on June 14, 1889, when Professor George Bolch, the head 
 of a free kindergarten for the poor, established the custom, 
 after which it was adopted by the Board of Education. The 
 American G-uard, composed of pupils of the public schools, is an 
 
 28 
 
434 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 outgrowth of the patriotism instilled in youthful minds by the 
 observance of Flag-Day. 
 
 In Chicago Flag-Day is observed on the less logical date of 
 October 31. 
 
 Flagellants. A sect of fanatics who started in Perugia in 
 1260, flourished for a brief while in Italy, and were almost for- 
 gotten, when the ravages of the Black Plague in Europe (1347- 
 1349) caused their revival, appearing first in Magdeburg in 1349. 
 Penetrated with the belief that their sins had called down the 
 vengeance of heaven, vast processions of penitents passed 
 through the streets, armed with scourges, lashing themselves 
 and one another until the " blood gushed out." They marched 
 with torches and banners, at night, in the winter, and penetrated 
 into the solitudes of mountain and forest. The penance was 
 repeated twice a day, — morning and evening, — and continued for 
 thirty-three days and a half, in memory of Christ's earthly life. 
 
 The greatest enthusiasm was excited on their behalf through- 
 out Germany. It often happened that after they had lashed 
 themselves in the churches they were entertained in the market- 
 place. A band of Flagellants came over to England and operated 
 freely on themselves in the streets of London. The practical 
 English mind, however, could not discover the use of such an 
 extended penance, and it is stated that the Flagellants did not 
 succeed in making a single convert in England. 
 
 Clement lY. and succeeding pontiffs issued bulls against them, 
 and they were condemned by the Council of Constance in 1414. 
 
 Flitting-Day. The name given in Scotland to the 25th of May, 
 which, as the Whitsunday term, Old Style, is the day for renewing 
 old leases or making new ones. The Scotch generally lease their 
 houses by the year, and are thus at every twelve-month's end 
 able to shift their place of abode. Accordingly, every Candle- 
 mas a Scotch family gets an opportunity of considering whether 
 it will, in the language of the country, sit or flit. The landlord 
 or his agent calls to learn the decision on this point; and if 
 "flit" is the resolution, he takes measures by advertising to 
 obtain a new tenant. The two or three days following upon the 
 Purification, therefore, become distinguished by a feathering of 
 the streets with boards projected from the windows, intimating 
 " A House to Let." (^Ghamhers's Book of Days^ vol. i. p. 679.) 
 
 Floralia or Florales Lrudi. Ancient Eoman games in honor 
 of Flora, the goddess of flowers, which lasted five days, from 
 April 28 to May 2. Tradition assigned their institution to 
 Romulus. Pliny refers it to the command of an oracle in the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 435 
 
 Sibylline books in 238 B.C., but we have little authentic informa- 
 tion about it till the observance was restored some sixty years 
 later by the sedile Servilius, acting under orders of the Senate, 
 because the buds and blossoms of that year (173 B.C.) had suf- 
 fered from the inclemency of the weather. Flora, according to 
 the received tradition, was a courtesan, and left to the city wealth 
 acquired by her profligacy. Hence^ross and unbridled licen- 
 tiousness characterized her feast. Al the attendant theatrical 
 exhibitions actresses were required to appear naked on the stage 
 and to amuse the people with indecent gestures and dances. The 
 last day was devoted to a beast-hunt in the Circus, but there 
 were no races. It is probable that the Floralia were originally 
 rural festivals observed both in Italy and in Greece, which be- 
 came corrupted after their introduction into towns, and this may 
 have accounted for the uncomplimentary story of the goddess 
 Flora, with whose worship the celebration had then come to be 
 connected. 
 
 For some reason or other, the garden in classical myth and 
 literature was redolent of associations the reverse of fragrant. 
 Priapus, of evil repute, was its presiding deity. It gave its 
 name to the most sensual and unmanly of the ancient schools of 
 philosophy, as is implied in Praed's familiar lines on St. Paul 
 preaching at Athens : 
 
 And the fair garden's rose-encircled child 
 Smiled unbelief, and shuddered as he smiled. 
 
 Flowers, Battle of. One of the most beautiful of the Oar- 
 nival ceremonials. This is still seen at its best in Mce, where 
 the custom originated. It is the correct thing for as many of 
 the inhabitants as can get a vehicle of any sort to drive up and 
 down the Promenade des Anglais for several hours, greeting 
 their acquaintances as they pass by dashing a bunch of flowers 
 in their faces, — a salutation which is immediately returned with 
 interest. These bouquets generally fall wide of the mark they 
 are aimed at, and are picked up by a swarm of boys, who rush 
 in and out between the carriages on purpose to catch the falling 
 posies, which they immediately sell to some one else for any 
 price they can command, usually a pretty steep one. It is one 
 ' of the rules of the game that all the carriages are decorated. 
 /\\But flowers in Nice are rare, and, although you may now and 
 ^' then see a carriage wreathed with mimosa and camellias, or 
 smothered in violets even to the spokes of the wheels, it is onlj^ 
 the wealthy who can command such luxuries, and the poorer 
 classes content themselves with a few green leaves and simple 
 floral decorations ; or, more usually, they surround the equipage 
 
436 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 with what might be called a pinafore of white calico, adorned 
 with strips of colored calico sewed on at intervals all over it. 
 To and fro pass the carriages with unwearied diligence, tossing 
 bouquets from hand to hand as if the occupants were playing 
 ball. Now and then the line is broken by a horseman in some 
 masquerade, and maskers also mingle among the spectators on 
 the sidewalk. 
 
 Battles of flowers dissociated from the Carnival time are now 
 frequently celebrated in April, May, or June at many places 
 on the continent of Europe and in England. A famous one is 
 that at Yentnor, in the Isle of Wight, during the entire first week 
 in April. Flags and bunting adorn most of the streets and roads 
 in and about Yentnor, and grand stands are erected at convenient 
 spots whence the procession can be viewed. The grounds of the 
 Koyal Hotel are used for the battle-ground. The week's festivi- 
 ties close with the distribution of prizes to the best decorated 
 carriages in the procession, and a grand ball in the evening. 
 
 Flo'wer-Sermons. At two churches in London, one that of 
 St. James, Mitre Court, Aldgate, the other that of St. Katherine 
 Cree, Leadenhall, it is the custom on the evening of Whitsun 
 Tuesday for the pastor to preach a sermon from a text having 
 special reference to flowers. This is known as the Flower-Ser- 
 mon. The most popular was also the one first instituted, that at 
 St. Katherine Cree, where the custom was begun by the rector, 
 Rev. Dr. W. M. Whittemore, in the year 1853. " I thought," he 
 explained, "that it would be a good opportunity of leading our 
 youthful hearers to a closer contemplation of God's wisdom and 
 love as manifested by the beautiful and fragrant flowers which 
 He scatters around in such rich profusion." On this occasion 
 offerings of flowers adorn the pillars and the pulpit, and every 
 young person attending the service is requested to carry a bou- 
 quet. Moncure D. Conway has given us in Harper's Monthly, 
 vol. xlii. p. 902, an account of the Flower-Sermon as he heard it 
 preached in St. Katherine in 1870. " In some respects," he says, 
 " the display of flowers was disappointing. Bouquets were 
 attached to the pillars, and one or two were on the pulpit ; but 
 the floral decorations of the church were stinted. It had been 
 advertised, ' Each young person attending this special service is 
 requested to carry a bouquet of flowers ;' but flowers in London 
 are luxuries, and the people who dwell around St. Katherine 
 Cree are all poor. Yet a goodly number of those who came 
 brought flowers, many wearing them in their bonnets or coats. 
 Occasionally a smile passed as some ladies of uncertain age came 
 in, bearing particularly large and aggressive nosegays, which 
 seemed to assert that they were the youngest of the 'young 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 437 
 
 persons' mentioned in the hand-bills. But to most of those who 
 came the occasion had evidently a deeper and more serious 
 meaning. . . . Then came in the children, with their radiant 
 faces, sunshiny hair, and diamond eyes, each waving his or her 
 flower like a banner of childhood. 
 
 '' At length the vast congregation is still, the organ greets us 
 with a cheerful voluntary, and the service begins. It opens with 
 a hymn sung to the tune of ' Hampton :' 
 
 "Spared to another spring, 
 
 We raise our grateful songs : 
 'Tis pleasant, Lord, thy praise to sing, 
 For praise to thee belongs. 
 
 ' ' Ten thousand different flowers 
 To thee sweet offerings bear. 
 And tuneful birds, in shady bowers, 
 Warble thy tender care. 
 
 * * -Sfr * * * 
 
 "While earth itself decays, 
 Our souls can never die ; 
 Prepare them all to sing thy praise 
 In better songs on high ! 
 
 "All join in the singing; every tongue is loosed; the old walls 
 fairly blossom with jubilant notes. The old organ catches the 
 inspiration, and breaks out into glad peals that must have sur- 
 prised itself Then follow the intoned psalms, set to the music 
 of Tallis, — great mnsic, now sobbing with penitence, now lumi- 
 nous as with light breaking through clouds. What psalms are 
 these for the poor of London to sing and hear? 'The mountains 
 shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteous- 
 ness. He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the 
 children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor.' 
 ' He shall come down like rain on the mown grass.' ' The earth 
 is satisfied with the fruit of thy works.' ' The trees of the Lord 
 are full of sap ; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted ; 
 where the birds make their nests.' 'He appointed the moon for 
 seasons ; the sun knoweth his going down.' ' O Lord, how 
 manifold are thy works ! in wisdom hast thou made them all : 
 the earth is full of thy riches.' Thus sang these poor people. 
 They came, most of them, from dens of poverty and toil, from 
 hopelessness and pain ; but the little optimists of nature, the 
 flowers, had touched them, and they sang as if there were not a 
 woe nor a want in the earth. . . . 
 
 " The preacher of the occasion was the Eev. Dr. Whittemore, 
 well known as the editor of the juvenile periodicals Sunshine and 
 Golden Hours, and for many writings for the young, a tall, large, 
 
438 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 and handsome man, with a broad, genial face, and an amount of 
 humor and vivacity in him which find themselves under a bushel 
 in sombre St. James's, where he usually preaches." 
 
 Fools, Feast of. This was the general name for a series of 
 burlesque festivals which are said to have been introduced into 
 the Christian Church by Theophylact, Patriarch of Constanti- 
 nople. They were obviously recrudescences of the ancient 
 Roman Festa Stultorum. Beginning on Christmas with the 
 Feast of the Ass {q. v.), which was a day of general rejoicing, 
 the chief holidays in the season were given up respectively to 
 various ranks of the lower clergy or church officials. Thus, St. 
 Stephen's Day was specially reserved for the deacons, the Cir- 
 cumcision for priests. Innocents' Day for the choir-boys, Epiphany 
 for the sub deacons, etc. 
 
 The ceremonies were substantially the same on all these occa- 
 sions. 
 
 In cathedral churches in France and Italy a bishop and an 
 archbishop of fools were elected. The election was confirmed 
 with much buffoonery, a caricature of ordination. Then the 
 pseudo-prelates were vested and gave solemn benediction to 
 the people, holding pastoral staff or archiepiscopal crosier. But 
 in exempt churches (i.e., churches depending immediately on 
 the Holy See) a Papa Fatuorum or Pope of Fools was chosen, 
 amidst similar buffoonery, and was invested with the Papal 
 insignia. 
 
 These pontiffs were assisted by the clergy. Priests and clerks 
 performed all manner of impieties during the divine service, 
 
 Humors of the Feast of Fools. 
 
 some masked, or with their faces painted, others dressed as 
 women, dancing in the choir and singing obscene songs. The 
 deacons and subdeacons ate cakes and sausages at the altar, 
 played cards and dice on it, and burned their old shoes in the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 439 
 
 censers with which they incensed the host and the book of the 
 Gospels. 
 
 After the mass was ended, every one ran, jumped, and danced 
 about the church ; some stripped themselves naked and were 
 drawn about the streets in a manure-cart and pelted the people 
 with dung. At intervals the cart stopped, and those within 
 evoked laughter by their indecent postures. 
 
 Beleth, doctor of theology of Paris, in 1182 wrote that during 
 Christmas four dances took place in the churches, — one of the 
 deacons, another of the priests, a third of the choir-boys, and 
 a fourth of the subdeacons ; that in some churches at this time 
 bishops and archbishops joined in the revel, and played dice, ball, 
 tennis, and other games; that they danced and made merriment 
 for their clergy in their cathedrals, and in the monasteries before 
 the monks, and that this diversion was known as the Liberty 
 of December. 
 
 From a complaint addressed by Mathurin de Neure to Gas- 
 sendi in 1645 it would appear that even at that date Holy 
 Innocents' Day was celebrated in some French monasteries with 
 a license that allied it to the Feast of Fools and the ancient 
 Eoman Saturnalia. "jNever," says he, "did pagans solemnize 
 with such extravagance their superstitious festivals as the Feast 
 of the Innocents is cele- 
 brated at Antibes by 
 the Cordeliers. Neither 
 the Eeligious nor the 
 Guardians go to the 
 choir that day. The 
 lay-brothers, the cab- 
 bage-cutters, those who 
 
 Humors of the Feast of Fools. 
 
 work in the kitchen, 
 and those who till the 
 gardens, occupy their 
 places in the church. 
 They don the sacer- 
 dotal garments reverse 
 side out. They hold 
 in their hands books 
 turned upside down, and pretend to read thera through spectacles 
 in which for glass have been substituted bits of orange-peel, 
 which make them look so hideous and alarming that one must 
 see them to believe it, especially after they have blown into the 
 censers which they carry, insomuch that their faces are covered 
 with ashes. They do not sing hymns, or psalms, or masses, as 
 is customary ; they mutter confused words, and utter cries as 
 foolish, disagreeable, and discordant as those of a troop of grunt- 
 
440 CURIOSITIES OF ■ 
 
 ing swine. And indeed those brute beasts could render as well 
 as they do the office of the day. For it would be better to 
 bring brute beasts into church, to praise God in their own 
 manner, than to suifer this sort of folk to appear therein, who 
 make a mock of God while pretending to praise him, and are 
 more foolish and senseless than the most foolish and senseless 
 beasts." (Quoted in Picart's Ceremonies et Coutumes, vol. viii. 
 Part II. p. 14.) 
 
 Forefathers' Day. The 22d of December is celebrated by 
 New Englanders and by New England Societies in many of the 
 large towns of the United States as the anniversary of the land- 
 ing of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620. 
 The first celebration was in Plymouth itself in 1769, when the 
 Old Colony Club gave a dinner at Thomas Southworth's inn in 
 North Street. At every annual recurrence of the day in that 
 town the descendants of the Pilgrims have made this their 
 chief rallying-place. Anniversary orations by Webster, Everett, 
 Choate, Winthrop, and Sumner, and anniversary poems by Bry- 
 ant, E. H. Stoddard, and John Boyle O'Eeilly, have added to the 
 glory of the occasion. 
 
 It is the Plymouth Old Colony Club, therefore, which is re- 
 sponsible for choosing December 22 as the date of the final debar- 
 kation of the Pilgrims from the Mayflower and the beginning of 
 the settlement of Plymouth. Yet this final and proper " land- 
 ing" did not take place until January 4, 1621, and though an 
 exploring party did land somewhere near the coast of Plymouth 
 on December 21, 1620, there is no evidence whatever that there 
 was any Englishman in Plymouth Bay on the 22d of December, 
 1620, and all the probabilities are against it. 
 
 Let us go over the facts of the case. On November 9, afier 
 sixty-five days on the ocean, the anxious watchers on the little 
 Mayflower sighted the low shore of Cape Cod. On the 11th the 
 Mayflower cast anchor in the harbor of what is now Province- 
 town. Several expeditions were sent out to explore the land, 
 but none found any satisfactory abiding-place. On December 
 16 (or December 6, Old Style) a party of seventeen started on 
 a more extended quest. Among them were Miles Standish, Wil- 
 liam Bradford, and Edward Winslow\ The last two have told 
 the story, which is known as " Mourt's Eelation" (Mourt being 
 probably George Morton, who procured the publication of the 
 Diary in London). Says the Eelation, " Wednesday the sixt of 
 December wee set out." It proceeds carefully day by day until 
 the end of the week, when the explorers landed on Clark's 
 Island. These words and this punctuation then follow: "And 
 here wee made our Eandevous all that day, being Saturday, 10. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 441 
 
 of December, on the Sabbath day wee rested, and on Munday 
 we sounded the Harbour, and found it a very good Harbour for 
 our shipping, we marched also into the Land, and found divers 
 (fcorne fields, and little running brookes, a place very good for 
 situation, so we returned to our Ship againe with good newes 
 to the rest of our people, which did much comfort their hearts." 
 
 Now, if the 6th of December was Wednesday, the 10th must 
 have been Sunday. It has been pointed out, therefore, that the 
 English printers must have misplaced the period, which should 
 have come after Saturday. Change the comma after Saturday 
 to a period, and the proper reading is restored. The 10th of 
 December is made to be the date of Sunday, as it was. 
 
 The Old Colony Club of Plymouth, in the year 1769, reading 
 Mourt with the erroneous punctuation which made Saturday 
 the lOth^ of course imagined that Monday was the 12th, and, 
 adding ten days for diiference of the Old and New Styles, called 
 Forefathers' Day the 22d. Hence a little comma is responsible 
 for setting the sons of New England, the world over, to eating 
 their anniversary banquets on the 22d instead of the 21st of 
 December. 
 
 But was the sounding of the harbor and marching into the 
 land and finding divers corne fields by the exploring party on the 
 21st of December the '' landing of the Pilgrims" associated with 
 the tradition of the rock ? (See Plymouth Rock.) The tradi- 
 tion of the landing comes from Elder Thomas Faunce, who in 
 1741, being then ninety-one years old, came to remonstrate 
 against any injury to the rock from the building of a wharf 
 Elder Faunce had heard the story from the first "planters, and 
 it was transmitted through Mrs. White, who died in 1810, ninety- 
 five years old, and Deacon Ephraim Spooner, who died in 1818, 
 at the age of eighty-three. It is certainly more probable that 
 the tradition of the landing would refer to that of the debarka- 
 tion of the whole company and the beginning of the settlement 
 than to that of a few explorers seeking a promising site for 
 settlement. The great day in memory would certainly be that 
 when the company came ashore on a spot already chosen, and 
 planted their home in a new world. 
 
 Now, that great day occurred much later. The little party 
 of seventeen seem to have hurried back to the Mayflower lying 
 in the Cape Cod harbor, twenty-six miles away. On the 25th 
 of December, New Style, the ship started southward, and next 
 day she anchored between Plymouth and Clark's Island. On 
 the 28th and 29th there were further explorations, and, after 
 hesitating in the choice between two places, on Wednesday, the 
 30th, it was decided to settle upon the present site of Plymouth. 
 But not until Monday, the 4th of January, 1621, was there a 
 
442 ^ CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 general debarkation with the distinct purpose of founding a new- 
 home ; and the landing was then undoubtedly made, with all the 
 solemnity of emotion becoming men and women of the strong 
 and deep character that made them pilgrims. 
 
 Foresters' Fete. This revival of the ancient English arch- 
 ery shows is now celebrated annually in the London Crystal 
 Palace and its grounds, on August 24. The revival dates from 
 1855. A grand procession of members of the Order of Foresters 
 and the Juvenile Foresters, with bands, banners, and full regalia, 
 is the feature of the out-door shows, while, in-doors, organ re- 
 citals, concerts by brass bands, and theatrical shows keep the 
 spectators amused and interested. But the London Daily Graphic 
 in its report of the festival held in 1896 is fain to acknowledge 
 that the pageant has no archaeological value : " We English are 
 not given to pageantry, and in the organizing of historic pro- 
 cessions are far behind the smallest German town, while as for 
 the fetes constantly to be seen in Munich, England knows them 
 not. There is a lamentable want of finish about all our attempts 
 in this direction. No real forester of the days of Eobin Hood 
 and Little John and Maid Marian ever presented the aspect of 
 one of our 'foresters' of to-day. It was a rough business at any 
 time to habitually frequent a forest in this country. From the 
 poet's point of view it is charming to lie under the greenwood 
 tree and to turn one's merry note unto the sweet bird's throat. 
 But the enemy that the poet makes light of, — 'winter and rough 
 weather,' — there was the rub ! It is certain that no forester 
 who braved the elements in velvet and feathers and stage-boots 
 could have escaped an early death from rheumatic fever. And 
 so we must object to the traditional first-ruffian sort of costume 
 which does duty nowadays for the habit of the merry men of 
 Sherwood Forest. They wore a much less pretentious and more 
 picturesque costume, from which feathers, except those of the 
 gray goose on their shafts, were absent. Be this as it may, our 
 latter-day Foresters go to the Palace to have a good time. They 
 are not familiar with any forest (save the Forest of Epping), and 
 do not trouble about bows of yew and gray goose feathers. As 
 for cleaving a willow wand at six score, it is doubtful whether 
 they could hit a haystack at half the distance. Their name is a 
 mere shadow, which has flitted away into the dim past." 
 
 Francis of Assisi, St., founder of the Franciscan order of 
 monks. His festival is celebrated on October 4, the anniversary 
 of his death. Another festival, in honor of his stigmata (see 
 below), was instituted in 1304 by Pope Gregory XI., the 17th of 
 September being the day chosen. St. Francis was born at 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 443 
 
 Assisi, in Umbria, in 1182. His father was a rich wool-merchant. 
 In his youth Francis was of a gay disposition and fond of pleas- 
 ure. He fought in a war which broke out between Perugia and 
 Assisi, was taken prisoner, and was incarcerated in a dungeon for 
 a year. He subsequently became very ill, and his thoughts turned 
 towards a religious life. He gave alms to the poor, and began 
 to devote himself to the repairing of churches. He was thought 
 by his family to be insane, and his father took him to the bishop, 
 in whose presence Francis declared that henceforward he had 
 no father, save his Father in heaven. Adopting a coarse brown 
 robe, he devoted himself to the care of the poor and sick and to 
 preaching. He soon gained followers, and founded an order 
 which after some delay gained the approval of Pope Innocent 
 III. He called his order " Fratri Minori," and established a rule 
 with three vows, of poverty, chastity, and obedience. In 1219 
 St. Francis went to preach to the Mohammedans; he was taken 
 before the Sultan, and he offered to enter a fire with the priests 
 of Islam to prove the truth of his creed. The Sultan sent him 
 back to Italy. It was said that on his return to Assisi he be- 
 held a vision of the crucifixion, and ever afterwards bore the 
 stigmata of nails on his hands and feet and a wound in his 
 side. He died on October 4, 1226, and was buried by his own 
 request among malefactors outside the walls of his native city. 
 Ten years later the church of San Francesco was built in his 
 honor, and his body was removed thither on March 25, 1230. It 
 is believed that the body still remains here, standing upright in 
 a subterraneous vault under the high altar of the chapel in the 
 middle of this spacious church. Some authorities assert that 
 his heart and bowels, according to his desire, were taken out and 
 laid under the altar which bears his name in the Portiuncula. 
 But others deny that any division was made. Blood from the 
 stigma on his side is kept in the cathedral at Eecanati. 
 
 There are numberless legends connected with St. Francis, 
 which form the subjects of numerous pictures. Many of them 
 are illustrative of the saint's love for the lower animals. The 
 marriage of St. Francis with the Lady Poverty, or with three 
 maidens representing Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience, is also 
 a subject often met with in art. 
 
 Francis Xavier, St. (1506-1552), patron saint and apostle of 
 India, and one of the greatest names in the history of missionary 
 enterprise. His festival is celebrated on December 3, though he 
 died on December 2. A member of a noble family of Navarre, 
 St. Francis was born at the ancestral castle of Xavier. At the 
 age of twenty he became professor of philosophy at Beauvais. 
 Among his pupils was Ignatius Loyola, who gradually gained 
 
444 CUniOSITlES OF 
 
 a great influence over him and induced him to enter the religious 
 life, and he became a member of the Society of Jesus which 
 Loyola founded. He was sent by Loyola to India, whence he 
 travelled to Japan. Many m'iracles are said to have been worked 
 by him, and he made many converts. He died while on his way 
 to China, on the island of Sanchan. His body was interred on 
 the shore, but was later taken to Goa and placed in the college 
 of St. Paul on March 15, 1554. On the occasion of this transla- 
 tion several blind persons recovered their sight and others were 
 healed of long-standing diseases. He was beatified by Paul Y. 
 in 1554, and canonized by Gregory XY. in 1662. In 1774, by 
 order of King John Y. of Portugal, the Archbishop of Goa, 
 attended by the local dignitaries, performed a visitation of the 
 relics of St. Francis Xavier. The body was found without the 
 least bad odor, the face, breast, hands, and feet having suffered 
 no corruption whatever, and seemed environed with a shining 
 brightness. 
 
 Freeman's March. An absurd custom which until the 
 middle of the nineteenth century was annually performed on 
 St. Mark's Day (April 25) at Alnwick, in Northumberland, Eng- 
 land. It is said to date from April 25, 1209, when King John, 
 attempting to ride across Alnwick Moor, then the Forest of 
 Aidon, fell with his horse into a bog, w^here he stuck so fast that 
 he was with difficulty rescued by his attendants. In high dud- 
 geon he inserted into the city charter, by way both of memento 
 and of punishment, a clause that for the future all new-created 
 freemen should on St. Mark's Day pass on foot through that 
 bog, which hence became known as the Freeman's Well. The 
 townspeople entered into the humor of the thing, and in course 
 of time, in proportion as the new-made freemen were more or 
 less popular, the passage was made more or less difficult. A 
 small rill of water was kept dammed up for a day or two pre- 
 vious to the ceremony, by means of which the bog could be so 
 thoroughly liquefied that a middle-sized man would find himself 
 chin deep in mud and water in wading through it. Besides 
 this, holes and trenches were not infrequently dug. Conse- 
 quently the freemen often found themselves in imminent danger 
 of suffocation. 
 
 " Early in the morning of St. Mark's Day the houses of the 
 new freemen are distinguished by a holly-tree planted before each 
 door, as the signal for their friends to assemble and make merry 
 with them. About eight o'clock the candidates for the franchise, 
 being mounted on horseback and armed with swords, assemble 
 in the market-place, where they are joined by the chamberlain 
 and bailiff of the Duke of Northumberland, attended by two 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 445 
 
 men armed with halberds. The young freemen arranged in 
 order, with music playing before them and accompanied by a 
 numerous cavalcade, march to the west end of the town, where 
 they deliver their swords. They then proceed under the guidance 
 of the moorgrieves through a part of their extensive domain, 
 till they reach the ceremonial well. The sons of the oldest free- 
 man have the honor of taking the first leap. On the signal 
 being given they pass through the bog, each being allowed to 
 use the method and pace which to him shall seem best, some 
 running, some going slow, and some attempting to jump over 
 suspected places, but all in their turns tumbhng and wallowing 
 (^ike porpoises at sea, to the great amusement of the populace, 
 who usually assemble in vast numbers on this occasion. After 
 this aquatic excursion, they remount their horses and proceed 
 to perambulate the remainder of their large common, of which 
 they are to become free by their achievement. In passing the 
 open part of the common the young freemen are obliged to 
 alight at intervals and place a stone on a cairn as a mark of their 
 boundary, till they come near a high hill called the Twinlaw or 
 Tounlaw Cairns, when they set off at full speed, and contest the 
 honor of arriving first on the hill, where the names of the free- 
 men of Alnwick are called over. When arrived about two miles 
 from the town they generally arrange themselves in order and, 
 to prove their equestrian abilities, set off v^ith great speed and 
 spirit over bogs, ditches, rocks, and rugged declivities till they 
 arrive at Rottenrow Tower on the confines of the town, the 
 foremost claiming the honor of what is termed ' winning the 
 boundaries,' and of being entitled to the temporary triumphs of 
 the day. Having completed the circuits, the young freemen, 
 with sword in hand, enter the town in triumph,* preceded hy 
 music, and accompanied by a large concourse of people in car- 
 riages, etc. Having paraded the streets, the new freemen and 
 the other equestrians enter the castle, where they are liberally 
 regaled, and drink the health of the lord and lady of the manor. 
 The newly created burgesses then proceed in a body to their 
 respective houses and around the holly-tree drink a friendly 
 glass with one another. After this they proceed to the market- 
 place, where they close the ceremony over an enlivening bowl 
 of punch." (Antiquarian Bepertory, 1809, vol. iv. p. 387 ; History 
 of Alnwick^ 1822, pp. 304-309 ; Gentleman's Magazine, 1756, vol. 
 xxvi. p. 73.) The Lonsdale Magazine for 1828 (vol. iii. p. 312) 
 records that the custom was kept up in that year. 
 
 * It appears from a traditionary account that at one time they were met 
 by women dressed up with ribbons, bells, and garlands of gum-flowers, who 
 welcomed them with dancing and singing. 
 
446 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Friday. Next to Sunday, Friday has the most peculiar his- 
 tory- among the days of the week. It was the festival daj^ of 
 the goddess Freya, the Northern Yenus. The ill luck which 
 by popular superstition is still ascribed to projects or journeys 
 undertaken on Friday is traceable to the fact that it was origi- 
 nally regarded as sacred to the goddess, whose honor was held 
 to be disregarded by all who, instead of participating in her fes- 
 tive worship, followed their own pursuits. On such Freya was 
 supposed to bring ill fortune. The superstition remained after 
 the explanation had been forgotten. ISIo doubt the fact that 
 Friday is associated with the passion of Christ and that it is a 
 day of abstinence in the Catholic Church had much to do with 
 keeping up the feeling. There is a widely prevalent story told 
 in different ways in different places about the ship that was 
 built on Friday by a sea-captain to put an end to the super- 
 stition, and which foundered on its first voyage. The most 
 circumstantial is still heard from the lips of seafaring men 
 in Wilmington, Delaware. Mrs. Eebecca Harding Davis thus 
 relates it : 
 
 " Isaac Harvey laid the keel of the brig on a Friday ; that 
 night his wife had an ill dream, and strongly urged him to tear 
 it up and begin the ship anew on Saturday (seventh day, in the 
 Quaker vernacular). But Isaac was a hard-headed, matter-of- 
 fact man, and placed no faith in a woman's dreams. It is these 
 little things in life that breed strife in a family, and strife was 
 bred in this; but altercation only made Isaac more fixed in his 
 own way, so that, out of pure perversity, he not only fitted the 
 brig out on Friday, but he named her the Friday, and sent 
 her out under command of a good captain on Friday. On that 
 Friday week, in the midst of a gale that piped and roared and 
 thundered as if the Dutchman and his demon crew were loose, 
 a homeward-bound vessel, running before the gale, saw the hull 
 of a brig pitching heavily in the trough of the sea, while her 
 crew ran about the deck, cutting loose the wreck of the masts 
 that dragged and bumped alongside. As the homeward-bound 
 vessel darted past down the slippery side of a great wave, a wail 
 went up from the doomed brig, and under her counter they saw, 
 painted in white letters, 
 
 FKIDAY 
 
 of 
 
 WILMINGTON. 
 
 The oncoming wave rose like a wall between the vessels, and 
 when they lifted on the crest of the next, nothing was to be 
 seen but a few floating timbers. When Mrs. Harvey heard the 
 news she folded her hands and remarked, ' 1 told thee so, Isaac. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 447 
 
 This is all thy sixth-day doings. Now thee sees the consequence, 
 ^hee never had the vessel insured.' " 
 
 Not two per cent, of the marriages in the midland district of 
 England are celebrated on Friday. On the other hand, in Scot- 
 land nine-tenths of the marriages occur on that day. In Scan- 
 dinavia Thursday was the day of ill omen for a wedding. Was 
 this because the day was named after Thor, the god of thunder? 
 In India a rainy day is considered unlucky for a wedding. St. 
 Eloy in a sermon warned his flock from keeping Thursday as a 
 holy-day, and Swift in a letter to Sheridan rhymes Thursday 
 with "cursed day." The Esthonians consider it unlucky, and in 
 Devonshire it has but one lucky hour. According to the Eegis- 
 trar-General of Scotland, there are more marriages in that land 
 celebrated on the last day of the year than in all the rest of the 
 year put together. Yet when the last day of the year happens 
 to be Saturday, no one gets married on it. (Antiquary, vol. i. 
 p. 209.) 
 
 Tuesday is the unlucky day in Spain and in Mexico. The 
 popular sentiment concerning it is embodied in the Ibllowing 
 jingle : 
 
 En Martes ni te cases, ni te embarques, 
 Ni de tu casa te apartes. 
 
 Which, rendered literally, means, •' On Tuesday neither be thou 
 married, nor go on a voyage, nor leave thy house." Belief in 
 the ill luck of Tuesday is a Spanish superstition, reference to 
 which is found in a letter written by Fray Juan de Zumarraga 
 some years before he left Spain for Mexico. Possibly it is a 
 native Mexican superstition also ; though a sufficient reason 
 for its prompt acceptance by the Mexicans, perhaps, is to be 
 found in the fact that on a Tuesday (August 13, 1521) was com- 
 pleted the conquest of the capital city of Tenochtitlan, or 
 Mexico. 
 
 From ancient Egypt the evil or unlucky days received the 
 name of Egyptian l3ays. The Eomans called them Dies Mali. 
 A Saxon MS. says, " Three days there are in the year, which we 
 call Egyptian Days, that is, in our language, dangerous days, on 
 any occasion whatever, to the blood of man or beast. In the 
 month which we call April, the last Monday ; and there is the 
 second, at the coming [i.e., before the 15th] of the month we call 
 August ; then is the third, which is the first Monday of the going 
 out [i.e., after the 15th] of the month of December. He who on 
 these three days reduces blood, be it of man, be it of beast, this 
 we have heard say, that speedily on the first or seventh day his 
 life he will end. Or if his life be longer so that he come not to 
 the seventh day, or if he drink some time in these three days, 
 
448 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 he will end his life; and he that tastes of goose-flesh, within forty 
 days space his life he will end." 
 
 Frideswide, St., patroness of the city and university of 
 Oxford. Her festival on October 19 was formerly celebrated 
 here with much pomp. Daughter of Sidan, Prince of Oxford 
 and the surrounding territory, she became prioress of the nun- 
 nery which her pious father founded in 750. Algar, King of 
 Mercia, sought to win her from her vows, but she fled at his 
 approach, and, though hard pressed, — once even having to take 
 refuge in a pigsty, where she was regarded by the rightful 
 inhabitants with mingled awe and respect, — she succeeded in 
 eluding him. Then Algar laid siege to Oxford, but he was struck 
 by blindness, which was cured only by his repentance and the 
 prayers of the saint. Later she withdrew to an oratory she had 
 built for herself at Thornbury near Oxford. The fountain she 
 here made use of is said to have been obtained by her prayers. 
 She died about 740, and was buried in the church of her priory, 
 which became known as St. Frideswide. This monastery, trans- 
 formed into a college by Cardinal Wolsey, is now Christ Church, 
 Oxford. Her church, rebuilt in the twelfth century, is now 
 Oxford Cathedral. 
 
 The relics of the saint had meanwhile been subjected, to many 
 translations within the church, but in 1480 the last shrine for its 
 reception was built. This shrine was watched over by the monks 
 of Christ Church. Until the Eeformation it was the resort of 
 numerous pilgrims. On Ascension Day it was customary for the 
 chancellor, masters, and scholars of the university, with the paro- 
 chial clergy, to visit this shrine, with the cross borne before them. 
 On one occasion, while this procession was passing through the 
 streets, a Jew snatched the cross from its bearer and trampled 
 it under his feet. In punishment for this afl'ront to the crucified 
 Saviour, King Henry III. commanded all the Jews in the city 
 to be imprisoned, and obliged them to erect at their own cost a 
 stately marble cross on the spot where the outrage was com- 
 mitted ; on one side was to be the figure of Christ, on the other 
 a representation of his Blessed Mother. They were also to pre- 
 sent another cross of silver gilt to the proctors for use in future 
 processions. 
 
 The shrine of St. Frideswide still remains one of the ornaments 
 of the church, but untenanted, as the relics were removed there- 
 from when Henry VIII.'s commissioners visited the city. They 
 were preserved, however, and made " accessible to the faithful." 
 When Elizabeth came to the throne, they were interred below 
 the floor. The queen further ordered that the body of Catherine 
 Cathie, a disveiled nun who had married a renegade priest, Peter 
 
 \ 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 449 
 
 Martyr, Divinity professor at Christ Church, should be placed 
 within St. Frideswide's grave. "The married nun and the virgin 
 saint were buried together, and the dust of the two still remains 
 inextricably blended." (Froude: History of England.) Baring- 
 Gould adds that an inscription was placed over the double 
 tomb, " Hie requiescit religio cum superstitione," which is now 
 happily defaced. 
 
 St. Frideswide, under the name of Sainte-Frewisse, is also 
 venerated at Borny in Artois, whither, according to Flemish 
 tradition, she fled from the pursuit of Algar. A chapel bearing 
 her name is supposed to occupy the site of her cell (relics of the 
 saint are here exhibited), and a miraculous fountain near at hand 
 is believed to have been elicited by her prayers. 
 
 Frindsbury Procession. A singular custom which was ob- 
 served until about the middle of the nineteenth century by the 
 boys of Frindsbury, in the town of Stroud, England, on May-Day. 
 They went for a skirmish on Eochester Bridge. This combat de- 
 rived its origin from a beating received by the monks of Eochester 
 in the reign of Edward I. On the occasion of a long drought 
 they set out in procession for Frindsbury to pray for rain. As 
 the day was windy, they asked the master of Stroud Hospital 
 to let them pass through the orchard. He gave his consent 
 without consulting the brethren. The latter were angry at this, 
 and hired a rabble with clubs to give the intruding monks a 
 beating, which they did. The monks took a pious revenge by 
 obliging the men of Frindsbury to come yearly on Whit Monday 
 with much humility in a procession, bearing their clubs, to 
 Eochester as penance for their sins. 
 
 Frost or Vintage Saints. (Fr. Saints gelifs, Saints vendan- 
 geurs.) A name popularly applied in France to three saints, — 
 i.e., St. Mammertus, St. Pancras, and St. Servatus, — whose festi- 
 vals, the 11th, 12th, and 13th of May respectively, are noted in 
 the husbandman's calendar as days on which the thermometer 
 frequently undergoes a marked and sudden fall. This phenom- 
 enon is thought by scientists to be due to strong currents from 
 the north caused by the breaking up of the polar ice. The more 
 knowing populace, however, from very early times have ascribed 
 it to the malice of one or other of the saints. 
 
 In the ecclesiastical annals of Oahors and Ehodez it is re- 
 corded that the angry peasants would frequently flog the images 
 and deface the pictures of the frost saints. Eabelais satirically 
 asserts that in order to put an end to these scandals a bishop of 
 Auxerre proposed to transfer the festivals of the frost saints to 
 the dog-days and make August change places with May. 
 
 29 
 
450 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 In Germany the same superstition holds, and the frost saints 
 are known as " the three severe lords," — die drei gestrenge Herren. 
 It is believed by gardeners that nothing is safe from frost until 
 these days are over. 
 
 Furry Festival. A curious survival from immemorial an- 
 tiquit}^ which is celebrated at Helston, in Cornwall, Wales, on 
 May 8, the day set apart by the Catholic Church as the festival 
 of the Apparition of St. Michael. (See Michael, St.) That 
 archangel is the patron of the town. According to popular 
 legend, the town itself owes its name to a huge block of granite 
 which up to the year 1783 lay in the yard of the Angel Inn and 
 was then broken up and used as part of the building material of 
 the assembly-room. This stone the country-folk believe originally 
 lay at the mouth of hell, whence it was one day carried away 
 by the devil, who intended to put it to some diabolical use. But 
 as his Satanic majesty was crossing the county of Cornwall he 
 was encountered by St. Michael. A fight ensued, in which the 
 devil, being defeated, took to his heels or wings and dropped the 
 hell-stone in his flight. In commemoration of this event the 
 inhabitants instituted the festival of Furry Day, which, whatever 
 its origin, has undoubtedly from time immemorial been held on 
 the 8th of May. So imperative is the holiday that any person 
 detected at work on Furry Day is instantly seized and carried 
 astride upon a pole to the river, into which, if he does not buy 
 his release at a pretty liberal price, he is forthwith flung. 
 
 The day is ushered in very early in the morning by the music 
 of drums, kettles, and violins, which serve as an accompaniment 
 to the following delightful song: 
 
 Kobin Hood and Little John, 
 
 They both are gone to the fair, O, 
 And we will to the merry greenwood, 
 
 To see what they do there, O, 
 
 And for to chase, O, 
 
 To chase the buck and doe, 
 
 With Hal-an-tow, 
 
 Jolly rumble, O. 
 
 And we were up as soon as day, O, 
 
 And for to fetch the summer home, 
 The summer and the May, O ; 
 
 Por the summer is a-come, O, 
 
 And winter is a-go, O. 
 
 Where are those Spaniards 
 
 That make so great a boast, O ? 
 They shall eat the gray goose feather, 
 
 And we will eat the roast, O. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 451 
 
 In every land, O, 
 The land that ore we go, 
 "With Hal-an-tow, etc.. 
 And we were up, etc. 
 
 As for St. G-eorge, O, 
 
 St. George he was a knight, O, 
 Of all the kings in Christendom, 
 
 King George is the right, O. 
 
 In every land, O, 
 
 The land that ere we go 
 
 With Hal-an-tow, etc. 
 
 God bless Aunt Mary Moses, 
 
 With all her power and might, O ; 
 And send us peace in merry England, 
 
 Both day and night, O. 
 
 At nine o'clock the revellers appear before the grammar- 
 school and demand a holiday for the school-boys, after which 
 they collect money from house to house. They then fade into the 
 country (fade being an old English word for "go"), and about 
 the middle of the day return with flowers and oak branches in 
 their hats and caps, and spend the rest of the day until dusk in 
 dancing through the streets to the sound of the fiddle, playing 
 the " Furry tune," and thread the houses as they choose, — claim- 
 ing a right to go through any person's house, in at one door and 
 out of the other. 
 
 This goes on through countless houses, and through whole 
 streets. Whenever the head of the procession emerges it is re- 
 ceived with roars of delight ; whenever the tail of the procession 
 disappears it is followed by numerous adherents, who join on, 
 and begin dancing too. 
 
 It was formerl}^ the custom for the resident gentry to follow 
 suit in the afternoon, beginning by visiting some farm-house in 
 the neighborhood, whence, after regaling themselves with sylla- 
 bubs, they returned, after the fashion of the vulgar, to the town, 
 dancing as briskly the fade dance, and entering the houses as 
 unceremoniously. In later times a select party only made their 
 progress through the streets very late in the evening, and, hav- 
 ing quickly vanished from the scene, reappeared in the ball-room 
 of the Angel Inn, where they danced until supper, and then re- 
 turned home. At present, however, Furry Day is observed only 
 among the lower classes, and even among them has lost much of 
 its ancient spirit. 
 
 The meaning and derivation of the word Furry are not easy 
 to determine. Polwhele in his " History of Cornwall" (1826, 
 
452 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 vol. ii. p. 41) suggested its origin in /er, a " fair," and buttressed 
 this opinion with the second line of the "furry" song, — 
 
 They both are gone to the fair, O. 
 
 Fusi-Jama. The sacred mountain of Japan. The glory of 
 the regular, pure white cone, rising from the plain, and towering 
 king-like over the petty hills scattered to the right and left, has 
 been sung by Japanese poets, and limned by Japanese artists, 
 from time immemorial. Well-omened is the house so situated as 
 to command a view of the mountain ; fortunate the man who can 
 
 First Sight of Fusi-Jama. 
 (From a Japanese sketch.) 
 
 show, among his household treasures, the duly signed certificate 
 of his having made its arduous ascent. Scarcely a screen or a 
 tray or a lacquered bowl exists on which the well-known shape 
 of the mountain is not portrayed. Ignorant rustics cannot be 
 convinced that there are spots in the world whence the cone 
 cannot be descried. To the citizen of Yedo it is a barometer, 
 a protective genius, a sight to amaze the foreign visitor; to 
 the peasant it is a something so sublime and grand as not to be 
 spoken of without reverence. 
 
 To make a pilgrimage hither is the desire of all devout Japan- 
 ese and the accomplishment of most. The pilgrims find shelter 
 for the night in a number of rude stone huts. Immediately 
 before sunrise they all kneel among the rough cinder-heaps and 
 watch for the moment when the sun-goddess appears upon the 
 far-distant horizon ; prayers and litanies are chanted, and then 
 the circuit of the crater is begun. This is a toilsome march of 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 453 
 
 three miles, over ashes,, crags, and lava of many different colors ; 
 and it is done sunwise, with the right hand to the centre. 
 
 Some of the pilgrims make a second circuit lower down the 
 
 Pilgrims climbing Fusi-Jama. 
 (From a Japanese sketch.) 
 
 mountain, where the line of vegetation begins. This is a much 
 longer march than the other, the circumference being about 
 twelve miles, and the path is over masses of volcanic ash and 
 heaps of lava. 
 
 Gayant, Fete de. A festival celebrated annually at Douai, 
 France, from the 8th to the 11th of July. Its distinguishing 
 feature is the procession, on two out of the four days, of Sire de 
 Gayant and his family through the gayly decorated streets of 
 the town. Gayant is a figure twenty-five feet high made of 
 wicker-work. Eesplendently clad in mediaeval armor, with nod- 
 ding plumes in his helmet and a mighty mace in his hand, he is 
 down to his hips of the most masculine fibre. But the exigencies 
 of processional duties require that he must have no legs, and 
 that his lower half should be covered by a petticoat descending 
 from his thigh-pieces and his apron of chain mail to the ground, 
 so as to conceal the nine men who move the figure from within. 
 
454 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 He heads the procession. Around him madly prance mum- 
 mers mounted on hobby-horses, who make all the foolish noise 
 they can. Behind him comes his goodly consort Marie Cagenon, 
 another wicker toy, twenty-two feet high, in brocaded gown, 
 with stomacher and farthingale, and a huge fan held before her 
 face. Their three children follow, — Jacquot, in troubadour cos- 
 tume. Mile. Fillon, in plain Eenaissance gown, and the baby of 
 the family, Mile. Therese, otherwise known as Little Binbin, a 
 mere mite of eight feet, wearing a round cap and a white pina- 
 fore, and running hither and thither in mad childish glee. She 
 is the special favorite of the children of Douai, who clamor to 
 be held up in their fathers' arms to kiss her cheeks. The inter- 
 esting family is accompanied by allegorical or saintly personages 
 who vary in identity from year to year. St. Michael slaying 
 the dragon, the seven deadly sins, the cardinal virtues, demons, 
 buffoons, and fantastic animals may be among them. During 
 the intervals of the processions rural fun- making of all sorts goes 
 on. Greased poles hung with fluttering prizes tempt the unwary, 
 gayly decorated boats run races in the Scarpe, archers contend 
 
 for prizes in the Place St.- 
 Ame, concerts break out in 
 the most unexpected places. 
 The Chant de Gayant is sung, 
 flayed, and danced. This song 
 was composed in 1775 by a 
 certain Lajoye, a dancing-mas- 
 ter in a grenadier regiment 
 stationed at Douai, and is 
 always wildly applauded. 
 
 The origin of the Fete de 
 Gayant has been a puzzle 
 to many antiquarians. The 
 Church claims him as identical 
 with St. Maurand, the patron 
 of Douai. As for madame 
 and the children (questionable 
 encumbrances upon celibate 
 saintship), it insists that the 
 Gayant of the procession was 
 a single man until 1665, when 
 the good people of Douai ab- 
 ruptly ended his bachelorhood, 
 the three children being born triplets of varying ages in 1715. 
 Etymologists have made sad havoc with his name, tracing it to 
 the Greek y^, " the earth," and heaven knows what other sources. 
 But the common-sense view accepts Gayant simply as the Span- 
 
 Gayant and his Family. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 455 
 
 ish gigante, "a giant," that and many other words being preserved 
 in the local patois of Flanders as a reminiscence of the Spanish 
 dominion. 
 
 The facts of the case as seen by common sense are some- 
 what as follows. In the year 1479 a feast and an accompany- 
 ing procession were instituted in the city as a memorial of 
 the repulse of Louis XI., who had laid siege to Douai in that 
 year. In this pageant St. Maurand's image was probably a 
 prominent feature. When Charles Y. came into control of 
 Flanders as part of his imperial heritage, he sought to graft 
 Spanish innovations upon ancient Flemish customs. Hence he 
 introduced some features of the Spanish pageant known as the 
 Procession of the Giants (q. v.) into the yearly festival with 
 which the city celebrated its victory over Louis XL By the 
 time the Spaniards were finally driven from the soil, the Sire de 
 Gayant, owing to his conspicuous size, had entirely superseded 
 the saint who had been the original patron of the festival, and, 
 his peninsular paternity having been forgotten, he retained his 
 place in popular favor. 
 
 As the procession became more and more secularized the 
 Church grew more and more shocked at the license that accom- 
 panied it, and in 1770 the Bishop of Arras obtained from Louis 
 XY. a decree of suppression. The clamorous discontent of the 
 populace resulted in the rescinding of the decree nine years later. 
 The opposition of the godly was at an end. But a new opposition 
 of the ungodly began in 1792 with the triumph of the Eevolution, 
 Gayant and his family were dethroned for the Goddess of Eeason 
 and Liberty. Neither heaven nor hell, however, could prevail 
 against the gallant Sire de Gayant. In 1801 the whole family 
 were resurrected, although they had to pay a necessary tribute 
 to contemporary modes of thought and dress by donning the 
 costume of the Eepublic. Even in this guise the peasantry who 
 flocked from all sides to applaud the reappearance of their grand- 
 father, as they had come to call him, went into wild raptures of 
 recognition. It was a sort of family fete. Then in J 821 an 
 awful thing happened. Grandfather fell to pieces ! His family 
 were all more or less damaged. A complete restoration was 
 decided upon. The modern puppets are the result of this restora- 
 tion, which was tenderly and reverently planned and carried out 
 by M. Yallet, professor of drawing in the village school. 
 
 Genevieve, St., patroness of Paris. Her festival on January 
 3, the anniversary of her death, was iormerly celebrated with 
 great pomp at the church of St. Genevieve in Paris. But since 
 that church was secularized under the present republic and re- 
 named the Pantheon, the celebration of the feast has been trans- 
 
456 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 ferred to St. Etienne du Mont. Beginning on January 3, it closes 
 with the end of the octave on the 11th. 
 
 St. Genevieve was a shepherdess, born at Nanterre, now almost 
 a suburb of Paris, about 422. Christianity was at that time 
 accepted by only a small proportion of the Franks. As the 
 legend runs, she was very pious from her infancy, and St. Ger- 
 main, passing through the then tiny village, consecrated her to 
 religious work. From that time she worked miracles. Her 
 mother, in a fit of temper boxing her ears, became blind, and 
 Genevieve, by her prayers and by bathing the closed eyes with 
 the water of the well in front of the house, restored the lost 
 sight. The well became sacred, and during a famine she is said 
 to have made nourishing soup of its waters for the starving 
 peasants. The well still flows in front of the chapel at Nanterre 
 that marks the site of Genevieve's home, and pilgrims still flock 
 to it. On the death of her parents the maiden went to Paris, 
 and before she was twenty she had become famous through her 
 power of effecting cures by the use of herbs. Soon the word 
 "sorceress" began to be whispered around. There is little doubt 
 what would have been her fate if St. Germain had not come 
 forward as her protector. 
 
 Later, when Attila, King of the Huns, threatened Paris, Gene- 
 vieve exhorted the people not to fly, prophesying that Heaven 
 would protect them. And when, in truth, the enemy withdrew 
 without striking a blow, the people believed that the miracle had 
 been wrought by her supplications. 
 
 As soon as order was restored, Genevieve established the first 
 convent in France, on the spot now occupied by the Lycee Henri 
 lY. In 456, when Childeric besieged Paris, and famine came on, 
 Genevieve did her utmost to alleviate the suffering, and fitted 
 out a boat in which she procured provision from Troyes. After 
 Paris was taken she became the friend and adviser of the con- 
 queror, gaining many concessions for the vanquished. She con- 
 verted Clovis, the son and successor of Childeric, and instigated 
 him to build the first Christian church in France, on the site now 
 occupied by St. Etienne du Mont, which succeeded it in the six- 
 teenth century. In this church Clovis himself, St. Clotilde, his 
 wife, and Genevieve were subsequently buried. Genevieve's 
 death is placed in the year 511. In 845, on the occasion of a 
 Norman invasion, her relics were removed to Athis, then succes- 
 sively to Draveil, where a tooth is still preserved, and to Marizy, 
 and finally in 855 were returned to Paris. When the church of 
 St. Genevieve was built in that city the relics were enshrined 
 there in a tomb ornamented with gold. There they remained, an 
 object of universal veneration, until the outbreak of the Eevolu^ 
 tion, when the tomb was broken open, the gold was carried to 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 457 
 
 the mints, and the relics were publicly burned. Nevertheless it 
 is claimed that some of the bones were saved, and placed in the 
 church of St. Etienne du Mont. 
 
 During the centuries prior to the Eevolution many miracles 
 were reported to have been wrought by the relics of the saint 
 and through her intercession. Especially famous is the miracle 
 "des Ardens," or of the burning fever. In 1129, during the 
 reign of Louis YI., a pestilential fever swept off many thousands 
 in Paris. To stem the plague the relics of St. Genevieve were 
 carried in solemn procession to Notre-Dame. Many of the sick, 
 it is said, were cured by touching the shrine, and the plague dis- 
 appeared in a few days. An annual festival in commemoration 
 of this miracle was ordered by Pope Innocent II. to take place 
 on the 26th of l!^ovember. 
 
 During the Middle Ages, in short, if any misfortune threat- 
 ened France, — plague, famine, inundation, or invasion, — the 
 people straightway had recourse to St. Genevieve. Eighty 
 times in all her bones were carried through the streets in solemn 
 procession, with priests burning incense in their honor, and lay- 
 men scattering flowers before them and prostrating themselves 
 with wild prayers for help as the cortege passed. 
 
 In those weary, hopeless days in 1871, when in Paris famine 
 was doing a more deadly work even than the Prussians, men 
 and women who had never before uttered a prayer joined eagerly 
 in the common supplication to the patron saint : 
 
 " St. Genevieve, thou who by thy praj^ers didst save our city 
 from the hordes of Attila, save us now from the hordes of his 
 descendants." 
 
 And when the news came that General Faidherbe had won a 
 battle on the fete of St. Genevieve, the man who had dared to 
 say that it was not by the help of the saint would have stood a 
 fair chance of being lynched, in some parts of Paris. When 
 happier days came, however, St. Genevieve was as usual quietly 
 thrust into the background, there to remain until some fresh 
 misfortune to the land brings her again to the fore. 
 
 But to the Catholic minority in Paris St. Genevieve's Day with 
 its octave is still a great occasion, as is evidenced in the following 
 from the New York Tribune of January 24, 1897 : 
 
 "Paris, January 11. — There is closing to-day the interesting 
 ceremony that takes place annually in the Paris church of St. 
 Etienne du Mont. For these nine days of the fete the usually 
 deserted square in front of the church is filled with booths, 
 where chaplets, images, and mementos of all kinds are sold, 
 with crowds of the curious or reverent hurrying to and from the 
 church, with the sick and the crippled who have come here with 
 the same spirit with which they go to Lourdes, with priests and 
 
458 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 nuns and the pious not only of Paris but of the surrounding 
 villages, for cart-loads of pilgrims arrive every morning from the 
 country. 
 
 " The scene outside of the church has more of a fete-day air 
 than a religious aspect, and there is a strong spirit of ' marchan- 
 dering.' The gamins of the street run about demanding ' sous,' 
 for which the bundles of paper prayers they carry present an 
 excuse. The pilgrims, who are laden with rosaries, sacred images, 
 and medals confided to their care by less fortunate neighbors, — 
 or often with a robe or bundle of bandages for the sick that are 
 to be blessed at the shrine, — eat their frugal luncheons on the 
 curb-stones, and are the best, if most careful, patrons of the 
 booths. They buy little silver rings and charms, souvenirs of 
 the fete, for daughter or niece at home, and these become a part 
 of the bundle that rests for one moment on the relics of the saint 
 exposed for this week in the interior of the church. 
 
 " The interior of the church is not large, but it is majestic and 
 harmonious, and is curiously divided by a gallery reached by 
 winding stone stairways. On the right is the chapel, with its 
 altar and gilt Gothic shrine of the saint, about and over which 
 innumerable candles are burning. On this occasion one side of 
 the tomb is opened, and a priest stands there to receive what- 
 ever offerings may be handed him, to place them for a moment 
 On the relics before handing them back, and to give a blessing 
 if asked for while the recipient puts a two-sou piece in the 
 plate before him. Most of the crowd, kept severely in line by 
 the officials, hand the priest large bundles, of which the inte- 
 rior is only to be conjectured, and have also candles, which, 
 passing behind the tomb, they either light themselves and place 
 on one of the tiny spikes provided, or hand to a small boy if the 
 candle is sufficiently large to be placed in the front of the tomb. 
 Familiarity with his office may have destroyed the small boy's 
 sense of the dignity befitting it, for at times, when the ranks 
 grow thin, he may be seen rearranging the tapers to suit his 
 own ideas or to blow out one to hold it as fur as possible from a 
 lighte'd one and yet have it catch fire. 
 
 " The church during these nine days is draped with pale blue 
 and gold banners, and services commence early in the morning 
 and continue until late in the evening ; indeed, the chairs and 
 prie-dieus are no sooner emptied of one congregation than they 
 are filled by another." 
 
 George, St., patron of England, also of Germany and Yenice 
 and of soldiers and armorers. His festival is celebrated on April 
 23, the supposed anniversary of his martyrdom. 
 
 The legends about this saint are numerous and inconsistent, 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 459 
 
 but the generally accepted story is as follows. He was born in 
 Cappadocia in the third century. Setting out in search of adven- 
 tures, he reached a city (sometimes given as Selene in Libya, 
 sometimes as Berytus in Syria), to find it greatly annoyed by a 
 terrible dragon, which, unless it had a virgin to devour every 
 day, emitted a pestiferous and death-dealing stench. The lot 
 had fallen to the king's daughter (Cleodolinda and Sabra are 
 her most usual names) to be made a meal of, and St. George 
 met her on the way to her doom. Learning the story, he at once 
 gave battle to the dragon, and with the aid of his good sword 
 Ascalon he soon pinned it to the ground. Then he bound the 
 monster with the girdle of the princess, and in this way it was 
 led into the town. Seeing that many would have fled at the 
 sight, St. George called out to them not to be afraid, but to 
 trust in the Lord who had aided him, and be baptized in the 
 faith, and the animal would be slain before their eyes. And as 
 many as twenty thousand were baptized. Then the saint drew 
 his sword and slew the dragon. Some of the legends make him 
 marry the princess. All agree, however, that he was martyred 
 under the Emperor Dacian. He was first submitted to various 
 tortures, but through miraculous intervention they all proved 
 incapable of hurting him. He was then taken to assist at the 
 heathen sacrifices in the temple, and crowds came to witness 
 his humiliation, but a flash of lightning from heaven destroyed 
 the temple, and with it many of his enemies. Finally, on April 
 23, A.D. 303, he was beheaded. The worship of St. George began 
 in the East, where he was known as the Great Martyr. By the 
 Western Church he was comparatively ignored until the time of 
 Godfrey de Bouillon, who found his intercession to be of great 
 value in military matters. When Eiehard I. departed for the 
 Crusades, he placed his country under the protection of this 
 saint, who has ever since been the patron of England. Pop- 
 ular English legend, however, was not satisfied with so prosaic 
 an origin of the patronship, and it therefore represents that 
 when Eobert, Duke of Normandy (son of William the Con- 
 queror), was besieging Antioch, and the Saracens had come 
 to the town's relief, St. George suddenly made his appear- 
 ance with a numerous army, coming down the hills all in 
 white with a red cross on his banner, and put the infidels to 
 flight. 
 
 In the church of the convent of Zoographos on Mount Athos, 
 in Greece, is a miraculous picture of St. George, which conveyed 
 itself from Palestine without human aid, like the sacred house 
 of Loretto. The monks declare it to have been painted by the 
 divine will, and not by the hands of men, whence the monastery 
 was dedicated to the Zoographos, or Painter. There is a small 
 
460 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 hole near the eyes of the picture which is thus explained. Once 
 on a time a free-thinking bishop from Constantinople, doubt- 
 ing the divine origin of the picture, derisively thrust his finger 
 through it, and was unable to withdraw it, so that at length he 
 was forced to cut it off. 
 
 The remains of the saint are said to rest in a church at 
 Lydda, still extant, which was built over them by the Emperor 
 Justinian. 
 
 Gibbon has sought, but not very successfully, to identify St. 
 George with an infamous army contractor, named George of 
 Cappadocia, who became a champion of the Arians and died in 
 361. 
 
 Edward III. dedicated St. George's Chapel, Windsor, to him 
 in 1348, and made him patron of the new order of the Garter. 
 In the first Prayer Book of Edward YI. St. George's Day was 
 a red-letter day, and in many parts of Christendom it is still a 
 high day. In England the date has additional interest from the 
 fact that it was at once the birth- and the death-day of Shake- 
 speare, and the death-day of Wordsworth. Furthermore, the 
 death of Cervantes was exactly coincident with that of Shake- 
 speare, April 23, 1616. 
 
 As a battle-cry we have frequent evidence of the use of St. 
 George's name in Shakespeare and other dramatists. Richard 
 III. exclaims, — 
 
 Our ancient word of courage, fair St. George, 
 Inspires us with the spleen of fiery dragons I 
 
 And Richmond cries, — 
 
 Sound drums and trumpets boldly and cheerfully, 
 God and St. George ! Kichmond and victory I 
 
 In Marlowe's "Edward II." twice occurs the cry, — 
 
 St. George for England and the right I 
 
 Similar examples could be indefinitely accumulated. It is suf- 
 ficient to add that in many old documents even prior to the reign 
 of Henry YII. appear royal ordinances commending the use of 
 St. George's cross and St. George's battle-cry to all English 
 soldiers serving abroad. 
 
 The people learned to love the name which had so often nerved 
 the arms of their soldiers to victory, and the feast of St. George 
 became one of the greatest anniversaries of the year in England. 
 Bedford in " Henry YI." says, — 
 
 Bonfires in France forthwith I am to make, 
 To keep our great St. George's Feast withal. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 461 
 
 Henry YII. was especially devoted to St. George. History 
 relates how Elizabeth of York, his queen, attended the pageant 
 of St. George on Garter Day clad in crimson velvet, and mounted 
 on a palfrey of which the housings were white, ornamented 
 with red roses. 
 
 In the reign of Edward YI. the holding of the chapter of the 
 Garter was transferred from St. George's Day to Whitsunda}'. 
 In the first year of the reign of Queen Mary, however, the en- 
 actment was reversed, and since that date (1553) the chapter 
 has been annually held on the 23d of April, the original feast- 
 day, in commemoration of the martyrdom of George the soldier 
 saint. 
 
 The king's spurs became the fee of the choristers at Windsor 
 on installations and feasts on St. George's Day. In the " Privy 
 Purse Expenses of Henry YII." is an entry under the year 
 1495 : 
 
 " Oct. 1. At Windesor. To the children for the spoures." 
 
 A similar disbursement occurs thrice in the Privy Purse Ex- 
 penses of Henry YIII. in 1530. (Med. jEvi Kalend., vol. i. p. 
 214.) 
 
 Strype, in his " Ecclesiastical Memorials" (1822, vol. iii. pt. ii. 
 p. 3),' says, "April 23rd [1557], being St. George's Day, the 
 King's grace went a procession at Whitehall, through the hall, 
 and round about the court hard by the gate, certain of the 
 Knights of the Garter accompanying him, viz., the Lord Moun- 
 tagu, the Lord Admiral St. Anthony St. Leger, the Lord Cob- 
 ham, the Lord Dacre, Sir Thomas Cheyne, the Lord Paget, the 
 Earl of Pembroke, the Earl of Arundel, the Lord Treasurer, 
 and Secretary Petre, in a robe of crimson velvet, with the garter 
 embroidered on his shoulder (as Chancellor of the Garter). One 
 bare a rod of black, and a doctor the book of records. Then 
 went all the heralds, and then the Lord Talbot bare the sword, 
 and after him the sergeant-at-arms. And then came the king, 
 the Queen's grace looking out of a window beside the court on 
 the garden side. And the bishop of Winchester did execute the 
 mass, wearing his mitre. The same afternoon were chosen three 
 Knights of the Garter, viz., the Lord Fitz- Water, the deputy of 
 Ireland ; Lord Grey of Wilton, deputy of Guynes ; and Sir 
 Robert Eochester, comptroller of the Queen's house. After, the 
 duke of Muscovia (as that ambassador was usually termed) came 
 through the hall and the guard stood on a row, in their rich 
 coats, with halberts ; and so passed up to the Queen's chamber, 
 with divers aldermen and merchants. And after came down 
 again to the chapel to evensong, to see the ceremonies. And 
 immediately came the king (the Lord Strange bearing the sword), 
 and the Knights of the Garter, to evensong, which done, they 
 
462 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 went ?.ll up to the chamber of presence. After came the ambas- 
 sador, and took his barge to London." 
 
 At Leicester a great annual pageant called the " Eiding of the 
 George" was held. The town observed strict holiday. All busi- 
 ness was suspended, and the evening closed on the sports of the 
 day with feasting and revelry. 
 
 In Dublin, probably as a gentle reminder of the supremac}^ of 
 England, the pageant of St. George was ordered to be religiously 
 observed, with the result of making the day annually notable 
 for disturbances and riots that filled the jails with misdemeanants 
 and the city with broken heads. 
 
 So late as the beginning of the nineteenth centurj- it was cus- 
 tomary for gentlemen to wear blue coats with dragon buttons 
 on this festival. George lY. changed the celebration of his birth- 
 day from August 12 to St. George's Day, and the festival was 
 marked in London by the annual procession of mail-coaches from 
 Lombard Street to Millbank and back, the drivers and guards 
 brilliant in new uniforms, decked with huge bouquets and 
 rosettes, and the vehicles gorgeous with new paint and burnished 
 metal-work. In some villages of Kent the custom still survives 
 for boys mounted on hobby-horses to go through a burlesque 
 imitation of the old pageants of St. George and the Dragon. 
 But, with these exceptions, the celebration of the anniversary of 
 her patron saint has died out of England. 
 
 In Derbyshire, however, his memory is still celebrated on 
 Christmas Day by mummers or guisers who go from house to 
 house and perform a play of St. George. They are dressed up 
 in character and decorated with ribbons, tinsel, and other finery. 
 On being admitted into the house their performance is com- 
 menced by St. George : 
 
 I am St. George, the noble champion bold, 
 
 And with my glittering sword 
 
 I've won three crowns of gold ; 
 
 It's I who fought the fiery dragon, . 
 
 And brought it to the slaughter ; 
 
 And so I won fair Sabra, 
 
 The king of Egypt's daughter. 
 
 — Seven have I won, but married none, 
 
 And bear my glory all alone, 
 
 — "With my Sword in my hand, 
 
 Who dare against me stand? 
 
 I swear I'll cut him down 
 
 With my victorious brand. 
 
 A champion is soon found in the person of Slasher, who ac- 
 cepts the challenge. St. George then replies in a neat speech, 
 when they sing, shake hands, and fight with their wooden 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 463 
 
 swords, and Slasher is slain. The King then enters, saying, "I 
 am the King of England, the greatest man alive," and, after 
 walking round the dead body, calls for " Sir Guy, one of the 
 chiefest men in the world's wonder," who shows his wonderful 
 courage and prowess in calling for a doctor. The doctor, on 
 making his appearance, gives a long and quaint account of his 
 birth, parentage, education, and travels, whilst perambulating 
 around the I'allen Slasher, and ends his oration by saying, — 
 
 Here, take a little out of my bottle, 
 And put it down thy throttle. 
 
 The dead man is thus cured, and, having received the advice 
 of " Eise, Jack, and fight again," the play is ended. (Journal of 
 the Archceological Association, 1852, vol. vii. p. 206.) 
 
 There was a famous story once current at Eome that on St. 
 George's Day a meditation used to be read out in the chapel of 
 the English College there, divided into three parts or points, 
 which ran as follows : 
 
 " Point I. Let us consider that we know very little indeed 
 about St. George." After due time had been given for a devout 
 apprehension of this fundamental verity, there followed 
 
 " Point II. Let us consider that the little we do know is very 
 doubtful." To say nothing of the somewhat Hibernian method 
 of conveying this supplementary information, it does seem hard 
 that when there was so little to begin with, that little should 
 not have been left alone. But, to clinch matters by excluding 
 once for all any illusory anticipations of future enlightenment, 
 the meditation closed with a third and last point : 
 
 "Let us consider that it is quite certain we shall never know 
 anything more about St. George." 
 
 Under the Empire in Brazil the great festival of the year 
 was St. George's Day. Eoyalty itself joined in the procession 
 which was the feature of the occasion. " I once saw the late 
 Emperor Dom Pedro II. traverse the main street of Eio de 
 Janeiro on foot, with his noble head bared to the noonday sun, 
 while just in front of him, fastened to the saddle (in which 
 it was with difficulty held upright by two assistants), reeled 
 helplessly to and fro, amid the unconcealed laughter of even 
 its nominal worshippers themselves, the overgrown doll that 
 represented Sao Jorge." (Harper's Young People, vol. xiv. p. 
 167.) 
 
 On the eve of St. George's Day the Servian women gather 
 fresh leaves and flowers, which they throw into water set in 
 motion by a windmill. Next day or on the feast itself they 
 bathe in the water made fragrant by their springtide offerings. 
 
464 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Giants, Procession of the. A bit of mummery ooce very 
 popular in England, Spain, and Flanders. Into the latter land 
 it was introduced by the Emperor Charles Y. from Spain, Yet 
 Spain now boasts of only one survival, at Barcelona, while in 
 that part of modern Belgium and France which once was Flan- 
 ders almost every city has its communal giants, — colossal effigies 
 which with their colossal consorts or attendants are carried about 
 the streets on certain days. Each has its own name, its own 
 legend, and its own festival. Antwerp has its Antigonus, 
 Brussels its Brabo, Douai its Gayant, scores of other cities 
 their own legendary monstrosities. These are fashioned in many 
 ways and attired in still more various costumes, ranging from 
 the Eoman, as at Antwerp, to the court dress of the last century, 
 as at Brussels. Sometimes they are formed of osier, as at Douai, 
 sometimes carved elaborately in wood, as at Antwerp. But all 
 are so constructed that their lower robes hang around their feet 
 so as to conceal the motive power, a dozen or so of stout fel- 
 lows who now and then set down their burdens and emerge 
 from the draperies to breathe. 
 
 These men are experts in their line, for the movements of each 
 giant should be in keeping with his character. An ogre giant, 
 for example, must have a firm and defiant port, while the motions 
 of a funny giant must be funny. 
 
 On solemn occasions of national importance, such as the en- 
 tries of sovereigns into cities, centenary celebrations, religious 
 or secular, and the like, there is a reunion of giants. They are 
 lent by the corporations of each town to swell the public shows. 
 Such an occasion was the centenary of St. Eombaud at Mahnes, 
 that of St. Macaire at Mona, and especially the World's Fair held 
 in Brussels in 1890. On July 13 of that year more than two 
 hundred colossal figures, representing nearly fifty cities, took 
 part in a procession through the streets of Brussels. Even the 
 town of Tarascon, in France, had been induced to send on its 
 famous Tarasque, the dragon which St. Martha tamed into innocu- 
 ousness and which furnishes the only approximation in Southern 
 France to the Hispano-Flemish mummeries. (See Martha, St.) 
 
 The procession of the giants in Barcelona occurs on Corpus 
 Christi Day. A dozen enormously tall figures, representing scrip- 
 tural and legendary men and women, — the Cid, Santiago, etc., — 
 dressed in ancient costumes, promenade the streets. 
 
 Around these giants dance dozens of bronze-faced men in 
 female garb, and behind them march troops of children arrayed 
 as angels. The child at the head of the angelic host is usually 
 the son or the daughter of one of the richest merchants of the 
 city; the dainty little body has wings made of tulle fastened 
 upon card-board. Sometimes a bevy of children ranged around 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 465 
 
 some sweet-faced woman represent angels grouped around the 
 Madonna. Then follow long rows of pupils of religious socie- 
 ties, the officials of the city, carrying wax tapers in their hands ; 
 and finally, escorted by military bands and surrounded by priests 
 and soldiers, the throne of one of the earliest of canonized Cata- 
 lonian kings, — a golden chair richly chased, encrusted with jewels 
 and heaped with flowers. 
 
 If Antwerp has its Antigonus, London has its Gog and Magog, 
 whose representations still stand in (they do not adorn) the old 
 Guildhall of London. These are taken down to form part of 
 the Lord Mayor's show. Formerly they figured with other 
 giants and with monstrous dragons in the popular processions 
 on Midsummer Eve, May-Day, and Shrovetide. The original 
 images were made of wicker and pasteboard, so that they were 
 easy to move ; but the London fire destroyed one set, the rats 
 subsequently ate up the entrails of another, and the modern ones 
 are wooden counterparts. The Puritans under Cromwell suc- 
 ceeded in breaking up the processions of giants, and, though 
 they had a temporary revival under Charles II., they finally 
 languished and died. 
 
 Among the relics of this ancient pastime is the Tailors' Giant 
 still preserved at Salisbury, — the last of the old English peram- 
 bulating giants. A pasteboard head crowned with tow hair is 
 fitted on a framework of lath and hoops. A person could walk 
 inside and carry the figure, being himself completely concealed 
 by the drapery of colored chintz, bordered with red and purple 
 and trimmed with yellow fringe. A gold-laced cocked hat was 
 placed on the head, a pipe in the mouth, and a branch of arti- 
 ficial laurel in the right hand. Thus accoutred, he won the 
 facile applause of the spectators. 
 
 No mere giant, however, could quite satisfy the mediaeval 
 English love for the grotesque. Various monstrous devices were 
 added, the most popular of all being the dragon. At Norwich 
 this emblem survived in the mayoralty processions until so late 
 as 1832. It was composed of canvas stretched over a framework 
 of wood. The outside was painted of a sea-green color, with gilt 
 scales and a crimson mane tied in fantastic knots about the tail. 
 The body was five feet in length, but the neck and head could be 
 elongated three feet and a half, and could also be turned in any 
 direction at the will of the bearer. 
 
 (^The feeling expressed in the scriptural verse " There were 
 giants in those days" seems to have been universal with prim- 
 itive men. Most nations of the world have traditions of ances- 
 tors heroic in size as well as courage. Moslem and Eabbinical 
 legends place the size of Adam and Eve at a hundred feet and 
 more. 
 
 30 
 
466 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 The Hindoos have a tradition of a giant race who bestrode 
 elephants as we do horses. The Greek heroes at the siege of Troy- 
 threw stones at their enemies which the strongest of their descend- 
 ants could not move. Homer and Yirgil speak of the men of 
 their own day as mere dwarfs in comparison with those elder 
 heroes of whom they sang. 
 
 When Queen Elizabeth visited Kenilworth Castle, in 1575, 
 there were six gigantic figures, eight feet in height, standing 
 guard over the castle gate. " By this dumb show," explains a 
 contemporary writer, " it was meant that in the days of King 
 Arthur men were of that stature, so that the Castle of Kenil- 
 worth should still seem to be kept by King Arthur's heirs and 
 their servants." 
 
 Giles, St. (Lat. JEgidius ; Ital. Sant Egidio ; Fr. Saint Gilles ; 
 Sp. San Gil)^ patron saint of Edinburgh, and of tinkers, cripples, 
 and beggars. His festival is celebrated on September 1, the 
 reputed anniversary of his death. St. Giles was born in Athens 
 about 640, and came to Gaul, where he became abbot of a mon- 
 astery in Aries. Some miracles which he performed, one of 
 which was healing a sick man by throwing his cloak over 
 him, gave him so much fame that, fearing for his humility, he 
 withdrew to a solitary cave near Nismes, where he spent the 
 remainder of his days in prayer and mortification. Legend says 
 that he was fed by a hind, and that one day the hind was 
 wounded by the King of France, or, according to other accounts, 
 by the King of the Goths. The king in pursuing the hind came 
 upon the saint in his retreat. He tried in vain to persuade the 
 saint to return with him to his court. It is said that many 
 miracles were worked at his cave, and the spot became so sacred 
 that a monastery was built there which was called after the 
 saint. The church still remains upon the spot, and is an extra- 
 ordinary remnant of the Middle Ages. Queen Matilda dedicated 
 a hospital which she founded outside of London to St. Giles, and 
 the name now belongs to an extensive parish. The cathedral 
 at Edinburgh is named after St. Giles. His attribute in art is a 
 wounded hind. 
 
 The relics of St. Giles are preserved at St. Saturninus in Tou- 
 louse. On St. Giles's Day in Valencia it is the custom to bless a 
 sprig of fennel. 
 
 In Belgium the tinkers' apprentices parade through the 
 streets of the cities under the leadership of two of their number, 
 one wearing a kind of shako surmounted by a plume, while 
 the other bears upon a little wooden platform with a long 
 handle a statue of the saint, surrounded with flowers. From 
 the platform depend spoons, pots, and other household utensils. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 46'7 
 
 In this guise they stop at the houses of their various patrons and 
 demand some small gratuity. 
 
 Tinkers' Parade on St. Giles's Day. 
 (From a Belgian lithograph.) 
 
 Girdle (It. Cintola) of the Blessed Virgin. A famous relic 
 in the cathedral at Prato, exhibited from the pulpit on all the 
 
468 duktosiTiES oP 
 
 great festivals of the Yirgin. The legend runs that Doubting 
 Thomas, true to his name, refused to believe in the Virgin's 
 Assumption into heaven, as he had refused to believe in the 
 Saviour's Ascension. But when the grave was opened he found 
 it empty ; and the Virgin, pitying the weakness of his faith, let 
 down her girdle to him from heaven to remove all further doubts 
 from his mind. This girdle remained for centuries in the Holy 
 Land. In the eleventh century one Michele dei Dogamari, a 
 pilgrim from Prato, fell in love with the daughter of the priest 
 who possessed the girdle. Marrying the lady, he received the 
 relic as her dowrj'-, brought it with him to Prato, and on his 
 death-bed delivered it to a priest on condition that it should be 
 preserved forever in the cathedral of his native city. 
 
 Glastonbury Thorn. A species of thorn (^Gratcegus prcecox) 
 which flourishes in Glastonbury and other portions of England 
 as well as Europe, but which is especially associated with its 
 eponymic city through an ancient legend. The original thorn is 
 asserted to have been the walking-staff of St. Joseph of Ari- 
 mathea, who, after Christ's death, came over to England and 
 settled at Glastonbury. In what was afterwards the church- 
 yard of Glastonbury Abbey he stuck his staff into the ground. 
 It immediately took root and put forth leaves, and on the day 
 following, which happened to be Christmas Eve, was covered all 
 over with snow-white blossoms. On every recurring Christmas 
 Eve it continued thus to bloom for a long series of years, great 
 numbers of pe<5ple visiting it annually to witness the miracle. 
 During the time of the civil wars this bush was destroyed, but 
 several trees which are descended from it by cuttings still sur- 
 vive in Glastonbury and are believed to retain its characteristics. 
 One of them, of rather scanty growth, occupies the site of the 
 original thorn, on the summit of Weary-All Hill. Another, a 
 much finer specimen, stands on private premises near the en- 
 trance of a house that faces the abbot's kitchen. 
 
 When the change of calendar was effected in 1752 a vast con- 
 course of people assembled on Christmas Eve, 'New Style, to 
 watch the famous thorn, " but, to their great disappointment, 
 there was no appearance of its blowing, which made them watch 
 it narrowly the 5th of January, the Christmas Eve, Old Style, 
 when it blowed as usual." {Gentleman's Magazine, January, 
 1753.) A similar refusal to blossom on the new date was observed 
 in a shoot of the Glastonbury Thorn in Buckinghamshire, where 
 thousands of spectators with lights and lanterns had assembled 
 to see it. Thereupon the people declared that the 25th of Decem- 
 ber, New Style, was not the true Christmas, and refused to 
 observe it as such, most of all as the white thorn continued to 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 469 
 
 blossom on the 5th of January as usual. (Ibid.) To put an end 
 to the dispute, the clergy of the neighborhood issued an order 
 that both days, Old Style and New, were to be similarly kept. 
 
 The thorn superstition is not yet extinct. A writer in Wotes 
 and Queries (Third Series, ix. 33) says, " A friend of mine met a 
 girl on Old Christmas Day in a village of ISTorth Somerset, who 
 told him that she was going to see the Christmas Thorn in 
 blossom. He accompanied her to an orchard, where he found a 
 tree, propagated from the celebrated Glastonbury Thorn, and 
 gathered from it several sprigs in blossom. Afterwards the 
 girl's mother informed him that it had formerly been the custom 
 for the youth of both sexes to assemble under the tree at mid- 
 night on Christmas Eve, in order to hear the bursting of the 
 buds into flower; and, she added, 'as they corned out you could 
 hear 'em haifer' (crackle)." 
 
 Until the time of King Charles I. it was customary in England 
 at Christmas time to proceed in solemn state and present the 
 king and queen with a flowering branch of the G-lastonbury 
 Thorn. 
 
 ^In point of fact, though the thorn does usually put forth 
 blossoms at about the advent of New Year, a mild season will 
 make it blossom even before Christmas., 
 
 Aubrey mentions an oak in the JSFew Forest that was a rival 
 of the Glastonbury Thorn, inasmuch as "it putteth forth young 
 leaves on Christmas Day, for about a week at that time of the 
 year. Old Mr. Hastings was wont to send a basketful of them 
 to King Charles 1. I have seen of them several Christmases 
 brought to my father. But Mr. Perkins, who lives in the New 
 Forest, says that there are two other oaks besides that which 
 breed green buds after Christmas Day (pollards also), but not 
 constantly." 
 
 Godfathers and Godmothers, known also as Sponsors 
 (Lat. spondeo, "I promise") and Sureties. There seem to have 
 been sponsors at the baptismal font in very early Christian 
 times, and it is said they were first appointed by Hyginus, 
 Bishop of Eome, in 154. There was at first only one sponsor for 
 each catechumen, who was chosen from the deacons and deacon- 
 esses. Catechumens, heretics, and penitents, and subsequently 
 monks and nuns, were excluded from the office. At first it was 
 not uncommon for parents to stand as sponsors, but this was 
 forbidden in the ninth century, though the privilege was sub- 
 sequently restored by the English Church. 
 
 The number of sponsors for each child was prescribed by the 
 fourth canon of the Council of York, in 1196, to be 7io more than 
 three persons, two males and one female for a boy, and two 
 
470 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 females and one male for a girl, — a rule which is still preserved 
 in the English Church. In the Eoman Church it is not neces- 
 sary to have more than one godparent, though there are some- 
 times more. By little and little, large presents were looked for 
 from sponsors, not only to the child but to its mother; the result 
 was that there grew to be a great difficulty in procuring persons 
 to undertake so expensive an office. Indeed, it sometimes hap- 
 pened that fraudulent parents had a child baptized thrice, for 
 the sake of the godfather's gifts. To remedy these evils, a 
 council held at L'Isle, in Provence, in 1288, ordered that thence- 
 forth nothing was to be given to the baptized but a white robe. 
 This prescription appears to have been kept for ages. Stow, in 
 his " Chronicle of King James's Eeign," says, " At this time, and 
 for many ages, it was not the use and custom (as now it is) for 
 godfathers and godmothers to give plate at the baptism of chil- 
 dren, but only to give christening shirts, with little bands and 
 cuffs, wrought either with silk or blue thread, the best of them 
 edged with a small lace of silk and gold." Cups and spoons 
 have, however, stood their ground as favorite presents to babies 
 on such occasions ever since. "Apostle spoons" — so called be- 
 cause a figure of one of the apostles was chased on the handle 
 of each — were anciently given, opulent sponsors presenting the 
 whole twelve. Those in middling circumstances gave four, and 
 the poorer sort contented themselves with the gift of one, exhib- 
 iting the figure of any saint, in honor of whom the child received 
 its name. 
 
 Shakespeare in " Henry YIII." makes the king say when 
 Cranmer professes himself unworthy to be sponsor to the young 
 princess, — 
 
 Come, come, my lord, you'd spare your spoons. 
 
 Davenant's comedy of " The Wits" (1639) has these lines : 
 
 My pendants, cascanets, and rings, 
 My christening caudle-cups and spoons, 
 Are dissolved into that lump. 
 
 The coral and bells is an old invention for baptismal presents. 
 Coral was anciently considered an amulet against fascination and 
 evil spirits. 
 
 Godchildren were placed not only in a state of pupilage with 
 their sureties, but also in the position of relations. A sort of 
 relationship was established even between the godfathers and 
 godmothers, insomuch that marriage between any such parties 
 was forbidden under pain of severe punishment. This injunction, 
 like many others, had, it appears, been sufficiently disobeyed to 
 
\ 
 
 POPULAR CUSTOMS. ' 471 
 
 warrant a special canon (twelfth) of the Council of Compiegne, 
 held so early as 757, which enforced the separation of all those 
 sponsors and godchildren of both sexes who had interniarried, 
 and the Church refused the rites of marriage to the women so 
 separated. 
 
 In the English Church the prohibition does not now exist, 
 though there is still extant a popular saying that " those who 
 meet at the font shall not meet at the altar." 
 
 Godiva's Procession, Lady. A famous pageant which for 
 two centuries has been intermittently celebrated at Coventry, 
 England, on August 2. The leading figures in it are Lady 
 Godiva and Peeping Tom. A local legend, part history and part 
 myth, is cited in explanation of the custom. 
 
 Matthew of Westminster, who flourished about 1300-1310, first 
 set down the episode as sober history, but failed to make a place 
 for '• Peeping Tom." He says, — 
 
 " This Countess (Godiva), devoutly anxious to free the city of 
 Coventry from a grievous and base thraldom, often besought the 
 Count, her husband, that he would, for the love of the Holy 
 Trinity and the Sacred Mother of God, liberate it from such 
 servitude. But he rebuked her for vainly demanding a thing so 
 injurious to himself, and forbade her to move further therein. 
 Yet she, out of her womanly pertinacity, continued to press the 
 matter, insomuch that she obtained this answer from him : ' As- 
 cend,' he said, ' thy horse naked, and pass thus through the city, 
 from one end of it to the other, in sight of the people, and on 
 thy return thou shalt obtain thy request.' Upon which she re- 
 turned, ' And should I be willing to do this, wilt thou give me 
 leave ?' ' I will,' he responded. Then the Countess Godiva, be- 
 loved of God, ascended her horse naked, loosing her long hair, 
 which clothed her entire body except her snow-white legs, and 
 having performed the journey, seen by none, returned with joy 
 to her husband, who, regarding it as a miracle, thereupon granted 
 Coventry a Charter of Freedom, confirming it with his seal." 
 
 Everybody will remember Tennyson's lesson which incorpo- 
 rates a later addition to the myth : 
 
 , Then she rode forth, clothed on with chastity ; 
 I * * * * * -x- * 
 
 And one low churl, compact of thankless earth, 
 
 The fatal byword of all years to come, 
 
 Boring a little auger hole in fear. 
 
 Peeped — but his eyes before they had their will 
 
 Were shrivelled into darkness in his head, 
 
 And dropt before him. So the Powers who wait 
 
 On noble deeds cancel a sense misused. 
 
472 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 How or when this "one low churl, compact of thankless 
 earth," was first made the horrid antithesis of Lady Godiva's 
 noble sacrifice, or why the honest vocation of a tailor was called 
 upon to supply a culprit, no man can tell. But Coventry has 
 accepted him as a fact. Effigies of Peeping Tom are countless 
 here, — in stone, in wood, in delft, in porcelain, in wax ; while 
 the very school-boys are eternally testing new jack-knives upon 
 grotesque imitations of the repulsive object. " The thing leers 
 at you from niches above ancient buildings ; seems to crane its 
 lecherous head from the cornices of new and old hotels ; shows 
 its horse-like teeth from among shop-window trifles, and haunts 
 and pursues you until you are startled to see its lineaments re- 
 produced in the faces of tramps and beldames in shadowy quar- 
 ters of the musty old town. Truly the Peeping Tom you will 
 find everywhere in Coventry is a dreadful travesty upon the 
 human form and face. They have put his trunk and chest in 
 armor. He is made a man of arms as well as of shears, with 
 a military cocked hat decked with a huge rosette. His face is 
 wide, square, and white. The eyes are Brobdingnagian in size 
 and possess a leer both sanctimonious and repulsively suggestive. 
 His bearded chin looks likes the mirage of a savage flame. And 
 the mouth, as wide as a cow's, discloses a ghastly row of grave- 
 stone teeth." (Edward L. Wakeman, in New York Sun, October 
 18, 1891.) 
 
 But if this luckless wight is merely a popular embodiment of 
 evil as opposed to good. Lady Godiva at least was an historical 
 personage. She was sister to Thorald, Sheriff* of Lincolnshire, and 
 wife of Leofric, or Lorich, Earl of Mercia, a favorite of Edward 
 the Confessor, and in his time at the head of various great state 
 transactions. Both history and tradition unite in honoring Lady 
 Godiva with the possession of unusual piety, goodness, and 
 beauty. The devout pair certainly founded a great monastery 
 for Benedictine monks, which attained enormous wealth and 
 splendor, suffered strange vicissitudes, passed into silence and 
 decay, and left massive vestiges of its remains on the banks of 
 the river here. Leofric died at Bromley, Staffordshire, but was 
 buried in one porch of the monastery at Coventry, while his 
 wife, who at her death gave a "rich chain of precious stones to 
 be put around the neck of the Blessed Yirgin's image, so that 
 those who came of devotion thither should say as many prayers 
 as there were several gems within," received burial in the other. 
 It is incontestably true that the citizens of Coventry, when 
 Leofric's vassals, did receive, through Lady Godiva's efforts with 
 her grim warrior husband, some sort of manumission from ser- 
 vile tenure. Not only do ancient records prove this, but also 
 the memorial window which stood in the south transept of 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 473 
 
 Trinity Church up to the fifteenth century, and contained a 
 picture of Lady Grodiva and Leofric, the latter holding in his 
 right hand a charter bearing the following inscription : 
 
 I, Lorich, for love of thee 
 Doe make Coventry tol-free. 
 
 From the year 1217, when Coventry Fair was chartered by 
 Henry III., the town of Coventry had been famous for the 
 Mystery Plays performed there at the Corpus Cbristi season. 
 They were an important source of attraction to the fair, ^ost 
 popular of all was the play of Adam and Eve, in which our first 
 parents appeared in a state of paradisiacal nudity. The destruc- 
 tion of the monasteries and the discontinuance of the Mysteries 
 proved a heavy blow to the wealth and trade of Coventry. Its 
 population was reduced by over twelve thousand, and its fair 
 was not well attended. The inhabitants had sufficient reason to 
 mourn that the clothesless Eve no longer exhibited herself annu- 
 ally among them. There is reason to believe that for a time 
 they sought to revive the attraction in a pageant in which Eve 
 perambulated the streets on horseback. 
 
 Then the wave of Puritanism involved all festivities and pa- 
 geants in a common ruin. For nearly a century the pageant 
 at Coventry was discontinued. Coventry still went downward. 
 Its fair had lost its fame as an emporium of commerce. Even 
 the Eestoration did not improve matters much. Under these 
 circumstances, the authorities hit upon the idea of reviving the 
 pageant, and the licentious period of Charles II. enabled them 
 to do so. The revival occurred in 1678. Mayor and corporation 
 had always been in the habit of going through the streets and 
 proclaiming the opening of the fair, but they were on this occa- 
 sion accompanied by the trading companies of the city displaying 
 flags. Boys fancifully dressed as pages took the part of the 
 angels in the old Corpus Christi pageants, and in the heart of the 
 procession ajiaked woman bestrode a horse. But she was no 
 longer known as Eve. She was now the Lady Godiva. The local 
 legend explained everything. 
 
 /jFrom year to year until the beginning of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury the nude Godiva allured to Coventry the numerous de- 
 scendants of Peeping Tom in Warwickshire. Then she fell into 
 disfavor, and reappeared only at irregular intervals until the 
 early part of the nineteenth century, when she made way for a 
 new Lady Godiva, got up more in accordance with nineteenth- 
 century prejudices and clad in close-fitting cambric without a 
 skirt, relieved by a variety of ornaments and a splendid gauze 
 scarf suspended from her long flowing hair. For many sue- 
 
474 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 ceeding years a Godiva of this sort compromised the rival de- 
 mands of the people on the one hand and of the prudes and 
 parsons on the other. But the compromise was not effected 
 without bitter annual quarrels, and every now and then the show 
 has been suspended. 
 
 In 1887 the Lady Godiva procession had dwindled down to 
 nothingness, and for four years thereafter it was suffered to 
 lapse. On August 2, 1892, it was revived by the working peo- 
 ple, mainly for commercial reasons, and it was successful in 
 attracting a large concourse of people. The Antiquary for Sep- 
 tember, 1892, informs us that it recalled much of Dugdale's 
 description of its predecessors. "There were the pageants very 
 large and high, placed upon wheels, and drawn to all the emi- 
 nent parts of the city for the better advantage of the specta- 
 tors. Those of the bricklayers, the carpenters, and the Druids 
 were especially successful. The dresses of the foresters, too, 
 were bright. There were companies of various friendly socie- 
 ties and trades associations, though how far these latter are the 
 descendants or representatives of the Craft Guilds we know not. 
 Lady Godiva herself was a gruesome failure. She appeared 
 neither as she did on the famous occasion when she rode forth 
 clothed on with chastity only, nor as she presumably did at nor- 
 mal and less momentous times. In fact, she had simply stepped 
 from the stage of nineteenth-century burlesque. The other his- 
 toric personages represented were dressed with some attempt at 
 accuracy. It was altogether a curious blending of the modern 
 and the mediaeval. There was the feudal knight in silken mas- 
 querade. The chimney-pot hats of the committee followed in 
 close proximity behind St. George of England. Brass bands 
 blatantly heralded ' the lady champion swimmer' who was for 
 the nonce 'the woman of a thousand summers back.' But, 
 most incongruously congruous of all, in the early part of the 
 procession came a car advertising tubular bells, at its close 
 rolled a vehicle setting forth the merits of Bolus's pills." 
 
 Going in State. In England this is the name given to a 
 triumphal procession in which civic or regal dignitaries form the 
 central glory. The mayor of London, for example, goes in 
 state on the occasion of his inauguration on every successive 
 November 9. But the most important ceremonial of this sort 
 is when the reigning sovereign goes from Buckingham Palace 
 to the cathedral of St. Paul's to render thanks for some signal 
 benefit accorded by the Almighty to the royal family or the 
 royal dominions. About the earliest occasion of this sort on an 
 important scale was when Henry lY. in 1399 went to St. Paul's 
 to offer up prayers on his accession to the throne. Henry YI. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 475 
 
 followed the example of his predecessor, and Henry VII., after 
 the defeat of Lambert Simnel, went on two successive days in 
 solemn procession to return thanks to God. But one of the 
 grandest processions to the church of St. Paul was when, on 
 Sunday, the 21st of May, 1514, Henry YIII. went to receive 
 the sword and cap of maintenance which the Pope had sent 
 him as Defender of the Faith. The crowd on this occasion was 
 estimated as numbering over thirty thousand people. 
 
 The next grand occasion was when Queen Elizabeth went, in 
 magnificent splendor, on the 24th of November, 1588, to old St. 
 Paul's. She was seated in a kind of triumphal chariot, drawn 
 by two white horses, and was received at the door of the church 
 by the Bishop of London, the dean, and fifty other clergymen, 
 habited in superb copes. On entering the church the queen 
 kneeled, pronounced a prayer, and then proceeded to her seat, 
 under a canopy, in the choir, when the Litany was chanted. 
 After that she was conducted to a closet, prepared for the oc- 
 casion in the north wall of the church, "where," says an his- 
 torian of the occasion, fshame to our effeminacy, she remained 
 exposed to the wintry blasts of November during the space of 
 time which Pierce, Bishop of Salisbury, occupied in delivering 
 a sermon." 
 
 Several of these thanksgiving services took place in the reign 
 of Queen Anne. Scarcely an important victory was gained in 
 this reign — when important victories were by no means infre- 
 quent — but what the pious queen proceeded in solemn state 
 to return thanks to the Almighty for the divine favor. One of 
 the grandest of these occasions, perhaps, was on the 12th of 
 November, 1702, after the brilliant successes of Marlborough 
 in the Low Countries and the destruction of the Spanish fleet 
 in the harbor of Yigo by the Duke of Ormond and Sir George 
 Rooke. Dean Milman, in his "Annals of St. Paul's," says that 
 the Council declared that the cathedral being for that day the 
 queen's Chapel Eoyal, the seats were to be disposed of and all 
 the arrangements made by the Lord Chamberlain. The queen's 
 throne, as in the House of Lords of that day, was about three 
 feet higher than the floor of the choir, covered with a Persian 
 carpet, and surmounted ^by a canopy fifteen feet high. There 
 was, according to the proclamation, an arm-chair on the throne, 
 and a desk for the queen's book, covered with crimson velvet, 
 richly embroidered and fringed with gold, with a cushion of the 
 same. The two Houses of Parliament assisted at the ceremony, 
 the Lords being seated in the area or body of the choir, the 
 Speaker of the House of Commons in a seat next to the Lord 
 Bishop of London, in the middle of the south side of the choir, 
 and the members in the stalls and galleries on each side. 
 
476 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 In the procession to the cathedral the House of Commons led 
 the way. At eight o'clock they went to St. James's Palace, then 
 along Pali-Mall, and so to the cathedral, where they took their 
 places. The Lords met at ten, and formed into procession, pre- 
 ceded by the officers of the House, masters in chancery, judges, 
 peers under age, then barons, bishops, viscounts, earls, dukes, 
 the great officers of state, the archbishops, and the Keeper of 
 the Great Seal. In that order they proceeded to the cathedral, 
 and took their seats till the arrival of the queen, the organ in 
 the interval playing voluntaries. At eleven o'clock the queen 
 entered her carriage at St. James's. At Temple Bar she was 
 received by the lord mayor, sheriffs, and aldermen, on horse- 
 back. 
 
 Then the lord mayor surrendered the sword, prefacing the 
 ceremony with a brief speech. It was immediately returned by 
 the queen, and the lord mayor carried it before her to the 
 church. On her arrival at the west door her majesty was met 
 by the peers and principal officers of state, and conducted along 
 the nave to her throne. Then followed divine service, and a 
 sermon of about half an hour's duration from the old Whig 
 Bishop of Exeter, Sir Jonathan Trelawney. The queen led the 
 way back. The Tower guns, those on the river, and those in 
 St. James's Park were fired three times : once, as the queen left 
 St. James's ; next, when the Te JDeum was chanted ; and, lastly, 
 on the queen's return to the palace. 
 
 This procession was taken as the established model for all 
 subsequent occasions of the same sort ; and when George III. 
 went in state to St. Paul's, on the 23d of April, 1789, after his 
 recovery from a dangerous illness, the form of the ceremony was, 
 in the main, similar to that just described. 
 
 Blackwood's Magazine for March, 1842, gives a description of 
 a pageant of this sort in the early days of Queen Yictoria: 
 
 " First come, trotting slowly, a detachment of Life Guards 
 clearing the way — their sabres glisten in the air — their bearskin 
 caps flout the sky — ladies are in raptures — such divine men, 
 such lovely coats, beautiful swords — fascinating mustaches — 
 handsome horses ; and then the officer, covered with gold lace — 
 divine, love-inspiring man ! — tremble now, ye unwhiskered 
 beaux, for the affections of your fair ones, and assure your- 
 selves, that however your belles may regard you, at this moment 
 that dear delightful officer is the god of their idolatry ; and what- 
 ever sweet smiles they may condescendingly bestow on you, 'tis 
 of that Adonis of the household troops they are thinking all the 
 while. But the ladies have no time to fall desperately in love, 
 for the beef-eaters appear — remarkable old files, in the fashion 
 of the days of Elizabeth, with embroidered frocks, and little 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 477 
 
 porringer velvet caps, bedizened with red and white ribbon, hal- 
 berts over their shoulders, tottering and shambling along, hke 
 pilgrims of the unboiled peas; — next following, behold several 
 preliminary carriages and four, containing lovely ladies of the 
 bedchamber, in lappets and diamonds, and fair-faced, elegant 
 gentlemen of the ditto, in blue embroidered coats, and elegantly 
 fitting primrose tights : — a little pretty- faced page, in a military 
 uniform, lolls carelessly in the lap of a lovely lady, like a sucking 
 Mars nurtured by one of the Graces ; next, in a carriage and six 
 splendid bays, comes the Master of the Horse, a grand and awe- 
 inspiring personage ; after him, in a carriage with half a dozen 
 beautiful blacks, the gracious-looking Mistress of the Robes ; and 
 then, heralded by another squadron of horse, moves past us, 
 more slowly than the rest, a pale, fair form, of youthful grace 
 and beauty, her brow encircled by a diadem, and thoughtful, as 
 if the weight of that glittering but uneasy burden pressed upon 
 the brain ; each heart, as she passes, is upon each lip, and a burst 
 of enthusiasm heralds the youthful Monarch in her triumphant 
 way. A cloud of horse closes the procession, but unheeded and 
 unremembered ; we turn awa}", oppressed with the weight of 
 reflection that crowds upon us, contemplating the form of her 
 upon whose dominions the sun never sets, and whose sovereignty 
 a hundred millions of human beings cheerfully obey; whose 
 councils influence, directly or indirectly, the interests of the 
 civilized world." 
 
 In February, 1872, Queen Victoria went in state to offer 
 public thanks at St. Paul's for the recovery of the Prince of 
 Wales from a dangerous illness. 
 
 Golden Rose. Once a year at the utmost, on the fourth 
 Sunday in Lent (known theologically as Lsetare Sunday, but 
 more popularly as Mothering Sunday), a golden rose is blessed 
 by the Pope, to be afterwards sent off as a mark of approval to 
 Catholic members of royal or noble families, either male or 
 female, to great generals, to noted churches and sanctuaries, to 
 illustrious Catholic cities or republics. But often no one is con- 
 sidered worthy of the honor, and then it is laid away in the 
 Yatican and brought out again the next year. 
 
 Originally the Grolden Rose was a single flower of wrought 
 gold, colored red ; afterwards the golden petals were decked with 
 rubies and other gems; finally the form adopted was that of a 
 branch, bearing leaves, thorns, and buds, and a full-blown rose 
 at the top, all of pure gold. The branch is put in a decorated 
 flower-pot, which has engraved on its pedestal the arms and 
 name of the Pope who blessed and bestowed the gift. Its 
 intrinsic value was formerly very great, but economical reasons 
 
478 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 have caused the later Popes to dispense with the splendid ruby- 
 that used to be attached as a bud to the chief flower, and with 
 the other precious stones with which the branch w^as laden. The 
 vase, once of gold, is now silver gilt. Pope Clement IX. sent a 
 rose to the Queen of France which weighed eight pounds and 
 was valued at eight thousand francs. 
 
 Popular opinion dates the observance of this custom from the 
 year 1049, under the pontificate of Leo IX. There is now every 
 reason to suppose that he was not the originator ; but it was this 
 Pope who, wishing to establish his right of patronage over the 
 monastery of the Holy Cross in Alsace, decreed that the abbess 
 should supply the Golden Rose every year, ready made, or two 
 ounces of gold with which to supply the goldsmith. And this 
 mandate naturally connected his name with the emblem in such 
 a way as to give the impression that he was something more 
 than a mere imitator of his predecessors. 
 
 In the eleventh century, according to Mabillqn, the Pope 
 sang mass on Laetare Sunday in the basilica of Santa Croce in 
 Gerusalemme, holding the rose in his hand during the Gospel, 
 and while preaching a sermon of which, as it were, the flower 
 aiforded the text. The rose was presented before the mass to 
 the Holy Father, in his room, by a chamberlain, together with 
 balm and musk In many a Eoman Ordo^ and in briefs arid 
 other documents of an early date, constant mention is made of 
 the rose and of its usage, but nowhere mention of its being 
 blessed. The first to mention the ceremony of blessing the rose 
 is Agostino Patrizio, master of ceremonies to Pope Innocent 
 YIIL, in his work printed at Yenice in 1488. It may have been 
 Nicholas Y. who first blessed the rose. The Pope was crowned 
 on Lsetare Sunday, and went, riding on a milk-white steed, to 
 take possession of his cathedral at the Lateran, holding in his 
 hand the precious rose. The blessing always now takes place at 
 the high mass on Mid-Lent Sunday. The rose is placed between 
 two lighted tapers on a table in the sacristy, and is presented by 
 the youngest cleric of the Pope's household to the Pope on his 
 way to the Sistine Chapel. The Holy Father, in alb and stole, 
 after placing incense in a thurible held by the senior cardinal 
 priest present, reads a special prayer for the occasion, and places 
 the scents in the rose, which he blesses and incenses. The rose 
 is then carried before the Pope to the altar at which his Holiness 
 celebrates mass, where it remains until the Holy Sacrifice is over, 
 when it is taken away to the pontifical treasury. 
 
 Originally it seems to have been the custom to present the 
 golden rose to the Prefect of Eome after the latter had led the 
 Pope's horses by a golden bridle to the doors of the Lateran 
 basilica and aided his Hohness to dismount. But the distribu- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 479 
 
 lion of the gift soon became broadened, and it was bestowed 
 both upon persons and places. 
 
 It is an old superstition that the Golden Eose brings ill luck to 
 its owner. People cite the instances of Joanna of Sicily, the 
 first Eose Queen, made so by Urban YI., who was dethroned and 
 strangled by her nephew, Gonsalvo de Cordova, the Great Cap- 
 tain, who died in disgrace ; the Queen of Naples, wife of King 
 Bomba, the Empress Josephine, Isabella herself, and other high 
 dignitaries, who shortly after the reception of the Golden Eose 
 met with death or misfortune. So when, in 1889, Pope Leo 
 singled out Dona Isabella of Brazil for this honor, her country- 
 men predicted that evil would befall her or her family, and, in 
 fact, before the news was out Dom Pedro was dethroned and she 
 was no longer the heiress to a sceptre. 
 
 It has been stated that the Golden Eose was sent to two 
 American ladies, Mrs. William T. Sherman and Miss Mary Cald- 
 well, whose gift of three hundred thousand dollars to the Catholic 
 University at Washington would certainly be worthy of such 
 an acknowledgment. But, in fact, these ladies received formal 
 tokens of Papal approval, but not the Golden Eose. The rule has 
 never been broken which requires that the Golden Eose shall be 
 presented to no individuals outside of royalty and the nobility. 
 
 Good Friday. The Friday in Holy Week, instituted in com- 
 memoration of Christ's crucifixion. It probably received this 
 name from the good things which he gained for us by his suf- 
 fering and death. A plausible alternative etymology, however, 
 would make it a corruption of Goddes or God's Friday. Among 
 the Saxons it was called Long Friday, probably on account of 
 the long fasts and ofiSces used on this day. 
 
 From the first ages of the Church the commemoration of 
 Christ's suff'erings has been kept as a day of strictest fasting and 
 humiliation. The Fourth Council in 633 severely rebuked all 
 those who fasted only up to three p.m., and shut them out from 
 participation in the Paschal communion. 
 
 Much of this early austerity is remitted, but the day is still 
 one of strict fast and mourning. In the Eoman Church the 
 ofiiciating clergy appear in black garments, the altar is stripped, 
 the candles are not lighted. After a short pause the altar is 
 covered with white cloths. Passages from the Old and New 
 Testaments are read and prayers are recited. Mass cannot be 
 consecrated on this day, but the priest receives a host conse- 
 crated on Holy Thursday. A special feature of the day is the 
 Adoration of the Cross. After mass the crucifix is divested of 
 the black with which it had been covered, and is kissed by the 
 clergy and people while four hymns are sung. 
 
480 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 In the Latin countries this Adoration of the Cross is a far 
 more elaborate ceremony. A huge crucifix or a wax image of 
 Christ rests on a cushion on the floor for all to kiss. In many 
 places the effigy is buried in the afternoon with solemn rites in 
 an Easter sepulchre {q. v.), there to remain until the dawn of 
 Easter Sunday, when it is returned to the church. The Easter 
 sepulchre is sometimes a temporary and sometimes a permanent 
 adjunct to the church. In Eome the ceremony is far more sim- 
 ple. The eucharistic body of Christ, blessed on Holy Thursday, 
 is borne in a silver monstrance by the Pope and the cardinals in 
 procession from the Sistine Chapel into .that of St. Paul. There 
 the host is deposited in a glittering shrine of crystal which 
 towers up to the ceiling and is so placed as to appear bathed in 
 light while the rest of the chapel is in darkness. For the re- 
 mainder of Thursday and the beginning of Friday it is exposed 
 to the veneration of the faithful. 
 
 In Munich and Yienna the ceremony is the most elaborate in 
 Europe. An e^gy of Christ is placed on a bier covered with a 
 white veil, and borne in procession round the interior of the 
 church. First come the choristers in their white robes, then 
 priests in black and white, with the bier in their centre, then a 
 long train of men, followed by another long train of women, all 
 in black, and all bearing lighted tapers. Thus slowly proceeding 
 round the church, the figure is laid in the sepulchre. 
 
 This is usually an imitation cave under the altar. Artificial 
 rocks surround the opening, a small lamp is suspended over the 
 corpse, and a row of tiny lamps burn upon the ground in front, 
 not unlike footlights, save that each burns behind a small globe 
 filled with colored liquids, green, blue, crimson, and yellow, after 
 the fashion of the ornamental bottles in drug-stores. The altar 
 above is transformed into a very mountain of plants and flowers, 
 blooming in pots which are artfully concealed or beautifully 
 decorated. Lights are disposed everywhere on the altar. Fig- 
 ures of angels in fluttering robes of pale pink and white, and 
 with very yellow hair and very pink cheeks, crown the moun- 
 tain-top. 
 
 Tall orange-trees in tubs, laurels, and cedars stand in groups 
 on either hand. " To complete the general idea, jon must im- 
 agine the rest of the church darkened, with daylight struggling 
 through blinded windows, and through the doorways, as the 
 heavy doors swing ever to and fro to admit the entrance and the 
 departure of the restless crowd. Imagine, also, a dense multi- 
 tude circulating through all these churches, and only stationary 
 before the sepulchre ; and, above the shuffle of feet and the 
 murmur of prayers or adoration, fitful, plaintive strains of music, 
 moaning through the gloom, and the sonorous voices of the 
 
ADORATION OF THE CROSS AT ST. PETER's. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 481 
 
 priests chanting their solemn dirge. Such, with slight varia- 
 tions, was the scene in the Munich churches throughout this 
 Good Friday." {Household Words.) 
 
 A famous procession of the Dead Christ occurs triennially at 
 the Httle village of San Domino near Florence, Italy. In The 
 Churchman for April 10, 1897, Miss Edith E. Crosby thus de- 
 scribes the procession as she had seen it on the Good Friday 
 of 1896 : " Heralded by the eager buzz and murmur of the ex- 
 pectant people, a half dozen Eoman soldiers came galloping up 
 the narrow street, raising a cloud of dust about them ; their cos- 
 tumes of red and blue, and much tinsel, probably borrowed from 
 some provincial theatre company. Behind them, in martial step, 
 came a really fine military band, with muffed drums, playing a 
 heart-breaking funeral march, which hushed the spectators and 
 prepared their impressionable spirits for what was coming. 
 After the band came a company of young village girls, in black, 
 with long black veils, and holding huge burning tapers ; then 
 little boys, in white, carrying the emblems of the Passion and 
 Crucifixion, — the scarlet robe, the scourges and chains, the dice, 
 the spear, a large stuifed cock, and banners inscribed with the seven 
 words. Then, quite alone, bearing herself with the instinctive 
 theatrical grace of the Italians, a tiny girl, as an angel, dressed 
 in pink, with white wings, and curly hair, holding the great gilt 
 cup steadily in her little hands. After her walked old men in 
 sackcloth. Then another band playing a dirge. Then all the 
 priests of the village and environs, in their holiday vestments, 
 and behind them, after a solemn pause, with much swinging of 
 incense, the huge catafalque, rolling silently through the clear 
 starlit and lamplit night, bearing the life-size figure of the Gesu 
 Morte, the dead Jesus, extended under a heavy baldaquin of 
 black and silver. By the time that it reached us, the solemn 
 music, the slow-stepping procession, the tense expectancy of the 
 crowd, and the hallowing influence of the night, had so worked 
 upon our imagination that all seemed terribly real, and terribly 
 sad, and as the dead Jesus was borne past us. His pale, calm face 
 turned towards us, and all around us fell upon their knees, bare- 
 headed, we bent our heads, and knelt with them. 
 
 "But a moment later the spell was broken by a tasteless 
 statue of the Virgin, which followed the catafalque, dressed in 
 deep mourning, and holding a lace handkerchief to her stream- 
 ing eyes. Behind her came contadine representing the women 
 of the crucifixion ; among others, Mary, with her hair down her 
 back, and her alabaster box of ointment in her hand. Another 
 band and a few more Eoman soldiers finished the procession." 
 
 Similar celebrations occur in the Greek Church, both in Greece 
 and in Eussia. On Holy Thursday a prostrate image of Christ 
 
 31 
 
482 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 on the cross is brought out by the priest and laid in the middle 
 of the church. The devout — usually more women and children 
 than men — then come forward and kiss the hands and feet of 
 the image. When leaving the church each one is expected to 
 leave a coin on one of the holy disks, for which he receives a 
 blessing in return. 
 
 On Good Friday evening there is a service called the Epi- 
 taphion, — a kind of funeral service in memory of the mourning 
 and sorrow at the burial of Christ. Then the image of Christ 
 is placed on a bier and borne in solemn procession through the 
 streets. Crowds of people take part, all carrying lighted candles. 
 
 The military band with muffled drums plays a dead march, 
 and at intervals the people cross themselves before a large wooden 
 cross carried at the head of the procession. 
 
 In Catholic England Good Friday was the day upon which the 
 king blessed certain rings and thereby was supposed to endow 
 them with a miraculous power of curing cramps. The service 
 which attended the blessing of those cramp-rings was so original 
 that it deserves description. The king and his suite would pro- 
 ceed in state to the palace chapel, upon the floor of which rested 
 a crucifix upon a silken cushion, and in front of which was spread 
 a rich carpet. The king would creep along the carpet to the 
 crucifix, — as a token of absolute humility, — his " almoner" creep- 
 ing after him. Having reached the crucifix, he would there 
 bless the cramp-rings, which were deposited in a silver basin. 
 After this was done, the queen and her ladies-in-waiting entered 
 the chapel and also crept to the cross. This completed the cere- 
 mony, and the rings had been transformed into the most potent 
 remedial agents. The custom probably arose from the miracu- 
 lous properties accredited to Edward the Confessor's ring, which 
 was kept in Westminster Abbey for a long time. 
 
 In London, and all over England (not, however, in Scotland), 
 the morning of Good Friday is ushered in with a universal cry 
 of " Hot cross buns !" A parcel of them appears on every 
 breakfast-table. The hot cross bun is rather a small bun, more 
 than usually spiced, and having its brown sugary surface marked 
 with a cross. The ear of everj^ person who has ever dwelt in 
 England is familiar with the cry of the street bun-venders. 
 Usually it runs as follows : 
 
 One a penny, buns, 
 Two a penny, buns, 
 One a penny, two a penny, 
 Hot cross buns ! 
 
 There are many variants, however, the following being an 
 instance : 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 483 
 
 One a penny, two a penny, 
 Hot cross buns. 
 
 If you have no daughters. 
 
 Give them to your sons ; 
 But if you have none of these merry little elves. 
 Then you may keep them all for yourselves. 
 
 Men, women, and children used to be early astir to supply the 
 general demand, carrying large baskets covered with flannel and 
 white cloth to keep their fresh wares warm. For a century and 
 a half Chelsea was famous for its buns. Swift mentions the 
 "rare Chelsea buns" in his "Journal to Stella," in 1712. These 
 were made and sold at the Old Chelsea Bun-House, in Jews' 
 Eow, a single-story building, with a colonnade projecting over 
 the foot-pavement. It was a great meeting-place on Good Friday 
 mornings, sometimes as many as fifty thousand persons calling 
 for buns, two hundred and forty thousand of which have been 
 sold in a single day. 
 
 A rival bun-house arose, and competition became fierce, espe- 
 cially in the reign of George III., when royalty itself deigned to 
 visit Chelsea to partake of these delicacies. 
 
 The history of the cross bun goes back to the time of Cecrops, 
 and to the liba offered to Astarte, and thence can be traced 
 upward through the Jewish passover cakes, and the eucharistic 
 bread, or cross-marked wafers, mentioned in St. Chrysostom's 
 Liturgy. So that the Good Friday bun has antiquity and tra- 
 dition to recommend it ; and, indeed, its very name of bun is but 
 the oblique boun, from bous, the sacred ox, the semblance of 
 whose horns was stamped upon the cake. There, too, they also 
 did duty for the horns of Astarte, in which word some philolo- 
 gists affect to trace a connection with Easter. The substitution 
 by the Greeks of the cross-mark in place of the horn -mark would 
 seem to have chiefly been for the easier division of the round 
 bun into four equal parts. Such cross-marked buns were found 
 at Herculaneum. 
 
 The original home of the English custom, where it is still 
 chiefly observed, is Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire. There 
 the old Eoman roads, the Icknield Street and the Armynge 
 Street, crossed. There stood in Eoman times the altar of Diana 
 of the Cross ways, to whom the Eomans offered their sacred 
 cakes. 
 
 In many parts a small loaf of bread is baked on the morning 
 of Good Friday and then put by till the same anniversary in 
 the ensuing year. This bread is not intended to be eaten, but 
 to be used as a medicine, and the mode of administering it is by 
 grating a small portion of it into water and forming a sort of 
 panada. It is believed to be good for many disorders, but par- 
 
484 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 ticularly for diarrhoea, for which it is considered a sovereign 
 remedy. Some years ago a cottager lamented that her poor 
 neighbor must certainly die of this complaint, because she had 
 already given her two doses of Good Friday bread without any 
 benefit. (Brand : Popular Antiquities, 1849, vol. i. p. 155 ; see 
 Notes and Queries, Third Series, vol. iii. pp. 262, 263.) 
 
 Every Good Friday a large crowd gathers at St. Bartholomew's 
 Church in London (which all through the remainder of the year 
 is practically deserted) to witness a performance that is anything 
 but agreeable, — namelj, twenty-one aged women bending down 
 on the floor to pick up twenty-one sixpences. Some time before 
 the Great Fire, but exactly when is not known, a lady bequeathed 
 property to have twenty-one sixpences laid upon her grave-stone 
 in St. Bartholomew's Church, which were to be picked up and 
 severally owned by the same number of aged widow women. 
 The grave stone was to be in the floor ; and the lady was so 
 particular as to provide that any widow who from infirmities 
 could not, or from pride would not, stoop down to procure a six- 
 pence, should not have it. The name of the testatrix and the 
 actual place of her burial are now forgotten, as all the records of 
 the period were destroyed in the Great Fire. Nevertheless the 
 sixpences are picked up from the floor by the most aged women 
 that can still bend the stifl'ening hinges of their limbs. 
 
 At the church of All Hallows a sermon is preached every 
 Good Friday, in accordance with the direction in the will of 
 Peter Symonds, dated 1587, to the youngest boj^s of the Blue- 
 Coat School, after which sixty new pennies and sixty packets of 
 raisins are distributed among them. Under the same will the 
 children of Langbourn Ward Schools who help in the choir, and 
 the children of the Sunday-school, receive each a bun, and various 
 sums of new money, ranging from one penny to one shilling, be- 
 sides the poor of the parish, on whom it bestowed one shilling 
 each and a loaf. The money used to be given away over the 
 tomb of the donor, until the railway in Liverpool Street effaced 
 the spot. 
 
 The custom of skipping the rope on Good Friday still exists 
 at Brighton, though it is rapidly falling into disuse. It is gener- 
 ally practised with a long rope, from six to ten adults skipping 
 at one rope. Formerly the entire fishing community used to 
 engage in this amusement during the whole day, which was 
 thence known as Long-Eope Day. In nearly all the Sussex 
 villages marbles are played on Good Friday by both boys and 
 men. 
 
 At Guildford, Surrey, many people flock to St. Martha's Hill. 
 Formerly they used to spend the day in singing and dancing; 
 but this part of the festivities is no longer retained. St. Martha's 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 4^5^ 
 
 Church on this spot is an old pilgrim church whither the faith- 
 ful used to go when they were on their way to the shrine of St. 
 Thomas of Canterbury. But Martha's Hill is said to be a cor- 
 ruption of Martyr's Hill. Doubtless the visit of the Guildford 
 folk is a relic of some ancient religious ceremony or pilgrimage. 
 
 In Spain the senoras appear in the streets in funeral garb. No 
 colors are worn. Even the jeunesse doree are in black from hat 
 to boots, with jet studs and sleeve-buttons. Fashionable ladies 
 sit within the church doors and beg in the name of charity and 
 earn large sums for the poor. 
 
 The hanging or burning of Judas in efQ.gy is celebrated on 
 Good Friday or Holy Saturday in Portuguese countries. 
 
 Many are the quaint and often grotesque rites observed in 
 other countries on this the anniversary of Christ's Passion. 
 There is the Mystery Play at Monaco, with its night procession. 
 The countless candles and torches, the fantastic costumes of the 
 participants, the minor, monotonous chanting of the priests, all 
 combine — canopied as they are with the starlit heavens — to cast 
 a poetic spell about the scene, hiding the grotesqueness of its 
 mummeries and bringing out only its beauties. Lastly, there 
 is the procession of penitents in the Sicilian city of Palermo. 
 Masked with a hood, which only contains two holes to see 
 through, crowned with a garland of thorns, and wearing a rope 
 noose around their necks, which also is tied around their clasped 
 hands, thus do the penitents parade through the streets, mar- 
 shalled by priests or monks. 
 
 Gorsedd. A mystic ceremony which usually precedes the 
 opening of an Eisteddfod (q. v.). It is performed in an open 
 space. In the centre of this is a huge stone, the " Maen Llog," 
 surrounded by a circle, thirty feet in diameter, of other stones, 
 supposed to represent the signs of the zodiac. On the outside 
 of the eastern portion of the circle three more stones are placed, 
 in such a position as regards the Gorsedd stone that lines drawn 
 from it to them will indicate the rising of the sun at the summer 
 and winter solstices and the vernal and autumnal equinoxes re- 
 spectively. To this Gorsedd stone moves a curious and pictu- 
 resque procession of bards, druids, and ovates, or candidates for 
 higher orders. The first are dressed in blue, to indicate their celes- 
 tial aspirations, the second in white, as a symbol of great purity, 
 the third in green, to represent the grass of the field, which is 
 typical of growth and progress. One of the bards carries a 
 sword by its point, to show that he is a man of peace and would 
 prefer to turn the weapon against himself rather than against 
 any other person. On arriving at the circle, a prayer, said to have 
 been composed thirteen hundred years ago, is recited, and then 
 
486 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 the Gorsedd is declared to be opened, and the business of confer- 
 ring degrees on the bards and ovates is proceeded with. Then 
 follows the Eisteddfod. This is thrown open to the general 
 public which is not initiated into the mysteries of bardism. 
 
 Opening Ceremonies at a Gorsedd. 
 
 Gregory the Great, St. His festival is celebrated on March 
 12, the anniversary of his death. 
 
 St. Gregory was the son of a Roman senator, and was born in 
 540. He was praetor of Rome for twelve years, but later he 
 turned his house into a monastery and hospital, and lived in a 
 cell there as a Benedictine monk. On the death of Pope Pelagius, 
 Gregory was elected to succeed him. During his popedom he 
 convened many synods and endeavored to restore the discipline 
 of the Church. He rearranged the liturgy and introduced the 
 style of chanting still called Gregorian. Legends relate many 
 miracles performed by this saint, and tell of heavenly messengers 
 that appeared to him. One legend relates that he gave many 
 alms to a beggar who came and besought him again and again 
 until Gregory gave him his last possession, a silver bowl given 
 to him by his mother. Years afterwards when he became Pope 
 he daily entertained twelve poor men at his table; but one night 
 he beheld thirteen, though his steward could see only twelve. 
 Gregory inquired of the thirteenth man who he was. "I am 
 the beggar," was the reply, "whom thou didst relieve; but my 
 name is Wonderful, and through me thou shalt obtain whatso- 
 ever thou askest of God." John the Deacon, secretary to St. 
 Gregory, has left an account in which he declares that he has 
 seen the Holy Spirit in the shape of a dove perched upon the 
 shoulder of St. Gregory as he wrote. This explains why the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 487 
 
 dove is so often an attribute of St. Gregory in art. St. Gregory 
 died in 604, and his remains were laid in the Vatican church. 
 In 826 the remains were translated to Soissons and placed in the 
 monastery of St. Medard. The head was placed in the abbey of 
 St. Pierre-le-Yif, at Sens, and a bone was given to Eome at the 
 request of Urban YIII. in 1628. The Council of Clif, or Clove- 
 shore, in 747 commanded that the feast of St. Gregory be ob- 
 served as a holy-day in all the monasteries of England. The 
 Council of Oxford in 1222 extended the holy-day to the whole 
 kingdom. 
 
 The feast was formerly observed as a holiday in all the rural 
 schools in the baronies of Forth and Baigy (the Strongbonian 
 Colony) in the county of Wexford, Ireland. The manner of 
 observance was this. The children for some days previous 
 brought contributions, according to tbe means and liberality of 
 their parents, consisting of money, bread, butter, cream, etc., 
 and delivered them to the teacher. On the morning of the 
 joyous day the children repaired to the school-house in holiday 
 dress, where the teacher had everything prepared for the fes- 
 tivity, the simple temple of learning decorated with the richest 
 flowers within his means of obtaining, and the presence of two 
 or more kind-hearted females to do the honors and duties of the 
 tea-table to the happy juveniles. A " king" and a " queen" were 
 nominated, who, of course, took the seat of honor, and the proud 
 and busy teacher was everywhere all attention to his little pupils. 
 The day passed off in hilarity and innocent enjoyment, and the 
 competitive system of free offerings left, generally, something 
 pleasing to tell for some days in the pockets and humble cup- 
 board of the teacher. This custom prevailed until after the 
 beginning of the present century. 
 
 Guadalupe, Our Lady of. (Sp. Nuestra 8enora de Guada- 
 lupe.) A famous picture of the Virgin, preserved in the collegiate 
 church of Guadalupe, a little town three and a half miles north 
 of Mexico. The number of pilgrims, singly and in bands, that 
 resort to this shrine entitles Guadalupe to the designation of the 
 American Lourdes. Special ceremonies are celebrated on the 
 12th of every month, but the great festival of the year is on 
 December 12, the anniversary of the first appearance of the 
 picture, when the Indians from far and near assemble in vast 
 troops to do honor to their patroness, huge crowds standing on 
 the eve of the feast through the night at the church doors, so as 
 to gain entrance in the morning. Other devotees on their knees 
 make the ascent of the neighboring steep of Tepayacac. Nor 
 are Indians alone attracted hither. Dainty dames in Spanish 
 mantillas are jostled by frowsy drabs from Cuautitlan, dudes 
 
488 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 from the Paseo find themselves cheek by jowl with half-clad 
 muleteers, fashionable broughams compete for place with ram- 
 shackle hackney-coaches. 
 
 The pontifical high mass begins at twelve o'clock, and when 
 it is well under way, beggars, decked out in the bizarre garniture 
 of olden days, with plumes of feathers and gaudy masks, dance 
 their barbaric reels in the middle of the church. ^ 
 
 The legend runs that in the year 1531 an Indian convert, bap- 
 tized under the name of Juan Diego, was thrice blessed with a 
 vision of the Virgin Mary, who bade him make known to the 
 Bishop of Mexico that she desired a church to be built on the 
 spot where she had appeared, and that she would be a kind and 
 loving mother to the poor Indians and to all who should invoke 
 her aid. But when the bishop, doubting, requested the attesta- 
 tion of some sign or miracle, the Virgin on the third day bade 
 Juan fill his tilma^ or homespun blanket, with flowers. And 
 when he took the flower-laden tilma to the bishop and opened it 
 out before him, lo ! it was found that the flowers, though visible 
 to the eye, were not palpable to the touch, and moreover that a 
 marvellous picture was limned upon the blanket in colors which 
 partook of no earthly quality and with an art no human hand 
 could equal. And this picture was the portrait of the Holy 
 Virgin as she had appeared to Juan. The sign was accepted, the 
 church was built, the picture was hung up within the church. 
 And there it has remained ever since during all the successive 
 enlargements from the original chapel to the present imposing 
 edifice, save that at the time of the terrible floods of 1629, when 
 the ordinary road-bed was submerged, the archbishop and his 
 attendants went by boat, in solemn pilgrimage, to Guadalupe, 
 and transferred the venerated pictures to his cathedral. Here it 
 was visited by immense crowds of devotees, day by day, until 
 the waters subsided. By common acclamation relief from the 
 total destruction which threatened Mexico was attributed to Our 
 Lady of Guadalupe. ^ 
 
 " After that period," says Archbishop Corrigan of New York, 
 in an article in The Seminary for December, 1895, " devotion to 
 Our Lady of Guadalupe spread so rapidly throughout the entire 
 kingdom that it would be worse than useless to adduce proofs to 
 establish its universality./' At this day you can hardly enter a 
 shop in the city of Mexico without finding a lamp burning before 
 a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe. You can hardly enter a 
 church without seeing an altar erected in her honor. $ Indeed, 
 the Provincial Council of Antequera or Oaxaca specially ordains 
 that no church be built in the entire province without its special 
 altar in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Every diocese in 
 Mexico dedicates the 12th of every month to Our Lady of Gua- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 489 
 
 dalupe, and every year sends thousands of devout pilgrims to 
 her shrine. When the patriot priest, Hidalgo, who is called the 
 /Washington of Mexico, began the fight for independence in 1810, 
 his standard and his battle-cry were ' Our Lady of Guadalupe.' , 
 The revolution itself, although it despoiled every other church in 
 Mexico, has ever respected this shrine of Our Lady. In one 
 word, the Virgin of Guadalupe has taken such hold on the 
 Mexican people that to attempt to dislodge her from their affec- 
 tions would be to tear out their hearts by the roots." 
 
 Archbishop Corrigan was one of the twenty-two foreign prel- 
 ates who, with the" forty-three bishops of Mexico, and fifty 
 thousand pilgrims of all ranks, were present at the coronation 
 of the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe on October 12, 1895. The 
 crown, which is of gold, sparkling with precious stones, and 
 valued at twenty-five thousand dollars, was lifted up to a level 
 with the head in the picture. 
 
 A number of interesting details are given by Archbishop Cor- 
 rigan in the article already quoted from. 
 
 " The material," he says, " on which the image is formed is a 
 coarse product of the maguey plant, such as is still used by the 
 Indians for their wraps and for other domestic purposes. The 
 image is painted on this rough canvas, without any sizing or 
 preparation. In fact, the canvas is transparent, the same image 
 showing on both sides. At various times the picture has been 
 examined by a committee of experts composed of distinguished 
 artists and of scientific men, and they have deposed under oath 
 that they could not account either for its production or for its 
 preservation. The image exhibits peculiar characteristics of 
 painting in oil, in water-color, in distemper, and in relief In 
 fact, these four dissimilar kinds of painting are discernible in 
 different portions of the same canvas ; and, in addition to this, 
 the gilding, which appears in the stars embroidered on the gar- 
 ment of Our Lady and in the texture of the robe itself, as well 
 as in the rays of light which issue from the figure, is not applied 
 according to any known process, and seems rather to have been 
 woven into the fibre than painted on it. 
 
 " Apart from the curious commingling of dissimilar kinds of 
 painting on the same canvas, there is this other peculiarity about 
 the picture, that for years it was exposed, without any covering, 
 not only to the smoke of censers and innumerable candles, but 
 to the damp air, charged with saltpetre, which continually arises 
 from the neighboring lakes and marshes, and which affects and 
 corrodes the hardest substances ; and yet, after a period of more 
 than three hundred and sixty years, this product of the maguey 
 plant, which ought to have perished long ago, is still in a state 
 of perfect preservation. This is the more remarkable, because 
 
490 ' CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 experiments have been tried in the same locality with similar 
 material, but with very different results. An able artist, Don 
 Eafael Gutierrez, took a fine tilma, September 12, 1789, and 
 painted on it a fac-simile of Our Lady of Guadalupe. When 
 finished, it was protected by a glass cover and placed in the 
 neighboring chapel, Del Pocito. The result was that before 
 eight years elapsed it was so discolored and disfigured by the 
 fumes of the saltpetre that it was necessary to withdraw it from 
 public view and relegate it to the sacristy. 
 
 " The great proof of the authenticity of the apparitions," the 
 archbishop continues, "is the constant and uninterrupted tradi- 
 tion, bearing all the marks of credibility, accepted by all classes 
 of people, and extending from the days of Juan Diego to our 
 own time. This tradition has been twice officially examined and 
 approved by the Holy See. Only last year, after a long and most 
 searching examination, Pope Leo XIII. granted a new office and 
 mass in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe, by letters dated March 
 6, 1894. In 1754, Pope Benedict XIY. had already granted a sim- 
 ilar favor, although the text relating to the apparition was not 
 so explicit. In fact, hardly a Pontiff has sat on the throne of 
 Peter during the past two hundred and fifty years who has not 
 accorded special favors to the sanctuary at Guadalupe." (See 
 also Eemedios.) 
 
 Guadalupe, Virgin of. Long before the advent of the Mex- 
 ican Lady of Guadalupe, the mother-country of Spain had a 
 famous image of the Virgin, still preserved in the Jeronymite 
 convent at Guadalupe in Estremadura. It was discovered in 
 1330 by one Giles, a cow-keeper of Caceres, and somehow it 
 turned out to have been carved by St. Luke, to have been given 
 to San Leandro, the Gothic uprooter of Arianism, by Gregory 
 the Great, and to have been miraculously preserved during the 
 six centuries of Moorish invasion. A hermitage was built on 
 the spot. In 1340 Alonzo XI. raised a chapel which Juan I. in 
 1389 converted into a convent subject to the Pope alone. For 
 ages this was one of the richest and most frequented shrines in 
 Europe. Cortes made a special cult of this image, hence the 
 recurrence of the name in Mexico. His first act on his return in 
 1538 was a pilgrimage to the convent, where he and his followers 
 worshipped for the space of nine days, offering at the altar the 
 spolia opima of their strangely achieved wealth. At present the 
 convent is degraded into a barrack, but the splendid chapel and 
 the image have escaped. 
 
 Gudula, St. (Flemish, Goole), patron saint of Brussels, Her 
 festival is celebrated on January 8, the anniversary of her burial. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 491 
 
 Gudula was born about the middle of the seventh century, in 
 Brabant. She was of noble parentage, and her relative St. Ger- 
 trude was her sponsor and took chai-ge of her early education. 
 She devoted herself from childhood to a religious life. The 
 castle of her father, Count Witger, was two'miles from the little 
 village of Moorsel, where there was an oratory dedicated to the 
 Saviour. Thither went Gudula at cock-crow every morning to 
 her devotions, taking a maid with her to carry her lantern. 
 
 It is related that on one occasion the Evil One put out this 
 lantern, but Gudula knelt by the roadway and prayed, and the 
 lantern was miraculously relighted. She devoted her entire rev- 
 enue to the poor, and when she died all the people followed her 
 body to the grave. She was buried on the 8th of January, 712, 
 according to general opinion, at the village of Hanum, near Ke- 
 legham. On the morning after her burial a poplar that stood at 
 the foot of her tomb burst into leaf in spite of the season. The 
 body of the saint was transported successively to Mvelles, TJms, 
 and Maubeuge, through fear of the Normans. It was afterwards 
 laid in the oratory at Moorsel. Charlemagne built a monastery 
 in honor of St. Gudula in Moorsel, but this was destroyed by the 
 Normans. 
 
 The remains of the saint were finally taken from Moorsel to 
 Brussels in 978. Since 1047 a magnificent church, known as St. 
 Gudula's, has perpetuated her memory, and here the saint is 
 enshrined. 
 
 In art she is represented with a lantern, which an angel is 
 kindling. 
 
 Guernica, Tree of. Close to the town of Guernica in Bis- 
 cay, Spain, is the so-called tree of the Basque Liberties. For- 
 merly the Lords of Biscay took their oaths on a stone bench 
 placed at its foot. At present the general juntas are inaugu- 
 rated here and are continued in the adjoining church of Santa 
 Maria la Antigua. It is perpetuated like the Euskarian family, 
 and is succeeded by its scions, the tree which is to substitute the 
 present one having been planted in 1880. The present tree was 
 thirty years old when, in 1811, its predecessor fell down under 
 the weight of some three centuries. Several patriotic songs have 
 been dedicated to the tree. Eousseau sent it his blessing, and 
 Tallien saluted it in the midst of the French Convention. 
 
 . Guingamp, Pardon of. Next to the Pardon of St. Anne of 
 Auray (see Auray), this is the most notable of all the Breton 
 Pardons, or festivals. It begins on the Saturday preceding the 
 first Sunday in July. 
 
 According to the local historians, its origin can be traced back 
 
492 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 to a remote antiquity. Save during the interregnum of the 
 Ee volution, it has always attracted an immense crowd of pil- 
 grims. But not until the sixteenth century was the image known 
 as Notre-Dame de Bon Secours, " Our Lady of Good Help" (the 
 object of all this .hofnage), invested with a crown by the Pope, 
 thenceforth assuming a rank to which she had not previously 
 been entitled. By sunrise on the morning of Saturday the nar- 
 row winding streets of the old town of Gruingamp are crowded 
 with pilgrims, come to perform their devotions at the shrine of 
 J^otre-Dame de Bon Secours, and to take part in the evening 
 procession in her honor. This is the distinctive feature of the 
 day. It is held after* vespers, and is thus described by George 
 M. Towle in Harper's Magazine, vol. xlii. p. 39 : 
 
 " The church, which is brilliantly lit up, is crowded in every 
 part. The service terminated, precisely at nine o'clock the bells 
 begin to chime, and then to toll a monotonous peal, while most 
 of the houses in the town are being illuminated, and the head 
 of the procession — composed of men and women mingled to- 
 gether indiscriminately, the half-wild-looking Bas-Breton every 
 now and then alternating with some charming-looking demoiselle 
 whose toilet is after the latest mode — is seen descending the 
 flight of steps in front of the north door of the church, preceded 
 by a priest bearing the cross. A troop of cavalry, stationed 
 immediately opposite, salutes the sacred symbol; and for a quar- 
 ter of an hour pilgrims, all with lighted tapers in their hands, 
 and the men with their heads bare, continue descending the steps 
 in double file. While these are passing out at the north door, 
 another detachment of pilgrims, also in double file, and similarly 
 provided with lighted tapers, is leaving the church by the west. 
 The two detachments proceed in opposite directions — the one 
 moving toward the upper, the other to the lower end of the town. 
 At the expiration of the quarter of an hour just spoken of, the 
 ornamental portion of the procession is seen to emerge from the 
 north door of the church, consisting, first of all, of some young 
 and rather pretty girls, robed entirely in white, and carrying the 
 silk-embroidered banner of the Yirgin ; then more girls and ban- 
 ners, followed by the members of various female religious com- 
 munities, in the costumes of their order, bearing their respective 
 banners ; next come several small gilt statuettes, carried on 
 handsome stands, one of which represents St. Fiacre, the patron 
 saint of the gardeners, and another St. Joseph, the patron saint 
 of the carpenters. Then follow richly gilt baskets containing 
 various relics, borne by and surrounded by priests ; a gold bust, 
 with a long forked beard ; a wax figure of a dead child in white, 
 her head wreathed with lilies, lying on a purple cushion covered 
 with a crimson pall, and preceded and followed by banners innu- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 493 
 
 merable* Then a number of men and boys dressed up to repre- 
 sent sailors, and bearing a couple of models of men-of-war of the 
 old school, and a huge gilt anchor ; then some of the youths of 
 the college, accompanied by their band ; next a number of men 
 with banners and large ornamental open-work lanterns ; then the 
 sapeurs pompiers and their band ; and, finally, a body of priests 
 in rich vestments. The two detachments of pilgrims eventually 
 join themselves together, and the procession, composed by this 
 time of at least ten thousand people, passes up the main street 
 of the town and round the large triangular place where the 
 fountain is situated, chanting all the while. Here three tall 
 poles have been erected, surrounded by banners in honor of the 
 Virgin, and having immense piles of fagots stacked at their 
 base. While the procession is moving round this open space in 
 the direction of the church, these stacks of fagots are set fire to 
 one after the other, filling the air above with fiery sparks, as the 
 ground is already thronged below with lighted tapers, and throw- 
 ing out such intense heat in their immediate proximity as to 
 cause pilgrims and spectators alike to struggle to escape from it. 
 Such are the aspects of a Breton Pilgrimage or Pardon as seen 
 at Guingamp." 
 
 Guy Fa^wkes's Day. The anniversary of the discovery of 
 the Gunpowder Plot on November 5, 1605, still celebrated in 
 England and her colonies. The conspirators in this plot were 
 all English Catholics of gentle lineage and good position who 
 bloodied their delicate fingers to no end. Hence with a natural 
 and pardonable injustice the entire Catholic party was held re- 
 sponsible for their acts, and the 5th of E'ovember has been util- 
 ized for a Protestant and anti-Catholic demonstration, borrow- 
 ing many features from the celebrations on Queen Elizabeth's 
 Day (q. v.). 
 
 When James YI. of Scotland became James I. of England the 
 Catholics in the latter country had cherished hopes that the 
 penalties imposed against their religion by Queen Elizabeth 
 would be remitted or minimized. And indeed the new monarch 
 began his reign in a mild and tolerant spirit. But he found 
 Parhament arrayed against him. His pecuniary necessities 
 obliged him to court the good will of the Commons by putting 
 afresh into execution the penal laws against papists. The most 
 odious severities were revived. The fanaticism of persecution 
 bred the fanaticism of retaliation. Hence the Gunpowder Plot, 
 for blowing up at once the King, Lords, and Commons, originated 
 by Robert Catesby, a Catholic gentleman of good family who, 
 doubly an apostate, had found himself back in the Church of 
 his birth after once being a Protestant convert, and had drawn 
 
494 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 into his j^lansTliomas Winter, Guido or Guy Fawkes, and several 
 others. In a secluded house in Lambeth, oaths of secrecy were 
 taken, and the communion was administered by a Jesuit named 
 Father Gerard, who, however, does not appear to have been taken 
 into the plot. The next step was to hire a house near the build- 
 ing where Parliament formerly met, with the view of blowing 
 the legislature into the air by carrying a mine through the wall. 
 But when they came to pierce the walls of the Parliament House 
 they found the task beyond their powers, especially as all were 
 gentlemen unused to manual labor. One day, while at work, 
 they heard a rumbling noise over their heads. Fear seized them 
 that they had been discovered. Guy Fawkes, going out to in- 
 
 GuY Fawkes. 
 (From the English Prayer Book of 1607.) 
 
 quire, returned with the news that the disturbance had been 
 caused by a coal-dealer who was moving out from a cellar he had 
 rented below the House of Lords. Forthwith the conspirators 
 saw their opportunity. Hiring the cellar from the outgoing 
 dealer, they placed therein thirty-six barrels of gunpowder. 
 These they covered up with coal and fagots of wood. By May, 
 1605, the preparations were all completed. The conspirators 
 separated until the time to strike had arrived. This was finally 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 42^ 
 
 determined to be the 5th of November, when the king in person 
 was to open Parliament. In some way, about which historians 
 differ, the plot was discovered. At two o'clock in the morning 
 of November 5, a party of soldiers under command of Sir 
 Thomas Knyvett, a Westminster magistrate, visited the cellar 
 and arrested Gruy Fawkes, the man who was to have fired the 
 train that should explode the gunpowder, and who was at his 
 post with a dark lantern in his hand. He was interrogated by 
 the king and council, and shut up in the Tower. Meanwhile the 
 other conspirators, all save Ti-esham, fled from London in an 
 effort to reach Dunsmore Heath in Warwickshire, where other 
 Catholics under Sir Edmund Higby had agreed to join them in 
 an insurrection should the plot prove successful. Pursued by 
 the civil and military authorities, some of them were overtaken 
 at the mansion of Holbeach, on the borders of Staffordehire. 
 Eesisting arrest, four, including Catesby, were slain. But seven 
 others were captured here and in other places. These, with 
 their accomplice Guy Fawkes, were put to the torture, tried, and 
 finally executed at the west end of St. Paul's Churchyard on 
 January 30 and 31, 1606. /All the hideous ceremonies attending 
 the deaths of traitors were honored in the observance. 
 
 It was in January of the same year that the British Parlia- 
 ment appointed the 5th of November as " a holiday for ever in 
 thankfulness to God for our deliverance and detestation of the 
 Papists." A special service for this day formed part of the ritual 
 of the English Book of Common Prayer until 1859, when an 
 ordinance of the Queen in Council abolished it, together with 
 the service for the Martyrdom of Charles I. and the Eestoration 
 of Charles II. (See Charles, St.) At the opening of every 
 session of Parliament even to this day the initial ceremony is 
 the marching of the Yeomen of the Guards through the vaults 
 under the Houses in search of gunpowder. It would be impos- 
 sible, of course, to get any gunpowder into the basement. Even 
 granting the possibility, it could not be discovered by merely 
 strolling through the cellars. Such, however, is the British love 
 for crystaHized custom that it has even been humorously con- 
 jectured whether had the Gunpowder Plot succeeded it would 
 have been necessary to blow up the Houses every session because 
 a precedent had been established. 
 
 Guy Fawkes's Day is now almost entirely abandoned to the 
 juvenile population of England. Even so late as 1847 the author 
 of the anonymous booklet " Sports, Pastimes, and Customs of 
 London" complains that its old-time glorj^ has departed. 
 ''Originally," he says, "the burning of Guy Fawkes in effigy 
 was a ceremony much in vogue, especially among the lower 
 classes, but it is now confined chiefly to school-boys, and even 
 
4.05 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 with them it is not so popular as in days gone by. Formerly 
 the burning of ' a good guy' was a scene of uproar perhaps un- 
 known to the present day. The bonfire, for example, in Lin- 
 coln's Inn Fields was conducted on a very grand scale. It was 
 made at the Great Queen Street corner, immediately opposite 
 Newcastle House. Fuel came all day long in carts properly 
 guarded against surprise. Old people have recollected when up- 
 wards of two hundred cart-loads were brought to make and feed 
 this bonfire, and more than thirty ' guys' were burnt upon gibbets 
 between eight and twelve o'clock at night. 
 
 " The butchers of Clare Market, also, were accustomed to cele- 
 brate this anniversary in a somewhat peculiar style ; one of their 
 body, personating Guy Fawkes, being seated in a cart, with a 
 prayer-book in his hand, and a priest, executioner, etc., attending, 
 was drawn through the streets, as if going to the place of exe- 
 cution ; while a select party, with marrow-bones and cleavers, 
 led the way, and others solicited money from the inhabitants and 
 spectators. The sums thus obtained were spent at night in jollity 
 and carousing." 
 
 In all parts of England it is still customary for boys to dress 
 up an ef^gy of Guy Fawkes, parade it in a chair through the 
 streets, and at nightfall burn it with strident enjoyment in a 
 huge bonfire. The effigy's face is formed of a huge comic mask 
 crowned with a paper fool's cap, it wears such cast-off clothes as 
 are obtainable, in one hand it carries a dark lantern and in the 
 other a bunch of matches. The procession visits successively 
 the different houses in the neighborhood, reciting before each 
 certain time-honored rhymes which vary with the locality. In 
 London they run as follows : 
 
 Eemember, remember 
 
 The fifth of November, 
 The Gunpowder treason and plot ; 
 
 There is no reason 
 
 Why the Gunpowder treason 
 Should ever be forgot ! 
 
 Numerous variations and additions are made in different parts 
 of the country. Thus, in Islip, Oxfordshire, the following lines, 
 as quoted by Sir Henry Ellis in his edition of Brand's " Popular 
 Antiquities," are chanted : 
 
 The fifth of November, 
 
 Since I can remember, 
 
 Gunpowder treason and plot : 
 This is the daj^ that God did prevent, 
 To blow up his king and parliament. 
 
 A stick and a stake. 
 
 For Victoria's sake ; 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 497 
 
 If you won't give me one, 
 I'll take two: 
 The better for me, 
 And the worse for you. 
 
 The following song, according to the same authority, is used 
 in some parts of the north of England : 
 
 /Hollo, boys, hollo, boys, 
 
 Let the bells ring ; 
 
 Hollo, boys, hollo, boys, 
 
 God save the queen. 
 
 Pray to remember 
 The fifth of November, 
 
 Gunpowder treason and plot, 
 When the king and his train 
 Had nearly been slain, 
 
 Therefore it shall not be forgot. 
 
 Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, 
 
 And his companions, 
 Strove to blow all England up ; 
 But God's mercy did prevent, 
 And saved our king and his Parliament. 
 Happy was the man. 
 
 And happy was the day, 
 That caught Guy, 
 
 Going to his play. 
 With a dark Ian thorn, 
 And a brimstone match, 
 Ready for the prime to touch. 
 
 As I was going through the dark entry, 
 
 I spied the devil. 
 
 Stand back ! stand back ! 
 Queen Mary's daughter. 
 Put your hand in your pocket 
 And give us some money, 
 To kindle our bonfire. 
 
 Huzza ! Huzza ! 
 
 That final eleemosynary plea was never forgotten. When not 
 put into metrical form, it took such prosaic shape as "Please 
 remember Guy," or " Please to remember the bonfire." 
 
 Sometimes Guy Fawkes's day is taken advantage of to parade 
 the Q^gj of any unpopular personage of the day. Thus, during 
 the ferment occasioned by the " Papal Aggression" in 1850 Car- 
 dinal Wiseman, newly appointed Archbishop of Westminster by 
 the Pope, was substituted for Guy Fawkes, and solemnly burnt 
 in London amid No Popery demonstrations. In 1857 a similar 
 honor was accorded to Nana Sahib, whose atrocities at Cawnpore 
 
 32 
 
498 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 in the previous month of July had excited a cry of horror 
 throughout the civilized world. The opportunity also is fre- 
 quently seized by many of that numerous class in London who 
 live by their wits to earn a few pence by parading through the 
 streets, on the 5th of November, gigantic figures of the leading 
 celebrities of the day. These are sometimes rather ingeniously 
 got up, and the curiosity of the passer-by who stops to look at 
 them is generally taxed with the contribution of a copper. 
 
 In Notes and Queries, Second Series, vol. iv. p. 368, is the fol- 
 lowing entry : " A very old custom prevails in the West Riding 
 of Yorkshire, of preparing, against the anniversary of Gun- 
 powder Plot, a kind of oatmeal gingerbread, if it may be so called, 
 and of religiously partaking of the same on this day and subse- 
 quently. The local name of the delicacy is Parkin, and it is 
 usually seen in the form of massive loaves, substantial cakes, or 
 bannocks." 
 
 Blount in his '' Fragmenta Antiquitatis" (Beckwith, 1815, p. 
 565) gives the following account of a custom observed at Don- 
 caster. He says at this place on the 5th of November, yearly, 
 whether it happens on a Sunday or any other day in the week, 
 the town waits play for some time on the top of the church 
 steeple, at the time when the congregation are coming out of the 
 church from morning service, the tune of " God Save the King." 
 This has been done for fourscore years at least, and very possi- 
 bly ever since the 5th of November has been a festival, except 
 that formerly the tune played was "Britons, strike home." The 
 waits always receive from the churchwardens sixpence apiece 
 for this service. 
 
 The celebration of Guy Fawkes's Day was brought over from 
 England to America by the early colonists, and still has local 
 survivals in several of the original thirteen States. In New 
 York, the code known as the Duke's Laws, given to the province 
 in 1665, ordered that every minister should on November 5 
 preach a sermon commemorative of the English deliverance from 
 Guy Fawkes and his Gunpowder Plot. 
 
 The Wew York Gazette of November 7, 1737, affords a glimpse 
 of how the festival was celebrated at that time : " Saturday last, 
 being the fifth of November, it was observed he-re in memory of 
 that horrid and Treasonable Popish Gun-Powder Plot to blow up 
 and destroy King, Lords, and Commons, and the Gentlemen of 
 his Majesty's Council. The Assembly and Corporation and other 
 the principal Gentlemen and Merchants of this City waited upon 
 his Honor the Lieutenant-Governor at Fort George, where the 
 Royal Healths were drunk, as usual, under the discharge of the 
 Cannon, and at the Night the City was illuminated." All through 
 the English provinces bonfires were burned, volleys were fired, 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 499 
 
 eflSgies were carried in procession, and mummers and maskers 
 singing No Popery songs importuned passers-by for a gratuity. 
 Giant Pope came in time to be substituted for Gruy Fawkes, and 
 the 5th of November was known as Pope Day. Under this name 
 it survives in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and Portsmouth, New 
 Hampshire. In Newcastle, New Hampshire, it is corrupted into 
 Pork Night. In other New England towns fires are still lighted 
 on the 5th of November by boys who know not what they com- 
 memorate. In New York and Brooklyn there is a feeble and 
 divided survival of Pope Day sports in the bonfires kindled on 
 election night, and in the bedraggled parades of begging child 
 maskers on Thanksgiving Day. 
 
 Gyst-Ale, or Guising. An annual festival formerly cele- 
 brated in Lancashire in the spring, probably about Lady Day, 
 when manorial rents were due. It has been surmised that the 
 term is an allusion to the attendant gyst or hire for the privilege 
 of selhng ale and other refreshments during the festivals held 
 on the payment of the rents of the manor. But a plausible 
 etymon derives the word gyst from geste, " an act," " a sport," 
 while guising is but another form of disguising, — i.e., masquer- 
 ading. Cf. guisards, the Scotch for mummers. 
 
 These gyst-ales, or guisings, once ranked among the principal 
 festivals of Lancashire, and large sums of money were subscribed 
 by all ranks of society in order that they might be celebrated 
 with becoming splendor. The lord of the manor, the vicar of 
 the parish, the farmer, and the operative severally announced 
 the sums they intended to give, and when the treasurer ex- 
 claimed, " A largesse," the crowd demanded, " From whom ?" and 
 then due proclamation was made of the sum subscribed. The 
 real amount, however, was seldom named, but it was announced 
 that " Lord Johnson," or some other equally distinguished per- 
 son, had contributed "a portion of ten thousand pounds" towards 
 the expenses of the feast. 
 
 After the subscription lists were closed, an immense garland 
 was prepared, which contained abundance of every flower in 
 season, interspersed with a profusion of evergreens and ribbons 
 of every shade and pattern. The framework of this garland 
 was made of wood, to which hooks were affixed, and on these 
 was suspended a large collection of watches, jewels, and silver 
 articles borrowed from the richer residents in the town. On the 
 day of the gyst this garland was borne through the principal 
 streets and thoroughfares, attended by crowds of townspeople 
 dressed in their best attire. These were formed into a procession 
 by a master of the ceremonies, locally termed the King. Another 
 principal attendant was the Fool, dressed in a grotesque cap, a 
 
500 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 hideous grinning mask, a long tail hanging behind him, and a 
 bell with which he commanded attention when announcements 
 were to be made. In an early period of these guisings the fool 
 was usually mounted on a hobby-horse, and indulged in grotesque 
 pranks as he passed along : hence we obtaimed the term " hob- 
 riding," and more recently the proverbial expression of " riding 
 one's hobby to death." (Harland and Wilkinson: Legends 
 and Traditions of Lancashire^ 1873, p. 86.) 
 
 H. 
 
 Hachette, Joan. (Fr. Jeanne Hachette.') A French heroine 
 who distinguished herself at the siege of Beauvais, France, in 
 1472, and in whose honor an annual festival is held in that city 
 on July 6. Charles the Bold of Burgundy, revolting against 
 Louis XL, had thrown himself against the town. The adult 
 male j^opulation and many of the women and children gathered 
 upon the ramparts and with muskets and stones beat off the 
 assault. Most noticeable among the women was Joan Laisne, 
 afterwards nicknamed Hachette, from the axe which she effect- 
 ually wielded in the struggle. A Burgundian sought to plant 
 his standard in a breach. Joan killed him, and, capturing the 
 flag, bore it in triumph to the chapel of St. Angadreme, patroness 
 of Beauvais. Charles the Bold, surprised by so stout a resistance, 
 raised the siege, and a few days later Louis XL entered the town 
 in triumph. 
 
 That monarch decreed that to honor the valor of Beauvais an 
 annual procession should be held on the festival of St. Angadreme, 
 wherein the women should take precedence of the men. The 
 flag which Joan had seized has always been brought out of the 
 church to take part in this procession, and little by little her 
 fame has dominated that of even the patroness of the city, so 
 that the festival is known as the Fete Jeanne Hachette. On July 
 6, 1851, a bronze statue of the heroine was unveiled in the public 
 square, amid great solemnities. 
 
 On the eve of the festival a salvo of artillery announces the 
 coming event. In the morning mass is celebrated at the cathe- 
 dral, and at its close the Eosiere named for the occasion is 
 crowned by the mayor. In the afternoon at three o'clock occurs 
 the procession. It consists of two wings, the civil and the reli- 
 gious, the former starting from the city hall, the latter from the 
 cathedral. Both meet in front of the statue of Joan Hachette. 
 Here the body of young girls dressed in white and crowned with 
 flowers, who follow the clergy in the religious wing, are intrusted 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 501 
 
 with the duty of firing off, turn and turn about, the salute of one 
 hundred guns which forms part of the traditional usage. 
 
 Halloween or All Hallo'w Even (also known locally as 
 Nutcrack Night and Snapapple Night). The name given 
 to the night of October 31, as the eve or vigil of All Saints' or 
 All Hallows Day (November 1). Of all nights in the year this 
 is the one upon which supernatural influences most prevail. The 
 spirits of the dead wander abroad, together with witches, devils, 
 and mischief-making elves, and in some cases the spirits of living 
 persons have the temporary power to leave their bodies and join 
 the ghostly crew. Children born on this day preserve through 
 their youth the power to converse with these airy visitants. But 
 often the latter reveal themselves to ordinary folk, to advise or 
 warn them. Hence it is the night of all nights for divination. 
 Impartially weighed against the others, it is the very best time 
 of the whole year for discovering just what sort of husband or 
 wife one is to be blessed withal. 
 
 Halloween is a curious recrudescence of classic mythology, 
 Druidic beliefs, and Christian superstitions. On November 1 the 
 Eomans had a feast to Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, 
 and it was then that the stores laid up in the summer for use in 
 the winter were opened. Hence the appropriateness of the use 
 of nuts and apples at, this time. November 1 or thereabouts 
 was also the great autumn festival to the sun which the Druids 
 celebrated in thanksgiving for their harvest. Now, the Druids 
 believed in transmigration, and taught that on the eve of this 
 festival Saman, the Lord of Death, called together the wicked 
 souls that within the last twelve months had been condemned to 
 occupy the bodies of animals. But Saman might be propitiated 
 through the priests by means of gifts and incantations to miti- 
 gate his sentences. 
 
 November was also one of the quaternary periods when the 
 Druids lighted their bonfires in honor of Baal. (See May-Day.) 
 The custom was kept up in many portions of Great Britain 
 until a comparatively recent period. Wales was especially 
 tenacious of it, and the observances which marked the Novem- 
 ber fire may be held to have descended directly from the Druids. 
 
 Each family used to make its own fire, and as it was dying out 
 each member would throw a white stone into it, the stones being 
 marked for future identification. Then all said their prayers and 
 went to bed, and in the morning they tried to find all the stones 
 again. If any stone was missing it betokened that the owner 
 of it would die within a year. Some superstitions are pretty 
 and picturesque and attractive ; this was one of the many which 
 were cruel as well as picturesque. It would take but a slight 
 
502 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 accident to cause a fright that might be actually dangerous to a 
 superstitious person, and it would not be hard for an enemy of 
 such a person to cause that fright by stealing his stone from the 
 fire. 
 
 These fires in Wales were commonly followed by feasting on 
 nuts, apples, and parsnips, and by the games of which something 
 will be said presently. Sometimes nuts were thrown into the 
 fires, in the belief that they indicated prosperity to those who 
 threw them if they burned well and the reverse if they simply 
 smouldered and turned black. There were fires also in Scotland, 
 and there, in some parts of the country at least, the ashes were 
 carefully raked into a circle and just within this the stones were 
 placed, one for each person present. If in the morning any of 
 these appeared to have been disturbed, it betokened death. Some- 
 times it was the custom to make large torches by binding com- 
 bustible material to the tops of poles and to bear them blazing 
 about the village, lighting new ones as often as the old were 
 burned out. Fires were also used at different times and places 
 on All Saints' Night, which is the eve of All Souls' Bay, and on 
 All Souls' Day itself, the 2d of November. In these cases the 
 fires were regarded as typical of immortality, and were thought 
 to be efficacious, as an outward and visible sign at least, for 
 lighting souls from purgatory. 
 
 But if anything were wanting to prove the Druidic origin of 
 many of the Halloween observances it would be found in the 
 fact that in some parts of Ireland October 31 was known as 
 Oidhche Shamhna, or Yigil of Saman. Yallancey's " Collectanea 
 de Eebus Hibernicis" tells us that on this night the peasants in 
 Ireland assemble with sticks and clubs, "going from house to 
 house, collecting money, breadcake, butter, cheese, eggs, etc., for 
 
 the feast, repeating verses in honor of the solemnity, demanding 
 preparations for the festival in the name of St. Columb Kill, de- 
 siring them to lay a^ide the fatted calf and to bring forth the black 
 sheep. The good women are employed in making the griddle- 
 cake and candles ; these last are sent from house to house in the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 503 
 
 vicinity, and are lighted up on the (Saman) next day, before 
 which they pray, or are supposed to pray, for the departed soul 
 of the donor. Every house abounds in the best viands they can 
 afford : apples and nuts are devoured in abundance ; the nut- 
 shells are burnt, and from the ashes many strange things are 
 foretold ; cabbages are torn up by the root ; hemp-seed is sown 
 by the maidens, and they believe that if they look back they will 
 see the apparition of the man intended for their future spouse; 
 they hang a smock before the fire, on the close of the feast, and 
 sit up all night, concealed in a corner of the room, convinced that 
 his apparition will come down 
 the chimney and turn the 
 smock ; they throw a ball of 
 yarn out of the window, and 
 wind it on the reel within, con- 
 vinced that if they repeat the 
 Pater Noster backwards, and 
 look at the ball of yarn without, 
 they will then also see his sith 
 or apparition ; they dip for ap- 
 ples in a tub of water, and en- 
 deavor to bring one up in the 
 mouth; they suspend a cord 
 with a cross-stick, with apples 
 at one point, and candles lighted 
 at the other, and endeavor to 
 catch the apple, while it is in a circular motion, in the mouth." 
 Yallancey sagely concludes that these superstitious practices, the 
 remains of Druidism, will never be eradicated while the name of 
 Saman is permitted to remain. 
 
 In the island of Lewis the name Shamhna, or Saman, seems 
 to have been corrupted to Shony. Martin talks with consider- 
 able disgust of "an ancient custom here to sacrifice to a sea- 
 god, called Shony, at Hallowtide." The inhabitants, it seems, 
 used to gather to the church of St. Mulvay, at night, each 
 family bringing provisions, and also furnishing a peck of malt, 
 which was brewed into ale. One who was chosen for the pur- 
 pose waded into the sea up to his middle and poured out a 
 cup of ale, calHng on Shony to favor the people through the 
 coming year. " At his return to land they all went to church, 
 where there was a candle burning upon the altar: and then 
 standing silent for a little time, one of them gave a signal, at 
 which the candle was put out, and immediately all of them went 
 to the fields, where they fell a-drinking their ale, and spent the 
 remainder of the night in dancing and singing." He adds, " The 
 ministers in Lewis told me they spent several years before they 
 
504 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 could persuade the vulgar natives to abandon this ridiculous 
 piece of superstition." 
 
 If in the word Saman the Irish preserve a distinct evidence 
 of Druidism, on the other hand in the drink called " Lambs- 
 wool" they equally confess the Eoman intermixture. Lambs- 
 wool is made by bruising roasted apples and mixing them with 
 ale or sometimes with milk. The Gentleman's Magazine for May, 
 1784, says " this is a constant ingredient at a merrymaking on 
 Holy Eve." Now, Yallancey makes a shrewd etymological guess 
 when he says, " The first day of November was dedicated to tbe 
 angel presiding over fruits, seeds, etc., and was therefore named 
 La Mas Ilbhal,— that is, the day of the apple fruit,— and being 
 pronounced Lamasool, the English have corrupted the name to 
 Lambs-wool." The "angel presiding over fruits, seeds, etc.," 
 was obviously a reminiscence of Pomona. 
 
 It may be interesting to record a few of the Halloween 
 customs which are now practically extinct. 
 
 A curious little book called "The Festyvall" (1511) mentions 
 a custom obsolete even at that time. " We rede," it says, " in 
 olde tyme good people wolde on All halowen daye bake brade 
 and dele it for all crysten soules." Yet bread or cake in one 
 form or other was locally associated with Halloween until a far 
 more recent period. Indeed, even at the present moment it is 
 said that the women of Eipon, Yorkshire, on this night make a 
 cake for every one in the family, so that it is popularly known 
 as Cake Night. In Warwickshire and elsewhere seed-cake was 
 an accompaniment of Halloween, as indicating the end of wheat 
 seedtime. This custom seems to have been general in the time 
 of Thomas Tusser : 
 
 "Wife, some time this weeke, if the wefher hold cleere, 
 An end of wheat-sowing we make for this yeare. 
 Kemember you, therefore, though I do it not, 
 The Seed-Cake, the Pasties, and Furmentie-pot. 
 
 {Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, 1580.) 
 
 Aubrey says that in his time in Shropshire and elsewhere 
 there was set upon the board at All Hallows Eve a high heap of 
 Soul-cakes, about the bigness of twopenny cakes, lying one upon 
 another, like the picture of the shew bread in the old Bibles. 
 Every visitor was expected to take one. " There is an old rhyme 
 or saying," he adds,—" A Soule-cake, a Soule-cake, have mercy 
 on all Christen soules for a Soule-cake." 
 
 Toilet in a note in his Yariorum Shakespeare to the "Two 
 Gentlemen of Yerona" (Act ii. Sc. 2) says, " It is worth remark- 
 ing that on All Saints' Day the poor people in Staffordshire, and 
 perhaps in other country places, go from parish to parish a-soul- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 505 
 
 ing, as they call it, — i.e.^ begging and puling (or singing small, as 
 Bailey's Dictionary explains puling) for Soul Cakes, or any good 
 thing to make them^merry. This custom is mentioned by Peck, 
 and seems a remnant of Popish superstition to pray for departed 
 souls, particularly those of friends." 
 
 Another Popish practice was summarily stopped by the Eefor- 
 mation. This was the custom of ringing bells at this season for 
 all Christian souls. 
 
 In the draught of a letter which King Henry YIII. was to 
 send to Cranmer "against superstitious practices" (Burnet: 
 Hist. Eef., 1683), " the Yigil and ringing of bells all the night 
 long upon Allhallow Day at night" are directed to be abolished; 
 and the said Vigil to have no watching or ringing. And in the 
 appendix to Strype's "Annals of the Eeformation" the following 
 injunction, made early in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, occurs : 
 " That the superfluous ringing of bels, and the superstitious ring- 
 ing of bells at Allhallowntide, and at Al Souls' Day, with the two 
 nights next before and after, be prohibited." 
 
 In the Churchwardens' Accounts of the parish of Heybridge, 
 near Maiden, in Essex, under a.d. 1517 are the following items : 
 
 " Imprimis, payed for frankyncense agense Hollowmasse, 01. 
 
 J. Id. 
 
 " Item, payed to Andrew Elyott, of Maldon, for newe mend- 
 ynge of the third bell knappell agenste Hallowmasse, 01. 
 Is. Sd. 
 
 " Item, payed to John Gidney, of Maldon, for a new bell rope 
 agenste Hallowmasse, 01. Os. Sd" 
 
 Among articles to be inquired of within the archdeaconry of 
 Yorke by the churchwardens and sworn men, between the years 
 1630 and 1640, one is, " Whether there be any within your parish 
 or chappelr}^ that use to ring bells superstitiously upon any abro- 
 gated holiday, or the eves thereof." 
 
 Everybody is familiar with Burns's famous poem " Halloween," 
 which gives a panoramic insight into the customs of Old Scotia 
 on this night of mirth and mystery. Perhaps no influence has 
 done more than this to preserve and spread these observances 
 among English-speaking folk. , All of them are based on imme- 
 morial custom. 
 
 But what was once a ceremony of belief has now become a 
 thing of sport, of welcome sport in a day of such serious thought 
 and work and sense of responsibility that any excuse for sport 
 should be laid hold of; so that now its observances are all a 
 jest which young people play upon themselves, not in the least 
 believing in the consequences, only half hoping there may be 
 something in it, and saying to themselves that stranger things 
 have happened. 
 
506 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 So they practise matrimonial vaticinations of all sorts. Most 
 common of all and most intimately associated with the season is 
 the roasting of nuts. These are placed together on the bar of 
 the grate side by side in pairs, and named for supposed lovers. 
 If a nut burns quietly and brightly it indicates sincerity of affec- 
 tion. If it cracks and jumps it tells of unfaithfulness, while if 
 the nuts burn together the youth and maid so indicated will be 
 married. ^__ 
 
 These glowing nuts are emblems true 
 Of what in human life we view. 
 The ill-matched couple fret and fume, 
 And thus in strife themselves consume, 
 Or from each other wildly start, 
 And with a noise forever part. 
 But see the happy, happy pair, 
 Of genuine love and truth sincere : 
 "With natural fondness while they burn, 
 Still to each other kindly turn, 
 And as the vital sparks decay. 
 Together gently sink away, 
 Till, life's fierce ordeal being past, 
 Their mingled ashes rest at last. 
 
 (Charles Graydon: Poems, Dublin, 1801.) 
 
 Or perchance two hazel-nuts are thrown into the hot coals by a 
 maiden. She secretly gives a lover's name to each. If one of 
 the nuts bursts, then that lover is unfaithful; but if it burns 
 with a steady glow until it becomes ashes, she knows that her 
 lover's faith is true. Sometimes it happens, but not often, that 
 both nuts will burn steadily, and then is the maiden's heart sore 
 perplexed. 
 
 Burns' 8 stanza on this subject is as pretty as any in his poem : 
 
 Jean slips in twa, wi'.tentie e'e ; 
 
 Wha 'twas she wadna tell ; 
 But this is Jock and this is me, 
 
 She says in to hersel ; 
 He bleez'd owre her, an' she owre him, 
 
 As they wad never m air part ; 
 Till, fuff ! he started up the lum, 
 
 An' Jean had e'en a sair heart 
 To see't that night. 
 
 Gay has also some pretty lines about a girl who proved her 
 lover in this way : 
 
 Two hazel-nuts I threw into the flame. 
 And to each nut I gave a sweetheart's name ; 
 This with the loudest bounce me sore amazed, 
 That in a flame of brightest color blazed ; 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 507 
 
 As blazed the nut, so may thy passion grow, 
 For 'twas thy nut that did so brightly glow ! 
 
 Next to nuts in importance come apples. 
 
 Endless are the methods of extracting from these fruit either 
 fun or prophecy. What greater fun can there be, when you are 
 at the right age and in the right mood, than ducking for apples? 
 These apples are set afloat in a tub of water. They must be 
 caught with the teeth, and the hands must not be used at all. 
 The surest way to get an apple, it is said, is to force it to the 
 bottom of the tub, and there hold it close while it is caught by 
 the teeth. Any other way is hard to manage and uncertain 
 
 of result. Another trick is to suspend a stick by a string tied 
 in the middle. An apple is placed at one end and a lighted 
 candle at the other. The stick is then whirled around, and 
 the purpose is to catch the apple with the teeth and not to 
 catch the candle. 
 
 And as to prophecy, any maiden may find out at least the 
 first letter of the name of her future husband by peeling a 
 pippin, taking the paring b}^ one end in her fingers, swinging it 
 three times about her head, and then letting it drop. The 
 pippin-paring thus dropped will surely fall in the shape of 
 the initial of his name, as she will readily see, though the rest 
 gf the company, not having quite so discerning eyes as hers, 
 may not. 
 
 It is said to help among the witches wonderfully to repeat 
 these North of England lines while swinging the paring about 
 the head : 
 
 I pare this pippin round and round again, 
 My sweetheart's name to flourish on the plain : 
 I lling the unbroken paring o'er my head. 
 My sweetheart's letter on the ground is read. 
 
 Two cut apple-seeds stuck ^" "he lids of the eyes help one im- 
 
508 ' CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 mensely on Halloween in determining which of two lovers is 
 the more desirable. All that is necessary is to name the apple- 
 seeds after the lovers, respectively, and that which drops from 
 the eye first points to him whose love is not adhesive. The 
 advantage of this spell is that a body may help the Fates along, 
 if they seem undecided, by winking. 
 
 The hemp-seed divination is known both to the United States 
 and to Britain. The experimenter must go out alone and unper- 
 ceived with a handful of hemp-seed, which he must sow on the 
 ground, dragging after him anything that may be convenient by 
 way of a hari-ow. He must then say, "Hemp-seed, I sow thee, 
 hemp-seed, I sow thee : and him or her that is to be my true 
 love come after me and pou thee." If he then looks over his 
 left shoulder, he ought to see a likeness of his future sweetheart 
 pulling the seed which he has sowed. If he sees nobody, he 
 may conclude that he is never to marry, or that there is some 
 mistake in the experiment. A trial very like this may be made 
 on Midsummer Eve. 
 
 If a girl would see her husband by an Irish method, here it is. 
 Let her throw a ball of yarn out of the window, holding the 
 end of the thread, and then rewind it, at the same time saying 
 the Pater Noster backward. Watching the ball of yarn with- 
 out, she will see the desired apparition. Burns shows that the 
 Scottish form of this test was more solemn. He says nothing 
 of the Pater Foster, but he says that the yarn must be blue, and 
 that the experimenter must go out to a lime-kiln and throw the 
 ball therein ; then, when the rewinding is nearly finished, some- 
 thing will hold the thread. To the question, " Wha bauds ?" the 
 name of the future husband will be returned in answer. Of 
 course it is understood that this or any of the other methods of 
 divination of this night may be used with equal effect by a man 
 or a woman. 
 
 Wet the sleeve of a shirt and hang it on a chair before the 
 fire, as if to dry. Then go to bed, but do not go to sleep, only 
 watch. At about midnight you may confidently expect to see 
 your spouse that is to be enter the room and turn the drying 
 garment. If you do not see him, it must be because you alloW 
 yourself to drop asleep, if only for a minute, and so miss him 
 when he comes. Burns adds to the difficulty of this trial, and 
 therefore to its probable success if carried out rightly, by re- 
 quiring that the shirt shall be wet in a spring or rivulet running 
 towards the south at a point where three lairds' lands meet. It 
 is the left sleeve that must be wet. This, also, is a test which 
 may be tried equally well at midsummer. 
 
 ]!^umerous are the other ways in which the beatific vision of 
 the future spouse may be conjured up. Lovers set three dishes 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 509 
 
 on the floor, one empty, one with clean water, and one wath foul 
 water, and then approaching blindfolded dip their hands at ran- 
 dom : they who dip in the empty one shall remain unmarried, 
 and they who dip in the foul shall get one that is widowed, and 
 they who dip in the clean shall be joined to a virgin. Or all 
 alone they eat an apple before a mirror, feeling creepy as they 
 look over the shoulder in the glass for the face of the sweetheart 
 or spouse to be ; or they go down the cellar stairs with a candle 
 in one hand and a mirror in the other, for the same expected 
 vision. Or they winnow in the dark three measures of nothing, 
 simply with empty mimicry of winnowing, whereupon the face 
 is to appear ; or they pull the dead stalk from the garden, and 
 judge by the earth clinging to the roots whether or not the lover 
 has gold and gear ; or they drop the yolk of an Qgg in water, and 
 take heed of the indications concerning a lover's trade and tools, 
 be they pen or be they spade. 
 
 But the mysterious rites of Halloween are not complete when 
 the merrymaking is done and " good-night" is said. Each young 
 lady, in order to complete the charms of the night, on reaching 
 her home must pluck two roses with long stems, naming one for 
 herself and the other for her lover. She must then go directly 
 to her sleeping-room without speaking to any one, and, kneeling 
 beside her bed, must twine together the stems of the two roses 
 and repeat the Ibllowing lines, gazing meanwhile intently upon 
 the lover's rose : 
 
 Twine, twine, and intertwine, 
 
 Let my love be wholly mine. 
 
 If his heart be kind and true, 
 
 Deeper grow his rose's hue. 
 
 If her swain be faithful, the color of the rose will grow darker 
 and more intense. 
 
 The moment has at last arrived for the final and, to many, the 
 most convincing and satisfactory test as to the identity of the 
 maid's lover if she is still in doubt. A glass of water, in which 
 a small sliver of wood has been placed, must stand on a small 
 table by her bedside. In the night she will dream of falling 
 from a bridge into a river; but scarcely will she touch the water 
 when her future husband, whose face she can plainly see, will 
 jump in and rescue her. 
 
 A noteworthy circumstance in the Scottish observance of the 
 night which has not been largely followed elsewhere is the ex- 
 traordinary and varied use to which cabbage, or kail, is put in 
 the traditions and merrymaking of the occasion. Kail brose, or 
 cabbage broth, is inseparable from the Scotch Hallow^een feast. 
 Mischievous boys push the pith from the stalk, fill the cavity with 
 tow which they set on fire, and then through the keyholes of 
 
510 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 houses of folk who have given them offence blow darts of flame 
 a 3^ard in length. If on Halloween a farmer's or crofter's kail- 
 yard still contains ungathered cabbages, the boys and girls of 
 the neighborhood descend upon it en masse, and the entire crop is 
 harvested in five minutes' time and thumped against the owner's 
 doors, which rattle as though pounded by a thunderous tempest. 
 In some shires at the "pulling of the kail" the youths of both 
 sexes go into the kail-yard blindfolded and in pairs, holding each 
 other's hands. They each pull the first " runt" or stalk they find, 
 not being permitted to make selection. All thus gathered are 
 carried back to the house for inspection. The straightness or 
 crookedness, leanness or fatness, and other pecuharities of the 
 stalks are indicative of the general appearance of their future 
 husbands or wives, while the taste of the pith, whether sweet, 
 bitter, or vapid, forecasts their disposition and character. But 
 the most singular of all beliefs in Scotland regarding the cabbage- 
 stalk is confined to the minds of very young children, though it 
 is so peculiarly a tender delusion that the guidwife holds it in 
 respect to her dying day. The idea is universal among the little 
 folks in the Land o' Cakes that where a new brother or sister 
 appears in the household it has come, through fairy aid, from 
 the roots of the cabbage-stalk. So that when all the bairns of 
 Scotland are singing, — 
 
 This is the nicht o' Halloween, 
 When a' the witchie micht be seen ; 
 Some o' them black, some o' them green, 
 Some o' them like a turkey bean, — 
 
 however mad and merry all their games, they never lay their 
 joy-weary heads upon their pillows until with their own hands 
 they have laid generous piles of " kail runts" against door-sill 
 and window-ledge, so that the gracious and kindly fairies of 
 blessed Halloween night shall set free at least one baby soul 
 from the roots and mould, and the household shall not fall of 
 welcoming another tiny bairn within the coming year. 
 
 The following extract is taken from the Guardian (November 
 11, 1874) : " Halloween was duly celebrated at Balmoral Castle. 
 Preparations had been made days beforehand, and farmers and 
 others for miles around were present. When darkness set in, 
 the celebration began, and her majesty and the Princess Beatrice, 
 each bearing a large torch, drove, out in an open phaeton. A 
 procession formed of the tenants and servants on the estates 
 followed, all carrying huge torches lighted. They walked through 
 the grounds and round the castle, and the scene as the procession 
 moved onwards was very weird and striking. When it had ar- 
 rived in front of the castle, an immense bonfire, composed of old 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 611 
 
 boxes, packing cases, and other materials, stored up during the 
 year for the occasion, was set fire to. When the flames were 
 at their brightest, a figure dressed as a hobgoblin appeared on 
 the scene, drawing a car surrounded by a number of fairies car- 
 rying long spears, the car containing the effigy of a witch. A 
 circle having been formed by the torch-bearers, the presiding elf 
 tossed the figure of the witch into the fire, where it was speedily 
 consumed. This cremation over, reels were begun, and were 
 danced with great vigor to the stirring strains of Willie Eoss, 
 her majesty's piper." 
 
 A custom that prevails in Ireland and Scotland, and that is 
 religiously followed in the United States by the people of those 
 countries, has to do with the character of the evening meal. A 
 dish, largely made up of mashed parsnips and potatoes and 
 chopped onions, is served as the principal item on the bill of fare. 
 It is called " call-cannon," though why it is thus designated only 
 these people understand. A deep bowl filled to the brim with 
 the food is placed in the middle of the table. Somewhere in the 
 bowl is a gold ring, and in the centre is a deep well filled with 
 melted butter. Portions are distributed to each person, and the 
 one who finds the ring is certain to be married within a year, 
 unless already married, in which event good luck will follow the 
 finder. 
 
 A loaf-cake is often made and in it are placed a ring and a 
 key. The former signifies marriage, the latter a journey, and 
 the finder of either must accept the inevitable. 
 
 (Jn the United States it is to be regretted that the spirit of 
 rowdyism has in a measure superseded the kindly old customs. 
 In towns and villages gangs of hoodlums throng the streets, 
 ringing the door-bells or wrenching the handles from their 
 sockets, and taking gates from off their hinges. In Washington 
 the boys carry flour in a bag. Care is taken to have the web of 
 the bags so worn that a slight blow will release a generous supply 
 of the white powder. The bags are long and narrow, and are 
 handled as if they were slung-shots. These the boys use upon 
 one another as well as upon non-belligerent passers-by. 
 
 Handsel Monday. The first Monday in the year. This is 
 a great holiday among the peasantry and the children generally 
 in Scotland, being especially devoted to the giving and receiving 
 of presents, or, in the Scotch vocabulary, handsels. The young 
 visit their seniors in expectation of some remembrance, and 
 postmen, scavengers, and newspaper- carriers look for the equiv- 
 alent of what in England are known as Christmas-boxes. In the 
 remoter rural regions Auld Handsel Monday — i.e., Handsel Mon- 
 day, Old Style, or the first Monday after the 12th of January — 
 
512 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 is the day usually held. On this occasion it was the ancient 
 custom for farmers to ti^eat all their servants to a liberal break- 
 fast of roast and boiled, with ale, whiskey, and cake, after which 
 the guests spent the day in visiting among their friends. It was 
 also moving day in old Scotland, and the date when new engage- 
 ments were entered into with servants and farm-hands. 
 
 Hangman's Stone. There are numerous large boulders in 
 different parts of England and the United States which have 
 received the name of " Hangman's Stone," in consequence of a 
 legend which attaches much the same story to each. There were 
 two fields in the parish of Fore mark, Derbyshire, called the 
 Great and the Little Hangman's Stone, from the boulders which 
 they contained. In the former there was a stone five or six feet 
 high, with an indentation running across the top of it. This 
 peculiar mark was explained by the tradition that once upon a 
 time a thief, having stolen a sheep, placed his booty on thie top 
 of the stone while he rested, but it slipped off, and strangled the 
 man with the rope which tied the sheep to his back, the indenta- 
 tion being made by the friction of the rope passing back and 
 forth in the struggles of the dying man to extricate himself 
 
 At a picturesque angle in the road between SheflSeld and 
 Barnsby, and about three miles south of the latter place, there 
 is a toll-bar called " Hangman's Stone Bar." Attached to this 
 title is the usual legend of a sheep-stealer being strangled by the 
 kicking animal which he had slung across his shoulders, and 
 which pulled him backward as he tried to climb over the stone 
 wall with his spoil. Here no one particular stone is marked with 
 evidence of the struggle, but the Jehu of the now extinct Barnsby 
 mail always used to tell the story to any inquiring passenger 
 who happened to be one of the " five at top" on his quaint four- 
 in-hand. 
 
 At the end of Lamber Moor, on the roadside between Haver- 
 ford West and Little Haven, in the county of Pembroke, there 
 is a stone about four feet high, called "Hang Davy Stone," con- 
 nected with which is the same legend, only in this case the 
 unfortunate's name has survived. There is also, about five miles 
 from Sidmouth, on the road to Colyton, on the right-hand side, 
 near Bovey House, another boulder which bears this ominous 
 appellation. 
 
 In Westcote's " View of Devonshire in 1630" mention is made 
 of the fact that the parish of Tatchcomb is separated from 
 Combmartin by a long row of boundary stones, one of which is 
 distinguished as the "Hangman's Stone," for the same reason- 
 that has been given before. And only a few j^ears ago there was 
 still to be seen, near the boundarj^ of Littlebury parish in Essex, 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 613 
 
 another large stone which bore this same name and history. 
 This was subsequently removed to the private garden of a Mr. 
 Gibson of SufFron Walden. 
 
 North Essex abounds in these strange boulders, and quantities 
 of them may be seen along the roadside. The general impression 
 is that they have been disinterred in by-gone times and left near 
 the spot where they were discovered. 
 
 Hangman's Stones occur also on the road between Brighton 
 and New Haven ; and the most famous instance of all is the one 
 recorded in Potter's '-' Charwood," where the death of the deer- 
 stealer John of Oxley is rehearsed in verse, under the title of 
 " The Legend of the Hangman's Stone :" 
 
 One shaft he drew on his well-tried yew, 
 
 And a gallant hart lay dead ; 
 He tied its legs, and he hoisted his prize, 
 
 And he toiled over Lubcloud brow — 
 He reached the tall stone standing out and alone, 
 
 Standing there as it standeth now ; 
 With his back to the stone, he rested his load. 
 
 And he chuckled with glee to think 
 That the rest of his way on the down-hill lay. 
 
 And his wife would have spied the strong drink. 
 
 A swineherd was passing o'er great Ive's Head, 
 
 When he noticed a motionless man ; 
 He shouted in vain, — no reply could he gain, — 
 
 So down to the gray stone he ran. 
 All was clear : there was Oxley on one side the stone. 
 
 On the other the down-hanging deer; 
 The burden had slipped, and his neck it had nipped ; 
 
 He was hanged by his prize : all was clear. 
 
 It is a curious fact that a tale almost identical with the tradi- 
 tion attached to the Hangman's Stones is related of a pig-stealer 
 and a stile, in Craven. " Swine Harry" is the name of a field 
 on the side of Pinnow, a hill in Tothersdale, in Craven. It is 
 said that a native of the valley was once crossing the field at the 
 dead of night with a pig which he had stolen from a neighboring 
 farm-yard. He led the obstinate animal bj^ a rope which was 
 tied to its leg and noosed at the other end, which he held in his 
 hand. On coming to a ladder-stile, being a very stout man, and 
 wishing to have both hands at liberty, but not liking to release 
 the pig, he transferred the rope from his hands to his neck. But 
 when he reached the top step, his feet slipped, the pig pulled 
 hard on the other side, the noose tightened, and the next morn- 
 ing he was found dead. 
 
 The fatal character which seems to distinguish these boulders 
 
 33 
 
514 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 is not satisfactorily accounted for. It may be that they are 
 remnants of the devil's missiles ; for he is known to have utilized 
 such large boulders in many of his encounters v^ith the early 
 inhabitants. In the German popular tales the devil is frequently 
 made to step into the place of the giants. Like them, he has 
 his abode in rocks, and hurls stones in which the impression of 
 his fingers or other members is often to be seen ; and, according 
 to tradition, compacts are made with him for the building of 
 churches. 
 
 Hara-Kiri. (Japanese, from haray "the belly," and Mri, 
 "cutting," "cut.") The ofiicial suicide by disembowelling for- 
 merly practised in Japan by daimios and members of the mili- 
 tary class, either voluntarily, to avoid surviving some personal 
 or family disgrace, or by instigation of the Mikado as a punish- 
 ment for crime. In the latter case the act was performed vrith 
 punctilious ceremonial in the presence of witnesses. The moment 
 the suicide had ripped open his abdomen with his dirk his head 
 was struck off by his kaishaku, or second, usually a kinsman, or 
 at least a friend of his own rank. Japanese gentlemen were 
 trained to look upon the hara-kiri as an honorable expiation of 
 crime or blotting out of obloquy. If the offence had been hei- 
 nous, and such as might otherwise have involved the ruin of the 
 whole family, the Mikado in his clemency usually confiscated 
 only half the property and returned the other half to the heir; 
 if the offence w^ere trivial, the property v^as inherited intact by 
 the heir and the family was exonerated. In all cases where 
 the criminal disembowelled himself of his own accord without 
 condemnation and without investigation, inasmuch as he was 
 no longer able to defend himself, the offence was considered as 
 non-proven, and the property was not confiscated. 
 
 It was customary for the Mikado, when hara-kiri had been 
 determined upon, and the culprit happened to be of very high 
 rank, to send him a jewelled sword wherewith to operate upon 
 himself This custom was put to a severe test on one occasion 
 when the Mikado had been grievously hurt by the words ^nd 
 conduct of a high court ofiicial. The man was an old and very 
 valued servant of the crown, but his crime was unpardonable. 
 Next day, therefore, an officer brought him the fatal sword, a 
 magnificent weapon, with a blade inlaid with gold and a handle 
 incrusted with diamonds, together with a sympathetic intima- 
 tion that his early death would be regarded as a benefit to the 
 empire in general and to the Mikado in particular. The culprit 
 received the sword with all proper respect, but as soon as the 
 emissary had departed, the wily Japanese — in whose mind Euro- 
 pean habits of thought had evidently taken firm root — walked 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 515 
 
 down to the quay, went on board a mail steamer that was bound 
 for Havre, and upon reaching Paris incontinently sold his sword 
 of honor for six thousand pounds. 
 
 Hara-kiri is often misspelled hari-kari and harri-karri, and is 
 alternatively known as the Happy Despatch. It was established 
 in Japan in the days of the Ashi-Kaga dynasty (a.d. 1336- 
 1568). Japanese authorities estimate that at one time no less 
 than fifteen hundred of these suicides occurred annually. The 
 custom was abolished in 1868. 
 
 The only Europeans who ever witnessed an execution by hara- 
 kiri were A. B. Mitford and six fellow-diplomats, who were all 
 invited to be, present at the execution of Taki Zenzaburo in 
 1867. He was an officer of the Mikado who had given the order 
 to fire upon the foreign settlements at Hiogo during the civil war 
 against the Tycoon and had thereby almost brought down the 
 vengeance of Europe upon the Mikado. The ceremony took 
 place at half-past ten o'clock at night in the temple of Seikukuji, 
 at Hiogo. 
 
 " It was an imposing scene," says Mr. Mitford, — " a large hall 
 with a high roof supported by dark pillars of wood. From the 
 ceiling hung a profusion of those huge gilt lamps and ornaments 
 peculiar to Buddhist temples. In front of the high altar, where 
 the floor, covered with beautiful white mats, is raised some three 
 or four inches from the ground, was laid a rug of scarlet felt. 
 Tall candles placed at regular intervals gave out a dim mysterious 
 light, just sufficient to let all the proceedings be seen. The seven 
 Japanese took their places on the left of the raised floor, the 
 seven foreigners on the right. 'No other person was present. 
 
 "After an interval of a few minutes of anxious suspense, Taki 
 Zenzaburo, a stalwart man thirty-two years of age, with a noble 
 air, w^alked into the hall attired in his dress of ceremony, with 
 the peculiar hempen cloth wings which are worn on great occa- 
 sions. He was accompanied by a kaishaku and three officers, 
 who wore the zimbaori, or war surcoat with gold-tissue facings. 
 
 " With the kaishaku on his left hand, Taki Zenzaburo advanced 
 slowly towards the Japanese witnesses, and the two bowed before 
 them, then drawing near to the foreigners they saluted us in the 
 same way, perhaps even with more deference : in each case the 
 salutation was ceremoniously returned. Slowly, and with great 
 dignity, the condemned man mounted onto the raised floor, 
 prostrated himself before the high altar twice, and seated him- 
 self on the felt carpet with his back to the high altar, the kai- 
 shaku crouching on his left-hand side. One of the three attend- 
 ant officers then came forward bearing a stand of the kind used 
 in temples for offerings, on which, wrapped in paper, lay the 
 wakizashi, the short sword or dirk of the Japanese, nine inches 
 
516 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 and a half in length, with a point and an edge as sharp as a 
 razor's. This he handed, prostrating himself, to the condemned 
 man, who received it reverently, raising it to his head with both 
 hands, and placed it in front of himself. 
 
 "After another profound obeisance, Taki Zenzaburo, in a voice 
 which betrayed just so much emotion and hesitation as might 
 be expected from a man who is making a painful confession, 
 but Avith no sign of fear either in his face or manner, spoke as 
 follows : 
 
 " ' I, and I alone, unwarrantably gave the order to fire on the 
 foreigners at Kobe, and again as they tried to escape. For this 
 crime I disembowel myself, and I beg you who are present to do 
 me the honor of witnessing the act.' 
 
 " Bowing once more, the speaker allowed his upper garments 
 to slip down to his girdle, and remained naked to the waist. 
 Carefully, according to custom, he tucked his sleeves under his 
 knees to prevent himself from falling backward, for a noble 
 Japanese gentleman should die falling forward. Deliberately, 
 with a steady hand, he took the dirk that lay before him ; he 
 looked at it wistfully, almost affectionately ; for a moment he 
 seemed to collect his thoughts for the last time, and then, stab- 
 bing himself below the waist on the left-hand side, he drew it 
 slowty across to the right side, and, turning the dirk in the 
 wound, gave a slight cut upward. During the sickeningly painful 
 operation he never moved a muscle of his face. When he drew 
 out the dirk he leaned forward and stretched out his neck ; an 
 expression of pain for the first time crossed his face, but he 
 uttered no sound. At that moment the kaishaku, who, still 
 crouching by his side, had been keenly watching his every move- 
 ment, sprang to his feet, poised his sword for a second in the 
 air; there was a flash, a heavy, ugly thud, a crashing fall; with 
 one blow the head had been severed from the body. 
 
 " A dead silence followed, broken only by the hideous noise 
 of the blood gushing out of the inert heap before us, which but 
 a moment before had been a brave and chivalrous man. It 
 was horrible. 
 
 " The kaishaku made a low bow, wiped his sword, and retired 
 from the raised floor ; and the stained dirk was solemnly borne 
 away, a bloody proof of the execution. 
 
 "The two representatives of the Mikado then left their places, 
 and, crossing over to where the foreign witnesses sat, called us 
 to witness that the sentence of death upon Taki Zenzaburo had 
 been faithfully carried out. The ceremony being at an end, we 
 left the temple." 
 
 Mr. Mitford tells some stories of extraordinary heroism dis- 
 played in the hara-kiri which had been related to him. The 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 517 
 
 case of a young fellow only twenty years old deserves mention 
 as a marvellous instance of determination. Not content with 
 giving himself the one necessary cut, he slashed himself thrice 
 horizontally and twice vertically. Then he stabbed himself in 
 the throat until the dirk protruded on the other side, with its 
 sharp edge to the front ; setting his teeth in one supreme 
 effort, he drove the knife forward with both hands through his 
 throat, and fell dead. 
 
 When the Tycoon, beaten on every side, had fled ignominiously 
 to Yeddo, a member of his second council went to him and said, 
 " Sir, the only way for you now to retrieve the honor of the 
 family of Tokugawa is to disembowel yourself; and to prove 
 to you that I am sincere and disinterested in what I say, I am 
 here ready to disembowel myself with you." The Tycoon flew 
 into a great rage, saying that he would listen to no such non- 
 sense, and left the room. His faithful retainer, to prove his hon- 
 esty, retired to another part of the castle and solemnly performed 
 the hara-kiri. 
 
 One of the great scenes in the play of " Chiushingura," the 
 most popular of Japanese dramas, is that which represents the 
 hara-kiri of Yenya Hanguwan, chief of the Forty-Seven Eonins, 
 after the defeat of his followers. 
 
 Harvest Customs. From early times the ingathering of 
 the harvest has afforded occasion for revelry and thanksgiving. 
 When the Jews inhabited Palestine the festival of Pentecost 
 embraced a thanksgiving for a bountiful harvest ; but, as the 
 wheat is not gathered in Northern Europe or America at the 
 time of Pentecost, flowers take the place of the first-fruits in 
 the synagogues.* The Eomans had their Cerealia, or feasts in 
 honor of Ceres. The Druids celebrated their harvest festival on 
 November 1, the Japanese and Chinese each celebrate one at 
 the close of their year. The American Thanksgiving is an ac- 
 knowledgment of the blessings of the year in general and the 
 bounties of the harvest in particular. In pre -Reformation times 
 in England Lammas-Day was marked by the presentation of a 
 loaf made of new wheat in the churches by every member of 
 the congregation. Afterwards the feast of Ingathering or Har- 
 vest-Home, known in Scotland as the Kern, was a peculiarly 
 secular method of celebrating the close of the harvest. This 
 still has its local survivals, although they are fast passing away 
 before the modern innovation of a general harvest festival for 
 the whole parish, to which all the farmers are expected to con- 
 tribute, and which their laborers may freely attend. This festival 
 is commenced with a special service in the village church, beauti- 
 fully decorated for the occasion with fruit and flowers, followed 
 
518 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 by a dinner in a tent or in some building sufficiently large, and 
 continued with rural sports, and sometimes includes a tea- 
 drinking for the women. 
 
 Nevertheless, as Canon Atkinson says, we cannot even yet 
 use the past tense in speaking of the old harvest-home. " In 
 the northern part of Northumberland," writes Henderson in his 
 " Folk-Lore of North England" (1879), " the festival takes place 
 at the close of the reaping, not the ingathering. When the 
 sickle is laid down and the last sheaf of corn set on end, it is 
 said that they have ' got the kern.' The reapers announce the 
 fact by loud shouting, and an image crowned with wheat-ears 
 and dressed in a white frock and colored ribbons is hoisted on a 
 pole by the tallest and strongest men of the party. All circle 
 round this ' kern-baby' or harvest-queen and proceed to the barn, 
 where they set the image on high, and proceed to do justice to 
 the harvest-supper." In some places "this nodding sheaf, the 
 symbol of the god," is quite small, fashioned with much care and 
 neatness, and plaited with wonderful skill ; in others it is large 
 and cumbersome, taking a strong man's strength to bear it. 
 
 In Scotland it is called "the maiden," and is dressed like a 
 doll. It is preserved in the farm-house above the chimney-piece. 
 The youngest girl in the harvest-field is supposed to have the 
 privilege of cutting " the maiden." Its head is formed of ears 
 of oats ; a broad blue ribbon is tied in a bow round the neck, 
 and a skirt of paper completes the costume of " the maiden." In 
 the northeast of Scotland the last sheaf is known as the " clyack," 
 or " cailleach" (old woman), and is dressed up and made to look 
 as much like an old woman as possible. It has a white cap, a 
 dress, a little shawl over the shoulders, fastened with a sprig of 
 heather, an apron turned up to form a pockety which is stuffed 
 with bread and cheese, and a sickle is stuck in the string of the 
 apron at the back. At the harvest feast the cailleach is placed 
 at the head of the table, the company drink to her, and in the 
 evening the lads dance with her. 
 
 The manner of escorting the last load to the barn varied in 
 different places. In many parts of England it was borne in 
 a wagon known as the hock-cart. A pipe and tabor went 
 merrily sounding in front, and the reapers, male and female, 
 tripped around in a hand-in-hand ring, shouting and singing. 
 Herrick's description shows how ancient is this custom : 
 
 Come forth, my Lord, to see the cart 
 Drest up with all the country art. 
 The horses, mares and frisking fillies 
 Clad all in linen white as lilies. 
 -The harvest swains and wenches bound 
 For joy, to see the hock-cart crown 'd. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 519 
 
 About the cart heare how the rout 
 
 Of rural younglings raise the shout ; 
 
 Pressing before, some coming after, 
 
 Those with a shout, and these with laughter. 
 
 Some blesse the cart ; some kisse the sheaves ; 
 
 Some prank them up with oaken leaves : 
 
 Some crosse the fill-horse ; some with great 
 
 Devotion stroak the home-borne wheat ; 
 
 "While other rusticks, lesse attent 
 
 To prayers than to merryment, 
 
 Eun after with their breeches rent. 
 
 In some provinces it was a favorite practical joke to lay an 
 ambuscade along the road, and from the vantage-point of some 
 tree or hill to drench the hock-party with water. 
 
 An old song with many variants still survives at the bearing 
 home of the last load. Its usual form runs as follows : 
 
 Harvest home ! harvest home ! 
 We've ploughed, we've sowed, 
 We've reaped, we've mowed, 
 We've brought home every load. 
 Hip, hip, hip, harvest-home ! 
 
 Here is a glimpse of an East Anglian custom : 
 "The sun is setting behind the old windmill as we cross the 
 field of stubble ; from a group of harvesters comes a woman 
 who, with a low courtesy, asks us for ' largess.' As we pass 
 along we hear merry shouts and cheering, and presently round 
 the corner of the road comes a fine team of horses, mounted by 
 two lads dressed in the garb of women, while the wagon is filled 
 with the last load of corn, and merry youths and maidens ride 
 above it. The wagon stops, and the riders give us three cheers, 
 and then on they go to the village green amidst much laughter 
 and bright songs." 
 
 The custom is known locally as " Hallering Largess," and has 
 been described as a certain rhythmic chant, rendered with action 
 and gesture, and followed by a certain number of shouts, in 
 return for gifts. When they have received the offering they 
 shout thrice the words " Halloo, largess," which may be a cor- 
 ruption of a la largesse. The ritual appears to be as follows. 
 The laborers gather in front of the house, and form a ring by 
 joining hands. They bow their heads very low towards the 
 centre of the circle and give utterance to a low deep mutter, 
 saying, " Hoo-Hoo-Hoo ;" then they jerk their heads backward 
 and utter a shrill shriek of "Ah! Ah!" repeated several times. 
 The Lord of the Largess, the leader of the band, then cries, 
 " Holla, largess," which is echoed by the company, and thus the 
 performance ends, a very interesting survival of old usages. 
 
520 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 In Herefordshire a final handful of grain was left uncut. But 
 it was tied up and erected under the name of a mare^ and the 
 reapers then, one after another, threw their sickles at it, to cut 
 it down. The successful individual called out, " I have her !" 
 " What have you ?" cried the rest. " A mare, a mar^, a mare !" 
 he replied. "What will you do with her?" was then asked. 
 " We'll send her to John Snooks," or whatever other name, re- 
 ferring to some neighboring farmer who had not yet got all his 
 grain cut down. 
 
 This piece of rustic pleasantry was called " Crying the Mare." 
 It is very curious to learn that there used to be a similar prac- 
 tice in so remote a district as the Isle of Skye. A farmer hav- 
 ing got his harvest completed, the last cut handful was sent, 
 under the name of Goabbir Bhacagh (" the Cripple Goat"), to the 
 next farmer who was still at work upon his crops, it being of 
 course necessary for the bearer to take some care that, on deliv- 
 ery, he should be able instantly to take to his heels and escape 
 the punishment otherwise sure to befall him. 
 
 " In the southeastern part of Shropshire," says the Eev. C. H. 
 Hartshorne in his " Salopia Antiqua," p. 498, " the ceremony is 
 performed with a slight variation. The last few stalks of the 
 wheat are left standing ; all the reapers throw their sickles, and 
 he who cuts it off cries, ' I have her, I have her, I have her !' on 
 which the rustic mirth begins ; and it is practised in a manner 
 very similar in Devonshire. The latest farmer in the neighbor- 
 hood, whose reapers therefore cannot send her to any other per- 
 son, is said to keep her all the winter. This rural ceremony, 
 which is fast wearing away, evidently refers to the time when, 
 our country lying all open in common fields, and the corn conse- 
 quently exposed to the depredations of the wild mares, the season 
 at which it was secured from their ravages was a time of rejoicing, 
 and of exulting over a tardier neighbor." 
 
 Mr. Bray describes the same custom as practised in Devon- 
 shire, and the chief peculiarity in that instance is that the last 
 handful of the standing grain is called the Nack. On this being 
 cut, the reapers assemble round it, calling at the top of their 
 voices, " Arnack, arnack, arnack ! we have'n, we have'n, we 
 have'n," and the firkin is then handed round ; after which the 
 party goes home dancing and shouting. 
 
 Clarke in his Travels (1812) gives this account of a harvest- 
 home festival in Cambridge : 
 
 " At the Hawkie, as it is called, or Harvest-Home, I have seen 
 a clown dressed in woman's clothes^ having his face painted, his 
 head decorated with ears of corn, and bearing about with him 
 other emblems of Ceres, carried in a wagon, with great pomp 
 and loud shouts, through the streets, the horses being covered 
 
\ 
 
 POPULAR CUSTOMS. 521 
 
 with white sheets ; and, when I inquired the meaning of the 
 ceremony, was answered by the people that ' they were drawing 
 the Harvest Queen.' " (Vol. ii. p. 229.) 
 
 At harvest suppers in Dumfriesshire and Lincolnshire "the 
 old sow," or," Paiky," used to make her appearance. This curi- 
 ous animal was nothing more nor less than two men dressed up 
 in sacks to personate the visiting quadruped. The head was 
 filled with cuttings from a furze-bush. The animal pranced 
 around before the supper, pricking every one it approached. "I 
 used to be very much afraid of it when I was a child," says a cor- 
 respondent of JSFotes and Queries, Eighth Series, ix. 128. " That 
 was a part of the harvest supper I never could like." 
 
 In some parts of Scotland a similar figure seems to have been 
 called " Auld Glenae," as witness the lines in a poem on " Harvest- 
 Home" published in Blackwood's Magazine for June, 1821 : 
 
 But tumbling, rolling, sprawling on his way. 
 
 Comes in the straw-clad masker, " Auld Glenae ;" 
 
 A lengthen'd pole adorns his better paw, 
 
 Well swathed with ribbons, and well wrapp'd with straw. 
 
 Like shaggy bear he heaves his limbs along, 
 
 And drives, and leaps, and bustles through the throng ; 
 
 Tries every art the younger folks to " scar," 
 
 And only joins the reel, the sport to mar; 
 
 Trips up the dancer in his figure pace, 
 
 And thrusts his stubble presence in each face ; 
 
 With Lizy foots the droll duett away, 
 
 And capers to the tune of " Auld Glenae," 
 
 Then winds his bunchy arms her waist about. 
 
 And bears aloft the farmer's daughter out ; 
 
 " And wha can this be now ?" each damsel cries ; 
 
 *' What can he want wi' Lizy?" each replies. 
 
 " Aweel," rejoins a third, " she's nae great prize !" 
 
 A rural celebration akin to the Enghsh, and known as the 
 Fete of the Big Sheaf, survived until recently in Canada and 
 closed the harvest season among the habitans in the neighbor- 
 hood of Bay St. Paul. The last sheaf, made large, was put on 
 the last cart-load of grain as an emblem of abundance ; the lads 
 and lasses, decorated with ears of grain, walked on each side of 
 the load, and sang some of their national songs on the way to 
 the house. 
 
 " According to the usual ceremony," says the author of an 
 article on " The Canadian Habitant" in Harpefs Monthly, vol. 
 Ixvii. p. 389, " the master of the house sits in a large arm-chair 
 at the head of the room, and awaits with a joyful and contented 
 air the arrival of his people. These soon come trooping in, led 
 by the eldest son, who carries in one hand a fine sheaf of wheat 
 all decorated with ribbons, and in the other hand a decanter and 
 
522 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 a glass. He advances to the master of the house, gives him the 
 sheaf, wishes him as good a harvest every year of his life, and 
 pours him out a glass of brandy. The old gentleman thanks 
 him, and drinks off the glass. Then the son goes round the 
 room and serves the company ; after which they pass to the 
 next room for supper, composed of mutton, milk, and pancakes 
 with maple sugar. After supper the decanter and glass go their 
 rounds again, and then the young man who presented the sheaf 
 asks his father to sing a song. Songs, dances, and other amuse- 
 ments close the festival. 
 
 " As this pretty ceremony fell into disuse some years ago, the 
 priest of one of the parishes on the south shore of the St. Law- 
 rence took it under his own patronage, and made it a Church 
 festival by carrying the Big Sheaf into the choir of the church 
 and saying mass over it. But even this duller rite is now sel- 
 dom witnessed : the farmers instead pay the priest to say a mass 
 as thanks for the harvest." 
 
 Hassan and Hussein. Two Imams or saints of Persia, the 
 sons of Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed, and of Ali, his 
 bosom friend and successor. Their tragic deaths are commemo- 
 rated, on the tenth day of the Mussulman month of Mouharem, 
 in Persia and in all cities where a Persian colony exists, by a 
 religious ceremony the mystic rites and sanguinary ferocity of 
 which are almost without a parallel. 
 
 When the office of Caliph became vacant through the assassi- 
 nation of Ali in 660, Hassan as the nearest heir was murdered 
 by Yezzid, son of Muhavijeh, who usurped the throne, Hussein 
 fled to Medina, and twenty years later led a revolt of the Kyuffeh 
 tribes. At the hour of need, however, his allies forsook him, and 
 Hussein, with only forty foot and thirty horse, was forced to meet 
 Yezzid at the head of four thousand men. After a terrific con- 
 test the little band was cut to pieces, Hussein falling last of all, 
 pierced with thirty-two wounds. 
 
 His head was severed from his body and conveyed to Yezzid, 
 by whom it was received with savage exultation. " It was ob- 
 served that a light streamed upward from the lifeless head and 
 extended towards the heavens, white doves hovering round." 
 The body was buried at Kerbela, which city has ever since been 
 regarded with the utmost veneration and reverence by all Per- 
 sians and Shiahs, large numbers of whom annually visit the 
 mausoleum of the martyred saint. Kerbela has been and still 
 is the favorite burial-ground of the Persians, their remains being 
 transported thither from ali parts of the world. 
 
 A sort of Passion Play is the leading feature of the festival 
 of Hassan and Hussein. At Constantinople, where there is a 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 623 
 
 large Persian colony, this is performed at night in a large square 
 surrounded by houses and shops, planted with trees and crowded 
 with people. Edwin C. De Leon, who was American consul to 
 Constantinople for many years, thus describes the ceremony in 
 The Epoch, New York : 
 
 " Shortly after we were seated we heard wild shouts and 
 clamors outside, and presently saw a band of wild-looking men 
 bearing aloft flaming maschaUahs. They entered in marching 
 time, and announced the approach of a numerous procession of 
 ' the Faithful.' In they poured, preceded by the Persian priests, 
 lugubriously chanting with nasal melody a kind of funeral song, 
 reciting the tragic death of Hassan and Hussein, with maledic- 
 tions on their assassin, Yezzid, doomed to an immortality of 
 infamy. Then suddenly appeared at the termination of the 
 chant a ghostly-looking crew of men, clad in long white robes, 
 with uncovered heads and naked swords in their hands. These 
 men numbered many hundreds, and were termed Nazirs, — a 
 Persian name signifying those consecrated to God, being dedi- 
 cated by their parents from infancy to observe the ceremonial 
 and the fasts commemorating the deaths of Hassan and Hussein. 
 They flourished their naked swords, clashed them wildly together, 
 and occasionally turned the points on themselves or their com- 
 panions, gashing heads, faces, and breasts until the blood flow^ed 
 and discolored their white robes. They then dragged each other 
 by the hand, passed round and round, hoarsely reciting mourning 
 hymns, with wild invocations of the names of the martyrs, Hus- 
 sein and Hassan. These men looked really like demons under 
 the red glare of the torches borne by their companions, who to 
 the number of several thousands passed in after the singers, 
 often wiping the bloody brows of the fanatics. 
 
 " The horror of this fearful scene was magnified by the dull, 
 thumping sound made by the self-flagellations of another band 
 of fanatics who accompanied the swordsmen. These men be- 
 labored their broad backs with scourges made of iron chains, 
 the blows resounding with a sickening sound. The secretaries 
 told us that the backs of these men, from the annual repetition 
 of this scourging, and from their daily habit of carrying heavy 
 burdens, as hamals or porters, were actually more like iron than 
 flesh. 
 
 " After the Nazirs came a typical procession of the flight of 
 the martyrs' families, with the tents, the banners and household 
 goods, and even the children perched upon horses which formed 
 part of the show. Wild wailings of ' Oh, Hassan ! Oh, Hus- 
 sein !' accompanied these, as though the incidents commemorated 
 had occurred not six hundred years but six hours ago. 
 
 " One of the most curious and at the same time one of the 
 
524 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 most repulsive features of the spectacle was the appearance in 
 the procession, with the fanaticar Nazirs, of a large school of 
 boys, of from ten to fourteen years of age, some of whom gashed 
 themselves with knives and were thus prepared for fanaticism. 
 Then the fanatical assemblage withdrew through the arch of the 
 gate, but distant shouts and wild waihng from without warned 
 us that the performance was not yet quite at an end. 
 
 " For more than two hours this wild work went on, until the 
 final round of the exhausted Nazirs was made, when they stopped 
 just in front of the Ambassador's loge and the priests pronounced 
 a prayer, first for the Shah of Persia, next for the Sultan, and 
 lastly for the Ambassador. After this the procession drifted out 
 to the outer gate, and passed away under the still stars." 
 
 See also " Letters from Turkey," by Mrs. Max Miiller (1897), 
 most of which had previously appeared in Longmans' Magazine, 
 '' The Tenth of Mouharem," by Fuad ^Qj^ in London Society^ and 
 Matthew Arnold's essay " A Persian Passion Play." 
 
 Hatred, Our Lady of. (Fr. Notre-Dame de la Haine.) The 
 name popularly given to a church in Treguier, Brittany. Sou- 
 vestre in his " Derniers Bretons," vol. i. p. 92, tells us that hither 
 come at even-tide young people tired of the surveillance of their 
 elders, old men envious of the prosperity of their neighbors, 
 wives chafing under the despotism of their husbands, each pray- 
 ing for the death of the object of their hate. Three Aves, de- 
 voutly repeated, will bring about this death within the twelve- 
 month. Similarly Laisnel de la Salle tells us (" Croyances et 
 Legendes du Centre de la France," 1875, i. 332) that there exists 
 in the neighborhood of Argent, in the department of Cher, a 
 spring consecrated to St. Mauvais (" St. Wicked"), near to which 
 wretches come and pray who wish the death of an enemy, of a 
 rival in love, of a relation standing between them and an inheri- 
 tance, etc. The Basques recommend their enemies to St. Sequaire 
 in order to have them dried up. These are all undoubtedly sur- 
 vivals under other forms of pagan superstitions. They recall 
 the various Hindoo deities who are always ready to assist their 
 devotees each time they have an evil passion to gratify. 
 
 Heart-Burial. In popular parlance, in poetry, and even in 
 philosophy, the human heart has ever been deemed the seat of 
 affection, of passion, of courage, and of conscience, — even of life 
 itself. Small wonder, therefore, that it has been considered as a 
 votive gift peculiarly sacred. And this feeling has led to many 
 instances of the burial of the heart apart from the place where 
 the ashes of the body might repose. 
 
 The very name of Eichard Coeur de Lion, or Lion-Heart, 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 525 
 
 embodies this traditionary feeling. It is only meet, therefore, 
 that his heart should have been looked upon as being the most 
 important portion of his physical self. Our sense of appropriate- 
 ness is gratified by the historical anecdote that when he fell 
 beneath Gourdon's arrow at the siege of Chalus the gallant 
 heart which, in its greatness and mercy, inspired him to forgive 
 and even to reward the luckless archer was, after his death, pre- 
 served in a casket . in the treasury of that splendid cathedral 
 which William the Conqueror built at Eouen. 
 
 History and song have alike made us familiar with the last 
 wish of Robert Bruce, the heroic King of Scotland, when, after 
 two years of peace and contemplation, he died in the north of 
 Cardross. He desired that in part fulfilment of a vow he had 
 made to march to Jerusalem, a purpose which the incessant war 
 with England bafiled,.his heart should be laid in the church of 
 the Holy Sepulchre, and on his death-bed he besought his old 
 friend and faithful brother soldier, the good Sir James Douglas, 
 to undertake that which was then a most arduous journey, and 
 be the bearer of the relic. 
 
 It is a matter of history how Douglas departed on this errand 
 with a train of knights, and, choosing to land on the Spanish 
 coast, heard that Alfonso of Leon and Castile was at war with 
 Osman, the Moorish King of Granada. In the true spirit of the 
 age, he could not resist the temptation of striking a blow for the 
 Christian faith, and so joined the Spaniards. He led their van 
 upon the plain of Theba, near the Andalusian frontier. In a 
 silver casket at his neck he bore the heart of Bruce, which rashly 
 and repeatedly he cast before him amid the Moors, crying, — 
 
 " Now pass on as ye were wont, and Douglas, as of old, will 
 follow thee or die." 
 
 And there he fell, together with Sir William Sinclair of Eos- 
 Ijm, Sir Eobert and Sir Walter Logan of Eestalrig, and others. 
 Bruce's heart, instead of being taken to Jerusalem, was brought 
 home by Sir Simon of Lee, and deposited in Melrose Abbey. 
 
 On October 5, 1318, was killed near Dundalk, Ireland, Edward, 
 brother to King Eobert Bruce. In 1613 another Lord Edward 
 Bruce was killed in a duel and his body buried at Bergen, in 
 Holland, where he died. A family tradition averred that his 
 heart had been brought back to Scotland and interred in a cer- 
 tain churchyard. In 1806 a search for the relic was undertaken. 
 Two flat stones curiously fastened together with iron were dis- 
 interred, and out of curiosity separated. In a cslyHj between 
 them was found a heart-shaped silver case with the engraved 
 arms of Lord Edward. Opening this, a heart was found within, 
 embalmed in a brownish liquid. 
 
 Of all the treasured hearts of the heroic or illustrious dead, 
 
526 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 none perhaps ever underwent so many marvellous adventures as 
 that of James, Marquis of Montrose, who was executed by the 
 Scottish Puritans in 1650. His body was interred like that of a 
 common criminal by the side of a road leading to Edinburgh. 
 His niece, the Lady Napier, had it disinterred long enough to 
 take therefrom the heart, which she enclosed in a steel box and 
 sent to the second Duke of Montrose, who was then an exile. 
 But it was lost on the way, and not till years afterwards was it 
 discovered in the collection of a Flemish virtuoso. Eestored to 
 the E'apiers, it was taken to India by a member of the family, 
 was stolen by a Madrassa chief, who deemed it a powerful amulet 
 and wore it suspended from a string around his neck, was once 
 more regained by its owner, and was finally and irretrievably 
 lost by her in France during the troublous times of the Eevolu- 
 tion. 
 
 The last ceremonial burial of a heart in England was that of 
 Paul Whitehead, in 1775. In his youth he had been secretary 
 to the infamous Monks of Medmenham Club. It is interesting 
 to know that Whitehead's old age was respectable, and that he 
 was esteemed as a benevolent and exemplary old gentleman. 
 His heart was buried with military honors on Lord Despencer's 
 place in a mausoleum built out of funds left for the purpose 
 by that George Bubb Dodington, Lord Melcombe, whose " Me- 
 moirs" afford one of the most wonderful of all pictures of English 
 society. 
 
 The heart was not only a symbol of honor but also of dishonor 
 in England. Formerly the executioner of a traitor was required 
 to remove the body from the gallows before life was extinct and 
 pluck out the heart, exhibiting it to the people with the words 
 " Here is the heart of a traitor." Anthony a Wood reports that 
 the severed head of Sir Kenelm Ligby opened its ghastly lips 
 and answered, " Thou Hest !" Lord Bacon reports that two or 
 three persons were reported to have spoken two or three words 
 under similar circumstances. 
 
 Heart-burial was as frequent on the Continent as in England. 
 The body of Louis IX. after his death at Carthage in 1270 is 
 related to have been boiled in wine and water in order to preserve 
 it for transportation, and it was then shipped by Charles of Anjou 
 (I.) to Sicily. Here the flesh and viscera were deposited in the 
 Benedictine abbey of Monreale, near Palermo. The heart and 
 the bones remained, by desire of the soldiers, in the camp. Later, 
 his son Philip (le Hardi) having carried them, and those of his 
 brother Tristan, into Italy, they were brought to Paris in 1271. 
 On March 21 of that year the bones, reduced to ashes, were 
 deposited temporarily in Notre-Dame, whence they were pres- 
 ently borne in state to the Benedictine abbey of St. Denis, and 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 527 
 
 at each spot by the way where the bearers paused, seven in 
 number, Philip subsequently caused a cross to be raised. 
 
 Charles of Anjou dying at Foggia in 1285, his heart was sent to 
 Angers, while his body was entombed in San,Gennaro, at IS'aples. 
 His viscera remained in the Duomo at Foggia. 
 
 Philip III. (le Hardi) died of pestilence, at Perpignan, October 
 5, 1285. His flesh was buried at Narbonne. His bones were 
 transferred to St. Denis. His heart was given by Philip TV. (le 
 Bel) to the Dominicans of Paris. 
 
 In Austria since the thirteenth century every dead Hapsburg 
 has had his or her heart removed and buried apart from the 
 body. In the Capuchin chapel on the Neumarkt, Vienna, placed 
 in a vault beneath the ground, there are one hundred and thir- 
 teen coflins, containing all that remains of the royal Hapsburgs 
 who have ruled over the destinies of Austria, and there are one 
 hundred and fifty-two vases of crystal mounted in gold, each 
 containing the heart of one of these rulers and of others whose 
 bodies rest elsewhere. 
 
 When the body of the Emperor J^apoleon was prepared for 
 burial at St. Helena in May, 1821, the heart was removed by a 
 I medical officer, who kept it all night in his own room and under 
 I his own eye in a wineglass. The noise of the crystal breaking 
 aroused him, not from sleep, but rather from a waking doze, and 
 he started forward to see the heart in the clutches of a huge 
 brown rat, which was dragging it across the floor to a hole. One 
 story runs that he rescued it, but there is a gruesome tradition 
 that it had been so gnawed and bitten as to be unrecognizable, 
 and that the doctor was fain to substitute the heart of a sheep, 
 which he soldered up in a silver urn filled with spirits and placed 
 in the coffin. 
 
 It is a strange thought that the heart of a sheep, proverbially 
 one of the most timid of animals, should be handed down to pos- 
 terity as that of one of the most ruthless and most indomitable 
 human beings who ever lived ! 
 
 In 1894 the heart of Louis XVII., the unfortunate Dauphin 
 who died a victim of the cruelty of Simon the Cobbler, was 
 handed over with much ceremony to Don Carlos, the Pretender 
 to the French throne. For years the heart was in possession of 
 M. Edouard Dumont, who inherited it from his mother, who in 
 her turn received it from M. G-abriel Pelletin, the son of the 
 doctor who performed the autopsy on the body of the royal lad. 
 The difi'erent possessors of the relic, which had an eventful his- 
 tory, had made various attempts to hand it over to the Bourbon 
 family, but circumstances had always frustrated their efl'orts 
 until 1894, when the relic was at last intrusted to Don Carlos. 
 The heart, enclosed in a glass case ornamented with fleurs-de-lis, 
 
528 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 was handed by M. Dumont to the Comte de Mialle, who received 
 it on bended knee and swore that he would send it to the " King" 
 Don Carlos. This vow he fulfilled through the agency of M. 
 Pascal and the Comte de Marichalar, who conveyed it direct to 
 Don Carlos at Venice. The latter placed it in the chapel of the 
 palace of Frohsdorf. 
 
 In 1895 the heart of the patriot Kosciusko was formally pre- 
 sented to the Polish Museum in Eapperschwyll, on Lake Zurich, 
 in Switzerland. This museum is unique, and it is in many ways 
 one of the most interesting of all the depositories of patriotic 
 relics. Founded by Count Stanislas Plater, an exile from the 
 country which he loved, it stands to-day as an eloquent protest 
 against an historical iniquity. 
 
 The hero's body lies buried at Cracow ; his heart was handed 
 over to the friend of his declining years, M. de Zeltner, and later 
 passed, a revered heirloom, into the noble house of Morosini, on 
 the occasion of the marriage of Kosciusko's goddaughter, Mile, 
 de Zeltner, to Count Morosini. It was then placed for safe-keep- 
 ing in the chapel in Yezio, near Lugano. The heirs of Count 
 Morosini recognized that the relic could find no fitter resting- 
 place than the Eapperschwyll Museum. 
 
 A great ceremony greeted the occasion. Delegates from the 
 Poles of Galicia, including the President and municipal author- 
 ities of Cracow, also Polish delegates from Posen, Prussia, and 
 from the United States, were present. Eulogies of the patriot 
 were delivered by Polish orators, and the whole affair went off 
 in a blaze of glory. 
 
 Helena, St. The first wife of Constantius, one of the col- 
 leagues of the Emperor Maximin, and the mother of Constan- 
 tine the Great. Her festival is celebrated on the reputed date 
 of her death, August 18 (328). Little is known with any his- 
 torical certainty of the details of her life. Traditions vary. One 
 account makes her the daughter of a British prince named Coel 
 (the mythical original of the King Cole of the nursery ballad). 
 The local mythology of Treves represents her as of a patrician 
 family in that city, and adds that after her marriage she pre- 
 sented to the church her magnificent house, which was turned 
 into the present cathedral. Indeed, she is associated with almost 
 everything else that is striking or splendid in the city of Treves. 
 The imperial palace was built by her ; the villa at Euren was her 
 country-seat, and children playing by the fountain of the Eoman 
 villa have seen her seated beneath the waters, wearing a golden 
 crown. The monument of the Secundini at Igel was erected to 
 commemorate her marriage. In the city library is still preserved 
 the Codex Aureus^ a superbly bound and illuminated manuscript 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 529 
 
 of the Gospels, which was presented to the abbey of St. Maximin 
 by Ada, the sister of Charlemagne, but in the legend this is the 
 work of Helena's pious and skilful fingers. She it was who pre- 
 sented to the cathedral the holy coat without seam, which has of 
 late years played so prominent a part in Prussian politics. 
 
 There is a better founded story that she was the daughter of 
 an innkeeper, either in Gaul or in Bithynia. In any case she was 
 probably of humble parentage, and not at first admitted to the 
 status of a full wife of the noble young soldier Oonstantius, 
 though there is no doubt from the fact of her subsequent divorce, 
 when her husband was raised to the purple in 292 and married 
 to Maximin's step-daughter Theodora, that she did eventually 
 become so. perhaps upon the birth of her only son, the future 
 Emperor, in 274. Nothing further is known of her till her son's 
 succession in 306 to the Empire, when it is probable that she 
 was invested with all the dignity befitting the Emperor's mother. 
 At all events, there is the direct evidence of coins still extant to 
 support the statement of Eusebius that she received the title 
 of Augusta from Constan tine, together with other honors. The 
 same historian says that she was converted to Christianity by 
 her son. In about the year 326, when nearly eighty years of 
 age, she undertook her famous pilgrimage to Palestine and Jeru- 
 salem, which did so much to revive men's interest in and rever- 
 ence for these sacred localities and their remains and associa- 
 tions. (See Cross, Discovery of the ; Loretto, Holy House of ; 
 Sepulchre of Christ.) Her death probably took place some- 
 where on the return journey. Her body was brought with great 
 pomp to Constantinople, and was buried there with splendor in 
 the church of the Holy Apostles, lately erected in his new cap- 
 ital by Constantine. This is one legend. By some it is sup- 
 posed that she died near Eome and was buried there. Among 
 her relics that have survived are a head at Treves, some bones in 
 the Vatican, and others at Lisbon, and at Altrelle, near Eheims. 
 
 Her memory was perpetuated in the names of two cities, 
 Helenopolis and Helenopontus. Eventually, in 1164, she re- 
 ceived the honor of canonization by Pope Alexander III., in 
 consideration of the many miracles attributed to her. 
 
 In Yorkshire, England, St. Helen's Day is celebrated on May 
 2, possibly because that is the eve of the Invention of the Cross. 
 It is alternatively known as Eowan-Tree Day, because of the 
 custom for some member of every household to go out in search 
 of a rowan-tree, from which he gathers a supply of branches. 
 Eeturning by a different route from that by which he left home, 
 he sticks the twigs over every door of the house, where they are 
 scrupulously left until they fall out of themselves. " A piece is 
 also always borne about by many in their pockets or purses, as 
 
 84 
 
630 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 a prophylactic against witching. Not so very long since, either, 
 the farmers used to have whip-stocks of rowan-tree wood, — 
 rowan-tree gads they were called, — and it was held that, thus 
 supplied, they were safe against having their draught fixed or 
 their horses made restive by a witch. If ever a di^aught came 
 to a stand-still, — there being in such cases no rowan-tree gad in 
 the driver's hands, of course, — then the nearest witch wood-tree 
 was resorted to, and a stick cut to flog the horses on with, to the 
 discomfiture of the malevolent witch who had caused the stop- 
 page." (Atkinson : Cleveland Glossary, p. 417.) 
 
 Henry of Bavaria, St. (the Emperor Henry II. of Germany, 
 972-1024), patron of Bavaria. His festival is July 15, the day 
 after the anniversary of his death. 
 
 A splendid benefactor of the Papacy, at the time when it had 
 reached one of its greatest crises through the rival claims of 
 Popes and Antipopes, he confirmed the extensive donations of 
 the sovereignty of Eome and the exarchate of Eavenna made 
 to it by his predecessors, Pepin, Charlemagne, and Otho I. The 
 diploma was delivered on the occasion of Henry's triumphal 
 visit to Eome in 1014, when he was crowned Emperor by Pope 
 Benedict VIII. He had declared for Benedict in opposition to 
 the Antipope, Gregory YI. For the protection of Christendom, 
 and especially of the Holy See, he returned to Italy in 1022 and 
 led an army against the combined power of the Saracens and 
 Greeks, whom he drove out of the country. His health, always 
 feeble, now rapidly declined, and he died July 14, 1024. 
 
 He had reigned twenty-two years from his election and ten 
 years and five months from his coronation at Eome. He was 
 buried with great pomp in the cathedral at Barnbeig, in Ba- 
 varia, which he had himself built and dedicated to St. Peter. 
 At Bamberg likewise he had founded a rich episcopal see, 
 which was placed under the immediate jurisdiction of the Pope, 
 and to which he left by will all his treasures and his magnificent 
 allodial possessions. So great a num ber of miracles were reported 
 at his shrine that he was canonized by Eugenius III. in 1152. 
 
 His wife, St. Cunegunde, who was canonized later, is also one 
 of the patrons of Bavaria. The imperial couple lived in per- 
 petual chastity, to which they had bound themselves by a vow. 
 It happened that the Empress was falsely accused of inconti- 
 nency, but she cleared herself by an oath and by the ordeal 
 of walking barefoot over twelve red-hot ploughshares without 
 injury. Her husband severely condemned himself for having 
 lent an ear to her accusers, and in his last illness recommended 
 her to her relations, declaring that he left her an untouched 
 virgin. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 531 
 
 In 1499-1513 was erected the highly ornate sarcophagus of 
 SS. Henry and Cunegunde in the nave of the Bamberg Cathe- 
 dral, Tilman Eiemenschneider being the sculptor. Effigies of 
 the royal couple repose on the top, and scenes from their lives 
 are sculptured in relief on the sides of the monument. Their 
 skulls are preserved in the treasury of the cathedral. 
 
 Herring, Procession of the. (Fr. La Procession du Hareng.) 
 A curious ceremony which in the sixteenth century took place 
 in the church of St. Eemi, at Kheims. On the Wednesday of 
 Holy Week, after the tenebrse had been chanted, all the clergy 
 of the cathedral went to perform the stations of the cross at St. 
 Eemi. Preceded by the crucifix, every one of the reverend 
 canons, who were arranged in double file as in ordinary pro- 
 cessions, trailed after him a herring attached to a string. The 
 effort of each was to step upon the herring belonging to his 
 neighbor in front, and to save his own from the foot of his 
 neighbor in the rear. 
 
 Hilary, St., patron saint of Parma. His festival is celebrated 
 January 14, though his death is usually ascribed to January 13 
 (368), and in some very ancient martyrologies to November 1. 
 Butler refers the festival to " some translation of his relics." 
 St. Hilary was born in Poitiers, in Graul. His parents were 
 pagans, but he was converted to Christianity. He was married 
 before his conversion, and had a daughter, but from the time of 
 his ordination he lived in continence. He was chosen Bishop of 
 Poitiers about the year 353. He opposed the Arians with all 
 his power, and in 356 he was banished on this account by the 
 Emperor Constantius. Going to Phrygia, and afterwards to 
 Italy, he kept up a constant warfare against the Arians. He 
 returned to Gaul and died at Poitiers. A brilliant celestial light 
 is said to have filled his chamber at the time of his death. Many 
 miracles are said to have been wrought at his tomb. His remains 
 were translated in the ninth century from Poitiers to the abbey 
 of St. Denis, near Paris. The story that his relics were burned 
 at Poitiers by the Huguenots in 1567 is held by Butler to refer 
 only to some portion of the dust remaining in his tomb. The 
 cathedral of Parma contains some of his relics. 
 
 In English jurisprudence the name of this saint is commemo- 
 rated in Hilary term, one of the four terms of the Courts of 
 Law, which begins on January 11 and ends on the Wednesday 
 before Easter. On the first day of the term it is a very old 
 custom for the judges to breakfast with the Lord Chancellor 
 at Lincoln's Inn and drive down with him in their respective 
 carriages to Westminster Hall. The proceedings on arriving 
 
532 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 at the hall, however, have been greatly curtailed. Formerly 
 the sergeants used to assemble, in their robes, in front of the 
 Court of Common Pleas, and were formally saluted by each of 
 the judges in order with "How d'ye do, brother? — I wish you 
 a good term ;" but since the exclusive right of the sergeants to 
 practise in the Common Pleas has been abolished this custom 
 has been discontinued. At present the judges only walk up 
 Westminster Hall in procession, and make formal bows to the 
 assembled barristers on taking their seats upon the bench. 
 
 At Oxford College Hilary term commences on January 14 and 
 ends on the Saturday before Palm Sunday. 
 
 Hilda's Tower. The genius of Hawthorne has given anew 
 name to the famous mediaeval tower in Pome which is locally 
 called La Torre della Scimia (" The Ape's Tower"). Legend re- 
 lates that a baby, carried away by an ape, and borne to the top 
 of the battlements, was restored in safety to its parents, in con- 
 sequence of a vow which they made that they would cause a 
 lamp to burn nightly, forever, before an image of the Yirgin, 
 upon the summit. This building is known as Hilda's Tower, 
 from the connection it has in Hawthorne's " Marble Faun," under 
 the chapter entitled "The Virgin's Shrine." 
 
 Hiring Fair, known also as Statute Fair. A peculiar insti- 
 tution which still lingers in Wales and also to a less degree in 
 Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Lincolnshire, in England. From time 
 immemorial the custom has been to hold these fairs in every 
 important centre of a farming district, their sole purpose being 
 to bring servants and masters together. To them troop men 
 and maidens in vast numbers, on fun and profit both intent. 
 To them also troop the farmers, in search of the human toilers 
 on their farms for the coming year. Sometimes, and originally 
 always, these hiring-fairs were held on Martinmas Day, known 
 as the servants' saint's day. At present the hiring fair is not 
 confined to that day, but is held on different days in different 
 towns, usually in either October or November. 
 
 Men and maids stood in rows, the males together and the 
 females together, while masters and mistresses walked down the 
 lines and selected those whom they considered suitable. The 
 men in Cumberland who desired to be hired stood with straws 
 in their mouths, as indicated in the old couplet, — 
 
 Suin at Carel [Carlisle] I stuid wid a strae 1' my mooth, 
 And they tuik me, nae doubt, for a promisin' youth. 
 
 In Lincolnshire the bargain is closed by the giving and taking 
 of the fessen- or fasten-penny. This is usually a shilling. It 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 533 
 
 is the accepted sign that the contract between the employer and 
 employed is closed for a twelve-month. The farm-servant who 
 has once accepted the fessen-penny and entered upon his situa- 
 tion may not, in fact, discharge himself under the twelve-month. 
 The night of the fair is given up to riotous amusement, in 
 which drunkenness plays a prominent part. 
 
 Hock or Hoke Day. A former holiday in England, which 
 still has some faint local survivals, and which was usually cele- 
 brated on the Tuesday following the second Sunday after Easter. 
 In many places, however, Monday as well as Tuesday was de- 
 voted to the characteristic pastime of Hocktide, which was 
 known as Binding ; hence Binding Monday and Binding Tuesday 
 were alternative titles. On Monday the women bound the men, 
 and vice versa on Tuesday. Binding consisted in stretching a 
 rope across the highways and catching in the toils wayfarers of 
 the appointed sex, who were not released until they had given 
 some small sum to be laid out in pious uses. Numerous ancient 
 parish registers contain records of money thus gathered. So 
 late as 1559 the following entry occurs in St. Mary's parish 
 register : 
 
 Hoctyde money, the mens gatheryng, iiijs. 
 
 The womens, xijs. 
 
 One of the uses of the money collected at Hocktide was the 
 repairing of the parish church. Various etymologies have been 
 suggested for the word hock or hoke^ but none is entirely satis- 
 factory. 
 
 The custom, which became obsolete in the beginning of the 
 eighteenth century, can be traced under this name as far back as 
 the thirteenth century, but it probably dates from an earlier 
 period, and may even be a survival from Anglo-Saxon times, 
 when the offerings subsequently devoted to church uses may 
 have been meant for some one of the pagan gods. There is a 
 striking analogy between this custom and that of lifting (^. v.~) 
 on Easter Monday. At Coventry there was a play or pageant 
 attached to the ceremony known as the Old Coventry Play of 
 Hock Tuesday. This was revived for the benefit of Queen Eliz- 
 abeth as part of the festivities attending her visit to Kenilworth 
 in July, 1575. It represented a series of combats between the 
 Danes and the Saxons, in which the former were twice tri- 
 umphant, but were finally overcome by the appearance of the 
 Saxon women, who took many of them captive and led them in 
 triumph past the royal throne. The regular performance had 
 been suppressed soon after the Eeformation, on account of the 
 riot and disorder which it frequently occasioned. It has been 
 
534 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 surmised from the evidence of the play that Hocktide was origi- 
 nally instituted to commemorate the massacre of the Danes on 
 St. Brice's Day, a.d. 1002 (but St. Brice's Day, unfortunately for 
 this conjecture, is November 13), or the rejoicings which followed 
 the death of Hardicanute, the expulsion of the Danish invaders, 
 and the accession of Edward the Confessor. It is probable, 
 however, that these explanations were invented in Christian 
 times after the pagan origin of the feast had been forgotten. 
 
 Some singular Hocktide customs survive in Hungerford, 
 Berkshire. They are connected with the charter whereby the 
 commons hold the rights of fishing, shooting, and pasturage of 
 cattle on the lands bequeathed to the town by John o' Gaunt, 
 Duke of Lancaster, in 1399. A " watercress supper" at the hotel 
 of " John o' Gaunt" inaugurates the festivities on Hock Monday. 
 Besides the eponymic herb, black broth, macaroni, Welsh rabbit, 
 and salad are served, accompanied by bowls of punch. Early 
 on the morrow, which is known as Tuth Day, the town crier 
 blows from the balcony of the town hall an ancient horn, the 
 gift of John o' Gaunt. The Hocktide Court assembles, and the' 
 commoners are summoned to appear and " save their commons" 
 for the ensuing year. Then the tuth or tutti men proceed to the 
 high constable's residence, to receive the emblems of their office. 
 These are long poles, wreathed around with tutties or posies of 
 flowers and gaudy ribbons. The first duty of these officials of 
 a day (who are usually substantial tradesmen of the borough) 
 is to visit the various schools and ask a holiday for the children, 
 then to call at each house and demand a coin from the men and 
 a kiss from the women, presenting every member of the house- 
 hold with an orange. The collection of pennies is a simple mat- 
 ter, and the majority of the women submit gracefully to ancient 
 usage. But the haughtier dames are apt to retreat behind bolts 
 and bars until the tutti men have departed. A troop of children 
 expectant of oranges follow the tutti men through the streets, 
 which are for several hours kept alive by joyous shouts and 
 huzzas. At the Three Swans a luncheon is given by the high 
 constable, during the progress of which the boys and girls 
 scramble for pennies and oranges thrown to them from the 
 windows. The Hocktide proceedings are brought to a close by 
 the constable, feoffers, and other officers attending service in the 
 parish church. (Ditchfield, pp. 90-92 ; Dyer, pp. 188-192.) 
 
 Hodening. A custom which prevails in Wales, and locally in 
 Kent, Lancashire, and other English counties, at various dates 
 during the Christmas and New Year seasons, and seems to be 
 a survival of the Hobby-horse once rampant at Christmas-time. 
 A horse's skull, or sometimes a wooden imitation, is dressed up 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 535 
 
 \ 
 with ribbons, and supported on a pole by a man who is concealed 
 under a large white cloth. By pulling a string tied to the lower 
 jaw he keeps up a loud snapping noise. In Wales a party of 
 young men grotesquely habited and ringing hand-bells accom- 
 pany him on Christmas Eve in a house-to-house procession. At 
 every door they sing some extempore verses requesting admit- 
 tance, and are in turn answered by those within, until one party 
 or the other is at a loss for a reply. If the processioners fail 
 they move away baffled, but if they win in this poetical tourna- 
 ment they are rewarded with beer and cakes and perhaps money. 
 Another feature of the fun which has its pecuniary attractions 
 is for the horse to pursue and bite such well-to-do wayfarer as 
 may happen to be met on the way, and refuse to release him save 
 on payment of a fine. In Wales the horse's head is called Mari 
 Lwyd. A contributor to the Church Times of January 23, 1891, 
 gives this description of a hodening in Kent : " When I was a 
 lad, about forty-five years since, it was always the custom, on 
 Christmas Eve, with the male farm-servants from every farm in 
 our parish of Hoath, and neighboring parishes of Heme and 
 Chislet, to go round in the evening from house to house with the 
 hoodining horse, which consisted of the imitation of a horse's 
 head made of wood, life-size, fixed on a stick about the length 
 of a broom-handle. The lower jaw of the head was made to 
 open with hinges ; a hole was made through the roof of the 
 mouth, then another through the forehead, coming out by the 
 throat ; through this was passed a cord attached to the lower jaw, 
 which, when pulled by the cord at the throat, caused it to close 
 and open ; on the lower jaw large-headed hobnails were driven 
 in to form the teeth. The strongest of the lads was selected for 
 the horse ; he stooped, and made as long a back as he could, sup- 
 porting himself by the stick carrying the head ; then he was 
 covered with a horse-cloth, and one of his companions mounted 
 his back. The horse had a bridle and reins. Then commenced 
 the kicking, rearing, jumping, etc., and the banging together of 
 the teeth." There was no singing by the accompanying paraders. 
 They simply by ringing or knocking at the houses on their way 
 summoned the inmates to the doors and begged a gratuity. "I 
 have seen some of the wooden heads carved out quite hollow in 
 the throat part, and two holes bored through the forehead to 
 form the eyes. The lad who played the horse would hold a 
 lighted candle in the hollow, and you can imagine how horrible 
 it was to any one who opened the door to see such a thing close 
 to his eyes." The same authority adds that the custom had been 
 kept up to within three or four years of the date of his writing. 
 In the " Penitential" of Archbishop Theodore (died 690) pen- 
 ances are ordained for " any who, on the Kalends of January, 
 
536 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 clothe themselves with the skins of cattle and carry heads of 
 animals." The practice is condemned as being dcemoniacum. It 
 is noticeable that at the ancient Scandinavian sacrifices per- 
 formed at the time of the winter solstice the horse was a fre- 
 quent victim in the offerings to Odin for martial success, as the 
 hog was the chosen animal in the oiferings to Freya for a fruitful 
 year. It has therefore been suggested that hodening is a corrup- 
 tion of Odining and is a relic of Scandinavian mythology. 
 
 There is a wide-spread superstition that were-wolves, or men 
 who have been changed into wolves, meet together at certain 
 places on Christmas night and there " do so rage with wonderful 
 fierceness both against mankind and other creatures that are not 
 fierce by nature, that the inhabitants of that country suffer more 
 hurt from them than ever they do from the true natural wolves " 
 Such are the words of Olaus Magnus, who further describes how 
 these were-wolves go into cellars and drink up all the mead and 
 beer they can find, " wherein they differ from the natural and 
 true wolves." 
 
 When the Prince of Wales was in India he was present at a 
 wild dance performed by a party of Lamas at Jummu. Mr. Wil- 
 liam Simpson, in his "Buddhist Praying- Wheel," p. 31, quotes 
 an account given in the Indian Public Opinion and Panjab Times, 
 January, 1876. The dancers came along "jumping and dancing 
 in the most outrageous costumes. One man carried an incense- 
 vessel, held in his hands with chains identically as it is carried 
 ih a Eoman ^Catholic church. One man had a hat in color and 
 shape resembling the comb of a cock, but most of them had 
 huge wide-brimmed hats surmounted by tridents and all sorts of 
 things like vanes and weathercocks, from which long strips of 
 colored silk hung down behind. The costumes were purely 
 Chinese, the body of their dresses being similar to that worn by 
 mandarins, only that they had capes, aprons, and tags and rags 
 of all kinds hanging upon them, which flew out as the dancers 
 went round in their uncouth gambols. After dancing in a circle 
 for a short time, going round with the right shoulder to the 
 centre, which is the same turn as the praying-wheel goes round, 
 they retired, and very quickly came back again. The large 
 broad-brimmed hats were wanting, and all the dancers had the 
 heads of animals exactly like what we see in a pantomime; 
 there were ox-heads, boar-heads, elephant-heads, also large grin- 
 ning and laughing heads, painted in all tints. The jumping and 
 whirling round was the same each time they changed their head- 
 dresses. We were led to understand that symbolism was ex- 
 pressed in the costumes, the heads, and in all the various parts 
 of this uncouth performance, but its meaning was not at all clear 
 to our Western ideas." 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 537 
 
 Holiday. This is an obvious corruption of holy day, — i.e., sl 
 day set apart by the Church in honor of some important event 
 or saintly personage associated with the date. In the latter case 
 it is the death-day and not the birthday that is usually com- 
 memorated. The Catholic Church distinguishes holidays into 
 those of obligation and those not of obligation. In the former 
 case the faithful must attend mass, and as far as possible should 
 refrain from worldly pursuits. But a certain latitude is allowed 
 in Protestant countries, where cessation from business would 
 entail serious individual loss. In Catholic countries the multi- 
 plicity of holidays is frequently attended with civic embarrass- 
 ments, and the government has frequently interfered to curb 
 sacerdotal zeal. The same thing has happened in India. /So 
 numerous were the Hindoo holidays that at one time the British 
 found it difiicult to get the natives in their employ to give their 
 services for more than two hundred days in the year. It was 
 an indolent pleasure-seeking, however, rather than the exactions 
 of their religion, which made so many blank days in the working 
 year ; and a government inquiry into the subject, with a subse- 
 quent threat of dismissal, enabled the Hindoo oflScials materially 
 to curb their passion for devotional exercises. From seventy or 
 eighty the " red-letter days" have now fallen to less than twenty ; 
 the great poojahs (" worships") are limited to two or three ; and 
 it is only upon the occasion of the Doorga festival — called the 
 Dusserah in Western India — that several days of entire absence 
 from public duties are permitted. 
 
 In America every individual State has its legal holidays, which 
 are enforced by statute. But each State is left to its own 
 devices in this matter. Properly speaking, national holidays do 
 not exist, although there are several holidays, as Christmas, the 
 Fourth of July, and Thanksgiving, which are now observed by 
 all the States. But they derive their sanction from State and not 
 from national authority. 
 
 The English indulge in very few periodical glorifications. The 
 anniversary of Waterloo was kept during the life of the Duke 
 of Wellington strictly as a private gathering, and there is not a 
 single event in their prolific history which they celebrate by 
 national jubilation. Political feasts and fasts have had no 
 vitality except when associated with party struggles, and even 
 in this sense they are becoming obsolete. A few obstinate 
 Orangemen glorify themselves very absurdly on the anniversary 
 of the battle of the Boyne, Guy Fawkes still amuses children on 
 the 5th of November, but the questionable memories of Stuart 
 triumphs and the annual remembrance of the great revolution 
 had died out of the minds of men long before it was determined 
 to obliterate them from the pages of the Prayer Book. 
 
638 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 As to saints' days, they were abolished at the Eeformation, 
 when Merrie England at the bidding of the Puritans gave up 
 holidays altogether. The restoration of the Stuart family 
 brought with it the restoration of Christmas and Good Friday, 
 and eventually Easter Monday, Whit Monday, and Boxing Day 
 crept back into the popular calendar as at least partial holidays. 
 But bankers and merchants could not close on the latter days, 
 because they were bound during business hours to meet all 
 claims legally made upon them, nor could they allow their 
 employees to leave. As a matter of fact, no commercial offices 
 recognized any week-day holidays save only Christmas and Good 
 Friday. ^Thus stood matters when Sir John Lubbock in 1865 
 was invited to stand as a Liberal candidate for West Kent. " I 
 naturally asked myself," he says, " what I should do if I were 
 elected, and one of the reasons which influenced me was the 
 hope of securing, on behalf of our people, a few days for rest 
 and recreation. The holidays already in existence were all of 
 rehgious origin. It is remarkable that the Bank Holidays 
 created by the Act of 1871 were the first ever instituted by any 
 Legislature for the purposes of rest and enjoyment." (See Bank 
 Holidays.) 
 
 Holly Bussing. An ancient custom still surviving at Neih- 
 erwitton, in Northumberland, England. The lads and lasses of 
 the village and vicinity meet on Easter Tuesday, and, accom- 
 panied by the parish clerk and a fiddler (this dual capacity 
 is often combined in one individual), proceed to the wood to 
 get holly, with which some decorate a stone across the stands 
 in the village, while others " bob around" to the tune of " Speed 
 the Plough" or " Birnie Bouzle." (Dyer : British Popular Cus- 
 toms^ p. 180.) 
 
 Holy Saturday. The Saturday before Easter. In Catholic 
 churches the ceremonies begin early in the morning with the 
 striking of the new fire struck from the flint. This custom is 
 comparatively recent. It would appear that in some churches a 
 daily blessing was given to the fire struck for the kindling of the 
 lamps. About the year 1100 this benediction was reserved ex- 
 clusively for Holy Saturday, the fire being considered an appro- 
 priate image of the Light of light rising again like the sun in 
 his strength. From this fire a three- stemmed candle, affixed to 
 a reed, is lighted and carried up the church by a deacon, who 
 three times chants the words "Lumen Christi." The same sym- 
 bol reappears in the Paschal candle {q. v.), which is blessed by 
 the deacon on this day. Then occurs the blessing of the bap- 
 tismal font, a reminiscence of the time in the ancient Church 
 
" ' '%^ 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 639 
 
 when the catechumens were presented to the bishop for baptism 
 on Holy Saturday and the vigil of Pentecost. At Eome this 
 day is especially chosen for the baptism of converted Jews, and 
 the ceremony of baptizing a Jewish child in the church of St. 
 John Lateran is especially formal and imposing. 
 
 At Eome the houses of the faithful are annually blessed on 
 Holy Saturday. The cure or a priest of the parish in a beretta 
 and white surplice, a prayer book in his hand, and preceded by a 
 little choir-boy who carries the holy water and the aspersory, 
 walks through the streets, entering shops and houses for the 
 purpose of sprinkling them. He is rewarded by some slight 
 
 Depositing the Sacrament. 
 (From Picart.) 
 
 money offering from the faithful who consent to have the cere- 
 mony performed. In the old days of the temporal power he did 
 not wait for this consent. 
 
 A remarkable variant of this custom, evidently a survival of 
 Catholic usage, was practised on New Year's eves at Tenby in 
 Wales up to the middle of the eighteenth century. Crowds of 
 boys and girls used to visit each house, carrying with them a cup 
 of water and a sprig of box-wood with which they besprinkled 
 not only the inmates but also the furniture of the rooms, accom- 
 panying the operation with the following singular rhyme: 
 
540 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Here we bring new water from the well so clear, 
 For to worship God with this happy New Year ; 
 Sing levy dew, sing levy dew, the water and the wine, 
 With seven bright gold wires, and bugles that do shine ; 
 Sing reign of fair maid, with gold upon her toe, 
 Open you the west door and turn the old year go ; 
 Sing reign of fair maid, with gold upon her chin, 
 Open you the east door and let the new year in. 
 
 The term levy dew is sometimes interpreted as the French 
 '' levez Dieu," but more plausibly as the Welsh " lief i Dduw," 
 — a cry to God. 
 
 In the middle parts of Ireland great preparations are made 
 on Holy Saturday for the finishing of Lent. Many a fat hen 
 and dainty piece of bacon is put into the pot, by the cotter's 
 wife, about eight or nine o'clock, and woe be to the person who 
 should taste it before the cock crows. At twelve is heard the 
 clapping of hands, and the joyous laugh, mixed with an Irish 
 phrase which signifies " out with the Lent." All is merriment 
 for a few hours, when they retire, and rise about four o'clock to 
 see the sun dance in honor of the resurrection. This custom is 
 not confined to the humble laborer and his family, but is scru- 
 pulously observed by many highly respectable and wealthy 
 families. (Brand : Popular Antiquities, 1849, vol. i. p. 161.) 
 
 Honoratus, St. (Fr. Honore), patron of bakers. His festival 
 is celebrated on his death-day. May 16. He was Bishop of Amiens 
 in the seventh century. In 1204 a collegiate church was buil^ 
 in his honor at Paris by a private gentleman named Eenold 
 Cherins, which became very famous. 
 
 A representation of St. Honore, clad in his episcopal robes, 
 with the crosier in his left hand and in his right an oven-peel 
 bearing three loaves of bread, appears on the ancient banners of 
 the Bakers' Guild in Paris. His festival was solemnly celebrated 
 by a procession of bakers and their apprentices, accompanied 
 by girls in white dresses, to the church of the Trinity, in Paris, 
 where they heard high mass. Subsequently they wound up the 
 day with a dinner and a ball. 
 
 Hood, Throwing the. An annual sport performed on Jan- 
 uary 6 at Haxey, in Lincolnshire. It is said to have been insti- 
 tuted many centuries ago by a female member of the house of 
 Mowbray, who were once considered the greatest folk in that 
 part of the country. One Christmas Day as she was riding over 
 the Meeres to the village church a gale of wind blew oif her 
 hood. Twelve farming men quit their work in the field and ran 
 to gather up the hood. The lady found so much amusement in 
 the scene that she forbade her own attendants to join in the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 541 
 
 pursuit. When the hood was at length recaptured and placed 
 on the lady's head, she cordially thanked the men, gave them 
 each some money, and promised that forty acres of land should 
 be devoted to the annual sport of throwing up a hood for cap- 
 ture on Christmas Day. The land is still known as the hood- 
 lands, and even after the change in the calendar the sport has 
 continued to be celebrated on Old Christmas Day, or January 6. 
 By the terms of the gift twelve men should fight for the posses- 
 sion of a hood thrown up in the air. They should be clothed in 
 a uniform of scarlet jerkins and velvet caps. 
 
 Folklore for December, 1896, quotes an account of the game as 
 it was played that year, from the pen of Mr. C. C. Bell, a resi- 
 dent of the island of Axholme. " The hood," he says, " is now 
 kept up by subscription, or rather by begging. The boggans go 
 round the parish and neighborhood for a week or a fortnight 
 before the date, and collect what they can. This year, I believe, 
 they got thirty or forty shillings. The boggans were originally 
 twelve in number, but have now dwindled down to four or five. 
 There is also ' My Lord' and a Fool. The company are called 
 together at two p.m. by the ringing of the church bells, the place 
 of assembly being the green close by the churchyard. Here 
 there is a stone, round which the people group themselves. On 
 Monday My Lord with his fool and the boggans arrived on the 
 scene at two-fifty. The fool was dressed in a suit of old sailing, 
 stitched all over with threads of gayly-colored cloth. He carried 
 the hoods under his arm, and a stout staff with a rabbit-skin 
 slung to the end of it. The fool was hoisted on the stone by My 
 Lord, and the boggans grouped themselves close round. They 
 were dressed in short red smocks, with their caps grotesquely 
 decorated. The fool then opened the proceedings by a speech. 
 Formerly this was a great feature, being made the occasion of a 
 good deal of topical wit and satire, but it is now a very tame 
 afi^air, lasting only a couple of minutes, and consisting of a few 
 traditionary phrases. It ran something like this : 
 
 " ' Now, good folks, this is Haxa' Hood. We've killed two 
 bullocks and a half, but the oth^r half we had to leave running 
 about field : we can fetch it if it^s wanted. Ee member it's 
 
 Hoose agin hoose, toon agin toon, 
 
 And if you meet a man knock him doon. ' 
 
 This was all, the verses being clearly a most essential feature. 
 They were much applauded, and at their conclusion the fool 
 jumped down, and My Lord led the way to the open field behind 
 the church. It is his part to throw the hood, or, rather, hoods, 
 for there are six of them, one, I suppose, for each of the prin- 
 cipal hamlets round. The first five were of sacking, and these 
 
542 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 are, I understand, made every year as wanted, but the last, the 
 hood par excellence^ is of leather, and is kept from year to 3'ear. 
 The object is to cany 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 ofP the field the boggans forfeit half a crown, which 
 is spent in beer, doubtless by the men of the particular hamlet 
 who have carried oif the hood. There are certain wards — it may 
 be a tree or a building — showing the limits of the field, and when 
 one of these is reached the hood is struck against it and is then 
 out of the boggans' domain. This is termed ' wyking' the hood. 
 This goes on with the different hoods in turn until four o'clock, 
 when the leather hood (the hood) is thrown up, and for this there 
 is a great struggle, chiefly between the men of Haxey and those 
 of Westwoodside, — that is to say, really between the customers 
 of the public houses there, — each trying to get it to his favorite 
 house. The publican at the successful house stands beer, — I do 
 not know whether there is any stated amount, — and the game 
 ends usually in a drunken spree." 
 
 In conclusion, Mr. Bell adds, it was the custom until recently 
 to " smoke" the fool over a straw fire on the morning after the 
 hood. " He was suspended above the fire and swung backward 
 and forward over it until almost suffocated, then allowed to 
 drop into the smouldering straw, which was well wetted, and 
 to scramble out when he could." 
 
 Horn Dance. A curious survival from mediaeval times which 
 is still celebrated during the Sej)tember "wakes" at Abbots 
 Bromley, a village on the borders of Needwood Forest in Staf- 
 fordshire. Six or seven quaintly dressed fellows, each wearing 
 a deer's skull with antlers, caper through the streets, urged on 
 in their g^-rations by another individual "wearing" a property- 
 horse made of wood and cloth. This horseman cariies a whip, 
 with which he keeps the dancers moving energetically, whilst a 
 sportsman with a bow and arrow takes make-believe shots at 
 the excited "deer." In former time, a pot full of cakes and ale 
 was an appanage of the dance, and contributions towards church 
 repairs were levied on all spectators. The horn dance then took 
 place on certain Sunday mornings at the main entrance to the 
 parish church ; the present date is the Monda}^ after Wakes 
 Sunday, which is the Sunday next to September 4. The horns 
 are the property of the vicar during his incumbency, and are 
 kept, with the hobby-horse frame, the bow and arrow, and the 
 curious old pot for collecting money, in the church tower. The 
 horns have been examined by Dr. Cox and pronounced to be 
 reindeer horns. The hobby-horse is of the familiar pattern used 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 543 
 
 in the hobby-horse and hodening sports of the past; i.e., its 
 under jaw is worked by a string, so that it " clacks" against the 
 upper jaw in time with the step. 
 
 Dr. Plot, in his " Natural History of Staffordshire," 1686, p. 
 434, mentions this custom, which seems then to have been in 
 temporary abeyance, doubtless owing to the civil wars. 
 
 The dance, according to his account, took place " within mem- 
 ory" during the Christmas holidays, and the stag's horns were 
 painted with the arms of the chief families of the town. Some 
 traces of the paint still remain. "To the Hobby- Horse Dance," 
 
 Horn Dance. 
 
 he says, " there also belonged a pot, which was kept by Turnes 
 by four or five of the chief of the Town, whom they call'd 
 Eeeves, who provided cakes and ale to put in this pot." It was 
 then, probably, shared as a loving-cup among the spectators. 
 Every well-disposed householder contributed a penny apiece for 
 himself and his family; and with the levy thus made, togetlier 
 with the contributions of " forraigners that come to see it," were 
 defrayed, first, the cost of the c^kes and ale, then the expense of 
 the repairs of the church and the support of the poor. Tradition 
 says that when the money collected was used for these public 
 purposes the dance was performed in the churchyard on Sunday 
 after service. Now the -dancers have the proceeds for them- 
 selves. (See Folklore, vol. vii. (1896) p. 381.) 
 
 Hospital Saturday, Hospital Sunday. The last Saturday 
 and the last Sunday in December arc so denominated in London 
 and in New York because in most of the churches and syna- 
 gogues those days are devoted to the taking up of special con- 
 
644 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 tributions for the metropolitan hospitals. In New York the 
 idea of making a special appeal at the close of every year in 
 behalf of the hospitals was first suggested in 1873. It was not, 
 however, original in this country. It has been in successful op- 
 eration in England for many years, until now about fifteen hun- 
 dred churches of various denominations, as well as Jewish syna- 
 gogues, take up collections for the hospitals. In St. Paul's 
 Cathedral and Westminster Abbey, in London, services are con- 
 tinued throughout the day, with a collection at each service. 
 The queen is the patron of the movement, and the lord mayor 
 of London is the treasurer. Last year the total contributions 
 in London amounted to about a quarter of a million dollars, 
 against $58,208.29 contributed from all sources in New York, 
 which, perhaps, may be regarded as a fair showing for the latter 
 when its size, compared with that of London, is taken into 
 account. 
 
 The movement in New York is under the patronage of the 
 Hospital Saturday and Sunday Association, which divides the 
 contributions received among thirty-eight hospitals on the basis 
 of the free w^ork performed by them in behalf of the suffering 
 poor through the year. 
 
 Hubert of L#iege, St., patron saint of the chase and of dogs. 
 Though hagiologists name May 30, 727, as the date of his death, 
 his festival is celebrated on November 3, " probably on account 
 of some translation," says Butler. Not impossibly, however, it 
 is due to the fact that the beginning of November is the natural 
 opening of the hunting season. All that is known of St. Hubert 
 as a matter of history is that he was born in the latter half of the 
 seventh century, that he succeeded his master, St. Lambert, as 
 Bishop of Maestricht, that he removed the seat of the see to 
 Liege, that he labored with great success for the evangelization 
 of the heathen population of the Ardennes, and that he died a 
 natural death about 727. 
 
 Legend makes him begin life as a nobleman at the court 
 of Theodoric III., passionately addicted, among other worldly 
 amusements, to the chase. On a certain Good Friday, as he 
 was profanely engaged in his favorite amusement, the crucified 
 Saviour appeared to him between the horns of the stag and 
 commanded him to forsake the vanities of the world and devote 
 himself to the service of God. 
 
 Legend, supplemented by some historical evidence, adds that 
 his body was conveyed to Liege and deposited in the collegiate 
 church of St. Peter. In 825 it was translated to the Benedictine 
 abbey of Audain (since called St. Hubert's) in the Ardennes, on 
 the frontiers of the duchy of Luxembourg. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 545 
 
 St. Hubert's Day is the formal commencement of the hunting 
 season in France, as the first Monday in November is in England. 
 In many of the rural churches of France St. Hubert's mass is 
 celebrated on this occasion. All the hunting dogs in the neigh- 
 borhood are brought to the church. Low mass is said, and then 
 the priest solemnly makes his way down through the aisle into 
 the yard. A piqueur toots a jolly fanfare. At this familiar sound 
 the pack tears pell-mell out of the chapel, and in obedience to a 
 word from the keeper rallies around the priest, who thereupon 
 blesses and breaks the sacred cake, which is a sovereign antidote 
 against madness, and administers it to the brutes, together with 
 a priestly pat between the ears. Then huntsmen, villagers, spec- 
 tators, and dogs are included in a general blessing, and away go 
 the huntsmen and the pack, anointed with the oil of righteous- 
 ness, ready for the slaughter of as many of God's creatures as 
 they can run to their death. 
 
 The association of St. Hubert with the chase accounts for his 
 being invoked for protection from rabies, this being one of the 
 perils to which huntsmen were especially hable. A document 
 written about the year 1100 records a miraculous cure of hydro- 
 phobia wrought through the intercession of the saint, and the 
 terms in which it is mentioned show that at that time the cus- 
 tom of seeking his aid in cases of this disease was already well 
 established. The cure was effected by inserting under the skin 
 of the patient a thread from St. Hubert's stole ; and this mode of 
 treatment has continued to be practised down to the present day. 
 
 This operation, however, is resorted to only in what are con- 
 sidered extreme cases; that is to say, when there is no reason to 
 doubt that the dog by which the patient has been bitten was 
 really mad, and when the bite has drawn blood. In other cases 
 the priests in charge of St. Hubert's shrine are empowered to 
 grant what is called a " respite" (repit), which secures the patient 
 against hydrophobia for a specified period varying from forty 
 days to ninety-nine years. The " respite" for forty days may 
 also be given by any person who has himself undergone the op- 
 eration of the " incision." It is to be remarked that the use of 
 ordinary means of healing, in addition to those of a supernatural 
 kind, is rather encouraged than otherwise, and that the patient 
 who avails himself of either the " incision" or the " respite" is 
 required to submit to certain judicious regulations with regard 
 to his diet and to his general manner of life. Some even of M. 
 Pasteur's patients are said to have made themselves doubly secure 
 by undergoing the " incision" after having been treated by the 
 Parisian savant. 
 
 Mad dogs are known in literature as early as Homer (Iliad, 
 viii. 299). ^lian says that if a stone which a dog has bitten be 
 
 35 
 
546 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 put in the wine at a banquet it will madden the guests. Aa the 
 origin of rabies was, and is, unknown, early science attributed 
 it to a " worm," which may have been short for microbe, but 
 more probably was only the magical worm of folk-medicine. 
 The worm was in the tongue or the tail of the dog; hence the 
 practice of " worming" it (everement or everration). The usual 
 remedy was " a hair of the dog that bit you" reduced to ashes. 
 Gubernatis mentions a cure in which the wound given by the 
 dog is covered with wolf-skin, perhaps as a magical counter-irri- 
 tant. Pliny has a wondrous tale of a Eoman matron, mother 
 of a Praetorian, who was advised, in a dream, to send her son the 
 root of a dog-rose. The Guards were in Spain, where the dog- 
 rose root reached the man just when he had been bitten by a 
 mad dog. He was about going mad when the dog-rose reached 
 him ; he drank a decoction of it, and recovered. Similia simili- 
 bus curantur. In Crete it was usual to take mad dogs, and people 
 bitten by mad dogs, to the temple of Artemis at Eocca. The 
 sufferers were made to eat a fish provocative of thirst. Modern 
 m3'th-mongers suppose that Diana, a favorite goddess in Gaul, 
 survived long in the woodlands, — 
 
 fechevelee a travers la clairiere 
 Diane court dans la noire foret, — 
 
 and that St. Hubert succeeded to her divine power of healing 
 rabies. The legendary book " Les Miracles de Saint-Hubert" was 
 written between 1087 and 1106. From this work we learn that 
 the first-fruits of the chase had long been offered to St. Hubert, 
 as of old to Diana. He had long, moreover, been in the habit 
 of curing rabies by means of a thread of gold from the sacred 
 stole worked by the Virgin herself and given to the saint in a 
 vision. 
 
 Professor John W. Hales has plausibly suggested, in th.QAthe- 
 nceum^ an identification of Old Mother Hubbard of the nursery 
 rhyme with St. Hubert. That Hubbard is a corruption of 
 Hubert is evident enough. The story of Mother Hubbard with 
 her care for the dog may be a sort of parody of the legend of 
 the dog-saint Hubert, possibly a Protestant mockery of it, com- 
 posed when the belief in saints and their powers was rapidly 
 decaying, or decayed, the title " Mother" being given in a con- 
 temptuous sense, just as we style a certain kind of man an " old 
 woman." Mother Hubbard is a good old soul, but all her canine 
 anxieties and efforts are quite futile ; her dog is none the better 
 for her patronage. And so, it is by no means unlikely, in her 
 person the saint is derided. Old Mother Hubbard seems to have 
 been a familiar figure in the days of Spenser, for in his " Proso- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 547 
 
 popoia, or Mother Hubberds Tale," he merely introduces her as 
 the teller of the story of the fox and the ape and how they 
 went swindling together, without deeming it necessary to enter 
 into any explanation as to who she was. To mention her hon- 
 ored name was apparently enough. Her great reputation made 
 any fuller record unnecessary. 
 
 Hugh, St. There are two saints of this name, both vener- 
 ated in Lincoln, England. The first (1140-1200) became Bishop 
 of Lincoln in 1186, and enlarged the cathedral. He died in 
 London, and his body arrived at the gate of Lincoln just as 
 John and Malcolm of Scotland entered the city. The two kings, 
 eager to honor so holy a corpse, at once set their shoulders to 
 the bier and bore it to the cathedral, where it was buried near 
 the altar of St. John the Baptist. Bishop Hugh was canonized 
 at Eome in 1220, and sixty years later his bones were placed in 
 a gold shrine, which disappeared at the Reformation, when zeal 
 and theft ran high. Bishop Fuller afterwards erected a plain 
 altar-tomb over the good man's grave. 
 
 A monument standing in the south aisle of the choir of Lin- 
 coln Cathedral is traditionally believed to have been the tomb 
 of little Sir or Saint Hugh, a child found murdered at Lincoln in 
 1225, and vulgarly supposed to have been crucified by some cruel 
 and blasphemous Jews in derision of our Saviour's sufferings. 
 There were many ballads written about this supposed crime, 
 the best of which commences, — 
 
 The bonny boys of merry Lincoln 
 
 Were playing at the ball ; 
 And with them stood the sweet Sir Hugh, 
 
 The flower among them all. 
 
 Chaucer at once seized on so recent a miracle, and introduced 
 "Young Hew of Lincoln" into his Prioress's story. Bishop 
 Percy, with less than his usual acumen, mistook " Mirryland 
 Toun" for Mailand, Milan, and concluded the whole to be of 
 Italian origin. The story may, after all, be a true one, for Mat- 
 thew Paris, who was living at the time, relates it circumstan- 
 tially. Mr. Lethieullier in the Archceologia cites two records, one 
 of which was a commission from the king (Henry III.) to seize 
 for the king's use the houses belonging to those Jews who were 
 hanged at Lincoln for crucifying a child. According to Matthew 
 Paris, the boy, eight years old, was tortured for ten days before 
 a large council of Jews, in contempt of Christianity. They 
 scourged him with rods, spat in his face, mutilated his nose, ears,- 
 and lips, and on the tenth day they crucified him, and, while he 
 hung on the cross, pierced his side with a spear. The body was 
 
548 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 1 
 
 Jop-^ 
 
 found in a pit or draw-well in the house of a Jew, named Jop 
 pin, which the boy had been seen to enter. Joppin, being prom- 
 ised pardon, confessed the crime, and avowed that such murders 
 were committed nearly every year by his nation. Notwithstand- 
 ing the promise of pardon, the Jew was tied to the tail of a 
 horse and dragged to the gallows, and eventually eighteen of the 
 richest and most distinguished Jews in Lincoln were hanged for 
 sharing in the murder, and many more sent as hostages to the 
 Tower of London. Herd and Jamieson both give variations 
 of this once popular ballad. In 1736, when Lethieullier visited 
 Lincoln Cathedral, he was shown a painted statuette of a boy 
 which was erroneously supposed to have formed part of " Bishop 
 Hugh's" tomb. There were bleeding wounds marked on the 
 hands, feet, and side, and the antiquary conjectures that the 
 shrine given in Stukeley's " Itinerarium Curiosum" was the real 
 tomb of Sir Hugh. 
 
 Little Hugh's name appears in the Calendar of Saints on 
 August 27, although his death seems to have occurred at about 
 the time of the feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, June 29. 
 
 Besides this boy many other Christian children are said to 
 have suffered martyrdom at the hands of the Jews, who made a 
 practice of sacrificing them at the Paschal season. There is the 
 famous case of Eichard of Pontoise in 1182, which led to the ex- 
 pulsion of the Jews from France, and that of William of Norwich 
 in 1137. The shrine of St. William in the Wood, built where his 
 body was found, was long an object of pious pilgrimage. 
 
 The Jews, we are told, never buried their victims after a 
 sacrifice, because of a law which forbade their so dealing with 
 Christians. Consequently their crimes rarely went undiscovered. 
 Heaven itself was interested in seeing that they should not, 
 for when the Jews sought at least to hide the bodies in a well or 
 thicket a miraculous light revealed their whereabouts. 
 
 Sir Eichard Burton leans to the view that there is some truth 
 in these hideous stories. And when one reads the more hideous 
 stories of Jewish persecution in the Middle Ages, more hideous 
 because more frequent and more unprovoked, one's only regret is 
 that in lieu of innocent children the Jews did not seize some burly 
 monarch or prelate and give him a taste of his own medicine. 
 
 I. 
 
 Ignatius Loyola, St., founder of the order of Jesuits. His 
 festival is celebrated on the day of his death, July 3. 
 
 St. Ignatius Loyola was of a noble Spanish family, and was 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 549 
 
 born in Biscay in 1491. He was brought up at the court of 
 Ferdinand and Isabella, and spent the early years of his life 
 amid the pleasures of the court and in fighting in the army of 
 Ferdinand. A long illness caused by a wound turned his mind 
 towards rehgion, and on his recovery he retired to Manresa, 
 where he gave himself up to penance and meditation. 
 
 It is related that he went nearly mad from doubt, but was com- 
 forted by heavenly visions. He spent several years in theologi- 
 cal study, and then went to Paris, where he became a pupil of St. 
 Francis Xavier. He founded a community which, in addition to 
 the usual vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, bound them- 
 selves to unreserved obedience to the Pope. The order was 
 called the Society of Jesus. It was three years before St. Igna- 
 tius obtained the confirmation of this order, of which he was 
 the first general. Many miracles of healing the sick and casting 
 out devils are attributed to him. He had the satisfaction of 
 seeing his order grow and flourish in many countries. He died 
 in 1556, and was buried in a church at Eome, but in 1597 his 
 relics were removed to the Jesuit church of the Gesii, of which 
 Cardinal Farnese had laid the corner-stone in 1568. He was 
 canonized by Gregory XY. in 1622. 
 
 A miraculous picture of St. Ignatius is preserved at Mune- 
 brega, a village of Aragon, Spain. The tradition runs that a 
 stranger appeared in January, 1623, before the ecclesiastical 
 authorities and offered to paint the portrait of St. Ignatius. He 
 was left alone in the studio. A few hours later the picture was 
 finished and the artist had disappeared. Obviously he was an 
 angel. Later in the year, on April 21, a copioas sweat flowed 
 for four hours from under the right arm of the picture. It was 
 neither blood nor water, but some wholly unknown liquid. The 
 prodigy was repeated a fortnight afterwards. Since that time 
 the chapel of St. Ignatius, where the picture is housed, has been 
 one of the most renowned shrines in all Spain. Miraculous 
 cures and other wonders are of continual occurrence among the 
 pilgrims who resort thither. 
 
 L 
 
 Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. A festival 
 celebrated by the Catholic Church on December 8. In the 
 Anglican reformed calendar it appears as " The Conception of 
 the B. Y. Mary," which was the original title in the mediaeval 
 Church everywhere. The doctrine of the Immaculate Concep- 
 tion, though long held as a pious belief, was not authoritatively 
 proclaimed as an article of faith until 1854. This doctrine in 
 brief is that the Blessed Yirgin was conceived in the womb of 
 Anna her mother without the stain of original sin inherited by 
 the rest of humanity from Adam. 
 
550 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 The Greek Emperor Manuel Comnenus (died 1180), in a 
 Novella quoted by Balsamon, mentions the feast of the Blessed 
 Virgin's Conception as one to be observed by the people on 
 December 9. This is the date on which the festival is still cele- 
 brated in the Greek Church. 
 
 England is said to have been the first among the countries of 
 Western Europe to keep this feast. Its introduction there is 
 attributed to St. Anselm. At first it was left free to the people 
 to observe it or not, but a Synod of London in 1287 enjoined 
 it as a holiday of obligation. From England the celebration 
 seems to have passed to Normandy, and then south to Lyons. 
 St. Bernard reproved the canons of that city for introducing a 
 custom which had not the sanction of the Eoman Church. St. 
 Buonaventura (died 1274) speaks of the feast as established, but 
 says he does not dare either to approve or disapprove it. (Lib. 
 iii., Sententise, d. iii., qu. 1.) It is certain, however, that the feast 
 had established itself in the calendar of the Roman Church 
 before the middle of the fourteenth century. Sixtus IV., 
 towards the close of the fifteenth century, sanctioned an office 
 and mass proper to the day, for which, however, a new office 
 was substituted by Pius V. Clement XI. made the day a holi- 
 day of obligation, which it has remained ever since in the 
 Catholic Church. Meanwhile the doctrine of the Immaculate 
 Conception had been quietly gaining headway among Catholic 
 theologians. The controversy had begun so early as the twelfth 
 century, when the weight of opinion was against the theory. 
 Duns Scotus, who died in 1308, seems to have inaugurated a 
 general change to the affirmative. 
 
 A rare illustrated pamphlet, published in 1470, and entitled 
 "Defensorium inviolatsB perpetuseque virginitatis Marise," sums 
 up all the medisBval arguments on this subject, and enforces 
 them by aj)propriate illustrations. Thus, it asks, " If the com- 
 panions of Diomedes were turned into birds, why should not 
 God wish that his mother should be a maid?" 
 
 Why not, indeed? The point, obvious enough, is made daz- 
 zlingly clear by an elegant wood-cut representing the companions 
 of Diomedes, after their metamorj)hosis, hopping cheerfully about 
 the rocks in front of a mediaeval castle not much larger than 
 themselves. 
 
 The matter gave rise to keen discussion at Trent, and, though 
 most of the bishops held the doctrine, the Council contented 
 itself with a declaration that in defining the truth that the whole 
 human race fell under original sin it did not intend to include 
 in the decree " the blessed and immaculate Virgin Mary." Suc- 
 cessive Popes intimated their approval of the doctrine, though 
 they did not bind it upon the consciences of the faithful. Bene- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 551 
 
 diet XI Y., writing about the middle of the eighteenth century, 
 sums up the whole state of the question in his day thus : " The 
 Church inclines to the opinion of the Immaculate Conception ; 
 but the Apostolic See has not yet defined it as an article of faith." 
 
 A Pictorial Argument. 
 
 So matters stood when, in ]P^ebruary, 1849, Pius IX. wrote from 
 Gaeta to the bishops of the Catholic Church asking for their 
 opinions on the subject. The Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish 
 bishops, about four hundred and ninety in number, were nearly 
 unanimous in their wish for the definition. But many bishops in 
 France, Germany, and Switzerland hesitated, some because they 
 did not accept the doctrine, others because they held its promul- 
 gation to be temporarily inexpedient. Nearly six years later the 
 question was closed. On December 8, 1854, Pius IX., in the 
 presence of more than two hundred bishops, issued his solemn 
 definition that the immaculate conception of Mary was a truth 
 contained in the original teachings of the apostles, and an article 
 of faith. Since then the feast has been ofticially known as that 
 of the " Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary." 
 
 Indian Summer. The name given by Americans to the 
 short but surpassingly beautiful season in the latter part of 
 autumn. A similar spell of fine weather is noticed in other 
 countries also, and frequently compared to the halcj^on period 
 of the Greeks, so that Shakespeare could pointedly say, " Expect 
 Saint Martin's Summer, halcyon days" (Henry VI., Part I., 
 
552 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Act I., Scene 2, line 131), in allusion to the season of which 
 he elsewhere says, — 
 
 Farewell thou latter spring, 
 
 Farewell all hallown summer. {Henry IV.) 
 
 In England the season derived its name of St. Martin's or 
 Martinmas Summer from the fact that it commonly begins 
 there about November 11, St. Martin's Bay; on the Continent it 
 is called Summer Close and " L'ete de St.-Martin," with an un- 
 gallant double meaning, which allows the term to be applied to 
 ladies of advancing years. It may be that there is an association 
 of the same idea, though less delicately expressed, in the German 
 "der alte Weibersommer," while in Chili it is called St. John's 
 Summer. In the United States this season generally begins 
 in November, though the period varies within a month. It is 
 characterized by fair but not brilliant weather ; the air is smoky 
 and hazy, perfectly still and moist, and the sun shines dimly, but 
 softly and sweetly, through an atmosphere that some call copper- 
 colored, and others golden, in accordance with their power of 
 poetical perception. The name of Indian summer is diiferently 
 explained. Eev. James Freeman derives it from the fact that 
 the Indians are particularly fond of it, regarding it as a special 
 gift of their favorite god, the god of the Southwest, who sends 
 the soft southwest winds, and to whom they go after death. 
 Daniel Webster said that the early settlers gave that name to 
 the season because they ascribed its peculiar features, the heat 
 and the haze, to the burning of the prairies by the Indians at 
 that time. Mr. Kercheval, however, gives a more plausible 
 explanation : " It sometimes happened that after the apparent 
 onset of winter the weather became warm, the smoky time com- 
 menced, and lasted for a considerable number of days. This 
 was the Indian summer, because it afforded the Indians — who 
 during the severe winter never made any incursions into the 
 settlements — another opportunity of visiting them with their 
 destructive warfare. The melting of the snow saddened every 
 countenance, and the genial warmth of the sun chilled every 
 heart with horror. The apprehension of another visit from the 
 Indians, and of being driven back to the detested fort, was pain- 
 ful in the highest degree." (Schele de Yere : Americanisms.') 
 
 Innocents' Day, Holy (in England more popularly known as 
 Childermas). A festival celebrated in the Latin Church on 
 December 28, and in the Greek Church on December 29 (O. S.), 
 in commemoration of the babes slaughtered by order of King 
 Herod to insure the killing of the infant Christ. From very 
 early times these children were looked upon as martyrs. Irenseus 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 553 
 
 (iii. 16, 4) and St. AuguBtine (" De Symbolo ad Catech.," lib. iii.) 
 assert this clearly. But it is less certain when the feast began to 
 be kept. In the earlier times it appears to have been bound up 
 with the Epiphany. Pope Leo I. in almost all his sermons on 
 the Epiphany refers to the Innocents. However, a separate 
 festival of the Holy Innocents is mentioned in the Calendar of 
 Carthage issued at the end of the fifth century. 
 
 In Eome meat was anciently forbidden on this day, and it was 
 observed with mourning. Micrologus gives this reason : " With 
 right are the sufferings of the Holy Innocents attended with less 
 festivity than the celebration of other saints, for, though they 
 were crowned with martyrdom, they went at once, not into 
 Paradise, but into Limbo." They had to wait till Christ at his 
 ascension opened the gates of heaven. Skulls of these children 
 were among the relics shown at Paris in Notre-Dame, at St. 
 Denis, and in the church of the Augustinians at Limoges. 
 
 In the Middle Ages it was usual for children to keep a time of 
 festivity in honor of the Holy Innocents which lasted from St. 
 Stephen's Day to the octave of the Epiphany. Boys used to sit 
 in the canons' stalls; one of them, vested with the episcopal 
 robes, gave his blessing pontifically. (See Boy-Bishop.) The 
 Council of Basle condemned the extravagances of this celebra- 
 tion, which in some places deteriorated into the still more heinous 
 mockeries of the Feast of Fools (j^. v.). But a Feast of Children 
 is still innocently observed in some monasteries and convents. 
 
 In consequence probably of the horror attaching to the 
 atrocious act of Herod, Childermas was always looked upon as 
 an unlucky day. No one who could avoid it entered upon any 
 undertaking, began any work, or, especially, got married, on this 
 day. Louis XL shunned any discussion of state or social 
 matters, and was exasperated beyond measure if any subject of 
 the sort were introduced, on Childermas. The coronation of 
 Edward lY., which had been set for a Sunday, was postponed to 
 Monday when it was found that Sunday fell on December 28. 
 Chambers's "Book of Days" informs us that "to the present 
 hour we understand that the housewives in Cornwall and prob- 
 ably also in other parts of the country refrain scrupulously from 
 scouring or scrubbing on Innocents' Day." It was, moreover, 
 not considered lucky upon this day to put on new clothes or pare 
 the nails. At various places in Gloucestershire, Somersetshire, 
 and Worcestershire it is still customary to ring a muffled peal on 
 this anniversary. At Norton in the latter county the muffled 
 peal for the slaughter of the Innocents is followed by an un- 
 muffled peal of joy for the deliverance of the Infant Christ. 
 (Notes and Queries^ First Series, vol. viii, p. 617.) 
 
 In Northamptonshire this festival was called " Dyzemas Day." 
 
654 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Miss Baker, in her " Glossary of Northamptonshire Words" 
 (1854, vol. i. p. 207), says she was told by a sexagenarian on the 
 southern side of the county that within his remembrance this 
 day was kept as sacred as the Sabbath, and it was considered 
 particularly unlucky to commence any undertaking, or even to 
 wash, on the same day of the week throughout the year on 
 which the anniversary of this day last fell, and it was commonly 
 said, " What is begun on Dyzemas Day will never be finished." 
 
 The source of the ill omened Dyzemas has not been settled : its 
 origin has been suggested from Greek dus^ and mass^ as being 
 expressive of misfortune, evil, peril, in allusion to the massacre 
 of the Innocents. A correspondent of Notes mid Queries (Second 
 Series, vol. iii. pp. 289, 495) asks if it has not reference to the 
 name Desmas, given to one of the thieves crucified with our 
 Lord, — universal tradition seeming to attach Desmas to the peni- 
 tent and Gestas (or Yesmas) to the impenitent thief And if the 
 local tradition has any reference to these names, it would seem 
 as if Desmas was the name of ill omen. It has also been sug- 
 gested that Dyzemas Day is tithe day : in Portuguese, dizimas, 
 dizimos, "tenths," "tithes;" in law" Latin, decimce, the same. 
 
 The Irish call this La croasta na bliana, " the cross day of the 
 year," and Biar dasin darg, or " blood Thursday." On this day 
 they will not warp thread nor permit it to be warped, and they 
 declare that any undertaking must prove unlucky. In the 
 county of Clare a dismal legend is current concerning a white 
 thornbush growing on an island in Lake Turlough between the 
 parishes of Quin and Tulla. The bush is known as the Scagh an 
 Earla, " the earl's bush." A suit of clothes made on Cross day 
 was put on a child, who straightway died. A second and a 
 third child to whom it was given also died. Then the parents 
 put the clothes at high tide on the Scagh an Earla, and when the 
 waters fell, the clothes were found full of dead eels. Many sim- 
 ilar legends are extant as to the fatality attending anything 
 begun on the cross day of the year. (^Notes and Queries^ Fourth 
 Series, vol. xii. p. 185.) 
 
 In mediseval England the juvenile members of the family used 
 to be reminded of the dismal character of the day by a sound 
 whipping administered in bed. This custom endured so late as 
 the seventeenth century, for it is mentioned by Gregory : " It 
 hath been a custom, and yet is elsewhere, to whip up the chil- 
 dren upon Innocents' Day morning, that the memorie of this 
 murther might stick the closer ; and, in a moderate proportion, 
 to act over the crueltie again in kind." Gregory also states 
 another custom, on the authority of an old ritual belonging to 
 the abbey of Oseney, communicated to him by his friend Dr. 
 Gerard Langbain, the provost of Queen's College, Oxford, from 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 555 
 
 which it appears that at the church of Oseney " they were wont 
 to bring out, upon this day, the foot of a child prepared after 
 their fashion, and put upon with red and black colors, as to sig- 
 nify the dismal part of the day. They put this up in a chest in 
 the vestry, ready to be produced at the time, and to be solemnly 
 carried about the church to be adored by the people." {I^pis- 
 copus Fuerorum in Die Innocentium, 1684, p. 113.) 
 
 So far as the whipping was concerned, it might be avoided by 
 the children taking care to rise betimes before their elders ; and 
 in fact the whole affair eventually resolved itself into a frolic, in 
 which the lively and active, who managed to be first astir, 
 amused themselves at the expense of the sluggards by awaking 
 them with a sound drubbing administered in bed. It is note- 
 worthy that in Wales on St. Stephen's Day, December 26, every- 
 body has long been privileged to whip another person's legs with 
 holly, and this is often reciprocally done until the blood streams 
 down. 
 
 Theologians are fond of pointing out that in the three succes- 
 sive anniversaries, St. Stephen's Day on the 26th, St. John the 
 Evangelist's Day on the 27th, and Innocents' Day on the 28th 
 of December, are comprehended three descriptions of martyrdom, 
 all of which have their peculiar efficacy, though differing in 
 degree. In the death of St. Stephen an example is furnished of 
 the highest class of martyrdom, — that is to say, both in will and 
 in deed; St. John the Evangelist, who gave practical evidence 
 of his readiness to suffer death for the cause of Christ, though, 
 through miraculous interposition, he was saved from actually 
 doing so, is an instance of the second description of martyrdom, 
 — in will though not in deed; and the slaughter of the Innocents 
 affords an instance of martyrdom in deed and not in will, these 
 unfortunate children having lost their lives, though involuntarily, 
 on account of the Saviour, and it being therefore considered 
 " that God supplied the defects of their will by his own accept- 
 ance of the sacrifice." 
 
 Isidore the Ploughman, St„. (Sp. Isidro el Labrado ; It. Isi- 
 doro Agricola), patron of farmers and of Madrid, where his shrine 
 in the church of St. Andrew is an object of enthusiastic devotion. 
 
 The festival of the saint, Ma}^ 15, the anniversary of his death, 
 is the most notable of all the holidays of Madrid. Then the 
 town puts on its gayest array. The walls of the houses are 
 lined with tapestries and colored curtains, flags and banners 
 stream in the air, the church bells ring, and a procession winds 
 through the streets with military band and cross and lights and 
 song of clergy. The objective point of the procession and of all 
 good citizens for miles around is the hermitage of the saint on 
 
556 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 the banks of the Manzanares, where they spend the entire day 
 in noisy frolic. The httle church stands on a bare brown hill. 
 All about it is an extemporized village, consisting half of restau- 
 rants and half of toy-shops. In these shops are kept little earthen 
 pig-bells, whose ringing scares away the thunder, and artificial 
 roses with glass handles terminating in a whistle. Thousands 
 of whistles are sold and are blown cheerily all day long. In the 
 intervals of tooting crowds stream into the oratory of the church 
 to kiss a glass-covered relic of the saint which is held in the 
 hands of an ecclesiastical attendant. For this privilege they 
 drop a penny into a saucer proffered by an acolyte, who follows 
 at the heels of the relic-keeper as he makes the rounds of the 
 worshippers. 
 
 St. Isidore was born in Madrid about 1110. A day-laborer in 
 the employment of Don Juan de Yargas, who owned a farm out- 
 side the city, Isidore was pious, hard-working, and faithful. Yet 
 he could not escape the tongue of slander. A jealous fellow-ser- 
 vant accused him to his master of coming late to his work in 
 the morning. So De Yargas rose one morning before daybreak 
 and hid himself, to see if Isidore were remiss in his work. He 
 was indeed a few minutes late, for with the first dawn in the 
 east he had gone to church. When he returned and put his 
 hand to the plough De Yargas stepped forth to rebuke him. 
 But, lo! in the field was a second plough, drawn by white oxen, 
 urged on by an angel. Up the field and down again went the 
 strange team, cutting a clean furrow and cutting it rapidly. On 
 De Yargas's approach the vision disappeared. Then he ques- 
 tioned Isidore as to who were his assistants. "Sir," replied Isi- 
 dore, in surprise, " I work alone, and know of none save God, to 
 whom I look for aid." This convinced De Yargas that he was 
 faithful, and thereafter he admitted the saint to his full confi- 
 dence. The story of the angel who helped Isidore with his 
 ploughing spread through the country and excited the respectful 
 wonder of all who would fain have transferred their daily toil to 
 celestial shoulders. For that is exactly the sort of saintship that 
 every Spaniard would love to attain. 
 
 Isidore died on May 15, 1170. His remains were buried in the 
 yard of St. Andrew's Church, in Madrid, which he had attended 
 daily throughout his life. Angels came by night and took up 
 the body and reburied it in the church itself. Then all the bells 
 rang out untouched by human hands. 
 
 The body is now preserved in the bishop's chapel, and Butler 
 informs us that "during these five hundred years" it "remains 
 entire and fresh, being honored by a succession of miracles down 
 to the present day." 
 
 In desperate cases of sufiicient rank the doctors were wont to 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 557 
 
 throw up the sponge and send for Isidore's urn, and, the drug- 
 ging having ceased, the noble patient frequently recovered. 
 
 One of the best authenticated of these miracles was the heal- 
 ing of King Philip III., who fell sick at Casambios del Monte 
 while returning from Madrid. The king's sickness was so serious 
 that his physicians despaired of saving his life. As a last resort 
 a " solemn procession" of ecclesiastical, civil, and mihtarj^ digni- 
 taries took the shrine of Isidore from Madrid and bore it to 
 where the king lay. As the shrine was lifted from its resting- 
 place the king's fever left him, and as the shrine was brought 
 nearer to him he became better. When it was placed beside his 
 bed Philip was cured. The next year Isidore's body was placed 
 in a new shrine of cunning design, which cost sixteen hundred 
 ducats. 
 
 As the patron of farmers, Isidore is specially invoked in periods 
 of prolonged drought, and when the case becomes desperate his 
 body is paraded through the streets in solemn procession from 
 the church to his hermitage and back again. The last time this 
 was done, in May, 1896, rain was vouchsafed at once ; and this 
 prompt and gracious affability won for the saint a greater devo- 
 tion than ever. 
 
 Isidore was canonized on March 12, 1622, on the same day as 
 Ignatius Loyola, Philip Neri, Francis Xavier, and Theresa. 
 The event was made one of great rejoicing in Madrid. A poeti- 
 cal tournament, still celebrated in the literary annals of Spain, 
 was held in the saint's honor. Lope de Yega wrote two sacred 
 dramas, or Mystery Plays, about the saint for the day of the 
 canonization. These were performed on an extemporized stage 
 in the public square, in the presence of King Philip lY. and his 
 court. 
 
 Iversky Virgin. A wonder-working image enshrined in a 
 small chapel at the Iversky gate in Moscow. It is of the usual 
 Byzantine type, dark brown in color, brilliantly dressed and be- 
 jewelled, with a crown of precious stones encircling its head. 
 When the Czar visits Moscow, the first thing he does is to go and 
 worship this image. Every day from morning to night there is 
 a throng of people round the door of the chapel, and in front of 
 it a double line of mendicant nuns and beggars of various kinds. 
 The curious thing about the matter is that the picture in the 
 chapel is what theatrical people would call an understudy. And, 
 most curious of all, it is an understudy for a copy. To disen- 
 tangle this triune personality it should be explained that the 
 Iversky Yirgin is a copy made in 1648 from an ikon at Mount 
 Athos which is attributed to St. Luke. The copy was brought 
 to Russia in 1666, when the chapel for its reception was built by 
 
568 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Catherine II. But it grew into such demand as a visitor to the 
 wealthy sick, to great shops, and to monasteries, that it is never 
 at home from early morn till late at night, and the understudy 
 represents it in the chapel to the thousands of prayerful people 
 of all classes who stop to place a candle or utter a prayer. Mean- 
 while the first copy is travelling about the town in a blue coach 
 adorned with a special device like a coat of arms and drawn by 
 six horses. It occupies the seat of honor. On the front seat are 
 a priest and a deacon, clad in crimson velvet and gold vestments, 
 their heads bare even in the severest weather. The coachman, 
 the footman, and the postilion are likewise supposed to keep 
 their heads perpetually bared during the journey, but when it is 
 very cold they wind woollen shawls of the color of their own 
 hair adroitly around their heads, allowing the fringe to hang 
 and simulate long locks. As the Yirgin drives along, passers-by 
 pause, salute, and cross themselves. (Isabel F. Hapgood : Ram- 
 bles in Russia, 1895, p. 321.) 
 
 Ivy Day. The Parnellite name for the annual commemora- 
 tion on October 9 of the death of Charles Stuart Parnell (Octo- 
 ber 9, 1891). A vast procession goes out from Dublin to visit 
 the grave of the dead chief in Glasnevin Cemetery, two miles 
 to the northeast of the city. It is composed of the Parnellite 
 members of Parliament and other office-holders, of deputations 
 from trade and labor societies and from provincial towns, and 
 of Parnellite citizens generally. Several bands, all with drums 
 draped in black, take part in the proceedings. At the head of 
 the procession is a wagonette loaded down with wreaths and 
 garlands sent from all parts of the country. On arrival at the 
 cemetery these wreaths aie deposited on the grave, whilst the 
 assemblage stands uncovered. Then the procession re-forms and 
 marches back to Dublin. The ivy is probably selected as a sym- 
 bol of Parnell and Ireland because as an evergreen it forms the 
 most appropriate and suggestive foil to Disraeli's primrose. (See 
 Primrose Day.) 
 
 J- 
 
 Jackson's Day, or Old Hickory's Day. The term popu- 
 larly given to the anniversary of the battle of New Orleans, 
 which was fought and won by General, afterwards President, 
 Andrew Jackson, on January 8, 1815. It is a legal holiday in 
 Louisiana, and is celebrated by members of the Democratic 
 party throughout the whole country by banquets and speech- 
 making. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 559 
 
 James the Great, St. (Lat. Jacobus ; Sp. lago ; It. Giacomo 
 or Jacopo ; Fr. Jacques)^ patroD saint of Spain and of pilgrims to 
 Jerusalem. His reputed death-day, July 25 (a.d. 42), is one of 
 the great national holidays of Spain. 
 
 Si. James was probably the elder brother of St. John the 
 Evangelist. He was of note among the twelve, being, with Peter 
 and John, one of the three favorite disciples whom Jesus chose 
 to witness the raising of the daughter of Jairus, the transfigura- 
 tion, and the agony in the garden of Gethsemane. He was put 
 to death by Herod Agrippa I. to please the Jews. To these 
 
 Martyrdom of St. James. 
 
 facts of gospel history tradition has added many marvellous 
 details. After the Ascension he is said to have gone to Spain to 
 preach the gospel (see Pillar, The), and, having established the 
 faith there, he returned to meet his death in Jerusalem. His 
 disciples placed the saint's body in a ship which angels miracu- 
 lously guided to Padron, on the coast of Spain. Here the body 
 rested on a stone which hollowed itself out, wax to receive and 
 marble to retain. Some theologians, however, hold that it was 
 in this stone (still extant, and identified by archaeologists as a 
 Eoman sarcophagus) that the saint floated to Padron. The 
 country was then governed by a wicked queen named Lupa, who 
 ordered saint and stone to be placed on a car drawn by wild bulls. 
 But instead of dashing the relics to pieces, as was expected, the 
 
560 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 bulls quietly drew the car to the palace of Lupa. Then she was 
 converted, and placed the body and the stone in a cave sacred to 
 Bacchus. Years rolled on, and the burial-place was forgotten. 
 At last, in 800, a hermit named Pelagius, noticing heavenly lights 
 always hovering over a certain spot, made investigations which 
 resulted in the recovery of the body. Thereupon Alonzo el 
 Casto built a church to house it. This gave place to a cathedral 
 consecrated May 17, 899. The city of Santiago or Compostella 
 rose around it. Numerous miracles had already been performed 
 at the shrine, which were capped by the appearance of the saint 
 at the battle of Clavijo in 841, where he killed single-handed 
 sixty thousand Moors. In gratitude for this service, a bushel 
 of wheat from every acre in Spain was annually granted to 
 the shrine at Compostella. This tax was not abolished till 
 1835. 
 
 The shrine at Compostella was frequented even by those 
 Christians who lived among the Moors, and the pilgrims brought 
 back minute reports which are thus incorporated in contempo- 
 rary Moorish annals (see Moh. D. i. 74, ii. 193) : " Their Kabah 
 is a colossal idol, which they have in the centre of the church ; 
 they swear by it and repair to it in pilgrimage from the most 
 distant parts, from Eome as well as from other countries, pre- 
 tending that the tomb which is to be seen within the church is 
 that of Yakob (James), one of the twelve apostles, and the most 
 beloved of Isa (Jesus), may the blessing of God and salutation 
 be on him and on our prophet !" When the Moorish conqueror 
 Al-Mansur entered Santiago, August 10, 997, he razed the town 
 to the ground, sparing only the tomb of the Spaniards' prophet, 
 before which he trembled with a cognate superstition. Never- 
 theless the body of the saint disappeared at the advent of the 
 infidel, and has never since been found. There is, indeed, a 
 legend that when Diego Gelmirez erected the modern cathedral 
 of Santiago in 1120 he built the relics into the foundations, in 
 order that they might never be pried into by the impertinent 
 curioso or be removed by the enemy. Certainly St. James lies 
 somewhere, for he was heard clashing his armor when Bona- 
 parte invaded Spain, Pilgrimages were stimulated by fresh 
 indulgences granted by the Popes to sinners who came with 
 oflPerings, and great was the stream of wealthy guilt which 
 poured in ; kings gave gold, and even paupers their mite. They 
 fell off for a time after the Eeformation, when, according to 
 Mohna, " the damned doctrines of the accursed Luther dimin- 
 ished the numbers of Germans and wealthy English," and the 
 disorderly scenes which were enacted at the shrine finally caused 
 their prohibition in Spain, save under regulations. 
 
 Though the Spanish body of St. James has disappeared, there 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 561 
 
 are many other bodies of the saint preserved in Europe, One 
 is claimed to have been brought to Toulouse in the fourth cen- 
 tury. Another body of St. James is said to have been trans- 
 lated into Italy in the fourth century, and now reposes in the 
 church of Zibili, near Milan. The heads of St. James are very 
 numerous : there is one at Toulouse, while two are at Venice 
 (one in the church of St. George, another in the monastery of 
 SS. Philip and James). There are a skull and a vessel of the 
 saint's blood in the church of the Apostles at Eome, a head at 
 Valencia, another at Amalfi, still another at St. Vaast in Artois, 
 and part of a head at Pistoja. Bones, hands, and arms of the 
 saint are scattered about in great numbers, and are shown at 
 Troyes, in Sicily, on the island of Capri, at Pavia, in Bavaria, 
 at Liege, at Cologne, and in other places. Some bones of the 
 saint are shown in the Escorial. 
 
 Nevertheless it was the shrine at Compostella which was 
 famous all over Europe in the Middle Ages. The distinguishing 
 badge of pilgrims to this shrine was a scallop-shell worn on the 
 cloak or hat. The adoption of this badge is accounted for by 
 the old legend on the ground that when the miraculous ship 
 bearing St. James's body arrived, at Padron it was encrusted 
 with scallop-shells. Erasmus, however, in his " Pilgrimages" 
 suggests a less miraculous reason. 
 
 One of his interlocutors meets a pilgrim, and says, " What 
 country has sent you safely back to us, covered with shells, laden 
 with tin and leaden images, and adorned with straw necklaces, 
 while your arms display a row of serpents' eggs?" 
 
 " I have been to St. James of Compostella," replies the pil- 
 grim. 
 
 " What answer did St. James give to your professions ?" 
 
 " None ; but he was seen to smile, and nod his head, when 1 
 offered my presents ; and he held out to me this imbricated 
 shell." 
 
 " Why that shell rather than any other kind ?" 
 
 " Because the adjacent sea abounds in them." 
 
 Curiously enough, a scallop-sl^ell is borne at the present day 
 by pilgrims in Japan ; and in all probability its origin as a pil- 
 grim's badge, both in Europe and in the East, was derived from 
 its use as a primitive cup. dish, or spoon. . This idea is cor- 
 roborated by the crest of Dishington, an old English family, 
 being a scallop-shell, — a punning allusion to the name and to the 
 ancient use of the shell as a dish. And we may add, as a proof 
 of the former popularity of pilgrimages to Compostella, that 
 seventeen English peers and eight baronets carry scallop-shells 
 in their arms as heraldic charges. 
 
 Another curious popular survival in England connects oysters 
 
 36 • 
 
662 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 with St. James. It is still customary in London to begin eating 
 oysters on his day. Churchill says, — 
 
 July, to whom, witli Dog-star in her train, 
 St. James gives oysters, and St. Swithin rain. 
 
 And a local proverb asserts that " He who eats oysters on St. 
 James's Day will never want money," which may mean that 
 only the wealthy can afford them on this the opening day. But 
 what is more immediately to the point is the fact that in the 
 course of the few days following upon the introduction of oys- 
 ters for the season the children of the humbler class employ 
 themselves diligently in collecting the shells which have been 
 cast out from taverns and fish-shops, and of these they make 
 piles in various rude forms. By the time that old St. James's 
 Day (the 5th of August) has come about, they have these little 
 fabrics in nice order, with a candle stuck in the top, to be lighted 
 at night. As you thread your way through some of the denser 
 parts of the metropolis, you are apt to find a cone of shells, 
 with its votive light, in the nook of some retired court, with a 
 group of youngsters around it, some of whom will be sure to 
 assail the stranger with a whining claim, " Mind the grotto !" by 
 which is meant a demand for a penny wherewith professedly to 
 keep up the candle. It cannot be doubted that in the grotto thus 
 made we have a memorial of the world-renowned shrine of St. 
 James at Compostella, which may have been formerly erected 
 on the anniversary of St. James by poor persons, as an invita- 
 tion to the pious who could not visit Compostella to show their 
 reverence to the saint by alms-giving to their needy brethren. 
 {Book of Bays, vol. ii. p. 122 ; I^otes and Queries, First Series, 
 vol. i. p. 6.) 
 
 Januarius, St. (It. Gennaro; Fr. Janvier), patron saint of 
 Naples and its protector from the eruptions of Mount Vesuvius. 
 He is said to have been a native of Naples, to have become 
 Bishop of Benevento, and to have been martyred with several 
 companions in the amphitheatre at Pozzuoli, near Naples, on 
 September 19, a.d. 305. September 19, therefore, is his day in 
 the Eoman Martyrology. Among the Greeks the feast of St. 
 Januarius and his companions is celebrated both on that date 
 and on April 21. In Naples besides the great festival on Sep- 
 tember 19 a minor feast in honor of the translation of St. Jan- 
 uarius is celebrated on the first Sunday in May, and another on 
 December 16. 
 
 Various fables have clustered around the acts of this martyr. 
 A furnace is said to have been heated red-hot for three days, into 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 563 
 
 which St. Januarius was thrown. But he escaped unhurt. Then 
 he and two companions were exposed to the beasts in the amphi- 
 theatre ; but none would touch them. The people, amazed, im- 
 puted their preservation to magic, and the martyrs were con- 
 demned to be beheaded. This sentence was executed outside the 
 walls of Pozzuoli. A pious woman collected St. Januarius's 
 blood in two vials ; in one of them the blood was pure and un- 
 mixed, in the other it was mixed with earth. Under the Em- 
 peror Constantine, the bones of the martyr were translated to 
 Naples and deposited in a church built in his honor outside the 
 city walls. The woman who had preserved his blood brought 
 the vials to Bishop St. Severus, and when they were placed in 
 contact with the saint's skull the congealed blood liquefied. In 
 the ninth century Sico, Prince of Benevento, took Naples and re- 
 moved the body of St. Januarius to Benevento, where it remained 
 until May 2, 1497, when King Ferdinand of Aragon brought it 
 back to Naples with great pomp. The skull and the blood, how- 
 ever, had always remained in the latter city. 
 
 In 1608 a magnificent chapel dedicated to St. Januarius was 
 constructed in the Neapolitan cathedral. Thither the head and 
 blood of the saint were transferred. They still remain there. 
 The ordinary exposition of the blood is made on the first Sunday 
 in May and daily through the octave of May 2, the anniversary 
 of the translation, on the 19th of September and daily through 
 its octave, and again on December 16, in commemoration of the 
 saint's deliverance of the city from a terrible eruption of Yesu- 
 vius in 1631. 
 
 Extraordinary expositions are made whenever Naples is threat- 
 ened or visited with disaster, pestilence, or volcanic eruption. 
 Perhaps the earliest mention in general literature of the miracle 
 of the liquefaction occurs in the " Pandectse Medicinales Matthsei 
 Silvatici," a book published in 1474 in Naples by the king's sur- 
 geon, Angelo Cato. In the dedicatory preface to King Ferdinand 
 he uses these words : " What ought I to say of the blood of that 
 holy martyr which is preserved at Naples with the greatest 
 respect? Is there, among the miracles which in our day take 
 place under the eyes of faithful Christians, one more evident, more 
 undeniable ? At a distance from the skull the blood remains in 
 a solid state ; when brought near to it, it becomes as liquid as 
 on the day on which it was shed." The Eev. P. N. Lynch, 
 Bishop of Charleston, South Carolina, published five articles on 
 the subject (afterwards gathered into book form) in the Catholic 
 World of September, 1871-January, 1872, and has covered the 
 whole ground of fact and argument from the Eoman point of 
 view. He maintains that this phenomenon, which during the 
 last two hundred and fifty years has taken place at Naples at 
 
564 cumosiTiEs OF 
 
 least four thousand times, cannot be accounted for by any natural 
 cause, and must therefore be miraculous. 
 
 At rare intervals the blood refused to liquefy. Great was the 
 attendant agony of the spectators, great the shock that ran 
 through Naples. Some terrible calamity was believed to be 
 impending over city or kingdom. " In order that everything 
 should go well at Naples," says the Abbe Eichard, author of a 
 " Yoyage en Italic" (1766), " it is necessary that the liquefaction 
 of the blood of St. Januarius should occur twice a year, in 
 September and May. The hour when this miracle should occur 
 is approximately known. A great crowd presses into the chapel, 
 and demands of the saint, with confused cries, sighs, and beat- 
 ings of the breast, that he should perform the miracle. When 
 it does not occur with sufficient expedition, a thousand voices are 
 raised with impatient and angry cries of ' San Gennaro,fa dunque 
 presto /' which is to say, ' St. Januarius, hurry up !' If unhappily 
 the miracle does not occur, and the crowd catches sight of some 
 stranger whose looks displease them, they believe him to be a 
 heretic whose presence has prevented the liquefaction of the 
 blood, and the stranger runs great risk of his life. Indeed, 
 several cases are recorded of the assassination of strangers 
 under such circumstances." 
 
 When General Championnet at the head of a French army 
 took possession of Naples in 1799, he heard that the clergy, 
 hoping to stir the populace against the invaders, had decided 
 that the miracle of St. Januarius should not be performed that 
 year. On September 19 he appeared in the cathedral. The 
 hour arrived. The blood remained congealed. The populace 
 grew restive. The republican general sent one of his aides to 
 the officiating priest with this message : " Tell his reverence 
 that if the blood does not liquefy in five minutes I will order 
 the bombardment of Naples." Long before the five minutes 
 were up, the miracle was performed, amid the enthusiastic plau- 
 dits of the crowd. 
 
 January. The first month of the year according to the Gre- 
 gorian calendar. This position is justified by meteorological 
 iact, so far at least as the Northern hemisphere is concerned. 
 Inasmuch as its beginning is near the winter solstice, the year 
 is thus made to present a complete series of the seasonal changes 
 and operations, beginning with the first movements of spring, 
 and ending in the death of all vegetation with winter. Yet it 
 does not hold that position universally. Numa, indeed, who is 
 credited with having introduced it, made it the first month and 
 named it after Janus, the deity presiding over doors, hence ap- 
 propriately giving title to the opening of the year. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 565 
 
 In the Jewish calendar the year began with March 25, and 
 most of the nations of Christendom followed this arrangement 
 until they adopted the Grregorian calendar. (See Calendar.) 
 In England the year began on Christmas till the accession of 
 
 Jakuaky. Ploughing. 
 (From an eleventh-century MS.) 
 
 William the Conqueror, when the date was changed to January 1. 
 The Anglo-Saxons called this Wulfmonath, because hunger then 
 drove the wolves down into the settlements. 
 
 Jerome, St. (Lat. Hieronymus ; It. Geronimo or Girolamo ; 
 Sp. Geronimo ; Fr. Jerome, Hierome^ or Gerosme ; Ger. Hieroni- 
 mus), patron saint of scholars and students, and one of the four 
 Latin Fathers of the Church. His festival is celebrated on Sep- 
 tember 30. 
 
 St. Jerome was born in Stridon about the year 342. He went 
 to Eome to complete his studies, and became a lawyer. At the 
 age of thirty he was baptized, and went to the East to visit the 
 scenes of the hfe of Christ. He then retired to a desert in Ara- 
 bia, where he passed several years in study and in doing penance. 
 He returned to Eome, where he preached for three years against 
 the luxury of the Eoman clergy and laity. He then retired to 
 a monastery at Bethlehem, and here he died in 420. It was in 
 this monastery that he made his famous translation of the New 
 Testament into Latin, which has ever since been known as the 
 Yulgate. The attributes of St. Jerome in art are books, illustra- 
 tive of his writings, and a lion, emblematic of the boldness of 
 the saint. There is also a legend that accounts for the associa- 
 tion of the lion with this saint. It is related that while at the 
 monastery at Bethlehem the saint saw a lion limping as if in 
 pain. All others fled in terror, but Jerome approached the lion 
 and extracted a thorn from its paw. The grateful lion refused 
 to leave the saint, who made the beast guard an ass which 
 brought wood from a forest. One day a caravan of merchants 
 passed, and- they stole the ass while the Hon slept. The lion 
 returned to the convent with an air of shame, and Jerome, who 
 believed that the lion had eaten the ass, set the beast to work in 
 the ass's place. At length the caravan passed by again, and the 
 
566 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 lion, recognizing his old companion, drove the ass and all the 
 camels into the monastery. Whereupon the merchants acknow- 
 ledged their theft and were pardoned. 
 
 St. Jerome was buried at Bethlehem, but his body was said 
 to have been translated to the church of Santa Maria Mag- 
 giore at Eome in the thirteenth century. A head of the saint 
 is shown at Nepi, part of the chin at the Vatican, part of a thigh 
 in the church of St. Cecilia, and an arm in the Jesuit church. 
 A jaw and an arm are shown at Florence, at Bologna part 
 of a shank, a finger, and a thumb, part of the skull at Cluny, 
 a finger at Paris, an arm at Malines, two bones at Tournai, 
 a finger at Prague, part of the spine at Cologne in the church 
 of St. Pantaleon, and in the Carthusian church a rib. The 
 head entire is preserved at the Escorial ; the tongue is shown 
 on the island of Samos ; and various other relics are scattered 
 about. 
 
 The fete of San Geronimo is the harvest festival of the Pueblo 
 Indians in New Mexico. It is celebrated annually at the Pueblo 
 de Taos with ceremonies that are a strange mixture of Catholic 
 ritual and ancestral pagan superstitions. Indians from all the 
 Pueblos, as well as a considerable number of Apaches and Utes 
 from their more distant reservations, and a sprinkling of Mexi- 
 cans, meet together this day. Many different stories are told of 
 the origin of the feast. One is that hundreds of years ago a 
 chief of the tribe wandered away into the mountains and never 
 returned, and in memory of this all absent Pueblos come home 
 on this day. But it is possible that the Indians have mixed up 
 their own traditions with the priestly legend of St. Jerome's 
 wandering and fasting in the desert. At all events, the image 
 of St. Jerome forms a prominent feature. Early in the morning 
 all who can spare the time from the preparations for the day's 
 sports meet in the village church, where the image is blessed, 
 and then borne forth, by girls chosen for the honor, to the 
 judges' stand. There are three judges, one from each clan and 
 the third selected from among the Apache visitors. The con- 
 testants, lightly clad and with gayly painted bodies, line up in 
 front of the judges, and move past sideways, chanting a wild, 
 gay air. A half-dozen medicine-men follow the runners of each 
 clan, groom them, pat their muscles, and cheer them with pre- 
 dictions of success. The men march in this fashion past the 
 pueblo buildings crowded with spectators. At a signal all the 
 young athletes take their places, fifteen from each side being at 
 either end of a course of about seven hundred yards. When 
 all are ready, the judges give the word. Two men dart from 
 the end of the course nearest the pueblo and run swiftly down 
 to the other end. The instant the leader reaches the stone post 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 567 
 
 marking the end of the course, another runner from his side, 
 who has nicely calculated his exact time, rushes past him on the 
 homeward stretch, followed at the distance between the first 
 two runners by another athlete from the competing clan. Thus 
 the race is kept up until all have had a trial, the final victory 
 beiiiiT the glory of the clan and not of the individual runner. 
 The result shows which side shall bear the statue of San Ge- 
 ronimo into its pueblo. (^Harper's Young People, October 3, 1893, 
 p. 829.) Other games of less imminent interest occupy the in- 
 tervals during the day. A lamb with its legs tied together is 
 hoisted up a pole sixty feet in the air and left to hang there for 
 some hours as an offering, it is said, to Montezuma. The Mex- 
 icans practise their favorite game of riding after and trying 
 to catch chickens without dismounting. A hundred horsemen 
 dash madly up and down before the Pueblo after one poor 
 chicken, and if three or four riders seize it at the same time 
 it is instantly torn to pieces amid the shouts of the crowd. 
 Masked Indians run around playing tricks upon spectators, 
 sousing boys into the streams, stealing fruit from the stands of 
 the traders, and throwing dust. 
 
 John the Baptist, St. (Fr. Jean ; It. Giovanni ; Ger. Johann), 
 patron saint against convulsions and epilepsy, which are called 
 in France and Belgium le mal St.- Jean. The day of his behead- 
 ing by order of Herodias, which is ecclesiastically known as th© 
 Decollation, is commemorated in the Western calendar on Au- 
 gust 29, in the Eastern on September 26. But the great festival 
 of the saint, botli East and West, is that of his nativity, on June 
 24, or Midsummer Day. 
 
 This festival has been celebrated by the Church from a remote 
 age. In the fifth century St. Augustine wrote, " This day of the 
 nativity is handed down to us and is this day celebrated. We 
 have received this by tradition from our forefathers, and we 
 transmit it to our descendants to be celebrated with like devo- 
 tion." He observes that the birthday in lieu of the death-day 
 of the saint is chosen because ijhis saint was sanctified in his 
 mother's womb. 
 
 A mystical significance and an infinite number of pagan sur- 
 vivals have crystallized around this holiday from its position in 
 the calendar. For in the months of June and December occur 
 the solstices. With the summer solstice the days reach their 
 maximum of length, and thenceforth decrease until the minimum 
 is reached with the winter solstice, when they once more 
 increase. In connection with this fact the words of the Baptist, 
 " He must increase, but I must decrease," acquire a new and 
 fanciful meaning. St. Augustine says, " At the Nativity of 
 
568 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Christ the days increase in length, on that of John they de- 
 crease. When the Saviour of the world is born, the days 
 lengthen ; but when the last prophet comes into the world, the 
 days suffer curtailment." 
 
 But long before the dawn of Christianity the period of the 
 summer solstice was almost universally associated with the rites 
 of sun-worship. Pagan customs survived in the Christian festival. 
 Some of these customs were the subjects of ecclesiastical pro- 
 hibition. St. Augustine forbade the inhabitants of Libya from 
 bathing on the eve of St. John's Day, as a pagan custom. 
 Petrarch in a letter addressed to Cardinal Colonna describes how 
 in 1330 the women of Cologne were wont at sunset on the eve of 
 St. John to wash their arms and feet in the Ehine, thinking that 
 thus they washed off all the potential ills of the year to come. 
 This custom still survives in the Walloon country. St. Eligius 
 forbade those whom he had converted in Gaul to celebrate St. 
 John's Eve with round dances and other pagan customs, and the 
 fourth canon of the Council of Leptines, or Lestines, in 743, 
 prohibited the pagan custom of making new fire on this day by 
 rubbing two sticks together. The usage of burning Beltane fires 
 (see May-Day) has continued from paganism to the present day, 
 and is observed on Midsummer Eve nearly all through Europe. 
 But the solar origin of the custom is forgotten, and the practice 
 is justified by the text " He was a burning and a shining light," 
 words used by Christ to qualify the Baptist. 
 
 In France Da Saint Jean was formerly celebrated both in town 
 and in country. It did not disappear from Paris until the Eevolu- 
 tion. On the Place de Greve a tree was raised, and royalt}^ itself 
 came in solemn state to set fire to " St. John's tree." Louis XIY. 
 was the last king who took part in this ceremony, and he did so 
 only once. When the tree was burnt out, the people carefully 
 gathered up the ashes and brought them home as harbingers of 
 good fortune. A cruel practice that lasted until the eighteenth 
 century was to hang up a sack or basket full of cats in the 
 branches of the burning tree. In the register of the city of 
 Paris may be read this memorandum : " Paid to Lucas Pom- 
 mereux, one of the commissaires of the quays, 100 sous for 
 having furnished during the three years ending on St, John's 
 Day, 1573, all the cats that were needed for the fire, according 
 to custom, and also for having furnished, last year, when the 
 king assisted, a fox to give pleasure to his majesty, likewise for 
 having furnished a large cloth sack wherein the said cats were 
 gathered." 
 
 In Brittany the Baalfires blaze on every hill on the eve of La 
 Saint Jean. All night the peasants dance around them, clad in 
 their holiday clothes, to the sound of the binion (a sort of rustic 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 569 
 
 hautboy) and the shepherd's horn. The girl who dances round 
 nine St. John's fires before midnight is sure to be married within 
 the year. In many parishes the curate himself goes in procession 
 with banner and cross to light the sacred fire. 
 
 In England and Scotland, and even in Ireland, the Beltane 
 fires, where they survive at all, are usuall}' lighted on May-Day, 
 rather than on Midsummer Eve. But in Wales midsummer is 
 preferred. 
 
 In remote and primitive districts the people still believe that 
 dancing in a ring around a bonfire or leaping through its flames 
 is calculated to insure good luck to the performers, and to serve 
 as a protection from witchcraft and other malign influences 
 during the ensuing year. 
 
 In Servia the people believe that out of respect to the memory 
 of St. John the sun three times stands still in the sky on the 
 feast of his nativity. 
 
 The shepherds at this time of the year go round their sheep- 
 folds and enclosures, carrying torches formed of the resinous 
 bark of the birch-tree ; then they go up to the hills, where they 
 allow the torches to burn themselves out, while they give them- 
 selves over to frolic and amusement. 
 
 Bonfires are still lighted in many parts of Germany on Mid- 
 summer Eve. On either side of the bonfire poles are erected, 
 the tops of the poles being joined by a wire or rope, from which 
 are suspended prizes, — hams, sausages, neckties, pipes, etc. The 
 young men of the neighborhood assemble in numbers to compete 
 for the prizes. Each competitor, mounted on a horse, must ride 
 at the bonfire, and while the horse is in the act of jumping over 
 it, his rider has to try to snatch a prize from overhead. The 
 sport is kept up until late at night, when the feast is concluded 
 with a carouse at the village inn. 
 
 In Spain, as John Hay tells us, St. John's Eve is celebrated 
 with noisy festivities by the light of moon and stars and gas. A 
 feature of the occasion are the bunuelos, or fritters, which are 
 cooked and consumed on this night to the number of hundreds 
 of thousands in Madrid alone. A]l over the Prado may be seen 
 the bunuelo-stands. A great caldron of boiling oil is hung over 
 a fire, beside it is a mighty bowl of dough. " The bunolero with 
 the soft precision of machinery dips his hand into the bowl, and 
 makes a delicate ring of the tough dough, which he throws into 
 the bubbling caldron. It remains but a few seconds, and his 
 grimy acolyte picks it out with a long wire and throws it on the 
 tray for sale. They are eaten warm, the droning cry continually 
 sounding, ' Bunuelos ! Calientitos !' It is like a vast gitano- 
 camp. The hurrying crowd which is going nowhere, the blazing 
 fires, the cries of the venders, the songs of the majos under the 
 
570 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 
 great trees of the Paseo, the purposeless hurly-burly, and, above, 
 the steam of the boiling oil and the dust raised by the myriad 
 feet, form together a striking and vivid picture." (John Hay: 
 Gastilian Days^ pp. 107, 108.) 
 
 John the Evangelist, St. The Church commemorates the 
 death-day of this saint on December 27, and fixes the year 
 
 St. John received at the Temple. 
 (From " Historia S. Joaiinis Evangeiisise," Holztafeldruck, 1465.) 
 
 at A.D. 101. According to the traditions which supplement the 
 New Testament story, he remained at Jerusalem until the death 
 of the Yirgin, and then preached the gospel in Asia Minor, living 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 571 
 
 chiefly at Ephesus. In the persecution of Domitian he was 
 taken to Rome. He was plunged into a caldron of boiling oil, 
 but received no injury. On the scene of this miracle, which is 
 just outside the Latin gate, stands the chapel of San Giovanni 
 in Olio. He drank a cup of poison at the command of the Em- 
 peror, but the poison likewise had no effect. This cup is exhib- 
 ited on great occasions in the church of Santa Croce at Eome. 
 Then he was sent to labor in the mines at Patmos, where he is 
 believed to have written his Revelations, which are traditionally 
 said to have been manifested to him on a Sunday in the year 96. 
 With l!^erva's accession he was set at liberty, and returned to 
 Ephesus, where he died. An ancient tradition asserted that he 
 never died in the ordinary sense, but was assumed into heaven. 
 This belief was ably confuted by St. Jerome and St. Augustine, 
 and is now rejected by the Church. The received opinion is that 
 he was buried on a mountain just outside the walls of Ephesus. 
 Enthusiastic pilgrims gradually carried away his dust, which 
 was found to be efficacious for various diseases. Butler informs 
 us that a " stately church stood formerly over this tomb, which 
 is at present a Turkish mosque." 
 
 Jordan, Fete of the, or Benediction of the Waters of 
 
 the Neva, in St. Petersburg. An imposing ceremony at which 
 the Czar of Russia officiates with his court on the Epiphany 
 (January 6). Religious pomp joins with military glory to en- 
 hance its brilliancy. A pavilion, richly decorated, is built on the 
 frozen river. A hole is bored through the ice to admit of the 
 cross being dipped into the waters, which are solemnly blessed 
 by the metropolitan and his clergy with prayers that they may 
 be beneficial to man and fertilizing to the earth during the en- 
 suing year. These prayers are accompanied by liturgical hymns 
 sung by the choirs of the Winter Palace. Up to the end of the 
 reign of Nicholas 1. tradition demanded that the Emperor should 
 follow the procession bareheaded and without cloak, the mem- 
 bers of his household all following his example. Even the ladies 
 in the palace used to go down into the snow decolletees, their 
 delicate arms and bosoms exposed to the rigorous temperature. 
 At present the old usages have become modified, and cloaks are 
 tolerated. There was even a time when the ceremony gave oc- 
 casion to explosions of fanaticism. As soon as the priest had 
 plunged his crucifix in the river, mujiks would break holes in 
 the ice and throw themselves into the sanctified waters, with the 
 persuasion that they had acquired the power of washing away 
 their sins and curing all their bodily ills. 
 
 The Don, the Yolga, and minor streams are likewise blessed on 
 the same day by the local clergy of the river-side towns, and at 
 
572 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 many places the custom of bathing in the icy waters still sur- 
 vives in all its original fury. The London Lancet in 1896 pub- 
 lished a description of such a scene in the town of Sviaga, on 
 the Yolga : " From ten until one o'clock there was an endless 
 succession of bathers of all ages, some even bringing children as 
 young as seven and dipping them into the river through the 
 broken ice. They all undressed and dressed on the banks, or on 
 the ice in the centre of the river, where some enthusiasts bored 
 a hole through the ice and plunged in, with the additional risk 
 of being carried away by the current." 
 
 Joseph, St. (Lat. Josephus ; It. Giuseppe; Ger. Josef .) His 
 festival is celebrated on March 19. 
 
 But little is related of St. Joseph in the Gospel. He was of the 
 lineage of David and the tribe of Judah, and dwelt in Nazareth, 
 where he followed the trade of a carpenter. Legends add that 
 he was old and a widower when he married Mary, and assert 
 that there were many suitors for her hand, who assembled at the 
 call of the priest Zacharias and deposited their staves or wands 
 in the temple for a night. For it had been revealed to Zacha- 
 rias that God would show a sign as to who should be the hus- 
 band of Mary. In the morning it was discovered that Joseph's 
 wand had budded into leaves and flowers, and a white dove is- 
 sued from it, showing him to be the chosen one. The other 
 suitors broke their wands in despair, and one of them, Agabus, 
 fled to Mount Carmel and became an anchorite. In many pictures 
 the espousals took place in the open air, outside the temple, for 
 with the Jews marriage was a civil contract rather than a re- 
 ligious ceremony. 
 
 The next appearance of St. Joseph in the legends is on the 
 journey to Bethlehem, when looking back Joseph saw that the 
 face of Mary betokened weariness and pain, but when he looked 
 again she smiled. When they came to Bethlehem Joseph sought 
 a midwife, but when they came to the stable Mary was sitting 
 with her infant on her knees, and the place was filled with light 
 brighter than the day. Four times angelic messengers appeared 
 to guide St. Joseph in his mission. A dream assured him of the 
 purity of Mary; another dream commanded him to flee into 
 Egypt ; the third vision told Joseph to return to Judsea, and a 
 fourth guided him on his journey. After the return to l!^azareth 
 Joseph is associated only with a quiet domestic life. The time 
 of his death is a disputed point. Some assert that it occurred 
 when Jesus was nine years old, while others make it nine years 
 later. The 20th of July had been observed in the East as the 
 anniversary of Joseph's death before he became popular in 
 the West. In art he is represented as the caretaker and guide 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 573 
 
 during the journey into Egypt, and in pictures of the Holy 
 Family he is generally in an attitude of quiet and contemplative 
 admiration. 
 
 Jubilee. This word, generally used at present to denote the 
 ,8emi-centennial celebration of some important event, does not 
 come from the Latin jubilare, " to shout for joy," though ety- 
 mologists have frequently fallen into this not unnatural pitfall, 
 but from the Jewish yobel, meaning literally the blast of a 
 trumpet, and, by extension, the year of jubilee which was an- 
 nounced by this blast. According to the law in Leviticus xxv., 
 this was a semi-centennial epoch of general restoration and 
 emancipation, when liberty was to be proclaimed through the 
 
 Proclaiming a Papal Jubilee. 
 (From Picart.) 
 
 land with the blowing of trumpets in the synagogue. The year 
 of jubilee was the fiftieth year, each being separated from its pre- 
 decessor by seven sabbaths of years, — i.e., 7 X 7 = 49. During 
 the jubilee year the land was not tilled, all lands that had been 
 
674 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 sold were restored to the original owners or their heirs, and all 
 bondsmen of Hebrew blood were liberated. 
 
 The design is supposed to have been the maintenance of a 
 kind of balance between different tribes and families, to prevent 
 the growth of a few rich land-owners amidst a generally impov- 
 erished community, and to increase alike the growth of popula-, 
 tion and the fiertility of the soil. The system is known to have 
 been adopted for a time; but commentators differ in opinion 
 ahke as to the period of its practical adoption and the period 
 when it fell into disuse. 
 
 The Christian Church adopted the term jubilee from the Jew- 
 ish, and the jubilee in two forms, the ordinary and the extraor- 
 dinary, is still an institution in the Eoman Church as a period 
 of remission from the penal consequences of sin. Extraordinary 
 jubilees are proclaimed on specially important occasions. The 
 ordinary jubilee is now granted once in twenty-five years. The 
 institution dates from the pontificate of Boniface YIII., who in 
 1300 issued a bull in honor of the new century, granting a plenary 
 indulgence to all pilgrim visitors of Eome during that year on 
 condition of their penitently confessing their sins and visiting 
 the church of St. Peter and St. Paul fifteen times if they were 
 strangers and thirty times if residents of the city. Boniface's 
 plan was that of a centennial celebration, but the period was 
 shortened successively to fifty, forty -three, and twenty-five years, 
 where it remains at present. For the pilgrimage to Eome have 
 now been substituted certain works of charity and devotion. 
 
 The bull announcing a jubilee is published on the Ascension 
 Day preceding the beginning of the jubilee year. The publica- 
 tion takes place in the Sistine Chapel after the Pope has cele- 
 brated the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. An apostoli- 
 cal subdeacon reads the Latin bull to the Papal court, and another 
 subdeacon reads the Italian translation to the people. As soon 
 as the reading is over, the twelve trumpeters in ordinary to the 
 Pope commence to blow a blast, and a few minutes later twelve 
 hunters join in with the ringing of their silver bugles, and 
 simultaneously the artillery of the castle of St. Angelo discharges 
 a salute. 
 
 On the fourth Sunday of Advent the apostolical subdeacons 
 again publish the bull of the jubilee, and on the three days im- 
 mediately preceding the Christmas festivals the bells of the city 
 announce from all sides the solemn jubilee season which is to 
 open on the morrow. 
 
 The 24th day of November in the Holy Year all the secular 
 and regular clergy assemble in the Apostolic Palace, and thence 
 go in procession to St. Peter's Church. But when the clergy 
 have arrived in the great square facing the church they find the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 575 
 
 doors of this church closed, and all the entrances to the portico 
 occupied by guards who prevent the crowds from entering. 
 
 Depakture of the Cardinals. 
 
 Meanwhile the Pope, the cardinals, and the bishops in white 
 vestments with their mitres on their heads assemble in the Sistine 
 Chapel, where his Holiness intones the " Yeni Creator Spiritus," 
 holding in his hand a lighted wax taper. He then names three 
 cardinals as Legates a Latere and despatches them to open the 
 doors of St. John Lateran, Santa Maria Maggiore, and St. Paul 
 Outside the Walls. These cardinals, after having received on 
 their knees the command of his Holiness, go in state to these 
 churches, preceded by trumpeters, oboe-players, and troops of 
 people armed, if one might say ^o, half in the panoply of war 
 and half in that of religion. (Picart, vol. i. p. 171.) 
 
 But they do not take their departure until the Pope has opened 
 the Holy Door of the Sistine Chapel which leads into St. Peter's. 
 A prelate presents him with a golden hammer, which he takes 
 in his right hand. Followed by his clergy, he approaches the 
 door and strikes it three times, saying, " Aperite mihi portas jus- 
 titiae" (" Open for me the doors of justice"), to which the clergy 
 respond, " This is the eternal door which the just shall enter." 
 Meanwhile the master masons set to work in removing the little 
 
576 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 wall which has temporarily closed the Holy Door. When this 
 has been torn down and the bricks have been distributed as 
 relics among the spectators, the Penitents of St. Peter's sweep 
 the doorway clean with their brooms. Then the Pope and the 
 clergy march singing into St. Peter's Church, where the immense 
 crowds have by this time been admitted. The jubilee ends by 
 the closure of the Holy Doors. They are walled up again, in 
 the presence of the Pope, the cardinals, and the clergy, on 
 Christmas Eve one year after the jubilee opening. His Holiness 
 lays the first stone in its place. 
 
 From Jews and Catholics the term jubilee passed into general 
 use to indicate celebrations which had nothing to do with either 
 Jerusalem or Eome, but commemorated the completion of some 
 important historical, literary, or religious cycle, usually of fifty 
 years, but sometimes more and sometimes less, and was subse- 
 quently extended to any monster celebration, independent of 
 dates. 
 
 The royal jubilees in England are examples of the use of the 
 word in its more legitimate sense. Only four of England's 
 monarchs have hved to rule for fifty years : Henry III., who sat 
 on the throne for fifty-six years ; Edward III., who lived for six 
 months after completing his jubilee ; George III., who ruled for 
 fifty-nine years ; and Queen Victoria, who has outstripped all her 
 predecessors. 
 
 Eespecting the celebration of Henry's fifty years' rule very 
 little is recorded ; but concerning that of Edward we learn that 
 " he laid hold of that era as the occasion of his performing many 
 popular acts of government ; that he had given orders to issue 
 out general and special pardons without paying any fees, for 
 recalling all exiles, and setting at hberty all debtors to the crown 
 and all prisoners for political matters." The Parliament, on 
 their parts, not to be wanting in gratitude, having presented 
 their petitions, on the day of their rising voted the king a duty 
 of twenty-six shillings and eightpence on every sack of wool for 
 three years, besides continuing the former duties upon avooIs, 
 fells, and skins. The whole jubilee year (1377) was spent by 
 the nobility in hunting through the great forests of England and 
 in other magnificent diversions on which the king laid out an 
 immense sum. 
 
 Particulars as to how George III.'s jubilee was celebrated are 
 necessarily more plentiful. How best to commemorate it caused 
 no little preliminary concern to his majesty's subjects. The 
 occasion was indeed an auspicious one, for a like occurrence had 
 not taken place in England for nearly four and a half centuries. 
 
 George III. himself pointed the way by many gracious acts. 
 He was the chief subscriber to a fund for liberating all persons 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 577 
 
 confined for debt in the United Kingdom, he granted free pardon 
 to all deserters from the army or navy and to all prisoners of 
 war save only the French, and granted brevet promotions to 
 officers in the army and navy. 
 
 Strictly speaking, the actual day of the jubilee ceremonies was 
 at the end of forty-nine years, not fifty. The reign began 
 October 25, 1760, and the jubilee was held October 25, 1809, the 
 day that completed the forty-ninth and commenced the fiftieth 
 year of his reign. This corresponded so far with the ancient 
 Hebrew period. 
 
 At Windsor, on this occasion, the morning was ushered in by 
 the mustering of troops, the firing of cannon, and the sound of 
 trumpets and drums. The king, the queen, and other members 
 of the royal family attended divine service ; and congratulations 
 afterwards poured in from various quarters. 
 
 At one o'clock the queen, with a brilliant retinue, and the 
 mayor and corporation of Windsor, walked to the Bachelors' 
 Acre, — a large piece of vacant ground near the centre of the 
 town, — where an ox and some sheep were roasting whole, the 
 former having been put on the spit at two o'clock in the morn- 
 ing, so that it might be cooked by one in the afternoon. The 
 royal party were received by fifty bachelors, who conducted them 
 to the fire at which the ox was roasting, after which they 
 inspected the culinary arrangements. The butchers who had 
 charge of the cooking of the ox and sheep, the latter of which 
 were put on the fire at nine o'clock, and were stuffed with 
 potatoes, were (shade of Beau Brummel !) dressed in blue frocks 
 and silk stockings. When the animals were ready, they were 
 distributed among the crowd in the presence of the royal party, 
 who were offered and graciously accepted the first slices, the 
 same being served up to. them on silver plates by the butchers 
 and bachelors. 
 
 At Frogmore an entertainment of brilliant gayety was given 
 by the queen in the evening. The gardens were lighted up with 
 lamps innumerable ; the walks and avenues were thronged with 
 the nobility and gentry ; transparencies and tiny temples were 
 visible at various points ; fireworks blazed up with great splen- 
 dor; and on a small lake or piece of water in front of the house 
 two triumphal cars drawn by two sea-horses each, one car con- 
 taining a figure of Neptune and the other a figure of Britannia, 
 moved majestically on the bosom of the waters, followed by four 
 boats filled with persons dressed to represent Tritons, etc. These 
 last were to have been composed of choristers, who were to have 
 sung " God Save the King" on the water, but, unfortunately, the 
 crowd assembled was so immense that those who were to have 
 sung could not gain entrance. 
 
 37 
 
578 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Like celebrations took place in the various towns throughout 
 the countrj'^, the proceedings in each instance to a great exteni 
 necessarily resembling each other. The day was generally ob- 
 served as a national holiday ; and in almost all corporate towns] 
 a civic procession to the church or cathedral was one of the! 
 chief features of the occasion ; whilst in those places in which! 
 military were stationed, numerous volleys were fired by the sol-j 
 diers in honor of the event. Feasting was indulged in to anj 
 enormous extent by all classes, the poor being entertained by 
 their more wealthy neighbors ; and the inauguration of charitable! 
 institutions and benevolent societies was a characteristic of the] 
 jubilee. In keeping with the custom of the times, ox-roastingsj 
 took place all over the country ; and "good old ale" was distrib- 
 uted with the greatest lavishness. In rural districts, most of 
 the nobility and gentry kept open house and provided entertain- 
 ments for their poorer neighbors ; employers feasted their ser- 
 vants, and "The King, and long life to him," was toasted with] 
 the utmost enthusiasm throughout the land. Dancing was 
 carried on upon the village green ; and balls, bonfires, and pyro- 
 technic displays concluded the rejoicings of a day on which highl 
 and low, rich and poor, had vied with one another in showing! 
 loyalty to their sovereign. 
 
 The jubilee in honor of Queen Victoria's semi-centennial was] 
 celebrated on June 20, 1887, and was an even more triumphant 
 success than that of George III. As the Saturday Review said 
 on the succeeding June 25, " Never in modern times has therel 
 been in this country a court pageant to compare in splendor and] 
 stateliness with that of last Tuesday ; and no less indisputable is] 
 it that London, the London which we know, or our fathers] 
 remember, has never adorned and illuminated her league-long] 
 thoroughfares with anything like the abundance of decoration) 
 and the glory of gaslight with which the}' have been glowing] 
 daily and blazing nightly throughout the week. Above all, it isl 
 a fact as completely and much more importantly beyond question] 
 that the great ceremonial in the Abbey, after Corinthian eloquence | 
 has done its worst on the historical, political, and poetic aspects] 
 of the scene, stands out before us still with all its majesty unim- 
 paired. The Queen receiving the homage of her children and] 
 grandchildren on the most historically venerable spot of English i 
 ground, and after solemn investiture in the royal robes which 
 she assumed half a century ago to enter upon'the happiest and, 
 for her own share in it, the most beneficent reign in our history,! 
 — this we feel to be a spectacle which still appeals with undimin-l 
 ished force to our pride of patriotism, to our reverence for 
 antiquity, to our respect for faithfulness in the discharge of thej 
 highest of national duties, and, lastly, to that combination of aUj 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 579 - 
 
 these instincts with the added feeling of personal regard which 
 goes to make up the modern and, so to say, ' rationalistic,' but 
 none the less powerful, enduring, and politically valnable, senti- 
 ment of loj^alty to the crown." 
 
 The Diamond Jubilee of 1897 celebrated the completion of the 
 sixtieth year of Queen Victoria's reign, — the longest in English 
 history. 
 
 Where is the thing to end ? Not a day but might be made 
 out by adventurers in chronology, especially by the students of 
 M. Comte's calendar, to be the fiftieth, or one-hundi'edth, or five- 
 hundredth anniversary of somebody's birth or somebody's death 
 who has won his place in the Valhalla of Memory. There is no 
 single year in the eighteenth century in which some eminent 
 individual will not be found to have been born, to have died, or, 
 at the worst, to have flourished. 
 
 Judas in Effigy. The burning, hanging, or scourging of 
 effigies of Judas Iscariot was once a common practice during 
 Holy Week in certain portions of Spain, and still survives in 
 Mexico, as well as in Portugal and all countries where Portuguese 
 blood predominates. It is also practised by Portuguese sailors 
 in whatever port they may happen to be at the appropriate date. 
 This is sometimes Good Friday and sometimes Holy Saturday, 
 while sometimes the agony is prolonged through both days. 
 The Cork Examiner in 1868 described a scourging publicly 
 administered to Judas on Good Friday. The traitor was- led 
 through the streets in a solemn procession, twenty men marching 
 in front singing an " epithalamium," as the reporter has chosen 
 to call it. The eflftgy of Judas was laid upon an open bier ar- 
 ranged in the blue shirt and long boots of a stevedore. On re- 
 turning to the ship the effigy was hung to the yard-arm and fired 
 into with pistols. 
 
 The following extract is taken from the London Times (April 
 5, 1874) : " At daybreak of Good Friday a block of wood, roughly 
 carved to imitate the Betrayer, and clothed in an ordinary sailor's 
 suit, with a red worsted cap on its head, was hoisted by a rope 
 round its neck into the fore-rigging ; the crews of the various 
 vessels then went to chapel, and on their return, about eleven 
 A.M., the figure was lowered from the rigging, and cast into the 
 dock, and ducked three times. It was then hoisted on board, 
 and after being kicked round the deck was lashed to the capstan. 
 The crew, who had worked themselves into a state of frantic ex- 
 citement, then with knotted ropes lashed the effigy till every 
 vestige of clothing had been cut to tatters. During this process 
 the ship's bell kept up an incessant clang, and the captains of 
 the ships served out grog to the men. Those not engaged in the 
 
580 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 flogging kept up a sort of rude chant intermixed with denuncia- 
 tions of the Betrayer. The ceremony ended with the burning 
 of the Q^gy amid the jeers of the crowd." 
 
 In Lisbon itself the ceremony is kept up with infinite gusto. 
 Good Friday is there a day of silence and mourning. The hun- 
 dreds of bell-towers hold their brazen tongues, military bands, 
 church organs, and pianos are stilled. The whole city sinks inlo 
 penitential silence. 
 
 With sunrise on Saturday things stir outside. A mysterious 
 activity begins on the streets, and the Portuguese street-urchin 
 offers to contribute his last ten reis towards the universal pleasure. 
 "Judas" is the order of the day, and the Betrayer appears in 
 thousands of varieties in Q^gy. There is scarcely a house in 
 front of which there is not a grotesquely attired figure, of life 
 size, with a hideous face and a long beard, set upon a funeral 
 pile. And not only at houses and gardens do we find them, but 
 also high up in the air on ropes drawn across the streets hang 
 the fantastical images and caricatures of the lost one. Here and 
 there some pitiful soul has added a woman for company, so that 
 he shall not be alone in the dread hour which is in store for him. 
 
 The multitude crowd each other in the streets ; rich and poor, 
 old and young, are crushed together. With impatience they 
 await the great moment. At last the bell of the Se, the beauti- 
 ful, grand cathedral, rings forth a warning of the approach of 
 Easter, and then arise an unexampled noise, a shouting, a re- 
 joicing, a laughing, and a cannonade which mocks that of Metz 
 and Sedan. 
 
 The bodies of the unfortunate Judases are filled with powder 
 and straw ; they explode with dreadful noise, and immediately 
 all the Judases are consumed by the flames. In a few minutes 
 the whole city is naturally enveloped in the^ thickest smoke, and 
 those possessing the sense of smell quickly flee homeward, or 
 possibly out as far as the blue sea to breathe fresh air again. 
 When the fun is over the streets are in great disorder, and it is 
 difficult work during the few remaining afternoon hours to give 
 the city a holiday air. 
 
 In the island of Madeira, a Portuguese dependency, Judas was 
 officially abolished in 1889, because it had become more and more 
 the custom to make the effigy resemble some official upon whom 
 the people had ceased to smile. When it was a foreign consul 
 that was caricatured the government smiled, when it was the 
 mayor of Funchal it frowned, and finally when the august dignity 
 of the governor of Funchal was subjected to contumely it sup- 
 pressed the custom altogether. 
 
 Judas is hanged and burnt all over South America. The only 
 place in North America where the custom survives is Mexico. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 581 
 
 On Good Friday the effigies make their appearance. The apostle 
 is held up to public loathing in an infinite variety of ways. In 
 all the plazas of the city booths are erected, where grotesque 
 figures, usually made of pasteboard and attired in gaudy-colored 
 paper costumes, are hung on a line awaiting purchasers. They 
 are designed to represent the man who betrayed Christ. The 
 more hideous the physiognomy and shape the more certain that 
 particular Judas is to find a purchaser. There are also sold 
 numerous children's toys, about which there is always some 
 grim suggestion of the fate that befell the recreant apostle. The 
 most common of these are crudely made little wagons, to be 
 drawn by the child through the street, to the axles of which 
 are attached flexible strips of wood, that strike against the 
 wheels in such a way as to give out a loud, clacking sound. 
 This is intended to represent the cracking of the bones of Judas 
 in eternal torment. 
 
 On Holy Saturday morning in Mexico city your eyes are kept 
 even busier than your ears. Whichever way you may walk you 
 see in all the streets much the same strange sights. In every 
 block a line is stretched across the street from house to house, 
 and a hideous effigy is hanging there like a lynched felon. It is 
 Judas again, — Judas everywhere! He hangs there limp and 
 ugly, swaying in the breeze, and groups of women and children 
 shout defiance at him from below, while waiting impatiently for 
 the signal of the poor wretch's final doom. It comes instan- 
 taneously in all parts of the city. The first stroke of twelve 
 on the big cathedral clock consigns the thousands of swinging 
 figures to the flames. 
 
 All Mexico turns out to witness the wild scenes that ensue on 
 the moment of noon. The biggest throngs are always gathered 
 in front of the Jockey Club, on San Francisco Street, the prin- 
 cipal thoroughfare of the city. Here the ceremony consists of 
 something more than the simple burning of a paper effigy. 
 Judas himself is accorded the distinction of more elaborate 
 paraphernalia. He is represented sitting astride a horse. His 
 steed is only pasteboard, but its Accoutrements are real. There 
 is a real bridle on the horse's head, and a handsome Mexican 
 saddle, ornamented with silver trappings, holds the cavalier, who 
 is himself dressed in a genuine charro costume, with a stripe 
 formed of silver dollars on his trousers. He wears handsome 
 riding-boots mounted with silver spurs, and on his head is a gor- 
 geous sombrero with a silver band. Nor is this all that entitles 
 the brilliant Judas to the attention of the waiting crowd below. 
 He and his horse have been fed on silver coins until they are 
 fat with the diet. 
 
 No wonder the shouting and struggling multitude are impa- 
 
582 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 tient for the coming of noon ! At last a servant comes out of 
 the big door of the Jockey Club, carrying a lighted taper on the 
 end of a long pole. He is greeted with a cheer of welcome by 
 the waiting crowds. Then the shouting gives place to absolute 
 silence, the silence of keen expectancy. In all the huge throng 
 every individual assumes an attitude of listening. Finally the 
 signal comes. Away over all the city roars the big bell in the 
 cathedral tower. Before the first stroke has exhausted its rever- 
 berations a mighty shout and a sound as of a thousand cannon 
 burst upon the air. The man with the lighted taper ignites 
 the fuse that hangs from the pendent eflfigy. The little spark 
 dashes quickly up the thread, and in an instant reaches the 
 deposit of gunpowder inside the equestrian effigy. There is a 
 thunderous explosion, and poor Judas is scattered to the winds. 
 His sombrero falls here, his saddle is hurled there, and wherever 
 his dismembered anatomy or trappings land, a mad, impetuous 
 rush ensues, and men with torn garments and bruised bodies 
 are piled on top of one another, a struggling mass, on the pave- 
 ment. And steadily continues the downfall of silver coins from 
 the burning debris overhead, encouraging other fierce combats 
 among the Indians. When the last shred has fallen from the 
 rope and the lucky ones have pocketed their spoils, or made off 
 with them through the crowd, those that are left of the huge 
 throngs on the street turn to the crowds at the windows and 
 petition for more of the silver rainfall. For quite an hour the 
 people at the windows continue to toss coins of all values to the 
 ragged mobs. Then, little by little, the multitude grows less on 
 the streets, and the celebration is over. 
 
 Juggernaut, Car of. Juggernaut, more properly Jaganatha, 
 the Lord of the World, is an alternative title for Krishna, one 
 of the avatars or incarnations of Yishnu. The famous temple 
 of Juggernaut is in the town of Puri, which is situated on the 
 Bay of Bengal in the province of Orissa. The whole province 
 of Orissa has for twenty centuries been the holy land of the 
 Hindoos. Its happy inhabitants live secure of a reception into 
 the world of spirits ; and even those who visit it and bathe in 
 ils sacred rivers obtain remission of their sins. Every town is 
 filled with temples, every village has its monastery, every hill-top 
 far up the mountain sides is crowned with a shrine. But Puri 
 is its Holy of Holies. Its thirty thousand citizens hold their 
 ground rent-free, upon condition of the performance of certain 
 services in and about the temples. 
 
 The temple of Juggernaut stands in a spacious square area 
 enclosed by a lofty wall. The enclosure is shared by one hun- 
 dred and twenty other temples of all sizes, dedicated to various 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 583 
 
 gods. Over them all towers the great pagoda in a tapering 
 elliptical curve to the height of two hundred feet from the 
 ground. The pagoda is properly dedicated to Krishna, but 
 Siva and his wife and sister Subhadra (which is but another 
 name for Kali) are objects of almost equal adoration. The three 
 idols representing these deities are rude logs coarsely fashioned 
 from the waist up in human form, — the same carved by Yishnu 
 himself. On certain festivals golden hands are fastened to the 
 short stumps which project from the shoulders of Juggernaut. 
 The priests give a spiritual significance to the lack of limbs. 
 " The Lord of the World," they say, " needs neither hands nor 
 feet to work his purposes among men." 
 
 The service of the temple consists of a daily round of obla- 
 tions, and of sumptuous ceremonies at special seasons of the 
 year. The offerings are only fruits, flowers, and simple articles 
 of food, such as rice, pulse, butter, milk, salt, vegetables, cocoa- 
 nuts, and ginger, which are offered up to the images and then 
 eaten by the priests. The entire value of them is put down at 
 £4 85. M. a day, or £1572 a year. Four times a day the gates 
 are closed while the god is at his meals, attended by a few of 
 his most favored servants. At the door stand a group of ascetics 
 singing his praises, while in the pillared hall the dancing-girls 
 amuse him with voluptuous gyrations. 
 
 There are twenty-four high festivals in the year, each occu- 
 pying several days, or even weeks. At the Eed Powder Festival, 
 occurring about Easter, and lasting three weeks, a boat proces- 
 sion is formed on the sacred lake. At the Bathing Festival the 
 images are brought down to the lake, and a proboscis is fastened 
 to their noses, so as to give them the appearance of Ganesa, the 
 elephant-god of the aboriginal tribes. But the Eath Jatra, or 
 Car Festival, is the great event of the religious year. This falls 
 in the month of June or July, according as the months of the 
 Hindoo calendar fall. Its object is to convey Juggernaut, with 
 his brother and sister, from the temple to his country-house, 
 a mile distant. 
 
 For weeks before the time the pilgrims come trooping to 
 Puri at the rate of thousands a day. The temple cooks have 
 made their calculations for feeding ninety thousand mouths ; 
 for the doctrine is studiously inculcated that no food must be 
 cooked except in the temple kitchen. Each image has a sepa- 
 rate car. That of Juggernaut is thirty-five feet square, with 
 wheels sixteen feet in diameter ; the others are sma41er. When 
 the sacred images are placed in their chariots, the multitude 
 fall on their knees and bow their foreheads in the dust. Then 
 they lay hold of the ropes, and drag the heavy cars down the 
 broad street. Before and behind drums beat and cymbals 
 
584 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 clash, while from the platforms of the cars the priests shout 
 obscene songs and stories, accompanied by lascivious gestures, 
 amid the shouts and applause of the multitude. 
 
 And so the dense mass, tugging, sweating, singing, praying, 
 and swearing, drag the cars slowly along. The journey is but 
 a mile, yet it takes several hours to accomplish it. Once 
 arrived at the country-house, the crowds return to the vicinity 
 of the temple, to spend their time in riot and debauchery. 
 After eight days the ceremony of the Yolta rath, or the bring- 
 ing back of the cars and the idols, takes place. But Lord 
 Juggernaut finds no willing hands among the exhausted de- 
 bauchees who were erstwhile his coursers. Indeed, he would 
 probably never get back at all, but for the aid of the professional 
 pullers, a special body of forty-two hundred peasants of the 
 neighboring region. 
 
 All this is bad enough. But there appears to be no foundation 
 for the oft-repeated story of thousands of pilgrims throwing 
 themselves under the wheels of the car of Juggernaut in the 
 hope of attaining bliss. It is obvious, of course, that in a closely 
 packed, eager throng of a hundred thousand men and women, 
 many of them unaccustomed to exposure or hard labor, and all 
 of them tugging and straining to the utmost under the blazing 
 tropical sun, deaths must occasionally occur. There have, doubt- 
 less, been instances of pilgrims throwing themselves under the 
 wheels in a frenzy of religious excitement. But such instances 
 have always been rare, and are now unknown. At one time 
 several unhappy people were killed or injured every year, but 
 they were almost invariably cases of accidental trampling. The 
 few suicides that did occur were for the most part cases of dis- 
 eased and miserable persons who took this means to put them- 
 selves out of pain. The official returns put this beyond doubt. 
 
 But in another aspect the victims of Juggernaut far exceed 
 the numbers ascribed to them by fiction. Puri is perhaps the 
 filthiest city on earth. It contains about seven thousand houses. 
 These furnish poor accommodations for a hundred thousand 
 pilgrims. In dry weather, indeed, the spiritual army can sleej) 
 out in the open air. But the Car Festival usually falls at the 
 beginning of the rainy season, when the water pours down in 
 almost solid sheets. Every lane and alley becomes a torrent or 
 a stinking canal. The pilgrims must seek the lodging-houses, 
 and five houses out of six are lodging-houses compared with 
 which our poorest tenement houses are palaces of health and 
 comfort. 
 
 One of the most beautiful institutions in Puri also becomes a 
 means of death. This is the almost sacramental ceremony of 
 eating the sacred rice. Portions of cooked rice are sanctified 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 585 
 
 by being brought into the presence of Juggernaut. This food 
 is so holy that it wipes away all distinctions of caste or sect. 
 The highest may eat it with the lowest. A priest will not refuse 
 it from a Christian. This is the common food of all pilgrims. 
 When freshly cooked, it is not unwholesome ; but only a small 
 part of it ia eaten fresh, and not a grain of it must be thrown 
 away. In twenty-four hours putrefactive fermentation sets in, 
 and in forty-eight hours it becomes a loathsome mass of putrid 
 matter unfit for human use, — dangerous to a person in robust 
 health, and deadly to the wayworn pilgrims. 
 
 What wonder that the cholera makes its regular appearance ! 
 And even when the disease does not become epidemic the mor- 
 tality is fearful, especially on the return journey. The estimates 
 of the number of deaths among the pilgrims to Juggernaut vary 
 from twelve thousand to fifty thousand a year. 
 
 (See "Orissa," by W. W. Hunter, London, 1872; Bruce's 
 " Scenes and Sights in the East," 1857.) 
 
 Julian Hospitator, St. (It. Giuliano Ospitale ; Fr. Julien 
 r Aospitalier), the patron of hospitals, and (erroneously) of 
 ferrymen, boatmen, travellers, and wandering minstrels. In the 
 most ancient calendars his festival is marked for January 6, 
 which is held to be the probable date of his martyrdom, but, 
 owing to the concurrence of the Epiphany, it was deferred in 
 different churches to different dates. At present January 9 is 
 the date generally agreed on. 
 
 St. Julian was born of noble parents at Antinoe, in Egypt. 
 When he was eighteen years old his parents wished him to marry, 
 but Julian was averse to the idea, as he wished to devote him- 
 self to a religious life. But it is related that Christ appeared to 
 him in a dream and bade him accede to the wishes of his parents, 
 telling him that he and his wife would live in chastity and enter 
 into the kingdom of heaven as virgins. Thereupon Julian mar- 
 ried a maiden named Basilissa, who was noted for her piety. On 
 the night of their marriage the pair, according to old chroni- 
 clers, enjoyed celestial visions and saw their names written in 
 the Book of Life, which further strengthened them in their de- 
 termination to live in chastity. They devoted their revenues to 
 relieving the poor and sick, and turned their house into a hos- 
 pital. From this circumstance Julian is known as the Hospital- 
 ler. Basilissa died first, and some years afterwards Julian met 
 his death during the persecution of Maximin II., a.d. 313. The 
 skull of St. Julian, said to have been brought out of the East 
 into France during the popedom of Gregory the Great, is his 
 only extant relic. A part is preserved in the monastery of 
 Morigny, near Etampes, and part in the church of St. Basilissa, 
 
586 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 at Paris. In art St. Julian and St. Basilissa are represented 
 holding the same lily-stalk, or looking on the Book of Life 
 wherein their names are written. Certain legends repeated by 
 St. Antoninus but rejected by the Church have given occasion 
 to the Italian painters to represent St. Julian as a sportsman, 
 with a hawk in his hand, and to the French painters to repre- 
 sent him as a boatman in a barge. In France, therefore, ferry- 
 men, bargemen, and postilions kept his feast as that of their 
 principal patron. 
 
 July. As the fifth month in the old Eoman year, this was 
 called Quintihs, or fifth. It was the birth-month of Julius Caesar, 
 and after his death Mark Antony named it Julius in his honor. 
 In the old Alban calendar it had thirty-six days. Eomulus re- 
 duced the number to thirty-one, and Numa to thirty, but Julius 
 
 July. Haymaking. 
 
 Caesar again made it thirty-one. The early Saxons called it 
 Segmonath, it being the month in which they usually mowed 
 and made their hay-harvest. They also knew it as Mcedmonath, 
 the meads being then in bloom. 
 
 July the Fourteenth. (Fr. Le Quatorze Juillet.') The anni- 
 versary of the taking of the Bastille by a Parisian mob in 1789, 
 and to-day the national festival of the French Eepublic. The 
 name Bastille is a general one for a fortress flanked by bastions, 
 but is applied specifically to a huge structure which, originally a 
 castle for the defence of Paris, became in later times a famous 
 prison. Here partly in the towers and partly in the cellars below 
 the level of the ground were confined the victims of political, 
 ecclesiastical, or family hate, often so effectually removed from 
 the outside world that when they came to die their very names 
 and the reasons for their incarceration had been forgotten. 
 
 The Bastille commanded by its guns the workingmen's quarter 
 in the Faubourg St.-Antoine, and its lofty walls, surrounded by 
 a deep moat, seemed almost impregnable. Yet on July 14, 1789, 
 it was attacked and taken by a mob with twenty cannon, after a 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 687 
 
 feeble defence by the goverDor Delaunay and his small garrison 
 of eighty-two old soldiers and thirty-two Swiss. Only seven 
 prisoners were found and released, a fact which has thrown some 
 suspicion of exaggeration on the legends of the Bastille, and 
 this suspicion has been confirmed by recent researches. 
 
 Next day the destruction of the building was begun by the 
 exasperated multitude, amid the thunder of cannon and the 
 pealing of the Te Deum. The greater part of the stones were 
 used in the building of a new bridge known as the Bridge of the 
 Kevolution, the Jacobin feeling a glorious thrill in trampling 
 them under his feet. Others were preserved as relics and ex- 
 hibited intact at all public festivals, or were broken into small 
 pieces, set in gold, and worn as jewelry by men and women. 
 
 The news of the taking of the Bastille shook all Europe, and 
 was everywhere hailed by radical sentiment as the beginning of 
 a new era for humanit}-. Even at St. Petersburg, we are told, 
 men of all nations ^ung themselves into one another's arms and 
 wept for joy. The amiable Cowper had already assured his 
 readers that there was not an English heart that would not leap 
 to hear that the horrid towers of the Bastille had fallen. The 
 Bastille was in the eyes of liberal Europe as well as of revolu- 
 tionary France the symbol of all the iniquities and of all the 
 misdeeds of the kings of France. 
 
 Louis XVI. himself accepted the event as a sign that all re- 
 sistance to the popular demands was useless. He re-entered 
 Paris in the novel character of a submissive and patriot king 
 amid the applause of the populace that had just captured his 
 prison. The fervor of Paris quickly spread to the provinces, 
 and became so intense and so potent that the Assembly was fired 
 with a new spirit, and only three weeks after the Bastille was 
 captured there took place the famous sitting of the Fourth of 
 August, when the nobles and clergy solemnly renounced all 
 their privileges and the reign of equality was started in France. 
 In short, the destruction of the Bastille meant much more than 
 the razing of one stronghold of regal tyranny. It not only 
 started the French Eevolution, btat impressed a special character 
 on the Eevolution. It went far to make it republican, and it 
 tended to create an association of equality with liberty. 
 
 The first anniversary of the taking of the Bastille was cele- 
 brated by the so-called Feast of Federation in the Champ de 
 Mars in Paris. The people had eagerly with their barrows and 
 pickaxes made the gigantic amphitheatre from which three hun- 
 dred thousand spectators watched the proceedings. All was 
 love, concord, and fervent hope. A bishop — perhaps the most 
 extraordinary bishop ever known. His Eminence of Autun, he 
 who was soon to become famous as Prince Talleyrand — officiated 
 
588 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 at the improvised altar. When the unfortunate Louis XVI. 
 ascended the steps and meekly swore fealty to the Eevolutionary 
 constitution, the public excitement ran to fever-heat. 
 
 In the evening the crowd assembled on the site of the destroyed 
 Bastille, where amid the still extant ruins an artificial forest of 
 eighty-three trees — typical of the eighty-three departments — had 
 been planted and were brilliantly garlanded and illuminated. 
 
 In 1792 it was decided to raise a column composed of the 
 remaining stones of the old fortress in the Place de la Bas- 
 tille. The foundation was laid with great public rejoicing on 
 July 14 of that year. 
 
 But it was not until 1880 that the position of July Fourteenth 
 in the French political calendar was assured. In that year an 
 act was passed making it a solemn national feast-day. It went 
 off with tremendous eclat. " It excited great enthusiasm," says 
 the correspondent of the London Saturday Beview (July 17, 
 1880), " it occupied and absorbed the public mind, it gave great 
 satisfaction to those who planned, and great enjoyment to those 
 who watched. The great event of the day was the distributing 
 of the new flags to the army by the President [at Longchamps] 
 and the march past of the troops that followed. President 
 Grevy, with M. Leon Say on his right and M. Gambetta on his 
 left, represented France such as France now is, and the trio went 
 through their task with as much gravity and dignity as could 
 have been displayed by the three great Emperors of Europe. 
 In the evening there were illuminations, as Paris alone of all 
 cities knows how to manage them. Flags, fountains, clusters 
 and festoons of lamps, combined to dazzle and delight the eye. 
 But what was moat striking was the ardor of the people to make 
 the fete their own. They seem to have been carried away with 
 the idea that they would show they were not having a fete given 
 them, but were giving it themselves. They were engaged in 
 paying a solemn tribute, not to a dynasty or a family, but to 
 themselves. The dingier the street, the gayer it was with flags 
 and bunting. Hero-worship never dies out, and something of a 
 personal character was imparted to the spectacle by the exhibi- 
 tion of little wooden effigies of M. Gambetta dressed in evening 
 clothes, — perhaps the quaintest form of mob idolatry ever de- 
 vised by man. But there was not very much of M. Gambetta 
 or any one else in the festivity. To sing the Marseillaise hour 
 after hour, to look at colored lamps, and to feel that there was a 
 republic broad as the sun above to guide and bless them, was 
 all that the happy and simple population of Paris seemed to 
 need." 
 
 Year by year since its institution in 1880 the fete follows much 
 the same routine. Society, in the main, goes out of town, frown- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 589 
 
 ing on the Eepublican anniversary, but a yearly increasing mi- 
 nority of the smart set who have accepted the new order linger 
 behind and join with the official world and the rich people of 
 the foreign colony in lending a show of bravery to the scene, 
 while the general public gives itself up to unrestrained rejoicing. 
 Shops and government offices close, flags adorn the streets, out- 
 door concerts, balls, fireworks, theatrical representations, and 
 other entertainments provide public amusement in plenty. The 
 great feature of the day is the military review at Longchamps 
 under the eye of the President. Deputies and senators, who 
 close the political see-saw of their session just in time, are be- 
 sieged by demands for tickets to the official tribune. It is the 
 last event of the expiring season. After this, until late in Sep- 
 tember, Paris is left to the common people and the casual 
 tourists. 
 
 July, the Fourth of (known also as Independence Day). 
 The greatest secular holiday of the United States. Its observ- 
 ance has the statutory sanction of every State in the Union. 
 
 Yet it may not be generally known that no less than three 
 dates might reasonably compete for designation as the natal day 
 of American Independence and for the honors of the anniversary 
 of that event. 
 
 On the 2d of July, 1776, was adopted the resolution of inde- 
 pendence, the sufficient legislative act ; and it was this day that 
 Mr. Adams designated as the anniversary in the oft-quoted letter 
 written on his desk at the time, prophesying its future celebra- 
 ,tion by bells, bonfires, cannonades, etc. On the 4th of July oc- 
 curred the Declaration of Independence. On the 2d of August 
 following took place the ceremony of signature, which has fur- 
 nished to the popular imagination the common pictorial and 
 dramatic conceptions of the event. 
 
 The history connecting these three dates may be intelligently 
 told in a brief space. On the 15th of May, 1776, a convention 
 in Virginia had instructed its delegates in the General Congress 
 "to propose to that body to declare the United Colonies free and 
 independent States, absolved from all allegiance to or dependence 
 on the Crown or Parliament of Great Britain, and that they give 
 the assent of this Colony to such declaration, and to whatever 
 measures may be thought proper and necessary by the Congress 
 for forming foreign alliances and a confederation of the Colonies." 
 The motion thus ordered was on the 7th of June made in Con- 
 gress by Kichard Henry Lee, as the oldest member of the Vir- 
 ginia delegation. It was to the effect that " these United Colo- 
 nies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States; 
 that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown ; 
 
690 CURIOSITIES OP 
 
 and that all political connection between them and the state 
 of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." The 
 resolution was slightly debated for two or three days, but from 
 considerations of prudence or expediency the discussion was in- 
 termitted. As texts for the action of Congress there were the 
 resolution referred to, and the more formal, or at least more 
 lengthy, document which the committee of five — Jeiferson, 
 Adams, Franklin, Sherman, and Livingston — had been instructed 
 on the 11th of June to prepare. This document was draughted 
 by Jefferson and presented under the title of " A Declaration by 
 the Eepresentatives of the United States of America in General 
 Congress assembled." 
 
 On the Ist of July there was again called up in Congress the 
 resolution proposed by Mr. Lee. On the 2d of July it passed. 
 Two days later (the 4th of July) was adopted, after various 
 amendments, the " Declaration" from Mr. Jefferson's pen. The 
 document was authenticated, like the other papers of the Con- 
 gress, by the signatures of the president and the secretary, and, 
 in addition, was signed by the members present^ with the excep- 
 tion of Mr. Dickinson of Pennsylvania, who, as Mr. Jefferson 
 has testified, " refused to sign it." 
 
 But it did not then bear the names of the members of Con- 
 gress as they finally appeared on it. A number of these still 
 opposed it, and had voted against it ; it was passed unanimously 
 only as regarded States. Thus, a majority of the Pennsylvania 
 delegation had persistently opposed it, and it was only the ab- 
 sence of two of their delegates on the final vote that left a 
 majority for this State in its favor. Some days after the Decla- 
 ration had thus passed, and had been proclaimed at the head of 
 the army, it was ordered by Congress that it be engrossed on 
 parchment and signed by every member; and it was not until 
 the 2d of August that these signatures were made, and the mat- 
 ter concluded by this peculiar and august ceremony of personal 
 pledges in the autographs of the members. It is this copy or 
 form of the Declaration which has, in fact, been preserved as 
 the original : the first signed paper does not exist, and was 
 probably destroyed as incomplete. 
 
 If the natal day of American Independence is to be derived 
 from the ceremony of these later signatures, and the real date 
 of what has been preserved as the legal original of the Declara- 
 tion, then it would be the 2d of August. If derived from the 
 substantial, legal act of separation from the British Crown, which 
 was contained rather in the resolution of Congress than in its 
 Declaration of Independence, it would be the 2d of July. But 
 common consent has determined to date the great anniversary 
 from the apparently subordinate event of the passage of the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 691 
 
 Declaration, and thus celebrates the Fourth of July as the 
 birthday of the nation. 
 
 July the Nineteenth. The anniversar}- of the declaration 
 of the war of 1870-71, between Germany and France. 
 
 In conformity with an order of the Imperial Cabinet dated 
 January 27, 1895, the ceremony of* decorating the colors carried 
 by the regiments of the Prussian Guards is annually celebrated 
 in Berlin on this date. The colors, twenty-four in number, are 
 escorted from the court-yard of the Old Castle to the Hall by a 
 squadron of the Cuirassiers of the Guard and a battalion of the 
 Emperor Alexander Eegiment. Then, in the presence of a mem- 
 ber of the Imperial family, the general staff, and a deputation 
 of officers representing the regiments of the Guard, the com- 
 mander of the cavalry division of the Guards reads the Impe- 
 rial Cabinet order and delivers a speech at whose conclusion 
 three cheers are given for the Emperor. Two sprigs of oak are 
 then fastened with a gold band at the top of the staff of each 
 flag, and the colors are escorted back to the castle. 
 
 Festivities including parades and speeches are also celebrated 
 by the Berlin University in the Hall of the Singing Academy, 
 closing with a stirring chorus by the students. 
 
 June. The sixth month of the year in the modern or Gre- 
 gorian calendar. Ovid in the " Fasti" indicates that it was 
 named after Juno, but a more likely etymon derives it from 
 Juniores, the lower branch of the original Eoman legislature, as 
 that of May was from the higher branch. In the old Latin or 
 
 June. Cutting Wood. 
 
 Alban calendar the month of June had but twenty-six days. 
 Eomulus gave it thirty. This was reduced to twenty-nine by 
 Numa, and restored to thirty by Julius Caesar, a number it has 
 ever since retained. 
 
 Among the old Romans June was a lucky as May was an 
 unlucky month for marriages, the especially favorable seasons 
 being at full moon and at the conjunction of the sun and moon. 
 
592 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 June the Fourth. Since the abolition of Eton Montem this 
 is the great annual holiday of Eton College, England. It is the 
 trysting-day which attracts all her sons, old and young, from 
 far and wide. Instituted in commemoration of a visit of King 
 George III., it is celebrated on his birthday. The proceedings 
 include " speeches" delivered in the upper school at twelve noon 
 before a large audience, elaborate luncheons, a full choral service 
 in chapel at three o'clock, and at six p.m. the famous Procession 
 of the Boats to Surly Hall, a public house on the right bank of 
 the Thames, some three and a half miles from Windsor. The 
 procession is headed by a quaint old-fashioned boat (an Eton 
 racing boat of primitive daj^s), rowed by watermen and convoy- 
 ing a military band. Every boat is decorated with flags, and the 
 boys all wear gay costumes. 
 
 Before outriggers came into vogue, and when the long boats 
 were "tubs," each boat used to carry a "sitter" to dine with 
 the crew. The sitter was some old Etonian of generous and 
 festive disposition (generally an old " oar"), who signified to the 
 captain of a boat his intention of presenting the crew with a 
 certain quantity of champagne. In return he was entitled to 
 be rowed up to Surly in the boat to which he presented the 
 wine ; he occupied the coxswain's seat, who knelt or stood 
 behind him. 
 
 It is recorded that George Canning, the famous prime min- 
 ister, went up as " sitter" in the Monarch ten-oar, in the year 
 1824. 
 
 Opposite to Surly Hall, a liberal display of good things, spread 
 on tables on shore, awaits the arrival of the crews, — the sixth 
 form alone being accommodated with a tent. After a few toasts, 
 and as much champagne as can be fairly disposed of in a short 
 time, the captain of the boats gives the word for all to re- 
 embark, and the flotilla returns to Eton in the same order. 
 This order, however, is by no means such as would delight the 
 eye of a critical first lieutenant in her majesty's navy : singing, 
 shouting, racing, and bumping, all go on together in the most 
 harmonious confu^sion. 
 
 Before disembarking, the boats row three times round the 
 eyot near Windsor Bridge, while a brilliant display of fireworks 
 is let off" from the college. 
 
 Justina of Padua, St. (It. Giustina), one of the patrons 
 of Padua and Venice. Her festival is celebrated on October 7, 
 the reputed anniversary of her death. St. Justina was a daugh- 
 ter of King Vitalicino, who was a Christian. After the death of 
 her father she was denounced as a Christian before the Emperor 
 Maximian, in the year 303, and was condemned to be slain with 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 593 
 
 a sword. She opened her arms joyfully to receive the sword, 
 and fell pierced through the bosom. She is represented in art 
 with a sword through her bosom, and sometimes a unicorn, the 
 emblem of chastity, appears in her pictures. A church was built 
 at Padua in her honor, and in 1177 her skeleton was supposed 
 to have been discovered under the altar of the church ; it was 
 placed in a shrine, and is still exhibited to the veneration of the 
 people. There is another famous church of St. Justina in 
 Yenice. On the day of the saint's festival the Senate makes a 
 solemn procession in thanksgiving for the victory of Lepanto, 
 gained over the Turks on October 7, 1571. 
 
 K. 
 
 Kado, St. A saint who does not appear in the hagiologies, 
 but whose memory is preserved in the local traditions of Brit- 
 tany. On one occasion he wished to have a bridge thrown over 
 an ill-conditioned river, and, after appealing in vain to the Yir- 
 gin and the Trinity, was compelled to turn to the devil, who had 
 always been considered an excellent mason. Satan drew an 
 admirable bridge on red paper, and stipulated that he was to 
 have the first soul that crossed over the bridge in payment for 
 his labors. But the saint cheated him by driving a black cat 
 over the bridge as soon as it was finished. 
 
 Kali, Festivals of. Kali is the chief goddess in the Hindoo 
 mythology. Her idols are therefore surpassingly hideous, and 
 the festivals in her honor are celebrated with the most frightful 
 exhibitions of devotional self-torture. She is usually represented 
 as a black or dark-blue female, with blood-streaked countenance 
 and dishevelled hair, dancing on the prostrate body of her hus- 
 band Siva. One of her arms (she has four) holds a sword, 
 another grasps by the hair a human head ; all her three eyes 
 (she has one in her forehead) are full of wrath ; human victims 
 dangle as ornaments from her ears, and her necklace and girdle 
 are composed of skulls. Yet, however ferocious the appearance 
 of the idol, it represents her fresh from the beneficent deed of 
 slaying the giants, whose blood she has drunk ; and the lolling 
 of her tongue is emblematic of her shame on discovering that, 
 in her blind fury, she is trampling on her husband. The autumn 
 worship of Doorga (q. v.), one form of Kali, celebrates her as the 
 creative principle in splendid, expensive, and indelicate festivi- 
 ties. The general character of her worship, however, is of a 
 different kind. It is in her honor that the Saiva sect perform 
 
594 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 I 
 
 the Churruk Poojah (q. v.), when self immolated victims swing in 
 the air on hooks fastened into the flesh of their backs. But to 
 understand the hideousness of the Kali worship one must wit- 
 ness the proceedings which during the Churruk Poojah festival 
 take place in her temple at Calcutta, the celebrated Kali Gat. 
 
 On entering the precincts of the temple (which has no attrac- 
 tions of an architectural kind), Brahmins are seen standing to 
 receive the free-will offerings of the people, who flow past in 
 eager crowds, receiving in return for their money consecrated 
 flowers. Within is the hideous image of the goddess ; and hard 
 by the shrine some men stand with iron spikes, canes, rods, etc. 
 Groups of devotees — ten or a dozen at a time — come up to these 
 men to be operated on. One man is pierced through in either 
 side ; a couple of canes are then inserted, and, their ends being 
 held by two of his companions, he dances away as if in a frenzy. 
 Another has his tongue pierced, and passes through the aperture 
 a living snake ; another has his arm perforated, and passes 
 through it an iron rod ; and another passes an iron rod through 
 his protruded tongue. Group after group press forward to be 
 thus treated. At length, all the groups being conspicuously ar- 
 ranged on a platform, the goats for the sacrifice are decapitated, 
 and the court switns with blood. Strange ingredients are then 
 thrown on the fire. As the smoke and flame ascend, discordant 
 instruments clash forth uproarious music ; and in the midst of 
 the din, the chief actors commence their gesticulations, and 
 heighten their voluntary inflictions, by pulling the rods, canes, 
 spikes, snakes, to and fro in the lacerated flesh, till streams of 
 blood pour forth afresh ; and the crowd become frantic with ex- 
 citement, and shout, " Yictory to Kali ! victory to the great 
 Kali !" Afterwards they leave the temple to parade in similar 
 fashion in the streets ; and nothing can be more unearthly than 
 to witness these hideous processions, accompanied by a horrid 
 din of trumpets, gongs, drums, fifes, and cymbals, parading in 
 the chief thoroughfares of Calcutta. (See Bruce's " Scenes and 
 Sights in the East," 1857.) 
 
 Kenelm, St. The son of Kenulph, King of Mercia. In 819, 
 at the age of seven, he succeeded his father on the throne ; but 
 at the instigation of his sister, the cruel Quindride, he was put 
 to death a year later. His head was cut off, and he was buried 
 under a thorn-tree, but a miraculous light shining over the place 
 revealed the presence of the remains. Naturally so signal a 
 proof of divine favor made them a desirable possession. The 
 Canons of Gloucestershire and Worcestershire contended for 
 them. The dispute grew hot, and the weather was hotter. At 
 last a wise man proposed that the men of the two shires should 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 595 
 
 go to sleep at the same time, and whichever God should first 
 awake should take the body and go their way. J^ow, the Abbot 
 of Winchcombe and the G-loucestershire men, who perhaps slept 
 with one eye open, awoke first, and quietly levanted with the 
 very profitable body of St. Kenelm. They enshrined it in the 
 abbey of Winchcombe, which became a great resort for pilgrims. 
 
 St. Kenelm is commemorated on his death-day, December 13, 
 and also on the day of the translation of his remains, July 17. 
 At the latter date a fair was held in his honor at Clent, in Staf- 
 fordshire, where he was murdered, and where there was a 
 famous spring called St. Kenelm's well, to which extraordinary 
 virtues were attributed. 
 
 Even more famous was St. Kenelm's wake, held on the Sunday 
 after the fair, " on which day," says Brand, " within the memory 
 of persons now living, it was the annual practice to crab the 
 parson." The manner was for the villagers to lie in ambuscade 
 along the route which the clergyman must take on his way to 
 church and pelt him with crab-apples. Brand informs us on the 
 testimony of eye-witnesses that on one occasion there were two 
 sacks of crabs, each containing at least three bushels, emptied in 
 the church field, besides large store of other missiles provided by 
 other parties ; and it also appears that some of the more wanton 
 not unfrequently threw sticks, stakes, etc., which probably led 
 to the suppression of the practice. 
 
 "Long, long ago, an incumbent of Frankley, to which St. 
 Kenelm's is attached, w^as accustomed, through horrid, deep- 
 rutted, miry roads, occasionally to wend his way to the seques- 
 tered depository of the remains of the murdered saint-king, to 
 perform divine service. It was his wont to carry some provisions 
 with him, with which he refreshed himself at a farm-house near 
 the scene of his pastoral duties. On one occasion, however, 
 having eaten up his store of provisions, he was tempted (after 
 he had donned his sacerdotal habit, and in the absence of the 
 good dame) to pry into the secrets of a huge pot, in which was 
 simmering the savory dish the lady had provided for her house- 
 hold ; among the rest, dumplings Jbrmed no inconsiderable por- 
 tion of the contents. The story runs that the parson poached 
 sundry of them, hissing hot, from the caldron, and, hearing the 
 footsteps of his hostess, he with great dexterity deposited them 
 in the sleeves of his surplice. She, however, was conscious of 
 her loss, and, closely following the parson to the church, by her 
 presence prevented him from disposing of them, and, to avoid 
 her accusation, he forthwith entered the reading-desk, and began 
 to read the service, the clerk beneath making the responses. Ere 
 long a dumpling slipped out of the parson's sleeve and fell on 
 the clerk's head ; he looked up with astonishment, but, taking 
 
696 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 the matter in good part, proceeded with the service. Presently, 
 however, another dumpUng fell on his head, at which he with 
 upturned eyes and ready tongue responded, 'Two can play at 
 that, master,' and, suiting the action to the word, he immediately 
 began pelting the parson with crabs, a store of which he had 
 gathered, intending to take them home in his pocket to foment 
 the sprained leg of his horse, and so well did he play his part 
 that the parson soon decamped, amid the jeers of the old dame, 
 and the laughter of the few persons who were in attendance.' 
 (Brand : Popular Antiquities, 1849, vol. 1. p. 344.) 
 
 Key of Death. (It. Chiave delta Morte.) A large key pre- 
 served in the arsenal at Yenice. It is so constructed that th( 
 handle may be turned around, revealing a small spring, which, 
 being pressed, drives a very fine needle with considerable force! 
 from the other end. This needle is so delicate that the flesh 
 closed over the wound immediately, leaving no mark. It was 
 invented by Tebaldo, a stranger, who established himself as a 
 merchant, in Yenice, about 1600. Becoming enamoured of the 
 daughter of an ancient house, he sought her hand in marriage, 
 but was rejected, as she was already aflSanced. Enraged and 
 seeking revenge, he waited at the church door as the maiden of/ 
 his choice passed in to her marriage, and then, unperceived, he! 
 sent the needle into the breast of the bridegroom. The latter,! 
 seized with a sharp pain, fainted, was carried home, and died! 
 soon after, his strange illness baffling the skill of the physicians. 
 Tebaldo again asked for the maiden's hand, was again refused, 
 and in a few days both her parents died in the same mysterious 
 manner. Upon examination of their bodies, the small steel in- 
 strument was found embedded in the flesh. The young lady 
 went into a convent during her mourning, and here Tebaldo 
 pressed his suit, but, with an instinctive horror of the man, she 
 declined his offer, whereupon he contrived to wound her. Upon 
 her return to her room she felt a pain in her breast, saw a single 
 drop of blood, and when surgeons were hastily summoned, with 
 ready intuition, they cut into the wounded part, extracted the 
 needle, and saved her life. Suspicion immediately falling upon 
 the right culprit, his house was searched, the key was discovered, 
 and Tebaldo was executed. 
 
 Keyne or Keyna, St. The daughter of Braganus, Prince of 
 Garthmatrim, or Brecon. Her sister, Melaria, was the mother 
 of St. David. Keyna refused all offers of marriage and vowed 
 herself to virginity. She retired to a spot near the Severn, and 
 by her prayers turned the serpents with which the place 
 abounded into Ammonites. She afterwards took up her abode 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 597 
 
 at Mount St. Michael, and there she caused a spring of healing 
 waters to burst from the earth. The legend runs that whoever 
 drinks first of this water after marriage becomes the ruling 
 power in the house. Southey in his poem " The Well of St. 
 Keyne" versifies the following story : A Cornishman took his 
 bride to church, and the moment the ring was on ran up the 
 mount to drink of the mystic water. Down he came in full glee 
 to tell his bride ; but the bride said, " My good man, I brought a 
 bottle of water to church with me, and drank of it before you 
 started." 
 
 Khalig, Cutting of the. A yearly ceremony in old Cairo at 
 the rising of the Nile, when the Khahg canal dam that closes 
 the river's mouth is cut, so as to allow the waters free egress to 
 the Eed Sea. The date depends, of course, upon the height of 
 the river, but is generally about the 10th of August. The at- 
 tendant festivities attract enormous crowds. On the preceding 
 evening the booths on the shore and the boats on the river are 
 filled with merrymakers, while the Nile itself is a blaze of fire- 
 works. About eight o'clock on the 10th the city's governor 
 arrives with his troops and attendants. He gives a signal, and 
 a score of j)easants cut the dam with their hoes, letting the water 
 rush into the bed of the canal. Into the middle of the dam is 
 cast a pillar of mud, called Arooset e Neel, "the bride of the 
 Nile," and its gradual disintegration by the angry waters is 
 eagerly watched. Meanwhile the governor throws a lot of cop- 
 per coins into the canal, to be scrambled for by boys of all ages, 
 whose quick motions and strategic tricks in the water that 
 threatens to carry them off as it rushes through the openings 
 of the dam are watched with lively interest. As soon as suffi- 
 cient water has entered the canal, boat-loads of spectators ascend 
 it with loud rejoicings. 
 
 The festival dates back to ancient Egypt, when it was per> 
 formed to propitiate Isis as the goddess of agriculture, and a live 
 virgin was sacrificed as the bride of the Nile. The Arab writers 
 claim that this part of the rite survived under the Coptic Chris- 
 tians until the Saracenic conquest. They assert that the Copts 
 told Amru, the first Moslem ruler, that on the thirteenth day 
 of their month Baonneh they were accustomed to search for a 
 young and handsome maiden, tear her from her home by force, 
 and, dressing her as a bride, throw her into the Nile at Ehoda. 
 Amru stopped the custom as a wilful waste of scarce women, 
 and ordered the present mud statue to be substituted. 
 
 Time was when the Caliph himself got up early to witness the 
 ceremony and spent a matter of a quarter of a million of dollars 
 on the festivities. Even within the memory of men now living, 
 
598 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 the Cutting of the Khalig was celebrated with a spirit unknown 
 in these days of increased cares and diminished incomes. The 
 old Turkish costumes, the variety in the dresses of the troops, 
 and the Oriental character that formerly pervaded the entire 
 assemblage are sadly missing in the tamer spectacle of to-day. 
 
 Kilian, St., Martyr. His festival is celebrated on the reputed 
 anniversary of his death, July 8 (689). A minor festival in 
 honor of the translation of his remains occurs on February 14. 
 Born in Ireland about the middle of the seventh century, of 
 Christian parents, Kilian was early filled with a desire to carry 
 the gospel to infidel lands. Accordingly in 685 he crossed over 
 with tw^o companions, Diethman and Colman, to Franconia, 
 where the people had no gods save a few which the Romans had 
 left behind them. Kilian and his friends lived for years in Wiirz- 
 burg, in a low dark room, with a spring of water welling up in 
 one corner. The Duke Geswert and numbers of his people were 
 converted. But it happened that Geswert had married Geila, 
 his brother's widow, and Kilian obliged him to give her up, 
 whereupon she caused the three men of God to be secretly mur- 
 dered and buried in their dark room. Slowly and softly the 
 chains of old habits and associations wound round the prince, 
 who forgot his vows and relapsed into idolatry. But God's 
 vengeance only slumbered for a while. The murderers died by 
 strange and horrible deaths, accusing themselves of their crime; 
 and Geswert was left alone in his desolate old age, children and 
 grandchildren all dying before him, till at his own death the 
 line became extinct, and the fief reverted to the Empire. Pepin 
 le Bref, in expiation of the sin, gave the lands to Boniface, the 
 great apostle of Germany, and thus was the see of Wiirzburg 
 founded in 750. Burkhard, the friend of Boniface, and like him 
 a monk from the shores of Britain, was the first bishop. The 
 relics of Kilian were discovered about a century after his death. 
 The secret was revealed in a vision to the blind abbot of a dis- 
 tant monastery, who groped his way to Wiirzburg and down 
 into the dark cell and pointed out the exact spot where the 
 three bodies were found ; and, in order that a miraculous seal 
 might be set upon his revelation, he bathed his eyes in the 
 fountain and recovered his sight. So the bones were encased 
 in a shrine of carved stone, and a cathedral was built over 
 them. 
 
 This cathedral was destroyed by fire, and the present one was 
 built at a little distance from the old site. As years passed, a 
 wish arose to show more honor to Kilian's shrine, and a large 
 church was built over the crypt, called the New Minster, to dis- 
 tinguish it from the cathedral. It has suffered much during nine 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 599 
 
 centuries, and little grandeur or beauty is to be found in it now. 
 Not a vestige remains of its cloister, in which, among other 
 celebrities, was interred Walter von der Yogelweide, the sweetest 
 of Minnesingers. But the shrine of St. Kilian still remains 
 intact. 
 
 A quaint custom was observed in Wiirzburg for centuries on 
 St. Kilian's Day : a herald in gaudy attire rode through the 
 town announcing the approach of an army of beggars, and all 
 the outcasts of the country round came trooping in after him, 
 filling the suburbs on the southern bunk of the Main, and for 
 three days the townspeople, for charity and the love of St. Kil- 
 ian, lodged and fed them and ministered to their wants, till, on 
 the evening of the third day, the herald collected his motley 
 troop and led them out at the south gate. The custom gave rise 
 to such frequent scandals that it was at last suppressed ; but 
 the fountain still rises in the dark crypt by St. Kilian's shrine, 
 and the faithful still believe that weak eyes will be cured by 
 its waters. 
 
 Kirmess, or Kirmis. (Dutch kirk, German kirche, "a 
 church," and mis or messe, respectively Dutch and German for 
 a feast or church service.) A popular festival throughout Ger- 
 many, Belgium, and Holland. In 1883 the name and some of 
 the features of the Dutch Kirmess were borrowed by the Lady 
 Managers of the New York Skin and Cancer Hospital for a sort 
 of fair held for the benefit of that hospital in Delmonico's. This 
 was so successful that the experiment was repeated on a larger 
 scale for several years at the Metropolitan Opera-House. The 
 idea was copied elsewhere, and thus the word Kirmesse obtained 
 permanent lodgement in the language. 
 
 In South Germany the Kirmess is known as a Kirchweihe, or 
 church consecration. This strengthens the common explanation 
 that the festival was once the, anniversary of the dedication of 
 the parish church. Yet it existed even in pagan times, and only 
 changed its name and its external characteristics with the advent 
 of Christianity. The " court days" of the ancient Teutons, 
 wiijn all the inhabitants of a district assembled and wandered 
 from one sacred grove to another, were combined with sacrifices 
 and holiday-making. Christianity adopted these festivities, bap- 
 tized them with new names, and transferred them from the groves 
 to the churchyard. Thus the Yenerable Bede quotes a letter 
 from Pope Gregory the Great to the Anglo-Saxon bishops in 
 which the following passage occurs: "As they" — i.e., the re- 
 cently converted Anglo-Saxons — " are accustomed to slaughter 
 many oxen and horses on the festivals of devils" (the ancient 
 deities), " it is necessary to allow these festivals to exist, but to 
 
600 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 substitute some other object. Therefore on the anniversaries of 
 the consecration of the church, and on the commemoration days 
 of the martyrs whose relics are preserved in those churches 
 which have been erected on the sites of the former sacrificial 
 groves, a similar festival shall be held. Tbe spot sball be marked 
 out with green boughs, and a Christian entertainment shall be 
 given. Animals shall no longer be sacrificed in honor of Satan, 
 but to the glory of God and the satisfying of men's appetites, in 
 order that due thanks maybe rendered to the Giver of all Good." 
 It was on the principle thus expressed by Pope Gregory that the 
 church ale or wake was established in England (see Ale), and 
 the Kirmess in Germany and the Low Countries. 
 
 As years went on, however, the Kirmess, like the church ale, 
 gradually lost its religious characteristics, and sometimes even 
 gave rise to brawls and other excesses. Hence in the fifteenth 
 century the Church festival was separated from the secular 
 holiday. In the Low Countries the latter was transferred to 
 the spring-time ; in Germany it is usually celebrated in Septem- 
 ber or October. 
 
 In Holland and Belgium the Kirmess is simply a gala time, 
 in which the peasants give themselves up to several days of fes- 
 tivity. Leaving their homes in holiday attire, they flock to the 
 towns, which they make into a great playground, rushing through 
 the streets to the cry of " Hossen ! Hossen !" The Kirmess 
 proper is established in some public square, which is occupied by 
 booths and tents of every description, belonging to wandering 
 theatrical companies, acrobats, astrologers, variety shows, and 
 restaurants. The grounds are made beautiful with flags and 
 bright draperies of every color, and the booths, where articles 
 of food are off'ered for sale, are in the charge of pretty girls in 
 Old Holland costume. These girls are the very prettiest that 
 can be found, and are dressed in the piquant and attractive cos- 
 tume of the Netherlands peasant girls. A great feature of the 
 Kirmess is found in the various dances executed by groups of 
 peasants from different sections, each vying with the other in 
 their picturesque scenes or in the perfection of the execution of 
 their different dances. 
 
 In Germany the festival opens with the joyous disinterring 
 of the symbol of the Kirmess at the place where it had been 
 buried with mourning the previous year. On the eve of the 
 initial day (the latter being usually a Sunday) the village youth 
 march to the spot, accompanied by music. The Kirmess sym- 
 bol, usually a horse's skull, is dug up, placed on a pole decked 
 with flowers and ribbons, and borne to the village amid loud 
 rejoicings. In many places on the Lower Bhine a figure of 
 Zacchseus (he who did climb a tree our Lord to see) is substituted 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 601 
 
 for the horse's skull. Zacchseus is everywhere the patron saint 
 of the Kirmess, but why, when, or where he became so is un- 
 known. The symbol, crowned with the Kirmess garland of 
 flowers and eggs, is set up in the dancing-hall of the village 
 inn. 
 
 Around it gather all the young men and the maidens. The 
 former solemnly bind themselves to make holiday for three or 
 more days, to keep a joint score, and to celebrate the feast 
 jointly, as well as to stand by one another in the event of pos- 
 sible fighting. 
 
 In ratification of the compact, each in turn with a heavy 
 wooden cudgel strikes a post fixed in the ground for the pur- 
 pose. The number of strokes denotes the amount of holidays 
 each will take. Generally three are deemed sufficient, but some- 
 times four or six strokes are given. It is considered a good omen 
 when the stake is finally driven quite into the ground. The girls, 
 whose business it is to manufacture the Kirmess crown, and in 
 some places to deck the Kirmess tree, are present during the 
 process just described, and they fasten a red ribbon on the breast 
 of every youth, which may not be discarded until the prescribed 
 Kirmess days are over. 
 
 On Sunday, as the last chords of the organ die away, the 
 dance-music strikes up, often under the shadow of the village 
 linden. The Kirmess has now begun. It is characterized by 
 all manner of rural sports. The favorite beverages are beer and 
 aniseseed brandy with sugar. On Tuesday the revellers go to 
 church, headed by a band. Formerly they proceeded thither in 
 masquerading guise, and were fetched by the priest himself 
 The musicians performed during the mass, but the tunes were 
 not always of an edifying description. After service, the party 
 either betake themselves to the dancing-room, or else visit dis- 
 tant farms, where the young men are regaled with cakes baked 
 for the occasion. By Wednesday it is the turn of the married 
 men to take the lead, and the youths retire. Frequently the 
 wildest revelry occurs under the new auspices, and extends over 
 the whole week, so that the Kirmess is not buried until Satur- 
 day. Then the horse's skull or the effigy of Zacchseus is carried 
 on a bier through the village with the usual funeral melodies. 
 The erstwhile revellers walk beside it with chalked faces and 
 covered with white cloths. There are also the usual masks, 
 reminiscences of the ancient heathen gods, — such as the Faithful 
 Eckhart, Hakelberend the Wild Huntsman, Knecht Euprecht, 
 and Frau Berchta, — although they are now made to assume a 
 merely demoniacal aspect. Thus they proceed to the spot whence 
 the Kirmess is to be resuscitated the following year. This is 
 generally a secluded and dismal place, and the flickering torches 
 
602 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 lend it a still more uncanny appearance. The Kirmess symbol 
 is then laid in the deeply dug grave, and the bones and skulls 
 of animals are also cast in. Whilst the hole is being filled up, a 
 hideous din is created by those present, howling, shrieking, and 
 beating pots and pans. With wild shouts the company return 
 to the village, and the festival is at an end. « 
 
 The ceremony varies slightly in different parts of Grermany, 
 though its main features remain the same. In Suabia and in 
 Baden the symbol of the Kirmess is a bottle of wine. The hat- 
 dance is performed in several Suabian villages on the Sunday 
 succeeding the burial. A hat is drawn up to the top of a long 
 pole by a cord fastened at the bottom, whereto a long piece of 
 lighted tinder is affixed. The young men dance in turn round 
 the pole to an appointed goal, where each delivers up the deco- 
 rated sprig in his hand to his successor. Lots determine the 
 order in which each shall come. He who happens to be dancing 
 when the hat falls from the burnt cord wins the hat. 
 
 In that part of Bavaria called the Lechfeld it is usual on the 
 Monday morning after the Kirchweihe to have a solemn mass 
 said for the repose of the souls of all the parish dead. The 
 women appear dressed in black. In the morning before mass 
 the musicians go round to the house of every well-to-do peasant 
 and play a dance, in return for which they expect to be regaled 
 with meat, cakes, and beer. 
 
 Kiss of Peace. The kiss of peace, or holy kiss, originally 
 formed an element of every act of Christian worship. JS'o sac- 
 rament or sacramental function was deemed complete without 
 it. Tertullian calls it the seal of prayer, and asks, " What prayer 
 is complete where the holy kiss is absent ? What kind of sacri- 
 fice is that from which men depart without the kiss of peace ?" 
 At first it was given promiscuously, but gradually the rule was 
 introduced that men should kiss only men, and women women. 
 After the thirteenth century a mechanical substitute was intro- 
 duced in the Western Church. A small wooden tablet, or metal 
 plate, bearing a representation of the crucifixion, was first kissed 
 by the priest and his assistants and then handed to the com- 
 municants to be pressed to their lips. A trace of the kiss of 
 peace lingers in the Episcopalian service, in the final benediction, 
 which begins, " The peace of God." In the Eastern Churches 
 the custom is still in a measure retained. The Eussian clergy 
 kiss one another during the recital of the Nicene Creed. In the 
 Coptic Church the custom remains in all its pristine vigor. 
 " Travellers now living," says Dean Stanley, in his " Christian 
 Institutions," " have had their faces stroked and been kissed by 
 the Coptic priest in the cathedral at Cairo, while at the same 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 603 
 
 moment everybody else was kissing everybody throughout the 
 church." 
 
 Kissing the Pope's Toe. Among the Oriental nations it 
 was customary to kiss the hands or the feet or the hem of the 
 garment of a person whom the kisser desired to honor. The 
 Egyptians had this custom of the Assyrians, the Greeks of the 
 Egyptians, the old Eomans of the Greeks, and the modern 
 Eomans of the old, whose Pontifex Maximus had his toe kissed 
 under the Empire. The penitent Magdalene kissed the feet of 
 our Lord. At the present time it is no uncommon thing for a 
 Mohammedan to wash and kiss the feet of a guest who has trav- 
 
 KissiNG THE Hope's Toe. 
 (From Picart.) 
 
 elled a long distance to pay him honor. ISTay, the Pope himself, 
 as well as Eoman Catholic and Greek sovereigns and primates, 
 washes and kisses the feet of pilgrims on Maundy Thursday 
 {q. v.). It is related of St. Susanna, a virgin who suffered mar- 
 tyrdom in the year 294, that she kissed the feet of Pope Caius. 
 Therefore it is not necessary to accept the explanation of Mat- 
 thew Paris that before the eighth century the Popes gave only 
 their hands to be kissed, but that a certain misguided woman, not 
 
604 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 content merely to kiss the Pope's hand, gave it an affectionate 
 squeeze, which so scandalized His Holiness that he straightway 
 cut off the member which had vicariously offended. Ever after 
 that, continues Matthew, he was forced to present his foot in- 
 stead, — a practice which has continued for all time. As squeam- 
 ishness succeeded to the original simplicity, the Pope encased the 
 foot in a slipper, and over the place where the great toe is housed 
 a cross is now decorated, so as to refer the homage to Christ 
 crucified. 
 
 On the other hand, the toe of the Sultan is kissed at Constan- 
 tinople in puris naturalibus. Only officials of the most exalted, 
 rank are admitted to this treat. Others may but touch the 
 fringe of his scarf with their lips, whilst the lowest of all must 
 content themselves with a simple obeisance. All through the 
 ceremony the Sultan sits immovable, like a statue that sees and 
 hears nothing, the while his subjects defile before him with every 
 mark of the most servile respect. 
 
 Kite-Flying Festival. (Chinese, Chung- Yang- Ghieh or Teng 
 Kao, literally, " ascending high.") On the ninth day of the ninth 
 month in the Chinese calendar the Celestials of all ages repair 
 to suburban hills to drink and amuse themselves, and to fly curi- 
 ous kites of extraordinary shapes and gaudily painted. Cen- 
 turies ago, the legend runs, a certain man was warned in a 
 dream that a misfortune was about to overtake his household on 
 a given day. So he took his family out for the day, and amused 
 himself with flying kites on a lofty hill. On returning in the 
 evening to his homestead he found that his house had fallen in, 
 and that his pigs and dogs had been buried in the ruins. Every 
 year witnesses the flight of millions of kites on the hills of 
 China in memory of the circumstance. In some mysterious way 
 the kites are supposed to carry aloft the evils which may be 
 impending over the households of the fliers, and when the 
 strings are cut the kites, like the scapegoat of old, are believed 
 to bear away into the wilderness the evils incurred by wrong- 
 doings. 
 
 Kosher. (Hebrew, "clean," in contradistinction to trejpha^ 
 " unclean.") The name given by the Jews to meat which is killed 
 in the manner authorized by Moses. The schochat, or killer, must 
 be cool, wary, exjierienced, well grounded in religion, and of good 
 moral character, and he must have passed a satisfactory exami- 
 nation before the chief rabbi and received a license. The sche- 
 chita, or killing, is so conducted as to insure the complete effu- 
 sion of blood ; for the Israelites are forbidden to eat blood. The 
 ox or other quadruped is bound fast, and the windpipe is cut 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 605 
 
 through with a long and very sharp-edged knife. No unneces- 
 sary pressure on the throat is allowed. The upper end of the 
 knife is first put to the throat, it is then pushed over to the 
 lower part of the blade, and the knife is drawn back and then 
 forward. JS'o stoppage must occur during the operation. Now 
 comes the bedigah, or examination of the instrument and the 
 victim. If there be the slightest nick in the edge of the knife 
 the meat cannot be eaten, as the cut would not be clean, the nick 
 would cause a thrill to pass through the beast, and consequently 
 repel the blood again through the veins. Lungs, liver, heart, — 
 the whole animal, in short, is carefully looked over. Any organic 
 lesion, any inflammation or fracture, condemns the whole as 
 trepha. If the examination be satisfactory, a tag attached to 
 each half of a beef is proof of its gastronomic value. This tag 
 gives the name of the killer and the date of the killing. 
 
 Kwanyin, Feast of. In Chinese mythology, Kwanyin is the 
 goddess of mercy and fecundity. Sometimes she holds an infant 
 in her arms in an attitude which irresistibly reminds a Christian 
 of the conventional pictures of the Madonna and Child, some- 
 times she is represented standing on a lotos-flower, pouring the 
 water of plenty upon the thirsty earth. Tradition says she was 
 born on the 19th of the second month (see Calendar) : hence 
 that is the annual date of her festival. It is especially celebrated 
 by married women who desire ofl'spring or whose husbands and 
 children are ailing. They flock to her temples to prostrate them- 
 selves before her shrine. A band usually plays in the vestibule 
 of the temple, while within the sanctuary Buddhist priests con- 
 duct a weird and erratic service. The women place their ofl'er- 
 ings upon two tables and either sit or kneel before them. The 
 priests march around them, chanting prayers in harmony with 
 the music. At first the measure is slow and solemn, but gradu- 
 ally the time is quickened, until at last the priests in an ecstasy 
 dance and whirl around the devotees. When thoroughly ex- 
 hausted, but still thrilling with excitement, they approach the 
 women and announce that their prayers have been heard. 
 
 Labor Day. An annual holiday in honor of workingmen 
 and workingwomen, which in the United States is celebrated on 
 the first Monday in September, and in several European countries 
 on May 1. 
 
 The idea of the American holiday seems to have been born in 
 
606 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Boston. But the credit for the first formal movement belongs to 
 New York. In 1882 Matthew Maguire, secretary of the Central 
 Labor Union in that city, with the approval of the Union, cor- 
 responded with the various labor organizations in the State with 
 a view to setting aside one day in the year as their own holiday. 
 The proposition was well received. The first Monday in Sep- 
 tember was chosen. Maguire was made chairman of the com- 
 mittee to arrange for the first Labor Day celebration in that 
 year. 
 
 This was so successful that it was determined to continue the 
 holiday annually, and in 1883 the New York Central Labor 
 Union corresponded with similar oi'ganizations throughout the 
 country with a view to having celebrations elsewhere. A num- 
 ber of cities responded. The holiday now began to assume a 
 national character. It was endorsed as the official labor holiday 
 by both the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of 
 Labor. Then the work of obtaining legal recognition began. 
 The legislature of New York, by an act passed April 27, 1887, 
 took the initititive. 
 
 Massachusetts, and then other States, speedily followed suit. 
 Meanwhile a measure to make the holiday a national one hung 
 fire in Congress until 1894. Then Eepresentative Amos Cum- 
 mings took hold of the matter in the House, and Senator Kyle, 
 of South Dakota, introduced a bill making Labor Day a holiday 
 throughout the Union. The latter was immediately reported 
 from the Senate Committee by Mr. Kyle without amendment. 
 It was passed without opposition, and was signed by the Presi- 
 dent and became a law^ on June 28, 1894. 
 
 In point of fact, this declaration of Congress has legal eff^ect 
 only within the District of Columbia and among government 
 employees in the States ; but the moral effect was to bring about 
 a general observance of the day in nearly all the States of the 
 Union. Up to 1894 monster parades were held in New York 
 and other cities in honor of the day, but these proved so expen- 
 sive that they have been abandoned almost everywhere. The 
 festival is now marked mainly by the closing of shops and ware- 
 houses, by the cessation of mechanical labor (many labor unions 
 impose heavy fines on members found at work thin day), and by 
 picnics, excursions, and public games which are expected to fill 
 the coffers of the Unions rather than deplete them. 
 
 The American Socialists take no part in the celebration of the 
 September Labor Day, choosing rather to cling to an unofficial 
 holiday on May 1, which has been chosen by the labor men and 
 socialists in Europe as the occasion for their annual demonstra- 
 tions. In New York the evening of May Day witnesses a parade 
 through the streets and a mass meeting in Union Square of the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 607 
 
 various socialistic Unions. The mass meeting is addressed by 
 prominent orators of their faith. Similar demonstrations occur 
 in other large cities. But the rioting and bloodshed that have 
 too often signalized the day in Europe have found no repetition 
 in America. 
 
 Lago di Piazza Navona. (It., "Lake of the Piazza Na- 
 vona.") A curious Roman holiday custom which used to be 
 performed on every Sunday in August. In the centre of the 
 Piazza Navona is a large fountain, adorned with an obelisk and 
 four colossal reclining figures, which represent the four principal 
 rivers of the world. From the urns of these river-gods the 
 water is allowed to stream abundantly, until a third of the 
 piazza, which inclines towards the fountain, is about two feet 
 deep in water. " The dry portion of the piazza," says an eye- 
 witness in Blackwood's Magazine for March, 1829, "was covered 
 with booths and spectators ; the surrounding windows, and the 
 broad steps of the church of St. Agnes, were occupied with 
 gazers ; and every eye was fixed upon the lake, which was 
 crowded with numerous groups in vehicles of every class, from 
 the state coach to the hay-cart, besides equestrians, led horses, 
 and donkeys innumerable. In or out of this dirty puddle the 
 company ride and drive round the piazza until sunset ; the 
 horses neigh with delight in this cooling foot-bath, and the scene 
 is varied and enlivened by the festive attire of the more opulent 
 peasants and farmers, who bring their families in large hay- 
 wagons to partake of this illustrious refreshment in the company 
 of princes and nobles. Such is this festive inundation, in which 
 some worshippers of the antique see the relics of a Roman Nau- 
 machia. For this motley scene the Corso is deserted, and not a 
 soul remains on Monte Pincio, except perhaps some hypochon- 
 driacal Englishman." 
 
 Lamb Ale. A festival formerly celebrated at Kidlington, in 
 Oxfordshire, on Whit Monday. A fat lamb was provided. The 
 maidens of the town, having th^ir thumbs tied together, were 
 permitted to run after it, and she who caught the lamb with her 
 mouth was declared the Lady of the Lamb. The lamb, killed 
 and cleaned, was carried on a long pole before the lady and her 
 companions to the green, attended with music and morris-dances 
 of men and women. Next day it was served for the Lady's 
 feast, and the solemnity ended. 
 
 Lammas Day. Some suppose that the appellation comes 
 from Lamb Mass. as the feudatories of the cathedral of St. Peter 
 in Yinculis at York (so called, like the Church of St. Peter Out- 
 
608 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 side the Walls of Eome, in memory of St. Peter's chains and 
 imprisonment) were in the habit of bringing each a lamb to 
 the cathedral at the time of high mass upon the 1st of August ; 
 others, that it comes from the Saxon Hlafmaesse, " Loaf Mass," 
 because it was usual then to make an offering of the first-fruits 
 or new bread of the Arnmonath. 
 
 Properly this is the 1st of August. But the Act of George II. 
 which established the New Style in England excepted the days 
 for the commencement of Lammas rights from the operation of 
 the statute. Therefore Lammas Day at present is August 13. 
 It is a day full of antique survivals, but the one great custom 
 which marks it as a link with a very remote past is the removal 
 of the fences from many lands throughout the country, and the 
 throwing open to common pasturage of lands which till this day 
 from the end of last Lammastide had been used as private prop- 
 erty. "Wherever," says Mr. G. Laurence Gomme, "we find 
 Lammas customs in England we may take it for granted that it 
 is the last remaining link of a whole group of customs which 
 together make up the history of the primitive village community. 
 It is curious to observe with what various degrees of integrity 
 customs have lived in various parts of the country. In some 
 places, for instance, we find only the bare mention of Lammas- 
 tide, and the throwing down of fences and the consequent open- 
 ing of the land to common. In other places there is much more 
 at the back of this single Lammas custom ; there is sufficient to 
 enable us to open the great book of comparative politics, and to 
 take our studies back to that ancient Aryan land, India, or even 
 still further back in the history of primitive society, the native 
 savages of Africa." 
 
 Lamprey Pie at Christmas. The lamprey has been asso- 
 ciated with royalty ever since the time of Henry I. of England, 
 who was inordinately fond of the fish and is said to have brought 
 on his last sickness by indulging too copiously despite the advice 
 of his physicians. It has been an intermittent custom of the 
 city of Gloucester to present to the sovereign at Christmas a 
 lamprey pie with a raised crust. As Henry I. frequently held 
 his court at Gloucester during the Christmas season, it may have 
 originated in his time. In 1530 the prior of Llanthony at Glou- 
 cester sent "cheise carp and baked lampreys" to Henry YIII. 
 at Windsor, for which the bearer received twenty shillings. It 
 was also customary at the commencement of the fishing season 
 to send to the sovereign the first lamprey caught in the river. 
 
 During the Commonwealth it appears from the following entry 
 in the corporation minutes that the pie was sent to the members 
 for the City : 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 609 
 
 " Itern. Paid to Thomas SuflSeld, cook, fur lamprey pies sent 
 to our Parliament men, £08 OO5. OOd." 
 
 In 1752 it seems to have been the custom to present a 1am- 
 •prey pie to the Prince of Wales, as appears by Mr. Jesse's book 
 " George Selwyn and his Contemporaries" (vol. i. p. 153), where 
 is printed the following letter from Mr. Alderman Harris to 
 George Selwyn, then M. P. for Gloucester : 
 
 " Gloucester, 15tli January, 1752. 
 
 "Sir, — At the request of Mr. Mayor, whose extraordinary 
 hurry of business will not afford him leisure to direct himself, I 
 am desired to acquaint you that by the Gloucester waggon this 
 week is sent the usual present of a lamprey pie from this Cor- 
 poration to His Eoyal Highness the Prince of Wales. It is 
 directed to you ; and I am further to request the favour of you 
 to have the same presented with the compliments of this body, 
 as your late worthy father used to do. 
 
 " Sir, your most obedient humble servant, 
 
 " Gab. Harris. 
 
 "P.S. — The waggoner's inn is the King's Head, in the Old 
 Change." (Wotes and Queries, Second Series, vol. ix. p. 184.) 
 
 The custom of presenting the sovereign with a lamprey pie 
 was revived in 1893, not at Christmas, but in May, when a beau- 
 tiful pie with finely moulded paste, and enamelled silver skewers 
 that also served as spoons, was sent to Queen Victoria by the 
 city of Gloucester. 
 
 Lavanda, La. (It., " The Washing.") This terra is applied 
 ecclesiastically to two ceremonies in the Catholic Church. One 
 is the washing of the pilgrims' feet on Maundy Thursday (g. v. ; 
 also Pilgrimage), the other the washing of the altars on the 
 same day. At St. Peter's in Eome the latter ceremony is per- 
 formed with special solemnity. There the lavanda of the high 
 altar occurs after the Tenebrse (q. v.), at seven o'clock in the 
 evening. Only a few huge candles placed in candelabra at some 
 distance from one another relieveUihe darkness. The sacristans 
 of the chapter begin by divesting the altar of the cloths which 
 usually cover it, then on a table by its side they place seven 
 crystal vases filled with wine and water, and two silver basins, 
 one of which contains seven sponges, the other seven towels. 
 Then the canons approach the altar, bearing aspersories of box- 
 wood or yew. They are followed by acolytes and clerics. Last 
 of all comes the dean. 
 
 Arriving at the foot of the altar, they kneel and say a silent 
 prayer. The dean then mounts the altar with six assistant 
 canons. Yases are presented to the dean and each of the canons. 
 
 39 
 
610 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 The latter sprinkle a few drops over the marble top of the altar 
 and yield their places to the other canons, who come up in suc- 
 cessive companies of six to go through the same operation. 
 
 When the altar has been well washed, the six assistant canons 
 return to the side of the dean and dry the altar, first with 
 sponges and then with towels. 
 
 In old Catholic England the cross after its adoration on 
 Good Friday used to be washed with wine and water, and the 
 ablution given to the priests and people to drink after the com- 
 munion, in memory of the blood and water which flowed from 
 the side of the crucified Eedeemer. 
 
 A curious survival of this washing was practised at Glentham 
 Church, Lincolnshire, until about 1830. A large recumbent 
 efligy lies in the western end of the church, with a wooden stair- 
 case leading to a gallery erected over a portion of it. It is 
 locally known as Molly Grime, — a possible corruption of the 
 Malgraen, or Holy Image, of an ancient local dialect. Seven 
 elderly ladies were wont to receive a shilling each, every Good 
 Friday, as a payment for washing this figure with waier from 
 Newell's Well, in the same parish. Anciently the washing of an 
 effigy of the dead Christ on Good Friday, and strewing his bier 
 witii flowers, previous to a mock entombment, formed a special 
 observance here. The ceremony was performed by virgins, clad 
 in mourning, with water carried in procession from the adjacent 
 well. 
 
 Lawrence, St., patron Saint of Nuremberg, Genoa, and the 
 Escorial. His festival is celebrated on August 10. 
 
 Historically little is known of this saint, and the time and 
 place of his birth are matters of doubt. But legends are plen- 
 tiful. According to these, he was born in Aragon, and when 
 young went to Eome and served Sixtus II. as deacon. When 
 this Pope was led to martyrdom St. Lawrence begged to be al- 
 lowed to suffer with him. Sixtus told him that he would follow 
 him in three days, and bade him distribute the treasures of the 
 Church to the poor. The prefect, having beard that the treas- 
 ures were in the care of Lawrence, ordered him to deliver them 
 up, but the saint collected a crowd of the poor among whom he 
 had divided the treasures, and said that the poor people were the 
 treasures of the Church. After suffering various tortures, he 
 was stretched on an iron bed made of bars like u gridiron, and 
 roasted over a fire kindled beneath. His remains were buried 
 in the Via Tiburtina. In the reign of Constantine the Great a 
 church was built in honor of St. Lawrence over his tomb. A 
 great number of churches have been dedicated to him. He is 
 called by the Eoman people "II Cortese Spagnuolo" ("the cour- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 611 
 
 teous Spaniard"), because it is related that, two hundred years 
 after his death, when his sarcophagus was opened to receive the 
 rehcs of St. Stephen, the skeleton of St. Lawrence courteously 
 moved to the left and gave the place of honor on the right to 
 St. Stephen. St. Lawrence is usually painted in the dress of an 
 archdeacon, and bears a palm and a gridiron. Sometimes he 
 carries a dish full of money, and the cross, to signify his oflSce 
 of treasurer to the Church. The gridiron varies in size, and is 
 sometimes embroidered on his robe, and sometimes borne in his 
 hand or suspended around his neck ; and again he puts his foot 
 on it in sign of triumph. 
 
 The church of St. Lawrence Jewry, London, erected to his 
 name, bears a gridiron on the steeple. Eobinson says, " Philip 
 II. of Spain, having won a battle on the 10th of August, the 
 festival of St. Lawrence, vowed to consecrate a palace, a church, 
 and a monastery to his honor. Accordingly he built the Escorial, 
 the largest palace in Europe. This immense quarry consists of 
 several courts, all disposed in the shape of a gridiron. The bars 
 form several courts, and the royal family occupy the handle. 
 Gridirons are met with in every part of the building. There 
 are sculptured gridirons, painted gridirons, iron and marble 
 gridirons ; there are gridirons over the doors, in the windows, in 
 the galleries, and in the yards. Never was an instrument of 
 martyrdom so multiplied, honored, and celebrated." 
 
 The gridiron on which St. Lawrence suffered is preserved in 
 the church of San Lorenzo in Lucina, Eome. Two churches in 
 the same city preserve portions of his melted fat, a pot full of 
 which was likewise presented to the Escorial by Pope Gregory 
 XIII. Eibs, arms, and shoulder-blades of the saint are scattered 
 through many Eoman churches. 
 
 Leap-Year. This was known as the Bissextile year, for 
 reasons explained under Calendar. The origin of the English 
 name is harder to trace. Many theories have been framed. 
 None is quite satisfactory. Some look on it as a reference to the 
 fact that the gentleman whom v^e are enjoined to take by the 
 forelock, — Old Time himself, in short, — instead of passing over 
 his accustomed ground during that period, takes an extraordi- 
 nary leap to the extent of a day more. 
 
 Another hypothesis makes the name a misnomer. If the 
 fourth year had consisted of three hundred and sixty-four days, 
 if the difference had been one of defect instead of excess, a day 
 would really have been leaped over. As it is, the three ordinary 
 years would more properly be denominated leap-years. Or we 
 may suppose the fourth year had been denominated leap-year 
 on the principle lucus a non lucendo. Probably the most worthy 
 
612 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 supposition as to the origin of the term is that, at first, the extra 
 day in the fourth year and the one before it were one in the eye 
 of the law. Accordingly, the regular day was considered that 
 one, and the additional day, though civilly held as a day, was 
 legally not so. It was missed or leaped over altogether. So 
 that the legal year as opposed to the civil was in reality a leap- 
 year. 
 
 What is the origin of the gallant and delicate privilege which 
 is extended on leap-year to the fairer half of creation ? Myth 
 and history both have something to say on the matter. Myth 
 refers it to no less a personage than St. Patrick. And this is the 
 story : 
 
 As St. Patrick was perambulating the shores of Lough Neagh, 
 after having driven the frogs out of the bogs and the snakes out 
 of the grass, he was accosted by St. Bridget, who with many 
 tears and lamentations informed him that dissension had arisen 
 among the ladies in her nunnery over the fact that they were 
 debarred the privilege of "popping the question." 
 
 It will be remembered that in Bridget's day celibacy, although 
 approved by the Church as the proper life of a religious, and 
 consequently made binding upon the individual by a private 
 vow, was not enforced as a general and absolute rule for the 
 clergy. 
 
 St. Patrick — a sternly single man himself — was yet so far 
 moved that he offered to concede to the ladies the privilege of 
 proposing one year in every seven. But at this St. Bridget 
 demurred, and, throwing her arms about his neck, exclaimed, 
 " Arrah ! Pathrick, jewel, I daurn't go back to the gurls wid such 
 a proposal. Mek it wan year in four." 
 
 To which St. Patrick replied, " Biddy, acushla, squeeze me that 
 way again, and I'll give you leap-year, the longest one of the 
 lot." 
 
 St. Bridget, thus encouraged, bethought herself of her own 
 husbandless condition, and accordingly popped the question to 
 St. Patrick herself. But he had taken the vow of celibacy : so 
 he had to patch up the difficulty as best he could with a kiss and 
 a silk gown. 
 
 "And ever since then," concludes the legend, which, it is need- 
 less to say, is not found in Butler's " Lives of the Saints" or in 
 any other work of hagiological authority, " if a man refuses a 
 leap-year proposal he must pay the penalty of a silk gown and 
 a kiss." 
 
 So much for legend. And now for history. In the year 1288 
 the following law is said to have been passed in Scotland : 
 
 " It is statut and ordaint that during the rein of hir maist 
 blissit Megeste, for ilk yeare knowne as lepe yeare, ilk mayden 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 613 
 
 ladye of bothe highe and lowe estait shall hae liberie to bespeke 
 ye man she likes, albeit he refuses to taik hir to be his lawl'al 
 wyfe, he shall be mulcted in ye sum ane pundis or less, as his 
 estait may be ; except and awis gif he can make it appeare that 
 he is betrothit ane ither woman he then shall be free." A few 
 years later a similar law was passed in France and received the 
 approval of the king. It is also said that before Columbus sailed 
 on his famous voyage a similar privilege was granted to the 
 maidens of Genoa and Florence. There is no record of any fines 
 imposed under the Scotch law nor any trace of statistics of the 
 number of spinsters who took advantage of it or of the French 
 enactment. 
 
 According to a curious little book, entitled " Love, Courtship, 
 and Matrimony," published in London in 1606, the English did 
 not need to have the leap-year privilege forced upon them by 
 statute, but allowed it to become a part of the lex non scripta : 
 "Albeit it nowe become a part of the common lawe in regard to 
 social relations of life, that as often as every leap yeare doth 
 return, the ladyes have the sole privilege during the time it 
 continueth of making love, either by wordes or lookes, as to them 
 it seemeth proper; and, moreover, no man will be entitled to 
 benefit of clergy who doth in any wise treat her proposal with 
 slight or contumely." 
 
 Up to within a century ago it was another unwritten law of 
 leap-year that if a man should decline a proposal he should 
 soften the disappointment which his answer would bring about 
 by the presentation of a silk dress to the unsuccessful suitor for 
 his hand. 
 
 A curious leap-year superstition is still to be met with in some 
 parts of 'New England, and that is that in leap-year the " beans 
 grow on the wrong side of the pod." 
 
 Eossini, the musical composer, was born on February 29, 1792. 
 On the 29th of February, 1864, when he was seventy-two, he 
 celebrated what he called his eighteenth birthday, and in the 
 pleasant companionship of mutual friends declared his deliberate 
 purpose to " turn over a new leaf and disregard the frivolities of 
 youth, and the indiscretions of his teens." Oddly enough, Eos- 
 sini's jesting enumeration of his birthdays was not correct. He 
 had forgotten that the year 1800 was not a leap-year. Conse- 
 quently his first birthday was in 1796 and his second not till 
 1804, making February 29, 1864, the seventeenth and not the 
 eighteenth birthday. 
 
 Lent. A fast of forty week-days enjoined by the Eoman, 
 Greek, and English and some other Protestant Churches as a 
 preparation for Easter. TherEngUsh word comes from the Anglo- 
 
614 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Saxon JJencten, " spring." The Italian Quaresima and the French 
 Gareme are corruptions of the Latin Quadragesima^ i.e., forty, 
 while the German Fastenzeit and the Dutch Vasten denote the 
 fast by pre-eminence, like ij vrjareia in the Greek calendar. It is 
 probable that a fast of some duration previous to the commem- 
 oration of the resurrection was kept from very early times, but it 
 was not till the year 840 that the date was definitively fixed for 
 all Catholic Christendom from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday 
 inclusive. As Sundays are not days of fasting, this makes the 
 full complement of forty days, and therefore establishes an anal- 
 ogy between Lent and the forty days' fast of Christ, the forty 
 days spent by Moses and Elias in the wilderness, and the fort}^ 
 days' grace given in the preaching of Jonah to Nineveh. But 
 the term Quadragesima adopted for the forty days originally 
 meant forty hours, the early Christians apparently keeping a 
 rigid fast for that space of time from the afternoon of Cruci- 
 fixion Day to the morning of the feast of the Eesurrection. 
 
 The Greek Church has always kept four Lents, distributed 
 quarterly throughout the year. These are kept with the utmost 
 strictness. There are no lapses of meat -eating, party-giving, or 
 diversions of any kind through the entire Lenten season. 
 
 But strictness in diet is perhaps easier for the Greeks than for 
 other nations less abstemious. There are hundreds of families 
 who never taste meat during the entire year except on ISTcw 
 Year's Day and at Easter. The foods they deny themselves, 
 therefore, especially on their holiest days, Mondays, Wednes- 
 days, and Fridays, are just those the Catholics permit them- 
 selves, — fish, eggs, milk, and even cheese. 
 
 In the early Church Lent was a season in which the faithful 
 begged God's mercy for themselves and were therefore expected 
 to show mercy to others. The money spared by fasting was 
 given in alms, the Imperial laws forbade criminal processes, the 
 Church reconciled penitents at the altars and imposed public 
 penalties in expiation of their guilt, the Emperors released pris- 
 oners, masters pardoned their slaves, and enemies became friends. 
 It was a season of mourning. Hence the Church has always 
 discountenanced festivities of all kinds during Lent, and forbidden 
 marriages. 
 
 The ladies wore friars' girdles at this season. Camden relates 
 that Sir Thomas More, " finding his lady scolding her servants, 
 endeavored to restrain her. ' Tush, tush, my lord,' said she : 
 ' look, here is one step to heavenward,' showing him a friar's 
 girdle. ' I fear me,' said he, ' that that one step will not bring 
 you one step higher.' " 
 
 The use of flesh meat, eggs, and milk during Lent was forbidden 
 in England, not only by ecclesiastical but also by statute law, even 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 615 
 
 into the time of William III. Any violation of the law was 
 followed by dire penalties. There is the case of the landlady of 
 the Eose Tavern, St. Catherine's Tower, London, in whose house 
 during the Lent of 1563 was found a quantity of raw and cooked 
 meat. She and four other women who were proved to have par- 
 taken of the forbidden viands were put in the stocks all night. 
 In 1570 was passed a statute making the penalties for violating 
 the Lenten laws sixt}^ shillings and three months' imprisonment. 
 
 The chief Lenten food from very early days was fish. In the 
 thirty -first year of the reign of Edward III. the following sums 
 were paid from the Exchequer for fish supplied to the royal 
 household : Fifty marks for five lasts red herrings (a last was 
 9000) ; £12 for two lasts white herrings ; £6 for two barrels of 
 sturgeon; £21 55. for 1300 stockfish; 13s. 9d. for eighty-nine 
 congers ; and 20 marks for 320 mulwells. Herring pies were 
 considered a great delicacy. Yarmouth by ancient charter was 
 bound to send annually to the king during Lent one hundred 
 herrings, baked in twenty-four pies or pasties, while in Edward 
 I.'s reign Eustace de Corson and two others held thirty acres of 
 land in copartnership on the tenure of supplying annually for 
 the king's use on their first coming into season twenty-four 
 pasties of fresh herring. The queerest of the food eaten in 
 Lent were undoubtedly the whale, porpoise, grampus, and sea- 
 wolf, which in those days were held to be fish. 
 
 The Church granted dispensations to the sick and infirm whose 
 phj'Sicians certified that they required flesh meat during Lent. 
 A curious formal record of such dispensation occurs in the parish 
 register of Wakefield : 
 
 " To all people to whom these presents shall come, James Lis- 
 ter, Yicar of Wakefeld, and preacher of God's word, sendeth 
 greeting: Whereas Alice Lister wife of Eichard Lister clerke 
 who now soiourneth wth her sonne Willm Paulden of Wakefeld, 
 by reason of her old age & many years & state, and long-con- 
 tynued sickness is become so weake, and her stomack so colde, 
 not able to digest colde meates & fish, who by the counsell of 
 Physicions is advised to absteine from and to forbeare the eateng 
 of all manner of fruits, fish and milke meates : Know yee there- 
 fore for the causes aforesaide and for the better strengthening & 
 recovery of her health, 1 the saide James Lister do hereby give 
 & grant libertie and licence to her the saide Alice Lister att her 
 will and pleasure att all tymes, as well during the tyme of Lent, 
 as upon other fasting daies and fish daies (exhibiting by the laws 
 to eate flesh) to dresse and eate such kind of fleshe as shal be 
 best agreing to her stomach & weake appetite. In witnes 
 hereof I the saide James Lister have hereunto sett my hand the 
 eight day of fl'ebuary in the sixt year of the Eeine of our Sover- 
 
616 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 aigne Lord Charles by the grace of God King of England Scot- 
 land ifrance and Ireland Defender of the Faith &c. and in the 
 yeare of our Lord god 1630. James Lister Yicar." 
 
 The Puritans defied both law and custom in the matter of 
 Lenten fare. " I have often noted," writes Taylor, in his " Jack 
 a Lent," " that if any superfluous, feasting or gormandizing, 
 paunch-cramming assembly do meet, it is so ordered that it must 
 be either in Lent, upon a Friday, or a fasting : for the meat doth 
 not relish well except it be sauced with disobedience and con- 
 tempt of authority. And though they eat sprats on a Sunday, they 
 care not, so that they may be full gorged on the Friday night." 
 
 James II. in 1687 by public proclamation in the London 
 Gazette enjoined abstinence from meat, adding that, under cer- 
 tain conditions of almsgiving to the poor, licenses to eat meat 
 might be obtained from an office in St. Paul's Churchyard. Next 
 year the Eevolution occurred. The statutes enforcing Lenten 
 fare remained a dead letter on the books until so recently as 
 1863, when they were repealed by the Statute Law Eevision Act. 
 
 By the Anglican Church, and the other Episcopal Churches 
 affiliated with it. Lent at present is observed in a modified way. 
 Moderate abstinence in the use of food is recommended, and an 
 intermission of gayety and pleasure, that more time may be 
 devoted to religious reflection, to contemplation, and to more ex- 
 tended public devotions, — the churches being constantly open for 
 the latter purpose. 
 
 In Eome at the present day Lent is full of movement and 
 of interest to the spectator who allows himself no stomachic 
 vacation from the foods he likes best. Dancing is indeed 
 eschewed by the orthodox, but evening receptions are more 
 plentiful than ever. If theatres are closed, concert-rooms are 
 open all the more ; and every day there is a " station" at some 
 church or other which is indicated in the "Diario Eomano." 
 For many a little church which is perhaps shut up almost all the 
 rest of the year this Lenten station is the gayest day of the 
 three hundred and sixty-five. The street near it is strewed with 
 sand and boxwood ; the unfailing beggars line the approach and 
 take up their position on the steps ; carriages are seen before the 
 door, and the pavement within is crowded with kneeling people, 
 among whom the visitor who is led by curiosity rather than by 
 devotion winds in and out in search of what is to be seen. 
 
 In Spanish countries Lent was represented as an old woman, 
 and in places the children would go about the streets dressed 
 fantastically, beating drums, shaking rattles, and crying, — 
 
 Saw down the old woman ; 
 Saw down the old woman. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 617 
 
 At midnight the commonalty, taking up the cry, would march 
 about the streets and knock at every door, shouting, — 
 
 Saw down the old "woman ; 
 Saw down the old woman, 
 
 concluding the ceremony by sawing in two the figure of an old 
 woman representing Lent. 
 
 In Naples there still lingers obsolescently a custom which was 
 once extremely popular. This is the making of the Quaresima 
 (literally, "Lent"), an eflSgy symbolical of the Lenten season, 
 a small rag doll wearing a black gown and a white head-dress. 
 
 Lenten Preparations. 
 (From a mediaeval German print.) 
 
 which seem to be a rough imitation of the conventual garb. In 
 her hand she carries a distaff heavily laden with flax, and a 
 spindle. She has no legs, but where they ought to be is a pointed 
 stick, one end of which is thrust into her body, while the other 
 supports an orange. Seven quills are stuck into the fruit, to 
 denote the seven weeks of Lent. Below the orange is suspended 
 an osier hoop, to which are hung specimens of the various kinds 
 of food permitted during Lent, as well as two small bottles, one 
 filled with wine and the other with spirits. On Ash Wednesday 
 she is either hung from a single window or more usually dangled 
 from the middle of a rope whose ends are fastened to opposite 
 windows across the street. Every Saturday in Lent one of the 
 seven quill feathers is pulled out, amid great rejoicing. 
 
 On Holy Saturday La Quaresima is lowered from her high 
 position and placed upon her pyre. A packet of gunpowder is 
 
618 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 i 
 
 fastened under the rough gown, which by this time has become 
 sadly shabby and weather-worn, and the little bonfire is lighted. 
 Then, when the puppet flies blazing through the air, squibs and 
 crackers are let off, and everyone rejoices that the fast is almost 
 at an end. ]^o meat must be eaten for this one day more, it is 
 true, but cakes and confectionery afford a dainty foretaste of the 
 coming feast. 
 
 Two popular legends give conflicting accounts of the personality 
 of La Quaresima. In one she is represented as an aged and 
 shrivelled personage who on. midnight of Shrove Tuesday at the 
 time when the good Carnival was at the height of his jollity ap- 
 peared to interrupt the festivities. Carnival asked his old enemy 
 why she had left her nunnery to trouble the world, since she 
 brought only the things that everybody disliked and the things 
 everybody hated, to which she replied that Carnival himself 
 was a good-for-nothing prodigal and spendthrift, who would soon 
 ruin the world if she did not come to set matters right. Finally 
 Carnival fled before her eloquence. But the men and women 
 who loved him and hated her fell upon the old witch and finally 
 beat her to death. 
 
 In the otber legend Quaresima is no nun, but the wife of Car- 
 nival, who is greatly provoked at his riotous living and the good 
 things he demands and devours day by day, and the quarrel ends 
 by the husband thrusting the distaff into the wife's hands and 
 bidding her spin on and remain as lean as she has always been. 
 
 The Sundays in Lent are known theologically as First, Second, 
 and so on. An old rhyme thus gives their popular names : 
 
 Tid, mid, and misera, 
 Carling, Palm, Pase-Egg Day. 
 
 The meanings of the first three words are hopelessly lost, 
 though probably connected with obsolete services for the days. 
 
 Carling Sunday is now better known as Mid-Lent or Mothering 
 Sunday. Pase-Egg Day is Easter. 
 
 On the first Sunday in Lent many German rural districts held 
 their burning-wheel celebrations, which have now been trans 
 ferred to St. John's Eve. In the Eifel Mountains of Ehenish 
 Prussia a great wheel was made of straw and dragged by three 
 horses to the top of a hill. Thither the village boys marched at 
 nightfall, set fire to the wheel, and sent it rolling down the slope. 
 In the Ehon Mountains of Bavaria the people would march to 
 the top of some eminence. Children and lads carried torches, 
 brooms daubed with tar, and poles swathed in straw. A wheel 
 wrapped in straw was kindled and rolled down the hill, and the 
 young people rushed about the fields with burning torches and 
 brooms, till at last they flung them in a heap, and, standing 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 619 
 
 around ihera, struck up a hymn or a popular song. Sometimes 
 the object was explained to be " to drive away the wicked 
 sower," sometimes as a propitiation of the Virgin, that she 
 might preserve the fruits of the earth throughout the year and 
 bless them. (Farrar : The Golden Bough, vol. ii. pp. 248, 249.) 
 
 Leonard, St. (Lat. Leonardus ; It. Leonardo; Fr. Leonard 
 or Lienard ; Bavarian, Leonharf), patron saint of prisoners and 
 slaves, and in Bavaria of cattle. His festival occurs on the 6th 
 of November. 
 
 Brought up at the court of King Tbeodebert of France, St. 
 Leonard took a great interest in prisoners and did all in his 
 power to relieve them. Weary of court life, he finally retired 
 to a wilderness near Limoges and became a hermit. One day 
 the king and queen with a retinue rode by to tbe chase. The 
 queen was taken with the pains of childbirth near the saint's 
 retreat ; he appeared and prayed for the queen, who was safely 
 delivered. The king in gratitude gave the saint a portion of 
 the forest, which he cleared, and founded a religious community. 
 He would never accept a higher office in the Church than that 
 of deacon. He died about 560. In a list of holidays published 
 at Worcester in 1240 St. Leonard's festival is ordered to be kept 
 as a half-holiday, and all labor save that of the plough is pro- 
 hibited. In the Bavarian highlands and other portions of the 
 German Alps he is especially reverenced as the patron of cattle. 
 His portrait hangs in front of each stable door, and displays the 
 saint with uplifted crosier ; at his feet, a ewe ; to the right, a 
 foal ; and to the left, a sick ox. For these as patients St. Leon- 
 ard is summoned as phj^sician.in ordinary, but, as nowadays all 
 are speciajists, his assistance is not so much required. He has 
 multiplied by himself, and is adored in many localities with a 
 different object : in one place he is especially famed as a healer 
 for horses, in another for cows, and in still other places (as 
 child-doctor) for calves. 
 
 His festival, known as the Leonhartsfahrt, is celebrated 
 everywhere in the highlands, and-with especial ceremony in the 
 little church of Fischhausen, which lies at the end of the 
 Schliersee, in Prussia. Unless it falls on the Sabbath it is post- 
 poned to the succeeding Sunday, when wagons crowned with 
 plaits of pine branches and harnessed with powerful horses ap- 
 proach the church from all sides. Above their collars waves a 
 red cloth. In the wagon itself sits the master, with his mate, 
 in Sunday attire. Those who cannot produce a four-in-hand 
 come with a pair, or a simple one-horse vehicle wherein there is 
 room enough for both man and wife. The servant drives neigh- 
 ing horses ; others approach mounted, and amicably call upon 
 
620 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 their stallion not to obstruct the ancient rite. The cattle, also, 
 returned from the pastures, are in many parts brought to the 
 Leonhartsfahrt, and the shepherdess, in trim bodice, who drives 
 them, wears an extra bunch of flowers to-day on her pointed hat. 
 
 Before the procession marches, there is held a solemn mass. 
 The clear voices of the children and the full tones of the organ 
 swell from the little church, while the crowd stands before the 
 open door in quiet devotion. 
 
 After divine service, the course commences : each wagon 
 drives around three times at a rapid trot ; vehicles and postilions 
 are mixed up pell-mell ; the arches of leaves which are erected 
 over each carriage, and which enframe the passengers, shake 
 with the commotion ; the variegated pennants which adorn the 
 two sides of the wagon flutter in the breeze, and many a passing 
 word, many a greeting, flies among the motley throng. 
 
 The stalls, also, which are to-day erected under the lime-trees, 
 filled with all sorts of pretty trifles, have plenty of visitors, and 
 the fair peasants purchase here their silken neckerchiefs, and 
 also take sugar-drops for the children. At last the strange 
 crowd disperses. There is a dance in the " Neuhaus." Every 
 festival ends with a frolic. Old and young are collected, and 
 none but the most feeble rest. They go and sit with folded 
 hands near the sunny wall. Their grandchildren are in the 
 dance. They listen. The melodies are the same that they 
 themselves danced to forty and fifty jxars before. Most of those 
 that then were gay are dead, only the hills and the valleys and 
 the customs remain, and they gaze and weep inward tears, while 
 upon their withered faces there rest smiles that belie themselves, 
 and are not happy, but only sad ^nd mournful. (TAe Bavarian 
 Highlands and the Salzkammergut, by Herman Schmid and Karl 
 Stieler. London : Chapman and Hall, 1875.) 
 
 Liberalia. An ancient Eoman festival, celebrated on the 
 17th of March, in honor of the Eoman deity Liber, who was 
 identified by the Eomans of classical times with the Greek 
 Dionysos, the god of wine. But wine was placed by the ancient 
 Eomans under the special protection of Jupiter, the god of the 
 atmosphere and weather ; they had no special god of wine ; and 
 Liber, as the name indicates, was associated with the idea of 
 freedom. On this day the boy who had reached a suitable age 
 (usually seventeen) was formally admitted to manhood. He laid 
 aside his boyish toga with purple border — toga prcetexta — and 
 assumed that of a man, the plain robe of unbleached wool, — toga 
 virilis ; the hulla^ or ornament worn about the neck of the child, 
 was consecrated to the lares^ or household gods, after which the 
 young man was conducted by his father or guardian to the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 621 
 
 Forum, where he appeared as a citizen. The day ended with a 
 sacrifice and a banquet, and now for the first time he bore a 
 name of his own. This was the celebration of the day for 
 young men coming into manhood. The citizens at large offered 
 on this day little sweet cakes to Liber, which were sold in the 
 streets by old women crowned with ivy, who had with them 
 portable hearths or altars for the use of the votaries. 
 
 Lich- or Corpse-Gate. The word lich means " corpse," and 
 the fundamental idea of the lich-gate is that of a resting-place 
 at the entrance to the churchyard, where the coffin may be set 
 down. This was primarily for the benefit of the pall-bearers, as 
 most of the old English churches are set well back from the 
 street. It is also customary to set down the coffin while the 
 bier is brought from the church. The coffin is placed on the 
 bier and carried into the church. This has been long the custom 
 at the Church of the Transfiguration. The rubrical direction in 
 the Prayer Book now in use says that the priest and clerks are 
 to meet the body at the entrance to the churchyard, but Prayer 
 Books printed in the sixteenth century direct that the body shall 
 be met at the church stile or lich gate. The gate also serves as 
 a general entrance to the churchyard. 
 
 It is known that lich gates existed in England thirteen cen- 
 turies ago, but comparatively few remain, and hardly any of 
 these are more than four hundred years old. The explanation is 
 that at first most of the gates were built entirely of wood. 
 These have disappeared by decay. Most of the older remaining 
 lich-gates are found in wide-spread parishes and mountainous 
 districts. They are most common in Devon, Cornwall, and 
 Wales. In olden times the body was borne to its burial by 
 friends or neighbors, and where the distances were great the 
 time of arrival was somewhat uncertain, and the lich gate, being 
 roofed, afforded shelter on rainy days and a waiting-place at all 
 times. 
 
 The most common form of the lich-gate is a simple shed com- 
 posed of a roof with two gable ends, covered with either tiles 
 or thatch, and supported by strong timbers, well braced together. 
 Frequently, however, they are built of stone, and they vary 
 greatly in the manner of construction. At Berry Harbor is a 
 lich-gate in the form of a cross. At Troutbeck, in Westmore- 
 land, there are three lich-gates in one churchyard. Some of the 
 gates have chambers over them. At Tavistock there is a small 
 room on each side of the gate, having seats on three sides and a 
 table in the centre. In this, as in some other cases, provision is 
 made either for the distribution of alms or for the rest and re- 
 freshment of funeral attendants. It was once a common custom 
 
622 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Ski funerals, especially in Scotland, to hold a feast at the church 
 gate. These feasts sometimes led to great excesses. The custom) 
 has been discontinued, but it may afford an explanation of the] 
 purpose for which the lich-gate rooms were built. 
 
 In some gates lich-stones are found. Frequently such stones! 
 are found without the gate. The lich-stone is used as a rest for 
 the coffin. It is either oblong, with the ends of equal width, or 
 in the shape of the ancient coffin, narrower at one end than at 
 the other, but without any bend at the shoulder. It stands atj 
 the centre of the entrance, and has on each side stone seats oi 
 which the bearers rest while the coffin remains on the stonej 
 Yery rarely lich-stones are found at a distance from the church- 
 yard, being doubtless intended as rests for the coffin on its waj 
 to burial. It is thought the several beautiful crosses erected b^ 
 King Edward I. at the points where the body of his queen, 
 Eleanor, rested on its way from Herdeby, in Lincolnshire, t( 
 Westminster were built over the lich-stones on which her coffii 
 was placed. 
 
 Life-Boat Saturday. The third Saturday in May is devote( 
 under this name to the exploitation of the Life-Saving Servic( 
 in many of the inland and other provincial towns of Greal 
 Britain. On May 16, 1896, the observance extended for the first 
 time to London, the hall and the gardens of the Imperial Insti- 
 tute being surrendered for the purpose. Members of the Naj 
 tional Life-BoaL Institution and of the Ambulance Brigades, an(' 
 other coast-guard institutions, give exhibitions of their prowess, 
 and there are processions by the guardsmen boys from the train- 
 ing-ships and by the boys and girls of the orphan asylums sup- 
 ported by the Life-Boat Institution. The proceeds of the various 
 celebrations all over the kingdom, which in individual cities have 
 often run up to thousands of pounds, are devoted as far as possi- 
 ble to making provision for men injured, disabled, or superannu 
 ated, and for the widows and orphans of those who die in the] 
 service. 
 
 Lilies of Nola. (It. Gigli di Nola.) The little city of ]N'ola, 
 near Naples, on every June 24 (the feast of its patron, St. Paul- 
 inus) is the scene of a curious annual ceremony known by this 
 name. Originally these lilies may have been merely pyramids 
 of flowers carried in a procession in honor of the saint. To-day] 
 they are huge turreted structures, eighty or ninety feet high,] 
 adorned with statues, ornamental friezes, bass-reliefs, and em-l 
 blems, and built on movable platforms which are borne on the! 
 shoulders of some twoscore facchini, or porters, who carry 
 them through the streets of the town. Not only that, but the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. ■ 623 
 
 facchini actually dance the steps of the tarantella in the Square 
 of St. Paulinus around the statue of the saint prior to the start 
 of the parade. A fanfara^ or band of trumpeters, snugly en- 
 sconced in the first-floor balcony of each lily, sets the proper 
 pace. 
 
 These lilies are built at the expense of the eight town guilds, — 
 tailors, carpenters, shoemakers, blacksmiths, grocers, butchers, 
 bakers, and agriculturists. The ensign or emblem of the par- 
 ticular guild is displayed above each : a man's waistcoat for 
 the tailors ; an adze for the carpenters ; a last for the shoe- 
 makers ; an iron anvil for the smiths ; a flask of wine and a 
 cheese for the grocers ; a horned ox-head for the butchers ; a loaf 
 of bread for the bakers; a sheaf of wheat for the agriculturists. 
 Small boys infest the rigging, and a triumphal female sits in 
 state under the central arch. Each lily weighs about three tons 
 and costs about three hundred dollars. The filigree ornaments 
 are all done in paste and papier-mache. Hence they must be 
 done in a hurrj', else an accidental shower might melt them 
 back into paste. 
 
 But on June 24, if that be a fine day, these Aladdin structures, 
 these births of a single night, present a most decorative appear- 
 ance. They are borne in solemn procession behind the image of 
 the saint, and all I^ola goes wild with dehght. 
 
 Lincoln's Birthday. Abraham Lincoln was born in Ken- 
 tucky on February 12, 1809. He was shot in Washington on 
 April 14, and died on the morning of April 15, 1865. Twenty- 
 two years after his death (on Februarv 12, 1887) the Ecpublican 
 Club of New York city gave its initial Lincoln dinner, with 
 Benjamin F. Harrison, Chauncey M. Depew, Frank Hiscock, 
 and others among the orators. The Lincoln dinner has ever 
 since been celebrated by the club on the recurring anniversary^, 
 and has proved the parent of many similar commemorations. 
 In Illinois, of which State Lincoln was a resident when elected 
 to the Presidency, a movement was initiated to make his birth- 
 day a legal holiday. In 1892 the ^legislature acceded to the pop- 
 ular wish. In 1896, New York, Minnesota, New Jersey, and 
 Washington followed in the wake of Illinois. An unsuccessful 
 attempt was made in the Fifty-Third Congress to have the holi- 
 day declared national. 
 
 Lion Sermon. An annual sermon preached on the 16th of 
 October in every year at the church of St. Katherine Cree, 
 Leadenhall Street, London, in commemoration of the miraculous 
 deliverance of Sir John Gayer, whilom mayor of London. 
 
 Sir John Gayer was a mer(.hant venturer, and accompanied an 
 
624 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 expedition to the East, when, getting separated from the cara- 
 van at night, he found himself confronted by lions, praj-ed the 
 prayer of Daniel for deliverance, and his life was saved. That 
 night was the 16th of October, — the date commemorated by this 
 annual sermon. Another notable episode in the life of Sir John 
 Gayer as lord mayor was his committal to the Tower, with four 
 aldermen, for refusing to comply with the demand which Par- 
 liament, in 1647, when it no longer represented the nation, made 
 upon the Corporation of London for a subsidy for the troops. 
 That incarceration probably hastened Sir John's death. He 
 died in the good old faith in which he had lived, and left money 
 for the maintenance of the " Lion Sermon," which records his 
 memory and his wonderful deliverance. 
 
 Llechllafar. (Welsh, " Speaking Stone.") A famous slab of 
 marble, described by Giraldus as ten feet in length, six feet in 
 breadth, and one foot in thickness, which anciently formed a 
 stepping-stone across the little river Alan opposite the west front 
 of the cathedral of St. David's in Wales. Its place is now taken 
 by a bridge of rugged stone, built probably in the fifteenth cen- 
 tury. The stone was regarded with peculiar reverence from the 
 circumstance that it occasionally exercised the faculty of speech, 
 and it was held unlawful to pollute it by the presence of a dead 
 body. Once, in violation of the prohibition, a corpse was carried 
 across it. It broke out into indignant remonstrance ; but the 
 exertion was too much for it, and it split in consequence. Merlin 
 foretold that on this stone a king of England, returning from 
 the conquest of Ireland, was destined to die, wounded by a red- 
 handed man, a prediction applied to Henry II. by a woman whose 
 petition he had rejected. The king stopped, made an oration to 
 the stone, and, according to Giraldus (Itin. Cambr., ii. 1), passed 
 over undaunted and scathless, to make his orisons at the shrine 
 of St. David. 
 
 The following note of one John Hooker, alias Yowell, on 
 Holinshed's " Chronicle of Ireland," p. 25, is interesting : 
 
 " The writer hereof (of vere purpose), in the year 1575, went 
 to the aforesaid place to see the said stone, but there was no such 
 to be found ; and the place where the said stone was said to be 
 is now an arched bridge, under which fleeteth the brook afore- 
 said. . . . And for the veritie of the foresaid stone there is no 
 certaintie affirmed, but a report is remaining amongst the 
 common people of such a stone to have been there in times 
 past." 
 
 Loch-mo-Naire. A lake in Strathnavon, Sutherlandshire, 
 Scotland, famous for its supposed miraculous healing qualities. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 625 
 
 Tradition, as usual, has its easy explanation as to the manner 
 in which the loch obtained its peculiar virtues and the name 
 which it now bears. A woman had somehow become the pos- 
 sessor of bright crystal stones which when placed in water had 
 the power of rendering the liquid an infallible cure for all "the 
 ills to which flesh is heir." The fame of the wonder-working 
 pebbles soon spread far and wide. As it spread it excited the 
 cupidity of a member of the neighboring clan Gordon, who de- 
 termined to secure the miraculous crystals for the exclusive use 
 of himself and his kin. To make sure of his purpose, he feigned 
 sickness. As soon, however, as he presented himself, the woman 
 divined his intention and fled. But escape was impossible, as she 
 was advanced in years and her pursuer had youth and swiftness 
 on his side. Yet rather than surrender her charm-stones she 
 threw them into the first lake to which she came, exclaiming, as 
 she did, Mo naire ! — z.e., " shame !" — and declaring that its waters 
 should heal all who dipped in them or drank of them, excepting 
 such as belonged to the accursed Gordon tribe. 
 
 This tradition, like many a similar one, is evidently very much 
 more recent than the superstition connected with the lake. Loch- 
 mo-Naire does not really mean " the loch of shame," but " the 
 serpent's loch," — the word for serpent, nathair, being pronounced 
 exactly in the same way as naire, " shame." This manifestly 
 points to the great archaeological fact that almost everywhere 
 the serpent is represented as the guardian of waters supposed 
 to possess curative virtues. It is also the recognized emblem of 
 ^sculapius, the god of the healing art, who himself sometimes 
 appeared in the form of a serpent. 
 
 Loch-mo-^NTaire used to be visited regularly on the first Monday 
 (Old Style) of each season of the year, but especially during May 
 and August, which were considered the most favorable months. 
 Those who went in order to be cured had to be there before mid- 
 night. When the hour of twelve arrived, the voices that till 
 then were loud in conversation became at once silenced, and the 
 ceremonies began. The candidates for healing — the paralytic 
 and the halt, the nervous and th6^ insane — had first to go, sun- 
 wise, thrice round a well which springs up in a small belt of sand 
 that fringes the north end of the lake, and to drink a copious 
 draught of its clear, cooling water. After this preliminary rite, 
 it was further necessary that they should strip and be led out 
 backward into the lake. They had then to be dipped three 
 times, to drink some of the water, to throw behind them a silver 
 coin as a thank-ofi'ering to the spirit of the loch, and to be away 
 from the spot before the break of day. It not unfrequently 
 happened that while this part of the observance was being 
 enacted very painful sights were witnessed. 
 
 40 
 
626 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 A spectator, writing in August, 1871, gives the following sad 
 picture of what he saw on that occasion : " About twelve stripped 
 and walked into the loch, performing their ablutions three times. 
 Those who were not able to act for themselves were assisted, 
 some of them being led willingly, and others by force, for there 
 were cases of each kind. One young woman, strictly guarded, 
 was an object of great pity. She raved in a distressed manner, 
 repeating rehgious phrases, some of which were very earnest 
 and pathetic. She prayed her guardians not to immerse her, 
 saying that it was not a communion occasion, and asking if they 
 could call this righteousness or faithfulness, or if 1 hey could com- 
 pare the loch and its virtues to the right arm of Christ. These 
 utterances were enough to move an}^ person hearing them." 
 
 Loggan or Logging Stone. The most famous of the rock- 
 ing stones in Great Britain. It is situated on a peninsula of 
 granite near Land's End, in Cornwall. The stone is poised upon 
 a pyramid of rock, very near the edge of the precipice, down 
 which it seems to threaten, every instant, to fall. A very small 
 force, or even a strong wind, will put this stone, though com- 
 puted to weigh upward of eighty tons, into a state of vibra- 
 tion, which continues for some minutes. Yet it is believed in 
 the neighborhood that the stone has lost some of its elasticity 
 of vibration since 1824. In that year it is said that a certain 
 lieutenant in the royal navy commanding a cutter stationed off 
 the south coast of Cornwall was told of an ancient proverb that 
 no human power should ever succeed in overturning the Loggan 
 stone. In a youthful spirit of bravado he determined to falsify 
 the saying. With the aid of a body of picked men from his 
 crew, he succeeded in dislodging the stone, but it luckily got 
 caught in a crevice in the rocks immediately below the pyramidal 
 rock on which it had been balanced, and so was saved from fall- 
 ing down the sheer precipice into the sea. 
 
 The news of the outrage was soon communicated throughout 
 the district, and thence throughout all Cornwall. The indigna- 
 tion of the whole country was aroused. Antiquaries who be- 
 lieved the Loggan stone to have been balanced by the Druids, 
 philosophers who held that it was produced by an eccentricity 
 of natural formation, ignorant people who cared nothing about 
 Druids or natural formations, but who liked to climb up and rock 
 the stone whenever they passed near it, tribes of guides who 
 lived by showing it, innkeepers in the neighborhood, to whom it 
 brought customers by hundreds, tourists of every degree, who 
 were on their way to see it, — all joined in one general clamor of 
 execration against the overthrow er of the rock. A full report 
 of the affair was forwarded to the Admiralty ; and the Admiralty 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 627 
 
 acted vigorously for the public advantage, and mercifully spared 
 the public purse. 
 
 The lieutenant was oflScially informed that his commission was 
 in danger unless he set up the Loggan stone again in its proper 
 place. The materials for compassing this achievement were 
 offered to him gratis from the dockyards, but he was left to his 
 own resources to defray the expense of employing wprkmen to 
 help him. Being by this time awakened to a proper sense of the 
 mischief he had done, and to a tolerably strong conviction of 
 the disagreeable position in which he was placed with the Admi- 
 ralty, he addressed himself vigorously to the task of repairing 
 his fault. Strong beams were planted about the Logman stone, 
 chains were passed round it, pullej^s were rigged, and capstans 
 manned. After a week's hard work and brave perseverance on 
 the part of every one employed in the labor, the rock was pulled 
 back into its former position, but not into its former perfection 
 of balance ; it has never moved since as freely as it moved before. 
 
 Longchamps. The annual cavalcade of Parisians to Long- 
 champs, in the Bois de Boulogne, arose during the reign of Louis 
 X.YL. from a visit which certain exalted ladies were in the habit 
 of paying on Good Friday to the Longchamps nunnery, where 
 the choral service in the chapel, conducted by young ladies se- 
 lected for their good voices and carefully trained, was one of 
 unusual attractiveness. By degrees the visitors brought their 
 friends with them, then gentlemen; then the court came; then 
 the press of visitors became so large that special choral services 
 were held on the Saturday of Holy Week, on Easter Sunday, 
 and on the two following days; until at length the cavalcade 
 to Longchamps became as a yearly fair. Booths were erected, 
 strolling players and dancing dogs congregated ; instead of re- 
 turning to Paris immediately after the service, the fashion arose 
 of stopping to lunch rustically in the open air. During the 
 Ee volution the Longchamps nunnery vanished, but the Long- 
 champs fair continued, and it flourishes to this day, no longer as 
 a thing for booths and picnics, butt as a three days' drive to the 
 Bois de Boulogne, in which the new spring fashions are worn 
 for the first time, and everybody possessed of a barouche and 
 horse airs them. 
 
 Loreto, Holy House of. (It. Santa Casa di Loreto.) A 
 famous pilgrimage shrine, reputed to be the veritable house 
 wherein the Virgin Mary lived in Nazareth, which is now pre- 
 served in the Chiesa della Santa Casa in Loreto, near Ancona, 
 Italy. The church itself is a beautiful late-pointed building. 
 The Santa Casa, which stands under the central dome, is forty- 
 
628 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 four feet long, twenty -nine and a half wide, and thirty-six high : 
 it is encased in marble, with columns, and niches, and panels 
 whereon Sansovino has sculptured scenes from the life of the 
 Virgin. The interior is disposed as a chapel, and displays the 
 rough masonry of the original structure. At the eastern end of 
 the Casa stands an altar, and behind the altar is a niche en- 
 shrining an image of the Virgin and Child, which is said to have 
 been carved by St. Luke out of olive wood. It is now black 
 with age and smoke. Precious crowns of gold are on each head, 
 and the Madonna is covered from head to foot with a blaze of 
 diamonds and jewelry. 
 
 According to legend, it was the Empress Helena who discovered 
 the Santa Casa, as well as the true cross (see Cross, Invention 
 OF the), on her famous pilgrimage to the sacred places of Pales- 
 tine. She identified the house at Nazareth partly by its narrow- 
 ness and meagre appointments, but chiefly by a certain holy 
 dread that it inspired. She caused a basilica to be built over it, 
 which was visited and revered by countless thousands, until its 
 destruction in the final conquest of Palestine by the Saracens. 
 The Holy House, however, was not allowed to perish with its 
 enclosing shrine. During the night of the 10th of May, 1291, it 
 was miraculously severed from its foundations and borne through 
 the air by angels to the hill of Tersatto, in lUyria. Here its 
 divine origin was immediately recognized (1) by St. Luke's 
 sculpture of the Virgin and Child, (2) by an altar at which St. 
 Peter had said mass, (3) by various relics of the Holy Family 
 and of more recent piety, (4) by the same nameless dread that 
 had convinced the Empress Helena, and (5) by the fact that, 
 unsupported by any foundation, it still stood firm and level on 
 uneven ground. The identity of the house was finally estab- 
 lished by a commission which went to Palestine and found by 
 careful measurements that the original foundations tallied ex- 
 actly with the dimensions of the structure at Tersatto. 
 
 It is said that Tersatto attracted a large number of pilgrims, 
 who were generous with their offerings and lavish with their 
 devotions. Yet after three years the Virgin seems to have grown 
 dissatisfied. On the night of the 10th of December, 1294, the 
 angels again took up their precious burden, and deposited it in a 
 wood not far from the present Loreto. The wonders and verifi- 
 cations of Tersatto were repeated. But this site was even worse 
 chosen than the last. The wealth of the pilgrims attracted rob- 
 bers, who murdered and pillaged with impunity under the pro- 
 tecting shadows of the wood. A third miraculous translation, a 
 mile farther inland, made on a morning in August, 1295, resulted 
 in a deadly feud between two brothers, joint owners of the land, 
 and the sacred shrine, being in danger of defilement through 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 629 
 
 fratricidal bloodshed, was a fourth time supernaturally borne in 
 air and finally planted in the middle of a public road belonging 
 to the commune of Eecanati, crushing down in its descent, as 
 was discovered in 1751, a certain prickly bush by the roadside, 
 and covering over some acorn-yhells, a snail-shell, and a dried 
 nut. Almost immediately the authorities hastened to surround 
 the Holy House with a brick wall for purposes of support, inas- 
 much as it had no foundation, but the sacred walls would never 
 adhere to the new ones, and broke asunder so far that a little 
 child could pass between with a light in his hand, to show the 
 people, when necessary, the truth of this separation. A number 
 of porticos were soon erected around the house, in which the 
 pilgrims might be sheltered from the weather, and above these 
 porticos some rooms which served as a lodging to the priests 
 were attached to the House. In the course of time the church 
 which contains the Holy House under its dome was erected. 
 It seems to have been begun about the year 1468 by Pope 
 Paul II., and was greatly added to and beautified by Clement 
 YII. Then followed the exquisite setting to the House itself, 
 in which Bramante, Sansovino, and other famous artists were 
 
 Hither have come pilgrims from all climes. Their knees have 
 hollowed the marble base that surrounds the holy shrine. Their 
 kisses have polished the bricks of the wall. The greatest saints of 
 the Church, Popes, sovereigns, the noble and the good, have been 
 among the throng. Fine ladies left here their diamonds, the 
 rich made offerings of gold and precious stones, until a treasury 
 of immense value was accumulated, which, dissipated in 1797 
 when the French soldiers under Napoleon pillaged the shrine, 
 has in our century grown again to wonderful proportions. Upon 
 the room and the cases which contain these gifts Cardinal Anton 
 Maria Gallo spent more than a quarter of a million dollars. The 
 superb church with its beautiful bronzes, its altar-piece of mosaic, 
 its rare marbles, and the growth of the entire city of Loreto, 
 must also be accounted tributes to, the shrine. 
 
 Clement YII. allowed the festival of the translation of the 
 Holy House to be celebrated at Loreto on December 10. Urban 
 YIII. extended the feast to all the churches of the neighboring 
 marches in 1632. Innocent XII. approved a special oflSce for the 
 festival in 1669 ; and in 1724 Benedict XIII. extended the cele- 
 bration to the States of the Church. By a decree of August 31, 
 1669, the congregation of Sacred Eites added, with Papal con- 
 firmation, to the Eoman Martyrology the following notice on 
 December 10: "At Loreto in the Marches the Translation of 
 the House of St. Mary Mother of God, in which the Word was 
 incarnate." 
 
630 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 I 
 
 Louis, St. (Lat. Ludovicus ; It. IJuigi.) His festival is 
 celebrated on the day of his death, August 25. 
 
 St. Louis was born at Poissy in 1215, and was the son of Louis 
 VIII. and Blanche of Castile. He succeeded his father as King 
 of France in 1226. In 1247 he was taken very ill, and made a 
 vow that if he recovered he would go to the Holy Land. He 
 sailed for Egypt with an army of fifty thousand men. After 
 many disasters, he was made prisoner, but was finally ransomed, 
 and returned to France. In 1270 he embarked on another cru- 
 sade, but fell a victim to the plague at Tunis, and died on Au- 
 gust 25, 1270. Some of his relics were taken to Palermo, and 
 the remainder were laid in the church of St. Denis at Paris. 
 These were mostly destroyed during the Eevolution. A jaw-bone 
 and one of the saint's shirts are exhibited at Notre-Dame. His 
 attributes in art are a crown of thorns, his kingly crown, and 
 his sword. St. Louis was canonized by Boniface YIII. in 1297. 
 
 Lourdes, Our Lady of. (Fr. Notre-Dame de JLourdes.) A 
 cave or grotto in Lourdes, a village in the south of France, 
 which is now the most famous Catholic shrine in all Christen- 
 dom. Its fame dates from the yea-r 1858, when the Virgin 
 Mary is said to have appeared in this grotto to a young girl 
 named Bernadette Soubirous. At that time Lourdes was a sim- 
 ple mountain town, proud of a castle rich in historical memo- 
 ries, and rejoicing in its fertilizing river Gave and its mountains, 
 which, courtesying aside, allow it to peep up the lovely Pyre- 
 nean valley. The world forgetting, it had been forgotten by the 
 world. Now everything is changed. The streets are thronged 
 with strangers from all parts of the world. At the great annual 
 pilgrimage which occurs in September during the octave of the 
 Feast of the Nativity of the Virgin as many as forty thousand 
 people pour in on railway-cars, in carts and wagons, and even 
 on foot. Hotels, shops, and booths are everywhere. A mag- 
 nificent basilica dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes has risen 
 over the holy grotto. The sleepy little town has opened its eyes 
 to a new and wonderful life. 
 
 And a girl of fourteen wrought this marvellous transforma- 
 tion ! 
 
 Bernadette Soubirous was a peasant, a native of the place, 
 ignorant, pious, and by all accounts utterly guileless and simple- 
 minded. Though too weakly to attend school, she was not in 
 bad health. She was so attached to her beads that her play- 
 fellows used to say, " She is no good save to say her rosaries" 
 (Celle-la n'est bonne que pour dire ses chapelets"). 
 
 Now, just outside of the city there was a cave or grotto, called 
 La Grotte de Massabielle, — massabielle meaning, in the patois 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 631 
 
 of the country, '' old rocks," — situated in an unfrequented 
 locality on the banks of the Gave, one among many similar for- 
 mations. 
 
 It happened that on the 11th day of February, 1858, little 
 Bernadette, with her sister and another girl, came hither to gather 
 wood for burning. Her two companions had preceded her a few 
 steps, and had partly filled their aprons with sticks gathered 
 near the rocks, when, glancing backward, they saw Bernadette 
 on her knees in the attitude of prayer, with her gaze fixed in- 
 tently upon the interior of the cave. 
 
 What had happened was this. While her companions were 
 at work she had heard a sound as of a sudden gust of wind. She 
 had looked around. All was still. The poplars and bushes on 
 the banks of the river were motionless. Surely, she thought, 
 she had been mistaken. But once again the sound arose, louder 
 now, and unmistakably proceeding from the cave. Turning her 
 head again quickly, her startled eyes encountered a vision that 
 made her tremble in all her limbs and full half swooning to her 
 knees. 
 
 A woman of surpassing beauty stood at the entrance of the 
 cave, surrounded by an aureole of inefiable brightness, not like 
 sunlight, but rather like a bundle of rays, softened by a gentle 
 shade, which irresistibly attracted the gaze, and on which the 
 eyes reposed with ecstatic delight. 
 
 Bernadette tried to make the sign of the cross, but failed. 
 The vision smiled a smile of gracious kindliness, and, with a mild 
 gesture, made the mystic passes herself Then the child was 
 able to do the same, and even as she was uttering the final words 
 of the Hail Mary the vision disappeared. 
 
 Her two companions had seen nothing of the apparition. This 
 she learned by questioning them. She kept her own counsel. 
 With two other friends she returned to the cave next day. Not 
 to them, either, had she mentioned her reasons for wishing to 
 seek the cave of the Massabielle. Again the lady appeared. 
 Again Bernadette was the only one who could see the apparition. 
 But, though her companions saw nothing, they afterwards testi- 
 fied that Bernadette's face and figure became suddenly trans- 
 figured as she dropped on her knees before the grotto, and ac- 
 quired a nobleness and grandeur that seemed almost superhuman. 
 This time the apparition spoke, asking Bernadette to return to 
 the cave for fifteen consecutive days. 
 
 And now Bernadette thought she could safely consult her 
 family. The report of what she had seen and heard spread 
 with lightning-like rapidity through the city and surrounding 
 country, and during the visits which the child afterwards made 
 to the grotto she was followed by crowds of curious spectators. 
 
632 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 The time had come when these manifestations were to reach 
 their climax. It was the feast of the Annunciation, the day 
 when the angel Gabriel had communicated her destiny to the 
 Virgin Mary. The village priest, sceptical and scornful, had 
 asked Bernadette to exact a sign from the vision. " On the spot 
 where she appears," he said, " there grows a wild rose-bush. Tell 
 her to cause the roses to bloom at once, as if it were spring. If 
 before your eyes and the eyes of all present that prodigy occurs, 
 you may promise her, on my part, that a handsome chapel shall 
 be built on the spot." 
 
 Thousands of people, who had poured in from the neighboring 
 villages, accompanied Bernadette to the cavern. Of course they 
 saw nothing. To their eyes the consecrated cave was but a com- 
 mon cavern, the holy niche wherein the vision appeared only a 
 plain, ivy-grown rock. One thing, however, they did see, and 
 that was the little maiden so lost in ecstasy at what she saw 
 that she seemed not to feel the flame of a burning candle. 
 When she rose she repeated the words she had heard from the 
 vision, which were, in brief, that the Yirgin wished the people to 
 be happy, and bade them eat the herb of that place and wash in 
 the water. When Bernadette had besought her for her name, 
 she had answered, " I am the Immaculate Conception." Straight- 
 way water flowed from the cave, and, although this was not the 
 sign which the incredulous priest had told the child to require as 
 the condition of his belief, it is the water and the words that 
 have made the Lourdes of to-day. 
 
 But Lourdes was not made without considerable opposition, 
 both from the ecclesiastical and from the civil authorities. At 
 first they did all they could to check popular manifestations, 
 fearing that superstitious excesses might be fatal to the interests 
 of religion, as well as dangerous to the public peace. The pre- 
 fect of police, regarding Bernadette as insane, ordered her to 
 be confined in a madhouse ; this, however, was avoided by her 
 friends, who placed her under conventual guardianship. The 
 grotto was enclosed with a strong palisade concealing the spring, 
 and people were warned away by a notice to commit no tres- 
 pass. Yotive offerings, such as bouquets of natural or artificial 
 flowers, pieces of money of all sorts and in great quantities, and 
 wax tapers, were removed. 
 
 Finally the story of the miraculous apparitions reached the 
 ears of I^apoleon III., who forthwith sent an imperial order re- 
 storing Bernadette to liberty and commanding the prefect to allow 
 free access to the grotto, and not to obstruct the people in the 
 manifestations of their religious faith. 
 
 Since that time manifestations have gone on increasing, and 
 that in most substantial forms. A handsome new bridge leads 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 633 
 
 to the scene of the visions. The surrounding hills are crowned 
 or dotted with buildings, clerical and lay, of all dimensions, — 
 convents, hospitals, calvaries, crosses, chapels, shrines. 
 
 A basilica of hewn stone crowns the hill above the grotto. 
 
 Beneath the church is a spacious crypt, known as the Chapel 
 of the Eosary, redolent of incense, and hung with ruby-colored 
 lamps and banners invoking Notre-Dame de Lourdes to pray for 
 Eome and France. 
 
 The grotto itself, small and enclosed with an iron palisade, is 
 all but filled with burning candles on iron stands, renewed as 
 they burn out. 
 
 As one faces the grotto the natural niche in which the vision 
 of the Virgin appeared to Bernadette is above and to the right. 
 In it has been placed a statue of the Virgin as Bernadette de- 
 scribed her, and over its head the words " I am the Immaculate 
 Conception." Beneath this statue and again in a great mass at 
 the grotto's left are hung the implements of illness which have 
 been discarded by the people who have been miraculously cured 
 at the shrine. There are five thousand crutches ; there are iron 
 frames for twisted limbs ; there are parts of invalids' chairs ; 
 there are trusses. Some of them are new, others smoked by 
 the candles or worn by the weather give mute testimony of the 
 Virgin's goodness to pilgrims of years gone by. 
 
 The place where Bernadette knelt on the 11th of February, 
 1858, is marked by a slab with due inscription, and is therefore 
 a favorite praying station. 
 
 The water that sprang so suddenly out of the rock no longer 
 trickles down the mossy bank, for the great rush of pilgrims and 
 the absolute impossibility of restraining their impatience and 
 putting a curb upon their rapture, which led them into such 
 indiscretions as throwing themselves headlong into the waters, 
 years a^o rendered primitive arrangements impossible. The 
 waters from the grotto are now received in a reservoir covered 
 with steel plate, and only through perforated holes in the cover- 
 ings can the pilgrims see them. From this reservoir the water 
 is carried in pipes some thirty yards to the left, where a score 
 of spigots are running night and day. Here the pilgrims drink, 
 and lave their travel-stained foreheads. Through other conduits, 
 and perhaps from the overflow of the spigots and. the laving 
 operations, the water is carried to the baths, which are situated 
 twenty yards farther to the left. 
 
 The baths, improperly called piscines, are small private cabi- 
 nets or closets like those found in ordinary pubhc bath estab- 
 lishments. The bathing and its results are consequently un- 
 seen, except by the attendants. Miraculous and sudden cures 
 are occasionally announced ; but Notre-Dame de Lourdes has a 
 
634 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 debtor as well as a creditor account. The waters of her phe- 
 nomenal spring can kill as well as cure. Not very long ago, an 
 ailing and elderly Breton gentleman, yielding to the urgency of 
 religious advisers, was plunged into the frigid bath, and died sud- 
 denly and unexpectedly on the spot. 
 
 At all points whence the water issues it is allowed to be taken 
 gratuitously ; but there is for sale a large choice of flasks and 
 cans for carrying away the holy water, of various sizes, plain, 
 and engraved with views of the shrine. 
 
 It may perhaps be well to say here that though the present 
 Pope has sent his papal benediction to the shrine, and though 
 very many cardinals visit it yearly, there are many princes of the 
 Church who dispute the authenticity of the vision and the con- 
 versations and occurrences which Bernadette reported. As a 
 general thing, the pilgrimages to Lourdes are encouraged, but 
 implicit belief in the apparition and in the miraculous origin 
 of the fountain is not enforced as an article of faith. 
 
 No doubts, however, assail the minds of the devotees who 
 come here day after day or join in the great September pilgrim- 
 age. The French government makes special arrangements on 
 the latter occasion for the transportation of the sick in what are 
 known as the White train and the Blue train. Eeduced rates are 
 offered to those whose priests and doctors certify that they are 
 fit subjects for the miraculous powers of the Yirgin Mary. Only 
 the sick and their friends can buy railroad-tickets by these trains. 
 Therefore only those whose appeals to human power have been 
 wholly useless are permitted to ride on them. 
 
 To the Gare St.-Lazare and the Gare de Lyon in Paris and to 
 the other stations along the road, when these trains are booked 
 to start, comes an awful procession of the afiiicted, some limping 
 on canes, some hobbling on crutches, some writhing with pain 
 on carefully swung litters lifted by the tender hands of relatives 
 or priests. In each car is a Sister trained to nurse,, binding with 
 gentle fingers horrid sores, and cleansing from the floors and 
 seats the disgusting evidences of hopeless sickness with her ever- 
 present sponge and basin. 
 
 Even the ordinary express, on which the charges are high, is 
 not without its quota of painful sights and sounds. Here is a 
 description given by a journalist, Edward Marshall, who attended 
 the pilgrimage of 1896 for the New York Journal : 
 
 "We left Paris at seven-fifty p.m., and reached Lourdes at 
 about three on the following afternoon. Nearly every carriage 
 in the train had its invalid or invalids, and many of the passen- 
 gers were pilgrims of one sort or another. Many, whose bodies 
 were whole, evidently intended to ask the Virgin to ease some 
 sorrow. During the hour of waiting at Toulouse my neighbors 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 635 
 
 at breakfast were a couple of very respectable French people, 
 who told me frankly that they were on their way to Lourdes to 
 beg the Virgin to grant a baby to them. Hundreds of childless 
 couples beg this boon of the Virgin every year. 
 
 " The journey was rendered weird and strange by the devotional 
 chants which rang solemnly out from a hundred open car-win- 
 dows whenever we stopped at a station, and whenever we slowed 
 enough so that the sound of the singing was not drowned by the 
 roar of the train itself. 
 
 " At four o'clock the first division of the White train arrived. 
 If the scene at the station when our train gave up its passengers 
 was startling, the scene when the cars of the White train vomited 
 forth their cargo of unfortunates was not less than awful. These 
 were the poorer pilgrims, — those who took advantage of the re- 
 duced railroad fares of the national pilgrimage. Most of them 
 came in the third-class carriages. Exhausted by the long journey, 
 they looked even more dreadful in their curiosities of misery than 
 they had looked at the station in Paris before they embarked. I 
 am told that seven unhappy creatures died on the train, and it is 
 true, I know, that one corpse was left lying on the seat of one 
 of the third-class carriages when it was switched away from the 
 station platform. 
 
 "The hospitallers were out in force to meet this train, and 
 they did their work wonderfully well. There were litters and 
 stretchers and wheeled beds, and chairs enough for the whole 
 vast number of helpless ones. Sisters of Mercy and nuns were 
 everywhere with basins and sponges. At least a hundred priests 
 passed in and out through the throng, praying, comforting, 
 exhorting the sufferers to have faith, to believe, to believe, to 
 believe. 
 
 "At night — and each night during my stay — there were the 
 superb processions. Starting from in front of the Basilica, whose 
 towering outlines were vividly marked against the darkness by 
 more than five thousand electric lights, not less than twenty 
 thousand pilgrims marched in t\yo widely separated lines^ each 
 one bearing a blessed candle shaded with paper on which the 
 image of the Virgin was printed, up a broad path, through the 
 Basilica Park to where a towering cross of fire flamed its holy 
 signal in the night, and back again to the great stone steps of 
 the Eosary Chapel, where, in the glow of innumerable vestas, 
 eloquent addresses were made by French and foreign priests and 
 a terrific out-door devotional service was held. 
 
 " At intervals in this long line of pilgrims were groups of 
 priests and choristers, who each ten minutes started the 'Ave 
 Maria,' in which the pilgrims joined with voices trembling but 
 wonderfully tuneful. No effort was made to have the whole 
 
636 CVRIOSITIES OF 
 
 procession chant in unison, so there was never a moment when 
 from half a dozen points in the long, blazing line the solemn! 
 singing did not come, — now near, now distant, — ' Ave Maria, Avej 
 Maria.' 
 
 " Up towards the beginning of the line were the bedridden, ! 
 wheeled slowly in all manner of nondescript conveyances. 
 Everywhere, scattered along the lines, were the lame, the halt, 
 and the blind, some of them assisted by sturdier pilgrims, others 
 hobbling along on crutches, with canes, in iron frames. The 
 night processions at Lourdes are spectacles such as are not to be 
 seen elsewhere in the whole world. 
 
 "But of course the interest centres most about the grotto. 
 There was never a moment during my eleven days in Lourdes 
 when there were not many people at the grotto. In the day the 
 crowds of course were vast, and midnight came before the mass 
 of the pilgrims had withdrawn to go to the hospital, — a truly 
 dreadful place, without modern sanitary appliances ; to the 
 shelter where the very poorest can sleep on stone benches and 
 the floor ; to the hotels. The night after the arrival of the White 
 train, the horrible coughing of a consumptive who was my room- 
 mate made sleep impossible at my hotel, and at two o'clock I 
 returned to the grotto. 
 
 "The plaza was comparatively deserted. From the grotto 
 came the soft glow of its thousand candles, which reaching 
 upward made the white-robed statue of the Virgin stand out 
 from the black niche of rock with a living distinctness which 
 was startling. Gathered about, half in and half without the 
 soft radiance of the vestas, were a score of devout sufferers. The 
 priests were gone. The Sisters were gone. These mute, adoring 
 pilgrims were alone in the night with their Virgin. For the 
 first time the silence made the musical murmur of the near-by 
 river Gave audible. Aside from that there was no sound save 
 the low whisperings of prayer, the faintest rustling of the tree- 
 leaves, and the occasional clinking of a metal rosary's beads. 
 Five pilgrims were in their litters, seven were in invalid-chairs, 
 three or four who were able to walk about, to kneel, and to 
 wander off sometimes under the trees to the right, were there. 
 The silent devotion of these night worshippers keeping their 
 vigil in the darkness before the shrine was not the least impres- 
 sive episode of Lourdes." {New York Journal^ October 18, 1896.) 
 
 Low or White Sunday. The first Sunday after Easter. 
 The author of " Christian Sodality," a collection of discourses, 
 1652, says, " This day is called White or Low Sunday because in 
 the primitive Church those neophytes that on Easter Eve were 
 baptized and clad in white garments did to-day put them off, 
 
 I 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 637 
 
 with this admonition, that they were to keep within them a per- 
 petual candor of spirit, signified by the Agnus Dei hung about 
 their necks, which, falling down upon their breasts, put them in 
 mind what innocent lambs they must be, now that of sinful, 
 high, and haughty men they were by baptism made low, and 
 little children of Almighty God, such as ought to retain in their 
 manners and lives the Paschal feasts which they had accom- 
 plished." 
 
 This is ingenious, but it is more likely that the day was called 
 Low Sunday by contrast to its predecessor Easter, which is the 
 highest or greatest Sunday in the year. The name White or 
 Whit Sunday is now monopolized by Pentecost. 
 
 Seymour in his " Survey of London" (1734, book iv. p. 100) 
 tells us that the aldermen used to meet the lord mayor and 
 sheriffs at St. Paul's in their scarlet gowns, furred, without their 
 cloaks, to hear the sermon. 
 
 Lucy, St., patron saint of Syracuse, of the laboring poor, 
 and against diseases of the eye. Her festival is celebrated on 
 December 13, the reputed anniversary of her martyrdom, a.d. 
 304. Until the Eeformation the day was kept in England as a 
 holiday of the second rank, in which no work but tillage and the 
 like was allowed. Born in Syracuse in the third century, St. 
 Lucy was betrothed to a pagan youth against her will. Her 
 mother, Eutychia, was aflSicted with a grievous malady, and was 
 persuaded by St. Lucy to visit the shrine of St. Agatha, to pray 
 that she might be healed. While at the shrine St. Lucy beheld 
 a vision of St. Agatha, who assured her of her mother's recovery. 
 Eutychia was cured, and in joy at her recovery gave her consent 
 to St. Lucy's dedicating herself to a religious life and to the cure 
 of the poor. This so enraged St. Lucy's lover that he denounced 
 her as a Christian. Pascasius, the governor before whom she was 
 taken, ordered her to sacrifice to the idols, and upon her refusal 
 he commanded her to be dragged away to a house of prostitution. 
 It was found, however, impossible to move her. Oxen, ropes, 
 and the spells of magicians were all in vain. Then a fire was 
 kindled, but this harmed her not. Finally a soldier pierced her 
 neck with a poniard, and she died. A later legend, probably 
 originating in the endeavor of painters to express her name — 
 Lucy, "light" — by placing an eye near her, relates that, in order 
 to discourage the suit of a youth who was haunted by the beauty 
 of her eyes, she plucked them out and sent them to him on a 
 dish. This cured the youth, and converted him to Christianity. 
 St. Lucy's sight was restored by a miracle. Her body, it is said, 
 remained at Syracuse for many j^ears, but was at length trans- 
 lated into Italy and thence to Metz, where it is exposed to public 
 
638 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 veneration in a rich chapel of St. Vincent's Church. A portion 
 of her relics was carried to Constantinople, and brought thence 
 to Venice. Her attributes in art are a hght and a poniard. She 
 is often represented with the balls of her eyes laid in a dish, and 
 sometimes light proceeds from a wound in her neck. Again she 
 is represented as being pulled by men and oxen without effect. 
 
 Ludi Romani or Circenses. Ancient Eoman games in honor 
 of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, celebrated from the 4th to the 
 19th of September. 
 
 The Circensian games (Ludi Circenses), according to legends, 
 were instituted by Eomulus in order to attract the Sabine popu- 
 lation to Eome for the purpose of furnishing the Eomans with 
 wives. These were first called Consuales, in honor of the god 
 Consus. After the construction of the Circus Maximus the 
 games were called indiscriminately Circenses, Eomani, or Magni. 
 
 The games began with a grand procession, in which all those 
 who were about to exhibit in the Circus, as well as persons of 
 distinction, bore a part. 
 
 The Circus Maximus was in the valley south of the Palatine, 
 and was nearly half a mile long. 
 
 The horse-races, either in two-horse — bigce — or four-horse 
 chariots, — quadrigce, — were the earliest form of games; but 
 others were added from time to time, — wrestling, boxing, foot- 
 races, evolutions of trained companies of horsemen, — the Ludus 
 Trojce, described in the fifth book of Virgil's "^neid," was one 
 of these, — animal-hunts, and, in the latter part of the republic, 
 gladiatorial combats. For all of these, except the races, the 
 form of the Circus was ill suited, and in the course of time the 
 amphitheatre was devised, which was precisely adapted to these 
 purposes. 
 
 Originally the games occupied a single daj^, and often not the 
 whole of that ; by degrees they were lengthened, until, in the 
 time of the Empire, they lasted a week or more, and scenic 
 games, ludi scenici, — that is. theatrical performances, — were added 
 to those in the Circus. The Circensian games regularly came 
 last. Of the sixteen days of the Ludi Eomani only the last five 
 were in the Circus. 
 
 Ludmilla, St., patron saint of Bohemia. Her festival is 
 celebrated on September 16. 
 
 St. Ludmilla was Queen of Bohemia, and was converted to 
 Christianity by St. Adalbert. She converted her grandson, after- 
 wards St. Wenceslaus. This aroused the anger of his mother 
 and his brother Boleslaus, and a civil war broke out between 
 the Christian and pagan parties in Bohemia. Ludmilla was 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 639 
 
 strangled by hired assassins as she was praying in her oratory. 
 Wenceslaus was slain by his brother. Ludmilla was the first 
 martyr saint of Boliemia. Her martyrdom took place about the 
 year 920. Her remains were translated to Prague by St. Wen- 
 ceslaus, and are preserved in St. George's Church. The head, 
 separate, in a silver shrine, is now in the cathedral. 
 
 Luke, St., patron saint of painters. His festival is celebrated 
 on October 18. Beyond what can be gathered in the New Testa- 
 ment, little is known of St. Luke. He was probably not con- 
 verted until after the ascension of Christ. He became a devoted 
 disciple of St. Paul, and was with him until his death. That he 
 was a physician is inferred from the fact that Paul speaks of 
 him as " Luke, the beloved physician ;" but the general belief that 
 he was an artist rests on Greek traditions, which can be traced 
 back only to the tenth century. A picture of the Yirgin found 
 in the Catacombs and inscribed as painted by Lucais regarded as 
 a confirmation of the Greek legends. Legends also relate that 
 he carried with him pictures of the Saviour and the Yirgin 
 painted by himself, by means of which he made many converts. 
 He is often represented in the act of painting the Virgin. His 
 attributes in art are the ox, the emblem of sacrifice, because 
 Luke wrote of the priesthood of the Saviour, a book, signifying 
 his writings, and a portrait of the Yirgin placed in his hand. 
 In the church of San Domenico and San Sisto at Eome is pre- 
 served a picture of the Yirgin by Luke by means of which, it is 
 related, St. Gregory the Great dispelled a pestilence at Eome. 
 Another picture in the Ara Cceli claims to be the one which was 
 thus honored. Accounts differ as regards the manner of St. 
 Luke's death: according to some, he died peacefully; according 
 to others, he was crucified with St. Andrew at Patrse. The 
 bones of St. Luke are said to have been translated from Patrse 
 in 357 to the church of the Apostles at Constantinople, together 
 with those of St. Andrew and St. Timothy. On the occasion of 
 this translation some distribution was made of the relics of St. 
 Luke. St. Gaudentius procured" a portion for his church at 
 Brescia; St. Paulinus got a portion for St. Felix's Church at 
 Nola, and enshrined a part in a church which he built at Fondi. 
 When the church of the Apostles at Constantinople was re- 
 paired by order of Justinian, it is said that three coffins, bearing 
 the bodies of St. Luke, St. Andrew, and St. Timothy, were found. 
 Baronius mentions that the head of St. Luke was brought by 
 St. Gregory to Eome and laid in the church of St. Andrew. 
 Some of his relics are shown in the Grecian monastery on Mount 
 Athos. 
 
 The most famous of the Madonnas ascribed to St. Luke is pre- 
 
640 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 served at the Monte della Guardia, just outside Bologna, in Italy. 
 According to tradition, this picture was painted at Jerusalem in 
 the year 34. In due time it found its way to the church of 
 St. Sophia, in Constantinople. In the twelfth century a pilgrim 
 named Eutemio, gazing at the picture, heard a voice within 
 crying, " Take the holy picture to the Monte della Guardia !" 
 He mentioned the matter to the custodians, and they cheer- 
 fully agreed that he should heed the heavenly monitor. So he 
 travelled all over Europe searching for the Monte della Guardia. 
 Finally at Eome an alliterative Senator named Pascipovero Pas- 
 cipoveri, a Bolognese by birth, informed him that the mount in 
 question was just outside of his native city. On the top of the 
 mount was a hermitage presided over by two ladies, Azzolina 
 and Beatrice, who were duly appointed guardians of the picture 
 on May 8, 1160. The faithful flocked to the new shrine. Many 
 cures were wrought among them. Then some evil-minded Vene- 
 tians stole the picture one night, and put to sea with all speed ; 
 but the sacrilegious rascals gained nothing by this crime, for 
 before their ship was out of sight of land their prize had disap- 
 peared and was safe back in its chosen abode. 
 
 Well was it for Bologna that the abduction was frustrated. 
 An earthquake, a pestilence, an inundation, a disastrous war, 
 these are a few of the catastrophes which the Madonna di San 
 Luca warded off. The grateful citizens in the eighteenth century 
 built a new and grander minster on the old site. It was com- 
 pleted March 25, 1765. 
 
 For nearly six days every year — that is, from the evening of 
 the Saturday before the Feast of the Ascension to the night of 
 Holy Thursday itself — the Bolognese keep high holiday, not so 
 much in celebration of that religious festival as to manifest their 
 devotion to the picture. This is in obedience to a senatorial 
 deci;ee dating as far back as 1435. 
 
 On the Saturday named a priest appears at the sanctuary and 
 formally demands the delivery of the painting, that it may be 
 carried in solemn procession along the grand arcade, nearly three 
 miles in length, stretching from the sanctuary to the Saragozza 
 gate, its arrival there being hailed with shouts of joy from citi- 
 zens arrayed in their best attire and country-people in holiday 
 dress and holiday spirits, intent upon escorting the Madonna 
 to the cathedral and seeing her safely lodged therein. There 
 she stays, to feast adoring eyes, until sunset on Ascension Eve. 
 Then, placed on a litter as fine as velvet, precious cloths, em- 
 broidery, and gilding can make it, she is borne through the 
 streets to the church of San Petronio, carried through the 
 church, and set down on the steps in front of it. All Bologna's 
 bells ring out, the priests raise their voices in a hymn of praise, 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 641 
 
 every bead in the thickly packed square is bowed, ever}^ knee 
 bent, as the Madonna is moved gently backward and forward and 
 from side to side, so that none in the vast assemblage may depart 
 unblessed. The same ceremony is repeated at the Meloncello 
 bridge the next day, as the Madonna slowly wends her way back 
 to the sanctuary, entering the crowded fane, all ablaze with 
 light, to the music of pealing bells, swelling organ, and well- 
 attuned voices, and Bologna's annual " festa" is over. 
 
 In Charlton, England, a great fair was formerly held on St. 
 Luke's Day. One of its quaint features was an elaborate display 
 of horns, the booths not only being decorated with them, but 
 most of the articles offered for sale having representations of 
 this emblem. For a long time antiquaries were much divided as 
 to what connection there could be between horns and Charlton 
 Fair, and many conjectures were started without any satisfactory 
 result. At last, however, light was thrown on this much-dis- 
 puted question by an antiquary who pointed out that a horned 
 ox is the old mediaeval symbol of St. Luke, the patron of the 
 fair. In support of this explanation it was added that, although 
 most of the painted glass in Charlton Church was destroyed in 
 the troublous times of the reign of Charles I., yet fragments 
 remained of St. Luke's ox " with wings on its back and goodly 
 horns on his head." As an additional illustration on this point, 
 we may quote the following extract from Aubrey's " Eemains 
 of Gentilisme and Judaisme :" " At Stoke-Yerdon, in the parish 
 of Broad Chalke, Wilts, was a chapel dedicated to St. Luke, who 
 is the patron saint of the horn beasts and those that have to do 
 with them ; wherefore the keepers and foresters of the 'New For- 
 est come hither at St. Luke's tide with their offerings to St. 
 Luke, that they might be fortunate in their game, the deer, and 
 other cattle." Many of those, also, who visited Charlton Fair 
 wore a pair of horns on their heads, and the men were attired 
 in women's clothes, — a mode of masquerading thus described by 
 a writer of the last century : " I remember being there upon 
 Horn fair day ; I was dressed in my landlady's best gown and 
 other women's attire." Eeferring to St. Luke's Day, Drake tells 
 us in his " Eboracum" that a fair was annually kept up at York 
 for all sorts of small wares, and was popularly known as " Dish 
 fair," from the large quantity of wooden dishes exposed for sale. 
 
 It was also characterized by an old custom of " bearing a 
 wooden ladle in a sling on two stangs about it, carried by four 
 sturdy laborers ; this being, no doubt, in ridicule of the meanness 
 of the wares brought to the fair." 
 
 Luke the Styrites, usually known as St. Luke, though he» 
 appears in the Greek hagiologies as only o(7co(;, or "blessed," not 
 
 41 
 
642 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 aytoq, the patron of the famous church and monastery of St. Luke 
 at Styris, near Delphi, in Greece. His festival is kept on Feb- 
 ruary 7, the anniversary of his death. Of Cretan origin, he w^as 
 born at Costorum, in Phocis, about 890. At eighteen years of 
 age he retired to Mount lonnitza, where he received the monastic 
 habit from two monks passing there on their way to Rome. 
 After many wanderings, he finally reached Styris, where he es- 
 tablished himself in a cell and died about 945. The people from 
 all the surrounding country flocked to his death-bed through a 
 blinding snow-storm that made the roads well-nigh impassable. 
 By his direction, his body was buried on the spot, and attracted 
 a number of monks, who built cells here and finally formed 
 themselves into a community. Luke had prophesied that his 
 country should be delivered from the Saracens by an Emperor 
 named Romanus. When in 961 Crete was reunited to the Em- 
 pire under Romanus II., that Emperor, in acknowledgment, built 
 this convent and church and dedicated them to the friendly 
 prophet. The reputed tomb of Luke is in one of the side-aisles 
 of the church. It is empty. Local tradition assigns the re- 
 moval of the relics to the Franks after the Latin conquest of 
 Constantinople. Some relics, however, purporting to be those 
 of the hermit are preserved at Mount Athos. 
 
 Lupercalia. An ancient Roman festival, celebrated on the 
 15th of February. This was one of the most ancient of Roman 
 festivals, and was celebrated in honor of Lupercus, the god of 
 fertility. The day was called dies februatus, or " day of expia- 
 tion." 
 
 The traditions of this festival, its localities, and its rude, strange 
 rites, belong to the most primitive times, when Rome was a half- 
 savage community of shepherds. The Lupercal — " wolf's grotto'* 
 — was a cave on the western slope of the Palatine Hill, and close 
 by it was the ficus ruminalis, or fig-tree under which the twin 
 infants Romulus and Remus had been stranded by the Tiber, 
 when they were found and nursed by the wolf which had its 
 home in the cave. The Luperci, who celebrated this festival 
 yearly, were young men of noble birth, who formed two brother- 
 hoods, the Fabian and Quintilian Luperci, belonging respectively 
 to the Sabine and Latin parts of the city. A third brotherhood, 
 the Julian, was afterwards added in honor of Julius Caesar. The 
 number of the Luperci is uncertain. The festival commenced 
 with the sacrifice of goats and a young dog at the Lupercal. 
 Then two young men were brought in and their foreheads 
 touched with the bloody knife ; another of the brotherhood 
 wiped the blood away with wool dipped in milk, upon which the 
 young men broke into a laugh. Then followed the sacrificial 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 643 
 
 banquet of the brotherhood, after which the Luperci, clothed in 
 nothing but pieces of the hides of the slaughtered goats, and 
 holding in their hands thongs cut from the same hides, ran up 
 and down through the city, striking everybody that they met. 
 Women would come forth voluntarily to be struck, since they 
 believed that the ceremony rendered them fruitful and procured 
 them an easy delivery. It was as leader of the Luperci Julii, a 
 month before Caesar's assassination and the very year of the 
 establishment of this brotherhood, that Mark Antony, 
 
 On the Lupercal, . . 
 
 Thrice did ofl'er him a l^ingly crown. 
 
 The act of running about with thongs of goat-skin was a 
 symbolic purification of the land, and that of touching persons 
 a purification of them. 
 
 The festival of Lupercalia, though it necessarily lost its origi- 
 nal import at the time when the Romans were no longer a 
 nation of shepherds, was yet always observed in commemoration 
 of the founders of the city. The festival kept its ground even 
 after the triumph of Christianity, and was the last of the pagan 
 festivals to be given up. 
 
 M. 
 
 Macaire, St. (Lat. Macarius.) There were two saints of 
 this name, known respectively as the older (300-390) and the 
 younger (335-395). Both are commemorated together by the 
 Greeks on January 19, but the Latins commemorate the elder on 
 January 15 and the younger on January 2. The first was born 
 in Upper Egypt, the second at Alexandria. Both were hermits 
 who practised great austerities and built themselves huts in 
 deserted places. After the year 375, when both were exiled 
 from Alexandria by the Arian patriarch, they lived much to- 
 gether. In art the younger is represented with wallets of sand 
 on his shoulders, and sometimes with a hyena and its young. 
 The sand is a reference to the fact that he used to walk over the 
 hot desert bowed down under this burden in order to conquer 
 the flesh. The other symbol refers to a legend that a hyena 
 once brought her young one and laid it at the feet of the her- 
 mit. He looked at the animal and saw it was blind, therefore 
 he pitied the poor whelp and prayed to God ; then he touched 
 its eyes and they were opened. ]N'ext day the hyena brought to 
 him a sheepskin and laid it at his feet. The relics of this St. 
 Macaire are preserved in the cathedral of St. Bavon in Ghent. 
 Here only once in a century takes place a great procession in 
 
644 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 honor of St. Macaire the younger. The Uist time it was cele- 
 brated was May 19, 1867, when the intercession of the saint was 
 invoked to protect Belgium from the cholera, the typhus fever, 
 and the cattle disease, which had visited it in 1866. The Cardinal 
 of Malines, all the bishops of Belgium, the Nuncio, and Bishop 
 Mermillod of Geneva, who preached the Jubilee, assisted. The 
 city was crowded with over one hundred thousand visitors from 
 all parts, even from France, Germany, England, and America. 
 On this occasion the cathedral of St. Bavoii was decorated with 
 flowers, flags, and ribbons. The solid silver shrine of St. Macaire, 
 a present from the city of Mons two hundred years ago, was 
 placed upon a temporary altar erected in the middle of the 
 transept, surrounded by thousands of lights. A canopy of ever- 
 greens and flowers overshadowed it. The procession took place 
 at five o'clock in the afternoon. Its most notable feature was 
 an historical group accurately reproducing the courts of the 
 King of France and the Comte de Flandre, with their soldiers, 
 archers, chaplains, standard-bearers, and pages, as they assisted 
 at the translation of the relics of St. Macaire in 1067. 
 
 Maio, or Calendi Maggio, a May -Day festival still surviving 
 in rustic Italy, especiallj' in Tuscany and the Eoman provinces, 
 as a relic of the old Eoman custom of celebrating the kalends 
 of May. Songs called maggiolate are composed, or at least 
 sung, by the peasantry on this occasion, trees are festooned with 
 ribbons and garlands and windows decorated with branches, the 
 adornments being known as the Maio. In the heyday of Flor- 
 entine glory these festivals were celebrated in the city, and dig- 
 nified by songs, dances, and feastings, which lasted several days ; 
 as, for instance, the grand banquet of the Ibt of May given in 
 the Portinari palace, where Dante fell in love with Beatrice. 
 Evidence of the former prevalence of these festivals exists in 
 the numerous maggiolate composed by different authors, and 
 among others by the magnificent Lorenzo dei Medici, whose 
 poems are not at all worse than those of a common citizen. One 
 of his songs commences thus : 
 
 Ben venga Maggio 
 El gonfalon salvaggio : 
 
 and in another he thus alludes to these festivities : 
 
 Se tu V appicare un maggio 
 A qualcuna che tu ami. 
 
 One of the latest celebrations of this festival in Florence was 
 in 1612, when a Maio was planted and sung before the Pitti 
 palace in honor of the Archduchess of Austria. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 645 
 
 In Rome it was customary for children on the Ist of May 
 to place upon a chair before the house door a puppet of the 
 Madonna, crowned with a garland. Every passenger was then 
 applied to for a donation in the following verse, which was sung 
 by the little beggars : 
 
 Belli, belli giovanotti, 
 Che mangiate pasticiotti 
 E bevete del buon vino, 
 Un quattrin' sulP altarino. 
 
 This custom suggests a curious parallel in the past. On the 
 kalends of May the foundation festival of the altars of the lares 
 prcestites was celebrated in all the houses of ancient Rome. The 
 lararium, bearing the small household gods, was decked on this 
 occasion with fresh garlands of flowers and foliage, and modern 
 antiquarians believe that the custom of the Roman children is a 
 relic of the ancient festival. 
 
 Mallard Night. The 14th of January was formerly cele- 
 brated under this name at All Souls College, Oxford, in commem- 
 oration of the discovery of a very large mallard or drake in a 
 drain when digging for the foundation of the college ; and though 
 this observance no longer exists, yet on one of the college " gau- 
 dies" there is sung in memory of the occurrence a very old song 
 called " The swapping, swapping mallard," which begins, — 
 
 Griffin, bustard, turkey, capon. 
 Let other hungry mortals gape on, 
 And on the bones their stomach fall hard, 
 But let All Souls' men have their mallard. 
 
 Malo, or Maclou, St., patron of the city of St. Malo, in France. 
 His festival is celebrated on the anniversary of his death, No- 
 vember 15 (a.d. 627). Born in Wales, he was brought up by St. 
 Brendan at the latter's monastery ^t Aleth, in Brittany, the place 
 now known as St. Malo. His virtues exciting the jealousy of 
 the other monks, St. Brendan took St. Malo with him in search 
 of some solitary islet where they might serve God unmolested. 
 But an angel bade them return, and Malo eventually became 
 Bishop of Aleth. He died at Archambray, where his relics re- 
 mained until the seventh century. A young native of Aleth 
 taking refuge with the sacristan of Archambray plotted to be- 
 tray the latter and steal the relics. Encouraged by the Bishop 
 of Aleth and fortified by the sacraments of confession and com- 
 munion, the youth packed up the body when his host's back was 
 turned, and ran away with it to Aleth. Here the relics were 
 
646 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 received with great pomp by bishop, clergy, and people. On 
 portion was given to the monastery of the Isle of Aron, the 
 other was kept in the cathedral. In 975 they were taken to 
 Paris. They were lost during the Eevolution. The onl}^ relic 
 that remains is a shoulder-bone at St. Maclou-de-Moiselles, near 
 Yersailles. 
 
 Mannekin of Brussels. A curious little bronze figure in 
 the Eue de I'Etuve, Brussels, representing a naked boy, which has 
 attained notoriety from its peculiar impropriety of attitude. It 
 stands in a niche carved into the wall, and water passes through 
 it to a basin beneath. On great festival days the water is turned 
 off and wine is substituted. The origin of this sculptural jest is 
 unknown, but it is attributed to Duquesnoy. The citizens of 
 Brussels take great pride in this image, call it "the oldest bur- 
 gess in Brussels," and dress it up on fete-days and, detaching it 
 from its pedestal, carry it around in all street processions. Man- 
 nekin enjoys a yearly income of two hundred francs, bequeathed 
 to him many years ago by an old maid of Brussels, which serves 
 to keep up his very varied wardrobe: he is by turns an old 
 nobleman, a civic guard, a burgess, etc. He possesses eight 
 different costumes in all, the richest having been presented to 
 him by Louis XY., together with the cross of St. Louis. During 
 the Eevolution he mounted the red cap of liberty. Napoleon 
 conferred on him a chamberlain's key. At present he is always 
 on the side of the dominant party. 
 
 March. From Mars, the god of war, and the reputed father 
 of Eomulus, who is traditionally believed to have compiled the 
 first calendar and to have made March the first month in the 
 year. With the 25th day of this month, the approximate date 
 
 
 March. Bbeaking up Soil— Digging— Sowing — Harrowing. 
 
 of the vernal equinox, the legal year began with many Christian 
 nations until a quite recent period. It still does so with the 
 Jews. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxons called the month Lenctenmonath, or Length 
 Month, in reference to the rapid lengthening of the day at this 
 period of the year. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 647 
 
 March 25 in the Greek calendar (which is April 6 in ours) is 
 celebrated with great enthusiasm by the Greeks as their Indepen- 
 dence Day. It commemorates the raising of the standard of the 
 Cross against the Crescent on April 6, 1821 (N. S.), beginning 
 the war against the Turks which resulted in the independence 
 of Greece. 
 
 Marches, Riding the. A ceremony not unlike the English 
 custom of beating the bounds (see Bounds) which still survives 
 in some Scottish towns. The object is to ride the marches or 
 commons of the town's land in order to protect them from the 
 encroachments or thieving propensities of neighboring lairds. 
 The Selkirk Common-Eiding is the most famous of these sur- 
 vivals. On the eve of the last Friday of May, Old Style, the 
 senior burgh officer, attended by a piper and a drummer, marches 
 through the town and announces to the lieges that on the morrow 
 the historic ceremonies will be observed. At four o'clock next 
 morning the air is pierced with the music of fife and drum as a 
 summons to the participants. A procession is then formed, con- 
 sisting of mounted constables, the brass band, the Bailies and 
 members of the Town-Council, the Hammermen with the flag, 
 the Merchant Company, Standard-Bearer carrying the flag of the 
 town. Provost, Town-Clerk, Burleymen, and others, all mounted, 
 to the number of about a hundred. The Common-Eiding Choir 
 sing appropriate melodies. Then the riders proceed on their 
 gallop round the marches, and not unusually several "spills" 
 occur among the inexperienced equestrians. Eefreshments are 
 served at different places during the journey, and the lease of 
 one farm obliges the tenant to regale the horsemen at the Com- 
 mon-Eiding. Eaces are run for switches amidst wild excitement, 
 and then the company return to the town, where a picturesque 
 ceremony takes place commemorating the noble achievements 
 of the famous Selkirk Souters at Flodden Field. The Hammer- 
 men and the Souters cast the colors to the tune of " Up wi' the 
 Souters o' Selkirk," and the ceremony is concluded with tumul- 
 tuous cheers. The Selkirk Common-Eiding is the great festival 
 of the year in the town, and does much to foster local esprit de 
 corps, and to preserve the historical and legendary lore of this 
 beautiful Border district. (Ditchfield : Old English Customs, 
 p. 119.) 
 
 Another famous riding occurs in the parish of Hawick, Eox- 
 burghshire. The honor of carrying the standard of the town 
 devolves upon the cornet, a young man previously elected for 
 the purpose ; and he and the magistrates of the town on horse- 
 back, and a large body of the inhabitants and the burgesses, set 
 out in procession for the purpose of riding round the property 
 
648 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 of the town and making formal demonstration of their legal 
 rights. 
 
 Lanemar or Landmark Day is still observed in June of every 
 year in Lanark, Scotland, by beating the marches of the town 
 lands. One of the march stones is in the river Mouse, and for- 
 merly those who shared in the march for the first time were 
 ducked in the river, to impress the event on their memories and 
 give the town the benefit of their immemorial recollection. 
 
 Margaret, St. One of the tutelar saints of Cremona, and 
 patroness of women in childbirth. Her festival is celebrated by 
 the Eoman Church on July 20, the reputed anniversary of her 
 martyrdom, which is said to have occurred in the last general 
 persecution. The Greeks, however, make the date July 17. The 
 legend represents her as a native of Antioch in Pisidia, who was 
 converted by a Christian nurse, was persecuted by her own 
 father, a pagan priest, and was beheaded after many torments. 
 While in prison awaiting death she was visited by the devil in 
 the form of a dragon, who swallowed her, but instantly burst 
 asunder, leaving her unhurt. On her way to the place of 
 execution she prayed that, in memory of her having been deliv- 
 ered unhurt from the dragon, she might aid all women who 
 called on her in the pains of childbirth. Her cult spread from 
 the East to England, France, Germany, and Italy during the 
 eleventh century, and in the thirteenth her anniversary was 
 made a holiday of obligation in England, all manual labor being 
 forbidden. Her body is shown entire at Monte Fiascone, in Tus- 
 cany. Another body, equally authentic, is in the monastery of 
 St. Catherine at Mount Sinai. In addition, half a dozen heads 
 and other relics are exhibited in various European churches. In 
 art, St. Margaret is represented with a cross in her hand and a 
 dragon by her side, and sometimes as rising from a dragon. 
 
 Mariazell. A little village in the duchy of Styria, Austria, 
 containing the most famous shrine in Austria. The object of 
 veneration is a miracle-working image of the Virgin, carved. in 
 lime-tree wood and about eighteen inches high. It was found in 
 the ninth century on the plateau where the village now stands, 
 and after many vicissitudes came into the possession of a priest 
 of the Benedictine order, Avho in 1157 built a shrine for it. 
 Henry I., Marquis of Moravia, replaced the shrine by a chapel 
 in 1200, and Ludwig I., King of Hungary, after recovery here 
 from a painful attack of gout, transformed the chapel into the 
 present large church in 1363. The towers on either side of the 
 Gothic spire are, however, of much later origin. The treasure- 
 chamber is reported to possess valuables to the extent of over a 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 649 
 
 million dollars. Many pilgrims come as mere holiday-makers, 
 but still more in search of miraculous cures. Over a hundred 
 thousand men, women, and even children pass yearly over the 
 roads that converge towards this town, — chiefly peasants from all 
 parts of the dual monarchy, from Northern Bohemia, from 
 Southern Hungary, from as far off as Croatia, — peasants dressed 
 in different national costumes, and speaking languages of equal 
 variety. The entire population of a village may march out 
 under the leadership of the village school-master, carrying a 
 banner. In summer they can easily cover a distance of fifty 
 miles, and they sing hymns for spiritual stimulation when bodily 
 weariness sets in. In fine weather they sleep in the woods, in 
 the meadows, or by the roadside. On wet nights they find 
 shelter in wide spaces specially provided for them under the 
 rafters of wayside taverns. The tariff per head is about a dime 
 in our money. The poorer pilgrims, however, are glad to enjoy 
 a " twopenny doss" on the dusty floors of the passages. 
 
 For pilgrims from Vienna the journey to and from takes four 
 days. Their point of departure is the old cathedral of St. 
 Stephen. They divide themselves into troops and walk in the 
 wake of a banner. Each pilgrim carries a garland in his left 
 hand and sticks ornamented with flowers in his right. The men 
 wear large straw hats; the women don their holiday attire, 
 including a lace bonnet. Many pilgrims, both male and female, 
 make the pilgrimage in bare feet. Hymns are sung or prayers 
 chanted all the way. At the approaches to the sacred city the 
 various bands of pilgrims from all points of the compass mingle 
 into one common stream. The climbing of the mountain, owing 
 to the narrow roadway, can be accomplished only in couples. 
 On reaching the summit the pilgrims hasten to prostrate them- 
 selves before the sacred image. All day long crowds of people 
 fill the church. At night-time all who cannot afford or who fail 
 to find shelter in the hotels sleep under improvised tents in the 
 neighborhood of the sanctuary. When the pilgrimage is finished 
 the pilgrims return home laden down with souvenirs of Maria- 
 zell in the shape of images, prayer-books, and rosaries purchased 
 at the booths in the village. 
 
 Maries, Feast of the Holy. (Fr. Fete des Saintes Maries.) 
 A festival celebrated in Provence, France, on April 24. The 
 Provengal legend tells how during the persecution that arose 
 shortly after the death of Christ certain of his intimates — viz., 
 Lazarus and his two sisters Martha and Mary (the latter being 
 identified by the legend with Mary Magdalene), Mary mother 
 of James the Less, Mary Salome, Sara, their handmaiden, Tro- 
 phimus, Saturninus, Maximin, and others — were forced into an 
 
650 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 unseaworthy boat and set adrift in the Mediterranean. The 
 crazy bark, miraculously preserved from destruction, was guided 
 to the shores of Provence, and the involuntary missionaries, 
 landing at the extremity of the Camargue, devoted themselves 
 to the evangelization of the country. Trophimus converted 
 Aries ; Saturninus, Toulouse ; and Martha, Tarascon. But the 
 three Maries lived and died on the Mediterranean coast, the 
 Magdalene in her famous grotto, and the two others with their 
 handmaiden Sara at the original landing-place, where they built 
 themselves a cell. Sometimes fishermen passed by that lonely 
 coast, and to them the saintly women preached the true faith 
 and won them to Christ. Sometimes from Aries Trophimus 
 came and administered the sacraments to his sisters in the 
 Church. And the fame of the holiness of the three women went 
 abroad, and when, after they died, they were buried where they 
 had lived, people journeyed from far and near to visit and pray 
 at the tomb, and many miracles were worked, so that their re- 
 nown grew ever greater and greater. Before many years it 
 had become a well-known place of pilgrimage, — one of the most 
 ancient in France, — and a mighty church was built over their 
 lowly altar, and many and strange were the wonders wrought. 
 
 But Saracens and Danes reduced the church to ruins, and it 
 was eventually rebuilt by William I., Count of Provence. So 
 runs the local legend. Authentic history is silent as to the origin 
 of the ancient church, but affirms that in 1448 the good King 
 Eene discovered three bodies here which he decided were the 
 remains of the two Maries and of Sara. He enclosed the Maries 
 in a richly adorned casket, and built for its reception the curious 
 little chapel on the roof of the church where they now repose 
 and whence they are let down by pulleys once a year on the 
 Maries' fete-day into the cavernous choir below. The relics of 
 St. Sara were placed in the crypt, and are specially reverenced 
 by the gypsies, who claim her as having been of their own race. 
 
 The feast of the Holy Maries, which is celebrated annually on 
 the 23d, 24th, and 25th of May, attracts thousands of pilgrims, 
 mostly farmers, peasants, and gypsies. The 24th is the great 
 day when the relics are lowered into the choir. The scene is thus 
 described by Joseph J. Pennell in the Century : 
 
 " By three o'clock the church was nearly full ; by four it was 
 jammed. Around each door outside was a great crowd ; inside 
 there was not an empty seat. The long ray of light which 
 streamed in through the broken rose-window at the western end 
 was momentarily shut out by the people who had climbed even 
 away up there. Every one in nave and gallery held a lighted 
 candle, which twinkled and flickered and waved with the great 
 volume of the singing. ' We are in heaven, and the stars are 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 651 
 
 under our feet,' Gounod said when, one 24th of May, he looked 
 down upon the same scene. In the raised choir the sick still 
 waited, their friends and a few priests still prayed and chanted. 
 ' The church was like a wind-swept wood' with the mighty voice 
 of their supplication. 
 
 " Suddenly there was a cry of ' They come !' The people 
 around the altar fell on their knees ; for from the airy chapel, 
 high above the choir, a great double ark hung suspended, and 
 now began to move downward, though almost imperceptibly. 
 As it came slowly nearer the sick and infirm were raised toward 
 it in the arms of the strong. Women fairly wrestled together, 
 each seeking to be the first to lay her hand upon the holy relics. 
 When it was a few feet from its resting-place a solemn procession 
 of white-robed clergy passed from the sacristy to the choir, and 
 one priest, springing upon the altar, seized and kissed the rehcs. 
 At the same moment he was surrounded by the sick, who, as 
 though the longed-for miracle had already been worked, pushed 
 and struggled to touch and be healed. The priest held the 
 relics, and the people, pressing closer and closer, fell upon them, 
 touching them with their hands, their eyes, and even their crip- 
 pled limbs, kissing them passionately, clasping them with frenzy. 
 It seemed as though the priest's vestments must be torn to 
 shreds, the relics broken and scattered in a thousand fragments, 
 from the very fervor of the faithful. But finally the last kiss was 
 given, the last petition uttered, the ark was set at rest upon the 
 altar, the sick were placed all around it, and the chants rose 
 louder and sweeter than ever, — ' Yivent les Saintes Maries !' " 
 
 On the morning of the 25th a long procession marched from 
 the church to the sea-shore. It was headed by the banners 
 given by the various towns of Provence. Then came the Arch- 
 bishop of Aix, attended by clergy and acolytes ; next the sick 
 and ailing, some hobbling on crutches, some borne on mattresses, 
 others dragged along by their friends. " Last of all a struggling 
 crowd of gypsies carried aloft the rude figures of the two Maries 
 in their little boat, and on every side devout pilgrims strove to 
 kiss, or at least to touch, the holy t>ark. Across the sands to the 
 sea they went, to the water's edge, and then right into the 
 water, gypsies, people, and even priests. For a moment the 
 boat was set afloat upon the waves, there where at the dawn of 
 Christianity the wind had driven the saints from Jerusalem. 
 And the gypsies again raised it aloft, and waded to land ; the 
 procession, with banners waving, candles flickering dimly in the 
 sunshine, hymns loudly chanted, turned again across the sands, 
 through the shadowy streets, and brought back their beloved 
 Maries to the church. The sick were placed once more about 
 the altar, and shouts of ' Yivent les Saintes Maries !' echoed 
 
652 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 through the church, until, toward evening, the ark rose slowly 
 to its airy chapel, while the faithful watched it with loving 
 eyes." 
 
 On the foundation of the ruined chateau of Les Baux, in 
 Aries, are carved three figures in Eoraan drapery with an almost 
 effaced Latin inscription, which are held to be portraits of the 
 Maries. These are visited hy the neighboring peasantry on May 
 24 and decorated with flowers. ^Nevertheless, there are ration- 
 alists who hold that the three figures were made to represent the 
 great general Marius (who was encamped near by for many 
 months during his Gallic campaign, 100 B.C.), his wife Julia, and 
 Martha, a Syrian prophetess, by whom Plutarch tells us that he 
 was always accompanied. 
 
 Mark, St., patron saint of Yenice. His festival is celebrated 
 on the anniversary of his death, April 25 (68). 
 
 St. Mark the Evangelist was not an apostle, but a convert. 
 He was the beloved disciple of St. Peter, who converted him. 
 He journeyed with St. Peter to Eome, and there wrote his Gos- 
 pel, according to some authorities, at the dictation of St. Peter. 
 He afterwards went to Egypt, where he founded the Church of 
 Alexandria, becoming bishop of the diocese. On account of the 
 many miracles that he wrought, St. Mark was accused of being 
 a sorcerer, and he was seized and dragged through the streets 
 with cords until he died, a.d. 68. It is related that as soon as he 
 expired a terrible storm of hail and lightning arose which de- 
 stroyed his persecutors. The Christians buried his remains in 
 Alexandria, where they were highly venerated. 
 
 Centuries passed. The great and growing city of Yenice cast 
 envious eyes upon the tomb of the Evangelist. She believed, 
 though the legend was never received by the Church universal, 
 that St. Mark had been sent by St. Peter as apostle to Aquileja, 
 and that on his return to Eome his bark, driven by the wind, 
 came to a landing on the low island which was the first site of 
 the city of the lagoons. Here, while he was rapt in ecstasy, an 
 angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, "Pax tibi, Marce. 
 Hie requiescet corpus tuum." (" Peace be with thee, Mark. 
 Here shall thy body rest.") The angel went on to prophesy that 
 a devout and faithful people would here, after many years, build 
 a marvellous city (mirificam urbern), and would deserve to possess 
 the body of the saint, and that through his merits and prayers 
 they would be greatly blessed. 
 
 Early in the ninth century two Yenetian merchants, visiting 
 Alexandria and finding that the Church authorities were fearful 
 lest the shrine of St. Mark should be desecrated by the Saracens, 
 succeeded in obtaining the coveted remains. The voyage to 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 653 
 
 Venice witnessed many miracles which gave assurance of the 
 willingness of the saint to be transferred to his destined abode. 
 On the vessel's arrival the Doge himself, accompanied by all the 
 clergy, came down to the landing-place and bore the holy relics 
 to the ducal chapel, where they were deposited until a more 
 fitting resting-place could be prepared for them. 
 
 That resting-place w^as the church of St. Mark's, erected about 
 829, but destroyed by tire in 976 and rebuilt in 1042-1071. 
 When the second church was finished the consecration was de- 
 layed. Ever since the fire of 976, for now a hundred years, the 
 body of St. Mark had disappeared. This was occasion, says the 
 Doge Andrea Dandolo in his chronicle, " of lamentation to the 
 clergy, and of great depression to the laity." It was not to be 
 believed that the sacred treasure, the ];alladium of the city, des- 
 tined for it by the decree of Heaven, had perished. Without it 
 the new church must remain vacant of its chief dignity. It 
 could not be the divine will that Venice should be deprived of 
 her own special saint. Now that at length the church was fin- 
 ished and adorned worthily to contain such a treasure, it was 
 resolv^ed, in June, 1094, to keep a fast throughout the city, and 
 to make a most solemn procession through the church, with de- 
 vout supplication to the Almighty that he would be pleased to 
 reveal the place of concealment of the sacred relics. And, lo ! 
 while the procession was moving, of a sudden a light broke from 
 one of the piers, a sound of cracking was heard, bricks fell upon 
 the pavement, and there, within the pier, was beheld the body 
 of the saint, with the arm stretched out, as if he had moved it 
 to make the opening in the masonry; and on one finger was a 
 ring of gold, which, after others had tried in vain, was drawn 
 off by Giovanni Dolfino, one of the counsellors of the Doge. 
 
 The joy of the people was now as great as their grief had 
 been before. The miracle quickened their devotion and excited 
 their fancy, and on the 8th of October following, " the church 
 being dedicated to God, the reverend body was laid away in a 
 secret place, the Doge, the priniate, and the procurator alone 
 knowing where." 
 
 There was another body of St. Mark, however, at Constanti- 
 nople, whence the head was brought to Soissons. Arms of the 
 saint are shown at St. Mark's Church in Eome, at Marolles, 
 Canibrai, and other places. 
 
 On the feast of St. Mark the Catholic Church sings her great 
 litanies to beg that God will avert the scourges due to sin, a 
 custom said to have originated with Gregory the Great. Hence 
 in old calendars the feast is known as Litania Major. Anciently 
 solemn processions of covered crosses were held on this day. 
 These were frequently confounded with the Eogation processions, 
 
654 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 which, depending upon the movable feast of the Ascension, 
 might occasionally fall as early as April 26. 
 
 In England, during the rule of the Eoman Church, St. Mark's 
 Day was a great fast. Yaughan says, " I remember, in 1589, 
 being then a bo}', that an ale-wife, making no exception of days, 
 would brew upon St. Mark's Day. While she was thus laboring 
 the chimney took fire and her house was burnt. Surely a gentle 
 warning to them that violate forbidden days." Another writer 
 observes "that though there was not anciently any fast-day be- 
 tween Easter and Whitsunday, the Popes had devised a mon- 
 strous fast on St. Mark's Day" St. Mark, it appears, was made 
 an exception, and " had his day fasted," 
 
 At Alnwick, in Northumberland, England, a ridiculous custom 
 called the Freeman's March {q. v.) was kept up till a recent date 
 on St, Mark's Day. 
 
 Marriage. Originally man appears to have been a polyg- 
 amous animal. The Jews of the earlier Old Testament period 
 were polygamous, but later changed their ways, possibly through 
 the influence of their Roman conquerors. Jews since then and 
 Christians from the time of the foundation of their religion have 
 been ostensibly monogamous. The Cathohc and Greek Churches 
 make marriage a sacrament, and most other Christian creeds 
 hold that the presence of an ofliciating clergyman, if not actually 
 obligatory, is, what is more awe-inspiring, "correct." ]^ever- 
 theless many of the social customs that surround the Christian 
 ceremony have their roots in the pagan past. 
 
 In that past marriage was first intertribal, and then exogamous, 
 or outside of the tribe. The first form of exogamous marriage 
 was marriage by capture. The bridegroom simply went out on 
 the war-path, accompanied by a doughty friend or two, seized 
 upon such damsel as had strayed away from parental covert, and 
 carried her away to his home. 
 
 In our modern marriage rite the very name of that now use- 
 less appendage the " best man" suggests that he is a relic of 
 marriage by capture. He was the strong-armed warrior who 
 assisted the would-be groom to carry off his bride. The wedding- 
 ring symbolizes the fetter with which the bride was bound; the 
 jocose slipper thrown after the departing couple adumbrates the 
 angry missiles hurled by the outstripped pursuers of the past. 
 The honeymoon itself symbolizes that space of time when the 
 captor had to hide his prize from her kinsmen until their con- 
 sent had been gained. 
 
 More obvious survivals are found in all primitive neighbor- 
 hoods. Among the Irish mountaineers a marriage is considered 
 but a tame affair unless the bridegroom run away with the bride. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 655 
 
 In Cardiganshire, Wales, the relatives of the bride assemble 
 and offer a mock resistance to the entrance of the groom, and 
 after a good deal of scuffling and horse-play a dialogue (chiefly 
 in verse) is carried on by two persons, — one on either side. After 
 this the bridegroom is admitted, and sets about seeking the 
 bride, who is commonly disguised in some manner, — as an old 
 woman, for instance, with a male infant, a symbol of good luck 
 and promise of sons, upon her lap. On arriving at the church 
 door the bride is seized by her relatives, who ride off with her, 
 the bridegroom and his party in pursuit. On being overtaken 
 the bride is at once handed over, and whoever caught her is cer- 
 tain to be married within a year. 
 
 Marriage by purchase succeeded marriage by capture. Indeed, 
 the two gradually merged together in the latter days of the cap- 
 ture period. The pursuing father gradually learned to mitigate 
 his wrath in the presence of cash or other equivalent. The 
 bridegroom might offer in lieu of cash his own sister, or horses, 
 or cattle, or land. This kind of marriage is still prevalent among 
 semi-civilized as the other among barbarous nations. For example, 
 it exists among the Chinese and various Mohammedan tribes. 
 
 Perhaps the most perfect system of marriage by purchase was 
 that of the Babylonians and Assyrians. They assembled all 
 girls of marriageable age in the space before the temple twice a 
 year, and sold them. The handsome girls brought high prices, 
 and the sums so received were turned over to the homely ones 
 as a counter-attraction. Thus every girl caught a husband, 
 some by beauty and some by money. 
 
 Marriage by purchase was prevalent among the Anglo-Saxons 
 at the time when Christianity first reached them. Every woman 
 was under the care of some man, who was termed her mundhora^ 
 or guardian ; and no one could marry her without having paid a 
 sum of money as a compensation to him. The father was the 
 guardian of his unmarried daughters ; the brother, if the father 
 died ; and the next to him the nearest male relative. If, how- 
 ever, the female was friendless and alone, she found in the king 
 her legal guardian. The maid was estimated according to her 
 rank in life. The first step in courtship, therefore, was to buy 
 the consent of the mundbora ; the lover was then admitted into 
 the society of his mistress, and allowed to claim her in due 
 course as his wife. If, however, her personal charms or her 
 disposition proved, on better acquaintance, unsatisfactory to her 
 suitor, and he failed to complete the bargain, he immediately 
 became amenable to the law. If a man ventured to marry 
 without first having bought and paid for his wife, he was guilty 
 of the crime of muridbreach, the consequences of which were both 
 vexatious and disastrous. The husband in such a case possessed 
 
656 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 no legal authority over his wife; he was a husband, in fact, 
 without a wife ; he had no right to her property. By the same 
 law a maiden and a widow were of separate value ; the latter could 
 be purchased for one-half the sum which the guardian of a maid 
 was entitled to demand ; the man, therefore, w^ho could not afford 
 to purchase a maid might perhaps be able to purchase a widow. 
 
 Thrupp, in his " Anglo-Saxon House," gives a full account of a 
 wedding in those days. Not till the ninth or tenth century did 
 women obtain the privilege of choosing or refusing their hus- 
 bands. Often they were betrothed when children, the bride- 
 groom's pledge of marriage being accompanied by a security, or 
 " wed," whence comes the word. Part of the wedding always 
 consisted of a ring placed on the maiden's right hand and there 
 religiously kept until transferred to the other hand at the later 
 nuptials. Then, also, were repeated the mari^iage vows and other 
 ceremonies, out of which those now prevailing have grown. The 
 bride was taken " for fairer or fouler, for better or worse, for 
 richer or poorer," and promised to be " buxom and bonny" to 
 her future husband. At the final ceremony the bridegroom put 
 the ring on each of the bride's left-hand fingers in turn, saying 
 at the first, "in the name of the Father;" at the second, "in the 
 name of the Son ;" at the third, " in the name of the Holy 
 Cxhost;" and at the fourth, "Amen." Then also the father gave 
 to his new son one of his daughter's shoes, in token of the trans- 
 fer of authority which he effected, and the bride was at once 
 made to feel the change by a tap or a blow on the head given 
 with the shoe. The husband on his part took an oath to use his 
 wife well. If he failed to do so, she might leave him, but by the 
 law he was allowed considerable license. He was bound in honor 
 " to bestow on his wife and apprentices moderate castigation." 
 An old Welsh law decides that three blows with a broomstick on 
 " any part of the person except the head" is a fair allowance, 
 and another provides that the stick be no longer than the hus- 
 band's arm nor thicker than his middle finger. Prior to the 
 seventh century a wife might at any time be repudiated on 
 proof of her being either barren, deformed, silly, passionate, 
 luxurious, rude, habitually drunk, gluttonous, very garrulous, 
 quarrelsome, or abusive. 
 
 Even after the triumph of Christianity marriage for a long 
 time continued to be a purely secular matter. But slowly and 
 gradually the Church encroached upon the State until she finally 
 arrogated to herself the control of marriage as a department of 
 life lying within the province of sacerdotal duty. She drew her 
 precedents from the past. Under the Eoman republic marriage 
 was a solemn religious ordinance. Under the Empire, when 
 religion fell into contempt, it came to be virtually a civil contract. 
 
 I 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 657 
 
 Christianity gave back to marriage its religious character, but 
 only by slow degrees. At first Christian couples pairing off 
 together asked for the blessing of their pastor. In mediaeval 
 times the priest was even called in to bless the marriage bed. 
 
 Blessing the Marriage Bed. 
 (From an old German print.) 
 
 The custom of an ecclesiastical marriage became more and more 
 general. Finally, in 1563, at the Council of Trent, it was made 
 binding. , 
 
 Though the Protestants rejected the sacramental idea of mar- 
 riage, they none the less looked upon it as a divine institution, 
 and its celebration in church grew to be indispensable. 
 
 The ancient usage was for the priest to join the hands of the 
 man and woman after their consent to the marriage, with such 
 words as "Et ego vos conjungo," etc. Then he laid the ends of 
 his stole upon the hands so joined. It is ordered in some early 
 Eoman Sacerdotalia, but disappeared from the Eoman Eituale at 
 or before the revision of Paul Y. It was, however, retained in 
 the local books of many Continental dioceses. 
 
 42 
 
658 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 At Liege the hands were bound together with the ends of the 
 stole, and the practice was the same elsewhere. But it would 
 seem that the usage was not followed in England. Indeed, the 
 ceremony with which it is connected is absent from most English 
 books, probably because in the English forms of the service the 
 joining of hands took place at the time when the man and 
 woman gave their troth to each other. The later joining of 
 their hands by the priest after the delivery of the ring was 
 introduced into England in 1549. It is a ceremony analogous to 
 but distinct from that with which the action with the stole is 
 sometimes conjoined. 
 
 To mark the importance and validity of a betrothal, the Coun- 
 cil of Trent also declared clandestine betrothals to be null and 
 void. It required them to be celebrated before the cure, in the 
 presence of two or three witnesses at least. Greater weight was 
 afterwards given to this article by an ordonnance of Louis XIII., 
 which forbade any notary (that is, any civilian) to sanction or 
 receive any promise of the kind. Before the first French Revo- 
 lution, such was the importance attached to this pious custom 
 that, except with an express dispensation from the bishop, a 
 priest could not betroth and marry a young couple in the same 
 day. It was requisite that a certain lapse of time, as a test of 
 their fidelity, should intervene between the one ceremony and 
 the other. The old French canon law had provided for the case 
 in which a faithless fiance should marry any other than his be- 
 trothed bride. The marriage consecrated by a sacrament was 
 more binding than the simple engagement of betrothal; but if 
 the culprit became a widower, and his first love required it of 
 him, he was obliged to purge his guilt by taking her to wife. 
 
 Another way in which the Church had marked its authority 
 long before the Council of Trent was by the prohibition of mar- 
 riage during certain periods, as the seasons of Advent, Lent, 
 and Whitsuntide. The old register of Cottenham, Cambridge- 
 shire contains this triplet in doggerel Latin : 
 
 Conjugium Adventus prohibet, Hilarique relaxat, 
 Septuagena vetat, sed Paschse octava remittit, 
 Rogamen vetitat, concedit Trina potestas. 
 
 Similar lines in English are inserted in the register of Everton, 
 Nottinghamshire : 
 
 Advent marriage doth deny, 
 
 But Hilary gives thee liberty. 
 
 Septuagesima says thee nay, 
 
 Eight days from Easter says you may. 
 
 Rogation bids thee to contain, 
 
 But Trinity sets thee free again. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 659 
 
 The close time was restricted to Advent and Lent by the Coun- 
 cil of Trent {Condi. Trident., 24. Sessio, cap. x.), but this decree 
 had no force in England, and the canons of the Anglican Church 
 still forbid marriages to be celebrated between Eogation Sunday 
 and Trinity Sunday. Such prohibitions, however, have ceased 
 to be regarded in England, and Lent has become, during the 
 present reign, the favorite season for royal marriages. 
 
 And now a glance at marriage customs the world over. 
 
 In the Greek Church the rites are more elaborate than in any 
 other Christian denomination, if the contracting parties be of 
 any social influence. 
 
 Fashion demands for the celebration of the ceremony the 
 chapel of some private house, if the couple have not sufficiently 
 lofty relations to secure the chapel of the palace. A family that 
 respects itself ought to have at its wedding as honorary father 
 and honorary mother, if not the Emperor and the Empress, at 
 least a grand-duke and a grand-duchess. The honorary father 
 gives the holy image, which some little child related to the fam- 
 ilies carries in front of the fiances. They enter the church, fol- 
 lowed by all their friends in gala uniform. The ceremony begins ; 
 it is very long, and complicated with many symbolic rites ; a 
 small table — a sort of movable altar — is placed in the middle of 
 the oratory ; the couple are separated from it by a band of rose- 
 colored satin ; when the priest calls, they must advance, and the 
 first who sets foot on the band, whether husband or wife, will be 
 the one Avho will impose his or her will on the household. This 
 is an article of faith for all the matrons, who watch them at that 
 moment. On the table are placed the liturgical formulary, the 
 candles which they must hold, the cross which they will kiss, 
 the rings which they will exchange, the cup of wine in which 
 they will moisten their lips, and which is called in the Slavonic 
 ritual " the cup of bitterness." Pages relieve each other to carry 
 with outstretched arms two heavy crowns, which must be held 
 above the heads of the fiances while the ceremony continues. 
 At the decisive moment, when the priest is pronouncing the 
 words that bind them together, the couple walk three times 
 around the altar, followed by the crown-bearers ; until the third 
 turn is completed there is time to turn back ; after that the die 
 is cast, the couple are united for life. Thereupon the singers 
 strike up in their most strident voices the joyous hymn "Let 
 Israel rejoice." 
 
 The bride and groom then go and prostrate themselves before 
 a picture of the Yirgin, after which they pass into the salon, where 
 champagne is opened and the guests are presented with boxes of 
 sweetmeats marked with the monograms of the young couple. 
 
 To eat maize pudding from the same plate, or to eat in any way 
 
660 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 together, is a widely distributed marriage ceremony. In Brazil 
 a couple may be married by drinking brandy together ; in Japan, 
 by so many cups of wine ; in Eussia and Scandinavia it used to 
 be one cup for both. The joining of hands among the Eomans 
 and Hindoos is common to many parts of the world. In Scot- 
 land it is called " hand-fasting," and couples live together after. 
 To sit together on a seat while receiving friends, or to have the 
 hands of each tied together with grass, or to smear with each 
 other's blood, or for the woman to tie a cord of her own twisting 
 around the naked waist of the man, constitutes marriage in one 
 part or another. 
 
 In Australia a woman carries fire to her lover's hut and makes 
 a fire for him. In America she lays a bundle of rods at the door 
 of his tent. A Loango negress cooks two dishes for him in his 
 own hut. In Croatia the bridegroom boxes the bride's ears, and 
 in Eussia the father formerly struck his daughter gently with a 
 new whip — for the last time — and then gave the weapon to her 
 husband. Down to the present, it is a custom in Hungary for 
 the groom to give the bride a kick after the marriage ceremony, 
 to make her feel her subjection. Even with all civilized peoples 
 the servitude of the bride is clearly indicated. 
 
 The Jewish ceremony is picturesque. The bride dresses in 
 pure white satin, and faces the bridegroom under the chuppah, 
 or matrimonial baldacchino. The ritual is read, and a cup of 
 consecrated wine is presented to bride and groom to be sipped. 
 Then comes the address from the officiating rabbi, who closes 
 by taking a glass of wine in his hand and pronouncing the 
 seven prescribed benedictions. Again bridegroom and bride 
 taste the cup ; after which the groom places it on the floor and 
 crushes it to atoms under his feet, as a symbol that the marriage 
 must last until the fragments can be united. The first kiss under 
 the new relation is given, and the newly wedded man escorts 
 his wife from chuppah to entrance and then home to the mar- 
 riage-feast. 
 
 Martha, St., of Bethany, patron saint of cooks and house- 
 wives. Her festival is celebrated on July 29, the reputed anni- 
 versary of her death (a.d. 84). She figures in the Gospels as the 
 sister of Lazarus and the friend of Christ. (For the legend of 
 her adventures after the crucifixion see Mary Magdalene, 
 whom tradition makes her sister ; also Maries, the Three.) 
 She is specially honored in Tarascon, the city built on the spot 
 where she captured a terrible dragon called Tarasque which was 
 devastating the neighborhood, and which she bound fast with 
 her girdle so that the people could come up and slay him. The 
 famous Miracle Play of Sainte-Marthe et el Tarasque, instituted, 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 661 
 
 it was said, by King Eene in 1400, was one of the last Provencal 
 coronlas to disappear, as in its day it was one of the most pop- 
 ular. Louis XI. came down to see it in 1444, when he was still 
 dauphin. At all events, he solemnly protested that he came for 
 the play alone, though unfriendly critics accused him of wish- 
 ing to spy out the land and estimate his chances of succeeding 
 to his uncle King Eene, whose only daughter Margaret was the 
 hapless wife of Henry YI. of England. 
 
 La Tarasqtje. 
 
 Even after the Mystery Play was itself abandoned, a remnant 
 of it lingered on until the middle of the nineteenth century, in 
 the annual procession of La Tarasque celebrated on July 29 not 
 only at Tarascon but also at Beaucaire. The main feature was 
 a huge figure of a dragon, made of wood and canvas, eight feet 
 long, three feet high, and four feet broad in the middle. The 
 head was small, there was no neck, the body, which was covered 
 with scales, was shaped like an enormous Qgg^ and at the nether 
 extremity was a heavy beam of wood for a tail. Sixteen mum- 
 mers gayly caparisoned and known as the Knights of la Tarasque 
 were among its attendants. Eight of the knights concealed 
 themselves within the body to represent those who had been 
 devoured, and furnished the motive power, besides lashing the tail 
 to right and left, at imminent risk to the legs of the spectators. 
 The other eight formed the escort, and were followed by drum- 
 mers and fifers and a long procession of clergy and laity. The 
 dragon was conducted by a girl in white and blue, the leading- 
 string being her girdle of blue silk. When the dragon was 
 especially unruly and frolicsome she dashed holy water over it. 
 
662 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 A continuous rattle of torpedoes and musketry was kept up by 
 those who followed in the dragon's train. 
 
 The merrymaking was often emphasized by practical joking 
 of a rude sort which frequently led to violent affrays. It was 
 these scenes of disorder which caused the suppression of the 
 spectacle. But the Tarasque itself is still preserved. 
 
 St. Martha's attributes in art are a dragon and a pot of holy 
 water, the latter distinguishing her from St. Margaret, who 
 bears a cross. A cooking-utensil is sometimes substituted for 
 the pot. 
 
 The body of St. Martha, miraculously discovered in the thir- 
 teenth century at Tarascon, is still preserved in a splendid sub- 
 terraneous chapel of the collegiate church of St. Martha in 
 that town. The head is kept in a rich bust of gold presented 
 by Louis XI. 
 
 Martin, St. Bishop of Tours, patron of that city and gener- 
 ally of beggars, tavern-keepers, and vine-growers. His prin- 
 cipal festival, famous under the name of Martinmas, occurs on 
 [N'ovember 11, the day of his burial. A minor feast in honor of 
 his ordination and the translation of his relics is celebrated 
 locally in France on July 4, and another in honor of their return 
 from Auxerre to Tours, called Eelatio, on December 13. 
 
 The son of a Eoman military tribune, born at Sabaria, Hun- 
 gary, about 316, and bred a soldier, St. Martin forsook the army 
 to retire into monastic seclusion, whence he emerged in 371 to 
 become Bishop of Tours. It was during his military career that 
 he divided his cloak with a poor beggar shivering at the gate of 
 Amiens. Both before and during his bishopric he proved an 
 earnest preacher of the gospel, converting the entire province to 
 Christianity, destroying many pagan temples, and beating back 
 the inroads of Arianism. He recalled to life, for the purpose of 
 baptism, two people who had died without that sacrament, and 
 performed many other wonders. The Emperor Maximus, when 
 he established his capital at Treves, invited the saint to a royal 
 banquet. Wishing to pay him a special mark of honor, Maxi- 
 mus offered him the wine cup before drinking himself, whereupon 
 Martin passed it to a humble priest who stood behind him, to 
 show that he accounted the least of the servants of God before 
 the greatest rulers of- earth, — an action that w^as loudly ap- 
 plauded by the Emperor and all bis court. St. Martin died on 
 the 8th of November, probably in 397. Poitiers warmly dis- 
 puted the possession of his body, but the people of Tours car- 
 ried it off and buried it in a neighboring grove amid a vast con- 
 course, among whom were two thousand monks and a great con- 
 course of virgins. Here St. Brice, his successor in the bishopric, 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 663 
 
 built a chapel, and later St. Perpetuus founded the great church 
 and monastery of St. Martin, a sumptuous tomb at the back of 
 the high altar being erected for the remains, which were trans- 
 lated hither on July 4. The shrine became so great a place of 
 pilgrimage for all Europe that in mediaeval times it was called a 
 second Jerusalem, and the fame of its riches tempted the Sara- 
 cens to press northward to the plains of Touraine, but, fortu- 
 nately, to be forever crushed in Gaul by Charles Martel. In 
 the sixteenth century the Huguenots rifled the tomb and scat- 
 tered the relics, but the church recovered a bone of his arm and 
 a part of his skull. Before this dispersion certain churches had 
 obtained small portions, which they still preserve. Thus, the 
 priory of St. Martin's-in-the-Field in Paris possessed a part, and 
 two teeth are shown at St. Martin's at Tournay. The cloak 
 which St. Martin divided with the beggar was for many centu- 
 ries preserved in an oratory near the church in Tours, and was 
 carried as a banner in war. It is said that the word chapel, — 
 French chapelle, — derived from chape or cape, was first applied 
 to this oratory, and that chaplain or chapelain was originally the 
 person intrusted with the care of it. 
 
 As the feast of Martinmas occurs at the genial period of the 
 year when the harvest is in, and cattle are slain for the winter 
 season, and new wine is first opened and tasted, it followed that 
 Martin became the embodiment of good cheer and inherited 
 some of the characteristics of the ancient Bacchus. There is 
 certainly a strong resemblance between the Yinalia of the an- 
 cients and the Martinalia of the mediaeval period. Brand quotes 
 an ancient ecclesiastical calendar which under the head of No- 
 vember 11 expressly says, " The Yinalia, a feast of the ancients 
 removed to this day, Bacchus in the figure of Martin." The 
 Danes and the Saxons made St. Martin's Day the occasion of a 
 special carouse which evidently borrowed some of its details from 
 the Roman original. 
 
 In continental Europe, the fat goose which in England is most 
 appropriate to Michaelmas was *eaten on St. Martin's Day and 
 washed down with copious draughts of wine. A fatted ox, 
 sometimes called a mart, was substituted in England. That is 
 one reason why the saint and his feast became so popular with 
 beef-eating Britons. No less than seven churches were named 
 after him in London. A more emphatic mark of popular ap- 
 proval was blazoned in the hall of the Yintners' Company, where 
 Bacchus and St. Martin divide the pictorial and statuary honors. 
 
 When Sir Samuel Dash wood, a vintner, became lord mayor in 
 Queen Anne's time, he had the soldier saint in full armor in his 
 show, preceded by Roman lictors, and followed by a troop of beg- 
 gars " howling lamentably." At St. Paul's Churchyard he who 
 
664 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 personated the saint cut his scarlet velvet cloak in many pieces, 
 which he distributed among them, much to the edification of her 
 majesty, who thereafter graciously condescended to dine with 
 the lord mayor at the Guildhall, and to eat and drink a great 
 deal, as became Martinmas, and as was that red-faced woman's 
 habit. 
 
 In the North Eiding of Yorkshire it was formerly customary 
 for a party of singers, mostly consisting of women, to begin at 
 the feast of St. Martin a kind of peregrination round the neigh- 
 boring villages, carrying with them a small waxen image of our 
 Saviour adorned with box and other evergreens, and singing at 
 the same time a hymn which, though rustic and uncouth, was 
 nevertheless replete with the sacred story of the E'ativity. 
 " The custom is yearly continued till Christmas Eve, when the 
 feasting, or, as they usually call it, ' good living,' commences ; 
 every rustic dame produces a cheese preserved for the sacred 
 festival, upon which, before any part of it is tasted, according to 
 an old custom, she with a sharp knife makes rude incisions to 
 represent the cross. With this, and furmity made of barley and 
 meal, the cottage affords uninterrupted hospitality." (^Gentle- 
 man's Magazine^ 1811, vol. Ixxxi. pt. i. p. 423.) 
 
 At St. Peter's, Athlone, Ireland, " every family of a village." 
 says Mason, in his "Statistical Account of Ireland" (1819, vol. 
 iii. p. 75), "kills an animal of some kind or other: those who 
 are rich kill a cow or a sheep, others a goose or a turkey ; while 
 those who are poor and cannot procure an animal of greater 
 value kill a hen or a cock, and sprinkle the threshold with the 
 blood, and do the same in the four corners of the house, and this 
 ceremonious performance is done to exclude every kind of evil 
 spirit from the dwelling where this sacrifice is made, till the 
 return of the same day in the following year." 
 
 If St. Martin's Day be bright and sunshiny there will be a 
 cold winter, or if the trees and vines still retain their foliage the 
 same will follow. But if there be frost before Martinmas the 
 winter will be mild. If the goose slips on the ice at Martinmas 
 she will stick in the mud at Christmas. 
 
 Martinmas in some places is rent-day, and debts are paid and 
 cancelled ; the servants also change places on that day, and they 
 say of any one who is changeable and flighty, "He'll eat no 
 Martin's kail," meaning that he'll not stay a year in the same 
 place. 
 
 The European association of goose with the saint's day has 
 been variously explained. 
 
 Sulpicius Severus, who lived at the beginning of the fifth 
 century and who wrote a book on the life of St. Martin, says, 
 " The feast of St. Martin is set for the 11th of November. This 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 665 
 
 day the Christians observe by drinking and stuffing themselves 
 with roast goose ; they do this, it is said, because a goose betrayed 
 St. Martin by her cries while he was concealed in the stall ; others 
 say that having eaten the whole of a goose at one meal he died 
 from the effects of it. These are but legends, as the custom is 
 traced to the people of the Northern countries, who are as fond 
 of goose as we are of partridge." 
 
 Another writer has it that it was and is customary among the 
 clergy to prepare for fasting by feasting. About the middle of 
 the fifth century Perpetuus, Bishop of Tours, ordered a fast to 
 be observed three times a week from Martinmas to Christmas, 
 and, as geese are supposed to be particularly fine eating at this 
 time of the year, the goose came to be the bird of the day. 
 
 A third legend relates that a goose so sadly disturbed St. Mar- 
 tin, when he was preaching, that he retired to a cave to be out 
 of the goose's way ; but even there the bird pursued him ; and 
 finally the saint made a too hearty dinner of goose, which proved 
 his death. The association is so firmly established that on Mar- 
 tinmas in some parts of France no one dares to drive his geese 
 to pasture, as the goose is then common property and every one 
 may help himself 
 
 If you have roast goose at Martinmas you must ask St. 
 Martin to dine with you, otherwise the goose may not be foi th- 
 coming in the following year. There is a superstition that if 
 the farmer has not finished his field-work by Martinmas he will 
 bury his wife before the winter is over. 
 
 In France it was for a long time the custom to hang up a goat 
 by the legs and then slowly torture it to death. Clearly this 
 was a survival of an ancient pagan practice. 
 
 On Martinmas the first new wine was tasted, and this often gave 
 rise to carousals and drunken feasting, so that poor St. Martin 
 soon came to be in bad repute, and any one who was particularly 
 given to dissipation was called a " Martinsman." 
 
 The French call feasting at this time of 3 ear " faire le Saint- 
 Martin," and a spoiled stomach is known as " mal de Saint- 
 Martin." 
 
 In Germany the proverb says that 
 
 The hog that's killed at Martinmas 
 Must be eat up by Candlemas. 
 
 This is quite the reverse of another old proverb, which warns 
 people against using up more than half of their provisions before 
 Candlemas (February 2), Martinmas being considered the begin- 
 ning of winter and Candlemas about the middle of it. The 
 French say, "A la Saint-Martin I'hiver en chemin." 
 
 Before the Christian era the people of the North sacrificed to 
 
666 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 their god Odin, or Wodin, after the harvest, and the little cakes 
 baked all over Germany on this day are in the shape of a horn 
 or a horseshoe, one of the symbols of Wodin. 
 
 Along ihe banks of the Ehine they build immense fires on the 
 hill-tops, and when their red glow illumines the landscap*e all 
 join hands and dance merrily in a circle around the fires, singing 
 and shouting to their hearts' content. 
 
 They have a pretty custom in Suabia of giving presents to the 
 school-master on this day. About a week before Martinmas the 
 older pupils begin secretly to collect gifts from the other chil- 
 dren and their parents. When the day arrives the school-master 
 is presented with a fine fat goose, gayly decked wdth ribbons. 
 They also give him plenty of corn to feed it with, in addition to 
 wine and grapes, and an immense cake in the form of a wreath, 
 that is often three feet in diameter. In some places the children 
 go about in the evening singing and soliciting gifts of apples, 
 nuts, and cakes. When they are successful they rewai'd the 
 giver by telling him that 
 
 Martin is a good man, 
 He'll repay you if he can. 
 
 But when they receive nothing they cry, — 
 
 Codfish, codfish, 
 
 You always give us an empty dish. 
 
 In Halle the children of the IIall6ren — men who work in the 
 salt-mines there — firmly believe that St. Martin has the power to 
 change water into wine. They therefore fill their jugs with 
 water and kick them, singing, — 
 
 Marline, Marline, 
 Change Ihe water lo wine. 
 
 The parents then secretly take the jugs, empty the water, and 
 refill them with wine; then a martin's horn — a cake baked in 
 the shape of a horn — is laid on top, and the jugs are returned to 
 their hiding-places. The children, after having prayed to St. 
 Martin, hunt for the jugs, and great is their satisfaction at find- 
 ing that the good saint has answered their prayers. 
 
 What Americans call Indian summer (^. v.) is in England 
 known as St. Martin's summer, and in France as L'ete de Saint- 
 Martin. 
 
 But the most curious ceremonial practised in honor of St. 
 Martin is at Dunkerque. A local legend thus explains it. About 
 the year 386, St. Martin, on his travels through Gaul, happened 
 
 I 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 667 
 
 to arrive one evening at Diinkerque, or rather the spot where 
 Dunkerque now stands. He was riding leisurely on donkey- 
 back. Stopping at a little chapel near the Dunes, he left his ass 
 waiting at the gates. There are doubts whether such a chapel 
 existed then, but legends do not scruple at anachronistic details. 
 St. Martin entered some chapel or house. While he was saying 
 his prayers within-doors, the animal strayed away to search for 
 the prickly eringo, or sea-holly, which had caused his mouth to 
 water along the road. His master, missing him, begged the 
 neighboring fishermen to lend their aid to recover him. The 
 worthy fellows started at once, regardless of its being night : 
 some, with resin torches in their hands ; some, with the lanterns 
 belonging to their fishing-boats; while others blew the horn 
 which still announces the arrival of a boat at the beach, and 
 which may be made to give a not bad imitation of a donkey's 
 bray when it tries to sing small. At last the gluttonous ass was 
 found, and brought back to the village under the escort of a 
 troop of children, who, as they travelled along the road, were 
 treated, by St. Martin's intervention and the donkey's keep, with 
 an unexpected supply of exquisite spice-bread. 
 
 In modern times, on the evening of St. Martin's Day at Dun- 
 kerque — and at Dunkerque only — the whole population claims 
 the privilege of going mad from five o'clock till seven in com- 
 memoration of the finding of St. Martin's ass. The next day, 
 at the same hour, a second paroxysm returns ; and then the town 
 remains sane for a twelvemonth. The professed actors in the 
 farce are all the children of the place, little and big, boys and 
 girls, from babies at the breast to overgrown boarding-school 
 masters and misses. But as the youngsters do not turn out 
 alone, and the old folks enjoy the fun as thoroughly as their 
 juniors, it is hardly an exaggeration to say that the whole city 
 makes a good-natured fool of itself A writer in Household 
 Words, vol. vii. p. 332, thus describes the scene : " Fancy the 
 streets crowded with children, from three to a hundred and 
 eighty months old, and every one of them carrying in his hand 
 a paper lamp of some fashion. Flowers of all colors and shapes, 
 churches, houses, and fantastical figures, are illuminated by a 
 candle's-end that is stuck on a save-all at the extremity of a 
 stick. The usual gas-lights are perfectly unnecessary ; for the 
 rays sent forth by the thousands of lanterns produce a brilliant 
 substitute ; and by way of musical accompaniment to the scene 
 there are hundreds of penny trumpets, which are expressly pre- 
 pared for this occasion only. 
 
 " As soon as the juvenile orgy begins, no carriage is permitted 
 to pass through the streets; nor could it, without committing a 
 Juggernautian slaughter of innocents. The crowd, which eddies 
 
CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 and flows in all directions, treads so closely and compactly on 
 one another's heels that a pin could not fall to the ground be- 
 tween them. It is one of the many things of which it may be 
 truly observed that to be believed it must be seen and heard, 
 
 " But as all the principal performers are children, and as 
 children go to bed at an early hour, at seven o'clock the throng 
 begins to thin ; at half-past seven it is thoroughly ashamed of 
 itself; at eight the town is as sober as usual. The gas is lighted, 
 the vehicles roll along, and the young rogues munch their cro- 
 quandoules, or donkey-nuts, while they undress themselves and 
 jump into bed." 
 
 '' This country having no patron saint, a contributor to the 
 Holy Gross Magazine, the organ of the extreme Catholic paity 
 of the Episcopalians, suggests that the omission be supplied by 
 the selection of St. Martin of Tours. 
 
 " His reasons for the suggestion are the coincidence that the 
 great festival in commemoration of St. Martin occurs on the 
 Fourth of July, the anniversary of the transportation of the 
 saint's remains, and the circumstance of ' his association with 
 our national colors.' His ordination also is commemorated on 
 the Fourth of July, and his relations to the French, with whose 
 aid we conquered our independence, together with the distin- 
 guishing qualities of his character, recommend him peculiarly to 
 Americans, in the opinion of this writer. It is true that St. 
 Martin was not an American, having lived more than a thousand 
 years before the time of Columbus, but that does not constitute 
 a vahd objection, to the thinking of the Ifoly Cross writer, ' since 
 Wales, with St. David, is almost alone in possessing as patron a 
 countryman.' If England has St. George of Cappadocia and 
 Ireland St. Patrick of France, why, he asks, should not this 
 country have St. Martin of Tours ? 
 
 " The democratic simplicity of the life and the strength of the 
 character of St. Martin, his independence, and his rugged virtues, 
 seem to the Holy Cross Magazine writer to make him a very 
 fitting and congenial patron saint for the American people. 
 ' Moreover, the bedesman supported by a royal French endow- 
 ment wore, in commemoration of the saint, a mantle of red and 
 white, while the cappa of St. Martin, before it was superseded 
 by the oriflamme as the standard of France, was a blue banner 
 of three points.' The variety of his experiences as soldier, ex- 
 orcist, hermit, monk, and bishop seems also to this writer to be 
 ' a passport to the affections of a people whose avocations are apt 
 to have nearly as wide a range.' St. Martin, too, appears to him 
 especially qualified to be the patron saint of a country whose 
 population is made up of so many nationalities, for, a Hungarian 
 by birth, he was educated in Lonibardy, was a soldier in Cisal- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 669 
 
 pine and Transalpine Gaul, a hermit near Genoa, and a bishop 
 between Tours and Treves, a town which is now in Germany. 
 
 "The suggestion is interesting, but so long as the present re- 
 ligious disagreement between Eoman Catholics and Protesianis 
 continues it is not likely to be adopted by popular consent, for 
 of course there must be such consent if we are to have a patron 
 saint generally acknowledged. Moreover, there will be strong 
 objection to importing a saint for the purpose. This country is 
 growing more and more patriotic, jingoistic, as the Mugwumps 
 call it, more self-sufficient, and a patron saint not native to its 
 soil and not associated with its history is not likely to appeal to 
 popular sentiment." {New York Sun, July 7, 1896.) 
 
 Martyrs for the Holy Scriptures. The 2d of January is 
 specially set apart in the Eoman calendar to honor, under this 
 name, the Christians throughout the Eoman provinces who, 
 when Diocletian in 303 commanded all copies of the Scriptures 
 to be seized and burned, chose rather to suffer tortures and death 
 than to surrender the sacred writings to the enemies of God. 
 This festival was in Catholic times observed with much ceremony 
 in Lichfield, England, whose very name is derived from Like- 
 field, the " field of corpses," because it is traditionally held that 
 many Christians suffered there during the Diocletian persecution. 
 The arms of Lichfield are a plain strewn with corpses. History, 
 however, is silent on this event. 
 
 Mary Magdalene, St. (so called because she was a native 
 of Magdala, in Galilee), patroness of Provence and Marseilles, 
 and of penitent fallen women. Her festival is celebrated on July 
 22, the traditionary date of her death. 
 
 Catholic legend has insisted on identifying as one person Mary 
 of Bethany (the sister of Lazarus), the unnamed " woman which 
 was a sinner" who in Simon's house anointed Christ's feet (Luke 
 vii. 37, 38), and " Mary called Magdalene," who was delivered by 
 our Lord of seven demons (Luke viii. 2) and thereafter followed 
 him from place to place, was present at the crucifixion (John 
 xix. 25) and the burial (Mark. xv. 47), came on Easter morning 
 with other women to embalm his body (Mark xvi. 1), and, find- 
 ing the tomb empty, informed Peter and John, but lingered after 
 they had gone, and was honored with the first appearance of the 
 risen Lord (John xx. 1-18). Modern Biblical critics generally 
 look upon these as three different individuals, and few Catholic 
 theologians accept the identity of Mary of Magdala and Mary 
 of Bethany, though they generally lean to the opinion that the 
 former was one with the penitent woman of Luke vii. 
 
 The ancient legends, however, are insistent in their details. 
 
670 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 The Magdalene with them was the sister of Lazarus and Martha 
 of Eethany. Martha was virtuous, but Mary, giving herself up 
 to vice, came to be known to all as "the Sinner." Martha in 
 pitiful distress begged her to call on Jesus. Mary obeyed, was 
 stricken with penitence, and was forgiven, the seven demons cast 
 out of her being the seven deadly sins to which she had become 
 a slave. After the Ascension the legend tells how Lazarus and 
 his sisters and many of their friends were placed by their per- 
 secutors in an open boat, rudderless and sailless, which was 
 miraculously landed at Marseilles (see Maries, the Three), and 
 how most of the little company dispersed to preach the gospel 
 throughout Provence. But Mary decided to retire into the wil- 
 derness, to bewail her sins in solitude. While wandering in the 
 I'orest known as la foret de la Baume, or forest of the cavern, a 
 few miles from Marseilles, a flock of angels swooped down and 
 carried her to the cave high up in an inaccessible rock. Here, 
 with only her hair to hide her nakedness, and a psalter and a 
 crucifix for furniture, she lived for thirty years. When she felt 
 the approach of death, her old friends the angels flew with her 
 to St. Maximin's oratory. He had just time to give her the last 
 sacraments when she breathed her last, and her soul was seen 
 to fly up to heaven in the form of a dove, July 22, a.d. 86. As 
 to her body, Maximin placed it in a fine marble sepulchre and 
 built over it a church. 
 
 Church and sepulchre passed away. In the thirteenth cen- 
 tury a lot of bones supposed to be the remains of the Magdalene 
 and others of her band were found at the little town of St. Max- 
 imin. On this spot was built in 1279 the basilica of St. Maximin, 
 which still possesses a blackened skull encased in gold, shown as 
 the Magdalene's, and also a pair of rude sarcophagi in its very 
 ancient crypt, which are held to be those of ihe saint and her 
 maid Marcilla. But another body of the Magdalene, supported 
 by another legend, was shown as early as 1146 at Yezelay, which 
 according to Fleury was visited by St. Louis in 1267. A third 
 body now in St. John Lateran's at Rome, and a third legend, 
 complicate matters considerably. This legend makes the Mag- 
 dalene accompany John and the Yirgin to Ephesus, where she 
 died and was buried in the year 90. In 869 her remains were 
 translated to Constantinople, and in 1216 to Eome. 
 
 The chief shrine, however, of the repentant Magdalene is La 
 Sainte Baume, the Holy Cave, in which, according to the Pro- 
 vencal legend, she spent thirty years. No spot was more famous 
 in the Middle Ages. There were few kings of France from St. 
 Louis to Louis XIY. who did not visit it and enrich it. Even in 
 our own time some fifteen thousand pilgrims come here every 
 year. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 671 
 
 The Dominican convent is practically the only inn in those 
 parts, and every visitor has to put up with the severely plain 
 accommodation provided by a monastic cell and simple but clean 
 food. 
 
 The convent contains about one hundred beds ; the lady vis- 
 itors are served by nuns, the gentlemen by monks. The convent, 
 v(;^hich looks almost as ancient as the grotto, is situated on the 
 edge of a vast rocky chain of hills, and almost opposite the 
 monastery, half-way up the steep incline, is the famous grotto 
 cut into the solid rock. There a wide platform is hewn out, 
 partly occupied at present by a second convent. 
 
 The grotto is about twenty-five yards square, eight yards high, 
 and, to all intents and purposes, a chapel. The principal altar 
 is surmounted by a fine statue representing Mary Magdalene 
 praying. 
 
 Matze. A large round biscuit made of unleavened flour which 
 the orthodox Jew eats during the sacred season of the Passover 
 (c[. v.). In chapters xii. and xiii. of Exodus the manner of cele- 
 bration on the first night of the feast is partly told, and there it 
 is commanded that unleavened bread be eaten on the first night 
 and no leaven be kept in the house at any time during the week. 
 This is in remembrance of the fact that the Jews in their hurry 
 to leave Egypt were forced to take along unleavened bread, 
 which they had to bake in the sun. In Europe, when they 
 happen to have any bread or other sort of leaven in the house 
 the housewife locks the pantry and hands over the key to some 
 old Christian friend of hers to keep till the feast is over. 
 
 The flour from which the dough is made is ground in a mill 
 by Jews, and is from wheat which has been selected with the 
 greatest care. Especial pains are taken to prevent any impurity 
 from getting into the wheat. The flour is then placed in clean, 
 new barrels, selected expressly for this purpose. 
 
 When the work of manufacturing matzes is begun, two men 
 knead the dough in w^ooden dishes, while another brings the 
 flour, and still another the water, from opposite corners. One 
 man ladles the flour from a bin into a wooden dough -tray, and 
 another, after a short interval, pours a cup of water into the tray. 
 
 Two men are always employed at this work, for if only one 
 were at work some of the flour might get into the water, or the 
 reverse. This would make the flour sour and spoil all. 
 
 The greatest caution is exercised regarding the water, w^hich 
 must be free from all impurities. In order to have it so, it is 
 carried in the previous evening and allowed to settle. When it 
 is being used, the utmost care is taken, so as not to stir it and 
 thus cause the impurities to rise from the bottom of the vessel. 
 
672 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Like pains are taken when the dough is being prepared, in 
 order that it may be free from all impurity. It is kneaded hard 
 into a big roll, which weighs ten pounds. After this it is cut in 
 pieces by a man specially engaged for the purpose, and is then 
 carried to the women by another man. The women take the 
 pieces and roll the dough flat. IS'ext this flat piece of dough is 
 rolled over two sets of wheels, which make diamond-like impres- 
 sions on the cakes. Then they are baked. 
 
 The latter process can be done only in daylight, work begin- 
 ning at sunrise and ending at sunset. After the work of pre- 
 paring the matzes for the oven, a man removes all specks of dough 
 from the rolling-pins with sandpaper and glass. 
 
 These matzes are always ordered in advance, but are not de- 
 livered until the homes into which they go have undergone a 
 thorough cleaning and after every crumb of leavened bread has 
 been taken from the apartments. If they should, by some mis- 
 chance, come in contact with ordinary bread, it would render the 
 matzes unfit for use in the festival. 
 
 For the very devout among the Hebrews a special matze is 
 baked. This comes much higher than the other varieties, cost- 
 ing eight or ten times as much. 
 
 Maundy or Shere Thursday, known in the Catholic eccle- 
 siastical calendar as Holy Thursday. The day before Good 
 Friday, commemorating Christ's Last Supper, and also, both in 
 the Greek and in the Western Church, his washing of the dis- 
 ciples' feet on that day. The word Maundy comes through old 
 French mande from the Latin mandatum, "a command," the ref- 
 erence being to the words of Christ in his discourse at the Last 
 Supper : " Mandatum novum do vobis, ut diligatis invicem" ('• A 
 new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another"). 
 (John xiii. 34.) The word sheer, shere, or chare comes from the 
 Middle English shere or sheere, meaning " pure," " unalloyed," 
 "clear," (still surviving with a modified meaning in sheer), and 
 is an allusion to the physical purity acquired by the ablutions 
 of the day. 
 
 In the early Christian ages the chief religious rite performed 
 on this day was the washing of the feet of poor persons or 
 inferiors by a priest, prelate, noble, or sovereign. The custom 
 still has its local survivals both in the Roman and in the Greek 
 Church. In the former the most notable instances are at Rome 
 itself, at Yienna, and at Munich. In the second, ecclesiastical 
 dignitaries perform it at Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Constanti- 
 nople. In the Anglican Church the custom has been obsolete 
 since 1754. 
 
 Naogeorgus, in "The Popish Kingdom," alludes to the univer- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 673 
 
 sality of the feet-washing ceremonies in mediaeval monasteries. 
 This is Barnaby Googe's translation : 
 
 And here the monkes their Maundie make, with sundrie solemne rights, 
 And signes of great humilitie, and wondrous pleasant sights : 
 Ech one the others feete doth wash, and wipe them cleane and drie, 
 With hatefull minde, and secret frawde, that in their heartes doth lye. 
 
 In England high ecclesiastics and royalty itself unbent to this 
 imitation of Christ's humility. At Durham Cathedral until the 
 sixteenth century every charity-boy had a monk to wash his 
 feet, and every monk then kissed the feet of a boy, and gave him 
 thirty pence, seven red herrings, three loaves, a wafer cake, and 
 some drink. 
 
 Washing the Pilgrims^ Feet in Rome. 
 (From Picart.) 
 
 We read of Cardinal Wolsey, at Peterborough Abbey, in 1530, 
 making " his maund in Our Lady's Chapel, having fifty-nine poor 
 men whose feet he washed and kissed ; and after he had wiped 
 them he gave every of the said poor men twelve pence in money, 
 three ells of good canvas to make them shirts, a pair of new 
 shoes, a cast of red herrings, and three white herrings." The 
 King of England used formerly, on Maundy Thursday, to have 
 brought before him as many poor men as he was years old. 
 whose feet he washed with his own hands, and then distributed 
 
 43 
 
674 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 meat, clothes, and money. Queen Elizabeth performed this 
 ceremony, the paupers' feet, however, being first washed by the 
 yeomen of the laundry with warm water and sweet herbs. After 
 washing each foot, the queen marked it with the sign of the 
 cross above the toes and kissed it. This ceremonial was last 
 performed in its full extent by James II. King William left 
 the washing to his almoner, and such was the arrangement for 
 many years : for example, in 1731 we read of the Archbishop 
 of York, lord high almoner, washing the feet of a number of 
 poor people. Latterly the feet-washing has been abandoned, and 
 an additional sum of money has been given in lieu of provisions 
 and clothing. 
 
 Since the beginning of Queen Victoria's reign it has been an 
 established rule to present to twice as many aged and deserving 
 poor men and women as there are years in her majesty's life 
 a donation in money known as the Maundy Pennies. A special 
 service, formerly held at the Chapel Eoyal, Whitehall, has since 
 the abolition of that chapel been transferred to Westminster 
 Abbey. A procession is formed in the nave, consisting of the 
 lord high almoner, representing her majesty, attended by his 
 of&cials, the yeomen of the guard, and the clergy of the Abbey. 
 During the course of the service two distributions of alms are 
 made to a company of old men and women, the number of each 
 sex corresponding to the age of the sovereign. The prescribed 
 minimum of age is sixty years. The first distribution in lieu of 
 clothing consists of thirty-five shillings to each woman and forty- 
 five shillings to each man. The second distribution is of red and 
 white purses, the red containing one pound, and one pound ten 
 shilhngs, in gold, — an allowance in lieu of provisions formerly 
 given in kind. The white purses contain as many pence as her 
 majesty is years of age, the amount being furnished in silver 
 pennies, twopences, threepences, and fourpences. These purses 
 are carried in baskets on the heads of the yeomen of the guard 
 in procession, and then distributed by the lord high almoner. 
 Some of the officials wear white scarves, in memory of the linen 
 towel with which our Lord girded himself when he stooped to 
 perform his lowly act of washing his followers' feet. 
 
 The Maundy pennies were first coined in the reign of Charles 
 IL They come to the recipients fresh from the mint. Each coin 
 bears on one side the ef^gy of the queen, with her name and 
 titles, and on the other the denomination of the coin, the crown, 
 and the date, enclosed in a wreath. The edges of the coin are 
 not milled, as it is not expected that they will circulate, and the 
 precaution of milling against the coin-clippers is unnecessary. 
 A full set of Maundy pennies for the reign of Victoria is worth 
 a very handsome sum. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 675 
 
 What are known as the minor bounty, discretionary bounty, 
 and Eoyal Gate alms are, according to old usages, distributed at 
 the Eoyal Almonry, Craig's Court, on the preceding Saturday, 
 Friday, Monday, and Tuesday, to over one thousand aged, dis- 
 abled, and meritorious poor of both sexes, recommended to the 
 Almonry by the clergy of the selected parishes of England and 
 Wales. 
 
 While this modified and modernized form of the ancient rites 
 of Maundy Thursday takes place in Westminster Abbey, the 
 Eoman Catholic cardinal archbishop observes the full ritual of 
 the Catholic Church at the pro-cathedral. Clothed in his epis- 
 copal robes, he himself washes the feet of thirteen acolytes 
 garbed in white. The prelate, kneeling before each, pours out 
 the water, and then wipes it away with a linen cloth. 
 
 The Footwashings celebrated at Vienna by the Emperor of 
 Austria and at Munich by the King of Bavaria are held in the 
 royal palaces of the respective sovereigns. Here is a description 
 of the former by an eye-witness : 
 
 " Shortly after ten o'clock the floor began to fill with score 
 upon score of officers in full uniform, from the different regiments 
 of the kingdom, making a brilliant and imposing scene. In the 
 assemblage were many of the most distinguished members of the 
 Austro-Hungarian court, including ministers of state, archdukes, 
 generals of infantry and cavalry, and vice-admirals of the war- 
 fleet. Chatting with officers in gold-embroidered blue and scarlet 
 uniforms were knights of Malta with white cross on sleeve and 
 breast, Hungarians with high yellow boots and a leopard's skin 
 thrown over the left shoulder, and in marked contrast to these 
 the Polish aristocrats in flowing robes of black mourning for 
 their lost kingdom. In the royal box above were the ladies of 
 the court. At half-past ten the clergy entered the room, followed 
 by the twelve oldest poor men of Vienna (for whom the service 
 is performed), dressed in old German costume, — black, with 
 white cape collars and knee-breeches. 
 
 " Many of the aged men were quite feeble, and were assisted 
 to their chairs by their relatives, who stood behind them during 
 the service. Earlier in the morning the Emperor, Francis Joseph 
 I., accompanied by his suite, attended high mass in the royal 
 chapel, and upon his return entered the hall, followed by his 
 cousin, nephews, and a large cortege. The Emperor wore the 
 uniform of a general of infantry, and took his place at once at 
 the head of the table, making the number thirteen, while in the 
 rear stood thirteen of his body-guard. Then appeared from an 
 anteroom twelve of the nobility, each carrying a tray containing 
 the first course of a feast to be served to the Kaiser's guests. 
 The dishes were all placed upon the table by the Emperor him- 
 
676 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 self, but no sooner had he done this than, with the assistance of 
 his brother and the archdukes, he replaced them upon trays held 
 by the thirteen guards, who removed them. It seemed a little 
 hard on the old men to see the tempting viands so quickly taken 
 away, but we learned later that each one received at his home 
 the food and dishes as well, which were made for this occasion, 
 as it had been found that the dinner was much more enjoyed in 
 this way than before such a grand assemblage. The repast was 
 beautifully prepared and handsomely garnished, served in four 
 courses, each presented and removed in the manner described, 
 after which the tables were taken away. 
 
 " Footmen then removed the shoes and stockings from the old 
 men and spread over their knees a long white linen roll, after 
 which the chaplain began the G-ospel for the day. At the words 
 'et coepit lavare pedes discipulorum' the Emperor knelt and 
 began the ceremony of the ' foot-washing,' one prelate holding a 
 basin while another poured the water. The Emperor continued 
 kneeling until he had performed this service of humility for each 
 of the twelve, after which he took from a salver silken bags, each 
 containing thirty pieces of silver, and hung one about the neck 
 of each of the old men. This ended the service; but we lingered 
 long enough to see these honored guests assisted to the royal 
 carriages to be sent home in the care of members of the Kaiser's 
 body-guard, carrying the sizable wooden chest of provisions and 
 a large flask of wine. When the Empress is at home she performs 
 a similar service for the twelve oldest poor women of Vienna, but 
 in case she is not, as happened this year, they are not present at 
 the ceremonial, but receive at their homes an equal share of the 
 royal bounty. It is not uncommon later to find these royal gifts 
 in an antiquarian's shop, — the original recipients frequently de- 
 siring the florins they will bring more than the distinction of 
 possessing the gifts themselves. 
 
 " The men and women who can count more than one hundred 
 years are annually included in this royal invitation, but the 
 majority of them receive this honor but once. This year the 
 oldest was ninety-six and the youngest eighty-eight 3'ears of 
 age." (Correspondence of the Springfield Republican, April, 1895.) 
 
 The feet of thirteen pilgrims used to be washed by the Pope. 
 They were chosen from among visiting priests and deacons of 
 diverse nationalities. The ceremony was performed in the right 
 corner of the transept of St. Peter's. The Pope washed succes- 
 sively the right foot of each of the pilgrims, which he dried and 
 kissed. Then he gave to each a bouquet of fresh flowers. He 
 then made ready to celebrate the ceremony of the Cena, or Sup- 
 per, which took place in the large hall just below the vestibule 
 of the basilica. The thirteen "apostles," all dressed in white, 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 677 
 
 silently ranged themselves around a table covered with cloth of 
 gold and decorated with flowers. 
 
 Soon His Holiness appeared, surrounded by distinguished 
 guests, and escorted by the ]^oble Guards. Amid these brilliant 
 uniforms and variegated costumes the Pope's vestments were 
 distinguished by their extreme simplicity. A prelate of his 
 household presented him a linen apron embroidered with lace, 
 and held up to him a vermilion basin from which the Pope poured 
 water on the hands of the apostles. 
 
 After the table had been blessed by His Holiness the dishes 
 were brought by prelates who came in single file and kneeling 
 handed them to the Pope. He in turn placed them in front of 
 each of the " apostles," and poured wine and water into their 
 glasses. Then His Holiness retired, and the apostles, having 
 eaten and drunk their fill, swept the remains of the feast off' from 
 the table into huge valises. Frequently the contagion spread to 
 the spectators, who brushed past the guards and gleaned the har- 
 vest-field for relics, if only a leaf or a flower. 
 
 This ceremony has been discontinued for many years. But 
 the washing of pilgrims' feet by prelates and by the nobility is 
 still performed in various other churches and monasteries. 
 
 Another time-honored custom is still celebrated in the after- 
 noon of Maundy Thursday. The Cardinal Grand Penitentiary 
 appears at his post near the pillar of St. Yeronica, where he is 
 met by the Minor Penitentiaries. He doff's his cardinal's hat 
 and assumes the beretta. A long rod is brought him, with which 
 he lightly raps the heads of the different prelates of his suite 
 and all other penitents who press forward to gain the indul- 
 gence of one hundred days which is attached to this act of 
 humility. (See Lavanda.) 
 
 The feebleness and failing health of Leo XIII. compel him to 
 select a deputy for the task he has accomplished so many years, 
 but nothing is changed in the ceremonial observed in the palace 
 of Madrid, where the chapel is filled by the most exalted pei'sons 
 and the dignitaries of court and state, all, like the queen, arrayed 
 in full court costume. Everybody goes to church on this day, 
 and to as many churches as possible. The fact that all carriages 
 and vehicles are forbidden to pass through the streets of Madrid 
 on Holy Thursday adds a picturesque element to this function, 
 as for that day alone from dawn to dusk may be seen women in 
 gala dress and men in brilliant uniforms coruscating with daz- 
 zling orders picking their way on the pavement from church 
 to church, and investing a mass in one at least and an Ave and 
 a Pater Noster in the others. 
 
 A silence like that of Venice falls on the rattling capital. With 
 three hundred thousand people in the street, the town seems 
 
678 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 still. In 1870 a free-thinking cabman dared to drive up the Calle 
 Alcala. He was dragged from his box and beaten half to death 
 by the chastened mourners, who yelled as they kicked and cuffed 
 him, '' Que bruto ! He will wake our Jesus." 
 
 Dr. Clarke, author of "Travels in Eussia" (1810), gives a de- 
 scription of the Maundy Thursday festivities as practised by the 
 Archbishop of Moscow, which is as true of the present day as 
 it was of his own time : 
 
 " The second grand ceremony of this season takes place on 
 Thursday before Easter, at noon, when the Archbishop of Mos- 
 cow washes the feet of the apostles. This we also witnessed. 
 The priests appeared in their most gorgeous apparel: Twelve 
 monks, designed to represent the twelve apostles, were placed 
 in a semicircle before the archbishop. The ceremony is per- 
 formed in the cathedral, which is crowded with spectators. 
 The archbishop, performing all and much more than is related 
 of our Saviour in the thirteenth'chapter of St. John, takes off 
 his robes, girds up his loins with a towel, and proceeds to wash 
 the feet of them all, until he comes to the representative of St. 
 Peter, who rises, and the same interlocution takes place as be- 
 tween our Saviour and that apostle." (Yol. i. p. 55.) 
 
 In a court in front of the church of the Holy Sepulchre the 
 Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem annually washes the feet of twelve 
 of his bishops. It is one of the great sights of the Holy City. 
 Frank G. Carpenter, who witnessed it in 1889, has presented us 
 with an excellent description. In the centre of the court, he says, 
 stood an oval rostrum, about four feet above the stones. Around 
 its floor ran an iron railing enclosing a space about eight feet 
 wide and twelve feet long. Inside the railing and running around 
 it were seats, and at the back was a gold-and-white arm-chair 
 cushioned with red satin. This stage was for the ceremony, and 
 the chair was the stone of the patriarch. The other seats were 
 for the bishops. When all had taken their places, a priest brought 
 to the rostrum a large golden pitcher in a basin of gold as large 
 as a foot-bath, and placed it in front of the patriarch. 
 
 All rose amid solemn prayer. The patriarch divested himself 
 of his grand gown and stood forth in a white silk robe girt with 
 a gold and white girdle. He twisted a long Turkish bath -towel 
 about his loins, and then, stooping over, poured the water from 
 the gold pitcher into the basin. "The twelve bishops, in the 
 mean time, were busy getting their feet out of their English 
 congress gaiters and in pulling their white cotton socks off for the 
 washing. Each has one foot bare as the patriarch comes around 
 with the basin, and each holds out his bare foot to be washed. 
 This the patriarch does very quickly, rubbing the foot with water 
 and drying it with a towel. As he finished he bent over and 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 679 
 
 kissed the foot he had washed, and then went on to the next apos- 
 tle. The last bishop represented St. Peter, and, after the ex- 
 ample of Peter of the past, he objected to having his feet washed 
 by his Lord ; he rose and gesticulated violently, but the patriarch 
 opened the Bible and read to him the admonition which Christ 
 made to Peter; he shook his hand at Peter as he did so, and 
 a moment later Peter sat down humbly and submitted to the 
 washing. 
 
 " At this moment the bells of the Greek churches all over 
 Jerusalem burst out in a chorus of rejoicing. The patriarch 
 descended, the bishops followed, and in double file they marched 
 out through the crowd, with the kavasses clearing the way. As 
 they did so, a priest carried a vase of the holy water in which 
 the feet had been washed, in front of the patriarch, and into this 
 His Blessedness dipped a great bouquet of roses and sprinkled 
 the water over the crowd. The people held their faces up to 
 catch the purifying rain, and they rushed to the platform and 
 wiped up the drops that had fallen on the floor, with their hand- 
 kerchiefs, passing them over their faces." 
 
 Maurice, St., patron saint of Austria, Savoy, Mantua, and 
 of foot-soldiers. His festival is celebrated September 22. The 
 legend of St. Maurice and the Theban legion is one of the most 
 ancient of all the legends of the saints. St. Maurice was the 
 leader of the Theban legion, which was composed entirely of 
 Christians. When the Emperor Maximian was about to enter 
 Gaul, lie ordered a general sacrifice to the gods, and made known 
 that the purpose of his expedition was the extermination of the 
 Christians. A part of the Theban legion had gone on in advance, 
 but the section that remained refused to sacrifice, and was deci- 
 mated by order of the Emperor. At Cologne and other places 
 many more who belonged to the Theban legion suffered martyr- 
 dom. Savoy, Piedmont, and parts of Germany abound in these 
 soldier saints. The name Maurice signifies a Moor, and as such 
 he is represented in some pictures^ He is dressed in armor and 
 bears a standard and a palm. In Italian pictures he bears a red 
 cross on his breast, which is the badge of the Sardinian order of 
 St. Maurice. The site of the martyrdom of St. Maurice is pointed 
 out at Yeriolez, where a slab of stone is shown upon which the 
 martyr is said to have knelt. Eelics such as the bones and 
 blood of St. Maurice are preserved in the abbey church. Eelics 
 of St. Maurice and his companions are shown throughout Swit- 
 zerland. 
 
 In Quimperle, in Lower Brittany, a famous festival called the 
 Pardon des Oiseaux begins on St. Maurice's Day and is appro- 
 priately celebrated in the forest of St. Maurice. It is essentially 
 
680 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 1 
 
 a bird festival, for all kinds of birds, not only" fowls, but orioles, 
 woodpeckers, larks, and various woodland songsters, are brought 
 in cages and purchased as presents by lovers for their sweet- 
 hearts or by parents for their children. The day itself is sacred 
 to reKgious observances, but the morrow, when national traits and 
 customs inherited from pagan times have full play, is devoted to 
 merrymaking, thus described in Harpefs Magazine for July, 
 1875 : " Wrestling matches between the champions of villages 
 or districts, and games established by long traditions, arouse the 
 interest and passions of the assembled multitude to a pitch which 
 prepares them for the dances, in which every one, of high or low 
 degree, of character good, bad, or indifferent, joins without re- 
 serve. The musicians, already well moistened, are placed in the 
 centre of the arena, armed with the binion, or bagpipe, and bom- 
 bardo, and with a barrel of cider within arm's-length. The 
 music proceeds with an energy truly astonishing, and the dance 
 goes round with ever-increasing vivacity. The variety of cos- 
 tume and the enthusiastic performances of these pious baccha- 
 nals render the scene very entertaining, and toward the close 
 peculiar to a degree. ' L'on pent dire que le champ de la fete 
 n'est lui-meme qu'un immense cabaret,' says a writer whose 
 church predilections and strong advocacy of the/etes de pardon 
 would lead him to avoid exaggeration. Notwithstanding the 
 religious character of the festival, it often terminates in an orgy 
 where scenes are enacted that will hardly bear allusion. ' Mais 
 il n'en prouve pas moins la foi vive dont le Bas-Breton est anime,' 
 says another writer." 
 
 May. This month ranked second in the old Alban calendar, 
 thirds in that of Komulus, fifth in that of Numa. In the first- 
 
 May. Watching Sheep. 
 
 named calendar it was twenty-two days in length, thirty one in 
 that of Romulus, thirty in that of l^uma, and thirty -one again 
 in that of Julius Caesar. The name of this month is supposed 
 by some to have come from Maia, the mother of the god Hermes, 
 or Mercury. This, however, is based solely on the similarity of 
 the two words, and the name of May was much more probably 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 681 
 
 given in honor of the Majores or Maiores, the original Eoman 
 Senate, as June was in honor of the Juniores, the lower branch 
 of the Eoman legislature. The Saxons called this month Tri- 
 Milchi, the improved condition of the pastures now enabling the 
 cows to give milk thre6 times a day. 
 
 In all ages there has been an antipathy to marrying in May. 
 Eighteen centuries ago, Ovid wrote, — 
 
 Nee viduse taedis eadem, nee virginis apta 
 Tempera. Quae nupsit non diuturna fuit. 
 Hae quoque de causa, si te proverbia tangunt, 
 Mense malas maio nubere vulgus ait. 
 
 On the morning of the marriage of Mary Queen of Scots to Both- 
 well, on May 16, 1567, the last hne of the above quotation was 
 found fixed upon the gates of Holyrood Palace. In the north 
 of England there is an old proverb, — 
 
 Marry in May, 
 And rue the day. 
 
 In Scotland they vary the wording, though retaining the same 
 idea: 
 
 Marry in May, 
 
 Eue for aye. 
 
 And, to give emphasis to the superstition, the same people as- 
 sert, — 
 
 From marriages in May 
 
 All bairns die and decay. 
 
 An old Scotch clergyman told his young congregation that 
 " The girls are all stark mad that wed in May." Soothsayers 
 predicted all manner of evil to those who defied the superstition. 
 So we find it recorded that 
 
 Married in May and kirked in green, 
 Baith bride and groom \k)n't long be seen. 
 
 In all soberness and sincerity we are told that women disobey- 
 ing the rule would be childless; or, if they had children, the 
 first-born would be an idiot or have some physical deformity ; or 
 that the married couple would not live happily together in the 
 new life, but would soon quarrel. Even Sir Walter Scott was 
 not free from this fear, for wo read how he hurried away from 
 London that his daughter's wedding might take place before the 
 opening of the inauspicious month. 
 
 May marriages are considered unlucky in France, and there 
 is a common rhyme, — 
 
682 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Si le commun peuple dit vrai, 
 La mauvaise s'epouse en Mai. 
 
 There is an old English proverb, " Who marries between the 
 sickle and scythe will never thrive." Sir John Sinclair, in his 
 " Statistical Account of Scotland," says, " That day of the week 
 on which the 14th of May happens to fall is esteemed unlucky 
 through all the remainder of the year ; none marry or begin any 
 business upon it. None choose to marry in January or May, or 
 to have their banns proclaimed in the end of one quarter of the 
 year and to marry in the beginning of the next." 
 
 May-Day. The First of May. In the Church calendar this 
 is the combined day of St. Philip the Apostle and St. James the 
 Less. Throughout Great Britain and to a lesser extent in France 
 and Germany it was formerly celebrated with festivities which 
 still have their local but much attenuated survivals. They are 
 direct descendants of the ancient Eoman Floralia (q. v.), and of 
 the Druidic feasts in honor of the god Bel, — the Apollo or Orus 
 of other mythologies, the Baal of the Scriptures. But their re- 
 moter ancestry must be found in the phalHc festivals of India and 
 Egypt, which in those countries took place upon the sun's enter- 
 ing Taurus, and celebrated the renewed fertility of nature. The 
 Maypole itself is a phallic emblem, the word <pdUo^ meaning 
 primarily " a pole," and in the precession of the equinoxes and 
 the changes of the calendar we shall find an easy solution of 
 any apparent inconsistencies arising from the difference of 
 seasons. 
 
 The Druids celebrated the feast of Bel on the Ist of May, by 
 lighting immense fires in his honor upon the various cairns. 
 Now, even to this day similar customs survive among the Irish 
 and the Scotch Highlanders, — both remnants of the Celtic stock. 
 Still more significant is the fact that the festival is known among 
 them as Beltine or Bealtaine, — that is, " the day of Bel's fire ;" 
 for in the Cornish (a Celtic dialect) the verb to tine means " to 
 light the fire." 
 
 Some of the rites of Moloch -worship still survive in several 
 districts of the Scottish Highlands. These superstitions are 
 receding before the invasion of the railway and the English 
 tourist, but it is not so very long since the following customs 
 might have been witnessed on May-Day even as far south as 
 Perthshire. All the youths of a township or village met on the 
 nearest moor. They cut a round table or altar in the green sod, 
 and in the trench thus formed about the altar the whole com- 
 pany stationed themselves. Here they kindled a fire and dressed 
 a repast of eggs and milk, of the consistency of a custard. At 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 68B 
 
 the same time they kneaded a cake of oatmeal, which they 
 baked on the embers. After the custard was eaten they divided 
 the cake into as many portions as there were persons in the 
 company. One of these portions was blackened over with char- 
 coal. Then all the pieces were thrown into a bonnet. The com- 
 pany, blindfolded, drew out each a piece, the holder of the bonnet 
 took the last bit, and the drawer of the black bit was made to 
 leap three times through the flame of the bonfire. In the real 
 Baal ceremony the person who took the blackened piece was 
 literally sacrificed as 'a propitiatory offering to Baal for the pro- 
 ductiveness of the ensuing autumn. 
 
 The Irish still retain the Phoenician custom of lighting fires 
 at short distances and making the cattle pass between them. 
 Fathers, too, taking their children in their arms, jump or run 
 through them, thus passing the latter as it were through the 
 flames. This custom appears to have been only a substitute for 
 the atrocious sacrifice of children practised by the elder Phoeni- 
 cians, — that " abomination of the heathen" denounced in II. 
 Kings xvi. 3. The god Saturn — that is, Moloch — was repre- 
 sented by a statue bent slightly forward and so placed that the 
 least weight was sufiicient to alter its position. Into the arms 
 of this idol the priest gave the child to be sacrificed, when, its 
 balance being thus destroyed, it flung, or rather dropped, the 
 victim into a fiery furnace that blazed below. If other proofs 
 were wanting of Eastern origin, we might find them in the fact 
 that Britain was called by the earlier inhabitants the island of 
 Beli, and that Bel had also the name of Hu, a word which we 
 see again occurring in the Huli festival of India. (Dyer : British 
 Popular Customs, p. 224.) 
 
 If Druidism survives most obviously in the Celtic portions 
 of the United Kingdom, it is Eoman paganism which has left 
 its firmest traces upon the May -Day celebrations in the Anglo- 
 Saxon regions. There the occasion is rather a feast of flowers 
 than of sacrifices, a reminiscence of Flora rather than of Baal 
 and Moloch. And curiously engrafted on Eoman paganism is 
 Eoman Christianity. 
 
 This latter fact is most evident in the May-dolls which, once 
 common throughout England, are still paraded on May-Day in 
 Devonshire, and may even be found in Cornwall and other parts 
 of Wales. The May-doll is remotely a survival from the images 
 of Flora which graced the Floralia, but more immediately from 
 the figures of the Yirgin and her Son of Catholic times. In the 
 latter light it may be looked upon as another form of the vessel- 
 cup (q. v.). Mr. Ditchfield tells us that at Edlesborough, Buck- 
 inghamshire, the girls dress up a doll, sometimes with a small 
 doll in its lap, with many ribbons and flowers, and carry it about 
 
684 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 in a small chair. This in its origin was evidently intended as a 
 representation of the Yirgin and Child. The parish church is 
 dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin, which seems to afford another 
 link of association. A similar custom, almost defunct, prevails 
 at Brightwalton, Berkshire, where the Virgin and Child in the 
 guise of the Queen of the May with a doll in a basket are borne 
 round the parish. 
 
 Did the May-dolls suggest the Queen of the May, who, some- 
 times with a consort, the King, presided over the May-Day fes- 
 tivities until a comparatively recent period, not only in England, 
 but also in certain portions of New York and l!^ew England ? 
 The suggestion is plausible. Douce, however, holds the opinion 
 that " the introduction of Eobin Hood into the celebration of 
 May probably suggested the addition of a king or lord of May." 
 If Eobin Hood was the original king, then his Maid Marian, 
 who, with Friar Tuck, Little John, and other merry members 
 of Eobin Hood's band, appeared in the same mummeries, was 
 the original Queen of May. 
 
 The date of the institution of May-games in England during 
 the Middle Ages cannot be traced. A poem of the fourteenth 
 century, " The Eomance of Kyng Alisaunder," says, — 
 
 Mery time it is in May ; 
 The foules syngeth her lay ; 
 The knighttes loveth the tornay ; 
 Maydens so dauncen and thay play. 
 
 In " The Court of Love" (about 1450) we read, — 
 
 Thus sange they alle the service of the feste, 
 
 And that was done right early, to my dome [as I judged] ; 
 
 And fourth goeth al the court, both moste and leste, 
 
 To fetch the floures freshe, and braunche, and blome ; 
 
 And namely [especially] hawthorn brought both page and grome, 
 
 With fresh garlandes party blew and white ; 
 
 And than rejoysen»in their grete delight, 
 
 Eek eche at other threw the flowers bright, 
 
 The primerose, the violete, and the gold [marigold]. 
 
 This extract shows that the king and queen mingled with their 
 subjects in these fine old English customs. Henry YIII. and 
 Catherine of Aragon once came from their palace of Greenwich 
 to meet the heads of the corporation of London, who had been 
 into the woods of Kent to gather May. The custom seems to 
 have been for people to go into the woods in the night, gather 
 branches of trees, flowers, etc., and return with them at sunrise 
 to decorate their houses. 
 
 Other observances were gradually added. The May Queen 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 685 
 
 was crowned and held one day's sway over her court, consisting 
 of morris-dancers, of Robin Hood and his band, and generally 
 of the villagers or townspeople. A pasteboard hobby-horse rid- 
 den by a man was sent around among the spectators to collect 
 contributions in a ladle stuck in its mouth. Everybody who 
 wished to might dance around a Maypole. 
 
 The Maypole was usually made of birch, and adorned with 
 flowers and ribbons. In the villages it was often set up for the 
 occasion on May-Day Eve, but in London and elsewhere there 
 were Maypoles permanently standing in the streets. It was 
 only natural that the May revels should invite the condemnation 
 of the Puritans. (See Christmas.) Stubbes in his " Anatomy 
 of Abuses" (1583) amiably characterized the Maypole as a 
 " stinckyng idol" which the people bring from the woods, " fol- 
 lowyng it with greate devotion." And when they have set it 
 up they " leape and daunce aboute it, as the heathen people did 
 at the dedication of their idolles." 
 
 Maypoles were forbidden to be erected by the Roundhead 
 Parliament in 1644 ; but they returned on the restoration of 
 Charles II., and in 1661 the famous Maypole in the Strand was 
 reared with much ceremony and rejoicing. This pole, which 
 stood near where Catherine Street joins the Strand, was of cedar, 
 and was raised by twelve seamen, commanded by the Duke of 
 York, who was then Lord High Admiral of England. It was 
 one hundred and thirty-four feet high. Pope thus alludes to it : 
 
 Where the tall Maypole once o'erlooked the Strand. 
 
 It was taken down about 1717, and purchased by Sir Isaac New- 
 ton, who had it removed to Wanstead in Essex, to use as a sup- 
 port to the great telescope (one hundred and twenty-four feet in 
 length) which had been presented to the Royal Society by the 
 French astronomer M. Hugon. 
 
 In New England, as in Old, the Puritan attacked the Maypole. 
 In 1630 Grovernor Endicott of Massachusetts marched a posse 
 to Merrymount, where the profligate Morton had established a 
 Maypole, hewed down the pole itself in God's name, and solemnly 
 dubbed the place Mount Dagon, in memory of the Phihstine idol 
 that fell before the ark of the Lord. 
 
 In England the resuscitated May-Day games gradually fell 
 out of fashion, and now they survive only in rural localities. In 
 London the celebration was abandoned first to the milkmaids 
 and then to the chimney-sweeps. From about the middle of the 
 seventeenth century it grew to be the custom for milkmaids to 
 dress themselves up in their best and call on all their customers, 
 from whom they received some trifling gratuity. Later the 
 
686 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 chimney-sweeps made it a practice on the same day to parade 
 the streets togged out in tawdry finery, ribbons, and green 
 boughs. Hence the London name for the 1st of May is Sweeps' 
 Day. " Jack-in-the-Green," with " Dusty Bob" and " Black Sal," 
 the latter being usually a man dressed in woman's attire (prob- 
 ably a relic of the milkmaids), would go dancing and capering 
 through the streets, the centre of an admiring rabble. " Jack- 
 in-the-Green" was a man enclosed in a bower made in the 
 shape of a pyramid about ten feet high. Sweeps' Day is not 
 yet entirely extinct in London. 
 
 Mr. Ditchfield has made an interesting collection of May-Day 
 survivals in rural England. He tells us that in Cheltenham the 
 chimney-sweeps " hold high revels on May-Day. The dancers 
 have their faces blacked, and their band consists of a fiddle and 
 tin whistle. The centre of the group is formed by a large bush, 
 or hollow cone bedecked with leaves, out of which peers the 
 face of Jack-i'-the-Green. The dresses of the attendants are 
 red, blue, and yellow, and they dance around the bush. The 
 leader of the party is the clown, who wears a tall hat with a 
 flapping crown, and a fantastical dress, and 'fancies himself 
 greatly. There is also a man with a fool's cap, and black figures 
 fastened on his white pinafore, and the representation of a grid- 
 iron. Two boys complete the group, one wearing a girl's hat 
 adorned with flowers. They levy contributions by holding out 
 iron ladles or spoons, and strike the by-standers with bladders 
 fastened to a stick. Their performance consists in dancing and 
 roaring. The Cambridge sweeps evidently used to have a simi- 
 lar festival, as the children still go round with a *doll, hung in 
 the midst of a hoop wreathed with flowers, singing the ditty — 
 
 " The first of May is garland day, 
 And chimney-sweepers' dancing day ; 
 Curl your locks as I do mine, 
 One before and one behind. 
 
 " In Hawick a few of the young people still go a-Maying, and 
 rub their faces in the morning dew, whereby they secure twelve 
 months of rosy cheeks; but year by year the number of the 
 devotees of 'May Morning' are becoming less, and probably the 
 next generation will know little of the secrets of how rosy 
 cheeks were sought for on early May mornings, and perhaps 
 seek less simple and wholesome ways for producing the much- 
 desired bloom. 
 
 " Mrs. Pepys knew the virtues of May-dew, as we gather from 
 her husband's diary: ' My wife away to Woolwich in order to a 
 little ayre, and to lie there to-night, and so to gather May-dew 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 687 
 
 to-morrow morning, which Mrs. Turner hath taught her is the 
 only thnig in the world to w^ash her face with.' " 
 
 A writer in Once a Week for September 24, 1870, gives an 
 account of the May-Day ceremonies celebrated in many a Cor- 
 nish town. These include the carrying of May-dolls by the 
 children and a local practice known as dipping. 
 
 Early on May morning, he informs us, every one repairs to the 
 country to pluck a sprig from the " narrow-leaf" elm-tree. This 
 is worn in some conspicuous part of the dress. It is known as 
 "May." It is not obligatory that the wearer should have gath- 
 ered it himself: all that is insisted on is that it should actually 
 have been gathered on May-Day, and that it is "narrow-leaf" 
 elm. Should it be known to have been gathered the day before, 
 it is indignantly torn from the wearer as being April-May. The 
 broad-leaf elm is denounced as " horses'-May." April-May is a 
 sham in the way of religion, and horses'-May is a blunder in 
 botany. Each is punished by dipping. 
 
 In many Cornish towns an open stream of water flows through 
 the principal streets. As soon as the " May" has been secured, 
 and breakfast hurried through, all the boys of the town assemble 
 at this stream or "gutter,'* each being furnished with his "dip- 
 ping-horn," which is thus manufactured : the point of a bullock's 
 horn is sawn off, and the end of a stout stick, about four feet long, 
 is firmly inserted into the aperture, which is made water-tight. 
 
 Few of the inhabitants were so thoughtless as to appear with- 
 out the correct May-Day sprig. Wayfarers happening into the 
 town were the usual victims. 
 
 As soon as a non-conformist appeared, whether inhabitant or 
 stranger, male or female, the guardians of the rites shouted in 
 chorus, and in tones not to be misinterpreted, " Ha'penny or a 
 penny, or a good wet back ;" and, if the coppers of commutation 
 were not instantly forthcoming, the unfortunate wayfarer was 
 drenched without delay or mercy, and the baptism was merci- 
 lessly continued until his or her greater speed had left the pitiless 
 pursuers hopelessly behind. 
 
 In Sweden May-Day is still celebrated in a manner derived 
 from its heathen origin. On the previous evening huge bonfires 
 are built in every hamlet, around which the young people dance, 
 while the older ones draw various auguries from the appearance 
 of the flames. On May-Day a sort of sham fight takes place 
 between two parties, one representing Winter and the other 
 Summer. Winter, however, always gets the worst of it in the 
 end. He is buried in efligy, and ashes are strewn over the grave. 
 This was formerly a custom in England also. The children on 
 this day make a point of wandering into the woods for the pur- 
 pose of robbing the nests of the magpies. The eggs and j'oung 
 
688 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 are put in a basket and borne to every house, the children sing- 
 ing a song which runs thus : 
 
 Best loves from Master and Madam Magpie, 
 From all their eggs and all their fry. 
 Oh, give them alms, if ever so small ! 
 Else hens and chickens and eggs and all 
 A prey to the magpies will surely fall. 
 
 Every housewife gives them something for a May banquet. 
 May-Day is really the only gala-daj^ of the Swedish children. 
 On this day, also, the Easter witches are wont to send their 
 " Troll hares" to suck the neighbors' cows. The cattle are usu- 
 ally confined in the cow-houses, which are fumigated with brim- 
 stone. In the evening they are carefully inspected ; and if any 
 injury is found upon them it is put down to the account of the 
 witches, and a light is made by striking two flints over the 
 creature, which is held to be a sure preventive of any further 
 evil consequences. (See Moving-Day.) 
 
 Mayo, Dos de. (Sp., "the Second of May.") A national 
 festival of the Spaniards commemorating the uprising of the 
 citizens of Madrid against Murat. Murat had entered Madrid 
 as commander-in-chief of the victorious French armies in Spain 
 on March 25, 1808. On May 2 the citizens showed their de- 
 testation of their conquerors by murdering all the isolated or 
 wounded Frenchmen they could find. Murat put down the riot 
 vigorously, but not cruelly, for only one hundred and fifty-eight 
 Spaniards fell to five hundred Frenchmen. 
 
 Every 2d of May the city of Madrid gives up the day to 
 funeral honors to the dead of 1808. The city government, at- 
 tended by its maceros, in their gorgeous robes of gold and scarlet, 
 with silver maces and long white plumes, the public institutions 
 of all grades, with invalids and veterans and charity children, 
 and a large detachment of the army and navy, form a vast pro- 
 cession at the town hall, and, headed by the Supreme Govern- 
 ment, march to slow music through the Puerta del Sol and the 
 spacious Alcala Street to the granite obelisk in the Prado which 
 marks the resting-place of the patriot dead. Here mass is cele- 
 brated, and then the Church leaves the field clear to the secular 
 power. It is the only purely civic festival in Spain. 
 
 Mayor's Day, Lord. In London the 9th of November, the 
 feast of the inauguration of the mayor for the next twelve- 
 month. A giant parade attends the newly elected official to the 
 Law Courts, where he takes the oath of office. This pageant is 
 colloquially known as the Lord Mayor's Show. All the streets 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 689 
 
 are gayly decorated, especially on the line of march. At present 
 the parade leaves the Guildhall at noon, and proceeds by way of 
 Gresham and Princess Streets to the Mansion House; thence 
 through Cornhill, Leadenhall Street, St. Mary's Avenue, Hounds- 
 ditch, St. Paul's Churchyard, Ludgate Hill, and Fleet Street, to 
 the royal courts of justice. Eeturning, the procession reaches 
 the Guildhall by way of the Strand, Northumberland Avenue, 
 Victoria Embankment, Queen Victoria Street, and King Street. 
 The Lord Mayor's Dinner at the Guildhall concludes the fes- 
 tivities of the day. The following account of the pageant as it 
 looks in these days is from a letter by the London correspondent 
 of the iVeiy York Tribune, dated Kovember 9, 1895 : 
 
 " To-day's procession marked in nearly every detail the sur- 
 vival of mediaeval customs and institutions. It was headed, 
 after the mounted pohce and the Eoyal Artillery band, by repre- 
 sentatives ol eight of the worshipful companies or guilds. First 
 came the Makers of Playing Cards, with banners borne by 
 horsemen representing the four knaves in costumes shown upon 
 the earliest pack of cards which has been preserved. Then fol- 
 lowed the Coach Makers and Coach Harness Makers, with their 
 beadle and clerk on foot and their master and wardens in a four- 
 horse coach. Behind them, in characteristic antique uniforms, 
 were the Pattern Makers and the Farriers, with their banners 
 flying and their officials in four-horse coaches. 'Next came the 
 Fruiterers, with a car of mysterious symbolism, in which the 
 forbidden tree and the serpent were conspicuous objects. The 
 Barber Surgeons interposed a few feeble files of costumed men 
 between the Fruiterers and the Leather Sellers, who appeared in 
 stronger force, with a canopied car illustrating branches of the 
 trade, conspicuous figures being a leather-shaver at his beam, a 
 finisher graining, a shoemaker pegging at his last, and a harness- 
 maker stitching at his saddle. Behind this hideous car, with its 
 crocodile heads and festoons of hides, marched the Broiderers, 
 with their ancient banners, arms, and standards. 
 
 "These eight guilds were the companies with which the Lord 
 Mayor and the Sheriffs were officiallj^ connected, and their pres- 
 ence in the procession, wiih their banners and antique tunics and 
 trappings, was a personal tribute to the three heroes of the civic 
 pageant. Historically the representatives of the famous old 
 companies belonged in this mediaeval exhibition, and their power 
 as political and municipal agencies has survived generations of 
 progressive government. 
 
 " Besides the representatives of the worshipful companies, 
 there were many other details of the Lord Mayor's Show which 
 were of historical significance. The fire-brigades, perhaps, were 
 not suggestive of old-time municipal life, especially as they ap- 
 
 44 
 
690 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 peared with steam-engines and modern appliances, and with con- 
 tingents recruited from twenty cities outside London; but the 
 presence of the Epping Forest Keepers was a token that the 
 corporation of London had preserved those beautiful woods; 
 and the banners of Burnham Beeches, Highgate Woods, and 
 Coulsdon Common had a message of similar import for those 
 who could read it. Six Lord Mayors of different epochs ranging 
 from 1406 to 1814 were represented by cavaliers in appropriate 
 costumes, each with five attendants and an armor-bearer with 
 standard. St. George on horseback followed these worthies, with 
 nothing resembling a dragon close at hand, although the croco- 
 diles had passed on the Leather Sellers' car, and a mysterious 
 beast, unknown to any modern zoo, was to follow on the roof 
 of the South Africa car. The warlike saint was accompanied by 
 twelve mounted knights in armor, and two esquires, — familiar 
 figures in mediaeval London. The India car, with Sir Thomas 
 Smyth, the founder of the famous Company, and with a rajah in 
 native costume, with soldiers in the uniform of the East India 
 volunteers and with old-time merchants and other figures, sym- 
 bolized the connection of the historic city with a great trading 
 enterprise which involved the founding of an empire. The South 
 Africa car was either a special tribute to the benevolence of the 
 daring mining operator, Mr. Barnato, whose services in support- 
 ing the market and incidentally aiding his own holdings had 
 been commemorated two nights before by the outgoing Lord 
 Mayor; or else it was an official attempt to identify the strong- 
 holds of finance in the Old City with the most remarkable specu- 
 lative bubble which has been blown since the days of Law. 
 
 " But here at last are the banners of the Aldermen and the 
 officers of the Corporation, with the band of the Duke of York's 
 military school to announce with a flourish of trumpets the 
 coming of the three heroes of the show. First in order is the 
 glittering state carriage of Mr. Sheriff Cooper, drawn by four 
 spirited horses, with footmen and coachmen in astonishing liveries 
 of buckskin breeches, purple velvet tunics, heavy gold lace, and 
 cocked hats. To moderate his pride in the grand equipage in 
 which he is seated, and to teach him humility, the Sheriff has 
 with him his worshipful chaplain. Behind him, in another 
 splendid state coach drawn by four richly caparisoned horses 
 and attended by coachmen and footmen in green and gold, is Mr. 
 Sheriff Pound, with his pious chaplain. The Aldermen, who 
 have not passed the chair, are preceded by state trumpeters of 
 the Household Cavalry, and followed by the Eecorder and the 
 former Lord Mayors. With one military band in front and 
 another behind him, the retiring Lord Mayor, Sir Joseph Eenals, 
 has his final hour of triumph with his liveried men above and 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 691 
 
 below. Then follow the city trumpeters, the mounted baud of 
 the Eoyal Horse Guards, and the Lord Mayor himself, preceded 
 by the Marshal and the servants, with liveries of ci-imson velvet 
 richly embroidered in gold. The famous Cipriani gilt chariot, 
 which has been seen once a year for a century on Lord Mayor's 
 Day, has been oiled in the axles and varnished and gilded with- 
 out ; but it sways and rumbles as it is drawn along by six horses, 
 and seems destined on some unlucky 9th of November to meet 
 the doom of sudden dissolution which finally overwhelmed Dr. 
 Holmes's well-known vehicle. The Lord Mayor is inside, with 
 scarlet cloak and gold collar, and the traditional. attendants are 
 all in their places, — the sword-bearer, the mace-bearer, and the 
 chaplain. Behind them is an escort of the Queen's Hussars, and 
 the procession is at an end." 
 
 Time was when the lord mayor went all the way to West- 
 minster to be presented to the King, the Lord High Chancellor, 
 and the Barons of the Exchequei-. At first he either rode or 
 Walked there or went by boat with no great ceremony. It was 
 Sir John Norman who in 1453 set the fashion of the Lord 
 Mayor's Show by making the journey in a barge, with consider- 
 able state and a large number of followers. Thereafter succeed- 
 ing mayors vied with one another as to which should make the 
 annual show grander and more impressive. A cavalcade through 
 the streets of the city wound up with a procession of barges to 
 Westminster. For a long time it was the custom to take part in 
 the land parade on horseback. But it happened that, in the 
 reign of Queen Anne, Sir Gilbert Heatbcote (the original of 
 Addison's Sir Andrew FreejDort) was thrown into the gutter by 
 his horse, a spectacle so unseemly that thereafter steps were 
 taken to prevent its recurrence. Next year, 1712, a coach was 
 provided for the use of the chief magistrate. In 1757 this was 
 superseded by a gilded and elaborately decorated equipage built 
 at a cost of £10,065, which remained in use until 1896. 
 
 Once, it is related, a lord mayor ventured so far as to discard 
 the coach, shrewdly suspicious, perhaps, that ridicule rather than 
 respect attached to that magnificent but cumbrous vehicle. On 
 this head, however, he was judged to be, for a lord mayor, too 
 much in advance of the current of public opinion. His reform 
 was accounted suicidal. It was perceived that if the state coach 
 were to be driven to limbo, there was real danger lest the civic 
 potentate himself should be constrained to be its inside passenger 
 on that lethal journey. The fates of the man and the convey- 
 ance were bound up together, and conterminate. If the laws 
 of strict reason and common sense were to be invoked, then the 
 mayor could be as easily dispensed with as his state coach. So 
 the gilded carriage still wheezed westward every year, growing 
 
 / 
 
692 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 more and more uncomfortable and anachronistic, until in 1896 a 
 new one was built. 
 
 In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the City Poet, 
 appointed at a regular salary by the citizens of London (in order 
 to be sure of his services whenever occasion might demand), was 
 intrusted with the duty of preparing the pageants, of superin- 
 tending their presentation, and of subsequently celebrating them 
 in verse. The list of these poets ends with the name of Elka- 
 nah Settle in 1708, after which time the printed descriptions 
 cease. The earliest of these that has come down to us is that 
 by George Peele, in 1585, when Sir Wolstan Dixie was installed. 
 It would appear that a prominent feature of the early pageants 
 was a number of little children appropriately dressed to repre- 
 sent abstract qualities like Magnanimity and Loyalty and con- 
 crete objects like the Thames, London, etc. These recited com- 
 plimentary verses as the mayor passed, or gave him good advice. 
 The quality of the poetry may be inferred from these lines put 
 into the mouth of " one apparelled like a Moor:" 
 
 This now remains, right honourable lord, 
 That carefully you do attend and keep 
 This lovely lady, rich and beautiful, 
 The jewel wherewithal your sovereign queen 
 Hath put your honour lovingly in trust, 
 That you may add to London's dignity, 
 And London's dignity may add to yours. 
 
 The inventive faculty of the City Poet was especially taxed to 
 make the pageants in some way representative of the individu- 
 ality or the vocation of the mayor who was its raison d'etre. In 
 1616, for example. Sir John Leman of the Fishmongers' Company 
 was elected. The City Poet was Anthony Munday. He set his 
 wits to work to good purpose. 
 
 The first pageant was a fishing-boat, with fishermen " seriously 
 at labour, drawing up their nets, laden with living fish, and 
 bestowing them bountifully upon the people." These moving 
 pageants were placed on stages, provided with wheels, which 
 were concealed by drapery, the latter being painted to resemble 
 the waves of the sea. This ship was followed by a crowned 
 dolphin, in allusion to the mayor's arms, and those of the com- 
 pany, in which dolphins appear ; and " because it is a fish inclined 
 much by nature to musique, Arion, a famous musician and poet, 
 rideth on his backe." Then followed the king of the Moors, 
 attended by six tributary kings on horseback. They were suc- 
 ceeded by " a lemon-tree richly laden with fruit and flowers," in 
 punning allusion to the name of the mayor ; a fashion observed 
 whenever the name allowed it to become practicable. Then came 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 693 
 
 a bower adorned with the names and arms of all members of the 
 Fishmongers' Company who had served the office of mayor ; with 
 their great hero, Sir Wilham Walworth, inside ; an armed officer, 
 with the head of Wat Tyler on one side, and the Genius of 
 London, " a crowned angel with golden wings," on the other. 
 Lastly came the grand pageant drawn by mermen and mer- 
 maids, "memorizing London's great day of deliverance," when 
 Tyler was slain ; on the top sat a victorious angel, and King 
 Eichard was represented beneath, surrounded by impersonations 
 of royal and kingly virtues. 
 
 The great civil war and the triumph of Puritanism interrupted 
 these pageantries for a period. The Eestoration brought them 
 back in all their old-time splendor. In 1660 the principal feature 
 was the Eoyal Oak, in compliment to Charles II., and thereafter 
 humorous songs and merry interludes, suited to Cavalier tastes, 
 enlivened the festivities. Another interregnum occurred when 
 the quarrel broke out between King Charles and the city, which 
 ended in the temporary abrogation of the city charter and the 
 nomination of mayor and aldermen by the king. 
 
 Hogarth has left on record probably the most vivid representa- 
 tion of the show as it appeared in the early part of the eighteenth 
 century. It is one of the series of " The Industrious and Idle 
 Apprentice," a picture too well known to call for any detailed 
 account ; but it is worthy of note that the locality chosen by this 
 very faithful artist is the west end of Cbeapside, and that the 
 balcony projecting from the house at the end of Paternoster Eow 
 provided accommodations for Frederick, Prince of Wales, and 
 the Princess Augusta. 
 
 A famous contemporary of Hogarth's, no less a person than 
 Alexander Pope himself, has in the first book of the " Dunciad" 
 thus succinctly satirized a Lord Mayor's Show as presented by 
 Elkanah Settle : 
 
 'Twas on the day when * * rich and grave, 
 Like Cymon, triumphed both on land and wave : 
 (Pomps without guilt, of bloodless swords and maces, 
 Grlad chains, warm furs, bi;oad banners, and broad faces :) 
 Now night descending, the proud scene was o'er. 
 But lived, in Settle's numbers, one day more. 
 
 Mayors, Mock. In many English rural towns and districts 
 these were formerly elected with burlesque ceremony, and in a 
 few of them the custom still survives. Thus at a curious country 
 fair, known locally as the Guild, and held in Eockland, Norfolk, 
 on May 16, a " Mayor of the Guild" is elected, usually some half- 
 witted fellow, who is clothed fantastically, pHed with liquor until 
 he is drunk, and then chaired and carried through the parish. 
 
694 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 In Newbury, Berks, in a part of the town called specifically 
 " the City," a " Mayor of the City," known also as " Mayor of 
 Bartlemas," was until recently annually elected, together with a 
 "Justice." The burlesque dignitaries, after an official banquet 
 where bacon and beans formed the principal dish, headed a pro- 
 cession through the streets. In lieu of a mace the " Mayor" 
 carried a cabbage on a stick. St. Anne's Day (July 26) was for- 
 merly the day of the election, but it was more recently changed 
 to JS^oveniber 9, in compliment perhaps to the mayor of another 
 city somewhat greater than that of Newbury. Though the cer- 
 emony has been discontinued for a few years past, it is believed 
 to be rather in a state of suspended animation than actually 
 moribund. 
 
 In Tenby, Wales, it was formerly the custom for the fisher- 
 men, sometimes before and sometimes after Christmas, to confer 
 upon one of their number the dignity of "the Lord Mayor of 
 Pennyless Cove." Dressing him in a covering of evergreens, 
 with a mask over his face, they would seat him in a chair and 
 carry him around with flags flying and a couple of violins play- 
 ing before him. In front of every house the mock mayor would 
 address the occupants, wishing them a merry Christmas and a 
 happy New Year. If his good wishes were responded to with 
 money his followers would give three cheers, and he would him- 
 self give thanks to an accompaniment of more cheers. 
 
 Mayor's Sunday. The Sunday following the 9th of Novem- 
 ber is so called in the English provincial towns. The newly 
 elected mayor, clothed in his official robes of scarlet and ermine, 
 then rides with his lady and with certain civic dignitaries from 
 the town hall to the parish church through a mob of spectators 
 who line the way. The party is escorted to the state pew in 
 the church with a vast deal of ceremony. " It is, of course, in 
 a manner, a special service. His Worship the Mayor, more than 
 any man present, is the subject of the prayers and the butt of 
 the sermon. The hundreds of men and women in the congrega- 
 tion know it as well as himself. He cannot lift his eyes from 
 his book without being reminded of it. Either the preacher in 
 the pulpit is bending toward him and exhorting him and no one 
 else, or the people are repeating Amen on his behalf or singing 
 hymns which seem to have been composed solely to do him honor. 
 Small wonder his lordship is relieved when the service is over and 
 he may drive home in his crested coach." 
 
 Mecca, Pilgrimage to. Mecca, in Arabia, the birthplace of 
 Mohammed, is emphatically the holy city of the Moslem world. 
 An annual pilgrimage called the Hajj takes place thither in the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 695 
 
 last month of the Mohammedan calendar, hence known as Dhu'l 
 Hajj, or Pilgrimage Month. As the Mohammedan year is a 
 purely lunar one, with no intercalary month, and contains only 
 three hundred and fifty four days, the Hajj in its annual returns 
 makes the complete round of all the seasons. Every devout 
 Moslem, wherever his habitation may be, is obhged to join in 
 the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in his lifetime. He is then 
 supposed to become as pure from sin as on the day when he was 
 born, and gains for the rest of his life the honorable title Hajji. 
 Besides this greater pilgrimage, Moslems of more than usual 
 devotion may at any time perform an omra^ or individual pilgrim- 
 age to the Holy City. 
 
 The Kaaba. 
 (From a sketch by Sir Richard Burton.) 
 
 Mecca was a sacred spot long before the time of Mohammed. 
 Lying on the great trade route from Southern Arabia and India, 
 and possessing in its well Zemzem (q. v.) an inexhaustible supply 
 of water, it early became a halting-place for the caravans and 
 the seat of an annual fair. Once a year, in autumn, the pagan 
 Arabs came in pilgrim guise to worship at the Holy House, 
 known from its shape as the Kaaba, or Cube, which contained 
 the famous black stone said to hiave fallen from heaven. As the 
 latter may be an aerolite, science might endorse the traditional 
 belief of a celestial origin. 
 
 When Mecca, after a long and painful struggle, accepted the 
 new religion, Mohammed adopted the Kaaba as the centre of 
 religious worship, and turned to account the hoary traditions 
 connected with the ancient city. Whether they then existed in 
 the form now current, or whether they took that form through 
 his teaching, the Arabs came to believe that Zemzem was a well 
 miraculously created to quench the thirst of the perishing Ish- 
 
696 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 mael in the desert, and that the Kaaba was built by Abraham 
 and Ishmael, to whom the archangel Gabriel presented the black 
 stone, but that its worship had been perverted in the days of 
 ignorance until at last Mohammed arose to restore the true re- 
 ligion of Abraham and ihe prophets. 
 
 Upon the potentate who for the time is accepted as the legit- 
 imate successor of Mohammed devolves the duty of maintaining 
 the Kaaba and of equipping a caravan to make the annual pil- 
 grimage in an imposing manner. The Caliphs of Bagdad were 
 wont to perform the journey in person at the head of enormous 
 bands of the faithful. The Sultan of Turkey is at present the 
 acknowledged Caliph, and head of the Moslem world. Though 
 neither he nor his Ottoman predecessors have ever made the 
 journey in person, the most imposing caravan to Mecca is that 
 which starts from Constantinople, escorted by imperial troops 
 under the command of a high Turkish official. Travelling all 
 the way overland by Damascus and through the desert of Arabia, 
 it collects various streams of pilgrims on its way. When to this 
 vast caravan we add the smaller ones from all parts of the Mos- 
 lem world, we get some idea of the number and varied nation- 
 alities of the pilgrims and the pomp with which the great annual 
 festival is celebrated. Nowadays, however, many of the devo- 
 tees lessen the fatigues of the journey by availing themselves 
 of steamboats for a portion of the way. But the nearest sea- 
 port is Jiddah, some sixty-five miles from Mecca. Caravans, 
 travelling very slowly, make the distance in two nights and a 
 day. By the strict law of Islam, every believer on approaching 
 the sacred city nmst assume the ihram, or pilgrim dress. This 
 consists of two seamless pieces of white cloth, which may be 
 of wool, cotton, or linen. One piece is wound round the loins, 
 the other thrown over the neck and shoulders so as to leave the 
 right arm partly bare. The pilgrim's head must be uncovered. 
 If he does not walk barefooted, the instep of the foot must at 
 least be bare. Female pilgrims wear a veil enveloping the whole 
 figure. 
 
 On reaching the city the pilgrim must at once proceed to the 
 Kaaba. This is now enclosed in a large mosque. Though cubic 
 in shape, as its name implies, the sides of the Kaaba are not 
 of equal dimensions, the length being about forty-five feet, the 
 breadth thirty, and the height forty. According to Arab au- 
 thorities, one angle of the building points to the pole-star, so 
 that the front or face would be the northeast wall. 
 
 On first gaining sight of the Kaaba the pilgrim gives thanks 
 for his safe arrival. He then passes under an insulated arch 
 called Bab-el-Salam, reciting certain prescribed prayers, and so 
 reaches the Kaaba. He finds his way to the eastern angle, in 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 697 
 
 front of which he performs two rekas, and then kisses the black 
 stone, or, if the crowd be too great, touches it with his fingers. 
 The stone is a small, dark, shapeless mass, suggesting volcanic, 
 or more probably meteoric, origin. Mohammedan tradition says 
 that it was originally white, but was blackened by the kisses 
 of sinful men. It was broken by fire in the siege of A-D. 683, 
 and the pieces are kept together by a silver setting. According 
 to Moslem myth, it was presented by the archangel Gabriel to 
 Abraham. 
 
 In fact, it was originally a fetich, the most venerated among a 
 multitude of idols and sacred stones, which stood all round the 
 sanctuary in pagan times and were destroyed with this one ex- 
 ception hy Mohammed. The stone is built into the wall, about 
 four feet nine inches from the ground. On the north side of the 
 Kaaba are two slabs of verd antique which are believed to be 
 the graves of Hagar and Ishmael and are appointed places for 
 prayer. 
 
 The pilgrim must make the circuit of the sacred cube seven 
 times, stopping at the end of every round to kiss or touch the 
 black stone. These circuits are called the tawaf, and are a relic 
 of pre-Mohammedan paganism. On their conclusion he comes 
 close up to the house, at the space between the black stone and 
 the door (the Multazam), and here prays with outstretched 
 arms and breast pressed against the wall. 
 
 He next visits the Makam Ibraham, or standing stone of 
 Abraham, whereon the patriarch rested his feet while building 
 the Kaaba, leaving prints that are still visible. This is enclosed 
 in a small building just outside the door to the left. 
 
 Thence he goes to the well Zemzem, still farther to the left, 
 where he recites more prayers and drinks of the sacred waters. 
 
 Zemzem is a deep shaft enclosed in a massive vaulted building. 
 According to the Mohammedans, this is the spring from which 
 Hagar drew water for her son Ishmael. (See Genesis xvi. 14.) 
 The water is drawn up by buckets, and is eagerly drunk by the 
 pilgrims, or poured over the body. 
 
 Every family in Mecca is anxious to use the water for re- 
 ligious purposes, and it is exported in barrels, or carried home 
 by the pilgrims for its supposed miraculous virtues. 
 
 Not yet are the pilgrim's duties ended. Ho must walk seven 
 times between Safa and Merwa, a distance of about six hundred 
 paces, and on that or a succeeding day make a journey of an 
 hour and a half to Omra. 
 
 For all these ceremonies no stated day is fixed. They. are 
 necessary incidents both of the great pilgrimage and of the pri- 
 vate ones made in pursuance of a vow. But on the ninth day 
 of the month Dhu'l Hajj, during the course of the great pilgrim- 
 
698 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 age, there occurs a ceremonial which is its distinguishing and 
 indispensable feature. Without its observance no man is entitled 
 to call himself a Hajji. This is the visit to Arafat, a bare emi- 
 nence six miles out from Mecca. Here the pilgrims encamp 
 over-night, and at the hour of afternoon prayer on the 9th they 
 gather upon and around the hill, shouting " Labbeyka !" reciting 
 prayers and texts, and listening to a sermon until nightfall. The 
 sermon is usually delivered by the Kadi of Mecca, who stands 
 on the side of the hill. 
 
 Before sunrise next morning (the 10th) a second stand like 
 that on Arafat is fhade for a short time around the mosque of 
 Muzdalifa, but before the sun is fairly up all must be in motion 
 for the village of Mina, four miles on the way back to Mecca. 
 Here is celebrated the day of sacrifice, whose ceremonies are 
 threefold : 
 
 1st. Each pilgrim pelts with seven stones a cairn in West 
 Mina. The stones are thrown in the name of Allah, and are 
 generally thought to be directed at the devil. Mohammedans 
 explain that when Adam returned from Arafat he met Satan in 
 the valley of Mina. The latter attempted to bar his passage. 
 But Adam, instructed by Gabriel, repelled him with stones. The 
 fact is that stone-throwing is a rite older than Islam. It was 
 performed during the annual pagan fair, and not unlikely is con- 
 nected with the old Arab method of closing a sale by the pur- 
 chaser throwing a stone. 
 
 2d. The slaughter and sacrifice of animals, associated with the 
 offering of Ishmael (not Isaac, say the Moslems) by Abraham. 
 The victims are either sheep or goats. Every pilgrim who can 
 afford it slays an animal, and on this day every^ Moslem through- 
 out the world likewise offers up an animal in whatever place he 
 may be. If the pilgrim be too poor, he must at some future 
 time make up for the deficiency by fasting. The offerer consumes 
 a portion of his victim, dries and salts other parts, and gives the 
 remainder to the poorer pilgrims. 
 
 3d. The shaving of the pilgrim and his resumption of ordi- 
 nary dress, thus completing the Hajj. 
 
 The pilgrim may, if he chooses, remain at Mina for three more 
 days, which are devoted to a fair and a feast. No further cere- 
 mony is enjoined on him, save that on the 11th and 12th he must 
 repeat the stone-throwing practised on the 10th. 
 
 If he remains in Mina, however, he will miss the ceremony of 
 investing the Kaaba with its new covering, which occurs on the 
 10th Dhu'l Hajj. This covering is a veil or drapery (kiswd) of 
 black figured brocade, adorned with a broad band embroidered 
 with golden inscriptions from the Koran. Every year a new 
 covering is forwarded in the Sultan's caravan. The old covering 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 699 
 
 is removed on the 25th of the preceding month and cut into 
 pieces, which are sold as holy relics to the pilgrims. Thus for 
 two weeks the Kaaba remains bare. (Phofessor James Eob- 
 ERTSON, in Sunday Magazine, December, 1890.) 
 
 Medard, St. (sometimes abridged to St. Mard) (457-545), 
 French prelate. His festival is celebrated on June 8, the anni- 
 versary of his death. He was Bishop of Yermand, and after- 
 wards of JSToyon, the latter being his birthplace. He was a 
 great friend of King Clotaire I. The latter was one of his 
 pall-bearers. He had promised to build a new church at Soissons 
 as a suitable monument to the saint. When the procession 
 reached Crouy, which is about three miles from Soissons, the 
 bier became wholly immovable. The king then promised to give 
 half the borough of Crouy to the new church. On trying again 
 to lift the bier, it was found that the half facing the part given 
 to the church was loose and could be moved, but the other half 
 was as fast as ever. Clotaire now promised the whole borough to 
 the church. The bier instantly became so light that it could be 
 lifted and carried without any trouble to its final destination. 
 The church and abbey of St. Medard were built over the tomb, 
 which is still a celebrated shrine. 
 
 St. Medard is the St. Swithin — i.e., the rainy saint — of France. 
 An old proverb says, — * 
 
 S'il pleut le jour de Saint-Medard 
 II pleut quarante jours plus tard. 
 
 (" If it rains on the day of Saint-Medard 
 It will rain forty days afterward.'') 
 
 St. Medard's Day is still watched with anxiety in the rural dis- 
 tricts of France. (See Eosiere.) 
 
 Medina, Pilgrimage to. Medina, in Arabia, is, next to 
 Mecca, the holiest city of the Moslem world. Thither Mohammed 
 fled when Mecca disowned him. In its most important building, 
 the Mosque of the Prophet, is still shown the tomb of Mohammed, 
 as well as the tombs of his principal followers and of his daugh- 
 ter Fatima. The European fable of the coffin of Mohammed 
 suspended by magnets within the mausoleum is unknown to the 
 Mohammedans. Indeed, it is not certain that either coffin or 
 body has been preserved. The feeling which regards the tomb 
 as the great glory of the mosque and as the central object of the 
 pilgrimages does not seem to have sprung up until a century or 
 more after the Prophet's death. But Mohammed left on record 
 the saying that one prayer in the mosque is of more avail than 
 
700 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 a thousand in any other place except the Kaaba at Mecca. The 
 great annual pilgrimage immediately follows that of the pil- 
 grimage to Mecca ; but as it is not obligatory, and as the journey 
 consumes eleven days, barely a fourth of those who visit Mecca 
 during the month Dhu'l Hajj continue their devotions at Medina. 
 Nor are the observances of the latter pilgrimage as fixed and 
 elaborate as at the former. 
 
 Mescal Ceremony. The Indian tribes of the Sierra Madre 
 are accustomed to meet at regular intervals to eat the dried tops 
 of the mescal plant with solemn religious ceremony of song, 
 prayer, and ritual. The mescal plant is a small variety of cactus 
 native to the lower Eio Grande region and about the Pecos Eiver 
 in Eastern New Mexico. The local Mexican name for the plant 
 is peyote, a corruption of the original Aztec name, from which it 
 would seem that the plant and ceremony were known as far 
 south as the Valley of Mexico at a period antedating the Span- 
 ish conquest. Owing to its agreeably stimulating and medicinal 
 properties, the Indians regard the plant as the vegetable incarna- 
 tion of the Deity. 
 
 Meshhed, Mashhad, or Meshed. (Per., " The Place of Mar- 
 tyrdom.") The capital of Khorasaan in Persia, and the sacred 
 city of the Shiite sect of Mohammedans, held in as much venera- 
 tion by them as Mecca is by the Sunnite Moslems. It is visited 
 every year by nearly one hundred thousand pilgrims, the chief 
 attraction being the splendid mosque built over the tomb of 
 Iman Riza, a follower of Ali, and one of the greatest saints in 
 the Shiite calendar. A pilgrimage to this shrine gives to the 
 pilgrim the coveted privilege of styling himself a Meshedi, just 
 as a pilgrimage to Mecca imparts the title of Hajji. Moham- 
 medans alone may enter the mosque ; even the outer gate is in- 
 accessible to Christians and four-footed animals. Every pilgrim 
 carries home with him a little tablet of stone or hardened clay 
 made from the sacred soil of Meshed and inscribed with a text 
 from the Koran. Thereafter, when he prostrates himself the 
 orthodox five times a day towards Mecca, he places the little 
 Meshedi tablet before him on the ground and touches his fore- 
 head to that instead of to the commonplace soil of his native 
 village. (A Visit to Holy Meshed, by Thomas Stevens, Cosmo- 
 politan, February, 1889.) 
 
 Michael, St. (His name means in Hebrew, " Who is like 
 God ?") According to Jewish and Christian teaching, the chief 
 of the archangels and the head of the celestial militia. He is 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 701 
 
 also, though in a minor capacity to that of St. Denis, the patron 
 of France. As such he is believed to have been the direct 
 inspirer of Joan of Arc. 
 
 St. Michael is mentioned in the book of Daniel, in the epistle 
 of Jude, and in the book of Eevelation, and each time as a 
 warrior and hero of battles. 
 
 Milton, following Biblical authority, makes him the leader of 
 God's loyal angels, who vanquished Lucifer and his legions and 
 consigned them to the dark pit. He is represented with a halo 
 around his head, a spear in his hand, and trampling on the fallen 
 Lucifer, and at times he has a banner suspended from a cross ; 
 this representation is a reminder of the prayer in the Litany 
 " to beat down Satan under our feet," and typifies the spiritual 
 triumph of good over evil. 
 
 Two festivals are celebrated in his honor by the Catholic 
 Church. One, the Apparition of St. Michael, occurs on May 8 ; 
 the second and greater festival, recognized also by the Anglican 
 Church, and known in England as Michaelmas, in ecclesiastical 
 calendars as the feast of St. Michael and All Angels, or the 
 feast of the Dedication of St. Michael, occurs on September 29. 
 Among the Greeks the chief festival of St. Michael and All 
 Angels is on November 8. Another feast, in memory of an ap- 
 parition at Colossse, is celebrated by the Greeks and Copts on 
 September 6. The dedication of a church to St. Michael in a 
 suburb of Constantinople by Constantine the Great is com- 
 memorated on June 8 by the Copts and Abyssinians, the Greeks 
 also celebrating the last day in honor of a miracle wrought at 
 Alexandria. By the Abyssinians the tw^elfth day of every month 
 is observed in memory of St. Michael. 
 
 According to Catholic legend, in the year 492 a rich ItaHan 
 named Gargan, who fed his cattle upon a hill known after him 
 as Mount Gargano (now Monte Sant' Angelo), missed one of his 
 bulls. It was found in a cavern wounded by an arrow. When 
 one sought to remove this arrow, straightway it flew out of its 
 own accord. Gargan told this marvel to the Bishop of Siponto. 
 The latter thereupon fasted for three days, and on the night of 
 the last was visited by an apparition of St. Michael, who ex- 
 plained that the cavern was his favorite resort and that he 
 wished a church to be erected there. So the bishop and the 
 clergy went in reverent procession to the awful cave and cele- 
 brated mass there until a noble church was erected above it and 
 dedicated to the archangel. Now, the date of the apparition 
 was May 8, and that of the dedication September 29, whence 
 these days have ever since been set apart for St. Michael. 
 
 Many subsequent apparitions of St. Michael are recorded, 
 and in every case a church has been built upon the site. Many 
 
702 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 of these churches being on hills, St. Michael has come to be 
 looked upon as the patron of mountains. 
 
 Among others are Mont St. Michel, a steep fortified rock off 
 the coast of Normandy, which strikingly resembles St. Michael's 
 Mount in Cornwall. Mont St. Michel has an abbey founded in 
 the eighth century, and a church built by the Normans. It was 
 once believed that a "red velvet-covered buckler" exhibited in 
 this church was the identical one won by Michael in his war 
 with Lucifer. This was exhibited until 1607, when the Bishop 
 of Avranches forbade it. 
 
 St. Michael's chair is on the Mount in Cornwall, and tradition 
 asserted that any woman who sat in this chair would ever after 
 rule her husband. St. Michael was said to have appeared on 
 this mount in the sixth century, and the place, thenceforth holy, 
 became the seat of a body of monks, and received a charter from 
 Edward the Confessor. On the promontory of Maler is a chapel 
 built to St. Michael, and the superstitious sailors think that a 
 wind blowing from that quarter is caused by the violent motion 
 of St. Michael's wings. Therefore when they sail by that head- 
 land they pray to St. Michael to keep his wings still. 
 
 When the Emperor Otho III. had, contrary to his word, put 
 to death the rebellious Eoman senator Crescentius, his confessor, 
 St. Eomuald, enjoined on him to walk barefoot to Mount Gar- 
 gano. This was in the year 1002. Similar pilgrimages in expia- 
 tion of sin are not infrequent even in our day. A continuous 
 stream of penitents, some coming singly, some in crowds, have 
 ever poured towards the various shrines of St. Michael in Catho- 
 lic countries. The favorite date at Monte Sant' Angelo in Italy 
 is May 8. From the church of St. Michael at the top of the 
 mount pilgrims descend by fifty-five steps to the grotto, which 
 was once a desolate cavern. 
 
 The feast of St. Michael is alluded to in the ecclesiastical laws 
 of the English king Ethelred in the year 1014, it being there pre- 
 scribed that every Christian who is of age shall fast on the 
 three days previous and then go to confession and to church 
 barefoot: "Let every priest with his people go in procession 
 three days barefoot, and let every one's commons for three days 
 be prepared without anything of flesh, as if themselves were to 
 eat it, both in meat and drink, and let all this be distributed to 
 the poor. Let every servant be excused from labor these three 
 days, that he may the better perform his task, or let him work 
 what he will for himself. These are the three days, Monday, 
 Tuesday, and Wednesday next before the feast of St. Michael. 
 If any servant break his fast, let him make satisfaction with 
 his hide, let the poor fi-eeman pay thirty pence, the king's thane 
 a hundred and thirty shillings, and let the money be divided 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 703 
 
 to the poor." But these preliminary austerities did not long 
 prevail. 
 
 Indeed, the date of Michaelmas carried with it too many asso- 
 ciations with the old heathen day of rejoicing when the harvest 
 was gathered in. It was in the very heart of the season of 
 ripened wheat, of fattened fowl and cattle, of vinous possibili- 
 ties. JSTecessarily it became an occasion of good cheer and 
 mental and bodily refreshment. In England the custom of hav- 
 ing a goose for dinner is almost universal : 
 
 September when by custom (right divine) 
 Geese are ordained to bleed at Michael's shrine. 
 
 (Churchill.) 
 
 According to historical authority, Queen Elizabeth was eating 
 her Michaelmas goose when she received the tidings of the 
 defeat of the Spanish Armada. Some writers urge that this 
 was the origin of the custom. But it existed long before EHza- 
 beth. Blount's " Tenures" notes the fact that so far back as the 
 tenth year of Edward lY. one John de La Hay was bound, 
 among other services, to render to William Barnaby, Lord of 
 Lastres, in Herefordshire, for a parcel of the demesne lands, 
 " xx*^ and one goose fit for his lord's dinner on the Feast of St. 
 Michael the Archangel." 
 
 Blount adds that probably no other reason can be given for 
 this custom than that Michaelmas Day was a great festival, and 
 geese at that time were most plentiful. 
 
 Yet a plausible suggestion is that the custom arose from the 
 practice among the rural tenantry of bringing, when paying the 
 Michaelmas rent, a fine goose to the landlord to gain his favor. 
 The goose was then at its best, owing to the benefit derived from 
 stubble-feeding, and of course the great number of such presents 
 made it a general custom to have a goose for dinner, as the land- 
 lord would have so many given him that he could share them 
 with his friends. 
 
 This suggestion is supported by George Gascoyne, who wrote 
 in 1575,— 
 
 And when the tenantes come to paie their quarter's rent, 
 
 They bring some fowle at Midsummer, a dish of fish in Lent, 
 
 At Christmasse a capon, at Michaelmasse a goose, 
 
 And somewhat else at New-yere's tide, for feare their lease flie loose. 
 
 Moreover, a superstition prevailed that eating goose at Michael- 
 mas guaranteed prosperity for the coming year, and no lack of 
 money. In Lincolnshire and Yorkshire especially such old 
 beliefs and customs were prevalent, though now abandoned. 
 Bonfires were made, stories told, and ballads sung on Michael- 
 mas Eve. A handful of each sort of grain that the farmer had 
 
704 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 grown was given that night to his cattle for their supper, and 
 some of the graio scattered in the court for the wild birds to 
 pick up ; this was intended to bring luck to the homestead. 
 
 Many old customs now extinct have been noted by English anti- 
 quarians in the past. Brand tells us that '' at this season village 
 maidens, in the west of England, go up and down the hedges 
 gathering crab- apples, which they carry home, putting them into 
 a loft, and forming with them the initials of their supposed 
 suitors' names. The initials which are found, on examination, 
 to be most perfect on Old Michaelmas Day are considered to 
 represent the strongest attachments and the best for choice of 
 husbands." (Popular Antiquities, 1849, vol. i. p. 356.) 
 
 Brand also gives an account of a curious septennial custom 
 observed at Bishop Stortford and in the adjacent neighborhood 
 on old Michaelmas Day. He quotes from a London newspaper 
 of the 18th of October, 1787: 
 
 On the morning of this day, called Ganging Day, a great 
 number of young men assemble in the fields, where a very active 
 fellow is nominated the leader. This person they are bound to 
 follow, who, for the sake of diversion, generally chooses the 
 route through ponds, ditches, and places of difficult passage. 
 Every person they meet is bumped, male or female, which is 
 performed by two other persons taking them up by their arms 
 and swinging them against each other. The women in general 
 keep at home at this period, except those of less scrupulous 
 character, who, for the sake of partaking of a gallon of ale and 
 a plum-cake, which every landlord or publican is obliged to fur- 
 nish the revellers with, generally spend the best part of the 
 night in the fields if the weather is fair, it being strictly accord- 
 ing to ancient usage not to partake of the cheer anywhere else. 
 
 Martin in his " Account of the Western Isles of Scotland" 
 (1703) speaks of the cavalcades that were a feature of the old- 
 time Michaelmas festivities in those regions. At Lingay, for 
 example, both sexes met on horseback at a designated place on 
 the sea-shore where the ground was hard and firm. Here they 
 exchanged presents, ran races, and performed feats of horseman- 
 ship. Ancient custom made it lawful for any of the inhabitants 
 to steal his neighbor's horse the night before and ride him all 
 next day, provided he returned him safe and sound after the races. 
 
 In Macaulay's " History of St. Kilda" (1764), p. 22, we read, 
 " It was, till of late, an universal custom among the islanders, on 
 Michaelmas Day, to prejjare in every family a loaf of cake of 
 bread, enormously large, and compounded of diffeient ingredi- 
 ents. This cake belonged to the archangel, and had its name 
 from him. Every one in each family, whether strangers or 
 domestics, had his portion of this kind of shew-bread, and had, 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 705 
 
 of course, some title to the friendship and protection of Michael." 
 He adds, " In Ireland a sheep was killed in every family that 
 could afford one, on the same anniversary; and it was ordained, 
 by law that a part of it should be given to the poor. This, as 
 we gather from Keating's General History of Ireland, ii. 12, and 
 a great deal more, was done in that kingdom to perpetuate the 
 memory of a miracle wrought there by St. Patrick through the 
 assistance of the archangel. In commemoration of this, Michael- 
 mas was instituted a festal day of joy, plenty, and universal 
 benevolence." 
 
 There is a pretty and delicate fancy still prevalent in some 
 parts of England, that at midnight on Michaelmas Eve' the 
 bracken puts forth a small blue flower, which withers and falls 
 before the dawn. In many sections of England, and also in Ire- 
 land, a superstition exists that at Michaelmas Day the devil 
 puts his foot on the blackberries, or throws his club over them; 
 people will not gather them after that day, believing that the 
 devil has made them poisonous. 
 
 In addition to its festive features, Michaelmas is one of the 
 four quarter-days when tenants pay their rent in England, and 
 a favorite season for the election of magistrates. Chambers's 
 " Book of Days" says, " Local rulers were esteemed in some re- 
 spects analogous to tutelar angels in so far as they presided over 
 and protected the people. It was therefore thought proper to 
 choose them on the day of St. Michael and All Angels." 
 
 In the parish church of St. James, Clerkenwell Green, London, 
 an annual sermon is preached on Michaelmas Day as well as All 
 Saints' Day. A certain resident of the parish, named Pierson, 
 dying many years ago left £50 to the parish on condition that 
 £3 be spent annually as follows : " Minister, for sermon concern- 
 ing the preparation for death, in the afternoon of St. Michael's 
 and All Saints' Day in every year forever (except Michaelnaas 
 Day happen to fall on a Sunday, then on the following Monday) 
 and the prayers of the Church of England to be there read in 
 the same church, 15s. ; reader, 2s. 6d. ; clerk, Is. 6d., and sexton 
 Is., for their attendance ; and £1 for forty poor people of the 
 parish attending such service, M. each ; the residue, £1, to be 
 devoted to a collation for the parson, churchwardens, and over- 
 seers after such service." 
 
 Michael's Tree, St., or Suicide Tree. An ailantus which 
 formerly stood in what was known as Mulberry Bend in New 
 York city. It was destroyed in 1896, when the Bend disappeared 
 to make room for the present Park. According to tradition, the 
 tree was planted in 1826 by Henry Passman, whose homestead 
 at 45 Mulberry Street became in later years the very heart of 
 
 45 
 
706 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 the Bend. Of all the trees that grew in his rear-yard this was 
 the only one left when the tenements sprang up and the old 
 residents of Mulberry Street fled before the invasion of Italian 
 and other immigrants. Legend asserts that during the draft 
 riots in 1863 dozens of negroes were hanged on its spreading 
 branches, and that in more recent times it bad served as a con- 
 venient hanging-place for people who were tired of life. Hence 
 the name Suicide Tree. These legends are almost without foun- 
 dation. For a full score of years before its destruction, however, 
 the Italians of the neighborhood bad dedicated the tree to St. 
 Michael. On the two holiday's devoted to the archangel (May 8 
 and September 29) the Italian societies, civil and religious, don 
 brilliant uniforms and parade around New York. The day's 
 ceremonies end up with a mass-meeting in the night. The rear- 
 yard where the old tree stood used to be the most convenient 
 place in the neighborhood for these meetings. From the little 
 Italian church around the corner, an image of St. Michael was 
 taken in procession and set up directly under the shadow of the 
 ailantus. All around it were placed lighted candles, while lan- 
 terns swung from the branches. The night would be spent in 
 merrymaking and in raffles for sheep, watches, chains, and 
 trinkets. In the early morning St. Michael would be returned 
 to his altar. 
 
 Middle Kingdom, Feast of the. A festival celebrated by 
 the Chinese about the middle of the second month. (See Cal- 
 
 Feast of the Middle Kingdom. 
 (By a Chinese artist.) 
 
 ENDAR, Chinese.) The women hang leaves of the sago-plant, 
 with a bulb of garlic and a branch of the cactus tree, over their 
 front doors to ward off evil spirits, and then devote themselves 
 to the preparation of certain cakes a component part of which is 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 707 
 
 a plant which is looked upon as an antidote to all poisons. This 
 is known as the poison-fish plant, because when thrown into the 
 water it is believed to kill everything living therein. Various 
 superstitions attach to the cakes. If eaten while sitting on the 
 threshold of doors they are held to be especially efficacious as 
 mascots. They are distributed as presents throughout the length 
 and breadth of the land, and are even sent by friends to emi- 
 grants in California, Australia, and other parts of the world. 
 
 Mid-Lent. (Fr. Mi-Careme ; It. Mezza Quaresima.) In most 
 Catholic countries it has been found popularly necessary to break 
 in upon the austerities of the Lenten season by a temporary re- 
 lapse into holiday festivities. In old Catholic England the occa- 
 sion was seized on Mid-Lent Sunday (q. v.). Here there was no 
 relaxation of Church rules, inasmuch as Sundays in Lent are 
 ecclesiastically dies non and are exempt from the obligation of 
 fasting. In France, however, the decay of faith at about the 
 beginning of the eighteenth century led to the establishment of 
 the feast of Mi-Careme, on the third Thursday of Lent. It is 
 believed to have commenced as a sort of return festival given on 
 this date by the young women of the country towns to the young 
 men, in acknowledgment of the ball tendered by the latter to 
 the young women on the preceding Mardi-Gras (^. v.~). The 
 custom spread to Paris, where it has been taken up by the wash- 
 erwomen. Four weeks before the appointed date the divinities 
 of the wash-tub in every one of the metropolitan districts meet 
 together to elect a queen, and these queens in turn assemble and 
 choose from their number the queen of queens, who constitutes 
 the principal feature of a great procession that stops for a time 
 all the traffic of the streets. Each district wash-house has a tri- 
 umphal car decorated in the most gorgeous style, drawn by richly 
 caparisoned horses, escorted by knights in armor and musicians 
 in historical costumes, while perched aloft is the district queen, 
 surrounded by her courtiers and ladies-in-waiting. The great 
 centre of attraction is, of course, the queen of queens, who sits 
 on a golden throne about thirty feet high, her chariot being 
 drawn by Eussian horses and surrounded by a burlesque 
 court. 
 
 The queen of queens selects a partner, formerly known as the 
 ecuyer, or squire, but more recently raised to royal rank as the 
 king of the occasion. The festivities wind up with a ball which 
 is opened by the queen. 
 
 The washerwomen's ball was a fruitful theme for the carica- 
 turists in the early part of this century. Two may be found 
 among Cham's works. The legend under one is as follows: 
 
 Customer. — " Can you give me my linen next week ?" 
 
708 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Washerwoman — " Impossible. I have to study the step of 
 the lancers. Next Thursday is our ball." 
 
 The other represents a stout washerwoman who sa^^s to her 
 assistant, " Go at once and get the countess's linen, so I may 
 wash it. I need an embroidered chemise to wear at the wash- 
 erwomen's ball." 
 
 The following advance notice of the specially gorgeous fete 
 held in 1896 appeared in the New York Journal on February 23 
 of that year : 
 
 " Extraordinary preparations are being made this year for the 
 Mid-Lenten masquerade in Paris, and according to the promises 
 and projects it is likely that these fetes will come nearer to the 
 glories of a Neapolitan Carnival than anything that has been 
 seen in Paris these many years. 
 
 " The show of 1896 is to take place on March 12, with its 
 greatest ceremony, the triumphal passing through the streets 
 of the French capital of the queen of queens and her retinue, 
 amid all the magnificence of a triuniphal car and the honor of 
 being reviewed by France's Chief Executive himself 
 
 " There is one particular reason why these fetes will be nota- 
 ble. The shopkeepers have engaged to back the carnival 
 strongly, and the students are entering more heartily into it 
 than usual. But this is not so much the point. The event will 
 be peculiarly notable because there is to be this year a par- 
 ticularly stunning ' Peine des Eeines,' the very prettiest of the 
 latter-day Trilbys of Paris. 
 
 " For, in accordance with old custom, the queen of this day is 
 selected from the ranks of the blanchisseuses, or laundresses, of 
 the Parisian capital, and in this trade beautiful women are never 
 lacking. The honor has fallen this year upon Henriette Defoul- 
 loy, who is one of the ' clear-starch ers' of a famous establishment 
 out at Belleville, in the suburbs, an establishment which has al- 
 ready provided several queens and maids of honor for this festival. 
 
 " Mile. Defoulloy is a dark-eyed, entrancing, and slim brunette 
 of seventeen. Her selection as queen is even a greater compli- 
 ment than is usually implied in the choosing, for this year an 
 entirely new system of picking out a queen has been adopted. 
 In former years the candidates themselves used to gather to- 
 gether and choose one of their number. This winter the candi- 
 dates, of whom there were thirteen, were ordered to select five 
 of their number, and these five afterwards appeared before the 
 male organizers of the fetes, who looked over them carefully and 
 pronounced judgment, finally picking out Mile. Defoulloy. The 
 new system is a better one, for it does away with the traditional 
 wire-pulling that there used to be when the girls themselves had 
 the elective power. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 709 
 
 " To be a queen of queens in these Mid-Lent festivals means a 
 great deal to a Parisian laundress. She not only has the enor- 
 mous public honor of being carried along the streets on a throne, 
 and of having a popular verdict upon her charms, but she is 
 also presented to the President of the Eepublic. Her emolu- 
 ments, besides, are very considerable. The Carnival Committee 
 gives her one hundred dollars, and other golden perquisites come 
 to her from the chief police officials of her district, from the 
 municipal councillors, and from others. Last year the queen 
 received a splendid bracelet from President Faure. She is also 
 given gala robes, and these include a garment that she can after- 
 wards use as a wedding-dress. But the requirements of being a 
 royal personage during the fete are hard tor a Parisian girl to 
 meet, for she must not only be beautiful and shapely, but she 
 must also be clever, a perfect mistress of her trade, and of un- 
 blemished character. 
 
 " What has become of the former queens of these pageants is 
 a subject that is interesting to pursue. The queen of the Mid- 
 Lent festivities of 1891 has been found to have recently married, 
 and to be still a working laundress. Her gala togs have been 
 completely worn out, and the only souvenir she possesses of her 
 past glories is the diadem that once adorned her brow, now kept 
 in her little parlor under a glass shade. The queen of 1893 has 
 had a hard road to travel, for her marital life has been unfortu- 
 nate, and she is now taking proceedings for a divorce. Mile. 
 Bonhomme, the queen of 1894, has recently been obliged to pawn 
 her crown as well as her robes, and even the bracelet that Car- 
 not, then President, clasped upon her arm on the fete-day. For 
 Bonhomme's father has become a bankrupt. 
 
 "Last year's queen is still washing cheerfully away, with a 
 fair outlook of becoming an ' old maid,' for, though she has had 
 many offers of marriage, because of her royal honors she has 
 refused them all. Her laundry specialty is pocket-handkerchiefs 
 and the bosoms of shirts." 
 
 In 1896 there was inaugurated on the same day by the Pari- 
 sian artists of the Montmartre a counter-celebration which went 
 by the name of the Procession of " the Mad Cow" (la vache en- 
 ragee). This was held on the Butte Sacree, or Sacred Hill. 
 
 The " Butte-Sacree" is a peculiar place. Every stranger who 
 wishes to know Paris must visit that colony of artists, painters, 
 and writers, just as he must go to the top of the Arc de Triomphe 
 or the July column. There at the opposite end of the town a 
 new Latin quarter has been created, in which, however, a man 
 may remain young till he is sixty with impunity, and whose 
 gayety, though fully as noisy as that of the students' quarter, 
 at times assumes an interesting and fascinating artistic coloring. 
 
710 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Tliis was shown especially on this occasion, for while the students 
 followed the Queen of the Washerwomen, exhibiting in their 
 disguises only gayety and even vulgarity, on Montmartre, under 
 the direction of the poet Emile Godeau, who is also a humorist, 
 and of the painter and caricaturist Wiilette, fun was made of 
 poverty, the usual companion of artists and thinkers. 
 
 " A popular phrase," says the Paris correspondent of the New 
 York Sun, under date of March 14, 1896, '' gave the key-note to 
 the masquerade : Manger de la vache enragee means to be reduced 
 to eat meat of poor quality, and, by extension, not to get enough 
 to eat, the fate for long years and often forever of those who 
 remain true to art. In the procession, in front of the celebrated 
 cow whose hoofs were stained red with the blood of poets, but 
 who was securely bound with strong ropes, marched the Anti- 
 Landlord League, bearing on a bed M. and Mme. Pipelet, the types 
 of the Paris concierges created by Eugene Sue. These squirm 
 on the bed in an extraordinary fashion to the sound of a wooden 
 bell incessantly clapping above them; for demenager a la cloche 
 de hois means to move out silently without attracting the atten- 
 tion of the landlord's agent and without paying the rent. 
 
 " Next came Pegasus, held by two deputy sheriffs for the debts 
 of the poet on his back, followed by the chariot of Poetry, and 
 by floats representing the works of the principal artists of Mont- 
 martre, Wiilette and Faverot with their clowns, Pelez and his 
 poor, Pille and his soldiers, and, to crown all, the reproduction 
 of Puvis de Chavannes' beautiful panel, the Sacred Wood. Some 
 characters belonging to the history of Paris or to legend, such as 
 St. Denis carrjing his head under his arm, and the patron saints 
 of the city, closed the procession. 
 
 '' At the head marched a corps of cafe waiters, in the place of 
 the sappers who lead regiments, bearing newspaper files instead 
 of axes, followed by a tall woman very much decolletee as a 
 drum-major with a band of little drummers. There was a great 
 deal of fun, but the rain fell steadily and Puvis de Chavannes' 
 Muses had to hold umbrellas up." 
 
 In Florence there used to be celebrated a quaint popular cere- 
 mony in the Piazza Padella at Mid Lent. A large wooden doll 
 dressed up as a nun and known as La Monica was first sawed in 
 two and then burnt on a funeral pyre amid loud rejoicings. The 
 story ran that this figure was Mezza Quaresima, a sister of the 
 Befana (see Epiphany), who had been caught in the middle of 
 Lent eating a Bologna sausage. This heinous crime was pro- 
 nounced unpardonable, and Mezza Quaresima was condemned 
 (by whom is not stated) to the punishment of being sawn in 
 two, the only remission granted being the privilege of dying in- 
 cognita in the garb of a nun. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 711 
 
 Mid-Lent Sunday. The fourth Sunday in Lent, . called 
 Laetare Sunday in the Eoman calendar, and popularly known as 
 Mothering Sunday in England. This latter title is explained by 
 the pretty custom which obtained among the young men and 
 women of England who were bound out as apprentices or ser- 
 vants, or who lived at some little distance from their first homes, 
 to return on this Sunday and visit their parents, carrying with 
 them some trifling presents. This was called " going a-mother- 
 ing." Behind this custom lay a long history reaching back into 
 pagan times. Among the ancient Eomans a festival of the 
 Hilaria, or "Mother of the Gods," was held on the Ides of 
 March, when the people made offerings in the temple which 
 became the property of the priests. After the triumph of 
 Christianity the festival was adapted to the new order, and it 
 became the custom on Mid-Lent Sunday for the faithful to visit 
 their " Mother Church," — i.e., the church in which they were 
 baptized and brought up, — bearing gifts for the altar. 
 
 In Shropshire, Yorkshire, and Herefordshire it has long been 
 the custom to make during Lent a cake called a simnel, which is 
 deemed especially appropriate as a " mothering" present. As far 
 back as Herrick we find this quatrain : 
 
 To DiANEME. 
 
 A ceremonie in Glocester. 
 
 I'll to thee a Simnell bring, 
 'Gainst thou go'st a-mothering, 
 So that when she blesseth thee, 
 Half that blessing thou 'It give me. 
 
 The inside of a simnel cake was like a rich fruit-cake, but it 
 had an outer crust made of flour and water. Boiled first in 
 water, it was subsequently baked. When done, the crust was as 
 hard as wood, insomuch that it is reported that people unfamiliar 
 with the cakes have mistaken them for footstools. The crust is 
 colored yellow with saffron and ornamented with more or less 
 art. Professional etymologists refer the word simnel to the 
 Latin simila, meaning the finest sort of flour. But folk-etymology 
 has far more picturesque origins to suggest. Some pretend that 
 the baker-father of Lambert Simnel, pretender to the throne 
 in the reign of Henry YIL, was the first to make these cakes, 
 thence called after his own name. • Others say that the cake was 
 the invention of an old man and an old woman named Simon 
 and Nelly, who tried to make a cake for their children out of 
 some old materials which they happened to have. They quar- 
 relled about whether it should be boiled or baked, and after Nell}^ 
 had broken a broom by way of chastisement over Simon, and 
 
712 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Simon had dislocated a stool by throwing it at Nelly, they agreed 
 that it should be boiled and then baked : so they used the stool 
 for fuel under the pot and the broom for fuel under the oven, and 
 the cake was called by a combination of both their names. 
 
 Another dish thought to be appropriate to this day was fru- 
 menty, composed of wheat grains boiled in milk sugared and 
 spiced. 
 
 Mid-Lent Sunday is occasionally known as Dominica Eefec- 
 tionis, the Sunday of Eefreshment, "the reason of which, I sup- 
 pose," says Wheatley in his book on the Common Prayer, "is 
 the Grospel for the day, which treats of our Saviour's miraculously 
 feeding five thousand ; or else, perhaps, from the first lesson in 
 the morning, which gives us the story of Joseph's entertaining 
 his brother." 
 
 In mediaeval England, as Hone informs us, the boys in the 
 country used to go about on the fourth Sunday in Lent with a 
 figure of Death made of straw. The villagers would either drive 
 them away or purchase their departure with small sums of 
 money. Hone adds that this was only a survival from a more 
 elaborate ceremony of still more remote date, conducted by a 
 larger number of boys, from whom the Death-carriers were a 
 detachment, and who bore two figures to represent Spring and 
 Winter. These two figures were made to fight with each other. 
 Spring invariably won the victory, " and thus was allegorized 
 the departure or death of the year and its commencement or 
 revival as spring." A similar custom has existed in many other 
 countries, and doubtless has its source in pagan antiquity. Thus, 
 a seventeenth-century German, Johann Wilhelm Storch, in his 
 "Description of the Town of Eisenach," mentions the Sommer- 
 Gewinn, or departure of summer, which he similarly surmises to 
 be designed as a celebration of the end of winter and the begin- 
 ning of summer : 
 
 " This feast was always held on the Sunday called Lsetare, in 
 the long fore-town, outside the George's Gate, where booths were 
 erected for the sale of confectionery, cakes, and toys. A large 
 multitude of the citizens, with their children, visited, in the 
 afternoon of this day, their friends and acquaintances dwelling 
 in that part of the town, for the purposes of enjoyment and 
 purchasing fir-boughs decorated with sweetmeats, toys, and 
 other fancy articles. Laden with these same decorated boughs, 
 to which the name of ' Summer' was given, they returned 
 towards evening, with their joyful children, to their houses. 
 Formerly two different customs have been known to be con- 
 nected with this feast. The grown-up lads then were wont 
 to make a wheel, to which a popanz, or figure of straw, was 
 fastened, and to let this run burning down from the top of the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 713 
 
 Madelstein into the fore-town. In the Lausitzer and Meiss- 
 nischen countries it was customary in many places to carry 
 round such a dressed-up straw man with songs and rejoicing on 
 the so-called Dead Sunday, or Laetare, and then to cast the figure 
 into the water. On the same day Jobannisfeuer was lighted up 
 on every hill-top round about. This Johannis' or John's fire was 
 literally the summer's-fire, for what we call Midsummer's Day 
 goes by the name of Jobannis-Tag in Germany." According 
 to G-rimm, the straw figure represented the dead Winter, and 
 was generally associated witb the wheel when that article was 
 employed as part of the spring festival. 
 
 Misericordia. (A Latin and Italian word signifying " pity" 
 or "mercy.") A semi-religious brotherhood in Florence, Italy, 
 which devotes itself to attendance on the sick and dying. It 
 took its rise in 1244, when the plague ravaged Europe. The 
 artisans of Florence, moved by the contagions that desolated 
 their city and left multitudes of sick without succor and of dead 
 without burial, were the first to conceive the idea, which was at 
 once sanctioned by the Church and aided by the aristocracy. At 
 present the brotherhood is under the direction of seventy-two 
 members, called Capi di Guardia (" Chiefs of Watch"), and com- 
 posed of ten prelates, fourteen nobles, twenty priests, and twenty- 
 eight artisans. Under their immediate orders are two hundred 
 "giornanti," or journeymen, secular and ecclesiastical. Forty 
 of these are always on service. There are besides inscribed upon 
 their lists the names of a thousand or more volunteers (huone- 
 voglle) whom they can call upon at any moment to assist in their 
 charitable labors. The secret of all these names is kept inviolate 
 by the Capi di Guardia, partly that the incognito of charity 
 recommended by Christ may be preserved, and partly because 
 many of the members are penitents engaged in the expiation 
 of sin. 
 
 " The office of the Misericordia is in the Piazza del Duomo. 
 Each brother on duty keeps there, marked with his name, a box 
 containing his black robe, which covers him from head to foot. 
 They are such as penitents formerly wore, with openings only 
 for the mouth and eyes, in order that the incognito of charity, 
 recommended by Christ, shall be strictly preserved. As soon as 
 the signal is heard that their services are required, the members 
 on duty assemble at their office, assume their mournful habits, — 
 which no one can see for the first time without being strangely 
 aifected, — receive their orders, and proceed to the scene of their 
 duties. Some are required to carry the diseased or wounded to 
 the hospitals, or other places, as need may be. Others devote 
 themselves to nursing in the homes of the ill and infirm poor. 
 
714 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 They often pass days and nights at their bedsides, bestowing 
 upon them those attentions which try even the constancy of 
 friendship and the affinities of blood. In every place, at any 
 hour, wherever an accident calls, a groan is heard, or there are 
 misery and suffering to be relieved, the Brothers of Pity are 
 required, by their voluntary bond of good deeds, to bestow their 
 alms and their offices. It matters not what may be the origin 
 of the poor victim, or whether he confesses Christ, Moses, or 
 Mohammed. Their charity blesses alike all men, without distinc- 
 tion of race or religion. They bury the unknown dead, carrying 
 themselves the corpse to its sepulchre. The scaffold even does not 
 repel them from fulfilling, in its broadest extent, the spirit of their 
 vows. They are to be found at the latest moment beside the 
 criminal, consoling and preparing him fur his doom ; and, after 
 his head has fallen under the axe of the guillotine, gathering up 
 his mangled remains, to bestow upon them a Christian burial. 
 Priest and layman, noble and mechanic, unknown to each other, 
 and unrecognizable by their nearest relatives, bear upon their 
 shoulders the same litter, containing, it may be, a poor cripple 
 abandoned by all the world besides." (Harper's Magazine, April, 
 1854.) 
 
 Misrule, Lord of. A noted functionary, known also by 
 various other names, who was formerly appointed in every great 
 household in England to direct the revels of the Christmas season 
 and preside over its ceremonies. The custom began with royalty, 
 but became so popular that every nobleman and person of posi- 
 tion had a Lord of Misrule. In the more ancient days his rule 
 began at Halloween and ended with Candlemas; but latterly it 
 was restricted to the Twelve Days of Christmas, with occasion- 
 ally a revival for the nonce at Candlemas. 
 
 The performance of this lord during the days of his license 
 of disorder recalls in many points the Eoman Saturnalia. The 
 master and all his household must obey the Lord of Misrule as 
 the Eomans obeyed the masters of the feasts of Saturn, and 
 there was the same equality of servants with their masters. 
 " Christmas," says Selden, in his " Table-Talk," " succeeds the 
 Saturnalia, — the same time, the same number of holy days ; then 
 the master waited on the servant like the Lord of Misrule." 
 
 An idea of the authority exercised by this Christmas potentate 
 is given by the articles of appointment of Owen Flood, trumpeter, 
 to be Lord of Misrule for twelve days in the Mansion House of 
 Kichard Evelyn, of Walton, in Surrey, High Sheriff of Surrey 
 and Sussex in 1634. The document said, " I give free leave to 
 said Owen Flood to command all and every person or persons 
 whatsoever, as well servants and others, to be at his command 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 715 
 
 whenever he shall sound his Trumpet or Musick, and to do 
 him good service, as though I were present myself, at their 
 perils." 
 
 Every person was commanded to appear in the hall at seven 
 A.M. and attend prayers, on pain of such punishment as the lord 
 saw fit to impose. To swear on the precincts, to come into the 
 hall and sit at dinner or supper more than once, to be drunk, or 
 to drink more than is fit, or to offer to sleep, was to incur punish- 
 ment ; while if a person did not drink up his bowl of beer, but 
 flung away his snuffe (that is, his second draught), he should 
 drink two and afterwards be excluded. Drinking too little was 
 as perilous as drinking too much. To quarrel or use ill language 
 within the twelve days was to incur the lord's displeasure : " Item : 
 If any one shall come into the kitchen whiles meat is a-dressing, 
 to molest the cooks, he shall suffer the rigor of his lordship's law. 
 Item : If any man shall kisse any maid, widdow, or wife, except 
 to bid welcome or farewell, without his lordship's consent, he shall 
 be punished as his lordship shall think convenient." And finally, 
 " I give full power and authority to his lordship to brake up all 
 lockes, bolts, barres, doores, and latches, and to flinge up alle 
 doores out of hendges, to come at all those who presume to dis- 
 obey his lord's commands. God save the king!" 
 
 Mr. Philip Stubbes, the morose Elizabethan Puritan whose 
 " Anatomic of Abuses" was published in 1583, has a good deal to 
 say about these "hell-hounds," as he genially denominates the 
 Lord of Misrule and his complices. He tells us that in the rural 
 districts " the grand captaine of mischief," on being crowned and 
 adopted as king by the wild heads of the parish, selects three- 
 score or so lusty attendants " lyke himselfe." These he invests 
 with his liveries, green, yellow, or some other light wanton color. 
 "And as though that were not gaudie enough I should sale, they 
 bedecke themselves with scarfes, ribbons, and laces, hanged all 
 over with golde rynges, precious stones, and other jewelles : this 
 doen, they tye about either legge twentie or fourtie belles, with 
 rich hande-kercheefes in their hands, and sometimes laied across 
 their shoulders and neckes, borrowed for the most parte of their 
 pretie Mopsies and loovyng Bessies for bussyng them in the 
 darcke. Thus thinges sette in order, they have their hobbie- 
 horses, dragons, and other antiques, together with their baudie 
 pipers and thunderyng drommers, to strike up the Deville's 
 daunce withall : then marche these heathen companie towardes 
 the churche and churcheyarde, their pipers pipyng, drommers 
 thunderyng, their stumppes dauncing, their belles jynglyng, 
 their hand-kercheefes swynging about their heads like madmen, 
 their hobbie-horses and other monsters skyrmishyng amongst 
 the throng : and in this sort they goe to the churche (though 
 
716 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 the minister bee at praier or preachyng) dauncing and swingyng 
 their hand-kercheefes over their heades in the churche, Jike 
 devilles incarnate, with such a confused noise that no man can 
 heare his own voice. Then the foolishe people they looke, they 
 stare, they laugh, they fieere, and mount upon formes and pews 
 to see these goodly pageauntes solemnized in this sort. Then, 
 after this, aboute the church they goe againe and againe, and so 
 forthe into the churche-yarde, where they have commonly their 
 sommer haules, their bowers, arbours, and banquettyng houses 
 sett up, wherin they feaste, banquet, and daunce all that dale, 
 and (peradventure) all that night too. And thus these terrestrial 
 furies spend their Sabbaoth daie." 
 
 In the year 1637 some Lincolnshire farmers came up before 
 the Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical on the charge of 
 carrying their Christmas revelries too far. ISTot content with a 
 Lord of Misrule, they determined he should have a lady or 
 Christmas wife. Probably there was no harm in this, but only 
 in the method by which the lady was assigned to the lord. 
 Eliza Pitto, daughter of the hogherd of the town, was brought 
 in as bride. A farmer named Saunders received her. He was 
 disguised as a parson, wearing a shirt or smock for a surplice. 
 He then married the Lord of Misrule to the hogherd's daughter, 
 reading the whole of the marriage service from the Book of 
 Common Prayer. All the after ceremonies and customs then in 
 use were observed with all the license of the times. The parties 
 had time to repent at leisure in prison. 
 
 In the University of Cambridge the functions of the Lord of 
 Misrule were performed by one of the Masters of Arts, who was 
 regularly elected to superintend the annual representation of 
 Latin plays by the students, besides taking a general charge of 
 their games and diversions during the Christmas season, and 
 was styled the Imperator or Prsefectus Ludorum. A similar 
 Master of Eevels was chosen at Oxford, under the title of Christ- 
 mas Prince. But it seems to have been in the Inns of Court 
 in London that the Lord of Misrule reigned with the greatest 
 splendor, being surrounded with all the parade and ceremony of 
 royalty, having his lord-keeper and treasurer, his guard of honor, 
 and even his two chaplains, who preached before him on Sunday 
 in the Temple Church, gravely saluting him as they ascended the 
 pulpit, as was the custom in Chapel Eoyal on preaching before 
 the king. On Twelfth Day he abdicated his sovereignty. In 
 the year 1635 this mock representative of royalty expended in 
 the exercise of his office about two thousand pounds from his 
 own purse, and at the conclusion of his reign was knighted by 
 Charles I. at Whitehall. The office, indeed, seems to have been 
 regarded among the Templars as a highly honorable one, and to 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 717 
 
 have been generally conferred on young gentlemen of good 
 family. 
 
 In 1666 Evelyn saw this solemn foolery at Lincoln's Inn, when 
 the mock king was gloriously clad and attended : at this revel 
 the king (Charles II.) and the Duke of York were present. On 
 the 6th of January his majesty opened the revels himself by 
 throwing the dice in the Privy Chamber, and lost at the play 
 one hundred pounds ; but he could afford it, for the year before 
 he won fifteen hundred pounds. The ladies also played very 
 deep. As late as the times of Kings George I. and II. the revels 
 remained, and these gracious kings played in public at the 
 hazard-table. 
 
 In Scotland, previous to the Eeformation, the monasteries used 
 to elect a functionary of a similar character for the superintend- 
 ence of the Christmas revels, who was known as the Abbot of 
 Unreason. A graphic description of one of these mock ecclesi- 
 astics may be tbund in " The Abbot," by Sir Walter Scott. An 
 ordinance for suppressing this annual burlesque, with other fes- 
 tivities of a like kind, was passed by the Scottish legislature in 
 1555. The Scotch Abbot is probably an offshoot from the French 
 Abbe de Liesse or Abbas Stultorum who conducted the festivities 
 at the Feast of the Ass. 
 
 Mistletoe. In scientific language the mistletoe is a species 
 of viscum, of the natural order JJoranthacece, which grows as a 
 parasite both on deciduous and on evergreen trees and shrubs, 
 but mainly on the poplar, the hawthorn, the pear, and the apple, 
 — preeminently, indeed, on the latter. It forms an evergreen 
 bush, about four feet in length, thickly crowded with (falsely) 
 dichotomous branches and opposite leaves. 
 
 It grows in a very peculiar manner ; unlike all other plants, 
 its shoots extend downward as well as upward, giving the tree 
 an odd general appearance with these tufts sticking below and 
 above the bare branches in winter, lumpy clusters of sprigs, di- 
 viding and multiplying at their extremities, in color the darkest 
 green, which look almost black against a clear sky. The leaves 
 and flowers spring from the knotty points of bifurcation, which 
 are added yearly, on the slender stems. There are two leaves, 
 of a dull leathery complexion, at each knot, and a very small 
 yellowish flower, hardly perceptible to the careless eye, at the 
 base of the leaves. Towards the month of November these 
 flowers change into the fruit, the little round whitish berries 
 with which Anglo-Saxon nations become familiar at Christmas 
 in our festive household parties. The berry is filled with a semi- 
 fluid viscous substance as sticky as birdlime. But it is not until 
 the fourth year of its growth that the plant yields these berries, 
 
718 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 and it is in the fifth or sixth year that it is worih while to take 
 it for their sake. 
 
 So much for the hard, dull prose of its biography, which may 
 be gleaned from any encyclopaedia. But were this prose all that 
 could be said of the mistletoe there would be small reason for its 
 popularity. It is because that prose is intertwined with poetry 
 and mystery, it is because the mistletoe has become the centre 
 of more than one cycle of legendary and traditional lore, it is 
 because it was connected with the heathen Saturnalia and was 
 adopted into the Christian festivities which transformed the 
 soulless license of the past into the pretty and harmless indeco- 
 rum of the present, — it is for all these reasons that the very word 
 mistletoe greets the fancy pleasantly and appeals to the latent 
 superstition and mysticism of even the best-balanced minds. 
 
 In Scandinavian mythology the mistletoe figures as the ma- 
 terial of the arrow with which Balder, the sun-god, was slain. 
 And this is the story. When Balder was born, his mother, 
 Frigga, invoked all the elements, all animals and all plants, and 
 obtained an oath from all that they would do Balder no hurt. 
 One plant only she forgot, on account of its insignificance, — the 
 parasitic mistletoe. When Balder grew up and took his part 
 among the combats of the gods, all weapons glanced harmlessly 
 away from him and all the powers of nature proved innocuous. 
 But Loki, his enemy, determined to learn the secret of his invul- 
 nerability. Dressing himself up as an old woman, he wheedled 
 the secret out of Frigga, including the fact that mistletoe had 
 been overlooked. Then Loki made an arrow of mistletoe wood. 
 Entering the assembly of the gods, he said to the blind Hoder, 
 " Why do you not contend with the arrows of Balder?" " I am 
 blind and have no arms," returned Hoder. Then Loki presented 
 him with the arrow and said, " Balder is before thee." Hoder 
 shot, and Balder fell dead. 
 
 Among the ancient Druids the mistletoe was the object of 
 special veneration, but only when it grew upon an oak. Pliny, 
 who is our earliest authority on Druidism, furnishes an explana- 
 tion, — viz., that, as oaks were their sacred trees, whatever was 
 found growing upon one they regarded as sent from heaven, 
 and as a mark that that tree was set apart for special venera- 
 tion. Hence, he says, they called the parasite omnia sdnitatem 
 ("all-heal"), and looked upon it as a cure for sterility and an 
 antidote for poisons. 
 
 Alas for the rarity of Christian charity among historians and 
 archaeologists ! It is hinted that even in Druidic times the para- 
 site rarely if ever grew on oaks, but that the wily priests would 
 furtively transplant their mystic shrub from apple-trees, where 
 it was sure to grow, to oaks, where otherwise it would be un- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 719 
 
 likely to be found. It is known that the apple-tree was held by 
 the Druids to be the next sacred tree to the oak, and that apple 
 orchards were shrewdly planted by them in the vicinity of their 
 oak groves. At the present moment it is estimated that in all 
 England there are not half a dozen oak-trees on which the para- 
 site is growing. That in the elder days mistletoe oaks were 
 even rarer seems to be proved by an ancient manuscript in the 
 British Museum, from which the following paragraph is /quoted: 
 " Heare my Lord Frescheville did live [in Derbyshire], and heare 
 grows the famous misseltoe tree, the only oake in England that 
 bears misseltoe." 
 
 At the time of the winter solstice, which was almost univer- 
 sally looked upon in Europe as a festival period, the Druids 
 gathered the mistletoe with great ceremony. Five days after 
 the new moon a grand procession was formed. First came the 
 bards, then a herald, who bore the cutting implement usually de- 
 scribed as a golden scythe, though sometimes as a reaping-hook 
 of the same metal, or even a golden knile-blade or hatchet at- 
 tached to a shaft. The priests came next, with the Prince of the 
 Druids in their wake. All were clad in white. Then followed 
 the people, male and female. 
 
 When the oak was reached on which the mistletoe grew, two 
 white bulls were bound to the tree, and the prince, taking the 
 knife from the herald, climbed up the tree and cut the mistletoe, 
 which was caught in a white mantle held by the inferior priests. 
 The bulls, and sometimes even human victims, were then sacri- 
 ficed. The mistletoe thus gathered was divided into nmall por- 
 tions and distributed on the first day of the new year to the 
 people, amid cries of " The mistletoe for the new year !" 
 
 In their turn the people hung up the sprays over the entrances 
 to their houses, as a propitiation and an offer of shelter to the 
 sylvan deities during the season of frost and cold. These vari- 
 ous rites and ceremonies were kept up throughout the Eoman 
 dominion in Britain, and down even to the Anglo-Saxon period. 
 They were also celebrated among the Druids in Northern and 
 Western France. 
 
 Bellini in his opera of " Norma" refused to take this historical 
 account of the Druidic ceremony, and substituted an invention 
 of his own, which has gained a certain tolerated acceptance in 
 literature and art. Norma is a Druidic prophetess. At the head 
 of two other Druidesses and of a company of children, all clad 
 in white, she marches into the sacred groves. A gong is at- 
 tached to an old, fine fellow of an oak, which might lead the un- 
 initiated to suppose that the Druids were up to the manufacture 
 of bell-metal. Norma, stretching forth her white left arm, 
 strikes three strokes, and the other Druids, men and women, 
 
720 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 come filing in. Then Norma, having two baskets and a reaping- 
 hook brought to her by two of the damsels of the temple, pro- 
 ceeds to cut the sacred mistletoe, which, with the hook, she 
 deposits in the basket still held by the damsels, who then retire. 
 
 But let us pass to modern times. Mistletoe was abandoned in 
 the Christmas decking of churches, together with kissing at the 
 services, because both were found to set the young ladies and 
 gentlemen a-reading the marriage service. Holly and unkissed 
 kisses were substituted, to indicate to them the dark monotony 
 of matrimony and the numerous thorns with which it abounded. 
 But, though banished from the churches, mistletoe and the kiss- 
 ing under it flourished apace in the servants' halls at the Christ- 
 mas period. " In the kitchen," says Brand, " it was hung up in 
 great state, and whatever female chanced to stand under it, the 
 young man present either had a right, or claimed one, of saluting 
 her and of plucking off a berry at each kiss." Nares makes it 
 ominous for the maid not so saluted, inasmuch as this indicated 
 that she would not be married that year. 
 
 The mistletoe did not long remain exclusively in the kitchen. 
 It speedily invaded the parlor and the drawing-room, without, 
 however, reducing the quantity of kissing in the lower regions. 
 
 Kissing under the mistletoe, as already indicated, is undoubt- 
 edly an innocent survival from the Saturnalia of the ancients, 
 when riot and license ran loose. 
 
 In England all classes and ages deliver themselves up will- 
 ing victims to long-established custom. In many old-fashioned 
 houses the elderly gentleman, with long waistcoat and frilled 
 and rufiied shirt, advances to the object of his immediate devo- 
 tion and makes a low bow. The elderly lady rises and achieves 
 a stately courtesy. Then the pair walk hand in hand to beneath 
 the mistletoe, and the old gentleman delicately touches with his not 
 yet withered lips the cheeks of the elderly lady. Then there is 
 another bow and courtesy, and a third, when the gentleman 
 conducts the lady to her seat. How different all this from the 
 joyous freedom of the younger people ! What romping, what 
 slight, pretty screaming, what tittering, what make-believe run- 
 ning away, and what bold standing under the mistletoe! The 
 small fry of short frocked misses and jacketed masters are never 
 tired of kissing one another, while another class of determined 
 osculators are the rather scrimp and running-to-seed young 
 ladies of thirty-five, who are getting desperate, and the jolly, 
 bald-headed bachelors, who kiss every girl that comes in their 
 way. 
 
 French society manners have never approved of kissing games, 
 hence the mistletoe has never in France enjoyed any special sig- 
 nificance. As a Christmas decoration the holly, the pine branch, 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 721 
 
 the ivy, the laurel, and other evergreens, with the flower called 
 rose de Noel, are found more suitable for artistic arrangement. 
 Yet it is a noteworthy fact that the larger part of the mistletoe 
 sold in England at Christmas comes from the apple orchards of 
 Normandy. 
 
 In America a species of mistletoe called the phoradendron 
 grows all along the temperate belt from New Jersey to California. 
 It differs in many points from the foreign variety. The true 
 mistletoe is frequently imported at Christmas-time, but the holly 
 is the favorite evergreen for decoration, and often carries with 
 it the osculatory privileges accorded in England to the mistletoe 
 alone. 
 
 Mohammed, Moolid or Birthday of. The Prophet's birth- 
 day is one of the greatest festivals of the Moslem world, and is 
 celebrated with dances of dervishes, performances of the Ais- 
 saoui (q. v.\ music, illuminations, the roasting of sheep and bul- 
 locks, and general rejoicing. The most famous function of the 
 day is that known as the Doseh, or Trampling, which occurs in 
 the Esbekiyeh Gardens in Cairo. Thousands gather to see this 
 performance. About ten a.m. the two or three hundred dervishes 
 who are to submit to the Doseh make their appearance. Two by 
 two in a long file, the near hands of each pair clasped together, 
 and the ofP hands resting on the shoulders of the men in front, 
 down they come rushing through a narrow lane made for them 
 through the heaving and struggling multitude. As they come 
 they sway from side to side with a uniform automatic movement, 
 gasping out, " Allah !" They are all pale and bathed with sw^at, 
 drunk with fanaticism, possibly with something else. Arriving 
 at the open space in the avenue where the Doseh is to take place, 
 they all stop, fall flat upon their faces, and arrange themselves 
 side by side to form a living pavement, a sort of corduroy road 
 of men. 
 
 Busy officials running to and fro fit all the human logs together 
 neatly, by adjusting here an arm and there a leg. The logs, 
 however, are not bound to lie quite still, but, on the contrary, 
 they are expected to keep up, and do keep up, a convulsive 
 twitching motion through their bodies, while at the same time 
 these miserable men are all at work rubbing their noses violently 
 in the dust from side to side, and grunting out the name of Cod 
 in swinish accents. Some believing bystanders are infected with 
 the fierce plague of fanaticism, and go down among the grovel- 
 lers. There is a murmur, a shout, and a dead silence, while the 
 crowd sways eagerly forward. A stout man, on a powerful 
 horse, surrounded by about a dozen attendants, moves at a quick 
 walking pace over the prostrate bodies. Each dervish receives 
 
 46 
 
722 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 the horse's tread over his loins ; some throw up their heads and 
 feet when the weight falls, writhing like worms. The sheik 
 rides on and away. The friends of the dervishes run forward to 
 pick them up, and whisper in their ears, " Wahed," which 
 means, "Declare the Unity of Grod." Some can only gi*oan, some 
 are in a swoon, some respond to the appeal with foaming or with 
 bleeding lips. A few have evidently passed through fanaticism 
 into fits. 
 
 Each dervish is entitled to two horse-hairs from the sheik's 
 horse, one from the fore-leg and one from the hind-leg. Those 
 who are injured during the Doseh are thought saintly accord- 
 ing to the extent of the damage received. The others — there 
 is a superstitious belief that no one is permanently maimed- — 
 are scarcely congratulated ; the seal of the Prophet is not on 
 them ; they may return to the world and the flesh. 
 
 Monday, St., or Cobblers' Monday. It is humorously as- 
 serted in the folk-lore of both England and continental Europe 
 that cobblers and shoemakers, not satisfied with their annual 
 
 St. Monday. 
 (From a French lithograph of the eighteenth century.) 
 
 outing on St. Crispin's Day, require a weekly holiday every 
 Monday. Hence the personification of St. Monday, or Saint- 
 Lundi. The further explanation is offered in Belgium that the 
 shoemakers do not know exactly on what day St. Crispin's fes- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 723 
 
 tival rightly falls, save that it should be on a Monday; they 
 therefore celebrate every Monday, so as to be sure of not letting 
 the day slip by unhonored. Popular imagination has even gone 
 so far as to produce a St. Monday in caricature. He is repre- 
 sented as a shoemaker surrounded by people of various trades 
 and squatting on a barrel ; his slippers are torn and tattered, his 
 sleeves are rolled up to the elbows, and in his right and left 
 hands respectively he holds a pitcher and a glass of wine. In 
 one of these caricatures, published at Epinal in 1835, the follow- 
 ing verses are put in his mouth : 
 
 Vous qui commencez la semaine 
 
 Au troisieme jour seulement, 
 
 De Pompe a Mort, dit Long-Haleine, 
 
 Gai savetier, buveur ardent, 
 
 Et de plus votre president, 
 
 Ecoutez tous un avis sage 
 
 Que ma prudence va dieter : 
 
 Abandonnez votre menage 
 
 Et venez tous rire et chanter. 
 
 (" You who begin the week 
 Only with the third day, 
 From Pomp-in-Death, called Long-Breath, 
 A gay cobbler, an ardent drinker. 
 And, above all, your president, 
 Listen to this wise advice 
 Which my prudence dictates to you : 
 Quit your households 
 And come all to laugh and sing.") 
 
 A folk-song which is current with variations in both France 
 and Belgium pictures the shoemaker's life as one continual round 
 of pleasure : 
 
 Les cordonniers sont pires que des eveques. 
 
 Tous les lundis ils en font une fete. 
 Tirez fort, piquez fin ! 
 Coucher tard et lever matin. 
 
 Et le mardi ils vont boire la chopinette, 
 
 Le mercredi ils ont mal a la tete, 
 
 Et le jeudi ils vont voir leurs fiUettes. 
 
 Le vendredi ils commencent la semaine, 
 
 Et le samedi les bottes ne sont pas faites. 
 
 Le dimanche ils vont trouver leur maitre. 
 
 Leur faut I'argent, les bottes ne sont pas faites. 
 " Tu n'en auras pas, si les bottes ne sont faites." 
 " Si je n'en ai pas je veux changer de maitre." 
 
 (" Shoemakers are worse than bishops. 
 Every Monday they make a holiday. 
 Pull hard"! Prick lightly ! 
 Late to bed and early to rise. 
 
724 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 On Tuesday they drink, 
 
 On Wednesday they have a headache, 
 
 On Thursday they go to see their girls. 
 
 On Friday they begin the week. 
 
 And on Saturday the shoes are not made. 
 
 On Sunday they seek their masters. 
 
 They want money, the shoes are not made. 
 
 ' You shall have none, if the shoes are not made.' 
 ' If I don't get any, I will change my master.' ") 
 
 In Spain the same idea is put more tersely : 
 
 Lunes y Martes de chispa ; 
 Miercoles la estan durmiendo ; 
 Jueves y Viernes mala gana ; 
 y el Sabado entra el estruendo. 
 
 (" Monday and Tuesday days of wine ; 
 Wednesday they spend in sleep ; 
 Thursday and Friday they are sick, 
 On Saturday the noise recommences.") 
 
 Month's Mind. An ancient solemn commemorative service 
 in the Catholic Church held one month after the death of the 
 person for the benefit of whose soul it was celebrated. His (or 
 her) name was wont to be written on a tablet and kept on the 
 altar, and was read out at the proper point in the mass. This 
 was called " mynding" the dead. The ceremony might be repeated 
 each month for a year, in which case it was called "a year's 
 mind." The phrase is still retained in Lancashire, England, an 
 exceptionally Catholic county, but elsewhere the " Mind Days" 
 are called " Anniversary Days." In what esteem this " month's 
 mind" was formerly held is shown by the elaborate directions 
 for the conduct of it found in the wills of sundry persons of con- 
 sequence. Thus, Thomas Windsor, Esq. (1479), wills that at his 
 "Moneth's Minde" "there be a hundred children within the age 
 of sixteen years, to say for my soul." Also, " that against my 
 month's mind candles be burned before the rood in the parish 
 church ; also, that my executors provide twenty priests to sing 
 Placebo, Dirige, etc." Fabyan (born 1450), one of the historians 
 of early Britain, also gives instructions in his will for his " Month's 
 Mind." " I will that myne executrice doo cause to be carried 
 from London xii newe torches to burne in the tymes of the said 
 burying and monethes minde. Also, I will that breade, ale and 
 chese for all comers to the parish church be ordered as shall be 
 thought needful against a monethes mind.'' " In Ireland," we are 
 told by an authority, " after the death of great personages they 
 count four weeks ; and four weeks from that day all priests and 
 friarSj and all the gentry far and near, are invited to a great 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 725 
 
 feast, usually termed the month's mind. The preparations for 
 this feast are masses said in all parts of the house at once for 
 the soul of the departed. If the room be large, there are three 
 or four priests celebrating together in the several corners of the 
 room. The masses done, they proceed to their feasting, but 
 after all the others each priest and friar is discharged with 
 his largess." 
 
 Montyon Prize of Virtue. This is the most popular and 
 famous of four foundations of ten thousand francs each estab- 
 lished in their present form by the will of the French philanthro- 
 pist Jean-Baptiste Antoine Auget, Baron of Montyon (1733- 
 1820). In his own lifetime so far back as 1780 he had established 
 similar prizes, but they had been interrupted by the Eevolution. 
 By the terms of the will the respective sums were to be put out 
 at interest, the yearly incomes being given as prizes in the fol- 
 lowing fashion : 
 
 1. For an improvement decreasing the sanitary risks of any 
 mechanical employment. 
 
 2. For the discovery or invention of any medical or surgical 
 improvement. 
 
 3. For an act of virtue performed by a French citizen. 
 
 4. For the most moral and useful book written by a French 
 citizen. 
 
 The first two prizes are in the keeping of the Academy of 
 Sciences, the latter in that of the French Academy. The third, 
 as already stated, has become the most popular, so that by suc- 
 cessive endowments the one original prize of virtue has been 
 increased to ninety-eight. 
 
 Fortunately, the academic discourse which accompanies their 
 bestowal remains limited to the half-hour prescribed by M. de 
 Montyon. He also wished that the virtuous actions rewarded 
 should have endured for a period of at least two years. But 
 with the present affluence of demands it is oftener a devotedness 
 of twenty or forty years that is singled out for recompense. As 
 M. Ludovic Halevy, the oratpr of 1894, took pains to declare 
 pleasantly, " The Academy rewards only virtues that are chronic, 
 inveterate, incurable, and even hereditary." 
 
 All the departments and even the colonies of France have the 
 right to present candidates, the memorials in each case being of 
 necessity signed by persona of weight in the place, who are re- 
 sponsible for the truth of the statements made. The cases are 
 required to be presented with the most minute detail, and no 
 effort is spared to prevent deception. They are then examined 
 by a committee of the Academy, and proportionate sums are 
 awarded. 
 
726 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 AmoDg the prizes bestowed in the pre-Eevolutionary days were 
 some for courage in helping the shipwrecked at the risk of life, tor 
 the fidelity of servants who had taken on themselves the support 
 of their masters when these had fallen into poverty, for certain 
 children who had honored themselves by their filial " sensibility." 
 It was the age of Eousseau's sentimentalism. This had its con- 
 sequence and commentary in the unique and most enthusiastic 
 demonstration made in 1790 over a woman of Paris, a seller of 
 silks and cloths, who received the Montyon prize of virtue of 
 that year for '' having broken the fetters of a prisoner of the 
 Bastille." 
 
 Here are examples of the class of heroes who in recent years 
 have carried off the highest of the Montyon prizes, twenty-five 
 hundred francs. They are taken from contemporary reports. 
 
 1. The cure of the little village of Loigny. '' This good priest, 
 then thirty-six years old, on the night of the 2d of December, 
 1870, saved from massacre in the bloody battle between French 
 and Prussians over five hundred of the wounded of both sides, 
 whom he dragged with his own hands from the confusion of the 
 snow-covered field of combat to the shelter of his house and 
 church. After a day and night spent in hard labor in the midst 
 of the fight, he lay down to rest on a bundle of straw in the 
 cellar, — the only place he had left for himself. After the war 
 he took up again his ordinary life of obscure ministrations. 
 Thanks to Mme. MacMahon and M. Jules Simon, who was then 
 minister of the interior, all the dead of the plain of Loigny 
 were intrusted to his care. With unwearied efforts he has col- 
 lected two hundred and forty thousand francs, which he has 
 used in building a mortuary chapel where twelve hundred of 
 the fallen soldiers are buried. The twenty-five hundred francs 
 of the Montyon prize are all that is needed to pay off the last 
 
 2. Pierre Crouzillat, captain of the life-boat at Sables-d'Olonne. 
 " He has saved from wreck upward of forty barks, schooners, 
 and fishing-boats, the crews of merchant-vessels, English, Ger- 
 man, and Norwegian, having borne their testimony, time after 
 time, to his daring courage and extraordinary devotion. Thirty- 
 two years ago he rescued two persons from the midst of a burn- 
 ing house at Brest. Since then he has saved eighteen others 
 from drowning, not only imperilling his own life, — that is taken 
 for granted, — -but venturing into circumstances of such extreme 
 danger that even those who knew best his strength and wonder- 
 ful powers of endurance gave him up for lost. His own belief 
 is that a special providence protects those who risk their lives 
 for the sake of others, and certainly thus far events have justified 
 his theory. Ingratitude he never has met with, or want of ap- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 727 
 
 preciation on the part of his superiors. He has received diplomas, 
 medals, even the decoration of the Legion of Honor. But the 
 Montyon prize holds a position in popular favor above and be- 
 yond all others, and Pierre Crouzillat is this year made happy 
 by receiving its highest medal." 
 
 3. The Abbe Brassier, of Saint Georges de Eaimtembault. 
 " Another in the long list of French cures who have given them- 
 selves up to the task of reclaiming outcast children. But before 
 undertaking this special work he had already shown himself 
 possessed of the most noble qualities. When the war of 1870 
 broke out, he left Montfort, where he was vicaire (or assistant 
 priest), and as volunteer chaplain accompanied the troops of his 
 department. Opportunities were not wanting for the display 
 of courage and self-sacrifice, and on more than one desperate 
 occasion his conduct so aroused the enthusiasm of the battalion 
 that, at the request of the officers, the cross of the Legion of 
 Honor was bestowed upon him. At the close of the war he was 
 sent to his present parish, St. G-eorges, where he has gathered 
 around him, one after another, fifteen vagrant and orphan boys, 
 not only providing them with food and shelter, but having them 
 taught honest and useful trades. Not content with this one 
 orphanage, he has lately opened another for girls. Sixty children 
 constitute his present adopted family, — sixty hungry, growing 
 boys and girls ! It is a difficult matter for a poor cure to pro- 
 vide even daily bread for so many ; but his faith is strong, he 
 loves his work and his children, and believes that God will never 
 forsake those who care for the orphan. The twenty-five hundred 
 francs of the Montyon prize will lighten, for a time at least, his 
 heavy burden of anxiety." 
 
 Mop, Runaway Mop. The word mop, or mapp, is an abbre- 
 viation of the Latin mappa, applied to some of the old Eoman 
 games from the fact that a sort of napkin so named was called 
 into frequent use. It survives in England only in the term a 
 " runaway mop," a second or subsidiary fair or hiring. " Occa- 
 sionally such a fair is held shortly after the first, and this is 
 termed a runaway mop from its having run away from its 
 usual course and collected the runaways from the regular mops. 
 Although these mops and statutes have in some places dwindled 
 to a shadow of what they were, yet in many parts they still 
 flourish, like weeds of evil growth, despite the efforts made by 
 the clergy and laity in the establishment of servants' registra- 
 tion offices. The Yorkshire Martinmas Statutes, this last No- 
 vember, were as largely attended as usual, and marked by the 
 same riotous drunkenness and profligacy. Of course the secret 
 of the popularity of such evils is to be found in their affording 
 
728 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 to the agricultural laborers and their friends that revelry and 
 merrymaking from which their lack of holidays deprives them. 
 If their rational amusements were extended, they would not 
 find so much pleasure in noxious excitement." (Once a Week, 
 January 15, 1870.) 
 
 Moving- Day. This name was formerly given in New York 
 and Boston to May-Day because the great majority of leases 
 made of flats in these cities dated from May 1 to May 1. At 
 present, however, the yearly lease is becoming less common, and 
 the moving anniversary has consequently lost its universality. 
 Something of the dolors that have passed away with the occa- 
 sion may be gathered from Mr. George W. Curtis's wail made in 
 Harper's Magazine in 1855 : 
 
 " May-Day is a serious matter. If ' Pa' doesn't own his house, 
 woe to him. It is as if the world were ending. It is a mael- 
 strom of furniture, and distracted people carrying mirrors and 
 fragile articles. It is the grand unveiling of a thousand house- 
 hold economies. You see the state of your neighbor's pots and 
 pans. You detect his broken pitchers and patched tureens. All 
 the domestic subterfuges come to light, and are publicly carried 
 by the window. It may rain, or blow, or snow, or freeze — but 
 the work goes on. It is the Exodus of Gotham. Unhappy 
 ones, who pay rent, and who will not rise into ruinous rates, you 
 must trudge. Behold the charette at the door. Bundle ! bundle ! 
 And away go the unhappy, tumbling over those who go out as 
 they come in, and, O Cloacina ! they sit down in the dirt of 
 Mrs. Margery Daw's household, which custom does not require 
 that housekeeper to remove. 
 
 " There is no day more dreary and disgusting than Moving- 
 Day. And why there should be this insane conspiracy of every 
 man against his neighbor's convenience, why every lease should 
 begin and expire upon the same day, does not appear. It might 
 be more pleasantly arranged, more wisely, and more profitably. 
 But, we repeat, great is the force of bad habit. And great is 
 the misery of moving our households, as we do everything else, 
 in the most awkward, shiftless, and expensive manner. But 
 there is one thing that an American will not do ; and that is — 
 learn. He will bungle his way out, if he can. If not, he will 
 be apt to call his way the best. The Italians, when they wish 
 to saw wood, rub the log against the saw. But it is not the 
 best way." 
 
 In Paris April 15 is the terme. Those who wish to continue 
 on in their apartments, and are able to pay the rent, remain. 
 Those who do not, move. Hence it is the moving-day. In Scot- 
 land the " Flitting-Day" (q. v.) is on May 22. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 729 
 
 Mummers. (Dan. mumme^ Dutch, momme, " a mask.") Par- 
 ties of masqueraders who disguised themselves in masks after 
 the manner of the ancient Eomans in the Saturnalia. Christmas 
 was the grand scene of mumming, and some mummers were 
 disguised like bears, others like unicorns, bringing presents. 
 Those who could not procure masks rubbed their faces with 
 soot, or painted them. In the Christmas mummeries the chief 
 aim was to surprise by the oddity of the masks and the sin- 
 gularity and splendor of the dresses. Everything was out of 
 nature and propriety. They were often attended with an exhi- 
 bition of gorgeous machinery. Besides the set and formal mum- 
 mings, the members, guests, and servants of a household would 
 put on masks, and, thus disguised, practise rude jests on one 
 another. So many evils grew out of the habit of general mas- 
 querade at the holiday season, and so many murders and robberies 
 were committed in London and other large cities by disguised 
 ruffians, that Henry YIII. issued a proclamation declaring the 
 wearing of a mask a misdemeanor ; but it does not appear that 
 hilarity of this kind was in any degree repressed by the royal 
 edict. The mummers had their songs, one of the best known 
 being a madrigal to the words 
 
 To shorten winter's sadness 
 See where the folks with gladness 
 Disguised all are coming 
 Eight wantonly a-mumming. 
 
 In Scotland the mummers are called guisards. The evenings 
 on which these personages are understood to be privileged to 
 appear are those of Christmas, Hogmanay, New Year's Day, 
 and Handsel Monday. Dressed up in quaint and fantastic attire, 
 they sing a selection of songs which have been practised by them 
 some weeks before. Some of their doings are of a theatrical 
 character. There is one rude and grotesque drama (called " Ga- 
 latian") which they are accustomed to perform on each of the 
 four above-mentioned nights, and which in various fragments or 
 versions exists in every part of Lowland Scotland. The per- 
 formers, who are never less than three, but sometimes as many 
 as six, having dressed themselves, proceed in a band from house to 
 house, generally contenting themselves with the kitchen for an 
 arena, whither, in mansions presided over by the spirit of good 
 humor, the whole family will resort to witness the scene of mirth. 
 (See Chambers's " Popular Ehymes," p. 170.) 
 
 Even now, in the country districts of Wales, mumming is far 
 from uncommon. A party of singers will procure a horse-skull, 
 place it on a pole as a sort of standard, disguise themselves in 
 masks, and, thus rigged out, visit the houses of the gentry and 
 
730 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 sing before the closed door. The gentleman thus honored has 
 usually taken care to provide a Welsh singer, who. within the 
 house, responds in verses supposed to be extemporaneous to the 
 singers outside, and the contest goes on until the singer inside 
 is unable to continue the versification further, or judiciously 
 acknowledges himself vanquished, when the doors are thrown 
 open, and all enter and are properly entertained. It is said by 
 those conversant with the language and customs of this re- 
 markable people that the rejoinders of these peasant poets often 
 show great brilliancy of wit and wonderful power of versifica- 
 tion. 
 
 N. 
 
 Nativity, Church of the. A church in Bethlehem in Judea, 
 built, according to ancient tradition, on the precise spot where 
 the stable stood in which Christ was born. The spot was de- 
 termined by St. Helena (q. v.) in her pilgrimage to the Holy 
 Land. The original church was built by Constantine in the 
 year 330. The stable itself is a cave beneath the church. It 
 does no violence to our knowledge of the times to believe that 
 a cave may have been used for stabling purposes. Part of the 
 masonry of Constantine's church is still extant, but most of the 
 older work dates from the time of Justinian, about 550. Addi- 
 tions and alterations have been made from time to time since 
 then until the church as it stands is practically a mediaeval 
 structure. In 1482, for example. King Edward TV. of England 
 contributed the lead to make a new roof. The lead roof lasted 
 for two centuries, and then was melted down by the Moham- 
 medans to make bullets. However, another roof was soon pro- 
 vided. 
 
 In any case the church is a venerable building, and has wit- 
 nessed some stirring scenes. In it Baldwin the Crusader w^as 
 crowned King of Jerusalem. 
 
 The grotto of the Nativity is reached by a flight of steps from 
 the chancel. Originally it was simply a natural cave in the 
 limestone rock. Now^ little of the native rock is seen. Marble 
 slabs cover the floor and line the walls. The ceiling, which is 
 about ten feet high, is resplendent with thirty-two brass lamps. 
 Their light enables us to examine the many pictures, portraying 
 scenes in the life of Jesus, which the devotion of Christians has 
 hung about the walls ; but these pictures are generally very poor 
 as specimens of art. At the east end of the cave there is a 
 small recess in the rock, before which hang fifteen lamps. In 
 the floor of this recess a bright silver star is inlaid ; it is nearly 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 731 
 
 all worn away by the constant kissing it receives. Around the 
 star is an inscription in Latin, which tells us that " Here, of the 
 Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ was born." 
 
 Turning just a little to the right from this Place of the Star, 
 and descending a few steps, we are in a small chamber called the 
 Grotto of the Manger. A brilliant silver star marks the spot 
 where Christ is said to have been born. On a neighboring altar 
 the Wise Men are said to have presented their gifts. The spot 
 where the manger stood is also marked by a marble monument. 
 But the original manger is said to have been transported to 
 Rome. (See Presepio.) 
 
 The church of the Nativity draws numerous pilgrimages at 
 the Christmas season. Catholics, Greeks, and Armenians all wor- 
 ship here, under the supervision of the Turkish guardians. 
 Luckily, the Greeks and the Armenians, following the Old 
 Style, have a different date for Christmas from the Catholics. 
 On Christmas Eve (New Style) the Christians in Jerusalem 
 gather together and flock out of the city with their faces set for 
 Bethlehem, five miles away. As they reach the end of their 
 march the people of Bethlehem will come out to meet them, and 
 then, preceded by gayly attired wand-bearing heralds, and fol- 
 lowed by an immense throng of men, women, and children, they 
 march towards the church of the Nativity. 
 
 There midnight mass will be celebrated, while armed Turkish 
 soldiers in full uniform of red fezzes, blue jackets, and baggy 
 trousers stand on guard beside the altar. 
 
 With this visit and mass in the grotto the Christmas Eve cere- 
 monies end. On Christmas Day the regular Roman Catholic 
 service is held in the same church, and the remainder of the day 
 is spent in merrymaking. 
 
 The Turkish soldiers who guard the holy relics during the 
 ceremonies are not mere figure-heads. That the members of 
 the various Christian sects in the East are not over-friendly to 
 each other is well known, and the soldiers are considered abso- 
 lutely essential to guard against an outbreak of fanaticism. 
 
 The trouble lies in the fact that each sect claims possession 
 of the holy places, and naturaily regards any other sect which 
 worships in them as an interloper. Thanks, however, to the 
 vigilance of the soldiers and the other authorities, no serious 
 outbreaks have ever arisen at this season, and as the years 
 pass there are many indications that an amicable understanding 
 will be finally arrived at. 
 
 Nativity of the Blessed Virgin. A feast kept by both 
 the Greeks and the Latins on September 8. It is also one of the 
 black-letter days of the Anglican calendar. The exact date of 
 
732 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 its institution cannot be fixed, but it was known in the ninth 
 century, and it had come into general use by the twelfth. It is 
 the least important of all the feasts in honor of Mary, partly be- 
 cause birthdays are not as a rule held to be as sacred as death- 
 days, and partly because, as the Church acknowledges, there is 
 really nothing authentic preserved as to either the date or the 
 place of her birth. That she was the child of St. Anne and St. 
 Joachim is, however, generally agreed. (See Anne, St.) 
 
 New Year's Day. (Fr. Le Jour de VAn, or Ze Jour 
 d'Etrennes ; It. Capo d' Anno ; Ger. Neujahr.') In all Christian 
 countries this is now nominally celebrated on the 1st of January. 
 But the 1st of January in the Gregorian calendar (see Calendar) 
 occurs twelve days earlier than in the Julian : hence Eussia and 
 Greece, which still retain the latter, celebrate January 1 on our 
 January 13. Even this comparative uniformity among civilized 
 nations was not attained at a bound. 
 
 The ancient Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Persians began their 
 year at the autumnal equinox, September 22, and the Greeks of 
 the time of Solon at the winter solstice, December 21. But in 
 the time of Pericles, in B.C. 432, the Greeks changed the date to 
 the summer solstice, June 21. 
 
 The Eomans reckoned the beginning of the year from the 
 winter solstice until Julius Caesar in his reform of the calendar 
 changed it to the Ist of January. The Jews began and still 
 begin their civil year with the 1st of the month Tisri, which 
 roughly corresponds to our September. But in their ecclesiastical 
 reckoning the year dates from the vernal equinox, March 22. 
 As this is astronomically the beginning of spring, the date is a 
 logical one, and that or the 25th of March (twenty-five being a 
 more fully rounded number) was accepted generally by Christian 
 nations in mediaeval times. 
 
 In England, December 25 was New Year's Day until the time 
 of William the Conqueror. His coronation happened to occur 
 on January 1. Hence the year was ordered to commence on 
 that day. But the English gradually fell into unison with the 
 rest of Christendom and began the year with the 25th of March. 
 The Gregorian calendar in 1582 restored January 1 as the gate- 
 way of the year. Catholic countries adopted the change imme- 
 diately. Protestant countries were recalcitrant. It was not 
 until 1752 that England acquiesced. 
 
 Among the Eomans, after the reformation of the calendar, the 
 first day of January, as well as the entire month, was dedicated 
 to the eponymic god Janus. He was represented with two faces, 
 one looking forward, the other backward, to indicate that he 
 stood between the old and the new year, with a regard to both. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 733 
 
 Throughout January the Eomans offered sacrifices to Janus 
 upon twelve altars, and on the first day of that month they were 
 careful so to regulate their conduct that their every word and 
 act should be a happy augury for all the ensuing days of the year. 
 
 Ovid and other Latin writers of the Empire allude to the 
 suspension of all litigation and strife, the reconciliation of dif- 
 ferences between friends, the smoking altars and the white-robed 
 processions to the Capitol, upon the first day of Janus, or New 
 Year's Day as we now call it. Thej^ also tell of the exchanging 
 of visits, the giving and receiving of presents, or strence, the 
 masquerading and the feasting, with which in their time the day 
 was celebrated throughout the Eoman Empire. 
 
 The strence were not only exchanged between relatives and 
 friends, but were exacted by the Emperors from their subjects. 
 Eventually they became so onerous a burden to the people that 
 Claudius limited their cost by a decree. 
 
 It was on account of the orgies which accompanied the re- 
 currence of the winter solstice not only among the Eomans 
 but among the Teutonic races that the early Christians looked 
 with scant favor upon the whole season. By the fifth century, 
 however, the 25th of December had become a fixed festival 
 commemorative of our Lord's Nativity, whereupon the 1st of 
 January assumed a speciallj' sacred character as the octave of 
 Christmas Day and the anniversary of Christ's circumcision. 
 As such it still holds a place in the calendars of the various 
 branches of the Eastern and Western Churches, but only as a 
 feast of subordinate importance. 
 
 The first mention of the feast in Christian literature occurs in 
 Canon 17 of a Council which met at Tours in 567. " In order," 
 so the canon runs, " to tread under foot the customs of the 
 heathen, our fathers ordained that private litanies should be 
 held at the beginning of January, psalms sung in the churches, 
 and, at the eighth hour on the first of the month, the Mass of the 
 Circumcision, pleasing to God." From this canon it appears that 
 the feast was already an established one. Other authorities 
 show that it was originally kept as a fast, evidently as a pro- 
 test against the immoral excesses of the heathen. 
 
 The custom of exchanging presents on New Year's, though in 
 Anglo-Saxon countries it has been largely superseded by the 
 giving of Christmas-gifts, is still retained in France and the 
 Latin countries. It is one of the oldest and was one of the most 
 universal observances of the season. 
 
 The Persians celebrated the beginning of the year by ex- 
 changing presents of eggs. The ancient Druids distributed, as 
 New Year's gifts, among the early Britons, branches of the sacred 
 mistletoe cut with peculiarly solemn ceremonies on the previous 
 
734 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 night from the oak-tree in a forest dedicated to the gods. (See 
 Mistletoe.) Among the Saxons of the Northern nations the 
 new year was ushered in by friendly gifts. 
 
 According to Matthew Paris, Henry III. followed the imperial 
 Eoman precedent of extorting New Year's gifts from his sub- 
 jects. The fashion, once set, continued until the reign of Charles 
 I. By the time of Henry YII. the reception of the New Year's 
 gifts presented by the king and queen to each other and by their 
 household and courtiers to the royal pair had become reduced to 
 a solemn formula. 
 
 Agnes Strickland, in her " Lives of the Queens of England" 
 (1864, vol. ii. p. 83), quotes the following extract from a manu- 
 script of Henry YII.'s Norroy herald, in possession of Peter Le 
 Neve, Esq. : " On the day of the New Year, when the king came 
 to his foot-sheet, his usher of his chamber-door said to him, ' Sire, 
 here is a New Year's gift coming from the queen ;' then the king 
 replied, 'Let it come in.' Then the king's usher let the queen's 
 messenger come within the yate'' (meaning the gate of the railing 
 which surrounded the royal bed, instances of which are familiar 
 to the public in the state bedrooms at Hampton Court to this 
 day, and it is probable that the scene was very similar), " Henry 
 YII. sitting at the foot of the bed in his dressing-gown, the 
 officers of his bed-chamber having turned the top sheet smoothly 
 down to the foot of the bed when the royal personage rose. Tiie 
 queen, in like manner, sat at her foot-sheet, and received the 
 king's New Year's gift within the gate of her bed-railing. When 
 this formal exchange of presents had taken place between the 
 king and his consort, they received, seated in the same manner, 
 the New Year's gifts of their nobles. -And,' adds tlie herald, 
 assuming the first person, '■ I shall report to the queen's grace 
 and them that be about her, what rewards are to be given to 
 them that bring her grace New^ Year's gifts, for I trow they are 
 not so good as those of the king.' " 
 
 There is in the possession of the Marquis of Bath, at Longleat, a 
 manuscript, which contains a list of moneys given to King 
 Henry YIII. in the twenty-fourth year of his reign, as New 
 Year's gifts. They are from archbishops, bishops, noblemen, 
 doctors, gentlemen, etc. The amount which the king's grace 
 complacently pocketed on this occasion was £792 lOs. 10<i. 
 {Notes and Queries, Fourth Series, vol. xi. p. 8.) 
 
 Honest old Latimer, however, says Hone (" Every Day Book," 
 1836, vol. i. p. 7), instead of presenting Henry YIII. with a purse 
 of gold, put into the king's hand a New Testament, with a leaf 
 conspicuously doubled down at Hebrews xiii. 4, which, on refer- 
 ence, will be found to have a certain appropriateness to the mon- 
 arch's domestic failings. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 735 
 
 Good Queen Bess, as that very designation implies, knew the 
 way to the hearts of her subjects, and, taking it, had her reward. 
 Their voices, their swords, and their purses were alike at her 
 command. Presents came to her in a profusion unknown to any 
 of her predecessors. Every 'New Year's Day saw the royal 
 purse replenished with gold, the royal wardrobe enriched with 
 articles of ladies' gear, from embroidered gowns and mantles, to 
 petticoats, stockings, garters, and smocks, and the royal larder 
 stocked with fat oxen and sheep, geese and turkeys, swans and 
 capons, fruit and preserves, marchpanes and sweetmeats ; while 
 the gem-loving queen's eyes were gladdened with the sight of 
 necklaces and bracelets, rings, chains, and all sorts of dainty 
 devices in jewellers' ware. 
 
 King James had no cause to complain of his new subjects' 
 illiberality for the first two or three years of his reign, at least 
 so far as New Year's gifts went ; but after a few years' acquaint- 
 ance their generosity waned, for Carleton complains that even 
 the accustomed purse of gold was hardly to be had without ask- 
 ing for it. The Earl of Huntingdon, however, stood by the old 
 custom, and put upon record the proper manner of presenting a 
 New Year's gift to his majesty. " You must buy," he says, " a 
 new purse of about five shillings price, and put thereunto twenty 
 pieces of new gold of twenty shillings apiece, and go to the 
 presence-chamber, where the court is upon New Year's Day, in 
 the morning about eight o'clock, and deliver the purse and the 
 gold unto my Lord Chamberlain. Then you must go down to 
 the jewel-house for a ticket, to receive eighteen shillings and 
 sixpence as a gift for your pains, and give sixpence to the boy 
 for your ticket. Then go to Sir William Yeall's oflice and show 
 your ticket, and receive your eighteen shillings and sixpence. 
 Then go to the jewel-house again, and take a piece of plate of 
 thirty ounces' weight, and mark it ; and then in the afternoon 
 you may go and fetch it away, and then give the gentleman who 
 delivers it you one pound in gold, and give to the boy two shil- 
 lings, and to the porter sixpence." At this annual give-and-take 
 game the crown got the advantage. 
 
 The custom of presenting the sovereign with New Year's gifts 
 went out with Oliver Cromwell, and did not come back with the 
 Eesto ration. 
 
 The passing around and drinking of the wassail cup (see 
 Wassail), after the manner of the more modern loving-cup, had 
 gone out of fashion at court before the time of Queen Elizabeth, 
 and had been succeeded by the cleanlier one of individual cups. 
 But wassail was still drunk, and indeed New Year's Day has 
 never dropped its convivial aspect. 
 
 On the eve of New Year it was long a general custom to 
 
736 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 unbar the house-door with great formality to " let out the Old 
 and let in the JS'ew." English dissenters and certain evangelical 
 sects favor a midnight service at their places of worship. But 
 the custom of widest extension is that of ringing the church 
 bells. 
 
 King out, wild bells, to the wild sky, 
 The flying cloud, the frosty light ; 
 The year is dying in the night ; 
 Ring out, wild beDs, and let him die. 
 
 Ring out the old, ring in the new, 
 Ring, happy bells, across the snow : 
 The year is going, let him go ; 
 
 Ring out the false, ring in the true. 
 
 In Scotland, as in France, New Year's Day lords it over 
 Christmas as the most important festival of the year. Its eve 
 is known as Hogmanay, and the two days together are often 
 called the Daft (or Crazy) Days. 
 
 The meaning of the word Hogmanay has been a sad puzzle to 
 antiquarians, and its etymology is still an undecided question. 
 According to some authorities, the word is derived from the 
 phrase Au qui menez (" To the mistletoe bring"), which the 
 mummers formerly cried in France. Another derivation is from 
 Hoggunott, Hogenat, or Hoggnight, the old Scandinavian term 
 for the night preceding the feast of Yule, and so called in allusion 
 to the animals that were slaughtered on the occasion for sacri- 
 ficial and festive purposes. Some consider it to be a corruption 
 of Au gueux menez, — that is, " Bring to the beggars ;" and a fur- 
 ther explanation combines the word with another sung along 
 with it in chorus, and suggests that "Hogmanay, trollolay," are 
 a corruption of the French Homme est ne, trois rois allots (" A 
 man is born, three kings are come"), in allusion to the birth 
 of Christ and the visit of the wise men to Bethlehem, who in 
 mediasval times were known as the Three Kings. All these 
 derivations, however, are equally pure conjecture ; and it is to be 
 hoped that at some time or other the question will be satisfac- 
 torily answered. 
 
 In retired and primitive towns of Scotland it is customary, 
 says Mr. Chambers, in his " Popular Ehymes," for the children 
 of the poorer class of people on the morning of the last day of 
 the year, or Hogmanay, to get themselves swaddled in a great 
 sheet, doubled up in front so as to form a vast pocket, and then 
 to go along the streets in little bands, calling at the doors of the 
 wealthier inhabitants for a dole of wheaten bread. Each child 
 gets one quadrant section of oat cake (sometimes, in the case of 
 particular favorites, improved by an addition of cheese), and 
 this is called their " hogmanaj^" In expectation of the large 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 737 
 
 demands thus made upon them, the housewives busy themselves 
 for several days beforehand in preparing a sufficient quantity of 
 cake. As soon as the children arrive at the door of a house they 
 immediately cry out as loudly as they can, " Hogmanay," which 
 is in itself a sufficient announcement of their demands. There 
 are, however, other exclamations which are frequently used. 
 One of these is " Hogmanay, trollolay." A favorite rhyme, too, 
 used on the occasion is — 
 
 Rise up, gude-wife, and shake your feathers, 
 Dinna think that we are beggars ; 
 We are bairns come to play 
 And to seek our hogmanay. 
 
 Another visitor whom every family expects on this night is 
 the First-Foot (q. v.), a name given to the person who first sets 
 foot over the threshold after the clock strikes twelve. First- 
 footers often go out in parlies, and are welcomed to the lun 
 within even if they have been anticipated by some prompter 
 visitor. . 
 
 Hence in Edinburgh and other large cities the streets in old 
 days were crowded on ]^ew Year's Eve and until the sma' hours 
 of New Year's morning. The noise was tremendous, particularly 
 in the great thoroughfares, moving lanterns glared everywhere 
 as parties of first-footers pressed up or down, carrying a het-pint, 
 or bowl of hot toddy, which each offered the other with "A gude 
 New Year!" Any girl caught out in the streets, even if she had 
 an escort, might be kissed by any youth. Good-natured — even 
 if not always sober — revelry prevailed everywhere. But these 
 New Year's Eve rejoicings got a check in Edinburgh on Decem- 
 ber 31, 1811. A large band of toughs seized the opportunity to 
 waylay and rob the better class of citizens. Every well-dressed 
 person was surrounded by parties of this band and knocked 
 down unless he surrendered. Two men, including one police- 
 man, were killed, and several others wounded. The savage band 
 managed to keep possession of the streets in defiance of the civil 
 power till four o'clock in the morning, and reaped a rich harvest 
 of spoils. The ringleaders were subsequently arrested, and three 
 of them were publicly executed on April 22, 1812. But good 
 citizens became scarcer on the streets on ensuing Hogmanay 
 nights. 
 
 Another New Year's Eve custom is said to linger around 
 Bromyard, in the Worcestershire border of Herefordshire. As 
 the hour of midnight is on the strike on the 31st of December, 
 and the last carol is dying away, a promiscuous rush is made to 
 the nearest spring to snatch the " cream of the year," the first 
 pitcherful of the new year, and with it the prospect of the best 
 
 47 
 
738 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 luck. The same excitement goes on in the dwellings of South 
 Scotland at the same hour, when, as the poet hath it, — 
 
 Twal struck — twa neebor hizzies raise 
 
 And lilting gaed a sad gate ; 
 The flower of the well to our house gaes, 
 
 And I'll the bonniest lad get. 
 
 " Burning out the old year" is a custom that still has its sur- 
 vivals in Lanarkshire and elsewhere. For this purpose, during 
 the last day of the year, a large quantity of fuel is collected, 
 consisting of branches of trees, brushwood, and coals, and placed 
 in a heap at the " cross," and at about nine o'clock at night the 
 lighting of the fire is commenced, surrounded by a large crowd 
 of lookers-on, who each think it a duty to cast into the flaming 
 mass some additional portion of material. 
 
 New Year's Day itself is spent in visiting and feasting. The 
 Christmas dinner of English folk is eaten on this day by their 
 Scotch compatriots ; the master brews a bowl of punch or toddy, 
 and passes glasses around to the servants, and all unite in drink- 
 ing and pledging good health and happiness to one another. In 
 the evening dances, balls, and raffles are the popular amuse- 
 ments. One of the songs always heard on these festive occa- 
 sions begins, — 
 
 Here's to the year that's awa' ! 
 
 We'll drink it in strong and in sma', 
 
 And to each bonnie lassie that we dearly lo'ed 
 
 In the days o' the year that's awa'. 
 
 Scotland has well been called the " Land o' Cakes," for nowhere 
 else, Germany excepted, is there such a variety of confectionery 
 and pastry as in Scotch bakers' shops. The short-bread, often 
 known as " Pitcaithly bannocks," is highly ornamented with 
 sugar and iced mottoes, "A Happy New Year" and "A Merrie 
 Auld Yule ;" then the rye loaves, popular in the Thrums district, 
 black and rich, filled with fruit and peel, and the Scotch bun, com- 
 posed entirely of eggs, chopped fruit, and peel, encased in a 
 crust which is not eaten, much like the English simnel cakes. 
 Fancy tarts and pastries of all kinds are bought in the greatest 
 j)rofusion. 
 
 It is said in Scotland that those who desire to learn what fate 
 or fortune the new year has in store for them may do so by con- 
 sulting the Bible on New Year's morning before breakfast. The 
 sacred book must be laid upon a table, and those who wish to 
 consult it must open it at random and place a finger upon one 
 or other of the chapters at which it is opened. This chapter is 
 read, and is believed to describe, in some way, the happiness or 
 misery during the ensuing year of the person making the trial. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 739 
 
 Among manj^ other old superstitions associated with New 
 Year's is a belief that if a lamp or a candle be taken out of a 
 house on that day some member of the family will die within a 
 twelvemonth, while to throw out dirty water, ashes, or anything 
 whatever, no matter how worthless, is regarded as certain to 
 bring ill luck during the whole of that year. 
 
 From old Dutch times to the middle of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury New Year's Day in New York was devoted to the universal 
 interchange of visits. Every door was thrown wide open. It 
 was a breach of etiquette to omit any acquaintance in these 
 annual calls, when old friendships were renewed and family dif- 
 ferences amicably settled. A hearty welcome was extended even 
 to strangers of presentable appearance. 
 
 The following is an entry in Tyrone Power the actor's Diary 
 for January 1, 1834 : " On this day from an early hour every 
 door in New York is open and all the good things possessed by 
 the inmates paraded in lavish profusion. Every sort of vehicle 
 is put in requisition. At an early hour a gentleman of whom I 
 had a slight knowledge entered my room, accompanied by an 
 elderly person I had never before seen, and who, on being named, 
 excused himself for adopting such a frank mode of making my 
 acquaintance, which, he was pleased to add, he much desired, 
 and at once requested me to fall in with the custom of the day, 
 whose privilege he had thus availed himself of, and accompany 
 him on a visit to his family. 
 
 " I was the last man on earth likely to decline an offer made 
 in such a spirit ; so, entering his carriage, which was waiting, 
 we drove to his house on Broadway, where, after being pre- 
 sented to a very amiable lady, his wife, and a pretty, gentle- 
 looking young girl, his daughter, I partook of a sumptuous lun- 
 cheon, drank a glass of champagne, and, on the arrival of other 
 visitors, made my bow, well pleased with my visit. 
 
 " My host now begged me to make a few calls with him, ex- 
 plaining as we drove along the strict observances paid to this 
 day throughout the State, and tracing the excellent custom to 
 the early Dutch colonists. I paid several calls in company with 
 my new friend, and at each place met a hearty welcome, when 
 my companion suggested that I might have some compliments 
 to make on my own account, and so, leaving me, begged me to con- 
 sider his carriage perfectly at my disposal. I left a card or two 
 and made a couple of hurried visits, then returned to my hotel to 
 think over the many beneficial effects likely to grow out of such 
 a charitable custom, which makes even the stranger sensible of 
 the benevolent influence of this kindly day, and to wish for its 
 continued observance." 
 
 At the period of which Power speaks there were great feasts 
 
740 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 spread in many houses, and the traditions of tremendous Dutch 
 eating and drinking were faithfully observed. Special houses 
 were noted for particular forms of entertainment. At one it 
 was eggnog; at another, rum punch ; at this one, pickled oys- 
 ters ; at that, boned turkey, or marvellous chocolate, or perfect 
 Mocha coffee, or, for the select cognoscenti, a drop of old Madeira 
 as delicate in flavor as the texture of the glass from which it 
 was sipped. At all houses there were the New Year's cakes, in 
 the form of an Egyptian cartouch, and in later and more degen- 
 erate days relays of champagne-bottles appeared, — the coming 
 in of the lower empire. 
 
 Then followed the gradual breaking down of all the lines of 
 conventionality into a wild and unseemly riot of visits. New 
 Year's Day took on the character of a rabid and untamed race 
 against time. A procession each of whose component parts was 
 made up of two or three young men in an open barouche, with 
 a pair of steaming horses and a driver more or less under the 
 influences of the hilarity of the day, would rattle from one house 
 to another all day long. The visitors would jump out of the 
 carriage, rush into the house, and reappear in a miraculously 
 short space of time. The ceremony of calling was a burlesque. 
 There was a noisy and hilarious greeting, a glass of wine was 
 swallowed hurriedly, everybody shook hands all around, and the 
 callers dashed out and rushed into the carriage and were driven 
 rapidly to the next house. But more serious than this was the 
 manner in which society women found their houses invaded by 
 people with whom they had very slight and sometimes no 
 acquaintance whatever on the first day of the year. The hum- 
 blest employee of a great commercial house felt at entire liberty 
 to call upon the wife of the head of the firm, assuming that his 
 salary entitled him to the acquaintanceship. Politicians of all 
 ranks and degrees looked in upon people who they thought could 
 be useful to them. The great army of social upstarts and snobs 
 utilized the day for furthering their claims to recognition. 
 Enough complications and embarrassments, in fact, were woven 
 on the first day of the year to employ the tact and resources of 
 society leaders for several months afterward in the work of 
 undoing. 
 
 A reaction naturally began, which, gathering force with every 
 succeeding year, ended by practically abolishing the custom of 
 New Year's calls. 
 
 The Old World custom of sitting up on New Year's night to 
 see the old year out and the new year in is perhaps more general 
 in the United States than anywhere. In many large cities the 
 new year is rung in from some famous local belfry, — that of 
 Independence Hall, for example, in Philadelphia, and of Trinity 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 74l 
 
 Church in New York, — attracting huge crowds that blow tin 
 horns and roar and shout, the din being increased by whistles 
 from steam-engines, afloat and ashore. 
 
 Nowhere is New Year celebrated with greater solemnity than 
 at the courts of the various rulers of continental Europe. True, 
 in some instances — as, for instance, at Berlin and at Vienna — 
 Christmas-trees and distributions of gifts are arranged for the 
 royal children a week earlier. But this in no sense diminishes 
 the importance of the New Year's Day solemnities, and if Christ- 
 mas has gradually become the annual festival of the family, 
 New Year's Day continues to remain the principal feast of the 
 year at court, as well as in political, military, and administrative 
 service. 
 
 It speaks well for these monarchs of the Old World that with 
 the solitary exception of King Leopold, who holds religion in 
 very small esteem, there is not one of them that does not com- 
 mence the new year with an appeal to the Almighty for strength, 
 guidance, and blessing. In England, however, the queen is the 
 only member of the royal family who ever dreams of attending 
 divine service on New Year's morning. 
 
 At the courts where what is known as the Orthodox Greek 
 faith is professed, and where, consequently, the old calendar is 
 still in force. New Year's Day is celebrated a fortnight later. 
 
 King Humbert, who owing to the ban of the Church is unable 
 to indulge in a high pontifical mass, begins New Year's Day by 
 attending a low mass said by his chaplain in the chapel that has 
 been arranged at the Quirinal. After mass is over, king and 
 queen stand on the dais under the canopy in front of their chair of 
 state in the throne-room, to receive with due formality the various 
 parliamentary, military, judicial, and administrative delegations 
 commissioned to lay at the feet of their majesties the good wishes 
 of the various bodies which they represent. Later the king be- 
 gins to stroll about the various apartments, and a good deal of 
 freedom and abandon prevails until the supper-hour is announced. 
 The royal party then march in procession to a small supper-room 
 and with the ambassadors and their wives take their places at 
 tables adorned with that magnificent golden plate for which the 
 house of Savoy is so famous, while the remainder of the guests 
 rush pell-mell and in a very undignified fashion to the bufi'ets, 
 which are literally taken by storm and quickly devastated, so far 
 as everything in the nature of food or drink is concerned. 
 
 At Paris, in spite of the overthrow of the monarchy, the 
 principal features of the ancient celebration of the New Year 
 have been retained. True, there is no divine service, since the 
 President does not claim to be " the anointed of the Lord ;" but 
 he compromises the matter by receiving first and foremost the 
 
742 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Papal Nuncio, who, at the head of the diplomatic corps, presents 
 the congratulations and good wishes of the latter in a formal 
 address, to which the President makes an equally ceremonious 
 response. As soon as the foreign envoys, all of whom are in 
 full uniform, have taken their departure, the Presidents of the 
 Senate and of the Chamber of Deputies arrive, their carriages 
 escorted by squadrons of cavalry. Then follow the heads of the 
 judiciary, the principal officers of the army and navy, and dele- 
 gations from the Academy, from the clergy, and from all the 
 various branches of the political and administrative system. As 
 soon as this is over, the President, who has been in full evening 
 dress ever since the early morning, drives off with the military 
 officers of his household to return the calls of the Presidents of 
 the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, these being the only 
 two visits that he is called upon to pay to members of his own 
 nationality throughout the entire year. 
 
 Such is the official recognition of the day. In the popular 
 eye New Year's Day is the greatest festival of the year. It is 
 in France what Christmas is in England and America, the day 
 for giving and receiving presents (known as etrennes, from the 
 Latin strence). The abuse of this practice is far more deplora- 
 ble than at the Anglo-Saxon Christmas. The etrennes have 
 nearly reached the climax of representing nothing more than 
 such a conventional sense of duty as the leaving of a card be- 
 tokens here. It is even said that they are constantly transferred 
 from hand to hand till at last they may circulate back into the 
 hands of the original givers, having performed precisely the 
 same formal office in discharging the debts of social convention 
 that a five-franc piece performs when it likewise, after passing 
 through a number of different hands, returns to the coffers of 
 the bank which issued it. 
 
 Nevertheless accidental abuses do not prevent this from being 
 one of the most poetical and beautiful anniversaries in the French 
 calendar. It is the great family day. In the morning the chil- 
 dren jump up and (after examining their stockings to see what 
 St. Nicholas has brought them) rush off to the chamber of their 
 parents to salute them and offer their good wishes for the new 
 year. If a member of the family has died during the year, all 
 the near relatives assemble at the grave early in the morning, 
 renewing flowers and ornaments. After the mid-day meal the 
 younger members of the family call upon the older ones, and in 
 the evening they all meet for dinner at the home of the oldest 
 member, who is considered the head of the family. When the 
 French speak of their family it is in a broad sense, and includes 
 all the relatives. 
 
 While few, if any, presents are given at Christmas, friends 
 
 I 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 743 
 
 and servants are remembered with gifts at l^ew Year's. Gifts 
 of flowers and confectionery are received by the ladies. Young 
 men in society are expected to call at the homes of their lady 
 friends, and hither to bring or send flowers or confectionery. 
 For the young man with a small salary this is a great demand ; 
 still, if he has been receiving hospitalities all the year here is an 
 opportunity to show his appreciation. The French people do 
 not give their children much candy, but at New Year children 
 and older people indulge in this luxury, and there are few ladies 
 who do not receive one or more bonbonnieres filled with candy, 
 largely chocolate, for the French run to this kind of confec- 
 tionery. 
 
 All day long Paris is noisy with crowds going to and fro. The 
 fashionable parts of the city are a forest of carriages, buggies, 
 and hacks, standing at every door, and whirling back and forth 
 in feverish haste. The children, gayly decked out with ribbons 
 and flowers, wander with their mothers or their nurses along the 
 streets, and gaze with loud delight into the dazzling windows of 
 the shops. And, indeed, nothing can be more brilliant than the 
 shop-windows of Paris on this day, especially those of the con- 
 fectioners, the toy-sellers, and the jewellers. 
 
 While all these excitements are going on in one part of Paris, 
 over the river the students are having the jolliest of holidays. 
 They are dancing and singing in little halls arranged for the 
 purpose; they are partaking of sumptuous dinners and wines at 
 the restaurants ; they are promenading on the boulevard with 
 their sweethearts ; they are up in rooms in the top stories of the 
 high old-fashioned houses of the Latin Quarter, playing on fiddles, 
 and telling stories, and singing songs, and acting laughable farces. 
 
 On New Year's Day the beggars swarm out from every nook 
 and corner of Paris, for it is the one day of the long year when 
 they may beg in freedom. Most of them catch the merry spirit 
 of the day, and gayly sing their petitions in your face, or dance 
 a jig for a sou, with a cheerful good humor and forgetfulness of 
 trouble which only a hardened heart could resist. Eagged little 
 fellows, scarcely large enough t9 walk, toddle up, and, with a pert 
 swing of their torn caps, demand a gift as if such a thing as 
 a refusal had never repulsed them ; and if, perchance, they do 
 not get the sou-piece they ask for, off they scamper, singing a 
 street- ditty, and carolling up to the next comer with unchilled 
 impudence. 
 
 The hardest-working of the Paris people on New Year's Day, 
 and for some days thereafter, are the post-office clerks. It is 
 the universal custom in France to embrace the occasion of this 
 anniversary to send cards of compliment to all one's friends, in 
 whatever part of the country they may be. Thus, a gentleman 
 
744 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 or lady in Paris is deluged with hundreds of cards, sometimes, 
 from country brothers and sisters, uncles, aunts, and cousins, 
 old neighbors, and absent acquaintances, and sends out to each 
 and all cards in return. So it is that the post-offices are choked 
 up for a long time, and regular letters become very irregular 
 indeed. 
 
 New Year's Eve, or St. Sylvester's Night, is celebrated in 
 many German cities, especially in Berlin, by a curious bit of 
 horse-play. Everybody is privileged to bonnet with a blow of 
 the fist any citizen who ventures into the street after dark with 
 a high silk hat. 
 
 The unfortunate visitor from the provinces, or the stranger 
 ignorant of the peculiar customs of the day, strolls blithely down 
 the street, clad in the garments usual to elegant civilization, on 
 his head the silk hat. Suddenly a cry reaches his ears, "Hut 
 ab!" Who can be shouting for the removal of a hat? The 
 shout is repeated. From here and there men are hurrying 
 towards him. Pshaw ! surely they cannot be telling him to take 
 off his hat. But now from all about comes the sound of voices, 
 crying, " Hut ab ! Hut ab !" 
 
 The cry becomes a roar, as voice after voice joins its volume to 
 the chorus, " Hut ab ! Hut ab !" In an instant a crowd has gath- 
 ered, a mob of shrieking, laughing, gesticulating ruffians, yelling, 
 " Hut ab ! Hut ab ! Hut ab !" And before the astonished stranger 
 can begin to understand what all this awful din may betoken, to 
 give ])oint to the words sticks and fists rain blows upon his head. 
 The offending hat is hammered down over its owner's ears farther 
 and lower, until its rim bursts and its crown flies off, and it 
 dangles, a bedraggled collar, on his shoulder. Then the exultant 
 mob, with no more occasion for howling " Hut ab !" howls in 
 applause of its own success. 
 
 The stranger, not knowing what catastrophes may follow on a 
 beginning so frightful, enraged, amazed, full of fears, flees to the 
 shelter of the policeman near by. When the assaulted wretch 
 has told his tale, with many a gesture indicating the mangled 
 remains of his hat, the guardian of the peace offers him as the 
 only consolation,^ " Wesshalb gehen Sie denn aus ?" In other 
 words. " Do not wear a silk hat in the street on St. Sylvester's 
 Day." 
 
 In his boyhood, and even in his earlier monarchial manhood. 
 Emperor William II. used to sally out incognito on New Year's 
 Eve to take part in this popular diversion. But he has aban- 
 doned it since he encountered an old gentleman who, with the 
 view of getting even with the young men who had destroyed his 
 top hats in previous years, had equipped himself with a sort of 
 leather skull-cap studded with nails, points upward. The conse- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 745 
 
 quence was that when the imperial fist came down with crush- 
 ing force on the inviting-looking hat it encountered the nails, 
 which lacerated his hand in so serious a manner as to necessitate 
 the attendance of a surgeon. 
 
 This custom of the demolition of high hats has been traced 
 back to 1848. It had its origin in a commemoration of the riots 
 on St. Sylvester's Day in that year, the lower classes having at 
 that time resorted to this forcible method of expressing their 
 hostility to the bourgeoisie, of whom the high hat was distinctive. 
 
 Happily, in other parts of Germany there are customs which 
 mark St. Sylvester's Day more courteously. One most pleasant 
 one is found in the Ehenisb provinces. A gentleman is walking 
 in the street, when suddenly he hears spoken closely to his ear 
 the words " Prosit Neujahr !" the greeting of the day. By the 
 law of the day he is thus made captive and must pay ransom. 
 
 The friend who has marked the unsuspecting one on the 
 street, himself unobserved, has followed cautiously, and has ap- 
 proached stealthily on tiptoe until so close that the salutation 
 can be distinctly heard, although softly spoken. The one thus 
 saluted unawares must answer by the word "Meister," and ac- 
 knowledge the other's sovereignty of the moment by the gift of 
 a cigar, a bottle of champagne, or something else conducive to 
 the social enjoyment of the occasion. With them, as with us, 
 all strive to be first in giving the greeting of the season, but they 
 have emphasized the importance of not being tardy by a genial 
 system of forfeits to be paid by the unwary or laggard. 
 
 The most charming of the German New Year's customs is one 
 observed from time immemorial in Frankfort-on-the-Main. There, 
 at the same moment, the whole city salutes itself, — wishes itself 
 a happy New Year. 
 
 On the night of December 31 all the city keeps the festival, 
 watching the old year out and the new year in. Family parties 
 or gatherings of friends are to be found in ever}^ house. Games, 
 stories, music, and kindred diversions, with an honorable atten- 
 tion to eating and drinking, serve to speed on the last hours of 
 the dying year. 
 
 Suddenly, at the exact moment when from the great dome of 
 the cathedral the first stroke of midnight sounds its warning, 
 every house throws wide open its windows. Forth from the 
 casements lean all the dwellers in the town, old and young to- 
 gether, each with glass in hand. The glass is raised on high, 
 and the words of the toast burst on the astonished air of night 
 in one massive tone, born of more than a hundred thousand 
 voices, joined in the cry, " Prosit Neujahr !" (" Happy New 
 Year!") 
 
 The whole city thus salutes itself with the greeting of the 
 
746 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 season, invoking a blessing for the coming year in its first mo- 
 ment. The sonorous majesty of the sentiment sends out its 
 echoing clamors for a few brief seconds, then ceases. Before 
 the last clang of the twelve from the cathedral's dome has melted 
 into silence the toast of the hour has been drunk, the windows 
 have been closed, and the hush of midnight settles once more 
 over the deserted streets of the city. 
 
 The Emperor of Germany invariably begins New Year's Day 
 by attending service with his wife and children in the chapel of 
 the Old Castle at Berlin at about ten o'clock. Then, at the head 
 of all the princes of the blood, and escorted by his generals and 
 staff, he marches on i'oot to the Main Guard, which turns out, 
 of course, on his arrival. It is composed of the very finest and 
 smartest-looking men of the Seventh Eegiment, especially se- 
 lected for the occasion. Having received the customary reports 
 from the officer in command, he gives the pass- word of the day, 
 and then returns to the palace, where a reception of all the prin- 
 cipal personages of the realm takes place with great pomp and 
 ceremony. The first to pay their respects and to present their 
 good wishes for the New Year to the Emperor and Empress, 
 who stand on the dais, under a canopy, just in front of their 
 thrones in the White Hall of the Old Castle, are their relatives, 
 headed as a rule by their mother. 
 
 The imperial couple always descend the steps of the dais to 
 greet the illustrious. widow, and then invite her, as well as the 
 other princes and princesses of the blood, to take her place 
 beside them on the estrade. Next come the foreign ambassadors 
 with their ladies and suites, the dean or senior of the diplomatic 
 corps remaining at the foot of the throne to present his col- 
 leagues as they pass before the Emperor. The latter usually 
 addresses to the heads of the various missions a few words, 
 which, while sometimes trivial, are often of such importance as 
 to disturb the financial equilibrium of the whole of Europe for 
 the following week. 
 
 After the diplomatic corps come the great dignitaries of the 
 Church, the army, the navy, the judges of the supreme court, 
 the rectors of the universities, the ministers of state and the 
 heads of their various departments, and finally those who are 
 possessed of no ofiice, but merely form part and parcel of the 
 court. The scene is brilliant, for, although the reception takes 
 place by day, the curtains and blinds are drawn, and the vast 
 state apartments are lighted by myriads of wax candles and 
 electric globes ; the ladies are all in court dress with long trains, 
 and the men in full uniform, the gorgeously colored mediseval 
 costume of the university rectors being especially picturesque. 
 A grand banquet at court brings the day to a conclusion. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 747 
 
 At Vienna on New Year's Day the Emperor and the arch- 
 duchess, representing the Empress, hold what is known as a 
 " cercle." Each class of visitors who call to present their good 
 wishes for the new year is assigned to a particular apartment, 
 the diplomatic corps being relegated to one, the judiciary to 
 another, the navy to a third, and so on. The Emperor, escorted 
 by the grand officials of his household, enters each apartment 
 in turn with the archduchess, and immediately on his being 
 announced by the grand master of ceremonies all the ladies 
 take up their positions on one side of the room and the men on 
 the other. 
 
 The Emperor, with one of his chamberlains, then passes slowly 
 along the side of the room where the men are stationed, and 
 says a few words to each, while the archduchess, escorted by 
 the mistress of the robes to the Empress, does the same on the 
 other side. On reaching the farther end the Emperor returns 
 along the front rank of the ladies, while the archduchess passes 
 in front of the men. As a rule, there is no state banquet at 
 Vienna on New Year's Day, the Emperor generally finishing up 
 the festival at the palace of one of his numerous kinsmen. 
 
 In Belgium, on St. Sylvester's Day, or New Year's Eve, the 
 children strive to secure a " sugar uncle" or "sugar aunt," as the 
 relative who falls a victim to their wiles is technically termed. 
 On that day all the children of the household enter into a solemn 
 conspiracy for the mutual good at the expense of the unwary 
 adult whom they may entangle in the meshes of their intrigues. 
 
 They employ every artifice to get one of the older members 
 of the household under lock and key. Early on that day the 
 keys of all the doors in the house have mysteriously disappeared. 
 They have been secreted by the children, who retain them, 
 ready for instant use whenever the occasion shall occur. Then 
 strictest watch is maintained, to the end that some unsuspecting 
 one may be alone in a room. An uncle enters a room to search 
 for the paper which he has mislaid. Presto ! There comes a 
 pattering rush of feet in the hallway, the door is slammed, the 
 key rattles in the lock. The alarmed uncle springs to the door. 
 
 Woe betide him now if he be in a hurry, and if he be ungen- 
 erous, for he must yield to the terms of these youthful brigands 
 before he can escape. He must solemnly covenant with them 
 that he will pay to them whatsoever ransom they may demand 
 ere the prison door will swing open. When the prisoner has 
 promised all that is asked, the triumphant company restore him 
 to liberty. 
 
 New Year's Day is made a happy and merry festival in the 
 gloomy old royal palace at Madrid. The queen regent takes 
 care that all, down to the humblest of the servants, get a share 
 
748 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 in the so-called " aguinaldos," or New Year's bounties, to enable 
 them to have their rejoicings and feastings. It is on New Year's 
 Eve, however, that the young king and his sisters receive their 
 presents beneath a huge Christmas-tree, the tables loaded with 
 gifts being arranged by the queen's own hands, while each one 
 of the gentlemen and ladies in waiting, and the palace digni- 
 taries present, are remembered with some costly token of the 
 regent's appreciation of their services. New Year's Day itself 
 begins with high mass, celebrated with all the pomp and solemnity 
 characteristic of the Catholic Church. 
 
 As soon as that is over, a goodly portion of the day is devoted 
 to the reception of an interminable procession of dignitaries, 
 ambassadors, and representatives of the great administrative 
 and political elements of the kingdom, who arrive from all parts 
 of Spain in order to offer to the little king and his estimable 
 mother their good wishes. This little king, who wears the uni- 
 form of the Eoyal School of Cadets, with the Order of the 
 Golden Fleece around his neck, gets very tired of the ceremony 
 long before it is all over, and in past years his mother used to 
 experience the greatest difficulty in preventing him from re- 
 lieving what ap2)eared to him the dreary monotony of the occa- 
 sion by tweaking the queue of the Chinese ambassador, or from 
 seating himself astride of the great gold lions that constitute so 
 notable an ornament of his throne. 
 
 In rural Russia New Year's begins as pre-eminently a juve- 
 nile festival. The boys rise with the sun, fill their pockets with 
 dried peas and wheat, and go in bands from house to house. As 
 doors are never locked, it is easy for them to effect an entrance. 
 They use the dried peas upon their enemies, the gentler wheat 
 upon their friends, hurling the first and sprinkling the latter upon 
 all whom they find asleep. 
 
 After breakfast the handsomest horse in the village, its trap- 
 pings gayly decorated with evergreens and berries, is led to the 
 house of the nobleman, followed by the pea- and wheat-shooters 
 of the early morning. The lord admits horse and guests to the 
 parlor, where all his family are gathered. This is the greeting 
 of the peasants, old and young, to their lord and master. The 
 origin of this custom is shrouded in mysterj^, but it is supposed 
 to date from Biblical times. The persons who enter the house 
 with the horse are rewarded with small silver coins, which are 
 usually bestowed by the children of the household. 
 
 Next comes a procession of real animals, such as the ox, cow, 
 goat, and hog, led by children. These quadrupeds, like the 
 horse, are decorated with evergreens and berries. They do not 
 enter, but pass slowly in front of the house, that the master and 
 his family may view the strange procession from the windows. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 749 
 
 Then old women appear, bringing the different barn-yard fowls, 
 which are also decked with evergreens and berries. These are 
 intended as presents for the master. 
 
 The peasants believe that the miracle of the feast of Cana of 
 Galilee can be repeated, if the people only have faith, as the old 
 year ushers in the new. At precisely the midnight hour, or as 
 nearly as the clocks of the village reckon that time, men, women, 
 and children stand around a large jar filled with water which 
 they anxiously watch to see if it will turn into wine. Year after 
 year the same performance is enacted, and always with the same 
 result. This superstition is current also in many parts of Ger- 
 many. 
 
 The second day of the new year is devoted to paying visits, a 
 pleasure which the children share with their parents. The visit- 
 ing over, parents and children separate, the older people to enjoy 
 themselves in their own way, and the young people to follow 
 their example, — both parties usually indulging in sleigh -riding. 
 
 The young folks always try to get beyond the reach of the 
 older people. During the attempt many ludicrous scenes occur. 
 For instance, the village youths and maidens, in their wild 
 efforts to get beyond the reach of parental control, frequently 
 have their sleighs upset, when a general scramble ensues, and 
 the vehicles are righted amid much merriment. This amuse- 
 ment concludes the holiday season. 
 
 In China and Japan it is the universal rule that all debts must 
 be paid and accounts settled with the ending of the old year. 
 Japan among its recent adoptions of European customs numbers 
 the Gregorian calendar, wherefore its year begins when ours 
 does. The Chinese, however, reckon it from the first moon after 
 the sun enters Aquarius. This happens not earher than January 
 21 nor later than February 19. The holiday is a legal one for 
 three days only, but its celebration actually continues much 
 longer. Many shops are closed for a fortnight. 
 
 During the three days of legitimate holiday-making the cities 
 assume a very gay appearance. The houses are decorated with 
 fanciful lanterns, large sprays 6f artificial flowers, and strips of 
 red paper with mottoes on them which are pasted around and 
 above the doors. Here and there one sees blue papers among 
 the red ones, which denote that during the past year there has 
 been a death in the house. 
 
 The streets are thronged by a gorgeously dressed crowd, most 
 of them attired in brightly colored silks and satins ; for the rich 
 don their best, and even the very poor, who are in miserable rags 
 all the rest of the year, generally contrive to hire or to take out 
 of pawn fine clothes for this occasion. If it is quite impossible 
 for them to do this, they remain hidden away in their homes. 
 
750 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 The fashion of paying IS'ew Year calls, now dying out with us, 
 is still in vogue in China, but there it is men who receive as well 
 as who pay the visits, Chinese women taking no part whatever 
 in social life. Every Chinaman, except among the very lowest 
 classes, expects to receive visits from his inferiors, and to pay 
 them to those who are above him in station. In some cases 
 sending a card is deemed sufficient. These cards consist of thin 
 strips of scarlet paper with the name of the sender written on 
 them in black characters. Sometimes good wishes are added. 
 
 People meeting in the streets salute each other by crying, 
 "Kung-hi! Kung-hi!" ("I humbly wish you joy") or "Sin-hi! 
 Sin-hi!" ("May joy be yours"), so that it seems possible that our 
 custom of saying " Happy [N'ew Year" as well as that of paying 
 New Year visits may come to us from the Chinese. (^New York 
 Evening Post, December 31, 1892.) 
 
 The Japanese New Year, though legally limited like the 
 Chinese to three days, stretches over a much longer time, and, 
 save for the matter of date, is practically identical with the Chi- 
 nese in its general features. 
 
 A curious attribute of the period in Japan, China, and Corea 
 is the fact that it is a common birthday for the community. 
 From the moment a child makes his appearance he is spoken of 
 as a year old, and this same age he continues to be considered 
 till the beginning of the next calendar year. Then he is credited 
 with another year. 
 
 Nicholas, St., Archbishop of Myra, in Lycia, in the fourth 
 century. A holy personage of many and various attributes. 
 He is patron of Eussia, and especially of serfs and serfdom, 
 because he protected the weak against the strong, the oppressed 
 against the oppressor, the poor against the rich ; of Yenice, 
 Freiburg, and other seaport towns, as well as of mariners and 
 travellers, because he stilled a storm when journeying to the 
 Holy Land ; of thieves, because he forced a gang to restore their 
 plunder (in the Middle Ages robbers called themselves Knights 
 or Clerks of St. Nicholas) ; of boys, especially scholars, because 
 he resuscitated three school-boys whom a wicked innkeeper had 
 murdered and salted in a tub ; and of young girls, because, out 
 of compassion for a distressed nobleman about to sacrifice his 
 three daughters to a life of infamy, he cast three purses of gold 
 through the nobleman's window under cover of night, to enable 
 the girls to marry honorably. He is supposed to have died on 
 December 6, 342, and his festival on the anniversary of that date 
 is celebrated in Roman and Grreek Catholic countries with especial 
 reference to his patronage of youth. In England it was formerly 
 made memorable by the mummeries of the Boy- Bishop (q. v.). 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 751 
 
 But at present in most Protestant countries St. Nicholas, usually 
 under the German diminutive of Santa Claus, is connected with 
 Christmas as the supposed dispenser of gifts, while his own feast 
 is entirely neglected. 
 
 In France, St. Nicholas's Day is the grand fete-day of children 
 in general. Even before its arrival they are accustomed to put 
 up their petitions in these words : 
 
 St.-Nicolas, mon bon patron, 
 Envoyez-moi quelque chose bien bon. 
 
 (" St. Nicholas, my good patron, 
 Send me something very good.") 
 
 The incantation is generally effective in the way of bringing 
 something. But whether that something shall be feon, or the 
 reverse of bon, depends upon the conduct of the child during the 
 past twelve-month. It is rare, indeed^ that St. Nicholas risks his 
 popularity so far as to present his petitioners with nothing at all. 
 It might lead to scepticism in the infant mind. On the eve 
 of his day, expectant children hang up their stockings in the 
 chimney-corner, and then retire to rest. If they have been good 
 during the previous year, toys and bonbons are next morning 
 found to have been miraculouslj' concealed within the stocking ; 
 but if naughtiness has been the rule, the stocking is discovered 
 full of old paper, or coals, or refuse, and hidden therein are a rod 
 and a cane. In general, however, even the pleasant things are 
 accompanied by an emblematic rod — half a dozen little birch 
 twigs tied together with an end of pink ribbon — to be kept and 
 looked at from time to time, as a hint that St. Nicholas has his 
 eyes open upon what is going on in nurseries and schools. 
 
 In many of the southern provinces of Germany, where Cath- 
 olics predominate, St. Nicholas's Day is celebrated as a prelimi- 
 nary to Christmas. But there St. Nicholas does not sneak into 
 the house at night. He boldly presents himself just after supper 
 on the eve of his festival. The door-bell rings, and he stalks 
 into the parlor, where the family with all the children have 
 assembled to greet him. His merry round face, encircled by 
 cottony hair and beard, his rubicund nose, his fat and jovial 
 figure, are much like the pictures of our own St. Nick. On, his 
 back he bears a bag stuffed with things both good and bad. 
 Eubbing his hands, he greets the company, and then calls each 
 child by name and questions him in regard to his actions in the 
 past year and his promises for the future. If the record is good 
 and he can recite a bit of a verse or jingle, it pleases St. Nicholas 
 mightily, and elicits some reward in the shape of fruit or cakes, 
 with a promise of further remembrance on Christmas Day. St. 
 
752 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Nicholas then departs, with many flourishes and much tinkling 
 of bells, to continue his round of visits. On Christmas Day the 
 Christ-Child appears, and brings the promised gifts for good 
 behavior. 
 
 Sometimes the mummery is varied. St. Nicholas appears 
 dressed as a bishop, mitre on head, crook in hand, with long 
 white robes trailing to the ground. After the customary recital 
 of verses and bestowal of gifts, he gives a lecture to the parents 
 on their duties to children, admonishes the children to obey their 
 parents and be good, and asks them what they would like the 
 Christ-Child to bring them for Christmas. 
 
 In South Austria, where there is no Christmas Day in our 
 sense of the word, but only a church festival, the eve of St. 
 Nicholas's Day is the great season for gift-making. A young 
 man, well versed in the Church catechism, assumes the part of 
 the bishop-saint. He is accompanied by two angels, dressed 
 much like choir-boys, each carrying a bag or a basket, while in 
 his train follow a lot of devils with blackened faces, tooting on 
 tin horns and furiously rattling the chains that bind them 
 together. He enters the house with his angels, leaving his 
 devils at the threshold. 
 
 A great silence falls upon the assembled company, and the 
 children are called up and examined religiously. This is carried 
 out with great seriousness. If the trial is passed successfully, 
 the angels step forward and give the child gifts and nuts and 
 cakes of fantastic forms ; if he fails, he has to stand aside. 
 
 " When the inquisition is over, the devils are allowed to enter 
 and frighten the children, but not to touch them, and amuse 
 them with their strange dances and antics. Their whole appear- 
 ance is farcical, and for the evening they are allowed great 
 license and fun in the village. After St. Nicholas has departed 
 the children go to their homes, with the expectation that St. 
 Nicholas will visit each house separately and be more generous 
 and bring them more gifts. So, after saying their prayers with 
 more than usual earnestness, they put baskets and dishes on the 
 window-sills and go to bed. The parents later put their simple 
 gifts in these places. 
 
 " The 6th of December, the real day of the feast, is celebrated 
 in the churches alone. The celebration of this day in this way 
 does not seem at all out of keeping with the lives of the simple 
 people." (Katherine Farrand Eeighard, in The Outlook, De- 
 cember 28, 1895.) 
 
 Among the old Dutch burghers of New York, New Year's Eve 
 was the date on which fat jolly roistering St. Nicholas made his 
 appearance, sometimes accompanied by his good-natured vrouw, 
 Molly Grietje. Then the children gathered round the immense 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 753 
 
 fireplace, singing in muffled voices their evening hymns to the 
 good saint : 
 
 Santa Klaus, goedt heilig man ! 
 
 Knopyebest van Amsterdam, 
 
 Van Amsterdam aan Spanje, 
 
 Van Spanje aan Oranje, 
 
 En brang deze kindjes eenige graps ; 
 
 (" Santa Claus, good holy man ! 
 Go your way from Amsterdam, 
 From Amsterdam to Spain, 
 From Spain to Orange, 
 And bring these little children toys ;") 
 or, 
 
 Sint Nicolaas, myn goden vriend, 
 Ik hab u altyd wel gediend ; 
 Als gy my nu not wilt geben, 
 Zal ik dienen als myn leben. 
 
 (" Saint Nicholas, my dear good friend, 
 To serve you ever was my end ; 
 If you me now something will give, 
 Serve you I will as long as I live.") 
 
 From an ecclesiastical point of view, however, the festival 
 of St. Nicholas is nowhere celebrated with more splendor and 
 earnestness than at Bari, a seaport on the southeastern coast 
 of Italy. Here, in a subterranean building of Saracenic archi- 
 tecture beneath the superb church of St. Nicholas, are treasured 
 the bones of the saint. Legend relates that these were originally 
 buried in his own cathedral at Myra. In the eleventh century 
 they were stolen by certain merchants of Bari, who landed with 
 them at that town on May 9, 1087, and handed them over to the 
 archbishop. On the very day when they were reburied in what 
 was then the church of St. Stephen, thirty persons were cured 
 of various distempers by the intercession of the saint. Since 
 that time the tomb of St. Nicholas of Bari has been famous for 
 pilgrimages. To this day the 6th of December draws hither 
 pilgrims to the number of many thousands, all with staves 
 bound with olive and pine, many of them barefooted ; all of 
 them fed, if they will, at the priory gates ; all of them clad in 
 their picturesque ancient costumes, devoted, earnest, fiery, and 
 observing a rite that has been known from time immemorial. 
 
 A novel and intei-esting part of the ceremonies is seen when 
 the sailors of the port, in memory possibly of some old rites in 
 honor of Neptune, take the saint's image from the care of the 
 canons, and bear it through the streets and far out to sea, only 
 returning with it at nightfall, when, with bonfires and rockets 
 and torches, the whole population intoning chants and litanies, 
 they carry it about from shrine to shrine, and at length restore it 
 
 48 
 
754 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 to its keepers under the late stars with solemn earnestness, and 
 with all the wild but half-suppressed religious excitement pos- 
 sible only to the high -wrought Southern temperament. 
 
 A contributor to Chambers's " Book of Days" (vol. ii. p. 664) 
 who was present at St. Mcholas's feast in Bari adds some inter- 
 esting particulars : 
 
 " The clergy composing the chapter of St. Nicholas are not 
 slow to maintain the thaumaturgic character of their patron, 
 and seem to believe in it. The bones of the saint are deposited 
 in a sepulchre beneath the magnificent crypt, which is in itself 
 a sort of subterranean church, of rich Saracenic architecture. 
 Through the native rock which forms the tomb, water constantly 
 exudes, which is collected by the canons on a sponge attached 
 to a reed, squeezed into bottles, and sold to the pilgrims, as a 
 miraculous specific, under the name of the ' Manna of St. Nich- 
 olas.' As a proof of its supernatural character, a large bottle 
 was shown to me, in which, suspended from the cork, grew and 
 floated the delicate green bladder of one of the Adriatic ulvce. 
 I suppose that its growth in fresh water had been extremely 
 slow, for a person, whose w^ord I did not doubt, assured me 
 that he remembered the bottle from his childhood, and that the 
 vegetation was then much less visible. ' This,' said the grand 
 vicar, a tall aquiline-featured priest, who looked as if he watched 
 the effect of every word upon a probable heretic, — ' this we con- 
 sider to be conclusive as to the character of the water. If vege- 
 tation takes place in water that you keep in a jar, the water 
 becomes offensive. This bottle has been in its present state for 
 many years. You see the vegetation. But it is not putrid. 
 Taste it, you will find it perfectly sweet. Questa e prodigiosa.' I 
 trust that all the water that was sold to the pilgrims was really 
 thus afforded by St. Nicholas, if its efficacy be such as is asserted 
 to be the case ; but on this subject the purchasers must rely 
 implicitly on the good faith of the canons, as mere human 
 senses cannot distinguish it from that of the castle well." 
 
 Nigger 'Lection Day. In Boston this was the name given in 
 early times to the day when the name of the newly elected gov- 
 ernor was formally announced. The black population were then 
 allowed to throng the Common and join in the festivities of their 
 white brethren. But on the White Election Day, or Artillery 
 Day (q. v.), which occurred in the same week, no black man 
 dared to be seen in the places of public resort. In other local- 
 ities, notably on the Massachusetts coast, in Connecticut, and in 
 Narragansett, the term Nigger 'Lection was applied to the elec- 
 tion of a black governor whom the negroes chose to hold sway 
 over them. The authority which this governor wielded over his 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 756 
 
 brethren frequently made him a man of some importance in the 
 community, and his master was glad to pay for the feasting which 
 attended his election and inauguration. Occasionally Nigger 
 'Lection had a deep political significance and influence. (See 
 Hinman's " American Kevolution.") 
 
 Noche triste. (Sp., " Sad or Disastrous Night.") The name 
 given by the Spanish under Cortes to the night of July 1-2, 1520, 
 when they were almost cut to pieces by the Mexican natives. 
 Cortes had reached the city of Mexico with his army in the 
 previous November. He was hospitably received, but, fearing 
 treachery, he seized Montezuma in his own house and confined 
 him in the Spanish quarters as a hostage. The Aztecs rose in 
 arms and attacked the quarters. Montezuma, sent by Cortes to 
 the walls to expostulate with them, was received with a shower 
 of stones, and died June 30, 1520. Cortes immediately resolved 
 to leave Mexico city in secret. The movement was discovered, 
 and the natives set upon the Spaniards in the narrow causeway 
 of Tlapoca. The latter finally escaped, with the loss of four 
 hundred and fifty of their small force, besides four thousand of 
 their Indian allies and all their plunder. 
 
 November. This name signifies the ninth month (see Sep- 
 tember and October), which position it occupied in the ten- 
 month calendar ascribed to Eomulus. The name was retained 
 when two additional months were added. The Emperor Tibe- 
 rius was born in this month. Hence the Senate wished to give 
 
 November. GRotJP round a Fire. 
 
 it his name, following the precedent set by Augustus, but he 
 declined the honor, saying, '• What will you do, conscript fathers, 
 when you have thirteen Csesars ?" 
 
 It was the Windmonath, or Wind Month, of the Saxons, who 
 .knew it also as Blotmonath or Sacrifice Month, in consequence 
 either of the sacrifices then performed, or of the custom of 
 slaughtering the cattle for their winter supply of meat. 
 
756 CVRIOSITIES OF 
 
 O. 
 
 Oak-Apple Day, Royal Oak Day, or Restoration Day. 
 
 A festival which still survives locally in England on May 29 in 
 double commemoration of the birthday of Charles II. and of his 
 return to London after the rebellion, May 29, 1660. The allusion 
 is to his concealment in an oak-tree near Boscobel House, Shrop- 
 shire, after his defeat by Cromwell at the battle of Worcester on 
 September 3, 1651. John Evelyn in his Diary under date of May 
 29, 1665, records that this " was the first anniversary appointed 
 by Act of ParHament to be observed as a day of General Thanks- 
 giving for the miraculous restoration of His Majesty ; our vicar 
 preaching on Psalm cxviii. 24, requiring us to be thankful and 
 rejoice, as indeed we had cause." A special form of prayer suited 
 to this day remained in the Common Prayer Book until it was 
 abolished by Act of Parliament in 1859 (22 Yict. c. 2). On this 
 day it was also customary for the chaplain of the House of Com- 
 mons to preach in St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, before 
 " the House," usually represented by the Speaker, the sergeant- 
 at-arms, the clerks and other officers, and some half-dozen mem- 
 bers. This observance has been discontinued since 1858. (Times : 
 Something for Everybody, 1861, p. 74.) 
 
 The circumstances of Charles's flight after the battle of Wor- 
 cester are full of romantic adventure, and an account of them 
 is necessary to a full understanding of the Oak-Apple Day fes- 
 tivities. Boscobel House had been built in the time of James I. 
 by a Catholic gentleman named John Gifford, who had caused 
 various places of concealment to be constructed for the purpose 
 of affording shelter to proscribed persons of his own reli«;ion. 
 Hence it was deemed a safe place for the royal fugitive. There 
 was no one at home save William Penderel, the housekeeper, his 
 wife, and his four brothers. Later Charles was joined by the 
 brave Cavalier, Colonel Carlis, who had been the last man to 
 retreat from Worcester. An alarm reaching Boscobel that the 
 Roundhead troopers were on the track of the fugitives, it was 
 determined by the faithful brothers to conceal them in a thick 
 spreading oak in the adjoining woods. This plan was hit upon 
 none too soon, for the Roundheads soon appeared. Miss Agnes 
 Strickland in Harper's Magazine for December, 1850, has pre- 
 served a curious tradition of the search that followed. " Pope's 
 popular but long-suppressed line," she says, — 
 
 " Angels who watched the royal oak so well, 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 757 
 
 always makes me think that he must have been familiar with 
 the following incident which my father's motFar, Elizabeth Cot- 
 terel, who was the grand-daughter of a cadet of the old loyal 
 family of that name in Staffordshire, and maternally descended 
 from one of the honest Penderel brothers, was accustomed to 
 relate as a fact, derived from family tradition, connected with 
 the perils and hairbreadth escapes of Charles II. at Boscobel. 
 
 " ' The Eoundhead troopers,' she said, ' having tracked the 
 king, first to Whiteladies, and then to Boscobel Forest, were led, 
 by the keen scent of their bloodhounds, just at the twilight hour, 
 to the very tree in which he and Colonel Carlis were hidden. The 
 traitors, a sergeant and five others of the same company, made 
 a halt under the Eoyal Oak, and began to reconnoitre it, while 
 their dogs came baying and barking round about the trunk. 
 Suddenly the leaves began to rustle, and one of the villains cried 
 out, — 
 
 " ' " Hallo ! some one is surely hidden here ! — look how the 
 branches shake." 
 
 " ' " It will be worth a thousand pounds to us if it be the 
 young king," said another. 
 
 " 'Then the sergeant asked who would volunteer to ascend the 
 tree, and earn a larger share of the reward by taking the sup- 
 posed prize alive ; but, as no one appeared willing to risk the 
 chance of encountering a clapperclawing from the royal lion, 
 dealt from a vantage height, he was just giving the word for 
 them to fire a volley into the tree, when, by the grace of God,' 
 the old lady would add with impressive solemnity, 'a white owl 
 flew out from the thickest covert of the branches and screeched 
 " fie upon them !" as well she might ; whereupon the false traitors 
 hooted out a curse as bitter as that of Meroz on the poor bird, 
 and growled to each other that it was she that had misled 
 their dogs, and had stirred the leaves withal, to mock themselves; 
 howsomever, they would have a shot at her, to teach her better 
 manners than to screech at the soldiers of the Lord. But 
 though five of the sorry knaves banged off their musketoons at 
 the harmless bird, not oneof t,hem was marksman enough to hit 
 a feather of her. Lastly, the sergeant took out a printed copy 
 of the proclamation, promising " the reward of a thousand pounds 
 for the apprehension of the young man, Charles Stuart, eldest 
 son of the late King Charles," and fastened it on the trunk of 
 the- Eoyal Oak where his majesty was sitting in the branches 
 above them, hearing all they said, and an eye-witness of their 
 treason.' " 
 
 After numerous other adventures, the royal fugitive succeeded 
 towards the end of October in securing passage in a little bark 
 from Shoreham to Dieppe, where he landed in safety. More 
 
768 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 than forty persons, some of them in very humble circumstances, 
 had been instrumental in his escape, not one of whom could 
 be induced to betray him by the large reward offered by the 
 Parliament. 
 
 On the 8th of May, 1660, Charles II. was proclaimed king in 
 London and Westminster and subsequently throughout his do- 
 minions. On the 16th he came to the Hague, on the 23d em- 
 barked with his two brothers for England, and on the 25th 
 landed at Dover, where he was received by General Monk at the 
 head of a portion of the army, who escorted him to Canterbury. 
 On the 29th, his birthday, he made his triumphal entry into 
 London. 
 
 On the 13th of June, 1661, Charles summoned the five Shrop- 
 shire brothers to attend him at Whitehall, when his majesty 
 was pleased to acknowledge their faithful services, and signified 
 his intention of notifying his gratitude by a suitable reward, 
 inquiring if they had any particular favor to ask. They only 
 asked an exemption from the penal laws, with liberty for them- 
 selves and their descendants to enjoy the free exercise of their 
 religion, being members of the Catholic Church. This request 
 was granted, and their names, together with those of their kins- 
 woman Mrs. Yates, Mr. Huddleston, and Mr. Whitgreave, were 
 especially exempted in the statute from the pains and penalties 
 of recusancy. 
 
 King Charles granted a moderate pension to them and their 
 descendants forever. 
 
 " The Oak," says a contemporary, whose pleasant little chron- 
 icle of Boscobel was published in 1660, the year of the restora- 
 tion, "is now properly called ' The Eoyal Oake of Boscobel,' nor 
 will it lose that name while it continues a tree: and since his 
 majesty's happy restoration that those mysteries have been re- 
 vealed, hundreds of people for many miles round have flocked to 
 see the famous Boscobel, which, as you have heard, had once the 
 honor to be the palace of his sacred majesty, but chiefly to be- 
 hold the Eoyal Oake, which has been deprived of all its young 
 boughs by the visitors of it, who keep them in memory of his 
 majesty's happy preservation." 
 
 Dr. Stukeley in his " Itinerarium Curiosum," 1724, vol. iii. p. 
 57, makes this mention of the tree : " A bowshot from Boscobel 
 House, just by a horse-track passing through the wood, stood 
 the Eoyal Oak, into which the king and his companion. Colonel 
 Carlis, climbed by means of the hen-roost ladder, when they 
 judg'd it no longer safe to stay in the house ; the family reach- 
 ing them victuals with the nuthook. The tree is now enclosed 
 in with a brick wall, the inside whereof is covered with lawrel, 
 of which we may say, as Ovid did of that before the Augustan 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 759 
 
 palace. ' mediamque tuebere quercum.' Close by its side grows 
 a yoong thriving plant from one of its acorns. Over the door 
 of the inclosure, I took this inscription in marble : ' Felicissimam 
 arborem quam in asylum potentissimi Eegis Caroli II. Deus O. 
 M. per quem reges regnant hie crescere voluit, tam in perpetuam 
 rei tantse memoriam, quam specimen firmse in reges fidei, muro 
 cinctam posteris commendant Basilius et Jana Fitzherbert. 
 Quercus arnica Jovi.' " 
 
 The tree and its enclosure have long since disappeared, but 
 the inscription is still preserved in the farm-house at Boscobel. 
 Burgess in his " Eidodendron" tells us that the Eoyal Oak 
 '• succumbed at length to the reiterated attentions of its vota- 
 ries, and a huge bulk of timber, consisting of many loads, was 
 taken away by handfuls." Saplings were raised in different 
 parts of the country from its acorns. Several were sown by the 
 king himself Making a pilgrimage to the scene of his former 
 troubles, he visited the Eoyal Oak, and was observed to gather 
 a handful of the acorns. Some of these he planted with his 
 own hand in St. James's Park. A promising young tree, which 
 sprang from one of these acorns, which Charles had planted in 
 the queen's pleasure garden, within sight of his bedchamber, in 
 St. James's Palace, and was accustomed to water and tend with 
 great pleasure, was called the King's Eoyal Oak, and had be- 
 come an object of interest to the people as a relic of that popu- 
 lar sovereign, but was destroyed by Sarah, Duchess of Marlbor- 
 ough, as soon as her husband obtained the grant of the ground 
 on which it stood, for the site of Marlborough House. This 
 was regarded as an outrage on popular feeling. 
 
 Two others stood on the north side of the Serpentine in Hyde 
 Park, but were blighted by a severe frost at the beginning of 
 the present century. One was entirely removed. The stem and 
 a few branches of the other still remain, covered with ivy and 
 protected by an iron fence. 
 
 In the Bodleian Library is preserved a fragment of the original 
 tree, carved in the form of a salver for a tankard. The inscrip- 
 tion records that it is a gift from Mrs. Letitia Lane, a member 
 of the Penderel family. The Barber-Surgeons' Company of 
 London possesses a curious memorial in the form of a silver cup 
 presented to it by Charles IL, the stem and body of which repre- 
 sent an oak-tree from which hang acorns fashioned like little 
 bells, which ring as the cup passes from hand to hand around 
 the festive board of the company on great occasions. 
 
 Oak Apple Day was formerly universally commemorated in 
 England by the people wearing oak-leaves or oak-apples in their 
 hats, which were sometimes covered witii leaf-t!;old. In London 
 it was also usual on this anniversary to decorate the monument 
 
760 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 of Kiehard Penderel in the churchyard of St. Griles with oak 
 branches and to pay a similar tribute to the statue of Charles I. 
 at Charing Cross. These customs survived the Eevolution of 
 1688, even in the army, for Brand records that "two soldiers 
 were whipped almost to death and turned out of the service for 
 wearing boughs in their hats on the 29th of May, 1716." Brand, 
 writing in 1849, also says, — 
 
 " I remember the boys at Newcastle-upon-Tyne had formerly 
 a taunting rhyme on this occasion, with which they used to 
 insult such persons as they met on this day who had not oak- 
 leaves in their hats : 
 
 " Koyal Oak, 
 The Whigs to provoke. 
 
 " There was a retort courteous by others, who contemptuously 
 wore plane-tree leaves, which is of the same homely sort of stuff : 
 
 ' ' Plane-tree leaves ; 
 The Church-folk are thieves." 
 
 Even to this day May 29 is known as Shitsack or Shickshack 
 Day in Wiltshire and Berkshire, the young people carrying shit- 
 sack, or sprigs of young oak, in the morning, and powder- 
 monkey or even-ash (ash-leaves with an equal number of leaflets) 
 in the afternoon. " Those who wear these emblems of loyalty 
 have the privilege of pinching or otherwise ill-treating those 
 who do not don the oak-leaf" " (P. H. Ditchfield : Old English 
 Customs extant at the Present Time, London and New York, 1886.) 
 In Nottinghamshire, also, according to the same authority, the 
 anniversary is known as Oak and Nettle Day. The boys arm 
 themselves with oak sprigs and bunches of nettles. The latter 
 they use to strike the hands and faces of all who cannot " show 
 their oak." Eotten eggs, says Mr, Ditchfield, were used as in- 
 struments of punishment twenty years ago. 
 
 The workingmen of Basingstoke and other towns in Hamp- 
 shire arise early on the 29th of May to gather slips of oak with 
 the gall on ; these they put in their hats or anywhere about their 
 persons. They also hang pieces to the knockers, latches, or other 
 parts of the house doors of the wealthy, who take them in to 
 place in their halls, etc. After breakfast these men go round to 
 such houses for beer, etc. If they do not receive anything, the 
 following verses should be said, — 
 
 Shig-shag, penny a rag 
 
 (Bang his head in Croommell's bag), 
 
 All up in a bundle, — 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 761 
 
 but fear often prevents them. However, the lads have no fear, 
 and use it freely to any one without an oak-apple or oak-leaf 
 visible on some part of his person, — ill-treating him for his want 
 of loyalty. After noon the loyalty ceases, and then if any one 
 be charged with having shig-shag, the following verses are said ; 
 
 Shig-shag's gone past, 
 You're the biggest fool at last; 
 "When shig-shag comes again, 
 You'll be the biggest fool then. 
 
 And the one who charges the other with the oak-leaf receives 
 the ill-treatment. {Notes and Queries, First Series, vol. xii. p. 100.) 
 
 At the villages of Wishford and Barford, near Sahsbury, the 
 inhabitants who claim certain rights in Grovely Woods assert 
 them by meeting here on May 29, when they gather boughs and 
 carry them in procession, with the cry of " Grovely, Grovely, 
 Grovely !" 
 
 Hone (1826, vol. i. p. 618) has the following entry: 
 
 " At Tiverton, on the 29th of May, it is customary for a num- 
 ber of young men, dressed in the style of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury, and armed with swords, to parade the streets and gather 
 contributions from the inhabitants. At the head of the proces- 
 sion walks a man called ' Oliver,' dressed in black, with his face 
 and hands smeared over with soot and grease, and his body 
 bound with a strong cord, the end of which is held by one of 
 the men to prevent his running too far. After these come 
 another troop, dressed in the same style, each man bearing a 
 large branch of oak ; four others, carrying a kind of throne 
 made of oaken boughs, on which a child is seated, bring up the 
 rear. A great deal of merriment is excited among the boys at 
 the pranks of ' Master Oliver,' who capers ahout in a most ludi- 
 crous manner. Some of them amuse themselves by casting dirt, 
 while others, more mischievously inclined, throw stones at him, 
 but woe betide the young urchin who is caught ; his face assumes 
 a most awful appearance from the soot and grease with which 
 ' Oliver' begrimes it, whilst his companions who have been lucky 
 enough to escape his clutches testify their pleasure by loud 
 shouts. In the evening the whole party have a feast, the ex- 
 penses of which are defrayed by the collection made in the 
 morning. ' 
 
 The Illustrated London News for May 30, 1857, p. 515, describes 
 Oak-Apple Day as being anxiously looked forward to by old 
 and young : " Early in the morning ropes are stretched across 
 the street, upon which are hung garlands composed of all such 
 flowers as are in bloom. The garlands are also ornamented with 
 colored ribbons and handkerchiefs, and all the teaspoons which 
 
762 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 can be collected are hung in the middle. Maypoles, which are 
 less common, and large boughs of oak, are pressed into service. 
 Many are the penn'orths of gold leaf sold the day before, with 
 which to gild the oak-apple for the button-hole. A benefit club 
 meets on this day, and walks in procession with bands and flags 
 to church, after which they make a progress through the town 
 with bands playing and colors flying, finishing up with a dinner." 
 
 The town of Northampton still preserves a grateful memory 
 of Stuart generosity. A fire nearly destroyed the town in 1675. 
 Charles II. contributed one thousand tons of lumber out of 
 Whittlewood Forest, to enable the citizens to rebuild their houses, 
 and also remitted the duty of chimney money for seven years. 
 Formerly all the citizens placed a large branch of oak over the 
 doors of their houses on May 29. The oak boughs are rapidly 
 disappearing, but Ditchfield (p. 121) assures us that the corpora- 
 tion still attend All Saints' Church, and march thither in pro- 
 cession, followed by all the school-children in the town, the boys 
 having gilt oak-apples in their caps. The statue of the king, 
 near the church, is also decorated with oaken boughs on this 
 day, and many of the houses are similarly adorned. 
 
 The same authority mentions the continuance of the custom 
 at Durham for the cathedral choir to ascend the tower of the 
 cathedral on May 29 and sing three anthems from the three 
 sides of it. This custom is as old as the battle of Neville's Cross, 
 which Queen Philippa fought with David I. of Scotland in the 
 year 1346, when the monks chanted masses from the summit of 
 the tower on behalf of the queen. Tradition states that a choir- 
 boy once overbalanced himself and fell from the tower, and was 
 killed. Hence the choir sing their anthems only on the three 
 sides. 
 
 At Chelsea Hoyal Hospital, London, the anniversary is kept 
 every year with military rites and a patriotic consumption of 
 beef and pudding by the aged pensioners, who sport their 
 brightest coats and badges. Chelsea Hospital, it will be remem- 
 bered, was founded by Charles II. at the suggestion of Nell 
 Gwynn, who probably remembered pityingly the wounded and 
 useless soldiers she used to meet at Whitehall and Westminster 
 in her professional rounds as an orange-girl. 
 
 October. This month was so named because it was the 
 eighth month in the primitive Eoman calendar ascribed to 
 Eomulus. It became the tenth month in the calendar as revised 
 by Numa, who added January and February, but it retained its 
 original name, the more readily, perhaps, because it once more 
 became the tenth month when the year commenced, as it did in 
 early Christendom, with March. Julius Caesar in his revision of 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 763 
 
 the caleDdar gave it thirty days, which number was changed to 
 thirty-one by Augustus. As was the case with September, many 
 Eoman Emperors sought to change its name in their own honor. 
 It was successively Germanicus, Antoninus, Tacitus, and Hercu- 
 leus, the latter a surname of the Emperor Commodus. But 
 none of these names clung. The Eoman Senate had no better 
 luck when they renamed it Faustinus, in honor of Faustina, wife 
 of Antoninus. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxons called October WinterfyUeth, a name which 
 indicated that winter approached with the full moon of the 
 month. In old almanacs the sport of hawking is adojDted as 
 
 October, Hawking. 
 
 emblematical of this which was accounted the last month of 
 autumn. On October 23 the sun enters the sign Scorpio, the as- 
 tronomical emblem said to typify, in the form of a destructive 
 insect, the increasing power of cold over nature. In the same 
 manner the equal influences of cold and heat are represented by 
 Libra, or The Balance, the sign of the preceding month of 
 September. 
 
 Hedge-crickets sing ; and now, with treble soft. 
 The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft. 
 
 (Keats.) 
 
 The warm sun is failing ; the bleak wind is wailing ; 
 The bare boughs are sighing ; the pale flowers are dying. 
 
 (Shelley.) 
 
 The rivers run chill ; the red sun is sinking. 
 And I am grown old, and life is fast shrinking. 
 
 (Hood.) 
 
 Yet for ever and aye I will bless his name, 
 "While his winds blow fresh and his sunsets flame. 
 This prince of months, — October. 
 
 (Hayne.) 
 
 Oils, Holy. Three oils are used in the sacred services of the 
 Catholic Church : oil for the sick, employed in the sacrament of 
 extreme unction ; oil of the chrism, used after baptism, during 
 
764 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 confirmation, at the consecration of bishops, and of paten and 
 chalice, and in the blessing of bells ; and oil of the catechumens, 
 so called because employed on the candidates for baptism before 
 they are brought to the sacred font, but used also in the ordina- 
 tion of priests and the blessing and coronatiorj of kings and 
 queens. 
 
 Prior to the fourth century no particular day was fixed for the 
 ceremony of blessing these oils, though from the earliest times 
 
 Blessing the Holy Oils (1723). 
 (From Picart.) 
 
 the power of performing the function has been limited to the 
 bishops. The present custom of the Eoman Church is to bless 
 the holy oils once a year, on Maundy Thursday. They are im- 
 mediately distributed among the pastors of the several parishes, 
 who must keep them under lock and key in vessels of silver or 
 alloyed metal. The oils of the past year must not be used, but 
 common oil, in lesser quantity, may be added to the blessed oils 
 if necessary. 
 
 In Rome the ceremony of blessing is publicly performed at 
 the church of St. John Lateran. Twelve priests and seven 
 deacons assist the officiating bishop. The bishop and priests 
 
BLESSING THE HOLY OILS. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 765 
 
 breathe three times upon each of the oils, meaning by this action 
 that the power of the Holy Spirit is about to descend on the 
 oils ; and after the consecration is complete they salute the oils 
 with the words " Hail, holy oil ! hail, holy chrism !" 
 
 The Greek Church differs from the Latin in that the former 
 blesses the oils only once in three years, at Easter time. The 
 ceremony takes place at Moscow or Kief 
 
 On Monday morning the metropolitan goes to the sacristy of 
 the patriarchs, lights a fire, and pours into a caldron a gallon 
 of myro, or chrism, reading meanwhile the Gospel of the day. 
 
 The oil is kept boiling for three days and nights, monks at- 
 tending in relays and stirring the contents of the caldron with 
 silver ladles. Olive oil mixed with white wine of Lisbon and 
 perfumes make up the myro. The final ceremony takes place 
 when the mixture is put into two silver receptacles upon a 
 porcelain stove and stirred by six deacons in vestments of silver 
 and black. 
 
 The Empress Catherine II. gave to the church a silver vase, 
 which is still used as the final receptacle into which the oil is 
 poured, with a benediction. The people attend in thousands, as 
 they are permitted, and dip bits of cotton into the holy mixture. 
 On the afternoon of Thursday the vases are carried in a proces- 
 sion to the cathedral, where the metropolitan says mass. 
 
 Olaf, St.,or Olaf II. (995-1030), patron of J^orway, and, since 
 the union, of Sweden. His festival on July 29, the day of his 
 death, is still celebrated in the joint kingdom. Descended from 
 the ancient royal line, he was educated in exile as a Christian, 
 and in 1015- succeeded in wresting the crown from the usurper. 
 For fifteen years he devoted himself to the evangelization of 
 his new subjects. In 1030 he was slain in battle against the 
 invader Canute, King of England and Denmark. A year later 
 his remains were found in a miraculous state of preservation, 
 and were buried with great state in a chapel he had erected at 
 Trondhjem. The marvels enacted at his shrine attracted so 
 many pilgrims that the city speedily grew to be the largest and 
 most important in the land, and the chapel gave place to a 
 cathedral, in which the saint's bones still repose. Though he 
 was never canonized, the Church has bowed to popular acclama- 
 tion and never disputed his saintship. 
 
 Ommegang, Procession of the. A famous ceremony 
 which was formerly celebrated in Brussels on the Sunday before 
 Pentecost. It was held in honor of a miraculous statue of the 
 Virgin that had been carried in 1348 from Antwerp to Brussels 
 by a poor woman named Beatrice Soctkens and presented to 
 
766 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 the church of Notre-Dame des Yictoires. The commemoration 
 of the incident was made a municipal one. All the city magis- 
 trates, the guilds and corporations, the companies of archers and 
 crossbowmen, joined in a grand cavalcade specifically known as 
 the Ommegang, which accompanied the floats bearing represen- 
 tations of Old and New Testament scenes, together with animals, 
 giants, etc. The image itself was carried in a miniature ship. 
 (See Ursula, St.) 
 
 Ordensfest. (Grer., " Feast of Orders.") A ceremon}'^ pecu- 
 liar to Berlin. On some appointed day in the last week of 
 March all who during the preceding year have received any kind 
 of distinction from the German Emperor — the only source of 
 such honors — are invited to a service in the cathedral, followed 
 by a dinner at the castle. From one to two thousand persons 
 are thus brought together, ranging from the select few who have 
 obtained the order of the Eed Eagle to the hundreds who have 
 been decorated with the simplest Hohenzollern house order. 
 Most of the latter are, as a rule, members of the civil service, 
 or of fire-brigades, or non-commissioned officers, or even lackeys, 
 who value such decorations as testimonials and hand them down 
 to their children as heirlooms. All these are called to Berlin, 
 where the excellence of the dinner in the castle fully compen- 
 sates for the length of the sermon in the church. The guests 
 are seated at a series of tables, each of which is set apart for 
 one particular grade, according to the decoration conferred. 
 The system of orders, which are always announced as coming 
 direct from the king, is undoubtedly of great value in creating 
 a numerous body of loyal adherents. 
 
 Ouen or Ouine, St. (Lat. Audoenus), patron of Eouen, France 
 (595-683). He was bishop of that city for forty-four years. His 
 death-day, August 24, was formerly celebrated with a great fair 
 at St. Malo, in Brittany. This was known as the Saint-Ouine, 
 and alternatively as the Periwinkle Fair, — from the bowlfuls of 
 periwinkles that were sold at it, — or the Whistle Fair, because 
 of the innumerable whistles and trumpets and horns which chil- 
 dren bought there four centuries ago as they still buy them to- 
 day. It then took place within the walls of St. Malo. After 
 the great fire in the sixteenth century, which burned half the 
 town to the ground, the site of the fair was changed to the island 
 of the Grand Bey, where there was then a chapel dedicated to 
 the saint, about which the wives of St. Malo sailors prayed for 
 fair winds to bring their men home, turning the chapel cross 
 towards the quarter whence the wind should come, so that the 
 saying arose, " As changeable as the cross of St. Ouine." Lastly, 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 767 
 
 about the middle of the nineteenth century, long after the last 
 ruins of the chapel on the Grand Bey had been swept away or 
 overgrown, the Saint-Ouine was transferred to the broad quays 
 outside the town, where it is now held every year on the fifth 
 Sunday in Lent. But its importance has gone from it : from 
 its ancestor the great Whistle Fair it has inherited only one 
 quality, and that is noise. 
 
 Palio. The annual horse-race run in Siena in honor of the 
 Yirgin Mary, patron of the city, on August 15. The horses aro 
 the stout little nags put to every-day use by butchers, green- 
 grocers, and tradesmen. Each of the seventeen wards of Siena 
 selects its champion, a survival from the old party feuds between 
 the wards, and an attendant company of ten men dressed in 
 mediaeval costumes. A few hours before the race, horses and 
 men are blessed with much ceremony in their particular parish, 
 and then proceed to the Campo, the chief square in the cit}", 
 where they form part in a gorgeous procession headed by the 
 town band and closed by a modern fac-simile of the Carroccio, or 
 battle-car, taken from the Florentines at Monteaperto (1260) by 
 the victorious Sienese. Then come the races, which are run 
 barebacked, the jockeys having a cruel whip of ox-sinew^ called 
 a nerho^ which they are privileged to use not only on their own 
 but also on the rival horses, and on the rival jockeys as well. 
 The wanner is' escorted back in triumph to the parish church by 
 his own company and their adherents. There the prize banner 
 is hung up among a host of similar trophies, some of them dating 
 back many centuries, for the Palio has been run ever since the 
 fourteenth century. 
 
 Pallium. (Lat., " a cover," " a mantle.") A band of white 
 wool adorned with four purple crosses, which is w^orn by the 
 highest dignitaries of the Catholic Church on the most solemn 
 occasions. It is woven especially for the Pope and sent by him 
 to patriarchs, primates, archbishops, and occasionally to bishops 
 as a sign that they possess " the fulness of the episcopal office." 
 Its origin and early history are obscure. Pallium was the 
 Latin name for the loose upper garment of the Greeks which 
 among the Eomans was especially affected by philosophers and 
 among the Christians by ascetics. But no doubt the ecclesias- 
 tical pallium had some connection w^ith the shoulder-band of the 
 Jewish high-priest, which being adopted by Christian prelates 
 came to symbolize the Lord seeking after the lost Iamb and 
 
768 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 carrying it, when found, on bis shoulder. From the East it was 
 early transferred to the West, where it became the custom for 
 the Bishop of Eorae to present it to the metropolitans connected 
 with his see. The " Catholic Dictionary" thus sums up the prob- 
 
 Archbishop receiving the Pallium. 
 (From Picart.) 
 
 able evolution of the pallium : " It was an ornament of metro 
 politans, given to them perhaps from early times by the patriarchs 
 and by the Pope in that comparatively narrow district which 
 was under his most immediate supervision. Then the Pope gave 
 it to his vicars in distant parts, then as a mark of special honor 
 to some bishops, then he required all Western metropolitans to 
 ask it from him before exercising their functions as archbishops, 
 and finally the rule was extended even to patriarchs." 
 
 The wearing of the pallium is a matter of much ceremony. 
 First two chosen lambs are on St. Agnes' Day (January 21) 
 brought to the church of St. Agnes at Eome by the apostolic 
 subdeacons, while the Agnus Dei is being sung. These lambs 
 are presented at the altar, received by two canons of the I^ateran 
 church, and solemnly blessed. After mass the lambs are taken 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 769 
 
 in charge by the nuns of St. Agnes until shearing-time, when 
 their wool is spun and woven into pallia by the nuns of Torre 
 de' Specehia. On the vigil of the festival of SS. Peter and Paul 
 the newly made pallia are carried on gilded trays to St. Peter's, 
 where they are blessed by the Pope and laid by the subdeacons 
 upon the tomb of St. Peter. Here they remain all night. Next 
 day they are locked up in a silver coifer close to the relics of St. 
 Peter, where they remain until required. An archbishop cannot, 
 strictly speaking, assume- the title or the functions of the archi- 
 episcopate until he has received the pallium from Eome. In case 
 he is elected to a see of metropolitan or higher rank, he must 
 beg the pallium " instanter, instantius, instantissime," within 
 three months after his consecration or from his confirmation if 
 he was already a bishop and has come to the metropolitan see 
 by translation. He receives it from the hands of another bishop 
 deputed by the Pope. He cannot transmit it to his successor, 
 and if translated he must beg for another pallium. The pallium 
 or pallia, if he has received more than one, are buried with him 
 when he dies. 
 
 Palm Sunday. The Sunday before Easter, commemorating 
 the triumphant entry of Christ into Jerusalem, when, mounted 
 upon an ass, he rode into the city, and " a very great multitude 
 spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches 
 from the trees, and strewed them in the way. And the multi- 
 tudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna 
 to the Son of David : Blessed is he that cometh in the name 
 of the Lord ; Hosanna in the highest." (Matt. xxi. 8, 9.) 
 
 Their enthusiasm, however, speedily cooled, and He whom 
 they had delighted to honor on the Sunday was on the following 
 Friday put to a cruel and lingering death amid the applause of 
 the populace. From a very early date, accordingly, of the 
 Christian era (from the tenth century at least, if not from the 
 fifth), the Sunday before Easter was called Palm Sunday, because 
 on this day the Church ordained that boughs of palm-trees should 
 be carried in procession, in imitation of those strewed before our 
 Saviour when he rode into Jerusalem. The palms were con- 
 secrated by the priests. A portion of them were (and still are) 
 preserved to be burned for holy ashes to lay on the heads of the 
 people on Ash Wednesday in the following year. The rest were 
 distributed first among the assistant priests and next the congre- 
 gation. Then the procession took its way from the church 
 through the streets of the town, and back in procession again. 
 
 To represent the Christ, a priest used to ride in the procession 
 on an ass, carrying the host. Sometimes a wooden ass was used 
 instead of a real one, and then the figure on its back, representing 
 
 49 
 
770 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 the Saviour, was also of wood. The whole was mounted on a 
 platform with wheels, and was drawn through the streets by a 
 rope. The people threw down their palm-branches before this 
 car, as it passed, and eagerly picked them up after the wheels 
 had been over them, guarding them afterwards as charms against 
 storms and lightning. In countries where real palms were not 
 to be had, other kinds of branches and boughs were used instead. 
 In England, for instance, willow boughs were the favorite sub- 
 stitute. In some places, after the procession of the wooden ass 
 was over, boys were allowed to hire the ass and its image rider 
 from the sexton, to drag about the streets, while they begged for 
 pennies. Half of all they got was the pay of the sexton. Before 
 England became Protestant these processions were extremely 
 popular through the countrj^, and when King Henry YIII. 
 broke with the Church of Eome he specified the carrying of 
 palms on Palm Sunday as one of the customs that were not to 
 be discontinued. The formal observance of the feast was carried 
 on till some time in the reign of Edward YI., and after that it 
 gradually fell into disuse. 
 
 The Pax or Peace Cake was formerly distributed on Palm 
 Sunday in many English churches, the intention being that 
 those who had quarrelled should break the cake together and 
 say, " Peace and good will," thus making up their differences in 
 preparation for the Easter communion. A survival of this cus- 
 tom occurs in the united parishes of Sellack and King's Chapel, 
 Herefordshire, where cakes are distributed on Palm Sunday, the 
 cost of which is defrayed by a rent-charge on a farm in the 
 parish. At one time glasses of ale were handed round with the 
 cakes. Ditchfield informs us that the present vicar (1896) remem- 
 bers seeing this part of the ceremony. 
 
 In some places the priests used to make little crosses of the 
 palms, and these were supposed to protect those who obtained 
 them against lightning. There was a curious little local observance 
 in Cornwall. The people there used to take their crosses of palm 
 to the shrine of Our Lady of JSTantswell, and when they had paid 
 small fees to the priest in charge they were allowed to throw 
 the palms into the well. If a cross floated, it meant that its 
 owner would live through the year; if it did not, it meant that 
 he would die. As the crosses must have been reasonably light 
 and generally sure to float, it is easy to see how this would 
 become a popular form of divination. It was also said in Corn- 
 wall that if anybody did not have a palm in his hand on Palm 
 Sunday he would some time have his hand cut off. 
 
 On Palm Saturday the boys of the grammar-school at Lanark 
 used to parade the streets with a tree of the willow kind (Salix 
 capred) in blossom, ornamented with daffodils, mezereon, and box- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 771 
 
 tree. It is still customary, too, for those who make excursions 
 into the country surrounding London to bring home some rem- 
 iniscence of the day, by gathering branches of the willow or 
 sallow with their gray shining velvety buds. With these they 
 ornament their hats, their bonnets, and their breasts, or carry 
 the branches in their hands. 
 
 It seems likely at first glance that this custom did not origi- 
 nally belong to Palm Sunday or Saturday at all, but was an 
 adaptation of the more familiar and important May-Day ob- 
 servance. 
 
 At Eome the palms used are genuine palms, not boxwood- or 
 olive-branches, as elsewhere, and these palm-leaves are many of 
 them woven into all sorts of graceful shapes and adorned with 
 interleaved lilies, roses, and tulips. The latter are for the well- 
 to-do, who purchase them from the trafSckers crowding the steps 
 of the basilica, and are fetched into the church to be blessed at 
 the appropriate moment. The poorer classes content themselves 
 with the plainer leaves that are handed out by the priests in the 
 sacristy. 
 
 The little village of San Eemo near Genoa has for centuries 
 enjoyed the prescriptive right of furnishing all the palms that 
 are used in St. Peter's Church. The right is said to date from 
 the pontificate of Sixtus Y. This Pope had conceived the idea 
 of transporting the obelisk which formerly ornamented the 
 circus of Caligula and Nero to the middle of the piazza of St. 
 Peter's. He publicly announced that the death-penalty would 
 be inflicted upon any one who should, during the ceremony, dis- 
 turb the silence that was necessary for overhearing the commands 
 of the architect Fontana. l^ow, it happened that just as the 
 obelisk was being raised in the piazza the hauling-ropes caught 
 fire from friction. What was to be done ? JSTobody seemed to 
 know. Then above the solemn silence rang out a voice, — 
 
 " Acqua alle funi .'" (" Water to the ropes !") 
 
 The advice was good, and was taken at once. The obelisk was 
 saved. But the sbirri arrested the owner of the voice. He was 
 brought before Sixtus Y. 
 
 " What is your name?" asked the Pope. 
 
 " Bresca of San Eemo." 
 
 "You know that my ordinance punishes your action with 
 death ?" 
 
 " I know that at the peril of my own life I have saved the 
 lives of hundreds of workmen whom the obelisk would have 
 crushed in its fall." 
 
 " Yery well. What reward do you wish for your service?" 
 
 "Kothing for myself, but for my fellow-countrymen of the 
 Genoese riviera, where superb palms grow, I ask that they be 
 
772 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 allowed to furnish the palms which are used during Holy Week 
 in the solemn procession at the basilica of St. Peter's." 
 
 " Granted," said the Pope, " not only in my pontificate, but in 
 perpetuity under all my successors." 
 
 And the promise of Sixtus Y. has ever since been respected. 
 
 After the palms have been blessed and distributed, a proces- 
 sion follows. The choristers in violet-colored soutanes and sur- 
 plice lead. Then follow the seminarists, the beneficiaries of the 
 basilica of St. Peter, the canons in surplice and rochet, the car- 
 dinal archpriest in a white chasuble embroidered with gold. Each 
 holds a palm-leaf in his hand. 
 
 At a given signal the procession moves out of the basilica and 
 makes the tour of the portico, chanting songs of joy. This is 
 the " triumphal march." When the procession seeks to re-enter 
 the church the door is found to be closed. It does not open 
 until a subdeacon knocks against it with the handle of his cross, 
 saying,— 
 
 " Attollite portas principes vestras : et elevamini, portse seter- 
 nales." 
 
 Then the door swings open, and the procession moves up the 
 aisle to the grand altar, where mass is celebrated. 
 
 The closing and opening of the door not only symbolized the 
 entry of Christ into Jerusalem, but also the larger truth of the 
 assurance of salvation opened through the expiation of man's sins 
 by the Eedeemer. It is repeated, in a less imposing manner, in 
 all the Catholic churches in the world. 
 
 In Spain Palm Sunday preserves all its picturesque mediaeval 
 characteristics. The chief people in every town, as well as the 
 middle and lower classes, take part in the ceremony. Each 
 bears real palm-leaves and olive-branches. First the clergy go 
 through a little performance intended to represent the reception 
 of Christ at Jerusalem. They go out of the church by a side 
 door, form in procession, make a tour around the building, and 
 come to the main porch, called the Door of the Apostles. This, 
 when they arrive, is closed. The priest knocks three times, the 
 door is flung open, and the clergy enter, followed by all the 
 crowd, the principal people coming first, bearing the palms. In 
 the course of the service these are blessed by the priest in the 
 presence of the archbishop. 
 
 On the eve of Palm Sunday in Servia the young girls gather 
 together upon a hill and sing ballads on the resurrection of 
 Lazarus. On Palm Sunday itself before sunrise they repair to 
 the well or fountain whence they draw water. Here they dance 
 in a ring and sing in chorus songs wherein the poet tells how 
 the horns of the stag disturb the water while its eye renders 
 them pure and clear. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 773 
 
 Palmknopen Festival. A popular prelimiuary to the mari- 
 tal ceremony among the Netherlander^. Two days before a 
 wedding, young people of both sexes meet at the house of the 
 bride and weave garlands out of leaves of gold and silver, inter- 
 
 Palmknopen Festival. 
 (From Picart.) 
 
 spersed with natural flowers, or entirely out of natural leaves 
 and flowers. The festival is attended with kissing and other 
 games. On the wedding day these garlands are thrown around 
 among the guests. 
 
 Panagia. (Gr. Tzavdyioq^ " all-holy.") In the Greek Church, 
 the distinctive title of the Virgin Mary, as well as of her ikons, 
 or effigies. The most famous of the latter is the Panagia at- 
 tributed to St. Luke and preserved in the monastery of Sumelas 
 in the Peloponnesus. It is said to have been found in a huge 
 cavern by the \\o\j shepherdess Euphrosyne in the fifth century, 
 and to have been acknowledged by St. Luke as his workmanship 
 in a vision. A monastery was raised on the spot, the cavern 
 Itself being turned into the church. For centuries this has been 
 a favorite pilgrim-bourn of members of the Greek religion, who 
 flock to the shrine of the Panagia on the yearly recurrence of 
 her great festival day, the 27th of August in our calendar, the 
 
774 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 15th in theirs. At other seasons her visitors are comparatively 
 few ; indeed, snow, rain, and mist render the convent almost in- 
 accessible for full eight months of the twelve. The image is a 
 rude alto-rilievo in wood. " A blackish outline," says W. Gilford 
 Palgrave, "chiefly defined by the gold-leaf ground that limits 
 head and shoulders, indicates the figure. Close beside it hang, 
 obliquely from the ceiling, like masts in slings, two huge wax 
 tapers, wrapped in some material, costly, but now undistinguish- 
 able through its dingy encrustments. Near the tapers is also 
 suspended an enormous circular chandelier of silver gilt, with a 
 quantity of little ex-votos, silver boats, gold filigree ornaments, 
 coins, and the like, dangling from its rim. We deposit the offer- 
 ing that courtesy requires in the all-receiving platter before the 
 Panagia, and are next called on to revere the special object of 
 devout pilgrimage, a small silver rocking-cradle, of pretty but 
 not ancient workmanship, consecrated to the goddess of the 
 shrine. Into this cradle a piece of money (the more precious 
 the metal the greater its efficacy) is to be laid ; after which the 
 pilgrim, having thrice raised and lowered the toy and its con- 
 tents on the palm of his or her hand before the unveiled Pan- 
 agia, deposits it on the plate of offerings. Should the cradle 
 when thus set down continue to rock, the happy votary will 
 infallibly become before long a father or a mother, as the case 
 may be ; its immobility, on the contrary, is a sad but conclusive 
 presage of married sterility. Now, barrenness is at the present 
 day no less an opprobrium in the East than it was in the age 
 of Hannah and Pheninnah ; and its prevention or cure is the 
 motive of far the greater number of pilgrimages to Mariamana; 
 even newly married Mohammedans, not to mention Armenians, 
 Latins, and other unorthodox Christians of either sex, prove by 
 their frequent visits to the cradle of Sumelas how catching a 
 thing is superstition. The residue of the pilgrims are mostly 
 petitioners for the recovery of a sick child, or relative, or self, 
 and for them also the cradle obligingly extends the subject- 
 matter of its oracles. The origin of this particular observance 
 probably does not go back farther than Comnenian times ; though 
 the monks refer it, like the foundation of the convent itself, to 
 the fifth century." (The Monastery of Sumelas: Frasefs Maga- 
 zine.') 
 
 The Greeks look upon the image as their especial patron. 
 During the Saracenic wars she is alleged to have caused the 
 guns of Sultan Murad lY., pointed against the convent walls, 
 to spin round and begin firing upon the Sultan's own troops. 
 Nor did she lose interest in her beloved country during the 
 war of Grecian independence (1821-27). She is then reported 
 to have spoken words of encouragement to the Greeks, to have 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 775 
 
 rejoiced at every victory, and to have shed tears over every 
 defeat. Her emotions during the war of 1897 have not yet 
 found a chronicler. 
 
 Panch-Kosi, or circumambulation of the city. The most 
 solemn ceremony practised by the pilgrims to Benares. No 
 pilgrim returns from the holy city without taking advantage of 
 this soul-purifying ceremony. As the circuit is fifty miles and 
 has to be performed on foot, it takes six days to get back to the 
 starting-point, the Manikarnika Grhat, which is close to the burn- 
 ing-places. The circuit being performed sunwise is in effect a 
 pradakshina (^. v.). On the last day the pilgrim scatters on the 
 ground grains of barley which he carries in a bag made for 
 the purpose. This curious custom is in honor of Siva. On the 
 theory that the pradakshina has a solar symbolism, and the circle 
 gone over represents the yearly cycle, the barley may possibly 
 mean the results of the sun's power, the food that is annually 
 produced and scattered over the earth for the good of all man- 
 kind. (Simpson : The Buddhist Praying -Wheel, p. 80 ; Sherring : 
 The Sacred City of the Hindus, p. 178.) 
 
 An imitation of the Panch-Kosi is performed at Bhuvaneswar, 
 in Orissa. This is called Kshetra parikramana, or " Going the 
 Round of the City." Dr. Rajendralala Mitra (^Antiquities of 
 Orissa, vol. ii. p. 60) tells us that the circuit takes several days 
 to accomplish. The Ekrama Purana, however, does not insist 
 upon this large circuit ; it assigns the inner circle formed by a 
 radius of one mile round the Great Tower as the proper boundary 
 of the circumambulation ; but it recommends the operation to 
 be repeated three times, and gives directions how it is to be per- 
 formed, and what mantras should be repeated when starting on 
 the journey. The religious merit of the operation is even greater 
 than the performance of ten thousand horse sacrifices. All sins 
 that might be contracted in other places are wiped away in vis- 
 iting Svarnakiita (Khandagiri), but what are contracted in the 
 last-named place can be destrpyed only by making the circum- 
 ambulation of the sacred city. 
 
 Pantaleon, St. (It. Pantaleone), patron saint of physicians. 
 His festival is celebrated July 27. 
 
 St. Pantaleon flourished in the fourth century, and was a 
 native of ]N"icomedia. On account of his medical skill he was 
 made physician to the Emperor Galerius Maximian. His mother 
 was a Christian and had brought him up in that fj^ith, but amid 
 the pleasures of the court he did not practise his religion. At 
 length a priest called Hermolaus brought him back to the fold. 
 He went about ministering to the poor and needy, and was ac- 
 
776 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 cused of being a Christian and condemned to be beheaded. He 
 was bound to an olive-tree, and legend relates that as soon as 
 his blood flowed to the roots of the tree it burst forth into 
 leaves and fruit. 
 
 In art he is represented as young, beardless, and handsome. He 
 is often painted in the act of martyrdom and bound to an olive- 
 tree. As a patron saint he wears a physician's robe and bears 
 the olive or palm, or both. 
 
 The body of St. Pantaleon was shown at Constantinople in 
 970. The church of St. Gregory at Eome claims to possess part 
 of the body, and the church of St. Pantaleon at Eome exhibits 
 the skull of the saint, some bones, and a bottle of his blood 
 which liquefies on his festival. At Eavello the same claim re- 
 garding a bottle of the saint's blood is made. In the Dominican 
 Church at Naples an arm of the saint and a bottle of his blood 
 are shown. The church of the Apostles and the church of the 
 Conception at Naples exhibit some of the bones of the saint and 
 vials of his blood. Also San Ligorio at Naples claims to possess 
 an arm of the saint. At St. Mark's, Venice, a hand and two 
 bones of the head are shown ; in the church of St. Pantaleon, 
 Yenice, a foot, leg, arm, part of the skull, and a finger, and in 
 the church of St. Mary Magdalene, Venice, a leg-bone and part 
 of an arm. The entire skull of the saint and a bottle of his 
 blood are preserved at Lucca. The body of the saint is shown 
 at La Bureba ; an arm at Brindisi ; part of the skull at Crema ; 
 a jaw at Eavenna. The entire body, however, is at Genoa; 
 and a number of bones are scattered about at Milan, Bruges, 
 Luxemburg, Cologne, and other places. The head of the saint 
 is shown at Lyons, and the rest of the body at St. Denis, near 
 Paris. 
 
 Pantheon Madonna, or Santa Maria della Rotonda. A 
 
 miraculous image in the Pantheon at Eome. Until the begin- 
 ning of the nineteenth century she had remained inactive and 
 unimportant, only one small lamp shining dimly before her altar, 
 which now blazes with the light of innumerable tapers, and not 
 even a single votive offering adorning her person, which is now 
 loaded with hearts, crowns, bracelets, and necklaces. One day 
 the custos of the Pantheon had forgotten to feed the Madonna's 
 lamp with oil, and towards evening after the doors w^ere closed 
 the sacred flame expired. Suddenly the people in Ihe piazza 
 heard from within the church a loud complaining cry for " Oglio ! 
 oglio !" The^earers hastened to the custos, the doors of the 
 sanctuary were opened, the want of oil was discovered, and the 
 miracle proclaimed to the world. The custos narrowly escaped 
 from the violence of the crowding worshippers, and on that 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 777 
 
 same night tapers were lighted round the altar of the insulted 
 image, which ever since has healed the sick and worked all 
 sorts of miracles. 
 
 Paray-le-Monial. A town in the French department of 
 Saoneet-Loire. The chapel of the Convent of the Visitation is a 
 famous pilgrim shrine as containing the tomb of a nun named 
 Marguerite Marie Alacoque (1647-1690), who saw visions in a 
 neighboring grove of nut-trees. She claimed that Christ ap- 
 peared to her, bestowed on her the tenderest names, offered her 
 his bleeding heart, and took her own. Extraordinary colloquies 
 passed between the nun and the vision : " What shall I do ?" she 
 asked one day. " My will is stronger than I am." " Place it," 
 said the Divine Spouse, " in the wound in my heart, and it will 
 there find the force to triumph over itself." " O my God," cried 
 the maiden, in transport, " put it there indeed and enclose it so 
 firmly that it will never come out." (Abb^ Cucherat : Popular 
 History of the Beatified Marguerite Marie Alacoque, p. 349.) The 
 Society of Jesus exploited the revelations of this enthusiast, but 
 at first they met with considerable opposition from the hierarchy 
 of the Church. She was finally beatified in 1864. In 1873 she 
 was accepted as a sort of tutelar patroness of the Catholics and 
 royalists, and the colossal pilgrimages organized in July and 
 August of that year marched to wild shouts of "Long live the 
 Pope-King," and "Long live Henry Y. !" A canticle had been 
 composed for the occasion, of which the following was the 
 refrain : 
 
 Dieu de clemence, 
 O Dieu vainqueur, 
 
 Sauvez Kome et la France, 
 
 Au nom du Sacre-Cceur ! 
 
 (" God of clemency, 
 O God the Victor, 
 Save Kome and France, 
 In the name of the Sacred Heart !") 
 
 The legitimist deputies, with 1\i. de Belcastel at their head, 
 invaded Paray. There they were met by M. de Charette and 
 the Papal Zouaves. Pilgrims flocked from every diocese in 
 France, many accompanied by their bishops. Even Belgium, 
 Germany, and England sent their devotees. Every band of pil- 
 grims brought rich banners, which they left upon the tomb of 
 Marie Alacoque in the convent chapel. Daily and nightly pro- 
 cessions were held. If all these ceremonials did not succeed in 
 restoring Henry Y., they at least made the fortune of the church 
 and the village. Even the pre-eminence of Lourdes has not yet 
 entirely eclipsed the pilgrimages to Paray-le-Monial. 
 
778 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Parentalia. Among the ancient Eomans the public festival 
 in honor of deceased relatives, which lasted from the 13th to 
 the 21st of February. During these days all the temples were 
 closed, marriages were prohibited, and the magistrates had to 
 appear in public without the tokens of their office. The last day 
 had the special name Feralia. Other festivals in honor of the 
 dead were celebrated on August 24, October 5, and November 8, 
 when the Manes or souls of the dead were believed to rise to the 
 upper world. On these occasions the graves were decked with 
 roses, violets, and other flowers. 
 
 Pasch, Pace, or Pase Egg, more familiarly known in Eng- 
 lish-speaking countries as Easter Egg, an egg, real or artificial, 
 prepared for Easter by being dyed or decorated. If a real egg, 
 it is always hard-boiled. From the remotest ages the egg has 
 been looked upon as a symbol of creation or new birth. Accord- 
 ing to the Persians, the world was hatched from an egg at that 
 season of the year which corresponds to the vernal equinox. 
 Hence the Parsees still exchange gifts of colored eggs at the 
 J^ew Year festival, which they celebrate on this date. Among 
 the Jews, the egg entered into all the mysterious ceremonies 
 called apocalyptic, and occupied a prominent position on the 
 household table during the paschal season. Christianity invested 
 the paschal egg with a new significance, namely, that of the 
 resurrection of Christ, and it was colored red in allusion to his 
 blood shed for sinners on the cross. A curious custom in medi- 
 aeval churches for priests and choristers-^e^Qi^ ^^ ^ game of ball 
 at Eastertide took its rise from the Pasch egg/WW.ch was thrown 
 from one to the other of the choristers in the nave of the church 
 while an anthem was being sung. As a missed egg meant a 
 smashed egg, the more durable hand-ball was substituted. 
 
 Formerly at the approach of Easter all the hen-roosts of 
 France were ransacked for the largest eggs, which were brought 
 as a tribute to the king. At the conclusion of the Easter high 
 mass in the chapel of the Louvre,^lackeys brought into the royal 
 cabinet pyramids of gilded eggs, placed in baskets adorned with 
 verdure ; and the chaplain, after having blessed them, distributed 
 them in the presence of His Most Christian Majesty to all the 
 persons about the court. 
 
 In some remote districts of France the priest still goes round 
 among his parishioners to bless their homes at the Easter season. 
 In return he receives eggs both plain and painted. In many places 
 it is also believed that the bells which are silent during Passion 
 Week have set out for Eome to get the Pope's blessing. They 
 return on Easter Eve to welcome the Eesurrection with a joyous 
 peal. People do not come back from so long a journey without 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 779 
 
 bringing presents to good children. And in fact the joy-bells, 
 which came first, bore with them eggs dyed scarlet like the cloak 
 of a Eoman cardinal, which they gave to the heads of families 
 for distribution among the children. The death-bells, which 
 came last, brought nothing. 
 
 In Anglesey, North Wales, the children go from house to 
 house from Monday until Saturday in Easter week, announcing 
 
 Easter Egg Ceremony in Russia. 
 
 their presence by means of a clapper so that the door may be 
 opened to them. If no eggs be in the house, the children are 
 glad to receive the coppers of commutation. This custom was 
 formerly prevalent not only all over Wales but also in many 
 portions of England and Scotland. At Wilmslow an old rhyme 
 was used : 
 
780 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Please, Mr. Smith, 
 
 Please give us an Easter egg. 
 
 If you do not give us one, 
 
 Your hen shall lay an addled one, 
 
 Your cock shall lay a stone. 
 
 In Northumberland, when a man asks a woman for an eg^ and 
 is refused, he takes off her boots until she pays a penalty. If a 
 man refuses a Paseh ogg to a woman, she snatches away his cap, 
 and will not restore it until he pays a money-forfeit. 
 
 IN'owhere is the Easter egg more in evidence than in Eussia. 
 Here people carry a number of eggs with them when they stir 
 out on Easter Sunday. These they present to their friends, 
 saying, " Christ is risen !" the recipient replying, " He is risen 
 indeed !" In the churches, after the service is over, priests and 
 laymen click eggs together in the same way that we touch glasses, 
 as a ceremonial indication of kindly feelings. 
 
 In many parts of rural England and continental Europe 
 various Pasch egg contests survive. A popular game consists in 
 hitting one egg against another, the egg that survives uncracked 
 winning for its owner the weaker antagonist, and so on until an 
 entire basket of eggs may have changed ownership. Another 
 game is to trundle eggs down a hill or slope, those which reach 
 the bottom uncracked being similarly victorious over the others. 
 A survival of the latter custom occurs in America at Washington, 
 where from the beginning of the century it has been the custom 
 for children to gather on the White House grounds every Easter 
 Monday and trundle Easter eggs down the slope. 
 
 The use of artificial eggs made of sugar or filigree and en- 
 closing quantities of bonbons or other more sumptuous gifts has 
 for the past half-century been encroaching upon the true Easter 
 egg. In all the large cities of Christendom the confectioners' 
 stores rival one another in their efforts to turn out the daintiest 
 and most attractive Easter eggs. Sometimes these are of mam- 
 moth size and cost. 
 
 Paschal Candle. A huge torch of wax which in ancient 
 times was used to give fight during the watchings of the con- 
 gregants on Easter Eve or Holy Saturday. Its origin goes at 
 least as far back as the time of Zosimus, who was made Pope in 
 417, and the " Exultet" or triumphal song which the deacon still 
 sings in the act of blessing the candle is hardly less ancient : 
 Martene attributes it to St. Augustine. The blessing is now 
 performed on Holy Saturday by the deacon, who fixes in the 
 candle five grains of blessed incense in memory of the wounds 
 of Jesus and the precious spices with which he was anointed in 
 the tomb. From Easter until Whitsunday the Paschal candle 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 781 
 
 appears on the Gospel side of the altar during mass and vespers, 
 as a symbol that Christ, the light of the world, has risen from 
 the grave. Anciently this torch was a huge affair. In 1457 that 
 
 Blessing ti.s Paschal Candle. 
 (From Picart.) 
 
 at Canterbury weighed three hundred pounds, and the height 
 of the one at Norwich was so great that it was lighted by means 
 of an orifice in the roof of the choir. 
 
 Passing or Soul Bell. A bell that was rung or tolled for a 
 person who was dying, — i.e., who was passing from this life to 
 the next, — to bespeak the prayers of all good Christians for the 
 soul about to leave its mortal body. The bell was also popularly 
 believed, says Grose, " to drive away the evil spirits who stood 
 at the bed's foot and about the house, ready to seize their prey, 
 or at least to molest and terrify the soul in its passage, but by 
 the ringing of the bell (for Durandus informs us evil spirits 
 are much afraid of bells) they were kept aloof, and the soul, Hke 
 a hunted hare, gained the start, or had what is by sportsmen 
 called law. Hence, perhaps, exclusive of the additional labor, 
 was occasioned the high price demanded for toUing the greatest 
 bell of the church, for, that being louder, the evil spirits must 
 go farther off to be clear of its sound, by which the poor soul 
 
782 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 got so much more the start of them ; besides, being heard farther 
 off, it would likewise procure the dying man a greater number 
 of prayers." 
 
 After the Eeformation and until the time of Charles II. the 
 passing bell was still retained. In the " Advertisements for due 
 Order" passed in the seventh year of Queen Elizabeth occurs 
 the following : " Item, that when anye Christian body is in 
 passing, that the bell be tolled, and that the curate be spe- 
 ciallie called for to comforte the sick person ; and after the time 
 of his passinge to ring no more, but one shorie peale, and one 
 before the buriall, and another shorte peale after the buriall." 
 Bishop Hall thus apologized for the preservation of the custom : 
 " We call them soul bells, for that they signify the departure of 
 the soul, not for that they help the passage of the soul." 
 
 The number of strokes of the passing bell was usually so 
 regulated that bearers might determine the sex and social condi- 
 tion of the dying or dead person. Thus, the bell was tolled once 
 for a child, twice for a woman, and>thrice for a man. 
 
 Passion Play. The Oberammergau Passion Play is the most 
 celebrated, although by no means the sole, survival of the medi- 
 aeval Mysteries now existing in Christendom. In the Middle 
 Ages the clergy endeavored to give to religious rites, especially 
 to those connected with Easter and the other great festivals of 
 the Church, a highly dramatic character, and did not hesitate to 
 add to the popular interest in these sacred representations b}^ all 
 kinds of buffoonery and burlesque, in which the devil and his 
 imps played the part of clowns. There were performances called 
 " Diableries," in which only devils in the garb of harlequins ap- 
 peared, and which bore about the same relation to the ordinary 
 Mystery that the ballet in the modern theatre does to what is 
 called the legitimate drama. 
 
 The jests which these histrionic troupes from the infernal 
 regions indulged in and often improvised, and in which the 
 peccadilloes of priests were not spared, were often very obscene, 
 but always amusing to the multitude. Indeed, in the more 
 serious plays the conversations in heaven were coarse and un- 
 seemly. In 1210, Pope Innocent III. tried in vain to suppress 
 the performances, and forbade the use of churches and eccle- 
 siastical vestments for such purposes ; the only result of this 
 prohibition was that they were held out of doors in temporary 
 buildings erected in front of the churches and attracted larger 
 throngs than ever before. 
 
 Even the Eeformation did not abolish them. Both Luther 
 and Melanchthon favored the dramatization and representation 
 of Biblical subjects. " These spectacles," says the Eeformer in 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 783 
 
 his " Table-Talk," " strike the imagination of the people through 
 their eyes and move them far more powerfully than public 
 preaching." He then adds, "If Christians avoid the theatre on 
 account of the coarse jests and indecencies which the plays con- 
 tain, the same scruple should prevent them from reading the 
 Bible." 
 
 Hans Sachs, the friend of Luther and the poet of the Eeforma- 
 lion, in his " Comedy of Eve's Unequal Children" is guilty of as 
 gross incongruities and anachronistic absurdities as can be found 
 in any Papal Mystery. 
 
 As is well known, the Passion Play of Oberammergau origi- 
 nated in vows taken by the pious villagers in 1633 that if the 
 pestilence then devastating the mountain valley should be stayed, 
 they would give, every ten years, a representation of the Passion 
 of our Saviour "for the grateful reverence and edifying con- 
 templation of the public." The chronicler relates that, in con- 
 sequence of this solemn pledge, " no more died of the plague, 
 albeit the plague-marks were upon many when the vow was 
 made." Such sacred plays were at that time still quite common, 
 and were regarded as highly meritorious acts of piety, like build- 
 ing a church, founding a cloister, endowing an altar, or going on 
 a pilgrimage to the shrine of some saint. That the vow of the 
 Oberammergauers took this form was due to an impulse of artistic 
 feeling developed and transmitted through many generations in 
 a community of wood-carvers. 
 
 With the growth and diffusion of the spirit of modern civiliza- 
 tion these relics of medigevalism gradually withdrew from the 
 lowlands into the highlands, like rude aborigines taking refuge 
 in the mountains from the advance of a superior invading foe. 
 It was not uncommon for these Passion Plays to last two or 
 three days, and one was given in 1514 at Botzen, in the Tyrol, 
 the representation of which took a whole week. Early in the 
 present century an earnest eifort was put forth by the ecclesias- 
 tical authorities in Southern Germany to suppress what was 
 regarded as the scandal of the Passion Plays. When, in 1810, a 
 deputation from Oberammergau came to Munich to obtain the 
 usual permission to give such representation, the Bavarian 
 government refused to grant it. As this request had been 
 hitherto considered a mere form, the peasants were taken by 
 surprise, and after vainly beseeching the highest dignitaries of 
 the Church to revoke their decision, and meeting only with rude 
 rebuffs, they applied directly to the king, the good-natured and 
 paternal Max Joseph, who received them graciously, and finally 
 acceded to their desire, on condition that the play should be 
 purged from everything that might be an occasion of offence. 
 
 The old mediaeval text was accordingly subjected to a thorough 
 
784 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 revision by a Benedictine monk, and later another priest gave it 
 its present unity of design and of religious doctrine, as well as 
 its present perfected form of dramatic action, — the latest adapter 
 avowing that " the labor was performed for the love of the divine 
 Redeemer, and with but one object in view, the edification of the 
 Christian world." Edward Devrient, a well-known German 
 actor and critic, was the first to call public attention to the play 
 in Germany in 1851, and the general reading public of America 
 first heard of its existence six or eight years later, when the 
 novel of " Quits," by the Baroness Tautphoeus, published in 1857, 
 devoted an entire chapter to Oberammergau and its sacred 
 drama. 
 
 Until about 1830 the performances were given in the open air 
 and in the village churchyard, but now they take place in a vast 
 theatre and upon a platform which is partly covered by a roof; 
 beyond and about this artificial stage the on-lookers get occasional 
 glimpses of natural scenery, which, when the weather is favorable, 
 add greatly to the interest and realism of the play. " During 
 the entire representation," wrote Hans Christian Andersen in 
 1860, " we had had alternate rain and wind, all the while cloud}^ 
 weather; but by chance, just as the Christ was lowered into 
 the grave, the sun broke forth, and illumined the stage, the 
 spectators, the whole surroundings. Birds sang and flew, here 
 and there, over us. It was a moment one never forgets." 
 
 An especially curious variant of the old Mystery Plays still 
 recurs annually in the Eoman Campagna during Holy Week. 
 The whole population of every village takes part. In the first 
 place a despairing woman is seen wandering about the streets 
 crying, in tones of agony, " My Son ! my Son !" and covering her 
 face with her blue mantle. She is followed by the crowds in the 
 streets, who ask, "What is it?" "The Madonna has lost her 
 Son," comes the answer. As the multitude pass down every 
 street and alley of the place, all the windows of the houses 
 along the road are thrown open, and questions and answers are 
 exchanged between those within and those outside. Then those 
 inside the houses wring their hands, tear their clothes, and untie 
 their hair, while the Madonna's cry of " My Son ! my Son !" fills 
 the air. The Madonna stops at every house, and asks, " Have 
 you seen him ? Oh, if you are mothers, answer me." Some- 
 times an answer comes, " Yes, I am a mother ; bless my children !" 
 and the Madonna kisses them on the forehead. Sometimes, in 
 her despair, she falls on her knees and prays aloud, while those 
 around her kneel, beat their bosoms, and recite the Lord's 
 Prayer. 
 
 By and by a boy runs to the Madonna from afar. His face is 
 dirty, his feet are muddy, and he wears a long white robe, with 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 785 
 
 paper wings tied to his shoulders. He is an angel, and has come 
 from above to tell the Madonna that he has seen the Saviour. 
 '•He was alone, talking to himself, and had a gold hoop on his 
 head. There he is!" says the boy. "There he is! He is coming 
 here!" The Saviour kneels to his mother, who raises him and 
 clasps him in her arms. Jesus wears a red tunic and a blue 
 mantle. His hair is long, and he has a beard. A crown of gold 
 paper encircles his head. After this comes the death of the 
 Madonna, who is carried into the little church on a carpet of 
 herbs and flowers. Four tapers burn round her, and she has lilies 
 in her hand and a golden crown upon her head. At dawn two 
 angels descend from heaven and stand by the altar. They wear 
 helmets of gold paper, and are dressed in white robes. Their 
 feet are bare, and they carry wooden swords and tin shields. 
 
 Then the young girls of the place raise the body, which is an 
 image made of straw, with the head, hands, and feet of stucco. 
 The eyes are of glass, and the hair is red and curled in several 
 rows. The body is covered with a white satin robe embroidered 
 with gold ; the feet are covered with silk stockings and satin 
 shoes, and a blue mantle, bestarred with silver, falls from the 
 shoulders. Thus attired, the image is placed in a crystal coffin, 
 and before this is closed every one whispers a wish in the 
 Madonna's ear, and the children promise her that they will be 
 good. 
 
 Every day during Passion Week the Christ is being tormented 
 and persecuted. But during the few moments' peace which his 
 persecutors grant him he goes about comforting those who are 
 suifering. He is accompanied by St. John the Baptist, who 
 wears a goat's skin and carries a stick in the shape of a cross. 
 At the corner of every street Jesus stops and tells a parable in 
 the dialect of the place. He also gives little sermons in dialect. 
 He educates, advises, and comforts all who go to him. (^London 
 Vanity Fair, April, 1897.) 
 
 The most extraordinary of all Passion Plays is performed in 
 certain remote parts of the 'territory of New Mexico by an 
 order of Indian converts which is an oif^hoot from Spanish 
 Catholicism but is now looked at askance by the Church. This 
 is known as The Penitent Brothers (Los Hermanos Penitentes). 
 They make their head-quarters at the little village of Taos, New 
 Mexico. 
 
 All during Holy Week they inflict cruel, self-torture upon 
 themselves. On a hillock at some distance from the " morada," 
 or brotherhood house, is planted a cross to represent Calvary. 
 Day after day processions march thither and back again, the 
 members doing penance before the cross by lashing their backs 
 and applying thorny cactus to their bare flesh. The crowning 
 
 60 
 
786 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 event occurs on Good Friday. From many applicanls a victim 
 is selected to represent Christ. The parts of Peter, Pontius 
 Pilate, Mary, and others are assigned to other applicants. At 
 two o'clock a procession starts slowly on foot for " El Calvario." 
 All are barefoot. Many are naked from the hips up. Half-way 
 up the hill the " Christ" joins the procession. His only garment 
 is a cotton or muslin sheet draped around his body. A crown 
 of cactus thorns is pressed around his bleeding forehead. A 
 cross of huge timbers is placed upon his back, and, bowed low 
 under his burden, he takes his place at the head of the proces- 
 sion. The man pants and gasps at times, but never looks up or 
 speaks. On the way a pathway of broken stones has been made, 
 and the most devout Penitentes walk over these with bare feet 
 and never flinch. The counterfeit Christ is spit upon by any 
 and all. Little boys and girls run ahead that they may more 
 deliberately spit in his face and throw stones upon his bending 
 form. 
 
 When El Calvario is reached, the great, clumsy cross is laid 
 upon the ground and the actor of Christ is seized and thrown 
 upon it. The assemblage joins in a chorus of song while several 
 Penitentes lash the man's arms, hands, and legs to the timbers 
 with cords of cowhide. The bands are made as tight as the big 
 muscular vaqueros and ranchmen can draw them. The ligaments 
 sink into the flesh, and even cut so that blood runs out. The arms 
 and legs become blue and then black under the awful binding, 
 but not so much as a sigh escapes the lips of the actor. He 
 repeats in a mixed dialect of Spanish and Indian the words 
 uttered by Christ at Calvary, and bids his brothers to spare 
 him not. 
 
 When all is ready a dozen men lift, the cross and its human 
 burden, and, carrying it to an excavation near at hand, they drop 
 the base in the earth. The hole is quickly filled, and the Peni- 
 tentes gather about the foot of the cross with uplifted faces. 
 The women weep, and the children look on dumfounded. Some 
 of the men mock and jeer the man on the cross ; others throw 
 clods of sunbaked earth at him, and still others, feeling that they 
 must have some part in the physical agony of the afternoon, call 
 upon the multitude to lash and beat them. The invitation is 
 never in vain, for there are strong arms and hands ever glad to 
 lay the lash on the backs of the fanatics and to provide leaves 
 of cactus to apply, to the swollen and bleeding flesh. 
 
 In several localities in Colorado and New Mexico it was once 
 the practice to nail the hands of the acting Christ to the timbers 
 of the cross, but the Catholic priests of this generation put a 
 stop to that. 
 
 After the first half-hour of noise and flagellation about the 
 
• POPULAR CUSTOMS. 787 
 
 cross at El Calvario the excitement dies away. The crucified 
 man, whose arms and legs are now black under the bands, must 
 be suffering indescribable pain, but he only exclaims occasionally 
 in Spanish, " Peace, peace, peace," while tbe Penitentes, who 
 have had no part in the self-abnegation and punishment, pros- 
 trate themselves silently about the cross. A motion of the hand 
 from the Pietro, and the spectators bow their bared heads in 
 reverential attitude. 
 
 Save for the hysterical sobbing, moaning, and suppressed sobs 
 of the women, there is now not a sound. 
 
 At sunset the procession is re-formed, and slowly wends its 
 way back to the village. Some twenty of the leading Penitentes 
 remain behind, and when the spectators and others have gone 
 away they lift the cross from the earth and lower its burden. 
 The cords of cowhide are removed, and the pseudo-Christ, who 
 is now probably unconscious from long and dreadful bondage, is 
 lifted from the timbers. 
 
 Then, following the narrative of the scenes on Calvary, the 
 body of the actor is wrapped about with a mass of white fabric 
 and is carried to a dug-out cave in the hill-side near at hand. 
 Several women, who have been appointed to impersonate Mary 
 and Martha, follow some distance behind, all the time violently 
 weeping and lamenting. 
 
 In the cave the bleeding and tortured body of the chief actor 
 is rudely nursed to strength. 
 
 But it has sometimes happened that it never gives any sign 
 of life and is never seen in public after it is carried into the 
 " morada." 
 
 Passover, or Pesach, known also as the Feast of Unleav- 
 ened Bread. The first and one of the most important of the 
 festivals in the Jewish ecclesiastical year. It begins on the 14th 
 of the first month, Nisan (roughly corresponding to portions 
 of March and April in the Christian year), and lasts for eight 
 days. It commemorates the deliverance of Israel through the 
 tenth and last plague, when God destroyed the first-born of 
 Egypt (Exodus xii.). In Biblical times all males were bound to 
 go up to Jerusalem to keep the Passover and make their offerings 
 to God in the temple. 
 
 The first day is given to preparation. All leaven and leavened 
 bread is banished from the house, and the matzes (q. v.) are sub- 
 stituted. To insure the removal of every kind of fermented food 
 or liquor, the master of the house is in duty bound to make a 
 strict search throughout the house on the eve of the 14th of 
 Nisan. This is therefore called the Eve of Searching for 
 Leaven. 
 
788 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 iHE First Passover. 
 
 Strict silence must be maintained during the search. After 
 the master has gathered every crumb he can see, he declares 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 789 
 
 that if any leaven remain it shall be null and accounted dust of 
 the earth. About ten o'clock on the following morning all the 
 leaven that was gathered must be burned. 
 
 On the 14th the Paschal lamb is slain, in commemoration of 
 the lamb which God commanded the Israelites to slay when 
 about to deliver them out of bondage and whose blood they 
 sprinkled on the door-posts of their houses to protect their first- 
 born from the destroying angel. In allusion to the latter fact, 
 the first-born male child if he be above the age of thirteen 
 fasts for twenty-four hours before the great meal of the 14th of 
 Nisan. 
 
 This begins at nightfall, and marks the real beginning of the 
 season, inasmuch as the Jewish day is measured from nightfall 
 to nightfall. The table is set with three matzes, or passover 
 cakes of unleavened bread, placed on a dish, each covered sepa- 
 rately ; a dish containing part of the shank-bone of the lamb, 
 roasted, symbolical of the Paschal offering ; a dish containing 
 a roasted Qgg^ the symbol of creation and fecundity, the usual 
 festival sacrifice ; a dish of charosheth, or chopped-up apples, 
 almonds, and other fruit, representative of the mortar used by 
 the Israelites in Egypt; and a cup of vinegar or salt water, and 
 the green tops of horseradish or other bitter herb, which are 
 eaten with charosheth in commemoration of the bitter oppres- 
 sion suffered by the Israelites. Our roast lamb with mint sauce, 
 it may be added in parenthesis, is the direct descendant of the 
 Paschal lamb and its attendant bitter herbs. 
 
 Four cups of wine must be drunk at special parts of the ser- 
 vice, each draught having its own symbolism ; the cup must have 
 at least the capacity of an Qgg and a half. At a solemn moment, 
 the tallest goblet is filled to the brim, the doors are thrown open 
 for the prophet Elijah, who may appear to announce the coming 
 of the Messiah, and the words are said, " Blessed is he that 
 cometh in the name of the Lord." Historians have traced this 
 custom of opening the doors to the necessity of asking non-Jews 
 to look in and see for themselves that no blood of Christian child 
 was used in the ceremonial, — a monstrous charge which was 
 often made. (See Hugh, St.) The Jews believe that they arc 
 specially under the care of God at Passover. Some leave their 
 doors open at night, as a token of trust in the Divine guardian- 
 ship. 
 
 At this time every Hebrew father is a king in his household ; 
 he reclines on a throne, sometimes an easy-chair with pillows on 
 the arms. As a sign of freedom, the celebrants lean on the left 
 side when they drink the wine or take anything to eat from the 
 Seder dish. One-half of the middle cake in the plate is broken 
 by the father ; the other half, the " Afikuman," is reserved until 
 
790 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 after supper. Sometimes the mother or one of the children pre- 
 tends to steal the " Afikuraan," and surrenders it to the father 
 when he promises to grant whatever is desired. 
 
 When every member of the household touches the dish con- 
 taining the lamb bone and the egg, all recite together, " Lo, this 
 is the bread of afiiiction which our ancestors ate in the land of 
 Egypt ; let all those who are hungry enter and eat thereof, and 
 all who are in distress come and celebrate the Passover. At 
 present we celebrate it here, but the next year we hope to cele- 
 brate it in the land of Israel." 
 
 After the removal of the lamb bone, the youngest son asks 
 the reasons for the celebration, and he is answered by a recital 
 of the Haggadah, or Agadah, an account of the slavery under 
 Pharaoh and the deliverance from Egypt, with digressions con- 
 cerning Haman, Daniel, and the wise men of Bona Berak. In 
 the homes of the wealthy this is often read from illuminated 
 manuscripts ; the poor usually have printed books with quaint 
 wood-cuts representing the miracles in Egypt, Moses burying 
 the Egyptian, and other incidents of the narrative. At the 
 mention of each plague the finger is dipped in wine and the 
 drops sprinkled over the shoulder, in repudiation of the ten 
 plagues of Egypt, which have been cabalistically magnified to 
 two hundred and fifty. 
 
 On the 15th of Nisan the counting of Omer (see Shebuoth) 
 begins, and is continued for forty -nine days. The first two and 
 last two days of the festival are kept by all Jews as strictly as 
 the Sabbath, but on the four intervening days urgent business 
 may be attended to. On the seventh day of the festival the 
 description of the passage of the Eed Sea is read from Exodus, 
 together with the song chanted by Moses and the children of 
 Israel on that occasion. 
 
 In Biblical times the 14th day of the month Yiar was ob- 
 served as the Second Passover by such as were unable to keep 
 the proper date on account of sickness or of unavoidable absence 
 from home. 
 
 Patrick, St. (Lat. Patricius ; Fr. Patrice), patron of Ireland, 
 whose festival on March 17 is celebrated by Irishmen wherever 
 they may happen to be. There is no other great saint in the 
 Catholic hagiology about whom so much uncertainty exists. It 
 is not even known whether March 17 is the date of his death or 
 of his birth, though it is sometimes said to be both. The year 
 and the place of his nativity are matters of dispute. Indeed, so 
 many conflicting legends have been woven into his story that it is 
 now generally assumed there were two or more St. Patricks who 
 have been rolled into one. Patricius, the Latin name, simply 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 791 
 
 means a patrician, and may have then been the sobriquet of any 
 Christian apostle of aristocratic lineage. Nevertheless that there 
 was some one commanding personality towards whom all the 
 myths naturally gravitated is evident. This was probably the 
 author of two brief fifth-century tractates, — one entitled his 
 " Confession," the other his " Letters to Coroticus." According 
 to the best authorities, this Patrick was born about a.d. 386 in 
 the village of Nemphthur, just outside of Clastonbury, England. 
 His father was a decurion, or town councillor. The favorite 
 legend, however, makes him a native of Tours, in France, and a 
 nephew of St. Martin. From the Confession itself we learn that 
 in his sixteenth year he was carried away by pirates and taken 
 to the north of Ireland, where he was sold as a slave. That he 
 eventually became a noted Christian evangelist to the heathen in 
 Ireland and rose to the rank of bishop is certain, but that he is 
 the same person who helped to Christianize the west of Scotland 
 and the Isle of Man is improbable. 
 
 Opinions differ as to the exact time when Bishop Patrick 
 began his ministrations in Ireland, but as to his immediate suc- 
 cess there is abundant testimony offered by the old legends and 
 more modern historians. 
 
 He was a statesman as well as a priest, and addressed himself 
 first of all to the chiefs, and through them reached the people. 
 He understood, as did most of the early Christian missionaries, 
 how to adapt the superstitions and the pagan rites which he 
 found existing to the teachings of the Church, and one of his 
 first doings was to light a Paschal fire on the Hill of Slane in 
 opposition to a Druidical fire on the Hill of Tara, and the light 
 from Slane eclipsed the light on Tara forever. His work in 
 Ireland may be summed up by saying that he founded three 
 hundred and sixty-five churches and planted a school by the 
 side of each ; that he organized at least one archiepiscopal see, 
 that of Armagh, consecrated two or more bishops, established 
 one or two colleges, and civilized the people generally. 
 
 The most popular of the legends regarding St. Patrick is that 
 which gives him credit for driving all the snakes and similar 
 vermin out of Ireland. Not only has it maintained its vitality 
 better than many a sober truth could have done, but it has been 
 strengthened and improved by successive generations of story- 
 tellers and miracle-mongers. The story as current to-day is told 
 in one of the most popular of Irish songs, from which the fol- 
 lowing is an extract : 
 
 There's not a mile in Ireland's isle where the dirty vermin musters ; 
 "Where'er he put his dear forefoot he murdered them in clusters. 
 The toads went hop, the frogs went flop, slap dash into the water. 
 And the beasts committed suicide to save themselves from slaughter. 
 
792 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Nine hundred thousand vipers blue he charmed with sweet discourses, 
 And dined on them at Killaloo in soups and second courses. 
 When blindworms crawling on the grass disgusted all the nation, 
 He gave them a rise and opened their eyes to a sense of the situation. 
 
 The Wicklow Hills are very high, and so's the Hill of Houth, sir; 
 But there's a hill much higher still — ay, higher than them both, sir; 
 'Twas on the top of this high hill St. Patrick preached the sarmint 
 That drove the frogs into the bogs and bothered all the varmint. 
 
 It seems that St. Patrick, wherever he went, was always pre- 
 ceded by a drum, and the noise thus made attracted the people. 
 In this the example of the saint appears to have been imitated 
 by the modern Salvation Army. As Patrick was terribly in 
 earnest, so was his drummer, — if he had a drummer, for the 
 chronicles are rather vague as to this point, and sometimes we 
 might infer that he whacked away at the instrument himself. 
 At all events, just before going up to the hill to preach the ser- 
 mon that was to finish the snakes the drum was beaten so vigor- 
 ously that it burst. The theme and object of the discourse had 
 been announced to the people, so they had assembled in great 
 multitudes to see the miracle performed. As they had an idea 
 that a good deal of Patrick's power lay in his drum, they were 
 sadly disappointed at the accident, especially as a big black 
 snake was seen gliding down the hill with his jaws distended, a 
 leer in his ugly eyes, and a tremor in his whole body as if it were 
 convulsed with laughtera But, as the story goes, an angel came 
 down and patched up thS drum, the sermon proceeded, and all 
 the reptiles vanished as if by magic. 
 
 St. Patrick died at Saul, a place not far from Downpatrick, 
 and in the abbey of the latter town his body was buried, amid 
 the sorrow of the whole people. He had long looked forw^ard 
 to death as a release from care and as a reward for his labors 
 and trials. He had become blind and feeble. The saint's age 
 at the time of his death has been the subject of very many in- 
 tricate and ingenious calculations, and the estimates have run 
 anywhere between eighty-eight and one hundred and twenty-one 
 years. 
 
 It is impossible to say when the 17th day of March in each 
 year began to be set apart as St. Patrick's Day and observed as 
 the popular holiday of Ireland. But, whatever may have started 
 it, there can be no doubt that the day is a national holiday in 
 Ireland and is observed with much enthusiasm, and that it re- 
 news and intensifies the patriotism of the people. In most of 
 the large cities of America it is celebrated by a parade through 
 the streets of the Irish national societies and other citizens 
 of Irish birth or blood. 
 
 In Ireland itself the celebration is less formal, but more uni- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 793 
 
 versal. The shahirock is worn everywhere, in commemoration 
 of the fact that when St. Patrick was preaching the doctrine of 
 the Trinity he nnade use of this plant bearing three leaves upon 
 one stem as a symbol of the great mystery. In every household 
 a plateful of the herb is placed upon the breakfast-table of the 
 "master" and the "mistress," who are expected to "drown the 
 shamrock" in generous draughts of whiskey and then send the 
 bottle down into the kitchen for the servants. In Dublin 
 the higher classes conclude the festivities of the day by attend- 
 ing a great ball in St. Patrick's Hall, Dublin Castle. IsTone can 
 be admitted who have not been presented and attended the 
 viceroy's drawing-room ; and of course every one must appear 
 in court dress or full uniform. In the smaller hamlets the local 
 inn used to be a place of universal resort for young men. A 
 " Patrick's pot" of beer or whiskey and a small allowance of 
 oaten bread and fish to each were benevolently contributed by 
 the host. All additional orders had to be paid for. " The 
 majority of those who sought entertainment at the village inn 
 were young men who had no families, whilst those who had 
 children, and especially whose families were large, made them- 
 selves as snug as possible by the turf fire in their own cabins. 
 Where the village or hamlet could not boast of an inn, the 
 largest cabin was sought out, and poles were extended horizon- 
 tally from one end of the apartment to the other ; on these 
 poles, doors purposely unhinged, and brought from the sur- 
 rounding cabins, were placed, so that a table of considerable 
 dimensions was formed, round which all sealed themselves, each 
 one providing his own oaten bread and fish. At the conclusion 
 of the repast they sat for the remainder of the evening over a 
 ' Patrick's pot,' and finally separated quietly." (Hone : Every 
 Day Book, vol. ii. p. 386.) 
 
 Patrick, Purgatory of St. According to mediaeval legend, 
 there was an entrance to purgatory in a cave on the island of 
 Lough Derg, Ireland. This was widely known as the Purgatory 
 of St. Patrick, because it was to that saint that Christ revealed 
 its existence, informing him that any one might go down into it 
 who had the courage, and it should be for him as if he had 
 passed through purgatory after death. The saint is said to have 
 built a monastery about the entrance and to have secured the 
 way with a strong iron gate. The fame of this spot was largely 
 owing to a poem by Henry of Sal trey (circa 1153), which 
 described the adventures of a certain Sir Owayne Miles, who 
 took this opportunity^ of expiating his crimes and saw many and 
 wonderful sights in the course of his pilgrimage to the nether 
 world. The poem was translated into nearly all European Ian- 
 
794 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 guages, and it may have furnished Dante with a hint for his 
 great work. Other visits to the cave are recorded at rare inter- 
 vals. A few of the visitors published accounts of what they had 
 seen and heard, which bore a great resemblance to the poem of 
 Henry of Saltrey ; others confessed that they had seen nothing 
 wonderful with their waking eyes, but on falling asleep had been 
 visited with wonderful dreams, " different from those they were 
 accustomed to in their chambers." At last, in 1496, a monk from 
 Holland visited the place and reported to the Pope that it differed 
 in no respect from an ordinary cavern, whereupon the Pope 
 ordered it to be destroyed, and the order was carried out on St. 
 Patrick's Day, 1497. (^The myth of St. Patrick's Purgatory un- 
 doubtedly owes its origin to the hell- descents prevalent among 
 all heathen nations. 
 
 Patron Day. In Ireland and formerly in Catholic England 
 the day of the saint to whom the parish church had been dedi- 
 cated was called the Patron Day. This anniversary was one of 
 the most important of all the festivals within the parish. Clergy 
 and laity would meet within the church to implore the continual 
 protection of the patron saint. In the churchyard the graves 
 were cleared of weeds and adorned with flowers, the funeral 
 dirge was renewed, and the worthy actions of the dead were 
 recounted. Booths were erected here also, from which provisions 
 were distributed by the charitable to those who had come from 
 a distance to attend the services. The celebration was often ex- 
 tended over two or even three days. But after the Eeformation 
 in England the exercises of devotion at such meetings gradually 
 gave way to profane amusements, and at last the Patron Day 
 (or wake, as it was often called) was abolished in that country. 
 In Ireland it continued with ever diminishing importance until 
 1846, when the first great failure of the potato crop and the 
 consequent immigrations from Ireland commenced a revolution 
 in the traditionary customs of the Irish peasantry. At present 
 there are only a few parishes where the Patron Day is observed. 
 
 An interesting description of a Patron Day, or, as it is there 
 called, a Consecration Feast, in the Bavarian Highlands is thus 
 given by an eye-witness : " In the morning mass is read in the 
 chapel. Grayly adorned, the little procession winds up the nar- 
 row steps, a red flag flutters among them, and every one wears 
 his holiday attire. Of course but a few enter the low portal, 
 which is hung with garlands ; the rest remain grouped in the 
 open air, and listen to the tones of the ' Agnus Dei' or the w^ords 
 of the sermon. When the host arrives, the people fall on their 
 knees. These are calmly joyful moments; the brook rolls itself 
 more gently, the beeches themselves cease their murmurs. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 795 
 
 " Thus ends the spiritual portion of the affair. But after mass 
 come the pleasures of the world, with the joyful voice and the 
 insolent strength of youth. The musicians lead the little pro- 
 cession, which descends from the little church ; the lads pull 
 their hats waggishly on one side, and the lasses come down with 
 a lighter step than they went up. All sorts of things are going 
 on below, for the entrance of the house has become a bar ; great 
 casks stand ready, and are broken open with the hammer ; forms 
 of lofty stature, carrying their jackets upon their shoulders, 
 watch the operations with satisfaction ; and, in reality, there is 
 no time to be lost for the first draught ; the dance may commence 
 at any minute ; for the latter a flooring of planks has been laid 
 down. Only a slight tap on the shoulder, and the fair maid fol- 
 lows her lad into the tumult with joyful mien. Between ap- 
 proving glances and aggressive hobnail shoes she steers skil- 
 fully ; but, when a daring youth snatches at the scarlet flowers 
 she wears in her bodice, she quickly casts down her eyes, and 
 vanishes before he is aware of it. 
 
 " As consecration comes but once a year, dancing is kept up 
 pretty late ; when the stars begin to pale, then return home 
 is first mentioned ; most of the girls ascend the same night to 
 the pastures from which they came, and the wood-cutters go 
 straight away from the feast to their work at four o'clock in the 
 morning." 
 
 In many Italian villages, especially in those within the limits 
 of the old Papal* States, the feast of the local patron saint is the 
 event of the year, and is chosen not only as a day of prayer but 
 also as one of family rejoicing. The " military" turn out and 
 bring their band to church with them ; petards are fired off in 
 quick and deafening succession during the most solemn parts of 
 the mass; the fair outside the church doors deals largely in 
 devotional mementos of the patron saint, and the lemonade- 
 and fruit-stalls are besieged in proportion as the beads and fruits 
 are sold. At night a general illumination takes place ; Bengal 
 fires are lit in every open place, and turn fitful colored gleams 
 upon the rickety structure of church and cottage, while the 
 peasants dance and sing in harmless glee, making this day a 
 holiday for the body as well as for the soul. 
 
 Paul Pitcher Day. The eve of St. Paul's Day, or Jsiuuavy 
 24, is thus called by the tinners of Cornw^all from a custom they 
 have of setting up a water-pitcher and pelting it with stones 
 until it is broken. The men then leave their work and adjourn 
 to a neighboring ale-house, where a new pitcher bought to re- 
 place the old one is successively filled and emptied, and the even- 
 ing is given up to merriment and misrule. 
 
796 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 On inquiry whether some dim notion of the origin and mean- 
 ing of this custom remained among those who still keep it up, 
 it was found to be generally held as an ancient festival intended 
 to celebrate the day when tin was first turned into metal, — in 
 fact, the discovery of smelting. It is the occasion of a revel, 
 in which there is an open rebellion against the water- drinking 
 system which is enforced upon them whilst at work. 
 
 The boys of Bodmin used to parade the town with broken 
 pitchers, and into every house where the door could be opened 
 or had inadvertently been left so, they would hurl a " Paul's 
 pitcher," exclaiming, — 
 
 Paul's Eve, 
 
 And here's a heave. 
 
 According to custom, the first heave could not be objected 
 to, but a repetition brought just punishment down upon the 
 offender, if he could be caught. 
 
 Paul, St. According to tradition, the great apostle to the 
 Gentiles was beheaded on the same day that St. Peter was cruci- 
 fied, June 29, and the day is known as that of St. Peter and St. 
 Paul. But whether it was the same year, a.d. 64, or the next, is 
 a matter of dispute. Paul has a separate feast on January 25, 
 the anniversary of his conversion. 
 
 The church of San Paolo delle tre Fontane, near Eome, is 
 built over three fountains which are said to have sprung up at 
 the three places where the head of St. Paul fell and bounded 
 after being cut off by the executioner. It is said that the waters 
 vary in warmth, the first, where the head fell, being hottest, 
 while the two others, commemorating successive bounds, are 
 cooler and cooler. The body of St. Paul was originally interred 
 on the spot where now stands the church of San Paolo fuori le 
 Mura, between the Ostian Gate and the Aqua Salvia, but ac- 
 cording to one legend it was removed with that of St. Peter to 
 the Catacombs and laid in the same tomb during the reign of 
 Heliogabalus. Two hundred years later the Oriental Christians 
 endeavored to secure them, but the Eoman Christians contended 
 for them with success and removed them to the church of the 
 Yatican, placing them together in a magnificent shrine which 
 still remains in St. Peter's. 
 
 The feast of St. Paul's Conversion, January 25, was formerly 
 kept in London as a great processional occasion, especially during 
 the reign of Queen Mary, who saw in it a symbol of the con- 
 version of the realm back to the true faith. In the '' Chron- 
 icle of the Grey Friars of London" we are told that on January 
 25, 1555, " there was a general procession, with the children of 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 797 
 
 all the schools in London, with all the clerks, curates and par- 
 sons and vicars, in copes, with their crosses, also the choir of 
 St. Paul's ; and divers bishops in their habits, and the Bishop of 
 London, with his j^ontificale and cope, bearing the sacrament 
 under a canopy, and four prebends bearing it in their grey 
 amos ; and so up into Leadenhall, with the mayor and aldermen 
 in scarlet, with their cloaks, and all the crafts in their best 
 array; and so came down again on the other side, and so to St. 
 Paul's again. And then the king, with my lord Cardinal, came 
 to St. Paul's, and heard masse, and went home again, and at 
 night great bonfires were made through all London, for the joy 
 of the people that were converted likewise as St. Paul was 
 converted." 
 
 Among agriculturists all over Great Britain and Western 
 Europe the feast had especial significance as a prognosticator of 
 the weather for the entire ensuing year. This fact is the more 
 remarkable as the day was ranked among the old almanac- 
 makers as a dies ^gyptiacus, or unlucky day. The special 
 knowledge of the future which it was believed could be derived 
 from it was thus laid down in monkish Latin : 
 
 Clara dies Pauli bona tempora denotat anni ; 
 Si nix vel pluvia, designat tempora cara ; 
 Si fiant nebulae, pereunt animalia qusequa ; 
 Si fiant venti, designat proelia genti. 
 
 There are several extant translations of these lines into French 
 and English. Here is one of the English versions : 
 
 If St. Paul's Day be fair and clear, 
 It does betide a happy year ; 
 But if it chance to snow or rain. 
 Then will be dear all kind of grain ; 
 If clouds or mist do dark the sky, 
 Great store of birds and beasts shall die ; 
 And if the winds do fly aloft, 
 Then war shall vex the kingdom oft. 
 
 Peer, Swearing in a Ne"w. This is one of the drollest cus- 
 toms connected with Parliamentary usage. In the House of 
 Commons when a new member is to take his seat everybody is 
 cognizant of the matter and may be on hand to see and to con- 
 gratulate. But a new peer drops into the House of Lords with 
 a pretty air of accident, though the presence of Garter King- 
 at-Arms and the bringing forth of the red cloaks slashed with 
 ermine testify to a certain amount of preparation. The first 
 intimation of the event that strangers receive is to behold pass- 
 ing under the doorway to the left of the throne a little proces-- 
 sion. Spiritual peers are usually escorted by the Primate and 
 
798 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 the Bishop of London, lay peers by the Prince of Wales and the 
 Duke of Norfolk, hereditary Earl Marshal. In all cases behind 
 them walk Black-Eod and Garter King-at-Arms. Lay peers 
 wear their scarlet gowns, their precise rank being indicated by 
 the varying number and disposition of the bars of ermine. 
 
 The sponsors of the new peer lead him up in the first place 
 to the woolsack, whereon is seated the Lord Chancellor in full- 
 bottomed wig and gown, staring at vacancy. When addressed 
 the latter gives a little start of surprise, receives from the new 
 peer a document purporting to be his summons to sit as a peer 
 in Parliament, and waves him over to a table where a clerk 
 stands ready to swear him in. 
 
 Then Garter King-at-Arms takes the lead of the procession. 
 Supposing, as most frequently happens, the new-comer is a baron, 
 he is led to the barons' seats, situate near the bar, remote from 
 the woolsack. The ordinary way there is straight enough. 
 But Garter King-at-Arms knows better than to violate all pre- 
 cedent. Leading the procession tovrards the bar as if making 
 straight for the barons' seats, he suddenly takes a turn to the 
 right at the cross benches, the new peer immediately behind 
 him, his sponsors following in single file. Black Rod bringing 
 up the rear. Having made the full circuit of the benches in 
 this part of the house, Garter King now heads for the barons' 
 benches, the red-cloaked pack close behind him, as if the game 
 were follow-my-leader. Skipping up the gangway, Garter King 
 stops short of the topmost bench, passing along in front of it. 
 In nine cases out of ten the new peer, however well drilled, 
 attempts to follow him. But that is the wrong turn, and Garter 
 King, knowing what would happen, is ready to direct the novice 
 to take the next turn higher up, which lands him on the top- 
 most seat. All this is in dumb show. Safely seated, the peer 
 and his sponsors turn .their heads, which they have covered with 
 their three-cornered hats, towards the woolsack. Three times a 
 mutual salute of solemn hat-lifting passes between the Chancellor 
 and the noble trio. Then the latter move back to the woolsack, 
 the new peer is formally introduced to the Chancellor, kisses the 
 latter's hand, and so passes out of the doorway, presently to 
 reappear in every-day clothes. 
 
 Penny Hedge, Planting the. A curious custom still ob- 
 served in Whitby, Yorkshire, on the eve of Ascension Day. It 
 is thus described in an extract from the Whitby Gazette of May 
 28, 1870, quoted in Dyer's " British Popular Customs." " The 
 formality of planting the penny hedge in the bed of the river 
 Esk on Ascension Eve was performed on Wednesday last by Mr. 
 Isaac Herbert, who has for fifty years discharged this onerous 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 799 
 
 duty. The ' nine stakes,' the ' nine strout-stowers,' and the 
 ' nine gedders' have all been once more duly ' planted.' The 
 ceremony was witnessed by a number of ladies and gentlemen, 
 and that highly important functionary, the bailiff of the lord of 
 the manor, Mr. George Welburn, of Fylingdales, was present, 
 and blew the usual malediction, ' Out on you ! Out on you ! Out 
 on you !' through the same identical horn which seventeen cen- 
 turies ago roused with its lugubrious notes, on Ascension Eve, 
 our ancestors from their peaceful slumbers. Whether the wood 
 was cut at the ' stray head,' and with a ' knife of a penny price,' 
 we are not able to say, but a good hedge was planted; and 
 although each stake may not be quite ' a yard from another,' 
 the hedge will doubtless be of such strength as to withstand 
 the effect of the prescribed number of tides." 
 
 Peter, St. The chief of the apostles, and, according to the 
 claims of the Catholic Church, the first Bishop or Pope of Eome. 
 His martyrdom, together with that of St. Paul, is celebrated on 
 June 29. But his great feast is in August, known as the feast 
 of St. Peter's Chains. Another festival, the Feast of the Chair 
 of St. Peter, takes place on January 18 in honor of his formal 
 establishment of the episcopate in Eome. 
 
 To the gospel story tradition adds that St. Peter confounded 
 Simon Magus, a famous magician among the Jews, by miracles 
 far excelling all his sorceries. Simon endeavored to buy from 
 the apostle the secret of how these were done. Peter indig- 
 nantly spurned him. Then Simon destroyed his books and fled 
 to Eome, where he became a favorite of Claudius and again of 
 ]^ero. Peter also came to Eome, and afterwards Paul. Again 
 rivalry broke out betweea the magician and the apostles. At 
 last Simon attempted to fly to heaven. He launched himself 
 from a tower, and for a time was supported by a demon, but 
 Peter knelt and commanded the fiend to release his hold, when 
 Simon fell to earth and was dashed to pieces. In the church of 
 St. Francesca Eomana at Eom^ there are two stones let into the 
 wall bearing a double depression said to be the marks of Peter's 
 knees made on this occasion. During the first persecution the 
 Christians besought St. Peter to save himself by flight, which at 
 first he consented to do. As he was leaving Eome by the Ap- 
 pian Way in the early dawn, he met Jesus Christ. Casting him- 
 self at the feet of his Master, he asked him, " Domine, quo 
 vadis?" ("Master, whither goest thou?"). To which the Lord 
 replied, " Yenio iterum crucifigi" ("I am coming to be crucified 
 again"). Penitent and ashamed, Peter returned to the city and 
 met his fate. The chapel of Domine quo Yadis, on the Appian 
 Way, commemorates the scene and preserves the legend. 
 
800 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 St. Peter and St. Paul were both thrown into the Mamertine 
 prison. Here the centurions who guarded them and many pris- 
 oners were converted. A miraculous fountain, still extant, sprang 
 up at Peter's prayer to furnish water for the baptism. There is 
 also still shown in the prison the impression of St. Peter's bead 
 made in the wall when a jailer struck him. The chains with 
 which the saint was bound are preserved in the church of San 
 Pietro in Yincoli in Eome in a bronze tabernacle, and are exhib- 
 ited on the festival of St. Peter in Yinculis on August 1. The 
 reputed date of the martyrdom both of St. Peter and of St. Paul 
 is June 29, a.d. 64. 
 
 Paul, as a Eoman citizen, was beheaded. But Peter, because 
 he was of low degree, was led out and across the Forum and over 
 the Sublician bridge, up to the heights of Janiculus. He was then 
 very old and weak, so that he could not carry his cross, as con- 
 demned men were made to do. When they had climbed more 
 than half-way up the height, seeing that he could not walk much 
 
 farther, they crucified him. 
 He said that . he was not 
 worthy to suffer as the Lord 
 had suffered, and begged them 
 to plant his cross with the 
 head downward in the deep 
 yellow sand. The execution- 
 ers did so. The Christians 
 who had followed were not 
 many, and they stood apart, 
 weeping. 
 
 When he was dead, after 
 much torment, and the senti- 
 nel soldier had gone away, 
 they took the holy body, and 
 carried it along the hill-side, 
 and buried it at night close 
 against the long wall of Nero's 
 circus, on the north side, near 
 the place where they buried 
 the martyrs killed daily by 
 [N'ero's wild beasts and in 
 other cruel ways. They 
 marked the spot, and went 
 there often to pray. 
 
 Thirty years later, Anacle- 
 tus, a Pope who had been ordained priest by St. Peter, built a 
 little oratory over the grave. That, it is said, was the beginning 
 of St. Peter's Church. But Anacletus died a martyr, too, and 
 
 St. Peter's Martyrdom. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 801 
 
 the Popes after him all perished in the same way up to Eutychi- 
 anus, whose name means something like " the fortunate one" in 
 barbarous Greek-Latin, and who was indeed fortunate, for he 
 died a natural death. But in the mean time certain Greeks had 
 tried to steal the holy body, so that the Eoman Christians carried 
 it away for nineteen months to the Catacombs of St. Sebastian, 
 after which they brought it back again and laid it in its place. 
 And again after that, when the new circus was built by Helio- 
 gabalus in 219, they took it once more to the same Catacombs, 
 where it remained in safety for a long time. 
 
 Then came Constantine, who is said to have laid the foun- 
 dations of the old church of St. Peter's, which afterwards stood 
 more than eleven hundred years until it was replaced by the 
 present basilica. He built it on the site of Nero's circus and 
 over the little oratory of Anacletus. It was not till the days 
 of Honorius, however, that the body of St. Peter was taken 
 from the Catacombs and brought back for the last time, with 
 great concourse and ceremony, and laid where its dust still rests 
 in a brazen sarcophagus. 
 
 The famous bronze seated statue of St. Peter in the great 
 basilica at Eome, whose great toe is now nearly worn out by the 
 reiterated osculations of centuries, has been a subject of much 
 antiquarian dispute. Assertions have freely been made that it is 
 a statue of Jupiter Capitolinus, and much heavy fun has been 
 excited by ringing the changes on Punch's Punch-like pun of 
 Jew Peter. But Mr. F. Marion Crawford, an excellent authority 
 himself, claims that the weight of modern authority and artistic 
 judgment is to the contrary : 
 
 " The work cannot really be earlier than the fifth century?-, 
 and is therefore of a time after Honorius and the disestablish- 
 ment. Any one who will take the trouble to examine the lives 
 of the early Popes may read the detailed accounts of what each 
 one did for the churches. It is not by any means impossible 
 that the statue may have been made under St. Innocent I., a 
 contemporary of Honorius, in whose time a Eoman lady called 
 Vestina made gift to the Church of vast possessions, the pro- 
 ceeds of which were used in building and richly adorning nu- 
 merous places of worship. In any case, since it is practically 
 certain that the statue was originallj^ intended for a portrait 
 of St. Peter, and has been regarded as such for nearly fifteen 
 hundred years, it commands our respect, if not our veneration." 
 
 The practice of dressing up this statue in magnificent robes 
 on the feasts of St. Peter is connected with the ancient Eoman 
 custom which required the censors, when entering upon office, 
 to paint the earthen statue of Jupiter Capitolinus a bright red. 
 But the connection lies in the Italian mind and character, which 
 
 61 
 
802 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 cling desperately to external practices for their hold upon inward 
 principles. It is certainly not an inheritance of uninterrupted 
 tradition, as Eoman church music, on the contrary, most certainly 
 is ; for there is every reason to believe that the recitations now 
 noted in the Eoman missal were very like those used by the 
 ancient Bomans on solemn occasions. 
 
 On St. Peter's Day (August 1) the services are similar to those 
 of Easter. But the congregation is different. Instead of the 
 irreverent Easter tourists, rushing, pushing, laughing, and talk- 
 ing as if entering an opera-house, the seats are thinly occupied 
 by a sprinkling of men and women, habited mostly in black, and 
 of peasants in gaudy attire, all of whom show by their respectful 
 demeanor that they have come to pray and not to stare. 
 
 Perhaps there is nothing more beautiful than the illuminations 
 and fireworks with which St. Peter's Day is celebrated at Eome. 
 Chief is the illumination of St. Peter's. *' The whole of this 
 immense church — its columns, capitals, cornices, and pediments, 
 the beautiful swell of the lofty dome towering into heaven, the 
 ribs converging into one point at top, surmounted by the lantern 
 of the church, and crowned by the cross — all are designed in 
 lines of fire ; and the vast sweep of the circling colonnades, in 
 every rib, line, mould, cornice, and column, is resplendent with 
 light. On the cross of fire at the top waves a brilliant light, as 
 if wielded by some celestial hand, and instantly ten thousand 
 globes and stars of fire roll along the building as if by magic, 
 and blaze into a flood of glory. It seems the work of enchant- 
 ment. One would suppose the illumination to be complete, but 
 ten thousand lamps are still to be illumined. Their vivid blaze 
 harmonizes beautifully with the milder light of the lanterns ; 
 while the brilliant glow of the whole illumination sheds a rosy 
 light upon the fountains, whose silver fall and ever-playing show- 
 ers accord well with the magic of the scene. Viewed from Tri- 
 uita de' Monti the effect is unspeakably beautiful ; an enchanted 
 palace seems to be hung in the air, called up by the wand of some 
 invisible spirit. The girandola or fireworks from the castle of 
 St. Angelo are equally magnificent. They begin with a tremen- 
 dous explosion, representing the eruption of a volcano. Eed 
 sheets of fire seem to blaze upward into the glowing heavens, 
 and then to pour down their liquid streams upon the earth. 
 This is followed by a complicated display of every varied device 
 that imagination can figure, one changing into another, and the 
 beauty of the first effaced by that of the last. Hundreds of 
 immense wheels turn round with a velocity that almost seems 
 as if demons were whirling them, letting fall thousands of hiss- 
 ing snakes, scorpions, and fiery dragons, whose long convolutions, 
 darting forward as far as the eye can reach in every direction, 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 803 
 
 at length vanish into air. Fountains and jets of fire throw up 
 their blazing cascades into the skies. The whole vault of heaven 
 shines with vivid fires, and seems to receive into itself innumer- 
 able stars and suns, which, shooting up into it in brightness 
 almost insufferable, vanish like earth-born hopes. The reflection 
 in the calm, clear waters of the Tiber is scarcely less beautiful 
 than the spectacle itself; and the whole ends in a tremendous 
 burst of fire that almost seems to threaten conflagration to the 
 world." Such is the account of the celebration of St. Peter's 
 Day at Eome given by the author of " Eome in the Nineteenth 
 Century." Apart from these illuminations there are religious 
 ceremonies, which are conducted with all the pomp which marks 
 the ceremonial of the Eoman Church in her chief seat. 
 
 " One of the most remarkable incidents which occurred during 
 my long residence in Eome," says a contributor to Blackwood's 
 Magazine in May, 1829, "was the refusal of Naples, in 1788, to 
 yield the accustomed annual homage to the vicegerent of Christ. 
 In 1787, on the festival of St. Peter, I had seen this ceremony 
 performed with all its accustomed pomp. The papal guards 
 paraded in the piazza of St. Peter's ; the white horse, the repre- 
 sentative symbol of Naples, was led into the church by Prince 
 Colonna ; the Pope was borne in an elevated throne to the great 
 nave, where the well-trained horse bent his knees before him in 
 homage, while a purse of ducats, the yearly tribute of the king- 
 dom of Naples, was humbly ofl^ered to the Holy Father. 
 
 " On this occasion, however, the scene was widely different. 
 The King of Naples had refused to acknowledge any longer his 
 subjection to the Pope, oflfering at the same time to pay him the 
 value of a horse, that he might purchase one, but declaring that 
 never again should a white horse, in behalf of the kingdom of 
 Naples, bend its knees to him in homage. 
 
 "Notwithstanding this mortifying refusal, the papal guard 
 paraded as usual in the piazza, and the Pope was carried on his 
 lofty throne into St. Peter's ; b|it, alas ! no white horse appeared 
 to do him homage. When the Tloly Father arrived at the spot 
 where the horse had formerly knelt before him, a formal protest 
 was read against this insulting refusal of the King of Naples, 
 followed by a declaration that, notwithstanding this refusal, the 
 Pope reserved all his rights and claims to the accustomed 
 homage, &c., &c. 
 
 " It was truly a piteous spectacle to see the head of the Eomish 
 Church returning, in his throne, for the first time, without the 
 homage of horse and man, so long annually ofl'ered to him on 
 St. Peter's Day. The Holy Father, who had previously ex- 
 hausted himself by a speech in the Consistory of Cardinals, 
 looked unusually pale and infirm. There was, I thought, an air 
 
804 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 of mortified humility about him as he dispensed the benediction, 
 and it appeared to me that be sought to excite, by his mien and 
 gesture, a popular feeling for his insulted dignity. The Eomans, 
 however, evinced no sympathetic indignation, nor indeed any 
 feeling but mortification that the evening fireworks, always 
 hitherto given on this occasion, would be discontinued." 
 
 In England June 29 is known as St. Peter's Day, and local 
 survivals of ancient Catholic customs are not uncommon. The 
 most peculiar of these is at Nun-Monkton, in Yorkshire. It is 
 thus described by a correspondent of Wotes and Queries, Fourth 
 Series, vol. i. p. 361 : 
 
 " The feast-day of l^un-Monkton is kept on St. Peter's Day, 
 and is followed by the ' Little Feast Day,' and a merry time ex- 
 tending over a week. On the Saturday evening preceding the 
 29th a company of the villagers, headed by all the fiddlers and 
 players on other instruments that could be mustered at one time, 
 went in procession across the great common to ' Maypole Hill,' 
 where there is an old sycamore (the pole being near it), for the 
 purpose of ' rising Peter,' who had been buried under the tree. 
 This effigy of St. Peter, a rude one of wood, carved no one pro- 
 fessed to know when, and in these later times clothed in a ridicu- 
 lous lashion, was removed in its box-coflSn to the neighborhood 
 of the public house, there to be exposed to view, and, with as 
 little delay as possible, conveyed to some out-building, where it 
 was stowed away and thought no more about till the first Satur- 
 day after the feast-day (or the second if the 29th had occurred 
 at the back end of a week), when it was taken back in proces- 
 sion again, and re-interred with all honor, which concluding cere- 
 mony was called ' Buryin' Peter.' In this way did St. Peter 
 preside over his own .feast. On the evening of the first day of 
 the feast, two young men went round the village with large 
 baskets for the purpose of collecting tarts, cheese-cakes, and eggs 
 for mulled ale, all being consumed after the two ceremonies 
 above indicated. This last good custom is not done away with 
 yet, suppers and, afterwards, dancing in a barn being the order 
 while the feast lasts." 
 
 Peter's Chair, St. It was an ancient custom observed by 
 churches to keep an annual feast of the consecration of their 
 bishops, and especially of the founding of the episcopate in 
 them. The Feast of the Chair of St. Peter is found in ancient 
 martyrologies, and is celebrated on January 18, because St. Peter 
 is said on this day to have taken the throne of his episcopate in 
 Eome. An ancient wooden seat, said to be that of St. Peter, is 
 preserved in the Vatican. 
 
 On this solemn festival, which is celebrated in the church of 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 805 
 
 St. Peter at Eome, the Pope used to be borne in his pontifical 
 chair of state on the shoulders of twelve men, attired in vest- 
 ments of gold and wearing the tiara. On each side of the Pope 
 was carried a large fan of ostrich feathers into which were set 
 the eye-like portions of peacocks' feathers, symbolical of vigil- 
 ance and universal supervision. 
 
 Peter's Pence, or Rome-Scob. (Lat. Denarius Sancti 
 Petri.) The tax formerly paid annually to the See of Eome, now 
 collected as a voluntary offering in every church of Catholic 
 Christendom. The date, following the ancient precedent, is usu- 
 ally on the feast of St Peter in Yinculis. The earliest docu- 
 mentary evidence of it seems to be the letter of Canute (1031) 
 sent from Eome to the English clergy and laity. Among " the 
 dues which we owe to God according to ancient law" the king 
 names " the pennies which we owe to Eome at St. Peter's 
 [denarii quos Eomse ad Sanctum Petrum debemus], whether 
 from towns or vills." Hence the tax must have been one of 
 ancient standing in the time of Canute. But its exact origin 
 is a matter of dispute. Matthew Paris in his "Two Offas" 
 ascribes the grant to Offa, King of Mercia, who reigned from 
 755 to 796, and says that it was paid for the support of the Eng- 
 lish school and hostel at Eome. He adds that it was one silver 
 penny for every family occupying land worth thirty pence a 
 year. On the other hand, Layamon the poet ascribes the insti- 
 tution to Ina, King of WesseXj who abdicated in 728. Eventu- 
 ally it became general throughout England, being imposed on 
 any family possessing twenty pence' worth of goods of any 
 kind. It was extended to Ireland under the bull granted by 
 Pope Adrian to Henry II., and was subsequently introduced into 
 Poland, Prussia, and Scandinavia, though the Papal legates could 
 never succeed in getting it paid regularly. Gregory YII. failed 
 in his attempt to exact it from France and Spain. In England 
 it seems to have been paid more or less regularly till the reign 
 of Henry YIII., but for some time previously it had been re- 
 garded as only a charity and was not enforced from the people. 
 The Peter's Pence of modern days is a purely voluntary offer- 
 ing, made by the faithful and taken up under the direction of 
 their bishop for the maintenance of the Holy See. 
 
 Philip, St. (It. Filippo.) Patron saint of Brabant and 
 Luxemburg. His festival is celebrated on May 1 by the Eoman 
 and on November 14 by the Greek Church. St. Philip was born 
 at Bethsaida. Little is told of him in the Gospels, but legend 
 relates that after the Ascension he preached in Scythia and then 
 travelled to Hierapolis in Phrygia. Here he found the people 
 
806 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 worshipping a huge dragon as a personification of Mars. He 
 held up the" cross and bade the dragon to disappear, whereupon 
 it crawled out from beneath the altar and sent out such a fright- 
 ful odor that many persons, among them the king's son, fell dead. 
 Philip restored them to life, and the dragon disappeared. The 
 priests of the dragon were so enraged that they bound Philip to 
 a cross and stoned him to death. 
 
 Polycrates states that he was buried at Hierapolis in Phrygia. 
 An arm of St. Philip, it is said, was brought from Constantinople 
 to Florence in 1204. His body is said to be in the church of SS. 
 Philip and James in Pome. In art St. Philip is represented as a 
 man of middle age with a scanty beard and a, benevolent face. 
 His attribute is a cross, or a staif with a small cross at the top. 
 
 Philip Neri, St. (It. Filippo Weri), founder of the Oratorians. 
 His festival is celebrated on the day of his death, May 26 (1595). 
 
 St. Philip Neri was born in Florence in 1515. When eighteen 
 years old he went to Eome as tutor in a noble family. He became 
 the friend and almoner of St. Charles Borromeo, and was influ- 
 ential in the religious movements of his time. He gathered 
 about him young men of family and learning who devoted them- 
 selves to charity, and from, them he founded the order of Ora- 
 torians. They were bound by no vows, and did not seclude 
 themselves from the world. The son and heir of the Massimi 
 family, in which St. Philip was tutor, fell ill, and the saint asked 
 him if he was willing and resigned to die. The boy replied that 
 he was. " Go in peace," said St. Philip, and the boy, it is said, 
 immediately expired. On the 16th of March of each year the 
 Palazzo Massimi at Eome is decorated for a festival in honor of 
 this event, and the Pope sometimes officiates at the services. St. 
 Philip died in 1595, after a long life devoted to the poor and the 
 sick. He is buried in a chapel at Florence, and many miracles 
 are reported as having taken place at his tomb. He was canon- 
 ized by Gregory XY. in 1622. 
 
 Pilgrimage. In the Catholic Church, a religious discipline 
 which consists in making a journey to some place in order to 
 adore the relics of a saint or to visit the scene of some event in 
 sacred history. Among the ancient Eomans pilgrimages were 
 made to pagan shrines, such as that of Jupiter Tyrius at Gades, 
 of Jupiter Capitolinus at Eome, of Apollo at Delphi, and of Diana 
 at Ephesus. The pilgrimages of the Jews to Jerusalem at the 
 time of the great festivals were matters of precept and obli- 
 gation. Pilgrimages are still performed by Mohammedans to 
 Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, etc., and by Hindoos to a large num- 
 ber of sacred places. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 807 
 
 Catholic authorities carefully differentiate Christian from 
 pagan pilgrimages. As Arnold and Addis point out in their 
 '' Catholic Dictionary" (s. v.), the latter usually proceed on the 
 assumption that the power of the divinity whose help is sought 
 is locally circumscribed, but that within the limits of his own 
 jurisdiction it is indefinitely great. The Christian creed, accord- 
 ing to which " God is a spirit," to be sought and found •' not 
 specially on this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem," but wherever 
 the true worshippers approach him in spirit, might seem at first 
 sight to afford little encouragement to pilgrimages. " Neverthe- 
 less, so certain is it that religious impressions, blunted and weak- 
 ened by the daily business of the market-place and the street, 
 require in most minds to be often graven afresh (and that by 
 means of impulses from without, for it would be vain to trust to 
 the suflSciency of those coming from within), that the Church 
 has from the first, while admitting the danger of abuses and 
 taking measures to prevent them, approved the use of pilgrimage 
 to holy places as a very potent help and incentive to a holy life. 
 She also favors the practice, because she recognizes the undoubted 
 fact that God has often granted, and still grants, interior and 
 exterior favors, graces, and miracles, at particular places or 
 shrines, to honor certain mysteries, saints, etc." 
 
 The first recorded pilgrim is St. Alexander, who in the third 
 century is said to have visited Jerusalem in fulfilment of a vow. 
 But from the letters of Paula and Eustochium (included among 
 those of St. Jerome) it would appear that from the date of the 
 Ascension to their own time a continual stream of pilgrims had 
 resorted to the Holy Places. 
 
 The custom reached its height about the eleventh and twelfth 
 centuries, when it was followed by all classes of society from 
 kings to peasants. The Church granted privileges and indul- 
 gences to those who visited certain places of devotion, and many 
 made it their calling in life to go from one shrine to another. 
 
 The more famous shrines towards which the currents of pil- 
 grimage have set strongly are the Holy Places in Palestine (see 
 Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Church of the Nativity), the 
 various shrines of the Blessed Virgin, as Walsingham in England, 
 Einsiedeln in Switzerland, Chartres, Eourvieres, and Lourdes 
 in France, Mariazell in Germany, Loreto in Italy, Guadalupe 
 and Montserrat in Spain, and Guadalupe in Mexico, and the 
 shrines of saints and angels, such as St. Michael's at Monte Gar- 
 gano, Italy, and in France, the English St. Thomas of Canter- 
 bury, St. Andrew in Scotland, St. James at Compostella, and many 
 others. 
 
 Despite the vigilance of the Church, abuses undoubtedly crept 
 into the mediaeval pilgrimages. A curious example came out 
 
808 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 during the examination for heresy of William Thorpe by the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury in 1407. 
 
 " Ungracious lousel !" said the archbishop, addressing his vic- 
 tim, "thou favorest no more truth than an hound. Since, at the 
 road at the north door at London, at our lady at Walsingham, 
 and many other divers places in England, are many great and 
 praisable miracles done, should not the images of such holy 
 saints and places be more worshipped than other places and 
 images where no such miracles are done ?" 
 
 Thorpe was accused by Archbishop Arundel of having asserted 
 that " those men and women who go on pilgrimages to Canter- 
 bury, to Beverley, to Walsingham, and to any other such places, 
 are accursed and made foolish, spending their goods in waste." 
 Thorpe, in effect, admits such to be his opinion, and in justifying 
 himself is led into the following lively description of what the 
 fashionable pilgrimages of the time really were. 
 
 " Examine," he says, " whosoever will, twenty of these pil- 
 grims, and he shall not find the men or women that know surely 
 a commandment of God, nor can say their Pater-noster and Ave- 
 Maria, nor their Credo, readily in any manner of language.. The 
 cause why that many men and women go hither and thither 
 now on pilgrimages, is more for the health of their bodies than 
 of their souls; more to have riches and prosperity of this world 
 than to be enriched with virtues in their soul ; more to have here 
 worldly and fleshly friendship than for to have friendship of 
 God and of his saints in heaven." 
 
 He contends that such persons as these, who spend much 
 money and time in seeking out and visiting the bones or images 
 of this or of that saint, do that which is in direct disobedience 
 to the commands of God, inasmuch as they waste their goods 
 partly upon innkeepers, many of whom are women of profligate 
 conduct, partly upon rich priests, who already have more than 
 they need. 
 
 " Also, sir," he concludes, " I know well that when divers men 
 and women will go thus after their own wills, and finding out 
 one pilgrimage, they will ordain with them [arrange with one 
 another] before to have with them both men and women that 
 can well sing wanton songs, and some other pilgrims wall have 
 their bagpipes ; so that every town they come through, what 
 with the noise of their singing, and with the sound of their 
 piping, and with the jangling of their Canterbury bells, and 
 with the barking out of dogs after them, they make more noise 
 than if the king came there away with all his clarions and many 
 other minstrels." 
 
 " Lewd wasel !" replied the archbishop, determined at all risks 
 to defend all this unseemly merriment, " thou seest not far 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 809 
 
 enough in this matter. I say to thee that it is right well done 
 that pilgrims have with them both singers and also pipers, that 
 when one of them that goeth barefoot strilieth his toe upon a 
 stone and hurtethi hin\ sore, and maketh him to bleed, it is well 
 done that he oi* his fellow begin then a song, or else take out of 
 his bosom a bagpipe, for to drive away with such mirth the hurt 
 of his fellow. For with such solace the travel and weariness of 
 pilgrims is lightly and merrily brought forth." 
 
 The archbishop was evidently of the mind of the host in 
 Chaucer : 
 
 Ye gon to Canterbury — 
 
 The blissful martyr quitte you your meeds ; 
 
 And wel I wot, as ye gon by the way, 
 
 Ye shapen you to talken and to play ; 
 
 For truely comfort ne mirth is none 
 
 To riden by the way dumb as the stone. 
 
 Pilgrimages to Eome are still kept up with many of the old 
 usages by the inhabitants of Italy and the neighboring countries. 
 These are generally made at Easter, but sometimes on St. Peter's 
 Day or the anniversary of the Pope's election, when the illumi- 
 nation of St. Peter's is repeated as on Easter Sunday. 
 
 The great hospital of the Holy Trinit}?- is thrown open for a 
 week to the pilgrims, who are there fed and housed by thou- 
 sands. A confraternity of ladies and gentlemen, both Eoman 
 and foreign, have the management of this charity, and wear a 
 distinctive costume while engaged in these hospitable duties. 
 This consists of a scarlet apron of common twill with a cross 
 on the shoulder, the garment covering the figure entirely in 
 its spreading folds, and resembling a dressing-gown in shape 
 and amplitude. Men and women alike wear this, and so ar- 
 rayed serve their guests in separate wards of the vast building. 
 During the day they may be seen guiding them to the different 
 shrines of the city, and in the vast and gloomy recesses of St. 
 Peter's. 
 
 Every evening the scene at the hospital is the same, but only 
 the newly arrived pilgrims are admitted to the Lavanda (q. v.), or 
 " washing of the feet." This custom is very ancient, and used 
 to be much more extensively carried out than at present. Even 
 in our day, at least during Holy Week, its observance involves 
 no sinecure. The pilgrims of course have made all or the greater 
 part of their journey on foot, and the chaussure of many of them 
 is extremely primitive, such modern improvements as shoes 
 and stockings being replaced by long linen bands swathed about 
 the feet in coils full twenty or thirty yards long, until a sufficient 
 thickness is reached to protect the flesh against the inequalities 
 of Italian mountain roads. Still these mummy-like swath ings 
 
810 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 are not wholly proof against the continued friction of stones and 
 sticks, so that when the wayfarers arrive at the hospital these 
 rags are often soaked in blood and clotted dust. The pilgrims 
 are immediately led to a basement room furnished with a low 
 continuous wooden settle skirting the wall, and numberless 
 wash-basins with coarse soap and strong towels to each. The 
 members of the confraternity accompany them, and, removing 
 their bandages, carefully wash their sore and bleeding feet in 
 warm water. 
 
 This washing of the feet is continued throughout the evening 
 by some portion of the members, as there are always enough 
 pilgrims to refill the basement room as fast as it is emptied. 
 Those whose feet have been washed are then conducted to a long 
 refectory full of deal tables with coarse white table-cloths, where 
 an ample supper of bread and meat is provided. After the meal 
 the remnants are thus disposed of: every pilgrim cuts open a 
 small loaf, and, taking out the greater part of the crumb, eats 
 it at once, thus making room for the remainder of his or her 
 portion of meat, which is kept over and serves for breakfast in 
 the morning. When all have been cared for, a procession is 
 formed of the total number of guests, and the members of the 
 confraternity lead them to the vast, airy dormitories, where they 
 help the old and infirm to bed. Litanies and hymns are sung 
 in the mean while, and a more peaceful, orderly scene can hardly 
 be imagined. This institution, though not so old as some other 
 hospitals, yet brings to one's mind the similar but probably ruder 
 establishments of the early Middle Ages. The hospital built by 
 good King Ina of the West Saxons in the seventh or eighth 
 century, and served by himself in person, was one of these, and 
 was specially devoted to the Saxon pilgrims who in those ages 
 of faith readily undertook the toilsome journey to Eome. This 
 pilgrimage would sometimes be made as an act of expiation for 
 violence done to a neighbor, sometimes as a pledge of future 
 good conduct or a thanksgiving for some boon obtained by 
 prayer. When pilgrims began to fail, scholars took their place, 
 and young and needy boys were collected in the hospital and 
 lodged gratis, while they picked up an education hap-hazard at 
 the lectures of the different colleges of Eome. Gradually the 
 hospital itself was transformed into a college, and, though de- 
 stroyed in one of the ruinous invasions of Eome by pagan and 
 undisciplined hordes, nevertheless survived as an institution, 
 being rebuilt by the Saxons and becoming the germ of the pres- 
 ent English College. All other nations had the same national 
 hospitals for pilgrims, all under the special protection of their 
 respective sovereigns ; and most of these underwent the same 
 wise transformation into colleges when the needs of the age 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 811 
 
 made learning the summum honum in the eyes of the rising 
 generation. 
 
 Religious pilgrimages are much in vogue among the Hindoos. 
 Besides the ordinary festivals observed in most of the temples, 
 to which all the pious of the adjoining districts flock, there are 
 special festivals at particular places — such as the great festivals 
 at Ramisseram, held at intervals of twelve and sixty years re- 
 spectively — to which pious Hindoos flock from a great distance. 
 Attendance at the car-festival at Juggernaut is thought to eman- 
 cipate the soul at death from the evils of future birth. Sacred 
 spots and places are likewise made the objects of pilgrimage. 
 Such is Hurdwar, where the Ganges emerges from the Himalaya 
 into the plains ; such are the holy cities of Benares and Allaha- 
 bad ; such also is the spot in Southern India where Sita, the con- 
 sort of Rama, went through the ordeal of fire to test her conjugal 
 purity. At this latter spot multitudes flock together from every 
 part of India, on the auspicious occasions, to bathe in the sea, in 
 the full belief of attaining special favor from heaven. There is 
 a temple at Gungotri, far up in the Himalayas, to which pilgrims 
 i-esort, though they find there no other shelter than a few wooden 
 sheds, and caves in the adjoining cliffs. Kedernath, in the same 
 snowy locality, is also visited by pilgrims; and here a score 
 of devotees annually sacrifice their lives, either by precipitating 
 themselves from a certain precipice, or by proceeding into the 
 snowy mountain-wastes until they perish from cold and hunger. 
 Still higher in the mountains, and consequently deserted for half 
 the year, is another goal of pilgrimage, the lonely temple of 
 Badrinath, — standing with its glittering gilded spire and balls 
 amidst the snows, with the icy peaks of Roodroo Himala tower- 
 ing above it to the height of twenty-three thousand feet. The 
 great object of all Hindoo pilgrimages is to obtain purification 
 from past sins and exemption in the future life from transmi- 
 gration. These pilgrimages often occupy months in the per- 
 formance, and to meet their expenses the Hindoo sometimes 
 borrows money at high interest, pledges his jewels, etc.; and 
 becomes impoverished for life. Thousands never return, per- 
 ishing by the way, and leaving their bodies to be devoured by 
 the vulture and the jackal. But their fate deters no one, — so 
 great is the glory of those who return in safety. Shaving all 
 the hair off their heads and bodies, and rubbing themselves with 
 holy ashes, the returned pilgrim devotees march stark naked 
 through the town, accompanied by flags and music, and followed 
 by crowds of admiring young people of both sexes, who offer 
 to them incense and presents, say prayers to them, and regard 
 them as superior beings. [To the Hindoos, it has been truly 
 said, immortality is not so much a belief as a certainty. In con- 
 
812 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 n 
 
 sequence, the present life appears a smaller thing to them than 
 to any other people in the world ; and what is it to risk the 
 fleeting breath of earthly life in pilgrimages, when the spiritual 
 recompense is believed to be so great, and when the personal 
 ovation upon return is so excessively flattering and so lull of 
 worldly advantages ? 
 
 Pillar, The. (Sp. El Filar.) The name popularly given to 
 one of the cathedrals in Saragossa, Spain, on account of the 
 holy pillar preserved here. According to legend, the apostle 
 James {q. t;.), when preaching the gospel in Spain, fell asleep on 
 the site of this church, October 12, a.d. 40. During his sleep 
 the angels caught up the Virgin Mary, then dwelling in Pales- 
 tine, transported her to Saragossa on a jasper pillar, and carried 
 her back again, after she had desired him to raise a chapel on 
 the spot. St. James awoke, and, lo ! the pillar stood before him 
 as an evidence that his dream was true. The chapel was built, 
 and to it the Virgin often came afterwards to mass. 
 
 The holy pillar is kept covered up with a casing in a chapel in 
 the centre of the cathedral. At the back there is a hole in the 
 casing, through which the faithful may, kneelii)g, peep at and 
 kiss the sacred marble. Here a large dent is worn by multitudi- 
 nous labial devotion. The marble steps are also foot- and kiss- 
 worn. An image of the Virgin and Child carved in dark wood 
 surmounts the pillar. All around the shrine are suspended votive 
 offerings, mostly models in wax or silver of afflicted members 
 healed by the intercession of the Virgin. October 12, the anni- 
 versary of her descent, is the greatest festival of Saragossa. 
 Then pilgrims of all ages and both sexes crowd in from the 
 neighboring country and even from the remotest parts of Spain. 
 The battle-hymn of the Aragonese soldiers used to run as follows : 
 
 La Virgen del Pilar dice 
 Que no quiere ser Francesca, 
 Que quiere ser capitana 
 De la gente Aragonesa. 
 
 (" The Virgin of the Pillar says that she does not wish to be a Frenchwoman, 
 that she wishes to be a captain of the Aragonese people.") 
 
 Pinkster Day. (From Dutch Pinkster, " Pentecost," or Whit- 
 sunday.) A holiday, or often a series of holidays, celebrated at 
 Whitsuntide in Colonial and early New York, and to some extent 
 in Pennsylvania and Maryland. E'o where was it a greater fes- 
 tival than in Albany, especially among the negro population, to 
 whom it was eventually abandoned by the whites. Capitol Hill, 
 which was the centre of the celebrations, was then universally 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 813 
 
 known as Pinkster Hill. Here the booths and sports were 
 opened on Whitsun Monday, white curiosity-seekers being on 
 that day the chief visitors. On Tuesday the blacks all appeared. 
 Great was the consumption of gingerbread, cider, and apple-jack. 
 But the chief feature was the dancing, an evident importation 
 from Africa. Munsell tells us that for nearly fifty years the 
 leader was a darky known as Old King Charley, said to have 
 been a prince in his own country and to have survived to the age 
 of one hundred and twenty-five. " On those festivals, old Charley 
 was dressed in a strange and fantastical costume ; he was nearly 
 barelegged, wore a red military coat trimmed profusely with 
 variegated ribbons, and a small black hat with a pompon stuck 
 on one side. The dances and antics of the darkies must have 
 afforded great amusement for the ancient burghers. As a gen- 
 eral thing, the music consisted of a sort of drum, or instrument 
 constructed out of a box with sheepskin heads, upon which old 
 Charley did most of the beating, accompanied by singing some 
 queer African air. Charley generally led off the dance, when 
 the Sambos and Phyllises, juvenile and antiquated, would put in 
 the double-shuffle heel-and-toe break-down." From other authori- 
 ties it seems that the dance was called the Toto Dance, and par- 
 took so largely of savage license that it gradually came to be 
 shunned by respectable whites. In 1811 the Common Council of 
 Albany prohibited the erection of booths, as well as all dancing, 
 gaming, and drinking, on Pinkster Day. The enforcement of 
 this statute eventually drove the holiday out of existence. 
 
 Cooper in his " Satanstoe," a tale of Colonial ISTew York, calls 
 Pinkster the great Saturnalia of the blacks. "Although this 
 festival is always kept with more vivacity at Albany than in 
 York, it is far from being neglected, even now, in the latter 
 place." He tells us that it lasted three days, the negroes flocking 
 for miles around to what is now City Hall Park. In Brooklyn, 
 it seems, they gathered around the old market near the ferry. 
 
 "On Long Island," says Alices Morse Earle in her " Colonial 
 Days in ISTew York" (1896, p. 199), " the Dutch residents also 
 made the day a festival, going to pinkster fields for pinkster 
 frolics, exchanging visits and drinking schnapps, and eating 
 ' soft-wafels' together. About twelve years ago, while driving 
 through Flatlands and l!^ew Lots one beautiful day in May, I 
 met a group of young men driving from door to door of the 
 farm-houses, in wagons gayly dressed with branches of dogwood 
 blossoms, and entering each house for a short visit. I asked 
 whether a wedding or a festival were being held in the town, 
 and was answered that it was an old Dutch custom to make 
 visits that week. I tried to learn whence this observance came, 
 but no one knew its reason for being, or what hohday was 
 
814 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 observed. Poor Pinkster ! still vaguely honored as a shadow, a 
 ghost of the past, but with your very name forgotten, even 
 among the children of those who gave to you in this land a 
 name and happy celebration !" 
 
 Plough Monday. The first Monday after Epiphany (q. v.) 
 is still celebrated under this name in some parts of rural Eng- 
 land and Scotland. Anciently it marked the farmer's resump- 
 tion of the severer arts of husbandry after the Christmas dissipa- 
 tions, just as St. Distaff's Day marked his good wife's return to 
 her domestic vocations. In Catholic times the ploughmen kept 
 lights burning before images in the churches, so as to secure a 
 blessing upon their work, and went about in procession from 
 door to door begging money ostensibly for the support of their 
 plough-lights. The Eeformation put a stop to the lights, but 
 not to the collection, which was now frankly and openly spent 
 in the tavern. New details had been added year by year to the 
 Plough procession, as it was called, until by the sixteenth and 
 seventeenth centuries, when the festivities reached their final 
 development, they formed quite an elaborate affair. 
 
 A plough called the Fool Plough, bedizened with ribbons and 
 other decorations, was dragged through the streets or roads by 
 thirty or forty ploughmen similarly decorated, and with their 
 shirts over their jackets. In front strode one of their number 
 fantastically attired as an old woman, who was known as Bessy. 
 A fool with his fool's-cap, a masker wearing a fox's skin over 
 his head, and a band of morris-dancers or other mummers, occa- 
 sionally attended the vanguard. Then followed a procession of 
 as many ploughmen as cared to join, and frequently threshers 
 carrying their flails, reapers bearing their sickles, and carters 
 with long whips. Bessy, jumping and dancing, rattled a box as 
 a stimulus to votive offerings, and the rest followed, making all 
 the noise they could. At the larger farms ale and other refresh- 
 ments would be given, as well as money. Even the 'smaller cot- 
 tagers threw a few pence into Bessy's box. Woe to any substan- 
 tial householder who refused. The ground in front of his house 
 would be ploughed up by the angry yokesmen and left brown, 
 bare, and ridgy. 
 
 Tusser's " Five Hundred Points of Husbandry" alludes to a 
 rivalry on this day between ploughman and servant-maid which 
 still has its local survivals. Tusser's words are, — 
 
 Plough Munday, next after that twelf-tide is past, 
 Bids out with the plough ; the worst husband is last. 
 If plowman get hatchet or whip to the skrene, 
 Maids loseth their cocke, if no water be seen. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 815 
 
 Which are thus explained in " Tusser Eedivivus" (1744, p. 79) : 
 "After Christmas (which formerly, during the twelve days, was 
 a time of very little work), every gentleman feasted the farmers, 
 and every farmer their servants and task-men. Plough Monday 
 puts them in mind of their business. In the morning, the men 
 and the maid-servants strive who shall show their diligence in 
 rising earhest. If the ploughman can get his whip, his plough- 
 staff, hatchet, or anything that he wants in the field, by the fire- 
 side, before the maid hath got her kettle on, then the maid loseth 
 her Shrovetide cock, and it wholly belongs to the men. Thus 
 did our forefathers strive to allure youth to their duty, and pro- 
 vided them with innocent mirth as well as labor. On this 
 Plough Monday they have a good supper and some strong drink." 
 (See also Every Bay Book, 1826, vol. i. p. 71.) 
 
 In the northern counties of England a custom formerly pre- 
 vailed on Plough Monday that if a ploughman came to the 
 kitchen-hatch and could cry, " Cock in the pot," before the maid 
 could cry, " Cock on the dung-hill," he was entitled to a cock for 
 Shrove Tuesday. (I^otes and Queries, Second Series, vol. i. p. 
 386.) 
 
 In Northamptonshire, according to Baker's " ]N'orthampton- 
 shire Words and Phrases" (1854, ii. 1257), there used to be a 
 custom on this day that when the ploughman returned from his 
 labors in the evening the servant-maid would meet him with a 
 jug of toast and ale ; and if he could succeed in throwing his 
 plough-hatchet into the house before she reached the door, he 
 was entitled to a cock to throw at Shrovetide ; but if she was 
 able to present him with the toast and ale first, then she gained 
 the cock. 
 
 In the city of London the first Monday after the Epiphany 
 was qnce a great state among the civic dignities, as being the 
 day on which was held " the Great Court of Wardmote," for the 
 purpose of receiving presentments from the several wardmote 
 inquests and of swearing in constables. The aldermen were 
 summoned to attend at the Guildhall in their scarlet gowns, and 
 the lord mayor came in state from the Mansion House, accom- 
 panied by the sheriffs. In the evening his lordship entertained 
 the ofiicers of his household. The great silver bowl was intro- 
 duced at the end of the banquet filled with punch, and " pyra- 
 mids" of cakes and sweetmeats placed on the table with the 
 dessert. Such as were not eaten by the guests were removed 
 and divided into parcels for them to take home, in addition to 
 which there was formerly given a piece of twelfth cake in a 
 separate parcel. The custom of dividing the sweetmeats and 
 cakes was continued down to the mayoralty of Samuel Wilson 
 in 1839, but the twelfth cake was frequently omitted, and in that 
 
816 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 year the division of the sweetmeats, etc., was also done away 
 with. The practice, however, both as to the sweet cakes and 
 the shce of twelfth cake in a separate parcel, appears to have 
 been again in force ten years later. 
 
 " At the present day," says the London Athenceum, January 5, 
 1889, " the Great Court of Wardmote continues to sit for the 
 purpose of receiving returns of elections of members of the 
 Common Council for the various wards of the City (the election 
 itself having taken place on St. Thomas's Day, viz., December 
 21 preceding), for hearing objections to any election, and for 
 swearing in ward beadles, the city marshal, and extra constables 
 not under the jurisdiction of the commissioner of police. All 
 presentments of nuisances, etc., have ceased to be made to this 
 court. The lord mayor still entertains the officers of his house- 
 hold, but extends his hospitality to a large number of clerks 
 employed in the various offices of the Corporation. In place, 
 however, of the twelfth cake and sweetmeats, each guest is pre- 
 sented with a box containing biscuits or preserved fruit, the box 
 itself being sufficiently handsome, according to the taste and 
 liberality of the lord mayor, to be afterwards converted to some 
 useful purpose. A bowl of punch is always a conspicuous feature 
 at this entertainment." 
 
 Plymouth Rock. A famous rock or ledge on which the 
 Pilgrims are believed to have landed when they first stepped 
 from their boats in the harbor of what is now Plymouth, Massa- 
 chusetts. (See Forefathers' Day.) The tradition that this is 
 the identical rock was handed down from father to son. In 
 1741 Elder Thomas Faunce, then an old man of ninety, came to 
 make public protest against any injury to the rock from the 
 building of a wharf, mentioning that it had been pointed out to 
 him by some of the original Pilgrims. 
 
 A circumstance which adds force to the tradition is that, in 
 spite of Mrs. Hemans and her description of "the stern and 
 rock-bound coast" of Plymouth Bay, this stepping-stone of the 
 Forefathers is almost the only rock of any size to be found on 
 these sandy shores. It is uncertain whether Elder Faunce and 
 his forebears had in mind the landing of the exploring expedition 
 of seventeen men which took place December 21, or that of the 
 entire party from the Mayflower on January 4, 1621. But the 
 former date is the one generally accepted, and the two events 
 have become mingled into one in the popular imagination. 
 
 In 1774 the rock was a passive, but none the less an important, 
 factor in a stirring scene. British oppression had aroused the 
 spirit of the old colony. The descendants of the Pilgrims de- 
 termined to consecrate anew the stone which their forefathers 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 817 
 
 had hallowed. On October 5 five thousand freemen assembled 
 in Plymouth with the intention of removing the Rock to the 
 centre of the Town Square. But while they were raising it in 
 its bed it split in two. The colonists paused in dismay. Then a 
 quick-witted whig hailed the omen as a sign of a speedy sunder- 
 ing of the British Empire. The suggestion was hailed with en- 
 thusiasm. The upper half was dragged by twenty yoke of oxen, 
 amid thunders of applause, to the square in front of Pilgrim 
 Hall. There it remained until 1880, when it was replaced on 
 the original boulder in what is now Water Street. Over the 
 reunited fragments rises a canopy of dressed stone supported by 
 four columns. In the top of this are the bones of some of the 
 original settlers, removed from Coles's Hill. 
 
 Polycarp, St., Bishop of Smyrna. His festival is celebrated 
 on January 26. 
 
 St. Polycarp was converted to Christianity in the year 80, 
 when quite young. He was a pupil of St. John, and was conse- 
 crated Bishop of Smyrna by him in the year 96. In the sixth 
 year of the reign of Marcus Aurelius that Emperor ordered a 
 persecution of the Christians throughout his dominion. The 
 Christians of Smj^rna were made to fight with wild beasts for 
 the amusement of the populace. Polycarp was advised to with- 
 draw from the storm, and he concealed himself for a time at a 
 short distance from the city. The ofiicers bribed one of his ser- 
 vants to reveal his hiding-place, and horsemen were sent by 
 night to capture the saint. He received the soldiers with great 
 courtesy, and set out refreshments for them with his own hand. 
 On the way back to Smyrna the soldiers tried in vain to get him 
 to recant. He was given another chance by the proconsul while 
 the soldiers were preparing the stake at which he was burnt 
 alive. But Polycarp steadfastly refused to recant, and so expired 
 at the stake. The martyrdom occurred in the year 167. Soon 
 after his death one of his followers, Irenseus, wrote an account 
 of his life and death, and some of his congregation met together 
 to settle as to how they should commemorate his memory. They 
 agreed that they should solemnly keep the day of his martyr- 
 dom every year, which they called his " birthday." This is 
 probably the origin of keeping saints' days. St. Polycarp's tomb 
 is still shown near Smyrna. 
 
 Pope Ladies. A species of buns sold in Hertfordshire, Eng- 
 land, on the feast of the Annunciation. This is a custom that 
 dates from a remote antiquity. A legend thus accounts for 
 their origin. A noble lady and her attendants were benighted 
 while travelling on the road to St. Albans. Lights in the clock 
 
 62 
 
818 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 tower at the top of the hill guided their steps to the monastery, 
 and the grateful lady gave a sum of money to provide an annual 
 distribution to the poor on Annunciation or Lady Day of cakes 
 baked in the form of ladies. As this bounty was distributed by 
 the monks, the Pope Ladies probably thus acquired their name. 
 At the time of the Eeformation the dole came to an end, but the 
 local bakers continued to bake and sell buns made on the same 
 pattern. 
 
 Popinjay, Festival of the. (Fr. La Fete du Papegai, the 
 latter word being probably a corruption of the Italian pappa- 
 gallo, " a parrot.") The papegai was generally a pigeon roughly 
 carved in wood and set up on some high tower or other eminence. 
 He who shot it away needed considerable skill, whether he used 
 bow or arrow, as in the early days, or later a clumsy gun resting 
 upon a high stand. He received the title of King of the Papegai, 
 which he bore during the year, together with a silver chain from 
 which hung medals of all the former kings of the Papegai, as 
 well as a more substantial reward in the shape of an allowance 
 for the year of his royalty. 
 
 The festival of the Papegai was until quite a recent period 
 celebrated at St. Malo in Brittany on the first Sunday in Lent. 
 It was introduced there by the good Duchess Anne herself. 
 
 Early in the fifteenth century it was no empty honor to be 
 King of the Papegai and decorated as such by the duchess, for 
 the town granted him an allowance varying in value from three 
 hundred to five hundred dollars, a very considerable sum in 
 those days. 
 
 The festival of the Popinjay was one of the many importa- 
 tions which the French alliance brought into Scotland. Eeaders 
 of " Old Mortality" will remember with what ceremony Ladj^ 
 Margaret Bellenden went to attend the festival in the county 
 of Lanark on a May morning in the year 1679, and of the shock 
 her pride received at the discomfiture of Goose Gibbie. Sir 
 Walter says that the custom prevailed in Ayrshire down to his 
 own time. 
 
 Pradakshina. A ceremony of almost universal use in Brah- 
 minical as well as in Buddhist ritual. This means going round 
 with the right shoulder to the centre, which is the same turn as 
 that given to the prayer- wheel (q. v.). Towns and fields and 
 smaller objects are circumambulated in this manner, with bless- 
 ing both to the devotee and to the object of his devotion. The 
 great pilgrimage of the Panch-Kosi at Benares, one of the most 
 important observances of the Hindoos, is simply a long pradak- 
 shina performed around that city. Here the circuit lengthens 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 819 
 
 out about fifty miles. As an every-day instance Mr. Simpson in 
 " The Buddhist Praying-Wheel" cites the case of a Hindoo whom 
 he saw making a pradakshina around a tulsi plant, which is held 
 sacred to Vishnu. " It was growing on a mud pedestal carefully 
 prepared for it, and around this he walked a number of times, 
 with his right hand to the centre." 
 
 CiRCUMAMBUL-ATING THE TULSI PLANT. 
 
 (From Simpson's " The Buddhist Praying- Wheel.") 
 
 He found that to go round in the opposite direction, or with 
 the left hand to the centre, was the rule at death-ceremonies. 
 It was on other occasions productive of evil. 
 
 Now, it puzzled him to find that among the Semites, both 
 Moslems and Jews, the custom is generally that of going round 
 with the left side turned to the centre. He gives a tentative 
 explanation that as in India the left hand to the centre is the 
 rule in connection with the dead, the Semitic custom may have 
 become the stereotyped rule from the practice of worshipping at 
 lombs, which is knoAvn to be still a marked feature of Moslem 
 faith. The Kaaba at Mecca, for example, is built in the sem- 
 blance of a huge tomb, and the Moslem performs his pradak- 
 shina around it in the reverse direction. 
 
 From the East Mr. Simpson turned his attention to the West. 
 He found an extraordinary parallel to the pradakshina in the 
 
820 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Highlands of Scotland, where there is a custom now well-nigh 
 extinct, but once extremely prevalent, known as the deisul (^. v.) 
 or deasil. 
 
 The bonfires which in many parts of Great Britain and the 
 European continent are still lighted on St. John's Eve and other 
 occasions furnish more analogies. It is frequently the custom 
 for the celebrants to dance around them in a sunwise direction. 
 Torches are revolved rapidly, so as to give the appearance of a 
 circle of fire. Burning disks are whirled into the air. Wheels 
 and barrels are eagerly sought for, lighted, and rolled down- hill 
 as globes of fire. Blazing torches, barrels, or disks are carried, 
 around a field or a town in order to bless it and keep it from 
 harm during the ensuing season. 
 
 Nay, may we not find another survival in the custom, well- 
 nigh universal among gamblers, of turning a chair or walking 
 around it in order to bring about a change of luck ? It may be 
 noted that this turning is always from left to right. 
 
 Prayer-Wheel. An instrument used chiefly among the 
 Lamaist Buddhists for the purpose of offering prayers by me- 
 chanical means. Prayer-wheels are of various shapes and sizes, 
 from small cylinders turned by the hand to huge ones driven by 
 water or wind. Long strips of paper with a written or printed 
 formula repeated hundreds or even thousands of times are 
 wrapped round these cylinders, and as the cylinders revolve the 
 paper rolls uncoil, and so the prayer is said. 
 
 Sometimes the wheels are monster cylinders worked with 
 string and crank by a monk, sometimes a long row of small 
 cylinders, ranged along the wall at such a height as to be within 
 reach of passers-by, who give them a twirl and go on rejoicing 
 in the consciousness of having earned the blessing of Provi- 
 dence. Sometimes prayer-tubs are propelled by water-wheels. 
 In other parts windmills perform the like service, while the 
 smaller domestic prayer-wheels are often caused to revolve by 
 the heated air over the fireplace. In short, it makes no differ- 
 ence what is the propelling force, the Karma can be realized if 
 only the circular motion be produced. The more rapid the revo- 
 lution the greater the merit of the devotee. 
 
 Most European writers have looked upon the prayer-wheel as 
 a strange freak of superstition, an exceptional form of ritualism. 
 Carlyle contemptuously alludes to it as the " Eotatory Calabash." 
 Travellers have generally spoken of the grinding of prayers in a 
 mill as an excellent subject for jokes. In 1896, however, Mr. 
 William Simpson, in his " Buddhist Praying-Wheel," as he pre- 
 fers to call it, set himself to show that it is but one offshoot 
 from the common centre of an infinite variety of myths and 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 821 
 
 ceremonies, whose ramifications reach even into the Christian 
 ritual. His conclusion is that the circular movement is sym- 
 bolical of the solar motion, or, it may be, of the great revolv- 
 ing circle of the heavens, in which the sun is a subordinate 
 traveller. The virtue of the wheel lies in its being turned sun- 
 wise, — i.e., from east to west, — or, to make matters more plain, 
 in the direction which a man would take if he perambulated it, 
 keeping the object always on his right. The reverse action 
 brings evil and undoes any merit previously acquired by turn- 
 ing the machine in the orthodox direction. (See Pradakshina 
 and Deisul.) 
 
 Presepio. (Gr. Krippe ; Fr. Creche, — all three words meaning 
 "a manger.") The Latin and Italian and therefore the original 
 name for a representation of the infant Christ lying in a man- 
 ger, to which were subsequently added all sorts of accessories in 
 the way of members of the Holy Family and other scriptural 
 characters, both human and animal. The presepio is exhibited 
 in churches or in the private houses of the wealthy at Christmas- 
 time. It is said to owe its origin to St. Francis of Assisi, who, 
 beginning with 1223, was wont to decorate a stable at Christmas- 
 time with the principal scenes of the Nativity. In that stable 
 so transformed he celebrated mass and preached to the people 
 until the holy season was over. 
 
 Subsequently the presepii spread throughout Italy and to 
 Spain, Portugal, France, the Netherlands, and Germany. They 
 vary in size and expensiveness from the rude wooden figures of 
 the Alpine goatherd, cut out with his own hands during the long 
 winter evenings for domestic' use, to the pretentious representa- 
 tions of the larger churches, with their elaborate carving and 
 gilding, velvet drapery, and cloth of gold. In many parishes of 
 Catholic Europe everybody contributes to the expense of fitting 
 up the presepio. Moribund misers and others anxious to pur- 
 chase their way into the next woi^ld frequently leave considerable 
 sums for the further embellishment of the village presepio. 
 
 A presepio in a Capuchin church in Eome is thus described. 
 The Holy Family occupy the foreground. In the manger re- 
 poses the Bambino, or infant Christ, over whom St. Joseph, 
 holding a bouquet, and the Virgin, dressed in satin or lace, with 
 blue veil and silver crown, bend admiringly. Around kneel 
 sundry shepherds in the act of adoration, while overhead angels 
 with golden wings float among the clouds, chanting the Gloria 
 in Bxcelsis. A silver star with its comet-like trail directs the 
 approach of the Eastern Magi, who, with their brilliant retinue 
 of horsemen and attendants, dazzle the eyes of the juvenile 
 spectators with their Oriental pomp and pageantry. Here a 
 
822 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 ragged beggar stretches out a beseeching palm, and there a 
 devout hermit kneels before a rustic chapel. In the background 
 rise the mountains, dotted with villas and chalets, with flocks of 
 sheep and goats grazing here and there upon their grassy slopes, 
 w^hile peasants are everywhere seen approaching, bearing the 
 products of the farm, the dairy, and the chase as their simple 
 offerings to the new-born Child. 
 
 Pbocession of the Manger. 
 
 In some places in Bohemia the Krippe is used in private 
 families as the receptacle of the toys and sweetmeats which the 
 Christ-Child is fabled to bring in his chariot drawn through the 
 air by four milk-white horses. Thus in a measure the Krippe 
 takes the place of the Christmas-tree of the North. Dramatic 
 performances, styled Krippenspiele, or " manger plays," are fre- 
 quently indulged in by the members of the family. 
 
 The original wooden presepio or crib wherein Christ was born 
 in the Bethlehem stable is believed to be preserved in the church 
 of Santa Maria Maggiore in Eome. 
 
 According to tradition, the stone manger contained within it 
 another of wood, which was used as a cradle for the infant 
 Christ. That of stone still exists at Bethlehem, not in its primi- 
 tive state, but decorated with white marble and enriched with 
 magnificent draperies. The wooden one was in the seventh cen- 
 tury, at the time of the Mohammedan invasion in the East, 
 transported to Eome and placed in the basilica of Santa Maria 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 823 
 
 Maggiore. Here it still reposes in a magnificent crystal shrine, 
 mounted on a stand of silver enamelled with gold and precious 
 stones, the splendid offering of Philip lY., King of Spain. The 
 shrine itself is preserved in a brazen coffin. Once a year, on 
 Christmas Day, it is carried around the church in procession on 
 the shoulders of the officiating clergy, and then exposed to the 
 veneration of the faithful on the grand altar. 
 
 Primrose Day. The anniversary of the death of Benja- 
 min Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, April 19 (1881), is observed 
 throughout England under this name. Conservatives every- 
 where appear decorated with primroses, and the statue of the 
 former premier opposite the Houses of Parliament in London, 
 as well as his tomb at Hughenden, is profusely decorated with 
 primrose, laurel, and ivy, contributed by his admirers. Her 
 majesty annually sends to Hughenden a large wreath of prim- 
 roses, which are placed at the head of Lord Beaconsfield's grave 
 by his nephew, Mr. Coningsby Disraeli, M.P. The Conservative 
 clubs throughout the country are also decorated, the primrose 
 being especially conspicuous everywhere. Yet there is no evi- 
 dence that primroses played any important part in either the 
 public or the private life of Lord Beaconsfield. Nor does he 
 appear to have had any fondness for them. " Primroses ?" ex- 
 claims Lord Aldegonde, in " Lothair :" " I believe they are good 
 to make salad of" The Pall Mall Gazette in the days when it 
 was a liberal organ made public the following explanation of the 
 anomaly : 
 
 " Apropos of Primrose Day and the very uncomplimentary 
 allusions in Lord Beaconsfield's books to that flower, it may be 
 worth while to recount the origin of the myth. When Lord 
 Beaconsfield was buried, the queen sent a wreath of primroses, 
 and wrote, on a card attached to the wreath, '_H^s favorite 
 flower.' Her majesty referred, of course, to the late Prince 
 Consort ; but her words were misunderstood to mean that the 
 primrose was Lord Beaconsfield's favorite flower. Hence the 
 newspaper allusions to ' the flower he loved so well,' and the 
 annual celebration of Primrose Day. The explanation of the 
 m3'th has long been current among Lord Beaconsfield's colleagues, 
 but for obvious reasons they did not care to make it public." 
 
 Processions. Ecclesiastical processions are of early origin 
 in the Latin and Greek Churches. They were introduced into 
 Constantinople by Chrysostom in a.d. 398 to counteract the 
 effect produced by the Arians, who, being forbidden to use any 
 churches in the city, were accustomed to assemble about the 
 porches and march to their meeting-houses without the walls, 
 
824 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 singing anthems. By the fifth century processions had come 
 into general use by the Church. Processions may be classified 
 as extraordinary, ordered by ecclesiastical authority for some 
 special cause, and ordinary, prescribed by 'the common ritual of 
 the Church. To the latter class belong the processions on Can- 
 dlemas, Palm Sunday, St. Mark's Day, three Eogation days, and 
 Corpus Christi. (See these entries.) In Catholic countries these 
 are elaborate parades through the streets of the city. In coun- 
 tries where Protestantism prevails they only make the circuit 
 of the church, or at most of the churchyard. 
 
 Processions are very frequent in Italy, Spain, and other Cath- 
 olic countries. Besides those on the days already mentioned, 
 every church has processions in honor of the Madonna or some 
 saint specially reverenced in that particular church. They make 
 the circuit of the parish limits, passing through all its principal 
 streets, and every window and balcony is decorated with yellow 
 and crimson hangings and with crowds of dark eyes. The 
 front of the church, the steps, and the street leading to it are 
 spread with yellow sand, over which are scattered sprigs of box. 
 After the procession has been organized in the church, they 
 " come unto the yellow sands," preceded by a band of music, which 
 plays rather jubilant and what the unco guid would call profane 
 music, polkas and marches, and airs from the operas. Next may 
 follow great lanterns of strung glass drops, accompanied by sol- 
 diers ; then an immense gonfalon representing the Virgin at the 
 Cross, or the local saint, which is borne by the confraternitd of 
 the parish, with blue capes over their white dresses, and all hold- 
 ing torches. Then follows a huge wooden cross, garlanded with 
 golden ivy-leaves, and also upheld by the confraternitd, who stag- 
 ger under its weight. Next come crucifixes followed by the 
 frati of the church in black, carrying candles and dolorously 
 chanting a hymn. Then mayhap comes the bishop in his mitre, 
 his yellow stole upheld by two principal priests (the curate and 
 subcurate), and to him his acolytes waft incense, as well as to 
 the huge figure of the Madonna which follows. This figure is 
 of life-size, carved in wood, surrounded by gilt angels, and so 
 heavy that a dozen or so of stout facchini, whose shabby trousers 
 show under their improvised costume, are required to bear it 
 along. With this the procession comes to its climax. 
 
 The Hindoos have celebrations of a not dissimilar sort. Pro- 
 cessions of the idol-gods are the main features of the festivals 
 in various holy cities of Southern India, The idols, decked with 
 flowers, are carried about in gorgeously painted cars, generall}^ 
 with two priests fanning them, preceded by dancing-girls, a band 
 of noisj^ musicians, bareheaded Brahmins walking hand in hand 
 and singing hymns in honor of the god, and the elephants of 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 825 
 
 the temple, gay with crimson and orange trappings, their very- 
 trunks elaborately painted for the occasion. Sometimes cannon 
 fire at intervals ; and as the idol-god, thus escorted, approaches, 
 the people shout, and in long lines throw themselves down before 
 him in reverence. Half festival and half fair, it is a curious 
 scene that spreads around. Toys, luscious sweetmeats, and betel 
 are sold at the stalls ; numerous go-rounds and swinging boats 
 perform their evolutions, filled with beautiful and artistically 
 dressed children ; dancing-girls in their peculiar costume mingle 
 in the crowd or dance before the idol ; youths leap past you with 
 towers of flowers on their heads, and boys, dressed up like tigers, 
 go springing about, the crowd rushing to and fro as if threatened 
 by the actual animal. Self-torturing fakirs abound. Some have 
 shoes stuck full of nails, but sing lustilj" and play on the vina ; 
 others dance about, extinguishing torches on their bare breasts ; 
 others swing to and fro aloft with a rope around their waist. 
 Beggars and deformed or diseased children roam through the 
 crowds, hideousl}^ painted to attract shuddering attention. At 
 night fireworks are let oflP. Eockets course through the air. 
 Pyrotechnic devices showing the figure of the god blaze in front 
 of the temple where the idol reposes. The little temples in the 
 middle of the tank are illuminated as the god is carried, amid 
 the clash of cymbals, in nocturnal procession around the basin 
 of flashing waters ; while the glare of innumerable torches, and 
 the blaze of Indian lights, — white, blue, orange, and green, — 
 change darkness into almost insufl'erable light. (See The Land 
 of the Vedas^ by Rev. R. P. Percival.) 
 
 Pulgen, or Crowning of the Cock. A simple Christmas 
 ceremony which until the middle of the nineteenth century was 
 commonly observed in Wales and still has a few local survivals 
 in out-of-the-way districts. About three o'clock on Christmas 
 morning the people would assemble in church, and, after prayers 
 and a sermon, continue there, singing psalms and hymns with 
 great devotion, until daylight. If through age or infirmity any 
 were disabled from attending, they did not fail to say prayers 
 and sing carols at home. 
 
 Pumpkin, Festival of King. (Fr. Fete du Roi Potiron.) In 
 September of every year a grotesque scene occurs in the Halles 
 Centrales or Great Markets of Paris. A monster pumpkin, deco- 
 rated with a crown of paper and tinsel and borne upon a board 
 which serves for a throne, is carried in state through the airy 
 corridors and along the wide outer pavements. The market- 
 people gather around and pay obeisance to the royal vegetable, 
 and afterwards King Pumpkin is mercilessly dissected, sold in 
 
826 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 slices at auction, and made into succulent soup which is eaten 
 amid much Gallic merriment. 
 
 Purdan. In Wales an ordeal through which unfaithful wives 
 were obliged to pass. Covered with a white sheet, they were 
 made to walk up the aisle of the parish church with their para- 
 mours during the hours of divine service. This custom obtained 
 in certain parts of South Wales till the middle of the present 
 century. 
 
 Purim (or " Lots"), Feast of. This occurs on the 14th day 
 of the twelfth month (Adar) of the Jewish ecclesiastical year, 
 and lasts fortj^-eight hours. It is immediately preceded by the 
 Fast of Esther, on the 13th of Adar. The origin of both these 
 observances is explained in the book of Esther. When Ahasuerus, 
 King of Persia, put away his wife Yashti and took in her place 
 the Jewish maiden Esther, who had been brought up by her 
 cousin Mordecai, the latter together with his entire race excited 
 the jealous animosity of Haman, the king's minister. Haman 
 obtained from the weak-kneed king permission to wreak the 
 full measure of his wicked will. He cast lots to decide the 
 date, and, as the lot fell to the month of Adar, he issued orders 
 that all the Jews in Persia should be put to death on the 14th 
 of Adar, without regard to age or sex. In this extremity 
 Mordecai entreated Queen Esther to intercede for her own 
 people. Now, according to a law of the Persian monarchy, 
 any person who entered uninvited into the king's presence was 
 at once put to death, unless the king held out to the visitor 
 his golden sceptre as a token of forgiveness. Esther deter- 
 mined to brave the king's displeasure. But first she ordered 
 that all the Jews in Shushan, the Persian capital, should hold a 
 solemn fast. Then she approached the king. He extended his 
 sceptre, listened to her pleadings, and in response ordered that 
 Haman and his ten sons should be hanged, and that the Jews 
 should have liberty to defend themselves against their enemies. 
 Hence the Fast of Esther on the 13th of Adar and the Feast of 
 Purim on the 14th, the latter being the date when the Jews of 
 Shushan turned the tables upon their enemies. It is a time 
 of great rejoicing, of balls' amateur theatricals, and tableaux, 
 the proceeds of which are devoted to hospitals and other charities. 
 The great Hebrew charity ball which is an annual feature of all 
 the leading American cities occurs on this day. At the syna- 
 gogues, the Megillah, a parchment scroll on which the book of 
 Esther is written, is read both morning and evening. The 15th 
 of Adar is also a day of rejoicing, of exchanging presents, and of 
 giving alms to the poor. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 827 
 
 Push- Penny. Under this title a curious custom was until 
 recently sanctioned by the dean and chapter of Durham Cathe- 
 dral, England. On Oak-Apple Day and Guy Fawkes's Day — 
 respectively the 29th of May and the 5th of November — the 
 senior verger of the cathedral would cast thirty shillings in 
 copper pieces into the college yard to be scrambled for. The 
 pupils of the Blue Coat schools were on these two dates drawn 
 up in rank and file in the nave of the cathedral, for the inspection 
 of the prebends, who minutely examined their new scholastic 
 garments, after which the children were ushered into the choir. 
 At the end of the service a pell-mell rush would be made for the 
 cloister doors, in order to be present at push-penny. The germ 
 of the custom dates to an unknown antiquity. In the old 
 monastic period pennies used to be thrown to the citizens who 
 were wont to assemble in the vicinity of the prior's mansion. At 
 Bishop-Auckland the bishop was accustomed to throw away 
 silver pennies at certain times of the year, and it is even said 
 that so much as a peck of copper was in earlier times scattered 
 broadcast among the people. The Eeformation, however, swept 
 these and many other old customs away, but after the Eestora- 
 tion of Charles II. the dean and chapter no doubt considered 
 that the 29th of May and the 5th of November ought to be 
 kept as days of rejoicing, and as one means of doing so caused 
 one of their officials to throw a bagful of pennies to the people 
 who met in the college. The custom survived until the middle 
 of the nineteenth century. (Thiselton Dyer: British Popular 
 ■Customs, p. 303.) 
 
 Pussy- Willow Fair. (Eussian, Yerhnaya Ydrmarka.) An 
 annual fair held in the week preceding Palm Sunday at the 
 JSTevsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg. Its ostensible object is to 
 provide the public with twigs of pussy-willow (the only plant 
 showing a vestige of life at that season), which are used in lieu 
 of palms on Palm Sunday. But it is now utilized for the sale of 
 all sorts of cheap goods suitable for the coming Easter season,— 
 paper roses for the Easter cake, confectionery, toys, imitation 
 eggs, and the pascha, or Easter cake, made of cream and other 
 delicacies tabooed in Lent, with which the long fast will be 
 broken after the Easter matins. Finches and other song-birds 
 are exposed in cages, and it is a pretty custom to buy them and 
 set them free. The sites for the booths are the special privilege 
 of soldiers' widows, who draw them by lot and may either use 
 them or sell them as they elect. 
 
 Pyx, Trial of the. The annual testing of the standard of 
 gold and silver coins in the English mint. It is a very ancient 
 
828 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 custom, and derives its name from the pyx, or chest, in which 
 the coins to be examined are kept. The mint-master was in 
 former time simply a person under contract with the government 
 for the manufacture of the coinage, and periodical examinations 
 were consequently necessary to see that the terms of the con- 
 tract had been complied with. Though he is now an officer of 
 the crown, the manner of conducting the ceremony is substan- 
 tially unchanged. The finished coins are delivered to the mint- 
 master in weights called journey-weights, — i.e., 15 pounds troy 
 weight of gold, containing 701 sovereigns, or 1402 half-sover- 
 eigns ; of silver, 60 pounds troy. From each journey-weigbt a 
 coin is taken, and placed in the pyx for the annual trial. The 
 examination of the coins is made by the Goldsmiths' Company, 
 under the direction of the crown, in the presence of the " queen's 
 remembrancer," who administers the oath to the jury and pre- 
 sides over the proceedings. The coins are compared with pieces 
 cut from trial-plates of standard fineness, in the keeping of the 
 " warden of the standards." If the coins are found to be of 
 standard fineness and weight, within certain limits, a statement 
 to that effect is testified to by the jurors, and handed over to the 
 treasurer. The coins to be tested are kept in the ancient chapel 
 of the pyx, at Westminster Abbey, in joint custody of the Lords 
 of the Treasury and the Comptroller-General. This custom was 
 first ordered during the thirty-second year of the reign of King 
 Henry II. (1154-1189), and took place occasionally in subsequent 
 reigns, whenever royalty chose to order it. King James was 
 present at one of these ceremonies in 1611, There was one held 
 at the Exchequer Office July 17, 1861, and the next, February 
 15, 1870. During the year 1870 a coinage act was passed by 
 Parliament, providing for an annual trial of the pyx, and the 
 ceremony has been observed each year since then. 
 
 In the United States the trial of the pyx is made at the mint 
 in Philadelphia, on the second Wednesday of February annually, 
 before the judge of the district court of the United States for 
 the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the comptroller of the 
 currency, the assayer of the New York Assay Office, and such 
 other persons as the President of the United States shall from 
 time to time designate for the purpose. A majority of the com- 
 missioners constitutes a competent board. Their examination is 
 made in the presence of the director of the mint. The number 
 of coins reserved for the assay from each delivery made by the 
 chief coiner is prescribed by the director, and the reserved 
 pieces, after being sealed up and labelled, are deposited in the 
 pyx, kept under the joint care of the superintendent of the 
 mint and the assayer, each of those officers securing it by an 
 independent lock. The reserved coins from the coinage of other 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 829 
 
 mints besides that at Philadelphia are transmitted quarterly to 
 the Philadelphia mint, and, in addition to these, the director may 
 at his pleasure take any other pieces for test. The commissioners 
 are not sworn for the ceremony as in England, but after the 
 examination they prepare a certified report of the trial, which, 
 if the coins are within the limit of tolerance in fineness and 
 weight, is satisfactory, and is simply filed ; but if not, the fact 
 is certified to the President of the United States, and if on a 
 view of the circumstances of the case he shall so decide, the 
 officer or officers implicated in the error are thenceforward dis- 
 qualified from holding their respective offices. 
 
 Q- 
 
 Quietus, St. This saint is memorable in the annals of the 
 Catholic Church of America because the enshrinement of his 
 bones in the church of Our Lady of Grace in Hoboken (Arch- 
 bishop Bailey officiating) on June 1, 1856, was the first ceremony 
 of the kind ever performed in the United Slates. The innova- 
 tion provoked a lively newspaper discussion as to the devotional 
 value of the bones themselves or the religious gain of the cere- 
 mony attending their translation. Otherwise the saint has 
 slight hagiological importance. He has not even a day set apart 
 in the calendar. Almost nothing is known about him. His 
 bones, together with a vase containing his blood and an epitaph 
 recording his name (spelled Quetus) and his age, five years, were 
 found in the cemetery of St. Pretextatus at Eome in January, 
 1849. It is presumed that he was one of a family of Christian 
 martyrs, and that he himself was massacred for the faith. In 
 July, 1850, Pope Pius IX. gave the relics to Eev. Father Cauvin, 
 who was then pastor of the Hoboken church. The church was 
 torn down and a new one erected in 1890-1, which necessitated 
 a new translation of the relics on August 2, 1891. A procession 
 of one thousand children, wearing white dresses, typical of the 
 saint's unsullied childhood, and red sashes, typical of the blood 
 he is presumed to have shed for the faith, accompanied the relics 
 to the new sanctuary. 
 
 Quinquagesima. (Lat., "Fiftieth.") The first Sunday 
 before Ash Wednesday, so named because it was fifty days 
 before Lent. The two Sundays preceding Quinquagesima — i.e., 
 the second and third Sundays before Lent — are respectively 
 known as Sexagesima and Septuagesima Sundays, possibly 
 because they were looked on as being in round numbers sixty 
 
830 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 and seventy days before Easter. That the custom of so naming 
 them is ancient we know, for we find them mentioned in the 
 writings of Gregorj^ the Great; but the practice of keeping 
 them as a preparation for Lent has always been confined to the 
 Western Church. 
 
 Ramadan. The ninth lunar month in the Mohammedan 
 calendar. It may be called the Mohammedan Lent. Every day 
 from sunrise to sunset is kept as a strict fast. Not a morsel of 
 food or a drop of drink is tolerated. Tobacco and snuff are for- 
 bidden. But the day fasting is made up for by night feasting. 
 The moment the sun has set, a carnival begins which lasts well 
 on until sunrise. In the great cities the restaurants and cafes 
 are lighted, and the streets are full of revellers making up for 
 the austerities of the day. The wealthy keep open house. . But 
 the mosques are open too, and are crowded night and day. On 
 the 15th day of Eamadan the Sultan goes in grand procession 
 from the Yildiz palace in Pera across the Bosporus to Stam- 
 boul to kiss Mohammed's coat (see Coat of Mohammed). This 
 is the one day of the year in which the Sultan appears in Stam- 
 boul. If Eamadan be the Mohammedan Lent, Bairam (^. v.) is 
 the Mohammedan Easter. This is the season which ends the 
 great fast. 
 
 " When the moon of Eamadan has set and that of Bairam has 
 risen, all Constantinople puts on its new clothes and the people 
 come out and rejoice over the day. There are bands of music 
 everywhere through the streets. Calls are made among friends 
 and neighbors. The boats on the Bosporus are decorated with 
 flags, and everything and everybody goes wild with joy. The 
 watching for the moon is a great occasion, and the Turk who 
 brings the first news of its rising to the Cadi of Constantinople 
 gets a reward often thousand piasters, or four hundred and fifty 
 dollars. The competitors station themselves on the hills about 
 Constantinople, and as soon as they see the thin band of light 
 which marks the new moon's coming in the sky, they rush for 
 the office of the judge, and the first one in gets the prize. The 
 cadi is waiting for them, and he fixes the next morning as the 
 beginning of Bairam." (Frank G. Carpenter : Lent among the 
 Mahometans, in the Cosmopolitan, April, 1893.) 
 
 Red- Letter Days. A term now extended to any gala occa- 
 sion or memorable day in the life of an individual or a nation. 
 But originally and specifically the term is an ecclesiastical one, 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 831 
 
 used to characterize the more important festivals and saints' 
 days of the Church, which appear in red letters instead of black 
 in the calendar. In ordinary cheap prayer-books both of the 
 English and of the Eoman Church, where two colors are not used 
 in the printing, these days are characterized by italics or Gothic 
 capitals, and the black-letter days (q. v.) or minor festivals by 
 lower-case Eoman type. The practical difference in the public 
 worship of the English Church is that black-letter days have no 
 collect, etc., as the others have. 
 
 Relics. (Lat. reliquice, "remains.") In its Catholic use this 
 word includes the bodies of saints and martyrs, or fragments of 
 the same, or any objects with which in life the person was asso- 
 ciated. 
 
 The old Eomans and Greeks had their holy relics, — for in- 
 stance, the egg of Leda. The Hindoos waged bloody wars over 
 the monstrous supernatural tooth of Buddha. The Mohamme- 
 dans preserve the standard, arms, clothes, beard, and two teeth 
 of their Prophet. In the Catholic Church St. Helena was the 
 first great relic-hunter. 
 
 The Second Mcsean Council ordered that no church should be 
 consecrated unless it enshrined some relics, and imputes a dis- 
 regard for them to the opponents of images. So encouraged, 
 relic-hunting became a favorite pastime, in which earth and 
 heaven joined their forces. Numerous saints revealed the where- 
 abouts of their bodies in dreams and visions, some of them being 
 so eager in the cause that they pointed out more than one. 
 Miraculous lights settled over the resting-places of other holy 
 men. Indeed, at every critical moment relics were sure to be 
 discovered. They often came down from heaven in answer to 
 devout prayer. A woman at St.-Maurin, for instance, who had 
 chosen St. John for her patron, importuned him daily for three 
 years for some little bit of hislDody for which he had no further 
 use. He turned a deaf ear until at last the woman got desperate 
 and vowed that she would not touch food till her prayer was 
 heard. She kept her vow for seven days, and was nearly at her 
 last gasp, when she found on the altar the thumb of the saint. 
 Three bishops wrapped this holy relic very reverently in linen, 
 and three drops of blood fell from it, — one drop per bishop. 
 
 When the Empress Constantine petitioned Pope Gregory I. to 
 send her the head of St. Paul, he replied that it was not the 
 custom at Eome to lay violent hands on the remains of the 
 martyrs. He added that many persons who had presumed to 
 handle the bodies of St. Peter and St. Paul had been struck dead 
 in consequence, and that he could send her only a cloth which 
 had touched the apostle's body. Such cloths, he reminded her, 
 
832 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 possessed the same miraculous power as the relics themselves. 
 The practice of removing relics, he said in conclusion, gave rise 
 to fraud, as in the case of some G-reek monks, who, when de- 
 tected in digging up dead bodies by night at Rome, had confessed 
 to an intention of passing them off in Greece as relics of martyrs. 
 
 At the time of the Crusades Europe was overflowed with 
 relics. Whenever a town in the Holy Land was conquered the 
 Crusaders looked first for relics, as paore precious than gold or 
 gems. St. Louis made two unfortunate crusades, but he com- 
 forted himself with the relics he brought home. Chief among 
 these was the holy crown of thorns, one of the ornaments of 
 the Imperial Chapel at Constantinople. The court of France 
 advanced as far as Troyes, in Champagne, to meet with devotion 
 this inestimable relic. It was borne in triumph through Paris 
 b}- the king himself, barefoot, and in his shirt. Among the 
 other treasures secured by the same simple-minded monarch were 
 a portion of the true cross, part of the baby linen of the infant 
 Jesus, and various other relics of the Passion. To house them 
 all properly St. Louis built the Sainte-Chapelle of Paris, where 
 many of them may still be seen. 
 
 Among relics of a painfully grotesque character whose de- 
 scription we meet with in mediaeval authorities may be reckoned 
 a portion of the melted fat of St. Lawrence ; the bones of 
 Moses; the sigh which St. Joseph heaved when he was splitting 
 wood ; feathers from the wings of the archangels Gabriel and 
 St. Michael; the thorn in the flesh which troubled St. Paul; a 
 beam of the star which conducted the Wise Men from the East ; 
 the perch whence the cock crew its reproach to Peter ; the bones 
 of the ass on which the entry into Jerusalem was made ; the 
 staff with which Moses parted the Hed Sea ; manna from the 
 desert; and a piece of the rock from which Moses drew water. 
 
 What has become of many of these relics and of the jewel- 
 incrusted caskets, reliquaries, and shrines in which they were 
 preserved ? It is certain that only a limited number have been 
 preserved. The greater portion were swept away in the wars 
 which at various epochs have devastated the face of Christendom. 
 In England and Northern Europe very few survived the icono- 
 clasticism of the Reformation. 
 
 First in the estimation of the faithful come, of course, all per- 
 sonal relics of Christ. Most of these were found by St. Helena 
 {q. V.) during her famous pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Of the cross 
 and other instruments associated with the Passion some details 
 are given under the head of Cross, Invention of the. 
 
 A small portion of Herod's staircase is at the Escorial, and the 
 remainder is at Rome. (See Scala Santa.) The column at 
 which the scourging took place is also at Rome, in the church 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 833 
 
 of St. Praxede, with the exception of some fragments which 
 are at Venice. The present whereabouts of the rope, whip, and 
 sceptre is not quite clear. All we learn is that the ro})e was at 
 Carlstein in 1515, that the whip was treasured at Constance, and 
 that Soissons, Courtrai, and the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris held 
 the sceptre for a long time. The ci-own of thorns, which was 
 given to St. Louis by the Emperor of Constantinople, is now in 
 Notre-Dame at Paris. Thorns have been taken from it, and are 
 objects of veneration in many places. Of the purple vestments, 
 some are in the church of Bucoleon at Constantinople, and 
 others are at the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. 
 
 Of the actual person of Christ all that remains are some drops 
 of the blood (see Blood, Precious) and a few hairs. The latter 
 are dispersed among the churches at Corbie, Namur, and St. 
 Denis. 
 
 Other relics comprise, first, the clothes worn by Christ, the 
 sandals, the tunics, the swaddling-clothes, the manger, etc. ; 
 second, the relics of the Lord's Supper, such as the bread, the 
 communion-cup, the cloth, the dish, the table, the basin for 
 washing the feet, and the linteum. 
 
 Fragments of the sandals are at Corbie, Treves, and Alber- 
 stadt ; the swaddling-clothes are at the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, 
 Clermont, Courtrai, Namur, Toledo, Vizille ; the tunics are at 
 Argenteuil, Treves (see Coat, Holy), and Aix-la-Chapelle, and 
 there are also fragments of them at Corbie and Toledo ; and a 
 portion of the manger is at St. Denis, though Eome claims to 
 have it almost entire (see Presepio). The cup used at the mar- 
 riage of Cana, known as the Sacro Cattino (q. v.), is at Genoa. 
 
 Remedies, Virgen or Nuestra Senora de los. (Sp., "Vir- 
 gin or Our Lady of Succor.") A famous image preserved in the 
 little historic church of Los Eemedios on the hill of Totoltepec, 
 about twenty miles from the city of Mexico. Being looked upon 
 as a rival of the Virgin of Guadalupe (see Guadalupe) and more 
 than suspected of Spanish leanings, she has become much dis- 
 credited since Mexico achieved her independence. Indeed, she is 
 even derisively spoken of as La Gachupina (" the little Spanish 
 woman"). The image is a wooden doll a foot high, holding in its 
 arms a tiny infant Jesus. Both faces are carved with a rough 
 penknife. Two holes represent the eyes, and another the mouth. 
 '•' No Indian idol," says Madame Calderon de la Barca, " could be 
 much uglier. She has been a good deal scratched and destroyed 
 
 in the lapse of ages. C n observed that he was astonished 
 
 they had not tried to restore her a little. To this the padre 
 replied that the attempt had been made by several artists, each 
 one of whom had sickened and died." (Letters.) 
 
 53 
 
834 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Tradition asserts that this image was brought to Mexico by 
 Juan Yillafuerte, a soldier of Cortez's army. Now, the hill of 
 Totoltepec, at the coming of the Spaniards, was an Otomi 
 stronghold. On its rugged, lava-seamed heights was a great 
 building, half temple, half fortress, which was dedicated to the 
 worship of Otomcapulco, who is more generally known by his 
 Aztec name of Tlaloctlamacazqui, the god of the rains, and his 
 royal sister, Chalchiuhtliycue, the spirit of the waters. The 
 former held dominion over the water that came from the heavens, 
 and the latter ruled the running streams and the tides of the sea. 
 In pre-Spanish times a great feast lasting a whole month was 
 held in honor of these two gods, at which hundreds of human 
 sacrifices were offered. This worship extended to the sea-coast 
 on both sides of the mountains. 
 
 Cortez persuaded Montezuma to allow him to set up an altar 
 in the city of Mexico, and there Yillafuerte' s image was installed. 
 There it remained until the Spaniards were driven from the city 
 on the night of June 30, 1520 (see Noche Triste). Throughout 
 all the horrors of that night, so the legend says, the good Yilla- 
 fuerte carried the precious image in his bosom, and throughout 
 the subsequent attacks upon the fortress of Totoltepec, during 
 which he was sorely wounded. At last, finding himself about 
 to die, he hid the image under the great leaves of a maguey 
 plant. 
 
 Twenty years afterwards, Cequahutzin, a famous chief of the 
 Otomi nation, who had lately become a Christian, happening to 
 be out hunting upon the hill, saw a vision of the Yirgin, who, in 
 her own person, directed him to search under the maguey for 
 her image. This he did, and, having found it, he took it to his 
 home ; but the same day it returned to its place under the 
 maguey. Again he carried it to his house and set before it, in a 
 gourd dish, the most tempting food that he possessed, but again 
 the image fled to the hill. Once more he went for it and carried 
 it back with him, and, to make sure of it this time, he locked it 
 securely in a strong box, upon the top of which he made his bed 
 for the night. But when he awoke in the morning the image had 
 again fled to its place under the maguey plant. Cequahutzin 
 went that very day to the holy fathers of San Gabriel in Tacuba 
 and told them what had happened. They divined that the Yirgin 
 desired a temple to be erected to her service upon the hill of 
 Totoltepec. Accordingly a little church was immediately built 
 upon the spot where the image had been discovered, and some 
 thirty -five years later the present building was completed (1575). 
 
 In time the shrine of Totoltepec became the richest and most 
 famous throughout the land. Gifts of immense value were 
 showered upon the image. Her jewels and ornaments alone 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 835 
 
 were valued at one million dollars. The railings that enclosed 
 the main altar were carved from massive bars of silver. Before 
 the altar itself stood a massive maguey plant in pure silver. A 
 treasurer was appointed to take charge of her jewels, a camarista 
 to superintend her rich wardrobe. In seasons of drought she 
 was brought in from her mountain dwelling and carried in pro- 
 cession through the streets of Mexico. The viceroy himself, on 
 foot, used to lead the holy train. A dignitary of high rank 
 drove the carriage in which she was seated. She visited the 
 principal convents in succession, the nuns bowing in humble 
 adoration as she passed. 
 
 It happened that in the revolution of 1810 the patriot Hidalgo 
 took as his standard an image of the Yirgin of Gruadalupe. The 
 Spanish sympathizers answered by appealing to the patronage 
 of the Virgin of Los Eemedios, and her image was conducted to 
 Mexico, dressed as a Spanish general. On the triumph of the 
 revolutionists, she was stripped of her military dress, her church 
 was despoiled of its treasures, and her passport was signed, with 
 an order for her to leave the republic. But calmer counsels pre- 
 vailed. She was allowed to remain, was eventually restored to 
 her honors, and still retains her treasurer, a small portion of her 
 treasures, and a semi-suspicious hold upon the reverence of the 
 Mexicans. 
 
 But, though the lustre of the glory of Our Lady of Succor is 
 dimmed, she has still many strong admirers, chief among whom 
 are the remnants of the old imperialist party ; and every good 
 Catholic in Mexico is willing to admit her wonderful power over 
 the rivers and the rain, which she usurped from the ancient 
 Aztec gods of the floods and the storms. And so she still con- 
 tinues to inhabit the bare, damp-stained, smoke-colored walls of 
 the ancient, half-ruined sanctuary on the hill of Totoltepec. 
 
 A correspondent of the New, York Sun who ^dates his letter 
 Mexico, June 29, 1896, writes as follows: "A special service to 
 pray for rain at the shrine of Nuestra Senora de los Eemedios 
 has been followed by a plenteous downpour, and so the fame of 
 the shrine is proportionately greater. Yesterday the sun rose 
 over the Yalley of Mexico with a clear, keen, steady brightness 
 that caused the old people to shake their heads. It was a day 
 that made the weather-prophets hide themselves in despair; a 
 dawning that once more painted on the steel-blue sky the words 
 of which all the land had weeks ago grown weary, — ' No rain.' 
 Everywhere the pulque-fields and the corn-lands lay cracked and 
 seamed with the long, steady, scorching heat of the tropical 
 sun. 
 
 " But all this time a curious ceremony was going on in the 
 little old historic church of Los Eemedios. Thousands of people 
 
836 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 from all over the republic sent up their prayers to the little 
 image of Our Lady of Succor that she would remember them as 
 she had done in the past and send them the rain to gladden their 
 parched fields ; for such a drought as there has been upon the 
 land for the past eight months has not been felt in Mexico for 
 many years. Until yesterday hundreds of petitions and pilgrim- 
 ages had been made to Our Lady of Succor without avail. 
 Finally the authorities of the Church gave notice that there 
 would be a special service at the shrine. The service commenced 
 at ten a.m. with the celebration of low mass by Canon Pedro de 
 Verona Gutierrez. This was followed by solemn high mass, 
 which was sung by Father Flores of San Miguel. 
 
 " At the conclusion of the mass the little image of Our Lady 
 of Succor was carried around the churchyard (for the laws do 
 not permit any public procession of a religious character outside 
 the walls of the churchyard). The 'Little Lady' stood erect 
 under a blue and silver canop}^, from which she looked serenely 
 forth upon a long procession of the faithful, each carrying a 
 lighted taper. 
 
 " When the procession was over, the sun looked down as piti- 
 lessly into the court-yard of the church as it had continued to 
 do for weeks past, but during the evening rain fell in torrents, 
 and the faith of the believers is proportionately strengthened." 
 
 Rhyne Toll. An annual tax collected between October 30 
 and November 7 in the ])arish of Chetwode, a small village about 
 five miles from Buckingham, England, by the lord of the manor, 
 who ever since Saxon times has been the head of the Chet- 
 wode family. Tradition asserts that in ancient times the parish 
 formed part of a forest which was infested by a destructive wild 
 boar. The inhabitants were never safe from his attacks, and 
 strangers who heard of his ferocity were afraid to visit or pass 
 through the district, so that trafiic and friendly intercourse were 
 seriously impeded, as well as much injury done to property-, by 
 this savage monster. The lord of Chetwode, bent on ridding his 
 neighborhood of this pest, sallied forth into the forest, and, as 
 the old song has it, — 
 
 Then he blowed a blast full north, south, east, and west — 
 
 Wind well thy horn, good hunter ; 
 And the wild boar then heard him full in his den, 
 
 As he was a jovial hunter. 
 
 Then he made the best of his speed unto him — 
 
 Wind well thy horn, good hunter ; 
 Swift flew the boar, with his tusks smeared with gore, 
 
 To Sir Rjalas, the jovial hunter. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 837 
 
 Then the wild boar, being so stout and so strong — 
 
 Wind well thy horn, good hunter; 
 Thrashed down the trees as he ramped him along 
 
 To Sir Eyalas, the jovial hunter. 
 
 Then they fought four hours in a long summer day — 
 
 Wind well thy horn, good hunter ; 
 Till the wild boar fain would have got him away 
 
 From Sir Eyalas, the jovial hunter. 
 
 Then Sir Ryalas he drew his broadsword with might — 
 
 Wind we'll thy horn, good hunter ; 
 And he fairly cut the boar's head off quite, 
 
 For he was a jovial hunter. 
 
 Matters being thus settled, the neighborhood rang with the 
 praises of the gallant deed of the lord of Chetwode, and the 
 news thereof soon reached the ears of the king, who " liked him 
 so well of the achievement" that he forthwith made the knight 
 tenant in capite, and constituted his manor paramount of all the 
 manors within the limits and extent of the royal forest of Eook- 
 woode. Moreover, he granted to him, and to his heirs forever, 
 among other immunities and privileges, the full right and power 
 to levy every year the " Ehyne Toll" on all cattle found within 
 the district between the 30th of October and the 7th of Novem- 
 ber. The commencement of the toll, which is proclaimed with 
 much ceremony, is thus described in an old document of Queen 
 Elizabeth's reign: 
 
 " In the beginning of the said drift of the common, or rhyne, 
 first at their going forth, they shall blow a welke-shell, or home, 
 immediately after the sun rising at the Mansion-House of the 
 manor of Chetwode, and then, in their going about, they shall 
 blow their home the second time in the field between Newton 
 Purcell and Barton Hartshorn, in the said county of Bucks, and 
 also shall blow their home a third time at a place near the town 
 of Finmere. in the county of Oxford, and they shall blow their 
 home the fourth time at a certain stone in the market of the 
 town of Buckingham, and there to give the poor sixpence ; and 
 so, going forward in this manner about the said drift, shall blow 
 the home at several bridges called Thornborough Bridge, King's 
 Bridge, and Bridge Mill, And they also shall blow their home 
 at the Pound Grate, called the Lord's Pound, in the parish of 
 Chetwode. . . . And also (the lord of Chetwode) has always 
 been used by his officers and servants to drive away all foreign 
 cattle that shall be found within the said parishes, fields, &c., to 
 impound the same in any pound of the said towns, and to take 
 for every one of the said foreign beasts twopence for the mouth, 
 and one penny for a foot for every one of the said beasts," All 
 
838 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 cattle thus impounded at other places were to be removed to the 
 pound at Chetwode, and if not claimed and the toll paid within 
 three days, " then the next day following after the rising of the 
 sun, the bailiff or officers of the lord for the time being shall 
 blow their home three times at the gate of the said pound, and 
 make proclamation that, if any persons lack any cattle that shall 
 be in the same pound, let them come and shew the marks of the 
 same cattle so claimed by them, and they shall have them, pay- 
 ing unto the lord his money in the manner and form before- 
 mentioned, otherwise the said cattle that shall so remain shall 
 be the lord's as strays." This toll was formerly so rigidly en- 
 forced that if the owner of cattle so impounded made his claim 
 immediately after the proclamation was over, he was refused 
 them, except he paid their full market price. 
 
 Though the custom is still regularly observed, it has under- 
 gone some changes since the date of the above document. The 
 toll now begins at nine in the morning instead of at sunrise, and 
 the horn is first sounded on the church-hill at Buckingham, and 
 gingerbread and beer are distributed among the assembled l3oys, 
 the girls being excluded. The officer then proceeds to another 
 part of the liberty on the border of Oxfordshire, and there, after 
 blowing his horn as before, again distributes gingerbread and 
 beer among the assembled boys. The toll is then proclaimed as 
 begun, and collectors are stationed at different parts to enforce 
 it, at the rate of two shillings a score upon all cattle and swine 
 passing on any road within the liberty, until twelve o'clock at 
 night on the 7th of November, when the " Ehyne" closes. 
 
 The occupiers of land within the liberty have long been ac- 
 customed to compound for the toll by an annual payment of one 
 shilling. The toll has sometimes been refused, but has always 
 been recovered with the attendant expenses. It realized about 
 twenty pounds a year before the opening of the Buckingham- 
 shire Eailway ; but now, owing to Welsh and Irish cattle being 
 sent by trains, it does not amount to above four pounds, and is 
 let by the present lord of the manor for only one pound five 
 shillings a year. (Chambers : Book of Days, vol. ii. p. 516.) 
 
 Roche, St. (Fr. Eoch or Bo que ; It. Bocco), patron of pris- 
 oners and the sick, especially the plague-stricken. In England 
 his festival on August 16 used to be celebrated as a general har- 
 vest home, with dances in the churchyard in the evening, and was 
 known as the great harvest festival. (Fosbrooke : Dictionary 
 of Antiquities.) 
 
 Born about 1280, at Montpellier, France, of a noble family, 
 left an orphan at twenty with a vast patrimony, St. Roche dis- 
 tributed the latter among the poor and started on a pilgrimage 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 839 
 
 to Eome. There and in other Italian cities he devoted himself 
 to tending the sick in the hospitals, for a great plague was then 
 raging. At Piacenza he took the infection himself. He crawled 
 into a wood without the city. His little dog, who had accompa- 
 nied him, tenderly nursed him through the illness that followed. 
 Every day the dog went back to the city and returned in the 
 evening with a loaf of bread in his mouth. The legend re- 
 lates that an angel appeared and dressed his wounds, but others 
 explain this by saying that it was a kind-hearted man named 
 Gothard, who, not knowing who he was, took compassion on 
 him, proving, as it were, his " good angel." When he had re- 
 covered sufficiently, St. Eoche turned his steps towards his old 
 home, but when he arrived he was so changed by suffering that, 
 not recognizing him, the officers arrested him as a possible spy, 
 and threw him into prison. Even his own uncle, Mho was the 
 judge, did not know him, and the saint, believing that it was 
 the will of God, did not reveal himself, but quietly endured the 
 hardships of confinement for five years. 
 
 At the expiration of that time, the jailer entering the cell one 
 morning was dazzled by a brilliant light which filled the whole 
 room. The prisoner was dead, and beside him lay a paper which 
 contained his name and these words : " Ceux qui sont frappez 
 de peste, et iraploreront la faveur de Sainct Eoche, seront gueris." 
 {Les Fleurs des Vies des Saints.) When his uncle and the people 
 learned who he was, they were filled with grief and remorse ; 
 and he was buried amidst the tears and prayers of the whole 
 city. 
 
 Kearly a century passed after this event (which is generally 
 believed to have occurred about 1327) before the memory of St. 
 Eoche was revived outside of his native city. But at the time 
 of the great Church Council held in 1414 at Constance (the same 
 that condemned Huss) the plague broke out, and the clergy and 
 laity were in great consternation, when a young German monk, 
 who had heard of St. Eoche in France, proposed that his aid 
 should be invoked on behalf of the plague-stricken people. 
 Acting upon this advice, the Council ordered that the effigy of 
 that saint should be carried in procession through the streets ; 
 and no sooner was this done, accompanied by prayers and 
 litanies, than the plague suddenly ceased. 
 
 The cupidity of the Venetians was now aroused. Owing to 
 their extensive commercial relations with the East, they w^ere 
 peculiarly exposed to infection. Who could need more than 
 they the pestilence-defying bones at Montpellier? In 1485 was 
 formed an alliance of holy buccaneers. Under pretence of per- 
 forming a pilgrimage, they landed at Montpellier, stole the relics, 
 and carried them away to Venice, where the Doge received them 
 
840 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 in state. The splendid church of San Eocco was built for their 
 reception under the auspices of a community which had already 
 been formed for the purpose of caring for those ill with infec- 
 tious disease. This community still exists, under the title of the 
 Brotherhood of San Eocco (a society analogous to that of the 
 Misericordia in Florence), wherein many of the nobility and 
 gentry of Yenice enroll themselves for shorter or longer periods 
 as a penance for sin or as a step in the quest for the higher life. 
 
 It may be mentioned, however, that Aries contains a rival 
 body of St. Eoche. Certain relics of the saint are also shown at 
 Eorae, Antwerp, and other places. 
 
 In art St. Eoche is usually represented as a man in the prime 
 of life, dressed as a pilgrim, with a cockle-shell in his hat and a 
 wallet at his side. In one hand he holds a staff, in the other he 
 lifts his robe to show the plague-spot, and his dog stands near. 
 The events of his life have been depicted by some of the most 
 celebrated artists of Italy and Germany, Carracci, Guido, Tinto- 
 retto, Bassano, and Eubens, the most famous work being the 
 altar-piece in the church at Alost, which was completed in eight 
 days, and for which Eubens received eight hundred florins from 
 the Brotherhood of St. Eoche. 
 
 Rogation Days. The Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday 
 before Ascension Thursday, so called because in the Eoman 
 Church the Litany of the Saints is chanted in the procession 
 which takes place on each of the three days. Eogatio (from 
 rogare, " to pray") is the Latin equivalent for the Greek word 
 Xiraveia, " litany." These litanies are called lesser by comparison 
 with the more ancient and solemn chanting of the litany on St. 
 Mark's Day. 
 
 Litanies sprang from the early Christian processions to mar- 
 tyrs' tombs, which gradually developed in a general custom of 
 supplications for the appeasing of God's wrath and the averting 
 of public evils. These were called Litanies by the Greek Church 
 and Eogations by the Latin. St. Chrysostom is said to have in- 
 troduced the custom of singing litanies in procession at Constan- 
 tinople. The usage was brouirbt into more regular and definite 
 shape by Mamertus, Bishop of Yienne, in Gaul, about the middle 
 of the fifth century, when the province suffered from earthquake 
 and other troubles. In 511 the First Council of Orleans ap- 
 pointed the Eogation Days before the Ascension to be observed 
 with fasting and solemn processions, and directed that all slaves 
 should be exempted from work, that they might be able to attend 
 the public services on those three days. Gregory the Great, a cen- 
 tury later, collected and arranged the various litanies in a com- 
 mon form very much as they are now used in the Latin Church, 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 841 
 
 under the name of " Litanies of the Saints," which are still sung 
 on the Eogation days, either in church, or, in many Catholic 
 countries, in procession about the streets. But Gregory only 
 enjoined their use on St. Mark's Day, and left it to Leo III. 
 (who died in 816) to introduce the Eogation days at Eome. 
 Leo omitted the obligation of fasting. It was in the time of Pope 
 G-regory, however, that St. Augustine introduced the custom into 
 the English Church. He had learned the usage on bis way 
 through Gaul, and availed himself in this matter of Gregory's 
 wise advice to adopt for the newly-formed Church such liturgical 
 observances prevalent elsewhere as he might find most suitable, 
 even though not used at Eome. It was, in fact, to the chant 
 of the rogations or litanies that Augustine and his monks 
 came in procession, with silver cross and banner borne before 
 them, to their first meeting with Ethelbert in the Isle of Thanet. 
 And in the same order and with the same solemn chant — bor- 
 rowed from the use of the Church of Lyons — they soon after- 
 wards made their entry into Canterbury on one of the Eogation 
 days in the Ascension week of 597. It was natural, therefore, 
 that when Augustine was organizing the Church he had founded 
 he should include in its ritual these Gallic " Eogations." Hence 
 we find the Council of Clovesho in 747 enjoining the Litany and 
 the processions on Eogation days to be kept up in England, 
 " according to the way of our fathers," besides directing the 
 Litany to be used on St. Mark's Day for the future as at Eome. 
 The season continued to be observed with fasting, solemn pro- 
 cessions, and litanies until the Eeformation, and perhaps in some 
 places still later. The Eogation Fast is still prescribed in the 
 Eubrics of the Eeformed EngHsh Prayer Book. 
 
 Gradually the perambulations deteriorated. First the minister 
 ceased to make the tour. Then the beadle and churchwarden 
 failed to attend. Finally the constable was left to lead the pro- 
 cessions. Thus they took on an entirely secular aspect, which 
 they have retained even in the parishes which have revived the 
 old custom or never quite relinquished it. In that part of Lon- 
 don called the City the bounds of every parish are still beaten 
 with long staves by a motley crowd of old and young, generally 
 under the leadership of a policeman. (See Bounds, Beating of 
 
 THE.) 
 
 Romain, St., patron of Eouen, in France. He is commemo- 
 rated on October 23, the anniversary of his death in 639. He 
 is styled the Apostle to Normandy, because he established Chris- 
 tianity in that province, becoming Bishop of Eouen. Among 
 the marvels related of him was that of commanding the waters 
 of the river Seine to recede when an inundation threatened the 
 
842 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 city. No sooner had they obeyed than a dragon rose from the 
 slime, which the good bishop with the aid of a murderer suc- 
 ceeded in overcoming. Hence it was that until the Eevolution 
 the chapter of Eouen on the annual recurrence of the saint's 
 day possessed the privilege of pardoning a criminal condemned 
 to death. 
 
 Romuald, St. (956-1027), founder of the monastery of 
 Camaldoli, about thirty-six miles from Florence, Italy. He died 
 June 19, but February 7, the day of his translation, was ordered 
 by Clement YIII. to be kept in his honor. His most famous act 
 was to force the Emperor Otho III. to perform barefoot a pil- 
 grimage from Eome to Mount Gargano, as a public penance for 
 having treacherously slain Crescentius, governor of Tivoli, whom 
 he had lured away from sanctuary in the castle of St. Angelo in 
 Eome under promise of indemnity. Southey has a humorous 
 poem upon one of the legends of this saint. Having as a hermit 
 acquired a great reputation for sanctity, the country-folks in the 
 neighborhood, unwilling to run the risk of having so eminent a 
 saint buried among strangers, determined to strangle him one 
 night. But the saint got wind of the project, and, being unam- 
 bitious of so much worldly honor, quietly stole away from the 
 place. 
 
 St. Eomuald was buried in his own monastery of Yal di Castro. 
 On February 7, 1481, his relics were translated to the church 
 of St. Blaise in the town of Fabri, where they remain to this 
 day. 
 
 In art he is represented as holding his finger to his lips in 
 token of silence, and often with a ladder by his side. The latter 
 is in reference to a dream wherein he saw a ladder set up between 
 heaven and earth, which his monks ascended clad in white 
 habits. Hence he ordered that they should always wear white 
 in lieu of the gray originally indicated. 
 
 Roncesvalles, Our Lady of. (Sp. Nuestra Senora de Bon- 
 cesvalles ; Fr. JSfotre-Dame de Boncevaux.') A miraculous image 
 of the Virgin which is preserved at Eoncesvalles, or Eoncevaux, 
 a village on the borders of Spain and France famous for the 
 legendary achievements of Eoland. The ruined chapel in which 
 it is kept is said to have been founded by Charlemagne, and 
 among its other relics is the Bible on which the ancient kings 
 of Navarre took the oath of allegiance. 
 
 The shriving of penitent pilgrims at this chapel is an annual 
 ceremony performed with much curious detail. The pilgrims 
 come from the neighboring valleys, generally on the Spanish 
 side of the Pyrenees. They arrive about dawn. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 843 i 
 
 Their bodies are covered with a black blouse drawn tight at 
 the waist with a cord, and their heads with a sombre cowl. 
 On their shoulders they carry a 
 heavy cross, formed of two weighty 
 branches nailed together, supposed 
 to resemble the cross which Christ 
 bore to Calvary. They advance 
 slowly, preceded by the mayors of 
 their commune, attired in a long 
 municipal robe. When they have 
 reached the monastery, some of the 
 pilgrims have travelled, crosses on 
 back, ten, twenty, and even thirty 
 miles. 
 
 After half an hour's rest they form 
 ranks again in two files, between 
 which walk the clergy, with the 
 wives, sisters, or mothers of the 
 penitents. They pass before the 
 tomb which is fabled to contain the 
 remains of Eoland's companions, en- 
 ter the chapel, and there hear mass, 
 confess, and take communion. Then 
 to breakfast at the neighboring inn, 
 
 after which the line reforms, and the pilgrims, shouldering their 
 crosses once more, march home ten, twenty, or thirty miles 
 across the Pyrenees. 
 
 Rosa di Lima, St., the only canonized female saint of the 
 New World. Her festival is on August 30. She was born at 
 Lima, Peru, in 1586. From her infancy she gave great evidence 
 of piety, and began mortifying herself at a very early age. She 
 destroyed her beautiful comple^xion with quicklime in order to 
 disenchant her lovers. She supported herself and her aged 
 parents by toiling in a garden, and by working at night with her 
 needle. She died August 24, 1617, and was entombed at Lima. 
 She was canonized by Clement X. in 1671. It is related that 
 this Pope at first refused to canonize her, but a shower of roses 
 fell all about him and continued until he felt assured of her 
 sanctity. 
 
 Rosalia, St., patron of Palermo, in Sicily, which was her 
 birthplace. Her feast is celebrated on September 4, the anni- 
 versary of the translation of her body. Of noble parentage, she 
 forsook all worldly vanities in her youth and made herself an 
 abode in a cave on Monte Pelegrino, three miles from Palermo. 
 
 Pilgrim of Roncesvaux. 
 
844 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Here she died in 1160. In 1625, the jubilee year of Pope Urban 
 yill., a body supposed to be hers was found buried in a grot 
 under the mountain, and was translated to the metropolitan 
 church of Palermo, which was dedicated to her. A pestilence 
 raging in that year ceased at once. It used to be the annual 
 custom on her feast-day for the priests to take the relics in 
 solemn procession around Monte Pelegrino. It must be added 
 that Dean Buckland positively identified the remains as those 
 of an unusually large and venerable he-goat. Nevertheless St. 
 Michael's Church in Brooklyn, New York, prides itself on the 
 possession of five fragments of her " forearm," which were 
 brought over as a gift from the Cardinal of Palermo in 1893. 
 They are encased in a small silver box of oval shape. 
 
 Roses, Tribute of. (Fr. BailUe des Hoses.) A graceful cere- 
 mony which existed in France up to the end of the sixteenth 
 century and consisted of a tribute of roses from the peers of 
 France to parliament, and was rendered in the months of April, 
 May, and June on a day when the sitting was held in the great 
 hall. The peer whose turn it was to pay the tribute had to see 
 that on the appointed day all the rooms of the palace were 
 strewed with roses, flowers, and sweet herbs : before the sitting 
 commenced he was bound to enter every chamber with a large 
 bowl of silver borne before him containing as many crowns of 
 roses and bouquets as there were members of parliament and 
 ofiicers attached to its service ; and when the roses had been dis- 
 tributed to the various claimants of the homage and the audience 
 was ended, he gave a great feast to the presidents, councillors, 
 clerks, and ushers of the court. The origin of this custom is 
 quite unknown. It not only existed at the parliament of Paris, 
 but was maintained at all the other parliaments of the kingdom, 
 especially that of Toulouse ; and the tribute was obligatory on 
 the children of the king, princes of the blood, dukes, cardinals, 
 and other peers. There is said to have been an edict of Henry 
 III. relating to it. 
 
 Rosh Hashanah. The Jewish New Year, being the first day 
 of the secular year. The Jewish calendar really has two New 
 Year's Days. One, Eosh Hashanah, is held by tradition to be 
 the anniversary of the day on which God created the earth. It 
 falls in either September or October of the Christian calendar, 
 being reckoned by the new moon of the sevetith month, Tisri. 
 It ushers in the civil year. Abib (see Passover) is the first 
 month in the religious year. Abib, or Nisan, corresponds with 
 parts of March and April, the year dating from the moon after 
 the vernal equinox. The prophets speak of the sacred year, 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 845 
 
 while those in secular employments reckon by the civil. The 
 number of months is the same as in the Christian calendar, but 
 they are all lunar, and the discrepancies are remedied by the 
 introduction of a thirteenth intercalary month every third year. 
 
 The celebration of Eosh Hashanah was established by Mosaic 
 precept. In the book of Leviticus, twenty-third chapter, twenty- 
 fourth and twenty-lifth verses of the English version, it is written, 
 " Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, 
 in the first day of the month, shall ye have a Sabbath, a memorial 
 of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. Ye shall do no 
 servile work therein : but ye shall offer an offering made by fire 
 unto the Lord." 
 
 Business is generally suspended in Hebrew commercial circles 
 during the New Year's celebration, and the Jewish temples and 
 synagogues are thronged with worshippers. Among the ortho- 
 dox Hebrews the festival lasts for two days, but the Eeformed 
 Jews confine the celebration to one day. 
 
 Like all the other festivals in the Jewish calendar, Eosh Hasha- 
 nah lasts from sunset to sunset. As the succession of the priest- 
 hood has been lost, sacrifice can be offered no longer, and the Bibli- 
 cal decree ordering an offering cannot be obeyed. The trumpets, 
 however, remain. These with the more conservative synagogues 
 are the shofars or rams' horns of traditional antiquity. The 
 Eeformed Jews substitute brass instruments. Experts are 
 employed for the express purpose of producing the inhar- 
 monious notes that serve to arouse the worshippers to a full 
 sense of their religious duties to God and their fellow-men. 
 There are three or four distinct blasts, one of which is quite pro- 
 longed, as if the blower was bound to expend every particle of 
 breath in his body, another is short and tremulous, and a third 
 is broken or disconnected. The latter has been defined as a 
 reminder of the many broken vows and religious precepts. 
 These various blasts are repeated at frequent intervals during 
 the day, and are always succeeded by short melodies, some of 
 which are sung with great zest by the members of the con- 
 gregation. 
 
 On the New Year two scrolls of the law or five books of 
 Moses are taken from the ark or sanctuary and borne amid 
 impressive ceremonies to the reading-desk, where one is unrolled 
 and sections read to six members of the congregation who are 
 " called up" to the reading desk. From the second scroll a single 
 section is read to a single member. The passages read from both 
 scrolls are appropriate to the day. The reading-desk and the ark 
 are on New Year's Day covered with a rich white material 
 trimmed with silver and gold fringe, and present a very fine 
 appearance. 
 
846 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 With the close of the synagogue and the return of the wor- 
 shippers to their homes they refresh themselves and exchange 
 visits of greeting, after the style of the Christian New Year. 
 The rest of the day is given up to good cheer. 
 
 The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur, q. v.) falls ten days 
 after New Year, and the intervening period is known as the 
 penitential days. During this period strict Jews abstain from 
 all frivolity or pleasure, for again tradition says that the judg- 
 ment which was rendered by the Almighty on the New Year is 
 not finished until the expiration of the Day of Atonement, when 
 the decision is sealed and irrevocable. Eabbis throughout the( 
 Talmud are very careful to impress upon the minds of their dis- ) 
 ciples that expiation for sins is practicable between man and ( 
 God, but between man and man there must be absolute repara- • 
 tion. 
 
 - It is believed that on Eosh Hashanah three books are opened. 
 One is for the righteous, who are immediately inscribed for 
 life ; one for the wicked, who are instantly inscribed for death ; 
 and one for the nondescript, who are left on probation. If the 
 latter repent during the ten penitential days, their names are 
 written in the book of life ; if not, in that of death. As the 
 Day of Judgment Eosh Hashanah is alternatively known as 
 Yom Hardin, and as the Day of Memorial as Yom Hazikkaron. 
 
 Rosiere, Fete de la. A festival celebrated in many villages 
 of France, notably in Salency, Nanterre, Surennes, and Sans- 
 souci-des-Fleurettes, in which the essential feature is the crown- 
 ing with white roses of a maiden who has preserved an unsullied 
 reputation for virtue, and the presentation to her of a sum of 
 money. A Sunday in late May or early June is usually chosen 
 for the beginning of the festival, which in some localities lasts 
 three days. 
 
 The first rosiere is said to have been established at the be- 
 ginning of the sixth century by St. Medard at Salency, of which 
 pjlace he was seigneur. He charged his family estate with a 
 sum of money to be given annually, together with a crown of 
 white roses, to the most virtuous girl in the village. The first 
 crown, by the unanimous vote of the village, is said to have gone 
 to St. Medard's own sister, and in a picture above the altar in 
 the chapel of St. Medard at Salency he is represented as crown- 
 ing her. According to the terms of the original foundation, not 
 only must the girl be irreproachable, but her ancestors for four 
 generations before her must have stood well in the community. 
 The seigneur of Salency had the right to choose the rosiere out 
 of three girls, natives of the village, presented to him. When 
 he had named her the parish was informed of it from the pulpit 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. ' 847 
 
 on the following Sunday, and all who had any just cause or im- 
 pediment to advance were bidden to do so. On the feast of St. 
 Medard, June 8, at two o'clock in the afternoon, the rosiere, 
 dressed in white, attended by twelve girls in white with blue 
 sashes, and twelve boys, her father and mother and relations, 
 went to the castle of Salency, where the procession was met by 
 the seigneur or his bailiff, who conducted the procession to the 
 church to vespers. 
 
 Yespers over, clergy and people went in procession to the 
 chapel of St. Medard. Here on the altar was the garland of 
 roses, bound by a blue ribbon and ornamented in front with a 
 silver ring. After blessing it the officiating priest placed it 
 on the brows of the kneeling rosiere, and presented her with* 
 twenty-five livres in presence of the seigneur and the village 
 officials. Thus crowned, the rosiere with the rest returned to 
 the parish church, where the Te Deum and a hymn to St. 
 Medard were chanted, while outside the village youths fired 
 salutes from guns and muskets. On finally emerging from the 
 church the rosiere was led to the middle of the great street of 
 Salency, where a table had been spread with six plates, six nap- 
 kins, two knives, a salt-cellar, two quarts of claret, two glasses, 
 a quart of fresh water, two loaves of bread, a cheese, and a dish 
 of nuts. The seigneur, the mayor, the village priest, and two 
 other dignitaries seated themselves at this frugal banquet with 
 the heroine of the occasion. At the end thereof the maiden was 
 presented with an arrow, two tennis-balls, and a whistle made 
 of horn, upon which one of the dignitaries blew three times 
 before presenting it. This beautiful ceremony, interrupted by 
 the Eevolution, was re-established in 1812, and takes place now 
 every year, but it has undergone certain modifications. The 
 rosiere now receives three hundred francs, of which sum the 
 municipal council gives half. j 
 
 Meanwhile, during the eighteenth century, under the influence 
 of Eousseau and his continuous appeals for a return to nature and 
 simplicity, it had become fashionable for wealthy persons, whose 
 acquaintance with virtue, mayhap, was rather one of hearsay 
 than of personal experience, to establish rosiere prizes in their 
 neighborhood and leave endowments to carry them on in the 
 future. This was done at no less than fifty places throughout 
 France. 
 
 Nanterre, the birthplace of St. Genevieve, was one of the first. 
 Whitsunday is here the appointed time. The rosiere is supposed 
 to be the girl of the village who has most virtuously followed in 
 the footsteps of the gentle maiden who was born there in 422, 
 but she is generally the prettiest or the most popular girl, and is 
 chosen from among the daughters of influential citizens. She is 
 
848 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 the queen of the three days' fete, which on the first day has a 
 religious meaning ; on the second there is a mock civil marriage 
 at the mairie, and on the third occurs the usual French fete, 
 with roller-skates, travelling theatrical troupes, and a good pat- 
 ronage for cafes and gingerbread-booths. 
 
 If the rosiere live to be ninety, the name given to her at her 
 baptism will be forgotten in favor of a graceful sobriquet which 
 will ennoble her like a title, and men, women, and children will 
 call her Madame la Eose. At first the parish priest and a quo- 
 rum of village notables selected the rosieres, but it was contended 
 that the organ of the confessional might know too much about 
 parish virtues and the notables too little, so the matter is now in 
 most places left to the municipal council. 
 
 Every Saturday for June 28, 1873, copies from an amusing de- 
 scription of the fete as witnessed at Sanssouci-des-Fleurettes : 
 
 " A Sunday sun sheds its gilding over the village and brightens 
 a double row of spectators packed close as corn, and forming a 
 lane between the rosiere's house and the church. Three weeks 
 have elapsed since the election, and animosities have had time to 
 be smoothed away and melt. Like other sovereigns, this Queen 
 of Eoses rules by accomplished fact ; so it is better to smile on 
 her and seem proud of her, in order that strangers may not go 
 away with the impression that tongues are forked and envious 
 at Sanssouci-des-Fleurettes. Twelve o'clock is pealed musically 
 from the church belfry ; the bell-pullers ring out the chimes ; the 
 corps of communal firemen with brass helmets gleaming in the 
 sun draw up as a guard of honor outside the rosiere's door, and 
 the mayor, glorious in a white cravat, his sash, and a pair of 
 new white cotton gloves, is descried coming in the distance with 
 the garde champetre, in cocked hat and dirk, stalking in front, 
 and the councillors all trooping behind. The band of the fire- 
 men takes up its position, the fireman captain unsheathes his 
 sword, and now the mayor, who has gone into the rosiere's 
 house, emerges with her leaning on his hand ; the firemen pre- 
 sent arms, the band struts off filling the air with martial music, 
 the firemen wheel round and follow at the quick march ; then 
 comes the rosiere in white, and with a veil of muslin ; the 
 rosiere of last year walks by her side to the left, and nothing 
 can exceed the enthusiasm of the on-lookers as they wave their 
 hats or handkerchiefs, shower flowers on the road, and then 
 rush off one on the top of another to try and jam themselves 
 into the church. But the church porch is guarded by that trusty 
 French beadle with glittering halberd, silver baldric, and taper- 
 ing sword. The seats are all filled, and he would not let his own 
 uncle slip in : so make way, messieurs et dames, for the firemen, 
 who stream up the nave like a loud-sounding sea ; make way for 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 849 
 
 the rosiere, who looks a little pale and nervous at the cheering; 
 and step aside for M. le Maire, whose face is as a fine new brick 
 just out of the kiln. The gracious lady — duchess, countess, or 
 prefete — who is to bestow the crown is already in her seat near 
 the altar rails ; the rosieres of j^receding years shine in a row 
 in their special pew up the chancel ; the choristers, thurifers, 
 and clergy are arrayed in gorgeous vestments, each at his proper 
 post, and the beadle brings down his halberd with a noise of 
 thunder on the stone flooring to bid the organist strike up a tri- 
 umphal march. Then when this has been played out and died 
 away under the vaulted roof, mass begins ; then ensues the ser- 
 mon, from which let us draw the comforting moral that life is 
 ever strewn with roses for the virtuous, or at least ought to be, 
 which is the same thing. Then of one accord we all rise on our 
 legs to see the rosiere led up to the altar and kneel to receive 
 the crown of white roses together with the other incentives to 
 continued purity. The rosiere is generally pretty ; and if the 
 prating of evil tongues were listened to, we might go to bed 
 with a notion that she is selected rather with a view to her per- 
 sonal attractions than to other points, seeing how painful it 
 would be for any village that respected itself to exhibit to those 
 Parisians, who laugh at everything, a countenance of passing 
 ugliness as the only specimen of local virtue. But let us take 
 things gratefully as they come, without inquiring into causes. 
 Enough for us that the rosiere is fair ; enough that the crown 
 fits her well, and that the plates handed round among the con- 
 gregation are soon filled with gold and silver sufficient to form a 
 pleasant supplement to the thousand-franc note which the found- 
 ress has bequeathed. Let us only hope that the watch and 
 chain, the pair of ear-rings, and the bracelet— which are the 
 kind though hazardous gifts of the municipality, the neighbor- 
 ing gentry, and the lady patroness respectively — will not imbue 
 the amiable young peasant girl with the belief that perseverance 
 in virtue will help her to complete her stock of jewelry in after- 
 life. Nor let her be persuaded, by and by, as she banquets with 
 the authorities off roast chicken and champagne, which the rate- 
 payers will afford, that mankind is always ready thus to honor 
 with fermented beverages those who distinguish themselves by a 
 display of modest qualities. If the rosiere's experience of life 
 could only cease at the moment when the cloth is removed from 
 the banqueting-board, this globe might indeed seem to her, as 
 she floated upwards, the Elysium of the Just. Unfortunately 
 to-morrow lies beyond, and who knows what shocks may await 
 the trusting rosiere who has imagined that bands of music, eigh- 
 teen-carat trinkets, and the vintage of Mme. Clicquot are insti- 
 tutions kept alive by, and for the sole use of, the virtuous ?" 
 
 54 
 
850 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Something analogous to the French rosiere exists in the 
 grimiest part of London. Early in the seventeenth century 
 there flourished on the north bank of the Thames, among the 
 sailors of Wapj^ing, Shadwell, and Poplar, a brewer named Henry 
 Eaine, vvho founded in St. George's parish a school for boys and 
 girls, fifty of each, with salaries for master and mistress. This 
 done, and the school well started, he presently built and endowed 
 an asj^lum for girls, to be taken out of the school, trained for 
 four years in the duties of domestic service, and then put out 
 into good places. The girls were not necessarily to be orphans, 
 but they were to remain under some sort of surveillance for four 
 years after leaving the asylum. If during that time they kept 
 their good character for virtue, and found a lover also of good 
 character, who must be a native of St. George's or an adjoining 
 parish, and a churchman, they might at the age of twenty-two 
 draw lots with other girls who fulfilled the same conditions for 
 a marriage portion of one hundred pounds. The drawing of 
 lots, the marriage ceremon}^, and the ceremony of presentation 
 are all regulated by custom and order supposed to have been 
 arranged by Eaine himself 
 
 The lots are drawn in May. The marriage and presentation 
 of the purse take place on the succeeding November 5, the for- 
 mer in the church of St. George's and the latter in the vestry 
 hall. A feature of the presentation is the singing of an anony- 
 mous ode in honor of Henry Eaine, with this chorus : 
 
 /Proclaim his worth, fulfil the plan 
 .Of this unrivalled friend of man. 
 
 Rough Music. The English equivalent of the French chari- 
 vari (q. v.). In many of the southern counties of England it 
 is or was until recently the fashion for the villagers to express 
 a neighborly contempt for individual weaknesses or errors by 
 gathering together for the infliction of what is known as rough 
 music upon the ofl'ender. If a husband beat his wife or suffer 
 himself to be henpecked, if either be unfaithful to the other, a 
 mob of men, women, and children march to the culprit's house, 
 each provided with some instrument for aural torture, a pan or 
 a kettle, for example, drummed on by a huge key ; fire-shovels 
 and tongs rattled together ; iron pot-lids used as cymbals ; a cow- 
 horn or a marrow-bone used as a trumpet, or anything else that 
 experience or imagination may suggest as combining the most 
 noise with the least harmony. Above the din of the infernal 
 concert rise shouts of " Shame ! Shame ! who beat his wife ? [or 
 what not.] I say, John Doe, come out and show yourself!" 
 After an hour or so spent in this amusement, the procession 
 moves off through the village streets, proclaiming in all the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 851' 
 
 most public places the name and the crime of the unwilling 
 hero or heroine of the occasion. The piquancy of the accusa- 
 tions is often greatly enhanced by some village humorist, who, 
 grotesquely arrayed and with his face rouged or blacked, acts 
 the part of herald. In the northern counties this herald is car- 
 ried astride of a stang or pole. Hence the ceremony is there 
 known as Biding the Stang (q. v.). 
 
 Rousing Staff. A long stick or pole which was anciently 
 used by beadles in churches to prod inattentive or dozing mem- 
 bers of the congregation and bring them to a proper sense of 
 reverence for their surroundings. At the palace of the Bishop 
 of London at Fulham another sort of rousing stick is still used, 
 in accordance with time-honored custom, for the purpose of 
 knocking up certain of the servants at successive hours, begin- 
 ning at about half-past five in the morning. This is a slender 
 rod some fifteen feet in length, with which the palace lodge- 
 keeper raps on the antique casements of the servants' bedrooms 
 in the quadrangle within the massive wooden gates of the large 
 western archway, and he continues the attention until the 
 sleeper gives a more or less grateful answer. 
 c In the earlier years of the nineteenth century, at Holy Trin- 
 ity Church, Warrington, a masculine bit of womanhood named 
 Betty Finch held the office of sluggard-waker, which was there 
 known as the bobber. She is described as walking majestically 
 along the aisles during the service, armed with a long stick like 
 a fishing-rod, which had a " bob" fastened to the end of it, and 
 when she caught any one speaking or talking she gave him a 
 " nudge." Her son was engaged in the belfry, and often truth- 
 fully sang, — 
 
 My father's a clerk, 
 My sister's a singer, 
 
 My mother Is the bobber, 
 And I am a ringer. 
 
 /Andrews, in his " Curiosities of the Church," gives a descrip- 
 tion of an official who used to be employed as sluggard-waker. 
 He was a respectable-looking man, with a churchwarden air, who 
 carried a long stout wand with a fork at the end of it. "At 
 intervals he stepped stealthily up and down the naves and aisles 
 of the church, and whenever he saw an individual whose senses 
 were buried in oblivion, he touched him with his wand so effect- 
 ually that the spell was broken, and in a moment he was recalled 
 to all the realities of life. I watched as he mounted, with easy 
 steps, into the galleries. At the end of one of them there sat in 
 the front seat a young man who had very much the appearance 
 of a farmer, with his mouth open and his eyes closed, a perfect 
 
852 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 picture of repose. The official marked him for his own, and, 
 having fitted his fork to the nape of his neck, he gave him such 
 a push that, had he not been used to such visitations, it would 
 probably have produced an ejaculatory start highly inconvenient 
 on such occasions. But no ; every one seemed to quietly acquiesce 
 in the usage, and, whatever else they might be dreaming of, they 
 certainly did not dream of the infringement upon the liberties 
 of the subject, nor did they think of applying for the summons 
 on account of the assault." 
 
 Rumald or Rumbald, St., patron of Brackley and Bucking- 
 ham, England. The regular festival of this saint is on November 
 3, the anniversary of his death, but at Brackley it used to be 
 celebrated on August 28 (probably the date of the translation of 
 his bones), while in Kent Christmas Eve is known as Eumbald 
 Night. Hasted in his " History of Kent," vol. iii. p. 380, men- 
 tions a singular custom used of long time by the fishermen of 
 Folkestone. They chose eight of their largest and best whitings 
 out of every boat when they came home from the fishery, and sold 
 them apart from the rest. Out of the money arising from them 
 they made a feast every Christmas Eve which they called a 
 Eumbald. The master of each boat provided this feast for his 
 own company. This custom, now fallen into disuse, might 
 anciently have been instituted in honor of St. Eumald, being 
 originally designed as an offering to him for his protection during 
 the fishery. 
 
 This saint, whose legend is not accepted in its entirety by 
 careful hagiologists, was an instance of rare precocity. Son of 
 the King of Northumbria by a Christian woman, and born at 
 Sutton in Northamptonshire, he came into the world crying 
 three times, "I am a Christian !" He expressed a desire for 
 immediate baptism, chose his own name and his godfather's, 
 directed that a large hollow stone should be brought in as the 
 font, immediately after the ceremony walked to a well near 
 Brackley which still bears his name, there preached for three 
 successive days, and then died. According to his own request, 
 his body lay buried for one year in Sutton, for the second year in 
 Brackley, and at the beginning of the third it was translated to 
 Buckingham and deposited in a shrine in an aisle of the church 
 which afterwards bore his name. Eichard Fowler, chancellor to 
 Edward lY., undertook to rebuild this aisle, but died in 1477, 
 before its completion, leaving the following directions in his will : 
 " Item, I wolle that the aforesaid Isle [aisle] of St Eumwold, in 
 the aforesaid church prebendal of Bucks, where my body and 
 other of my friends lyen buried, the which isle is begonne of new 
 to be made, be fully made and performed up perfitely in all 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 853 
 
 things att my costs and charge; and in the same isle that there 
 be made of new a toumbe or shrine for the said saint where the 
 old is now standing, and that it be made curiously with marble 
 in length and breadth as shall be thought by myn executors most 
 convenient, consideration had to the rome, and upon the same 
 tombe or shrine I will that there be sett a coffyn or a chest 
 curiously wrought and gilte, as it appertaynith for to lay in the 
 bones of the same saint, and this also to be doan in all things at 
 my cost and charge." Hence it appears that in the fifteenth 
 century the relics of this infant saint were already held in high 
 veneration. They continued to be the object of pilgrimages till 
 the middle of the sixteenth century. Foxe in his Martyrology 
 tells of certain Lollards who having renounced their errors were 
 required in expiation to walk to Buckingham and present an 
 offering at the shrine of St. Eumald. There was also a famous 
 image of the saint at Boxley, in Kent, small and hollow and 
 apparently very light, yet only a chaste woman could move it. 
 Fuller explains this paradox in a quaint passage. " The moving 
 hereof," he says, "was made the condition of women's chastity. 
 Such who paid the priest well might easily remove it, whilst 
 others might tug at it to no purpose. For this was the con- 
 trivance of the cheat, — that it was fastened with a pin of wood 
 by an invisible stander behind. Now, when such offered to take 
 it who had been bountiful to the priest before, they bare it away 
 with ease, which was impossible for their hands to remove who 
 had been close-fisted in their confessions. Thus it moved more 
 laughter than devotion, and many chaste virgins and wives went 
 away with blushing faces, leaving (without cause) the suspicion 
 of their wantonness in the eyes of the beholders ; whilst others 
 came off with more credit (because with more coin) though with 
 less chastity." 
 
 Rush-Bearing. An ancient religious ceremony which still 
 has local survivals in England. Formerly the floors of churches 
 and dwelling-places consisted of the hard dry earth, which was 
 covered over with rushes to render it grateful to the feet. Even 
 in the royal palaces, rushes and straw, sometimes mixed with 
 sweet herbs, formed the sole carpeting. In the household roll of 
 Edward II. is an entry of money paid to John de Carleford for 
 going from York to Newcastle to procure straw for the king's 
 chamber. Hentzner in his " Itinerary" says of Queen Eliza- 
 beth's presence-chamber at Greenwich, " the floor, after the 
 English fashion, was strewed with hay," meaning rushes. In a 
 little book called " Wits, Fits, and Fancies" (1614) is the follow- 
 ing anecdote: "When Henry III., King of Franco, demanded 
 of Monsieur Dandelot what especial things he had noted in 
 
854 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 England during the time of his negotiation there, he answered 
 that he had seen but three things remarkable, which were, that 
 people did drinke in bootes, eate raw fish, and strewed all their 
 best rooms with hay; meaning black jacks, oysters, and rushes." 
 Yet the use of rushes on floors was not unknown in France, for 
 Froissart in his account of the death of Gaston, Count de Foix, 
 relates how the hero's chamber was strewn with rushes and 
 green leaves, and the walls hung with boughs newly cut for per- 
 fume and coolness, as the weather was marvellously hot. 
 
 vErasmus, in a letter to Dr. Francis, physician to Cardinal 
 Wolsey, complains that as the rushes were seldom thoroughly 
 changed, and the habits of the inmates were not always very 
 cleanly, the smell soon became anything but pleasant. fSe 
 speaks of the lowest layer of rushes (the top only being l^e- 
 newed) as remaining unchanged sometimes for twenty years, 
 a receptacle for beer, grease, fragments of victuals, and other 
 organic matters. To this filthiness he ascribes the frequent 
 pestilences with which the people of England were afflicted^ He 
 recommends the entire banishment of rushes and a better ven- 
 tilation. 
 
 In the churches it grew to be the custom to renew the 
 rushes once a year, usually on the Saturday next after the feast 
 of the patron saint. The parishioners came in procession to 
 strew the floor with newly cut rushes. Long after carpets and 
 matting had taken the place of rushes, the rush -bearing cere- 
 mony continued. " In Westmoreland, Lancashire, and districts 
 of Yorkshire," wrote the Eev. G. Miles Cooper so recently as 
 1857, "there is still celebrated between hay-making and har- 
 vest a village fete called the Rush-Bearing. Young women 
 dressed in white, and carrying garlands of flowers and rushes, 
 walk in procession to the parish church accompanied by a crowd 
 of rustics with flags flying and music playing. There they 
 suspend their floral chaplets on the chancel rails, and the day is 
 concluded with a simple feast." {Sussex Archceological Collec- 
 tions, vol. ix.) 
 
 In Cheshire, at Runcorn and Warburton, fifty years ago, as 
 we are told by a contributor to Notes and Queries, First Series, 
 i. 356, the annual rush-bearing wake was carried on in grand 
 style: "A large quantity of rushes — sometimes a cart-load — is 
 collected, and, being bound on the cart, they are cut evenly at each 
 end, and on Saturday evening a number of men sit on the top 
 of the rushes, holding garlands of artificial flowers, tinsel, etc. 
 The cart is drawn through the parish by three or four spirited 
 horses, decked with ribbons, the collars being surrounded with 
 small bells. It is attended by morris-dancers fantastically 
 dressed; there are men in women's clothes, one of whom, with 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 855 
 
 his face blackened, has a belt, with a large bell attached, round 
 his waist, and carries a ladle to collect money from the spec- 
 tators. The party stop and dance at the public house on their 
 way to the parish church, where the rushes are deposited and 
 the garlands are hung up, to remain till the next year." 
 ( G-rasmere, in the English Lake district, claims to be the only 
 pTace where the custom of rush-bearing preserves an unbroken 
 record from a remote antiquity to the present day. The pres- 
 ervation of the ceremony during the middle of the nineteenth 
 century was due. largely to the influence of the poet Words- 
 worth, and more recently to the energy of the late vicar, Mr. 
 Fletcher, and the liberality of a wealthy resident, one Dawson, 
 of Allan Bank, Grasmere. The latter was an admirer of the 
 old custom, and encouraged the children to keep up the pro- 
 cession by presenting a reward to each of the youthful rush- 
 bearers. 
 
 Hone gives an interesting account of how rush-bearing was 
 celebrated at Grasmere on July 21, 1827 : 
 
 ^The church door was open, and I discovered that the vil- 
 lagers were strewing the floor with fresh rushes. During the 
 whole of this day I observed the children busily employed in 
 preparing garlands of such wild flowers as the beautiful valley 
 produces for the evening procession, which commenced at nine 
 p.M , in the following order. The children, chiefly girls, holding 
 these garlands, paraded through the village, preceded by the 
 Union Band (thanks to the great drum for this information). 
 They then entered the church, when the three largest garlands 
 were placed on the altar, and the remaining ones in various 
 other parts of the place. In the procession I observed the 
 Opium-Eater, Mr. Barber (an opulent gentleman residing in the 
 neighborhood), Mr. and Mrs. Wordsworth, Miss Wordsworth, 
 and Miss Dora Wordsworth. Wordsworth is the chief supporter 
 of these rustic ceremonies. THb procession over, the party ad- 
 journed to the ball-room, a hayloft, at my worthy friend Mr. 
 Bell's, where the country lads and lasses tripped it merrily and 
 heavily. The dance was kept up till a quarter to twelve, when 
 a livery servant entered and delivered the following verbal mes- 
 sage to Billy (the fiddler) : ' Master's respects, and will thank 
 you to lend him the fiddle-stick.' Billy took the hint : the Sab- 
 bath was now at hand, and the pastor of the parish had adopted 
 this gentle mode of apprising the assembled revellers that they 
 ought to cease their revelry. The servant departed with the 
 fiddle-stick, the chandelier was removed, and when the village 
 clock struck twelve, not an individual was to be seen out of 
 doors in the village." 
 (TJp to 1841 the floor of the church remained unpaved and 
 
856 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 was yearly strewn with rushes. Pews and floors were intro- 
 duced in that year, but the rush-bearing continued to be kept 
 up with undiminished vigor. Until 1885 it took place on the 
 Saturday nearest July 20. It is now celebrated on the Satur- 
 day next after August 5, the festival of St. Oswald, to whom 
 the church is dedicated. The children assemble with their gar- 
 lands, which they arrange along the churchyard wall. At half- 
 past six o'clock the procession is marshalled in the road in the 
 following order : 
 
 Banner of St. Oswald. 
 
 Clergy and Choir in Surplices. 
 
 Band. 
 
 Queen, with Pages. 
 
 Maids of Honor, bearing the Eush-Sheet. 
 
 The Eush-Bearers. 
 
 The queen and her court and the bearing of the rush-sheet, 
 which were important features in the old festival, were revived 
 in 1891. " Arranging the sheet," says Bamford, a Lancashire poet, 
 " was exclusively the work of girls and women ; and in propor- 
 tion as it was happily designed and finely put together was the 
 praise or disparagement meted out by the people, — a point on 
 which they were not a little sensitive. The sheet was a piece 
 of white linen, generally a good bed-sheet, and on it were 
 pretty rosettes and quaint compartments, and borderings of all 
 colors and hues which either paper, tinsel, ribbons, or natural 
 flowers could supply. In these compartments were arranged 
 silver watches, trays, spoons, sugar-tongs, teapots, quart tankards, 
 drinking-cups, and other fitting articles of ornament and value." 
 The present sheet was spun in Grasmere by a young woman of 
 the village. 
 
 After the procession has been formed, the hymn for St. Os- 
 wald is sung, and the band plays the " Eush-Bearing March" 
 (said to have been played nearly a century ago), and the pro- 
 cession perambulates the village, the bells ringing and the tower 
 flag flying. On returning to the church the Eush-Bearers' 
 Hymn is sung, and the garlands are arranged round the walls. 
 Full choral evensong follows. The children afterwards receive 
 gingerbread, and some wresthng-bouts engage the attention of 
 the young men. The garlands are removed on the following 
 Monday to a neighboring field, where the Maypole is set up and 
 a regular gala held for the rush-bearers and all who choose to 
 share it. The words of the Eush-Bearers' Hymn and that of 
 St. Oswald have no great distinguishing merit, and two verses 
 of the former may suffice : 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 857 
 
 The Rush-Bearers^ Hymn. 
 
 /Our fathers to the House of God, 
 '- As yet a building rude, 
 Bore offerings from the flowery sod. 
 And fragrant rushes strewed. 
 
 May we, their children, ne'er forget 
 
 The pious lesson given. 
 But honor still, together met, 
 
 The Lord of Earth and Heaven. 
 
 The rush-bearing with morris-dancing is still kept up at 
 Whitworth, near Eoehdale, Warcop, Westmoreland, Haworth 
 and Saddleworth, Yorkshire, and other places. (Ditchfield, p. 
 134 et seq.) 
 
 Sometimes churches are now strewn with grass or hay in lieu 
 of rushes. Thus, the parish of Clee, in Lincolnshire, possesses an 
 ancient privilege of cutting rushes from a piece of land called 
 " Bescars" for the purpose of strewing the church on Trinity 
 Sunday. A small quantity of grass is annually cut to preserve 
 this right. (Edwards : Old English Customs, p. 217.) 
 
 At Old Weston, in Huntingdonshire, a piece of greensward 
 belongs by custom to the parish clerk for the time being, subject 
 to the condition of the land being mown immediately before 
 Weston feast, which occurs in July, and the cutting thereof 
 being strewn on the church floor previous to divine service on 
 the least Sunday. (Ibid., p. 220.) 
 
 At Braunstone, Leicestershire, the parish church is strewn 
 with hay on the Sunday after St. Peter's Day (June 29). On 
 the Thursday previous the Holme Meadow is mown. On Satur- 
 day the parish clerk fetches a small load of hay, which he must 
 spread with his hands on the floor of the church. The portion 
 of the meadow whence the hay is brought is called " The Clerk's 
 Acre," and the rest of the hay belongs to him. (Ditchfield, p. 
 138.) 
 
 Sabbath or Saturday. The seventh day of the week. The 
 Sabbath of the Jews begins at sunset on Friday. Its advent is 
 noted by the matron of the household, who lights the two long 
 tapers in candlesticks standing on the dining-room table. Then 
 she and the children greet the head of the family with the salu- 
 tation " Shabbath," or Good Sabbath. At the commencement 
 of dinner, when the males appear with their hats on, the " Kid- 
 dush," or sanctification, takes place. First a brief thanksgiving 
 
858 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 prayer is said, then the house father blesses a vessel of wine, 
 and, after tasting it himself, passes it around as a loving-cup. A 
 double loaf of bread, commemorative of the double portion of 
 manna which fell on the sixth day in the wilderness, is cut 
 into slices, salted, and offered to every one. Every child, in the 
 order of seniority, is next blessed by both parents. Hats are 
 then removed, and the meal commences. At its close the hats 
 are again donned for the closing prayer in Hebrew. No cigars 
 are smoked by the strictly orthodox, as no fire, not imperatively 
 needed, may be kindled on the day of rest. All the Sabbath_ 
 meals are prepared on Friday. The prohibition against kindling 
 a fire is explained in this way. In their wanderings in the wil- 
 derness the only method of the Israelites for kindling a fire was 
 by rubbing two sticks together until a flame was produced. 
 This involved considerable labor, and the commandment against 
 it has been retained so strictly that a Jew is forbidden even to 
 touch a fire when kindled, to lift a lighted candle, or to extin- 
 guish a fire or a candle when lit. In other ways the strict Jews 
 carry their Sabbath formalities to excess. A handkerchief loose 
 in the pocket, a superfluous pin in the clothes, is looked upon as 
 a burden unfit for the Sabbath. But if the handkerchief be 
 pinned to the pocket, or tied round the waist like a girdle, there 
 is then no harm, as it may be considered a part of the garments. 
 No fruit may be gathered from the tree, though if they can get 
 at it with their teeth they may bite off as much as they wish. 
 They will not meddle with any tool, nor write, nor sign their 
 names, on the Sabbath, nor ride, nor travel, nor play any musical 
 instrument, nor bathe, nor tear or break anything, even a hair: 
 hence a very strict Jew will not comb his hair on the Sabbath. 
 
 The Sabbath closes at starlight on Saturday. Paterfamilias 
 makes ready for the return of weekday duties by providing a 
 wine-cup which he holds in his right hand, a spice-box, beautifully 
 worked in silver filigree, in his left, and a wax taper consisting 
 of several strands braided on the flat, which he places on the 
 table in front of him. Some of the Kabbalists explain the wine- 
 cup, spice-box, and taper as emblems of water, air, and fire. The 
 two former symbolize the Sabbath, the latter the weekday. The 
 family group themselves around the table as their head chants 
 the Habdalah, or prayer of separation between the Sabbath and 
 the secular week. Then his wife lights the taper as he pro- 
 nounces a benediction, first over the wine-cup and next over 
 the spice-box. He inhales the fragrance of the latter, and his 
 example is followed by every one present. Another benediction 
 follows, during which all raise their hands and look at the fin- 
 gers, in recognition of the coming duty to devote them to secular 
 work for six days. At the final benediction, Paterfamilias tastes 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 859 
 
 the wine, applies a little to his eyes, saying, " The command- 
 ment of the Lord is pnre, enlightening the eyes" (Psalm xix. 8), 
 and spills a portion of the remainder into a dish. His wife now 
 hands him the taper, which he extinguishes in the dish. The 
 Sabbath is at an end. 
 
 Sacrament of the Miracle, Festival of the Most Holy. 
 
 (Fr. Fete du TresSaitit Sacreynent de Miracle.') The Grande 
 Kermesse or chief holiday of Brussels. It is celebrated on the 
 first Sunday after July 13, the anniversary of the translation of 
 three consecrated wafers or hosts from St. Catherine's Church to 
 St. Grudula, under the following circumstances, as legend states 
 them. In the year 1370, sixteen hosts were stolen by the Jews 
 from the tabernacle of St. Catherine and carried to their syna- 
 gogue. On Good Friday they assembled and derisively stabbed 
 the hosts with a penknife. Blood flowed. Shocked, but not 
 converted, they destroyed the bleeding evidences of their sacri- 
 lege and intrusted three of the hosts which had escaped un- 
 scathed to a Jewess who was to carry them to their brethren 
 in Cologne. Now, it happened that this woman was a secret 
 convert to Christianity. She carried them to the priest of St. 
 Catherine's chapel and told the whole story. The Jews were 
 arrested, the guilty ones executed, and the remainder banished 
 from Brussels. 
 
 St. Catherine's was a chapel of St. Gudula's, so the clergy 
 went in grand procession, followed by the reigning sovereigns, 
 nobility, and dignitaries, to escort the consecrated wafers to St. 
 Gudula's, where they have ever since been kept in a splendid 
 monstrance. A number of royalties, from Charles Y. to Marie 
 Antoinette, have helped to dec6^rate the chapel and the shrine. 
 The latter sent her wedding necklace of, diamonds to be sus- 
 pended around the monstrance. 
 
 The synagogue where the outrage was committed was con- 
 verted into a beautiful expiatory chapel, where a community of 
 ladies, semi-religious, perpetually adore the Blessed Sacrament in 
 the spot where it was profaned. Here for a week before the 
 festival a retreat is always given. During the octave there are 
 sermons by some famous preacher every day at St. Gudula's 
 itself 
 
 The grand procession leaves St. Gudula's after the high mass, 
 and wends its way through the streets to military music. It is 
 composed of soldiers, clerics, and laity, the most conspicuous 
 features being children strewing flowers and priests swinging 
 censers before the Tres-Saint Sacrcment de Miracle, which is 
 borne under a magnificent canopy by the deacon and subdcacon 
 of the mass, followed by the dean. Through the kneeling crowds 
 
860 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 they march until they reach the Grande Place, and there, on an 
 altar ornamented with the national colors, the three hosts are 
 exposed for adoration. 
 
 " At that moment it is superb ; the military form the square, 
 the beautifully dressed children kneel in the centre ; the clergy 
 are ranged on the high flight of steps leading up to the altar ; 
 incense is burning from huge urns ; the dean intones the Tantum 
 Ergo, it is taken up by hundreds, and then the bells ring, the 
 drums roll, the soldiers present arms, the dean raises the Tres- 
 Saint Sacrement de Miracle, and gives the benediction to the 
 Hotel de Yille, and in blessing that hall blesses the city." (Cath- 
 olic World, July, 1892.) 
 
 Sacramental Fast. The Thursday before the annual or 
 half-yearly Communion Sunday — variously known as the Sacra- 
 mental Fast, the Summer Occasion, and, among the profane, as 
 all readers of Burns will recollect, the Holy Fair — was at the 
 beginning of the Scotch Kirk observed as a strict fast. Fasting, 
 however, in the ordinary sense of the word was eventually put 
 aside as a relic of Popery, though the old name was retained. 
 The day was kept throughout Scotland as a supplementary Sun- 
 day by church services, closing of all public oflSces and shops, 
 and an entire cessation of all secular business. And this was 
 not only an ecclesiastical but also a civil ordinance, for the Kirk 
 Sessions had legal authority to enforce it. The sacramental fast 
 was intended to serve as a preparation for the approaching 
 communion, — a kind of Puritan substitute for the old sacramental 
 confession. But the religious use gradually declined, the excursion- 
 trains on fast-days were crowded, and the churches all but empty. 
 It was on that account that the several presbyteries of Glasgow 
 abohshed the observance about 1880, and that the presbyteries 
 of Edinburgh, as well of the Established as of the Free Kirk and 
 the United Presbyterians, followed suit in 1887. Sacrament Fast 
 now lingers only in the remote Highlands. There it is the pre- 
 lude to the five days of sacrament-time, which extend over from 
 Thursday, the fast-day so culled, until the following Monday. 
 
 Salt Water Day. On the second Saturday in August it has 
 long been the custom of the farmers of IS"orth eastern New Jersey 
 to get out their wagons, and, with wives and children decked 
 out in their best, drive down to the sea-shore, where all give 
 themselves up to bathing, picnicking, and general merriment. 
 By far the most popular place of resort has always been on 
 the beach at Wrack Pond, near what is now Sea Girt. South 
 Amboy is a far-away second, and other points along the coast 
 are or have been sparsely visited. But in all these places, even 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 86 1 
 
 at Sea Girt, Salt Water Day is no longer what it was in the past, 
 the finest, simplest, most jovial of all rustic gatherings known 
 to the Eastern coast, the only parallel in the North to the 
 Southern barbecue. Then none but the farmer class celebrated 
 it. They had no bath-houses, no conventional bathing-suits. 
 Whole families undressed themselves with the utmost innocence 
 in the neighboring woods or in their own wagons (woe to any 
 Peeping Tom who took unfair advantage of his opportunities), 
 and then, arrayed in all variety of unique and astonishing 
 bathing-costumes, sported with boisterous tumult in the sea- 
 waves, emerging later to take part in dancing, in singing, in a 
 round of country games. This was in the good old days before 
 all the coast hereabout had been turned into "resorts," before 
 the influx of city folks, before railroads were. Now the summer 
 boarders and vagrant interlopers from New York and other 
 places thrust their unwelcome presence upon the farmers. The 
 Edenic innocence has been disturbed by bath-houses, the quaint 
 originality in costumes has been levelled to the hideous common- 
 place of the blue flannel bathing-suit, the beach is filled with 
 booths and stands for catchpenny games, the trees are hung 
 with tawdry bunting and drabbled flags, perspiring performers 
 project mechanical music into the atmosphere, and over all there 
 hangs heavily the suggestion of evil days and evil ways, of town 
 vices, of gambling and drinking and uncanny roistering. 
 
 Therefore it is good that a sympathetic observer has given 
 us a sketch of the festival as it appeared in 1891, during the 
 period of transition indeed, yet while most of the original fea- 
 tures still remained, amid many innovations. Here is an excerpt 
 from Hamlin Garland's article in the Cosmopolitan for August, 
 1892 : , 
 
 ."Packed upon the soft, yellow sand were hundreds and hun- 
 dreds of carriages, as various as the garments of the people 
 around them. Horses were tied to the wheels, eating oats from 
 their boxes, — gaunt, hard-worked horses, whose harnesses hung 
 from the whippletrees or were piled under the wagons. Beyond 
 them were groups of tents and booths, from which came con- 
 fused cries and those high-pitched, brazen rigmaroles which are 
 heard at a circus ; and over and beyond them the sea, pinkish 
 gray, melted into the infinite haze of the sky. 
 
 " Swarming around these teams and booths, drinking red 
 lemonade, eating peanuts, courting and visiting, were the 
 blonde and freckled Jerseymen and Jersey-women. The Avhole 
 scene was like our universal, characteristic, American county 
 fair, only more disorganized, more individual, more sprawling 
 in eff'oct. It was strange to me by reason of the sand under my 
 feet, the sea at my left, and yet it was familiar in its amuse- 
 
862 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 ments, its types, its atmosphere of determined enjoyment. The 
 fashionable ladies and gentlemen on the Cliff House veranda 
 found it comical. I did not. I knew these people too well to 
 laugh at them. 
 
 " But the unfamiliar and most characteristic part of it all, the 
 part to which I hastened with most interest, was the bathing. 
 Down on the glorious sand strolled the young people ; girls in 
 polka-dotted cambric dresses, blue and black; others in the 
 blue-ribboned ill-fitting white gowns, common from Maine to 
 Dakota, with wilted lilies at their belts and gay hats upon their 
 heads. Some of the young men sweltered along in heavy wool- 
 len clothing, others carried their coats upon their arms, their 
 hats perched jauntily upon the back of their heads. With them, 
 among them, in unabashed freedom, walked the bathers, in 
 dresses of every sort and length and color ; and they were not 
 all young. There were men and women of all ages in suits that 
 were not suits, but rigs, — old men in suits of field clothes, brown 
 denims, and faded hickory shirts, and old ladies in striped squash- 
 figured gowns and blue-checked sunbonnets, all laughingly, tim- 
 orously stepping into the water. The bathers and the on-lookers 
 were inextricably mixed. Lovers walked along hand in hand, 
 lie in an ill-fitting blue flannel bathing-suit, she in a self-con- 
 structed sailor gown with awkward pantalets. Children spatted 
 along the smooth wet beach in shoals. Farmer boys who had 
 never known knickerbockers, and who made no change from 
 their usual suits of denims and hickories, with trousers upheld 
 by cord suspenders, screamed and scuffled and threw sand at 
 each other in boisterous play in the sunny edge of the water. 
 
 " Gathered into a varied line along the beach rope were scores 
 of these bathers, of all ages and classes, clinging to the rope, 
 desperately in some cases, in all cases shouting in excitement 
 and vast delight as the grass-green foam spread glassily curling 
 waves and broke over their shoulders." 
 
 The origin of this great annual celebration is not known. 
 Someway, somewhere, it started without organization; yet it 
 is as certain in its return as the season itself. The common 
 tradition is that it arose among the Indians, with whom it was a 
 very ancient custom. 
 
 Sardine, Burial of the. An Ash Wednesday custom which 
 is frequent in Spain and in many countries where Ash Wednes- 
 day is a special feast. The principal feature is the carrying in 
 procession of a small paper-covered coffin containing a small 
 fish or morsel of sausage, which is buried with great ceremony, 
 this being regarded as a symbol of the burial of all worldly 
 pleasures and desires during the impending fast. At Madrid a 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 863 > 
 
 vast throng turns out to witness the burial of the sardine on 
 the banks of the Manzanares. (See Carnival, King.) 
 
 Saturnalia. An ancient Eoman festival in honor of Saturn, 
 celebrated on the 17th of December. Saturn being an ancient- 
 national god of Latium, the institution of the Saturnalia is lost 
 in the most remote antiquity. Falling towards the end of De- 
 cember, at the season when the agricultural labors of the year 
 were completed, it was celebrated by the country-people as a' sort 
 of joyous harvest home, and in every age was viewed by all 
 classes of the community as a period of absolute relaxation 
 and unrestrained merriment. The festival was extended in later 
 times to three days, and often continued beyond this time. 
 
 During the celebration of this holiday no public business could 
 be transacted, the courts were closed, war was suspended, all 
 private enmities were for the time forgotten, and the city was 
 alive with hilarity. On this day the slaves feasted and were 
 waited upon by their masters, as the female slaves were waited 
 upon by their mistresses on the Matronalia. The special feature 
 of the festival was the gift of wax candles and of little images 
 of wax or clay called sigilla. The public festival, in the time of 
 the republic, was for only one day ; but for seven days the cele- 
 bration continued in private houses. 
 
 Saviour of the Miracle, Our. A life-size figure of Christ 
 on a colossal cross, preserved in the collegiate church at Salta, 
 in the Argentine Eepublic. Its fame as a wonder-worker draws 
 to its shrine a continual stream of pilgrims from all the sur- 
 rounding districts, and even from Bolivia, Chili, and Peru. 
 Periodical processions are held in its honor. Jabez Balfour, the 
 famous English forger and impostor, has preserved in his diary 
 a very vivid account of one of these which he witnessed. It is 
 quoted in the Fall Mall Gazette for l^ovember 23, 1894. " I have 
 seen many street displays," he says, " in England and abroad, 
 but none so picturesque and none so truly popular. Nearly the 
 whole population of the city turned out either as participators 
 in the procession or as spectators. The only element conspicu- 
 ously absent was the well-dressed male element, which stood 
 ostentatiously aloof. The procession seemed to be largely self- 
 organized and arranged. It was preceded by a promiscuous 
 crowd of men and boys carrying lighted colored candles. These 
 moved along without any attempt at order, as the skirmishers 
 or forerunners of the regular procession, which was headed by 
 three ecclesiastics carrying a silver cross and two long silver 
 staffs. They were followed by some hundreds of men walking 
 in two single files, one on each side of the roadway. Nothing 
 
864 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 could be more picturesque than the appearance of these men. 
 Each one carried a lighted candle. The greater number were 
 evidently country-folk of Indian extraction, there being a great 
 preponderance of tall men with copper-colored skins, aquiline 
 features, shaggy beards, and jet-black eyes and hair; but the 
 salient feature, which invested the scene with indescribable pic- 
 turesqueness, was the brilliant coloring of the ponchos. Every 
 man was dressed in his best, and doubtless many had bought 
 new ponchos for the occasion. The bright reds, blues, yellows, 
 greens, and browns of the ponchos produced the most striking 
 effects, — none the less striking, indeed, because they were ob- 
 viously accidental and undesigned and were changing every 
 moment as the men passed slowl^y on. The combinations of 
 colors were as varied as if produced by the shifting of a kaleido- 
 scope. After the long files of men came the highly reverenced 
 Image itself, borne aloft on the shoulders of a great number of 
 men, and surrounded by an enormous quantity of lighted candles 
 and lamps. As the image passed, nearly every spectator uncov- 
 ered and knelt. It was followed by long files of young girls 
 prettily dressed in white, and with either bright red or bright 
 green sashes, and then by ladies in black gowns, with black 
 shawls thrown over their heads like hoods. This is the strictly 
 conventional go-to-church dress of Salta ladies. All carried 
 lighted candles in their hands and had rosaries hanging from 
 their waists. The number of ladies was enormous, and must 
 have included nearly all the female population of Salta, besides 
 a numerous contingent which had come here on a pilgrimage for 
 the occasion from the city of Cordoba and consisted of members 
 of a sisterhood or association known as the ' Daughters of Jesus.' 
 After the ladies came a life-size figure of the Virgin clad in beau- 
 tiful bridal attire, and standing on a gilt platform or stage, also 
 borne shoulder-high. This was followed by the governor of the 
 province, who, bareheaded, looked remarkably handsome, in even- 
 ing dress, with white waistcoat and white gloves. He was ac- 
 companied by his ministers and the intendente of police in a 
 splendid uniform. After these personages came the band and 
 two or three weak companies of local troops, and then a con- 
 fused crowd of men, women, and police. A curious and rather 
 pretty feature in the crowd was the number of little boys, chil- 
 dren from three to six years of age, who could just toddle along, 
 and who were clad by their fond parents in perfect sacerdotal 
 garb, with little white lace surplices over black skirts, and five- 
 cornered black caps such as arc worn by priests when in full 
 canonicals. J^othing could exceed the good order of the pro- 
 cession, or be better than the general decorum of all, rich and 
 poor alike, who took part in it. The weight of the platforms or 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 865 
 
 stages which bore the cross and the Yirgin must have been con- 
 siderable, but there was always a keen competition among the 
 nien for the privilege — which is, indeed, considered a very great 
 privilege — of assisting in transporting the sacred and mystic 
 emblems through the streets of the city. Of course the bishop 
 and some ecclesiastics formed part of the procession, but they 
 were by no means conspicuous, and certainly, in spite of gov- 
 ernor, bishop, and soldiers, the whole ceremonial was distinctively 
 popular, and not official nor ecclesiastical. The occasion of the 
 procession was the conclusion of a ' JSTovena' in honor of the 
 image of our Saviour, to whose miraculous intervention is at- 
 tributed the immunity from serious shocks of earthquake which 
 Salta has latterly enjoyed. The fame of this miraculous image 
 is by no means local, but is spread throughout a large part of 
 South America. It is known as ' Our Saviour of the Miracle,' 
 and is almost as great a local institution and power here as Our 
 Lady of Lourdes is to the faithful of France." 
 
 ScALA Santa in 1723. 
 
 Scala Santa. (It., " Holy Staircase.") A cherished relic 
 preserved in Rome and said to bo the identical staircase in Pilate's 
 
 65 
 
S66 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 house which Christ mounted and descended several times on the 
 morning of the day of his passion, and which was empurpled 
 with his blood when after the flagellation he descended for the 
 last time to take his way to Mount Calvary. 
 
 At the top of the Scala Santa the pilgrim comes face to face 
 with a dark chapel, which none may enter, but which can be 
 looked into through a barred gate. Pope Leo III. deposited 
 herein four large caskets full of saintly relics. The chapel is 
 known as the Sancta Sanctorum (" Holy of Holies"), and an 
 inscription over the gateway reads, " Won est in toto sanctior orbi 
 locus'^ (" There is no holier spot in the whole earth"). 
 
 Scambling Days. The ancient English name for the Mon- 
 days and Saturdays in Lent, when no regular meals were pro- 
 vided, and the members of the great families scambled. In the 
 old household-book of the fifth Earl of Northumberland there is a 
 particular section appointing the order of service for these days, 
 and so regulating the licentious contentions of them. Shake- 
 speare, in his play of " Henry Y." (Act v. Scene 2), makes King 
 Henry say, "If ever thou be'st mine, Kate, I get thee with 
 scambling, and thou must therefore needs prove a good soldier- 
 breeder." 
 
 The word scambling is conjectured to be derived from the 
 Greek <Txa/x/9oc, " oblique," " indirect." 
 
 The scambling and unquiet time. 
 
 {Henry F., Act i. Sc. 1.) 
 
 (Med. jEvi Kalend., vol. ii. p. 350 ; Antiq. Bepert., 1809, vol. iv. 
 pp. 87, 91, 305.) 
 
 Scholastica, St. The sister of the great St. Benedict, near 
 whose monastery at Monte Casino she founded and governed a 
 nunnery. She visited her holy brother once a year, and, inasmuch 
 as she was not allowed to enter his monastery, he went out with 
 some of his monks to meet her at some distance. Once she 
 begged him to stay all night and converse with her. He re- 
 fused. Thereupon she appealed to the Almighty, who sent a 
 storm of thunder and lightning so great that it was impossible 
 for any one to venture out in it. " God forgive you, sister," 
 said Benedict, " w^hat have you done ?" She answered, " I 
 asked of you, a favor, and you refused it to me : I asked it of 
 Almighty God, and he has granted it me." Three days later, 
 February 10 (circa 543), she died. 
 
 At Monte Casino it is claimed that, although the original 
 monastery and the nunnery were both destroyed by the Lom- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 867 
 
 bards in the seventh century, the relics of brother and sister 
 still remain, and they are shown in the new monastery. 
 
 On the other hand, it is asserted that the relics were trans- 
 lated into France and deposited in a rich silver shrine, still 
 extant, in the collegiate church of St. Peter, in Mans. The 
 festival of the translation is kept on July 11 in Mans. 
 
 At Oxford the feast of St. Scholastica, February 10, is mem- 
 orable in collegiate annals as being the anniversary of the most 
 furious of all Town and Gown {q. v.) rows in the year 1355. The 
 townsmen had the best of it, and there is little doubt that they 
 abused their victory unmercifully. Forty scholars are said to 
 have lost their Hves. Some of those taken prisoners are said 
 to have been scalped in mockery of the clerical tonsure. Cruci- 
 fixes and holy vessels were torn from the churches and profaned 
 by a drunken mob. The better part of the citizens were ashamed 
 of the excesses which had been committed, and shocked at the 
 number of the victims. The sheriff of Oxfordshire was dis- 
 missed from his office. An interdict laid upon the city was only 
 removed by the consent of the authorities to an indenture under 
 the university and city seals, by which the mayor, bailiffs, and 
 chief citizens to the number of sixty-two bound themselves to 
 appear annually at mass in St. Mary's Church on the fatal day 
 of St. Scholastica and offer there each a penny, and also to pay 
 a yearly fine of a hundred marks, which latter obligation was 
 subsequently relaxed on condition of the due fulfilment of the 
 former. The citizens always chafed sorely against this ordi- 
 nance, under whatever modification. It came at last to a simple 
 jattendance at the reading of the Litany. But, though thus 
 modified by consent of the university from time to time, it con- 
 tinued actually in force until the present century. In 1800, the 
 hundred marks were sued for and recovered from the Mayor of 
 Oxford for making default. At last, in 1825, the university, at 
 the request of the town council, gracefully consented to waive 
 a ceremony which only served to keep up the memory of an 
 unhappy feud of ages past, and could not but be regarded by 
 the citizens in the light of a humiliation. 
 
 Scoppio del Carro. (It., "Explosion of the Car.") An 
 Easter Eve ceremony peculiar to Florence, Italy. At about 
 eleven o'clock in the morning of Holy Saturday the huge and 
 clumsy vehicle which for centuries has been used at this function 
 is drawn into the Piazza del Duomo by four white oxen gayly 
 decorated with scarlet sashes and bunches of flowers. The 
 body of the carro is festooned with rows of green, red, and 
 white fireworks. After the oxen have been unhitched and led 
 away to a side-street, a wire is attached to the carro, the other 
 
868 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 end beiDg fastened to the high altar of the Duomo. Then a 
 procession of priests files out from the baptistery and crosses 
 over into the Duomo to oflSciate at the services. Just at twelve 
 o'clock an artificial dove, known as the Colombina, dashes along 
 the wire from the altar to the carro, bearing in its beak a spark 
 of fire from the sacred flame which burns there continually. It 
 is a popular superstition that if the dove succeeds in lighting 
 the fuse of the fireworks and returns safely to the altar a good 
 harvest will follow. Hence thousands of peasants crowd into 
 the square and the cathedral on the fateful day. In former 
 times the Colombina occasionally missed the mark, and then the 
 peasantry were so overwhelmed with pessimistic fears that their 
 own lack of energy brought about only too surely the fulfilment 
 of the prophecy. But modern improvements in pyrotechnic 
 mechanism make disappointment practically impossible. With 
 much crackling and sputtering and then with report after re- 
 port, like toy pistols, the red, white, and green fireworks go oflP 
 amid the joyous shouts and cheers of the people. The oxen are 
 brought back and reharnessed, and then the old car lumbers off 
 with a stream of spectators behind it to the Palazzo Pandolfini. 
 Here it is again brought to a halt, and the last row of fireworks 
 is set off according to time-honored custom. For it was a 
 Pandolfini who in the crusading ages brought the sacred flame 
 from Jerusalem to Florence. Legend says that he rode back- 
 ward all the way, to protect it from the possibility of extin- 
 guishing draughts. 
 
 Scramble Feast. The name given by foreigners to a cere- 
 mony that takes place yearly in the Eigpoot town of Ajmeer 
 on the anniversary of the local saint, and in front of his shrine. 
 Two huge caldrons, each containing manj^ thousand pounds 
 of rice and butter, are filled to the brim, and this gigantic mess 
 is then served out broadcast amid the myriads of native beg- 
 gars that always assemble for the occasion, many for want of 
 any other receptacle extending their clasped hands for the scald- 
 ing rice. After this the keepers of the shrine, and the inhab- 
 itants of a favored part of the town who have enjoyed the 
 prescriptive right from time immemorial, swathe themselves in 
 thick shawls as a protection against the heated metal, and, 
 scrambling into the caldrons, scrape them clean. 
 
 What are known as Scrambling Charities or Scrambling Doles 
 (see Dole) are not uncommon in England. The most remark- 
 able is one at St. Briavel's, Gloucestershire. It is thus described 
 in the Gentleman' s Magazine for 1816 : " On Whit Sunday sev- 
 eral baskets full of bread and cheese cut into small squares of 
 an inch each are brought into church ; and immediately after 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 869 
 
 divine service is ended, the churchwardens, or some other per- 
 sons, take them up into the galleries, whence their contents are 
 thrown among the congregation, who have a grand scramble 
 for them in the body of the church. This occasions as great a 
 tumult and uproar as the amusements of tbe village wake, the 
 inhabitants being always extieri\ely anxious to attend worship 
 on this day. The custom is holden for the purpose of preserving 
 to the poor of St. Briavel's and Hewelsfield the right of cutting 
 and carrying away wood from three thousand acres of coppice- 
 land, for which each housekeeper is assessed twopence to buy 
 the bread and cheese which are given away." 
 
 The most recent endowment of the sort seems to be at Wath, 
 near Eotherham, where one Tuke, dying in the year 1810, left, 
 among other strange bequests, forty dozen penny loaves to be 
 thrown from the church leads at twelve o'clock on Christmas 
 Day forever. 
 
 Sebald, St. The legend of this saint describes him as the 
 son of a Danish king, who in the eighth century settled in Eng- 
 land and accompanied St. Boniface on his mission to Germany. 
 Many miracles and conversions are ascribed to him. He is said 
 to have changed stones into bread and water into wine with 
 which to feed his fellow -missionaries. One day he came into a 
 hut where a poor family was perishing with cold, and turned 
 the icicles on the roof to fuel. He lived the greater part of his 
 life near ^N^uremberg. His remains are interred in a magnificent 
 bronze shrine, the work of Peter Visscher and his five sons, 
 which stands in the elegant church dedicated to the saint in 
 that city. The shrine encloses the oaken chest encased with 
 silver plates which contains th^ saint's body. 
 
 Sebastian, St., patron of Chiemsee, Mannheim, Getting, 
 Palma, Eome, Soissons, of makers of military laces, of archers and 
 makers of fencing-foils. His festival is celebrated on January 20. 
 
 St. Sebastian was born at Narbonne, in Gaul, but his parents 
 were natives of Milan, and he was brought up in the latter city. 
 He was secretly a Christian, although he served in the Eoman 
 army. He was placed in command of the first cohort by the 
 Emperors Diocletian and Maximian. He used his power to the 
 utmost for the protection of his fellow-Christians, and converted 
 many of his companions. Two brothers, Marcus and Marcel- 
 lianus, were suspected of being Christians and were put to the 
 torture. They were expecting execution in prison, and their 
 relatives and friends, who were admitted to sec them, implored 
 them to save their lives by denying the Christian faith. Sebas- 
 tian heard of this, and immediately went to the prison, when ho 
 
870 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 not oDly succeeded in holding the two young men true to their 
 faith, but converted the relatives and friends. St. Sebastian was 
 finally denounced as a Christian, and was ordered by Diocletian 
 to be shot to death with arrows. He was taken to a field and 
 pierced with many arrows by archers and left for dead. But a 
 devout widow named Irene, who came to bury the bod}^, found 
 that he still lived, and took him to her home, where she tended 
 him until he recovered. Sebastian determined to confront Dio- 
 cletian, and one day, hearing the trumpet notes which told of 
 the Emperor's approach, he went out and addressed Diocletian, 
 pleading for the persecuted Christians and rebuking him for his 
 sins. The Emperor was amazed at the sight of Sebastian, 
 whom he thought dead, and was enraged at his words. He 
 caused the saint to be beaten to death with clubs, and his 
 body to be thrown into a sewer, whence it was rescued by a 
 Christian woman named Lucina, who buried it in the Cata- 
 combs. From his connection with arrows, St. Sebastian came 
 to be regarded as the especial patron saint against pestilence, 
 which is symbolized by arrows. There is a tablet in San Pietro 
 in Yincoli in Home recording a notable instance of the deliver- 
 ance by St. Sebastian of that city from the plague. 
 
 The relics of the saint were translated to Soissons, in France, 
 in 826, and are scattered in various places, some at Soissons, the 
 head at Ebernach, in Luxemburg, and other portions at Mantua, 
 Malaga, Seville, Toulouse, Munich, Paris, Tournay, Antwerp, and 
 Brussels. 
 
 In art the saint can always be recognized as a young man 
 transfixed with arrows. 
 
 Martyrdom of St. Secundus. 
 
 Secundus, St., patron of Asti, in which Italian city he was 
 martyred on March 30, 119, by having his head cut off. The 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 871 
 
 anniversary of his death is celebrated there with much pomp. 
 His relics are preserved in the church dedicated to him. 
 
 Sementivae, Ferise. ("Feast of Sowing.") iln ancient 
 Eoman festival celebrated in January. 
 
 The Feriae Sementivae was a movable feast, and was held on 
 two days in January a week apart. This was the first of the 
 long series of agricultural festivals, the number and antiquity 
 of which are the best proofs that Eome was at first a commu- 
 nity of peasants. Sacrifices were made to Tellus, the earth, and 
 Ceres, goddess of agriculture ; and all the minor deities who 
 presided over the several operations of tillage were invoked to 
 be propitious : Yervactor, the god of breaking up fallow land ; 
 Eeparator, of renewing its powers ; Obarator, of ploughing ; Oc- 
 cator, of harrowing ; Imporcitor, of drawing furrows ; Insitor, 
 of grafting; Sarritor, of hoeing; Subruncinator, of weeding; 
 Messor, of harvesting; Convector, of gathering in ; Conditor, 
 of storing up ; Promitor, of bringing out for use. So minute 
 were the Eomans in their religious observances ; and, for fear 
 that any divine power had been overlooked, they were wont to 
 add in their prayers, sive deo, sive dece (" any unknown god, male 
 or female") ; but always Janus was called upon first. On the 
 same day with the Sementivae the Paganalia were celebrated in 
 the country, — the feast of the townships, — pagi, — when the 
 seed was all in the ground, the plough was laid away until 
 spring, and the cattle rested in the stall. 
 
 Separation of the Waters. (Fr. La Separation des Baux.) 
 A festival celebrated annually at Avignon in honor of a miracle 
 that occurred there November^O, 1433, during a general inunda- 
 tion of the valley from the overflow of the Ehone, the Durance, 
 and the Sorgue. The water had risen to so great a height around 
 the church of the Gray Penitents at Avignon that the brethren, 
 fearing it might reach the niche containing the eucharist, went 
 thither in a boat, but found the waters parted, leaving a dry 
 passage to the altar, as between two crystal walls. This was 
 attested by twelve Penitents, three doctors of theology, and 
 many lay persons. Cardinal Fieschi witnessed it, and Theophile 
 Eaynaud speaks of it as a well-known fact. This occurrence has 
 been celebrated in several hymns in the Latin and Provencal 
 tongues, and in a famous epigram : 
 
 Suspendit Jordanis aqua cum permeat Area ; 
 
 Ad te, Christe, viarn pensilis unda dedit ; 
 Quae quondam Domini cognoverat unda vol unibram, 
 
 Non nosset Dominum quern videt ilia suum ? 
 
872 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 ("The water of Jordan parts while the Ark passes through. To you, O 
 Christ, the overhanging wave yields a way. That element which once had 
 recognized the mere symbol of the Lord, would it not know him when it saw 
 him in person ?") 
 
 Besides the anniversary a jubilee celebration takes place every 
 twenty-five years to commemorate both the Separation of the 
 Waters and the historic procession instituted by Louis YIII. 
 (See Cross, Exaltation of the.) The last of these occurred in 
 1876. " All the Gray Penitents in the south of France take part. 
 The procession begins at the church of the Holy Cross. There 
 are six or seven hundred Cray Penitents alone, some v^ith great 
 golden batons curiously wrought, some with tall girandoles, the 
 branches set with burning tapers, and others with torches of all 
 sizes, from one pound in weight up to fifty, and adorned with 
 silver shields covered with religious devices. Mingled with them 
 are bands of musicians, with trumpets, viols, rural pipes, or 
 strange instruments like the Set Gau, — the Seven Joys,-^-used in 
 many country churches of Provence, consisting of a wheel with 
 seven bells that gayly ring out every note of the gamut : 
 
 Et les Sept Joies au timbre clair 
 Carillonnaient joyeusement. 
 
 (Mistral.) 
 
 There are white-winged choristers w^ith clear, flute-like voices ; 
 white-robed priests chanting some angelic hymn, like the ' Sacris 
 Solemniis,' or, clad in silvery copes, bearing the rich Gremium, 
 or carrying feretories, and coffers, and golden busts, and silver 
 hands and arms, containing relics of the blessed saints, or beauti- 
 ful statues of Our Lady and the saints popular at Avignon, such 
 as St. Agricol, invoked in every public calamity, and St. Martha, 
 dear to every housewife. There are dignitaries with silver 
 maces, magistrates en grande tenue, Swiss guards with halberds 
 on their shoulders, and companies of foot-soldiers and cavalry 
 with stirring martial music. Bands of children are scattering 
 flowers, — the golden gorse, the sweet roses of Provence, roses 
 first brought from the East by the Crusaders, leaves of the 
 fennel, the ferigoulo, and other aromatic j^lants that grow pro- 
 fusely on every cliff of this region. The ways are carpeted with 
 them and embowered with arches of verdure. There are lamps 
 at every Madonna shrine at the corners or before the houses. 
 The narrow, sunless streets are hung with tapestries and gay 
 cloths and floating banners, and aflame with long lines of tapers, 
 borne by the procession, looking like the aisles of some vast 
 cathedral. The bells of the Yille Sonnante are in full peal. 
 " In the midst of all this grandeur appears the divine host — O 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 873 
 
 Salutaris Hostia ! — borne by priests in spotless robes, with a look 
 of awe on their faces, attended by a band of levites, some swing- 
 ing smoking censers, others witii baskets of flowers they are 
 scatteriu*i; in ihe air. Around blaze huge torches of four wicks, 
 bearing silver shields, on which, in repousse work, is a glittering 
 cross, the sun-like emblem of the Blessed Sacrament, or the 
 watchword of the Penitents, — Gloria, Laus et Honor ! 
 
 " Here and there on the way are reposoirs as beautiful as 
 flowers and lights can make them; everywhere the church doors 
 are open, the convent gates wide spread, with monks kneeling 
 at the entrance, — monks now banished from their peaceful homes, 
 — or abbesses at the head of their nuns, or pious confraternities, 
 to hail the coming of the Lord. There are looks and attitudes 
 of devotion on every side. At every hand there is a fresh salute, 
 a new outburst of music, more clouds of incense, a fresh rain of 
 flowers, a more joyous frenzy of bells. 
 
 " At length the procession winds up to the Eocher des Doms. 
 It ascends the sacred escalier du Fater to the cathedral, which is 
 once more to be divinely blessed. There in the broad portal 
 stands the venerable archbishop, attended by the canons in their 
 robes. The prelate lays aside his mitre and crosier at the appear- 
 ance of the host. He raises it on high. The whole city, in move- 
 ment an instant before, is now silent and prostrate. A thousand 
 lights blaze on the heights of the Doms. The ' Pange, lingua' is 
 sung by thousands of voices. There is a display of fireworks, 
 and a salute of cannon from the ramparts, as, from the verge of 
 this lofty terrace overlooking Avignon, the divine benediction is 
 solemnly given to the kneeling crowd." (Catholic World, July, 
 1886.) 
 
 September. The name comes from the Latin septimus, 
 "seventh," because under the ten-month calendar, and after- 
 w^ards under the reckoning which made March the beginning of 
 the year, September was the seventh month. After July and 
 August (originally Quintilis, " fifth./' and Sextilis, " sixth") had 
 been so named in honor of Julius Caesar and Augustus, several 
 Eoman Emperors sought to give their names to September, but 
 in this case the innovation did not survive. Julius Caesar gave 
 September thirty-one days in his revision of the calendar, but 
 it was subsequently reduced to thirty days by Augustus, who 
 changed the length of all the months after August in order to 
 give his titular month the same length as July. 
 
 The Saxons called September Gerstmonath, or Barley-Month, 
 this crop, from which their favoriie beverage was brewed, being 
 then gathered. It is still called Herbstmonat, or Harvest Month, 
 in Switzerland. The harvest-moon comes in this month, being 
 
874 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 the full moon nearest the autumnal equinox. For several even- 
 ings the moon rises near sunset, thus enabling the harvesters to 
 
 September. Hunting— Pasturing Swine. 
 
 extend their day's work, — a phenomenon less noticed in the 
 United States than in England and Northern Europe. The 
 autumnal equinox occurs about September 24. 
 
 September, Sixteenth of. This is the Independence Day 
 of Mexico, when every city, town, and village puts on its gayest 
 attire and gives itself up to merriment. Not w^ith the boom of 
 cannon or the crackling of fire-crackers is the da}^ ushered in, 
 but with the music of military bands stationed in the "portales" 
 or the plaza. Cock-fights and bull-fights fill up the daytime. In 
 the evening the plaza, gayly decorated with bunting and lan- 
 terns, becomes the general meeting-ground. The band is sta- 
 tioned under the canopy of a kiosk in the centre, around which 
 circles a constant stream of humanity. Women walk in one 
 direction, and men in the other. 
 
 Hidalgo, the Washington of Mexico, only proclaimed inde- 
 pendence : unlike his prototype, he did not achieve it. It was on 
 Saturday night, September 15, 1810, that this patriotic Mexican 
 priest with a few chosen followers liberated a few prisoners in 
 Dolores and armed them. The next morning from his pulpit he 
 declared the independence of Mexico, and made a passionate 
 appeal to his parishioners to follow his leadership and fight to free 
 the country from the hated Spaniard. This was Sunday, Sep- 
 tember 16. 
 
 A new Yiceroy — Don Francisco Xaver Yenegas — had just 
 takeh up the reins of government in Mexico when this movement 
 occurred. The imperial troops were sent against the priest, and 
 were completely routed at Monte de las Cruces, near the city of 
 Mexico. Hidalgo, instead of immediately pressing forward into 
 the city with his victorious patriots, withdrew to the city of Que- 
 retaro. A new force of Spanish troops was massed in the mean 
 time, and the independents were disastrously routed at Aculco. 
 But one more stand was made by Hidalgo at Puente de Calderon, 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 876 
 
 near Guadalajara, and, again meeting defeat, the patriots fled 
 towards the northern frontier. 
 
 At Las Norias de Bajan, near the Eio Grande, they were cap- 
 tured, and Hidalgo, Ailende, Aldama, and Jimenez, the four 
 leaders, were shot in the city of Chihuahua, on June 26, 1811. 
 Thus ended the first effort made by Mexico for freedom. But 
 the cause lived. The Mexicans were aroused. The country was 
 but a sleeping volcano. Spain knew it well, but still continued 
 the system of misgovernment, which had but the one result, — 
 independence. The heads of the patriots were exposed for days 
 on poles at Guanajuato. In later years they were buried with 
 great pomp in the cathedral at the city of Mexico. 
 
 September, T'wentieth of. The anniversary of the final 
 union of Italy under Victor Emmanuel through the downfall of 
 the temporal power of the Papacy. The Papacy virtually fell 
 with the second Napoleonic Empire. For many years the bayo- 
 i^ets of France had alone upheld it against the wishes of the 
 majority of Italians. With his first reverses in the Franco-Prus- 
 sian war Napoleon III. saw that he would need all his available 
 forces to oppose the formidable foe into which Prussia had de- 
 veloped. Only a remnant of Zouaves were left in Eome. the 
 larger part of the French forces being withdrawn from Civita 
 Yecchia shortly after the outbreak of the war, Yiclor Emman- 
 uel was not slow to seize the opportunity thus presented. He 
 acted immediately on receiving news of the great French defeat 
 at Gravelotte. But his first appeal was to diplomacy and not to 
 force. A revolution was imminent in Eome itself The Italian 
 king notified the Pope that the duty of maintaining order in the 
 peninsula and the security of the Holy See had devolved upon 
 himself, and that in the despatch of this duty his army must 
 enter the Pontifical States. He begged the Pope to yield to the 
 will of the people and accept a guarantee of his income and of 
 his own personal independence. To these demands the Pope re- 
 turned a spirited refusal. Thereupon the Sardinian troops crossed 
 the frontier. They were met everywhere with enthusiasm by 
 the Pope's own subjects. 
 
 On September 20, 1870, they arrived before the walls of Eome. 
 General Cadorna summoned the garrison to surrender. Only a 
 feint of resistance was made. Hardly had the invaders opened 
 a bombardment when the white flag of surrender was displayed 
 upon the ramparts. Next day the Zouaves, nine thousand in 
 number, were massed in the square of St. Peter's to receive the 
 Papal blessing, and after the conclusion of the ceremony marched 
 out of Eome. With their departure the temporal power of the 
 Pope ceased to exist. 
 
876 cvniosiTms of 
 
 On October 2 a plebiscite was held. The numbers are signifi- 
 cant : for the King, 40,788 ; for the Pope, 46. But though the 
 work was thus accomplished in the autumn of 1870 it was not 
 until January 2, 1871, that the king made his triumphant march 
 into the new capital of united Italy. 
 
 The 20th of September is one of the great secular holidays 
 of Italy, observed with especial ceremony. But many Catholics 
 keep it as a day of fasting and humiliation. 
 
 Septuagesima. The third Sunday before Lent. (See Quin- 
 QUAGEsiMA.) It was formerly distinguished in England by a 
 strange ceremony denominated the Funeral of Alleluia. On the 
 Saturday of Septuagesima, at nones, the choristers assembled in 
 the great vestiary of the cathedral, and there arranged the 
 ceremony. Having finished the last benedicamus, they advanced 
 with crosses, torches, holy water, and incense, carrying a turf 
 in the manner of a coflSn, passed through the choir, and went 
 howling to the cloister as far as the place of interment ; and 
 then, having sprinkled the water and censed the place, they re- 
 turned by the same road. (Fosbroke : British Monachism, 1843, 
 p. 56.) 
 
 Sepulchre, Church of the Holy. This most sacred of all 
 the holy places in the world, "in comparison of which," as Dean 
 Stanley says, " all the rest sink into insignificance if it is genuine, 
 the interest of which even if not genuine stands absolutely alone 
 in the world," stands in the northwestern part of Jerusalem and 
 encloses within its walls the site of Calvary as well as the tomb 
 of Christ, these holy spots being only about sixty feet distant 
 from each other. According to tradition, the Eomans under 
 Hadrian, with the deliberate intention of insulting the Christian 
 religion, filled the Holy Sepulchre with earth and built an idola- 
 trous temple on the spot. This was in 137. Two centuries later 
 Constantine, after the Council of Nice, determined to rescue from 
 profanation the places consecrated by the life and death of Christ. 
 The Holy Sepulchre was his first care. He directed that a mag- 
 nificent church should be built over it in honor of our Lord's 
 Resurrection. This was consecrated in 335. (See Cross, Inven- 
 tion OF THE.) The church maintained its grandeur until the 
 beginning of the seventh century. Then began a series of 
 vicissitudes which culminated in 1187, when the church, after 
 captures and recaptures, passed definitively into the hands of 
 the Saracens under the Sultan Saladin. It is now part of the 
 possessions of his successor the Sultan of Turkey. 
 
 Though the earlier part of the tradition has been assailed, 
 there is no possible doubt that since the time of Constantine the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 877 
 
 church of the Holy Sepulchre has been revered by the larger 
 part of the Christian world " as the scene of the greatest events 
 in the world's history, and has itself in time become for that 
 reason the centre of a cycle of events of incomparably less 
 magnitude, indeed, but yet of an interest in the highest degree 
 romantic." (Dean Stanley : Sinai and Palestine.) 
 
 The Turkish government suffers the presence of Christians 
 within the sacred edifice, both as spectators and as resident 
 guardians. 
 
 The central body of the church, answering to the nave, as the 
 rotunda, which contains the Holy Sepulchre, answers to choir 
 and apse, is the Greek chapel, and the most magnificent in the 
 building. The portion of the church set apart to the Latins, 
 opening also out of the rotunda, is merely a small chapel. The 
 Armenians have still more contracted accommodations, and the 
 poor Copts and Syrians enjoy but a closet apiece. 
 
 Each of the rival sects, under regulations imposed by the 
 Turks to preserve peace and order, has access to the various 
 Holy Places and other objects of general reverence. There are 
 in all thirty-seven of these. The most important are the follow- 
 ing: 
 
 The Stone of Unction, a rectangular mass of rose-colored 
 marble about eight feet long and four feet wide, whereon tradition 
 asserts that the body of Christ was laid when it was anointed 
 for burial. 
 
 The tombs of IN'icodemus and of Joseph of Arimathea. 
 
 The spots where the Virgin stood at the crucifixion and at the 
 anointment of the body respectively. 
 
 The spots at which Christ appeared respectively to Mary 
 Magdalene and to the Virgin Mar3\ 
 
 A fragment of the column of flagellation. 
 
 The tomb of Melchizedek. 
 > The chair in which Helena sat when the cross was found. The 
 spots marking the successive stages in the Invention or finding 
 of the cross are duly tabulated. 
 
 The tomb of Adam. 
 
 Various spots where Christ stood at different stages of the 
 passion. 
 
 The tomb of Christ, or Holy Sepulchre. This, the most im- 
 portant of all Christian relics, is in the centre of the rotunda. 
 It is a marble structure, about thirty feet high, twenty-five feet 
 long, and seventeen feet wide. It is more like a chapel than a 
 tomb. Candles cover the front and sides. Curious brass lamps 
 with glass globes of different colors hang like a frieze around its 
 alabaster top, and between these are oil-paintings with scriptural 
 scenes upon them. In its front, in gold pillars as high as a man, 
 
878 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 are columDS of painted wax, each six inches thick and twelve 
 feet long, and at the top of each of these a flame trembles. 
 
 A low door admits you to a vestibule. In its centre stands a 
 column three feet high supporting a piece of the stone that was 
 rolled from the door of Christ's tomb. From the vestibule you 
 pass into the tomb itself The room is so small that it will hold 
 only four persons. It is dimly lighted with candles, and a Greek 
 priest in cap and gown is always on guard. At the right of the 
 room, set into the wall, there is a marble slab of the purest white, 
 which rests upon another slab about four feet high, forming a 
 box or ledge, which fills one side of the room. This is the box 
 wherein Christ's body is said to have lain. 
 
 The daily religious functions and ceremonies are of a unique 
 character, combining the splendors of both the Eastern and 
 Western Churches. The sacred liturgy is celebrated daily at 
 midnight by the three recognized communities, the Greeks 
 officiating first. The Greeks have preserved the old Oriental 
 liturgical chant, which is similar to that of the Eastern nations. 
 They make no use of the organ for accompaniment, as the 
 instrument cannot well be adapted to the strange modulations 
 of their voices. About one o'clock they begin their mass, and 
 this ceremony varies in length and solemnity according to the 
 feasts. The patriarch and the bishops wear gorgeous vestments, 
 and on these occasions use crowns instead of mitres. 
 
 The Armenians celebrate after the Greeks. Their liturgy is 
 more grave, the chant being uneven and mournful, and being 
 accompanied by the sound of little bells attached to disks which 
 are carried on long stems by acolytes. Church-bells are not in 
 favor with them. They use instead, as in early times, a wooden 
 or metallic plank, upon which they strike with hammers. The 
 noise thus created is deafening and disagreeable. 
 
 With the Latins da}^ begins at midnight, when the Franciscans 
 repair to the choir to say the matins, which last until about half- 
 past one. After this they take a short rest and then say their 
 masses. The greater part of the day is occupied by various 
 offices and meditations. Their spare time is devoted to the 
 spiritual wants of the pilgrims, to study, or to literary work. 
 The meals are sent from the convent of St. Saviour, which is 
 about five minutes' walk from the Holy Sepulchre. When the 
 basilica is closed the food is passed in through an aperture in the 
 main door. 
 
 The influx of pilgrims and tourists to Jerusalem increases 
 with every year. The French have organized an annual pil- 
 grimage, which generally takes place about Pentecost, and have 
 built a special pilgrim-house called Notre-Dame de France. The 
 pilgrims, as a rule, remain about two weeks. The Germans and 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 879 
 
 Austrians have also their pilgrim-houses in the Holy City. The 
 Austrian house is situated on the Yia Dolorosa, and has been 
 honored by the presence of the Emperor, his unfortunate son 
 Eudolpb, and other members of the imperial family. Spain 
 organizes an occasional pilgrimage, and so does Italy. The first 
 English Catholic pilgrimage took place in 1890, when, for the 
 first time since the Crusades, the halls of the basilica resounded 
 with English hymns. It was headed by the Duke of Norfolk 
 and the late Bishop Clifford. America had its pilgrimage in 
 1889. It was headed by the Yery Eeverend Charles A. Yissani, 
 and numbered about one hundred persons. A beautiful silk 
 banner from the United States was deposited at the Holy Sepul- 
 chre and is displayed there on great festivals. 
 
 Eussia sends the greatest contingent of pilgrims to the Holy 
 Land. During Lent all the streets are crowded with them. 
 They lead a verj- frugal life, and visit all the holy places on foot, 
 often walking for days at a time. Many of them never see their 
 homes again, but find a resting-place in Palestine. Nearly all 
 of them buy their shrouds in Jerusalem, which they rub over 
 the stone of unction for sanctification. They generally leave on 
 the Holy Saturday of the Greeks, immediately after witnessing 
 the ceremony of the Holy Fire. 
 
 Both the movable and the immovable festivals of the Greeks, 
 Armenians, etc., being founded on the old calendar, differ in 
 date from those of the Latins, — a lucky circumstance, because, 
 even as it is, the struggles between the rival sects to obtain 
 precedence at the great ceremonies of the year sometimes lead 
 to disgraceful and even bloody scenes. 
 
 The ceremony of the Holy Fire, therefore, which takes place 
 on the Greek Holy Saturdayj-and which is the most remark- 
 able ceremonial performed within the church, is not participated 
 in by the Latins. They have not taken part in it for three 
 centuries, and the Pope protests against it. The Greeks claim 
 that it has been celebrated ever since the time of the apostles. 
 They hold it to be an annually recurrent miracle. The fire, they 
 maintain, comes down from heaven. This occurs precisely at 
 two o'clock in the afternoon of Holy Saturday in the tomb of 
 the Holy Sepulchre. 
 
 On the previous night hundreds of pilgrims sleep in the 
 different chapels and in the rotunda, in order to hold good places 
 for the morrow. In the morning all the lights in the church are 
 put out. Every one has a bunch of unlighted candles in his 
 hand. Shortly after one the ceremonies begin. The Greek 
 patriarch and his bishops in gorgeous dresses march three times 
 round the sepulchre behind a flag and a cross. They pray God 
 to send down the fire. There arc chanting and crossing, and then 
 
880 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 the Copts follow their Ethiopian patriarch, gorgeous in his gold 
 cap and gown. 
 
 " Now there is silence. The Greek patriarch has entered 
 the sepulchre, and every one is waiting for the fire. There is 
 nothing to prevent the holy man from lighting it with a surrep- 
 titious lucifer match. But to suspect this would be blasphemy. 
 
 Distributing the Holy Fire. 
 
 "There are holes in the sepulchre through which suddenly 
 the crowd sees a faint light shining out. There is a mighty 
 shout. The Turkish soldiers struggle to keep the crowd back. 
 Men with whips run this way and that, making roads through 
 the mass, which the soldiers try to keep clear. The priests 
 stand at the holes in the walls, and great bunches of candles are 
 passed in. They are handed out lighted, and fleet-footed run- 
 ners seize them and run to the various chapels. The Copt 
 chapel, at the back of the sepulchre, blazes with lights, and in 
 less time than it takes me to write this sentence, the whole of 
 the mass below me is a blaze of fire. Every man, woman, 
 and child has his or her candle lighted, and the lights are hauled 
 up by strings from one gallery to the other. Fleet-footed mes- 
 sengers, emerging from the church, carry the holy fire all over 
 Palestine, to Bethlehem and to Nazareth, to the Sea of Galilee, 
 and to the diiferent parts of the earth from which the pilgrims 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 881 
 
 come. The interest in this ceremony is as great as that which 
 surrounds the Passion Play of Oberammergau." (Frank Car- 
 penter : faster in Jerusalem, in the Cosmopolitan Magazine.) 
 
 Setsubun. A movable Japanese festival celebrated at the 
 beginning of the natural year, when winter first softens into 
 spring. On this day occurs the ceremony of Oni-yarai, or cast- 
 ing out of devils. The exorcist wandering through the streets 
 crying, " Devils out ! Good fortune in !" is eagerly welcomed 
 into native houses to perform his feat, which consists in the 
 recitation of certain prayers and the rattling of a wand called a 
 shakujo. Then dried peas are thrown about the house in four 
 directions. Japanese devils have a loathing for dried peas such 
 as Satan in Europe is fabled to cherish for holy water. The 
 peas, having accomplished their function of expelling the devils, 
 are swept up and carefully preserved until the first clap of 
 spring thunder is heard, when it is the custom to cook and eat 
 some of them. 
 
 In order to prevent the devils from returning, a small piece 
 of stick perforating a leaf of holly and crowned with a fish's 
 head is affixed to every doorway. No one appears to know the 
 origin of these superstitions, and they are now merely accepted 
 as giving occasion for merrymaking. 
 
 Shakespeare Celebrations. William Shakespeare was born 
 on April 23, 1564, and died on his birthday in 1616. But the 
 first Shakespeare Jubilee so called was held in a year and at 
 a season not associated in any way with those dates. In 1769, 
 the erection of a new town-hall at Stratford- on- Avon, and the 
 presentation to David Garrick of the freedom of the borough, en- 
 closed in a box made from the wood of Shakespeare's mulberry- 
 tree, suggested a further holiday to the townsmen in association 
 with their great poet. A temporary amphitheatre was con- 
 structed ; cannon, fireworks, and illumination lamps were sent 
 down from London ; Birmingham produced a " Shakespeare 
 medal," and Coventry a " Shakespeare ribbon." On the 6th of 
 September serenaders awakened the townsmen and visitors at an 
 early hour in the morning ; a public breakfast took place at nine 
 o'clock, with Garrick officiating as one of the stewards ; the cor- 
 poration and principal visitors went to hear Arne's oratorio of 
 "Judith" performed in the parish church ; all went then in pro- 
 cession, headed by choralists and instrumentalists, to the amphi- 
 theatre, purposely taking a route by the front of Shakespeare's 
 house ; and at three o'clock a grand banquet was given. Allow- 
 ing themselves a few hours' rest after so much hard sight-seeing, 
 the guests reassembled in the amphitheatre, where a ball was 
 
 56 
 
882 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 held ; while the humbler folk were amused with illuminations 
 and fireworks out of doors. Thus ended the first day. On the 
 second day, a downpour of rain checked a grand out-door die- 
 play, and therefore the amusements were confined chiefly to a 
 public breakfast, recitations and musical accompaniments, a pub- 
 lic banquet, a dinner, a concert, and a masquerade. The third 
 day was as unpropitious as the second ; heavy rain spoiled all the 
 plan for a grand theatrical procession and pageant through the 
 town, in which a hundred actors and actresses trom London were 
 to take part, dressed for various characters in Shakespeare's 
 plays. 
 
 Pageants and festivals in years really associated with the anni- 
 versaries of Shakespeare's birth and death have not been numer- 
 ous. One was held by the Shakespeare Club at Stratford-on- 
 Avon on the birthday of the poet in 1827, and the two following 
 days, during which a pageant, something like that devised by 
 Garrick fifty-eight years before, was performed. 
 
 So much money was realized from the visits of the twenty 
 thousand strangers that local speculators got up a similar affair 
 in 1830, — very gay, but very unpoetical. Minor rejoicings were 
 held at Stratford in 1836 and later years, but in 1864 an attempt 
 was made to celebrate the real tricentenary of Shakespeare's 
 birth. Stratford-on-Avon had many days' rejoicing, and in Lon- 
 don there was a little ceremonial at the Agricultural Hall, a little 
 at the Crystal Palace, and the planting of a Shakespeare Oak on 
 Primrose Hill. 
 
 Shebuoth. (Heb., '-Feast of Weeks.") One of the three 
 great festivals of the Jewish ecclesiastical year. It was the 
 lieast of the ingathered harvest (hence sometimes known as Chag 
 Haggatsir, or Feast of Harvest), but the later Jews have given 
 it a deeper significance as the anniversary of the proclamation 
 of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. It is kept on the 
 sixth and seventh days of the third month, Sivan, the former 
 being the fiftieth day after the beginning of the Passover. 
 Hence the Greek name TrevnyzofTr^y, or pentecost, " the fiftieth," 
 under which it is mentioned in the New Testament. (See Whit- 
 sunday.) The title Feast of Weeks indicates that it marks the 
 completion of seven weeks, counting from the second day of 
 Passover, when the Jews of Palestine presented their omer of 
 newly reaped barley in the temple. As the second day of Pass- 
 over was the celebration over the barley crop, so Shebuoth is 
 the rejoicing over the wheat, the first ears of which were then 
 offered up in the temple. But as among the Western nations 
 the holiday does not occur during the wheat harvest, but 
 when the flowers are in full bloom, it is made a sort of floral 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 883 
 
 festival, the synagogues being decorated with flowers and shrubs. 
 Strict Jews sit up on the first night to read the law and the 
 prophets. 
 
 Among the Eeformed Jews this is the chosen day for the 
 confirmation of youth, when boys and girls over the age of thir- 
 teen are submitted to a public catechising, and if deemed suffi- 
 ciently instructed are solemnly admitted to church membership. 
 Emerging from the underlying school, they march up the aisles 
 of the synagogue to the platform occupied by the rabbi, make 
 avowal of their belief, and pledge themselves to live in accord- 
 ance with their faith. The rabbi then throws open the doors of 
 the ark behind the pulpit, revealing the sacred scrolls, and be- 
 tween him and the ark pass long strings of catechumens. On 
 each head in succession his hand rests in blessing. Then they 
 slowly wend their way to the family pews. The ceremony is 
 not approved of by orthodox Jews. 
 
 Sheelah's Day. The Irish celebrate the 18th of March, the 
 daj^ after St. Patrick's, under this name. Who Sheelah was is 
 uncertain. Some assert that she was Patrick's wife, others 
 that she was Patrick's mother, but "all agree," says Hone, "that 
 her immortal memory is to be maintained by potations of 
 whiske}^. The shamrock worn on St. Patrick's Day should be 
 worn also on Sheelah's Day, and on the latter night be drowned 
 in the last glass. Yet it frequently happens that the shamrock 
 is flooded in the last glass of St. Patrick's Day, and another last 
 glass or two, or more, on the same night deluges the over-sod- 
 den trefoil. This is not ' quite correct,' but it is endeavored to 
 be remedied the next morning ,by the display of a fresh sham- 
 rock, which is steeped at night in honor of ' Sheelah' with equal 
 devotedness." (Every Day Book, vol. ii. p. 387.) 
 
 Shorne, Master John. A famous personage of the thir- 
 teenth century, who was rector of North Marston and achieved 
 so great a reputation for sanctity as to overshadow in the popu- 
 lar mind many duly canonized saints. It is reported of him 
 that he conjured the devil into his boot and kept him there, 
 allowing him to emerge only at intervals as a sort of diabolical 
 jack-in-the-box. At death Master Shorne's body was enclosed 
 in a shrine which became a favorite object of pilgrimage until 
 the Eeformation. His claims seem to have been endorsed by 
 the local clergy, for Fox tells us in his Martyrology that re- 
 pentant heretics were sometimes compelled to make pilgrim- 
 ages " some to the Eood at Wendover, some to Sir John Schorn." 
 A Protestant ballad has these lines : 
 
884 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 To Maister John Schorn, that blessed man born, 
 
 For the ague to him we apply, 
 Which jugeleth with a boot, I beshrew his herte-rote 
 
 That will trust him, an it be I. 
 
 Near North Marston Church there is still extant a well, known 
 as Master John Shorne's well, whose waters were in Catholic 
 times believed to have great curative powers over the ague and 
 kindred diseases. Its reputation is now entirely gone. The 
 body and the shrine of John Shorne were destroyed at the Eefor- 
 mation, but there is preserved an ancient screen in the church 
 of Grateley in Norfolk, bearing a representation of the pseudo- 
 saint with Satan peeping out of the top of a boot in his left 
 hand. 
 
 Shrove Tuesday, known in Scotland as Fastens-Een. 
 
 (Fr. Mardi-Gras.) The Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, hence 
 the last day previous to Lent, and in Catholic Europe the con- 
 cluding and culminating day of the Carnival festivities. In 
 England it was a chosen holiday for the apprentices and working 
 classes generally. Yet the very title Shrove Tuesday indicates 
 a penitential date when it was the custom of the faithful to 
 apply to the priest to shrive or absolve them in the confessional 
 before entering on the holy Lenten season of fasting and prayer. 
 That none might plead forgetfulness of this duty, the great bell 
 was rung at an early hour in every parish, and in after-times 
 this ringing was still kept up in some places, though the cause 
 of it ceased with the Eeformation, when it became merged into 
 the Pancake Bell. After confession the people were allowed to 
 indulge in merrymaking, which in the later days of Catholicism 
 and the earlier ones of Protestantism degenerated into unbounded 
 license. 
 
 The association of pancakes with Shrovetide is an ancient 
 one. The most plausible explanation is that offered by a Catho- 
 lic ecclesiastic in Notes and Queries^ Eighth Series, vol. i. : " When 
 Lent was kept by a strict abstinence from meat all through the 
 forty days, it was customary to use up all the dripping and lard 
 in the making of pancakes. To consume all, it was usual to call 
 in the apprentice-boys and others about the house, and they were 
 summoned by a bell, which was naturally called pancake bell." 
 Eventually the functions of the pancake-bell and of the shriving- 
 bell were combined, and, as the pancake-bell, the church signal 
 survived the Eeformation. 
 
 John Taylor the Water Poet in his " Jack-a-Lent" {Works, 
 1630, vol. i. p. 115) attacks this and other Shrovetide customs 
 extant in his day with great vigor: 
 
 " Always before Lent there comes waddling a fat, grosse 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 885 
 
 groome, called Shrove Tuesday^ one whose manners show he is 
 better fed than taught, and indeed he is the only monster for 
 feeding amongst all the dayes of the yeere, for he devoures more 
 flesh in fourteene houres than this old kingdom doth (or at least 
 
 Shbove Tuesday preparing to do battle with Lent. 
 
 should doe) in sixe weekes after. Such boyling and broyling, 
 such roasting and toasting, such stewing and brewing, such bak- 
 ing, frying, mincing, cutting, carving, devouring, and gorbellied 
 gurmondizing, that a man would thinke people did take in two 
 months' provision at once. Moreover it is a goodly sight to see 
 how the cookes in great men's kitchins doe frye in their master's 
 suet, that if ever a cooke be worth the eating, it is when Shrove 
 Tuesday is in towne, for he is so stued and larded, basted, and 
 almost over-roasted, that a man may eate every bit of him and 
 never take a surfet. In a word, they are that day extreme 
 cholcrike, and too hot for any man to meddle with, being mon- 
 archs of the marrow-bones, marquesses of the mutton, lords high 
 regents of the spit and kettle, barons of the gridiron, and sole 
 commanders of the frying-pan. And all this hurly-burly is for 
 no other purpose than to stop the mouth of the land-wheale, 
 Shrove- Tuesday^ at whose entrance in the morning all the whole 
 kingdom e is in quiet, but by the time the clocke strikes eleven — 
 which, by the help of a knavish sexton, is commonly before nine, 
 — then there is a bell rung called the Pancake-Bell^ the sound 
 whereof makes thousands of people distracted and forgetful 
 either of manners or humanitie. Then there is a thing cal'd 
 
886 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 wbeat'n flowre, which the sulphory, necromanticke cookes doe 
 mingle with water, eggs, spice, and other tragicall, magical! in- 
 chantments, and then they put it little by little into a frying-pan 
 of boyling suet, where it makes a confused dismal hissing — like 
 the Lernean snakes in the reeds of Acheron, Stix, or Phlegeton 
 — until at last by the skill of the cooke it is transformed into the 
 forme of a flap-jack^ which in our translation is call'd a pancake^ 
 which ominous incantation the ignorant people doe devoure very 
 greedily— having for the most part well dined before — but they 
 have no sooner swallowed that sweet candied baite, but straight 
 their wits forsake them, and they runne starke mad, assembling 
 in routs and throngs numberlesse of ungovernable numbers, with 
 uncivil civil commotions." 
 
 In spite of Taylor and other assailants, the pancake on Shrove 
 Tuesday and even the pancake-bell still survive in England, 
 though the latter has only local avatars. In some places it is 
 known as Fritters-bell or Pan burn-bell. Jingling rhymes in con- 
 nection with this custom are still current among the peasantry 
 of Northamptonshire. The following are the most current : 
 
 Pancakes and fritters, 
 
 Says the bells of St. JPeter's. 
 
 Where must we fry 'em ? 
 
 Says the bells of Cold Higham. 
 
 In yonder land thurrow [furrow], 
 
 Says the bells of Wellingborough. 
 
 You owe me a shilling, 
 
 Says the bells of Great Billing. 
 
 When will you pay me ? 
 
 Says the bells at Middleton Cheney. 
 
 When I am able, 
 
 Says the bells at Dunstable. 
 
 That will never be, 
 
 Says the bells of Coventry. 
 
 Oh, yes, it will, 
 
 Says Northampton Great Bell. 
 
 White bread and sop, 
 
 Says the bells at Kingsthrop. 
 
 Trundle a lantern, 
 
 Says the bells at Northampton. 
 
 That the bells of the churches of Northampton used also to 
 be rung on this day may be inferred from the following similar 
 doggerel : 
 
 Koast beef and marshmallows, 
 
 Says the bells of All Hallow's. 
 
 Pancakes and fritters, 
 
 Says the bells of St. Peter's. 
 
 Eoast beef and boil'd, 
 
 Says the bells of St. Giles'. 
 
Y. 
 
 POPULAR CUSTOMS. 887 
 
 Poker and tongs, 
 Says the bells of St. John's. 
 Shovels, tongs, and poker, 
 Says the bells of St. Pulchre's. 
 (Baker: Northampton Words and Phrases^ vol. ii. p. 92.) 
 
 At Apsley Old Hall in Nottinghamshire, butter and lard, fire 
 and frying-pans, were formerly provided for all the poor families 
 of Wollaston, Trowell, and Cossall who chose to come and eat 
 their pancakes at this mansion. The only conditions attached 
 to the feast were that no quarrelling should take place, and that 
 each wife and mother should fry for her own family, and that 
 when the cake needed turning in the pan the act should be per- 
 formed by tossing it in the air and catching it again in the pan 
 with the uncooked side downward. And many were the roars 
 of laughter which took place among the merry groups in the 
 kitchen at the mishaps which occurred in the performance of 
 this feat, in which his Honor and Madam joined. 
 
 In addition to the pancakes, every man was allowed a quart 
 of good ale, every woman a pint, and every child a gill. .(Sutton : 
 Nottingham Date Book, 1852, p. 75.) 
 
 The children of Berkshire have still their rhymes which they 
 sing on this day and receive their accustomed perquisites. At 
 Purley they say, — 
 
 Knick-knock, pan's hot, 
 
 I'm come a-shroving; 
 Bit of bread and a bit of cheese, 
 
 That's better than nothing. 
 Last year's flour's dear, 
 That's what makes poor Purley children come shroving here. 
 
 Hip, hip, hurrah ! l 
 Up with the pitcher and down with the pan, 
 Give me a penny and I'll be gone. 
 
 In Oxfordshire similar rhymes are sung : 
 
 Knick, knock, the pan's hot. 
 And we be come a-shroving : 
 A bit of bread, a bit of cheese, 
 A bit of barley dompling. 
 That's better than nothing. 
 Open the door and let us in. 
 
 These rhymes have many variants, which may be heard in all 
 the southern and midland counties. In Dorsetshire and Wilt- 
 shire the children have unpleasant ways of manifesting their 
 displeasure if the accustomed gift be withheld. Laying in a 
 stock of bits of broken glass, crockery, and other rubbish, and 
 with a captain at their head, they go round in })artios from 
 
888 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 house to house. The captain knocks at the door, and when it is 
 opened sings this truculent rhyme : 
 
 I'm come a-shroving 
 
 For a piece of pancake, 
 
 Or a piece of bacon, 
 
 Or a little truckle cheese, 
 
 Of your own making. 
 
 If you give me a little I ask you no more ; 
 
 If you don't give me nothing I'll rattle your door. 
 
 If the request be denied, the captain gives a signal, and the 
 door is straightway bombarded with the mutilated remains of 
 plates, mugs, jugs, and basins. The practice is known as Lent 
 Crocking. 
 
 Before the pancakes were eaten there was always a great 
 deal of contention among the revellers to see which could most 
 adroitly toss them in the pan. Hone tells us that it was cus- 
 tomary to present the greatest slut or lie-abed in the party 
 " with the first pancake, which commonly falls to the dog's 
 share at last, for no one will own it their due." Hence Tusser's 
 allusion, 
 
 Maids, fritters and pancakes enough see you make ; 
 Let Slut have one pancake, for company's sake. 
 
 {Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, 1620.) 
 
 In parts of Lancashire and Cheshire the tossing of pancakes 
 with its ancient accompaniments is still a source of Shrovetide 
 mirth. In some places fritters are substituted. 
 
 It is the day whereon both rich and poor 
 Are chiefly feasted on the self-same dish ; 
 When every paunch, till it can hold no more, 
 Is fritter fill'd, as well as heart can wish ; 
 And every man and maide doe take their turne. 
 And tosse their pancakes up for feare they burne. 
 And all the kitchen doth with laughter sound, 
 To see the pancakes fall upon the ground. 
 
 [PasquiVs Palinodia. Harland and Wilkinson, 
 
 Lancashire Folk Lore, 1867, p. 218.) 
 
 An interesting survival of "tossing the pancake" exists at 
 Westminster School, and is accompanied with several quaint 
 observances. The cook, bearing a frying-pan with a pancake, 
 is conducted by a verger carrying the silver mace from the col- 
 lege kitchen to the great school-room, where all the boyS' are 
 assembled. The cook tries to toss the pancake over an iron 
 bar which runs across the school-room from one wall to another. 
 If the pancake goes clear over, the boys make a rash and try 
 to catch it whole. The boy who gets it whole receives a guinea 
 from the dean on showing it in an unbroken condition. The 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 889 
 
 cook also receives ten shillings if he does his part properly. 
 Nowadays, only so many boys join in the struggle for the pan- 
 cake as there are forms in the school. Each form names a repre- 
 sentative. Formerly the whole school made a rush, which was 
 rather a dangerous sport, and very wisely the number of com- 
 petitors for the prize has been limited. 
 
 In 1864, the cook, who had failed for several years to elevate 
 the pancake right over the bar, so exasperated the boys by again 
 depriving them of their fun — for there was no scramble if the 
 pancake did not go over the bar — that they hurled at his head 
 a shower of books, dictionaries, as being heaviest, by preference. 
 He retahated by flinging his frying-pan into the midst of the 
 boys, and, in fact, there was a pretty quarrel, which was eventu- 
 ally adjusted by the dean. 
 
 At Charterhouse, Shrove Tuesday, as at Westminster, brings 
 its annual excitement in the shape of an institution known as 
 the " lemon fight." Each boy at dinner is provided with half a 
 lemon, wherewith to flavor the customarj^ pancake ; but it is a 
 point of honor not to use the lemon for this very ordinary pur- 
 pose, but to save it up for the spirited warfare which follows. 
 " Gown Boys" range themselves against " The Eest," and each 
 side pelts the other with vigor and persistency. 
 
 But fiercer sports than these were known to the Shrove Tues- 
 day of the past. The underlying instinct of brutality in the 
 Anglo-Saxon seems to have found free vent at this time, for the 
 inhuman sports of cock-fighting and throwing at cocks were 
 well-nigh universal. School-boys were allowed to bring cocks to 
 school with them, and masters and scholars alike forgot the rod 
 and books and became eager spectators of the cruel sport. Cock- 
 fighting was countenanced in many of the schools of Scotland as 
 late as the beginning of this century, and the teachers enjoyed 
 the privilege of claiming the runaway cocks, called fugees, as 
 their perquisites. 
 
 But among the masses no other diversion could vie with the 
 allurements of throwing at cocks. Fortunately this barbarous 
 pastime was never indulged in at any other time of the year, and 
 finally was suppressed altogether early in the nineteenth century. 
 Some say that the custom took its rise from St. Peter's memora- 
 ble experience when he denied the Saviour. Sir Charles Scdley, 
 in the Monthly Miscellany for January, 1692, has this couplet : 
 
 May'st thou be punished for St. Peter's crime. 
 And on Shrove Tuesday perish in thy prime. 
 
 Others assert that it must have originated at the time of 
 Henr}^ the Fifth's victories over the French, the cocks being 
 symbolical of the conquered Gauls. In Blenheim Castle there is 
 
890 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 a curious carving in stone over one of the portals representing 
 a lion tearing a cock to pieces. 
 
 However, an explanation given in The British Apollo for 1708 
 seems the most rational of all, particularly as cock-throwing is 
 known to have been practised both in England and in France 
 long before the battle of Agincourt. This authority says that in 
 
 I 
 
 Cock-Throwing: The Triumph of the Victor. 
 
 the days of Danish oppression the people of a certain city had 
 formed a plan to massacre their tyrants in the early morning of 
 Shrove Tuesday, but the sleeping Danes were aroused by the 
 crowing of the cocks and defeated the plot, wherefore revenge 
 was taken on the fowls every Shrove Tuesday. 
 
 Hogarth gives a graphic picture of cock-throwing in his 
 " Four Stages of Cruelty." The animals were carefully trained 
 by their owners for weeks beforehand, sticks and other missiles 
 being thrown at them untiringly until they acquired skill in 
 dodging. In the game the cocks were tied to a stake in an open 
 space, the throwers standing about twenty-two yards distant; 
 twopence procured the privilege of three shies, and whoever 
 knocked the cock down and caught him before recovery won the 
 bird as a prize. The feat being difficult to accomplish, the 
 owners sometimes made a great deal of money. 
 
 A satirical old song of 1679 thus tells the story of the " Shrove- 
 tide Martyr :" 
 
 Cock-a-doodle-doe, 'tis the bravest game, 
 
 Take a cock from his dame 
 And bind him to a stake ; 
 
 How he struts, how he throwes, 
 
 How he swaggers, how he crowes, 
 As if the day newly brake. 
 
 How his mistress cackles 
 Thus to find him in shackles, 
 
 And tied to a packe-thread garter. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 891 
 
 Oh, the beares and the bulls 
 Are but corpulent gulls 
 
 To the valiant Shrovetide Martyr. 
 
 Hens were also used for this purpose. The Gentleman's 
 Magazine for 1749 tells of a hen that spoke and delivered an 
 excellent sermon (which is given in full) just before she met her 
 death in this way. Threshing the fat hen was another custom 
 akin to this, and probably derived from it, but with a better 
 element of sport, though scarcely less cruelty. A hen was tied 
 upon the back of one of the men, who also wore a string of horse- 
 bells, while the others were blindfolded and armed with boughs, 
 with which they tried to hit the hen, being guided by the sound 
 of the bells. Naturally they often hit the man who carried the 
 hen, and naturally, too, they often hit one another. The hen was 
 afterwards boiled with bacon and eaten with pancakes : 
 
 Come, go to the barn now, my jolly ploughmen, 
 Blindfolded, and speedily thresh the fat hen ; 
 And if you can kill her, then give her thy men, 
 And go ye on fritters and pancakes dine then. 
 
 (TussER : Five Hundred Points of Husbandry.) 
 
 It was customary in Cornwall to take any hen which had not 
 laid eggs before Shrove Tuesday and lay it on a barn floor to be 
 thrashed to death. A man hit at her with a flail; and if he suc- 
 ceeded in killing her therewith he got her for his pains. 
 
 Hone, writing in 1820, speaks of the custom of throwing at 
 cocks as still existing in some remote districts of England. At 
 present it has only phantom reminiscences, as at Norwich, where 
 the bakers exhibit at Shrovetide a small currant-loaf called a 
 coquille, which the boys also cry in the streets. A notice at the 
 shops runs as follows: "Hot coquilles on Tuesday morning at 
 eight o'clock, and in the afternoon at four o'clock." Possibly 
 the word is derived from its shell-like shape (Fr. coquille, " a 
 shell"), but more probably it may be connected with cockerel or 
 cock, and is a descendant from the old cock-throwing days. A 
 more evident survival is in Wales, where it is still the custom to 
 make thin lead figures of birds and animals. Whatever the 
 shape, these are known as birds. They are set up on Shrove 
 Tuesday, and boys are invited to throw chunks of lead at them. 
 If the "bird" be knocked down it becomes the property of the 
 thrower, but every chunk of lead that misses its aim is claimed 
 by the owner of the " bird." 
 
 Foot-ball was one of the chief pastimes of Shrovetide in old 
 England and Scotland, and it still has many local survivals. At 
 Alnwick the contest used to take place in the street, but the 
 Duke of Northumberland instituted an annual match which now 
 
892 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 takes place in "the Pasture" every Shrove Tuesday between 
 the two parishes of St. Michael and St. Paul. The committee 
 receives the ball at the barbican of the castle from the porter, 
 and marches to the field headed by the duke's piper. After the 
 contest a fierce struggle takes place for the possession of the ball. 
 At Chester-le-Street the game retains possession of the street, 
 all the windows being carefully barricaded. A burn lies in the 
 course of the players, who have a fine scrimmage in the waters. 
 At Dorking also the street is the scene of the game. A collec- 
 tion is made during the morning throughout the streets, nominally 
 to defray the cost of damages. The foot-ballers first parade the 
 streets clad in grotesque costumes and attended by bands of 
 music. The fooL-ball is kicked ofi" in the centre of the High 
 Street at two o'clock, and all who wish join in the game. The 
 play is furious, and the ball is kicked everywhere, sometimes 
 reaching the fields at the outskirts of the town. During four 
 hours the contest lasts, and towards the end of the struggle 
 there are much excitement and vigorous kicking, extremely dan- 
 gerous to the limbs of the competitors. 
 
 In Scotland the streets of Duns are enlivened by a game of 
 hand-ball on Fastens-Een. The ball is started in state by the 
 lord of the manor. The goals are the kirk and the mill. 
 
 Nowhere was Shrovetide foot-ball carried to greater excesses 
 than in mediaeval Florence. Early in the morning the young 
 Florentines of the better classes disguised themselves, and, form- 
 ing parties, set out to scour the city. Each party was provided 
 wdth a large foot-ball, and every individual was armed with a 
 mop well bedaubed with soot, grease, pitch, and other such 
 matter. The ball was kicked through the streets ; if a shop 
 happened to be open, in it bounded, and the players after it, 
 upsetting everything. A like fate befell such stalls as chanced 
 to stand in their way. The passengers, too, were hunted, even 
 into the churches, and belabored with mops ; for these subjects 
 of Momus considered it high treason to their king for any one 
 to pursue his vocations on such a day. When two parties en- 
 countered, a battle with mops ensued, which frequently warmed 
 into a real fight. Indeed, the day seldom passed without several 
 serious affrays. 
 
 Perhaps the most singular of all Shrovetide ceremonies was 
 one that used to be celebrated yearly in the now demolished 
 cathedral of St. Lambert at Liege. It seems that at some 
 unknown period the unlucky peasants of Nomale, in the Hes- 
 baye, had ventured to take liberties with the geese belonging to 
 the canons of St. Lambert, and, what was worse, had contrived 
 to be found out. In consequence thereof, they were compelled 
 to do penance every Shrovetide as follows. Early that morning 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 893 
 
 all the villagers who were not bedridden gathered on the village 
 green. Having picked out the most repulsive-looking old woman 
 among them, they dressed her with appropriate absurdities and 
 stuck a live goose under her arm. Then, forming in procession, 
 they posted the hag in front, and, cackling and hissing the while 
 like so many lunatics, they marched to the cathedral, where the 
 canons awaited them. The villagers formed round the church, 
 while the canons stood in a group in the centre. Up to this 
 group went the old woman and presented her goose with an 
 appropriate speech ; then, hobbhng from one churchman to an- 
 other, she bestowed a hideous grimace upon each. "And," adds 
 the annalist, "when she happened to repeat the same gesture 
 twnce over, the canons, who were connoisseurs in that kind of 
 thing, made her begin again." 
 
 Sicilian Vespers. The name given to a sanguinary massa- 
 cre of the French, who under Prince Charles of Anjou were 
 then masters of Sicily, begun at Palermo on Easter Monday, 
 March 30, 1282. Charles's rule was tyrannous and galling. 
 Obnoxious to the Sicilians from his nation, the people had as 
 well to bear the presence of a licentious and brutal alien sol- 
 diery, to whom nothing was sacred. Under such oppression, 
 it was little wonder that the hot fire of Italian wrath should 
 be smouldering, and waiting but for some slight fanning to leap 
 into devastating flame. The occasion arrived. On Easter Mon- 
 day a procession of the people of Palermo was formed to attend 
 vespers at the church of the Holy Ghost, just outside the walls. 
 The French rulers made this a pretext for searching for arras. 
 To a brutal, licentious soldiery this supplied an opportunity for 
 offering gross insults to the females, one of whom was a young 
 married lady of great beauty and position. Her screams aroused 
 the multitude ; the spark was laid to the train ; and, led by the 
 lady's father and husband, the people rose in tumult. Arms 
 were seized, and an indiscriminate slaughter of all the French 
 in the city was the result. 
 
 This was but the alarm-note for a general rising. In town 
 after town massacres took place, until Messina, the last strong- 
 hold of the French, fell into native hands. Every person of 
 French blood was massacred with relentless fury. Even Chris- 
 tian burial wslh denied them, but pits were afterwards dug to 
 receive their despised remains; and tradition still points out a 
 column surmounted by an iron cross, raised by compas8ij[)nate 
 piety in one of those spots, probably long after the perpetration 
 of the deed of vengeance. Tradition, moreover, relates that 
 the sound of a word, like the Shibboleth of the Hebrews, was 
 the test by which the French were distinguished in the massa- 
 
894 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 ere, and that if there were found a suspicious or unknown per- 
 son, he was compelled, with a sword to his throat, to pronounce 
 the word ciceri^ and the slightest foreign accent was the signal 
 for his death. Forgetful of their own character, and as if 
 stricken by fate, the gallant warriors of France neither fled, nor 
 united, nor defended themselves ; they unsheathed their swords 
 and presented them to their assailants, imploring, as if in emu- 
 lation of each other, to be the first to die ; of one common sol- 
 dier only is it recorded that, having concealed himself behind a 
 wainscot, and being dislodged at the sword's point, he resolved 
 not to die unavenged, and, springing with a wild cry upon the 
 ranks of his enemies, slew three of them before he himself 
 perished. The insurgents broke into the convents of the Minor- 
 ites and Preaching Friars and slaughtered all the monks whom 
 they recognized as French. Even the altars afforded no protec- 
 tion ; tears and prayers were alike unheeded ; neither old men, 
 women, nor infants were spared ; and, as a last refinement of 
 cruelty, Sicilian wives who were pregnant by French husbands 
 were ripped open and the fruit of the mingled blood of the 
 oppressors and the oppressed was dashed against the stones. 
 
 Simeon, a prophet mentioned in the New Testament. Ac- 
 cording to Luke ii. 25-35, he was enlightened by the Spirit to 
 appear at the temple when Christ was presented. For the 
 Holy Ghost had revealed to him that he should not see death 
 before he had seen the Lord's Christ. " And when the parents 
 brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the 
 law, then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and 
 said. Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, accord- 
 ing to thy word : for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which 
 thou hast prepared before the face of all people ; a light to 
 lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel." The 
 feast of Candlemas (^. v.) is sometimes known as Festa Simeonis, 
 and in the Greek Church, especially, Simeon's words are the 
 key-note of the celebration. Tradition has enlarged upon the 
 Biblical narrative. According to the legend, Simeon was nearly 
 three hundred years old at the time of the Presentation, When 
 Ptolemy Philadelphus wanted a Greek version of the Hebrew 
 Scriptures for the library at Alexandria, about 260 B.C., he sent 
 to Eleazar at Jerusalem for scribes. Among those who under- 
 took the work was Simeon, and he translated the book of Isaiah. 
 When he reached the prophecy, " Behold, a virgin shall conceive, 
 and bear a son," he was afraid that it might cause his rehgion 
 to be looked upon as foolish by the Greeks, and so rendered the 
 passage by using a Greek word meaning simply " young woman." 
 Then an angel came and erased the word and put down the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. ' 895 
 
 proper one, and twice repeated the alteration. After this Sim- 
 eon had a vision and received a promise that he " should not see 
 death before he had seen the Lord's Christ :" so he lived on, and 
 was at the temple on the day when the Yirgin came to present 
 the Child, and, embracing him, gave his prophecy. 
 
 St. G-regory of Tours says that Simeon was buried on Mount 
 Olivet. In the sixth century Justin the Younger translated his 
 relics to Constantinople. Portions were given to Charlemagne, 
 and were by him placed at Aix, where the arm on which the 
 infant Saviour rested when the " Nunc Dimittis" was first said 
 is shown. The head is in the Jesuit College at Brussels. Arms 
 or parts of arms are shown at Perigueux, Palermo, and Harz- 
 burg, and two entire bodies are extant, one at Andechs, in 
 Bavaria, the other at Zara, in Dalmatia. 
 
 Sin- Eater. A functionary who, within the memory of living 
 men, officiated at funerals in Wales. A relative — usually a 
 woman — would place a quantity of bread and cheese and beer 
 on the bosom of the corpse. Then the Sin-Eater would be sum- 
 moned to consume them. It was believed that thus he appro- 
 priated to himself the delinquencies symbolized by the viands 
 and prevented them from disturbing the rest of the sinner. 
 
 Snapdragon, or Flapdragon. A favorite Christmas pastime 
 in old England, little known outside of that countrj^, and now 
 obsolescent even there. Some small inflammable body is set on 
 fire in a glass of spirits, and the courage of the players is tested 
 by their willingness to snatch it out with the fingers and put 
 it blazing into the mouth. Eaisins in brandy were the com- 
 monest snapdragons. They might be safely seized by a quick 
 motion, put in the mouth, and swallowed after the flames were 
 extinguished by closing the lips. A correspondent of JSfotes and 
 Queries, Second Series, vol. vii. p. 277, suggests as a derivation 
 the German schiiapps, " spirit," and drache. " dragon," and deems 
 it equivalent to " spirit-fire." 
 
 Shakespeare alludes to the sport under the name of flap- 
 dragon : 
 
 And drinks off candles' ends for flapdragons. 
 
 [Second Part of Henry 7F., Act ii. Sc. 4.) 
 Thou art easier swallowed than a flapdragon. 
 
 {Lovers Lahor^s Lost, Act v. Sc. 1.) 
 
 Stang, Riding the. A stang, or cowl-staff, is nothing more 
 nor less than a stout pole used in the southern counties of Eng- 
 land for carrying a cowl or water-vessel, which is suspended 
 from the middle, while each end of the stang rests on the 
 shoulders of a carrier. Hence Riding the Stang is the same 
 
896 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 as the American Eiding a Eail. In the eighteenth century it 
 was one of the customary New Year features of rural England. 
 The method is thus described in the Gentleman's Magazine for 
 1791, p. 1169: "Early on the morning of the first of January 
 the EsBx Populi assemble together, carrying stangs and baskets. 
 Any inhabitant, stranger, or whoever joins not this ruffian 
 tribe in sacrificing to their favorite saint-day, if unfortunate 
 enough to be met by any of the band, is immediately mounted 
 across the stang (if a woman, she is basketed), and carried shoul- 
 der high to the nearest public-house, where the payment of six- 
 pence liberates the prisoner." 
 
 In Yorkshire and some other counties a ceremony called 
 Eiding the Stang still survives among the lower orders as a 
 method of vicarious punishment for any frailty on the part of 
 man or wife. Some " good-natured friend" is selected ; he be- 
 strides the stang, and is borne through the streets in the dusk of 
 the evening on the shoulders of two men, preceded by another 
 carrying a lantern. At every fifty yards or so the procession 
 makes a halt, and the rider declaims these verses, mutatis mutandi 
 to suit the occasion : 
 
 Good neighbors attend while I you harangue. 
 
 'Tis neither for your sake nor my sake 
 
 That I ride the stang, 
 
 But it is for the wife of John Smith 
 
 That I ride the stang. 
 
 Then all the mob hurrahs. The procession winds up before 
 the house of the sinner, where, after a chorus of hoots and jeers, 
 it disperses. Sometimes the vocal discord is supplemented by an 
 instrumental pandemonium, in which pots, pans, and kettles are 
 utilized to assail the offender with what is known as rough music 
 (^. V. See also Charivari). 
 
 Stephen, St. (Fr. Etienne ; Ger. Stefan.) The protomartyr, 
 or first Christian martyr, patron of horses. He is commemorated 
 on December 26. The New Testament (Acts vii.) tells the story 
 of his death by stoning at the hands of the Jewish people just 
 outside of the gate at Jerusalem now called by his, name. A 
 legend relates that nothing was known of the martyr's relics 
 until four hundred years later, when Gamaliel appeared in a 
 vision to Lucian, a priest living in Jerusalem, and revealed to 
 him that they had been buried in Gamaliel's own garden with 
 those of Nicodemus and other holy men. The relics were found 
 December 26, 417. Their genuineness was attested by many 
 miracles, and they were placed in the church of Sion at Jeru- 
 salem. They were carried from Jerusalem to Constantinople by 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 897 
 
 Theodosius II. about 439, and obtained for Eome more than a 
 century later by the legates of Pope Pelagius. They now lie in 
 the church of St. Lawrence, side by side with the bones of the 
 latter saint, who, it is said, courteously moved to the left of his 
 sarcophagus, thus giving the place of honor on the right to St. 
 Stephen. For this act of politeness Lawrence has been dubbed 
 by the Eoman populace " II Cortese Spagnuolo" (" The Courteoiis 
 Spaniard"). There is a curious and anachronistic legend giving 
 an account of the translation of St. Stephen's remains which has 
 been painted in the newly restored church of St. Lawrence Out- 
 side the Walls in Eome. According to this story, the Empress 
 Eudoxia, wife of Valentinian III., Emperor of Eome, had been 
 invited to Constantinople by her father, Theodosius II., that she 
 might be delivered, by touching the relics of St. Stephen, from 
 the torments of a devil who afflicted her. But the demon gave 
 her to understand that she could never be cured unless the saint 
 himself came to Eome. It was arranged, therefore, that the 
 relics of St. Lawrence should be given in exchange for those of 
 St. Stephen, and on the latter reaching Eome the Empress was 
 healed. But when the Greek emissaries tried to remove St. Law- 
 rence they fell down as dead, and, though restored at the moment 
 by the prayer of Pope Pelagius, they died within ten days. All 
 the Eomans who had counselled the exchange were struck with 
 madness, but were healed at the joint intercession of the two 
 martyrs when laid side by side in the marble sarcophagus where 
 they still repose. The legend would have been more credible but 
 for the facts that Theodosius II. died in 450 and that Pope Pela- 
 gius reigned from 555 to 560. St. Stephen is represented as 
 young and beardless, in the dress of a deacon. His special 
 attributes are the stones with which he was murdered. 
 
 A bone of the saint is shown at Longpont, near Paris, others 
 at Metz, at St. Etienne in Paris, at St. Mark's in Venice, and in 
 the island of Minorca. Stones said to be reddened with the blood 
 of the martyr are preserved at Metz and at Ancona. 
 
 St. Stephen's being the day after Christmas, it was formerly 
 the custom for the poor to go round begging the broken victuals 
 left over from the holiday feast. Hence perhaps arose the prac- 
 tice in many English parishes of distributing biead and cheese 
 and other doles to the poor. This meal was known as St. 
 Stephen's Breakfast. Southey in his " Common-Place Book" 
 mentions that the three vicars of Bampton used in his time to 
 give beef and beer on the morning of St. Stephen's Day to those 
 who chose to partake of it. Bread and cheese and ale was the 
 offering made by the rector of the parish of Drayton-Beauchamp. 
 Here the usage gave rise to so much rioting that it was discon- 
 tinued, and an annual sum was distributed instead in proportion 
 
 67 
 
898 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 to the number of claimants. About the year 1827, however, the 
 compromise itself was dropped. 
 
 According to the Gentleman's Magazine for May, 1811, the 
 inhabitants of the North Eiding of Yorkshire celebrated the 
 feast of St. Stephen by making large goose pies, "all of which 
 they distribute among their needy neighbors except one, which 
 is carefully laid up and not tasted till Candlemas." On this day 
 also sword-dances were performed in the same locality. (See 
 Sword-Dance.) 
 
 But in old England St. Stephen's Day is chiefly celebrated 
 under the name of Boxing Day, — not for pugilistic reasons, but 
 because on that day it was the custom for persons in the humbler 
 walks of life to go the rounds with a Christmas-box and solicit 
 pecuniary gifts from patrons and employers. Hence the word 
 Christmas-box came eventually to signify gifts made at this 
 holiday season by superiors to inferiors, and retained this meaning 
 even after the boxes themselves had been abolished. These boxes 
 were of heathen origin, and carry us back to the Eoman Paga- 
 nalia, when earthen boxes in which money was slipped through 
 a hole were hung around for contributions at these rural festivals. 
 
 Aubrey in his " Wiltshire Collections" (1670, p. 45) describes a 
 trouvaille of Eoman relics : " Among the rest was an earthen 
 pot of the color of a crucible, and of the shape of a Prentice's 
 Christmas-box, with a slit in it, containing about a quart, which 
 was near full of money. This pot I gave to the Eepository of 
 the Eoyal Society at Gresham College." 
 
 The Church, which at first denounced these pagan institutions, 
 finally ended l3y adopting them, if we are to believe Mr. John 
 Dunton, the ingenious editor of " The Athenian Oracle" (1703, 
 vol. i. p. 360), a periodical that was the first forerunner of the 
 modern Notes and Queries. Here are his question and answer: 
 
 " Q. From whence comes the custom of gathering of Christ- 
 mas-box money ? And how long since ? 
 
 "J.. Tt is as ancient as the word mass^ which the Eomish 
 priests invented from the Latin word mitto^ to send, by putting 
 the people in mind to send gifts, offerings, oblations ; to have 
 masses said for everything almost, that no ship goes out to the 
 Indies but the priests have a box in that ship, under the protec- 
 tion of some saint. And for masses, as they cant, to be said for 
 them to that saint, etc., the poor people must put in something 
 into the priests' box, which is not to be opened till the ship 
 return. Thus the mass at that time was Chrisfs-mass, and the 
 box Chrisfs-mass-box, or money gathered against that time, that 
 masses might be made by the priests to the saints, to forgive the 
 people the debaucheries of that time ; and from this, servants 
 had liberty to get box-money, so that they might be enabled to 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 899 
 
 pay the priest for masses — because, Wo penny, no paternoster — for 
 though the rich pay ten times more than they can expect, yet a 
 priest will not say a mass or anything to the poor for nothing ; 
 so charitable they generally are." 
 
 Whatever their origin and evolution, there is no doubt that 
 the Christmas-box was a recognized institution in the England 
 of the seventeenth century. In the British Museum several 
 specimens are preserved, — small and wide bottles of thin clay, 
 from three to four inches in height, surmounted by imitation 
 stoppers, covered with a green baize. On one side is a slit for 
 the introduction of money. The box must be broken before the 
 money can be extracted. Thus, Mason's " Handful of Essaies" 
 (1621) says of a miser that, "like a swine, he never doth good 
 till his death ; as an apprentice's box of earth apt is he to take 
 all, but to restore none till he be broken." The same simile is 
 used in Blaxton's " EngHsh Usurer" (1634) : 
 
 Both witli the Christmas Box may well comply ; 
 It nothing yields till broke, they till they die. 
 
 At a dinner on St. Stephen's Day in the Inner Temple, among 
 a great deal of dreary mummery and solemn tomfoolery was this 
 " merry disport," which may or may not have been typical of the 
 lawyers' practice in those days. When the company was seated 
 at the chancellor's table " a huntsman cometh into the hall with 
 a fox and a purse-net with a cat, both bound at the end of a staff, 
 and with these nine or ten couple of hounds, with the blowing 
 of hunting-horns. And the fox and cat are set upon by the 
 hounds, and killed beneath the fire." There is a quatrain of an 
 old spiritual song that probably refers to this ceremony : 
 
 The hunter is Christ that hunts in haist. 
 
 The hunds are Peter and Pawle, 
 The paip is the fox, Eome is the Box 
 
 That rubbis us on the gall. 
 
 A curious superstition was formerly prevalent regarding St. 
 Stephen's Day, — that horses should then, after being first well 
 galloped, be copiously bled in order to insure them against dis- 
 ease in the course of the following year. In Barnaby Googe's 
 translation of Naogeorgus the following lines occur : 
 
 Then foUoweth Saint Stephen's Day, whereon doth every man 
 His horses jaunt and course abrode, as swiftly as he can. 
 Until they doe extreemely sweate, and then they let them blood, 
 For this being done upon this day, they say doth do them good, 
 And keepes them from all maladies and sicknesse through the yeare, 
 As if that Steven any time tooke charge of horses heare. 
 
 The practice appears to be very ancient, and Douce supposes 
 that it was introduced into England by the Danes. In one 
 
900 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 of the manuscripts of John Aubrey occurs the following record : 
 " On St. Stephen's Day the farrier came constantly and blouded 
 all our cart-horses." {Remains of Gentilisme, Lansdowne MSS., 
 226.) Very possibly convenience and expediency combined on 
 the occasion with superstition, for in " Tusser Redivivus," a work 
 published in the middle of the last century, we find this state- 
 ment : ''About Christmas is a very proper time to bleed horses 
 in, for then they are commonly at house, then spring comes on, 
 the sun being now coming back from the winter solstice, and 
 there are three or four days of rest, and if it be upon St. 
 Stephen's Day it is not the worse, seeing there are with it three 
 days of rest, or at least two." 
 
 But the custom may have reference to the fact that St. 
 Stephen was the patron of horses. The Germans call his day 
 der grosse Pferdstag. In Eome it was formerly the custom to 
 celebrate it by physicking and bleeding the Pope's stud, for the 
 sake of the blood, which was supposed to be a specific in many 
 disorders. 
 
 St. Stephen's Day was formerly called Straw Day in the south 
 of France, because of the benediction of the straw which some 
 rituals then appointed. In Denmark it is sometimes known as 
 Second Christmas Day. (See also Wren, Hunting the.) 
 
 Stone of Infamy. (It. Pietra d'Infamia.) In many Italian 
 cities a stone so called, formerly used for the purpose of punish- 
 ing bankrupts, is still extant. In Yenice it stands near St. 
 Mark's Church, in Verona and in Florence it is placed in the old 
 markets. On a certain day of the Carnival all traders who had 
 failed during the preceding twelvemonth were led to this stone. 
 Around them gathered a vast mob, the school-boys being accorded 
 the foremost rank, as likely to learn from the ceremonial an 
 important lesson in commercial morality. One by one the bank- 
 rupts were placed on the centre of the stone to hear the reading 
 of their balance-sheet and to endure as many reproaches as their 
 creditors could cram into a limited time. When time was up, the 
 presiding official touched his bell, and the storm of interjection 
 was instantly hushed. Then the bankrupt was solemnly divested 
 of a necessary portion of his dress, after which three stout 
 public officers laid hold of his shoulders, and three others of his 
 knees, and, raising him every time as high as they could, bumped 
 him deliberately twelve times, "in honor of the twelve apostles," 
 against the cold stone. An old writer states that the creditors 
 crowed like cocks during the bumping, but that when it was 
 over few of them entertained animosity against the bumpee. In 
 proof whereof, he avers that not one of them could look at him 
 with dry eyes as he sneaked through the crowd. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 901 
 
 Stray Sale Day, or First Monday, in Texas. By an un- 
 written law of Texas, the first Monday in every month is set 
 apart as the day on which all the stray horses and cattle that 
 have been duly " taken up," " posted," and " kept" shall be taken 
 down to the public square in the capital of every county through- 
 out the State, there to be auctioned off or exchanged. Early in 
 the morning men begin coming into town, jogging along on 
 horseback through the black mud, and leading strings of from 
 two to ten ponies of all conceivable degrees of disreputableness 
 of appearance. Not all of these are really strays. Most of 
 them, indeed, are brought in for sale or for trade along with the 
 strays. By eight o'clock the square presents a lively appear- 
 ance. By ten o'clock the whole space is covered with a densely 
 packed mass of struggling, squirming, kicking, fidgeting Texas 
 ponies. A little after ten the auction begins, and continues until 
 every horse has been disposed of. 
 
 Not only is " first Monday" the day for stray sales and for 
 general horse-trading, but it is also the day for getting and giving 
 information about lost stock. But for it there would be far more 
 stray stock in Texas than there is. It is wonderful to notice the 
 degree of system which exists in regard to the matter. Every 
 honest stock-man in Texas is a self-appointed committee of one 
 to note any stray animals he may see, and to give accurate infor- 
 mation concerning them whenever asked for it. Fences in Texas 
 are rarely ever proof against the jumping or breaking force of 
 the average Texas pony. When a pony gets out, he has all 
 Texas to hide in, and the task of finding him would seem about 
 as difficult as that of finding the proverbial needle in the pro- 
 verbial haystack. He is almost sure to be found sooner or later, 
 though, and " first Monday" is one of the principal devices used 
 to aid in finding him. 
 
 Sunday. The first day of the week, named after the sun, 
 and therefore an evident relic of sun-worship. In French it is 
 Dimanche, in Italian Domenica, both from Dominus, "the Lord." 
 Christians, with the exception of the Seventh-Day Adventists, 
 have substituted it as a day of rest and prayer in lieu of the 
 Jewish Sabbath. 
 
 According to the New Testament, the early Christians were 
 in the habit of assembling in the evening of the first day of the 
 week for worship. They met to break bread in remembrance of 
 Jesus, because on that day he rose from the dead. But in the 
 texts of the New Testament, as well as in the earliest ecclesias- 
 tical history, we find nothing that goes to show that the early 
 Christians had any idea of keeping a Sabbath or that on that 
 day they discontinued their ordinary vocations. In thousands 
 
902 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 of instances it would have been impossible for the Christians of 
 those days to rest on the first day of the week, inasmuch as they 
 were the servants of Jewish or heathen masters, who would not 
 have permitted to them a day of idleness for the sake of the 
 Man of Nazareth. 
 
 Irenseus is the first of the early fathers who speaks of cessa- 
 tion from labor on Sunday. He says that reaping and gathering 
 into barns are then forbidden. Tertullian (a.d. 202) also says, 
 *' On the Lord's day of resurrection we ought to abstain from all 
 habit and labor of anxiety, putting off even our business, lest we 
 give place to the devil." But he also calls it a day " on which 
 we allow ourselves to be joyous." A decree of Constantine com- 
 manded that all business and employment except agriculture 
 should cease on " the honored day of the sun." The Emperor 
 Leo, in 469, included agriculture in the prohibition. 
 
 During the Middle Ages Sunday grew into more and more 
 importance as a holy day, deriving its sanction, however, not 
 from the fourth commandment, but from the Church ordinances. 
 It was on this account that the early Ee formers protested against 
 it as against other Church feasts. Luther, though he allowed 
 that the appointment of one day in the week for rest and for 
 attending divine worship was salutary, added that " If anywhere 
 this day is made holy for the mere day's sake, ... then I order 
 you to dance on it, and feast on it, to do anything that shall 
 remove this encroachment on Christian liberty." Calvin agreed 
 with Luther. He conformed his practice to his precept. It is 
 incidentally related that when John Knox once visited the 
 Genevan Eeformer on Sunday he found him playing at bowls. 
 Knox was not shocked. He was no more of a Sabbatarian than 
 Calvin. But the English Eeformers retained the Catholic Sun- 
 day, as they did the vestments and national hierarchy of the old 
 Church, and indeed enforced it with a severity unknown to Eome. 
 
 In all these controversies the word Sabbath as applied to Sun- 
 day does not make its appearance until about the year 1573, in 
 the second edition of Bullein's '' Dialogue against the Fever 
 Pestilence," published at Frankfort. It holds up to admiration 
 an ideal " Keepinge of the Saboth Day," but finds it necessary to 
 explain that the Saboth " is the seventh daie, that is sondaie." 
 And this is the manner in which Bullein (or possibly some inter- 
 polator) describes the "keepinge of the Saboth" in his imaginary 
 Utopia : " There were no people walking abroad in the service 
 tyme ; no, not a Dogge or catte in the streate, neither any Tav- 
 erne doore open that daie, nor wine bibbyng in them, but onely 
 almose, fasting and praier." 
 
 Bullein called his imaginary city Nodnol, an anagram of Lon- 
 don. And in fact it was in London, the head-quarters of Puri- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 903 
 
 tanism, that his ideal was first to be realized. The very adoption 
 of the word Sabbath, which soon became general, showed which 
 way the brain in the Roundhead was trending. If Sunday were 
 to be treated as identical in all save its position in the week with 
 the Jewish Sabbath, then the severest of the Old Testament 
 ordinances would apply to the Christian holy day. So early as 
 1580 the magistrates of London secured from Queen EHzabeth 
 the prohibition of theatrical entertainments within the Hmits 
 of the city on Sunday. The Puritan mode of Sundaj'-keeping 
 already existed among the chosen few. " The Sabboth dale of 
 some is well observed," says Stubbes, " namely, in hearing the 
 blessed worde of God read, preached, and interpreted ; in private 
 and publique praiers ; in reading of godly psalmes ; in celebrating 
 the sacraments ; and in collecting for the poore and indigent, which 
 are the true uses and endes whereto the Sabbaoth was ordained." 
 
 Nor was the innovation at first unwelcome to the stricter 
 English divines, who saw with alarm that Sunday after the 
 morning services was entirely given up to out door games, to the 
 brutallj' cruel sports of bull- and bear-baiting, to merry morris- 
 dances, in which the performers were gayly decked and hung 
 with jingling bells in different keys, as well as to coarse farces 
 called interludes, which were played on stages under booths and 
 sometimes in the churches. 
 
 Unfortunately, in its austere reaction against this license and 
 frivolity Puritanism pushed Sabbath-keeping to its extreme, 
 reprobating even the most innocent and domestic recreations, 
 and changing a day of rest and refreshment into one of alternate 
 periods of application to religious devotion and of scrupulous 
 vacuity. The theory of a Sunday-Sabbath, which from the first 
 was not confined to the Puritans, permeated English and Ameri- 
 can thought and life. But from that time forward the Puritans 
 made rigid Sabbath-keeping the very mark and password of the 
 faithful. From England the theory spread northward to Scot- 
 land, where it found a congenial soil. 
 
 In New England Puritanism reduced the ascetic Sunday to 
 its logical absurdity. As the Jewish Sabbath was from sunset to 
 sunset, so the New England Sunday began on Saturday after- 
 noon. Everybody must cease from labor at three o'clock, and 
 spend the rest of the day in such preparation for the morrow " as 
 the ministers shall direct." All good people occupied some part 
 of these hours in teaching their children the Shorter Catechism 
 of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, — and not only their 
 children, but their servants. One perplexed parson wrote back to 
 England of the difficulty of getting servants who "enjoyed cate- 
 chising and family duties," — "family duties" meaning prayers. 
 
 Thus prepared, the Puritans awoke on Sabbath morning. The 
 
904 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Sabbath was a day of rest and religion. Whatever did not 
 agree with these purposes of the daj' was an offence, punishable 
 by law. In 1670 John Lewis and Sarah Chapman, lovers, were 
 set on trial for " sitting together on the Lord's day under an 
 apple-tree in Goodman Chapman's orchard." An old soldier in 
 Dunstable for " netting a piece of old hat to put in his shoe," to 
 ease a sore foot, was fined forty shillings. Captain Kemble, of 
 Boston, sat two hours in the public stocks for his " lewd and un- 
 seemly behavior" in kissing his wife on his own door-step, he 
 having on a Lord's day morning returned from a three years' 
 cruise. The New Haven Sabbath laws set forth that " Profana- 
 tion of the Lord's day shall be punished by fine, imprisonment, 
 or corporal punishment; and if proudly, and with a high head 
 against the authority of God, with death." 
 
 Eelics of the old "blue-iaw" legislation exist on the statute- 
 books of nearl}^ all the States of the Union, but only as dead 
 letters. The sternest magistrate would not dare to enforce them. 
 
 Suttee. A voluntary death by fire once common among Hin- 
 doos of both sexes. The 
 earliest European travel- 
 lers mentioned it as well- 
 nigh universal in the parts 
 of India they knew. Thus, 
 Benjamin of Tudela ob- 
 serves, " Some of the great 
 of this country take a vow 
 to burn themselves alive. 
 When he declares his in- 
 tention, all applaud him, 
 and say, ' Happy shalt thou 
 be, and it shall be well with 
 thee.' " Other travellers of 
 the same early date tell the 
 same story, but those who 
 visited the country later 
 speak only of the widow's 
 self-immolation on her hus- 
 band's funeral pyre. It 
 would appear that this hor- 
 rible limitation of the rite 
 was established between 
 the twelfth and fifteenth 
 centuries. When the Eng- 
 lish acquired India they lor 
 a long time refrained from any prohibition of the custom, on 
 
 A Widow on the Funeral Pyee. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 905 
 
 the ground that it would be an interference with the religious 
 prejudices of the natives. In the early part of the nineteenth 
 century, however, it was ordered that when a suttee was about 
 to take place the official persons on the spot should inquire 
 whether the act was voluntary on the part of the widow, and 
 that they should attend at the funeral pyre and see that no force 
 was used. This only increased the evil. It at once authorized 
 suttees, and by requiring the ]3rcsence of the magistrate or his 
 representatives gave the sacrifice a consequence which it had 
 not previously enjoyed. As no European could witness such 
 a scene without trying, by gentle means at least, to prevent it, 
 unavailing interference gave the victim the air of a martyr, 
 and natural vanity and pride were called in to the aid of super- 
 stition. 
 
 Swan-Upping, Swan-Hopping, or Swan-Marking. At 
 a very early date it was a high privilege, granted only by the 
 sovereign to certain companies and individuals, to keep and 
 preserve swans on the English lakes and rivers. Each proprie- 
 tor had his own peculiar swan-mark, which was cut in the skin 
 or on the beak of the young bird with a sharp knife or other 
 instrument. The marking was generally performed in the pres- 
 ence of all the swan-herds 
 on that stream, and on a 
 particular day, of which 
 all had notice. Cygnets re- 
 ceived the mark found on 
 the parent bird, but if the 
 old swans had no mark the 
 whole were seized for the 
 king and marked accord- 
 ingly. No swan -herd was 
 allowed to affix a mark ex- 
 cept in the presence of the 
 king's swan-herd or of his 
 
 deputy. The king's swan-herd kept a book of swan-marks, and 
 no new marks were permitted to interfere with the old ones. 
 
 The marking was usually attended with much festivity, and, 
 though no longer obligatory, the Dyers' and Vintners' Compa- 
 nies in the City of London, who have uninterruptedly enjoyed 
 the privilege of keeping swans on the river Thames from Lon- 
 don to some miles above Windsor, still keep up the old custom 
 of going with their friends and acquaintances, accompanied by 
 the royal swan-herds and assistants, on the first Monday in 
 August in every year, for the purpose of catching and marking 
 all the cygnets of the year, and also renewing any marks on the 
 
 
 Swan-Upping. 
 
906 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 old birds that may have become obliterated. The struggles of 
 the swans when caught by their pursuers, and the duckings 
 that the men get in the contests, form amusing episodes. 
 
 The practice of swan-upping still survives in Stratford-on- 
 Avon, The Antiquarian for November, 1884, has this note : 
 " The old custom of swan-upping was observed at Stratford-on- 
 Avon in September last, and was attended by the mayor and a 
 distinguished party of visitors from Clopton House. A fleet of 
 about forty boats, including a few canoes, well manned and pro- 
 vided with ropes and crooks, put off from the Clopton Bridge 
 about half-past three o'clock in quest of the young birds. After 
 an amusing chase up the river of from two to three miles, the 
 cygnets were captured one by one, and subjected to the mark- 
 ing process, which consists of punching a hole in the web of the 
 foot, whilst to prevent the birds flying any considerable distance 
 it was thought advisable to cut the pinions." 
 
 Swastika, or Fylfot. (The first term comes from the San- 
 skrit sv, "good," or "well," and asti, "to be," or "being;" the 
 second is the Anglo-Saxon for " four-footed.") A species of pre- 
 Christian cross of peculiar shape which is found widely dis- 
 tributed throughout the globe. It is the oldest of all Aryan 
 symbols. Other symbols which are found in archaeological in- 
 vestigations, the straight line, the circle, the cross, the triangle, 
 are simple forms easily made, and might have been invented and 
 reinvented in every age of primitive man and in every quarter 
 of the globe, each time being an independent invention, mean- 
 ing much or little, and meaning different things among different 
 peoples, or even at different times among the same people. But 
 the Swastika was probably the first symbol to be made with a 
 definite intention and a continuous or consecutive meaning, the 
 knowledge of which passed from person to person, from tribe to 
 tribe, from people to people, and from nation to nation, until, 
 with possibly changed meanings, it has finally circled the globe. 
 
 A description of some of these early crosses and the differences 
 between them and the Swastika is interesting. The Latin cross 
 is the one found on coins, medals, and ornaments anterior to 
 the Christian era. It was on a cross of this shape that Christ 
 is said to have been crucified, and thus it became accepted as 
 the Christian cross. The Greek cross differs from the Latin 
 cross in that the arms are of equal length. The St. Andrew's 
 cross is the same as the Greek cross, but turned to stand on 
 two legs instead of one. The crux ansata, according to Egyptian 
 mythology, was the emblem of Ka. The other crosses, which 
 are variations of these forms, with some modifications, are the 
 Tau cross, the Monogram of Christ, the Maltese cross, and 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 907 
 
 the Celtic crosses. But of all these many forms of the cross 
 the Swastika is the most aDcient. The bars of the normal 
 Swastika are straight, of equal thickness throughout, and cross 
 each other at right angles, making four arms of equal size, 
 length, and style. The peculiarity of the Swastika and the 
 form which makes it perfectly recognizable, because so different 
 from any other cross, lies in the fact that all the ends of the 
 bars are bent at right angles in the same direction, be it either 
 to the right or to the left. There are several varieties of cross 
 probably very nearly related to the Swastika, which have been 
 found in almost every part of the globe. These consist in spiral 
 forms of the turned ends. 
 
 Archaeologists differ as to the origin and meaning of the 
 Swastika. They believe it to have been the emblem of Zeus, 
 of Baal, of the sun, of the sun-god, of Indra, the rain-god, of 
 the sky, and finally the deity of all deities, the great God, the 
 maker and ruler of the universe. 
 
 The theory now most generally accepted is that the Swastika is 
 a form of the wheel (q. v.) and a symbol of the solar motion. As 
 Max Mtiller says, " it is an abbreviated emblem of the solar wheel 
 with spokes in it, the tire and the movement being indicated by 
 the crampons." On the bust of Apollo in the Kunsthistorisches 
 Museum of Vienna there is a large and prominent Swastika, 
 which goes far to show its solar significance. But in ancient 
 usage the most important of its attributes seems to have been its 
 character as a charm or amulet, as a sign of benediction, bless- 
 ing, long Hfe, or good luck. This character has continued into 
 modern times, and, while it is to-day recognized as a holy and 
 sacred symbol by at least one Buddhistic religious sect, it is still 
 used by the common people of India, China, and Japan, to whom 
 it has been naturally handed down from their forefathers as a 
 sign of long life and good fortune. It had great extension, 
 having spread itself practically over the known world, largely, 
 if not entirely, in prehistoric times. Many specimens of it were 
 found in excavations on the site of ancient Troy, on the hill of 
 Hissarlik. 
 
 As it has also been found in North and South America, the 
 Swastika furnishes almost conclusive evidence that the early- 
 peoples of the Eastern hemisphere were in constant communica- 
 tion with the early peoples of the Western. 
 
 Swithin or Swithun, St., patron of Winchester, of which 
 diocese he was bishop from 852 till his death, July 2, 862. He 
 shared with St. Neot the glory of educating King Alfred, and 
 was chancellor under Egbert and Ethelwolf. But at present 
 his chief popular fame arises from the fact that he is a sort of 
 
908 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Jupiter Pluvius in the Protestant calendar of England. The 
 common belief is that according as it rains or shines on St. 
 Swithin's Day — which is celebrated on July 15, the anniversary 
 of the translation of his relics — the next forty days will be 
 either rainy or bright : 
 
 St. Swithin's Day, if thou dost rain, 
 For forty days it will remain : 
 St. Swithin's Day, if thou be fair, 
 For forty days 'twill rain nae mair. 
 
 This tradition is founded on a legend that, before dying, the 
 humble-minded saint had begged to be interred in the open 
 churchyard, and not in the chancel of the church, as was usual 
 with bishops. Here he remained for over a century, when the 
 monks, thinking it disgraceful that so great a saint should have 
 so lowly a burial-place, resolved to move the body into the choir. 
 The 15th of July was appointed for the purpose. But on that 
 day a mighty rain-storm burst forth, and continued without in- 
 termission for the next forty days. The monks took this as a 
 sign of heavenly displeasure, and instead of removing the body 
 they built a chapel over it where it lay. 
 
 Unfortunately for the legend, however, it happens that the 
 formal translation of the relies of St. S within from the grave 
 in the churchyard to a magnificent shrine within the cathedral 
 was in fact effected on July 15, 971, only one hundred and nine 
 years after his death, without any meteorological interference. 
 Many legends were set afloat at the time to prove that this 
 was done by the saint's wishes as expressed in visions. A few 
 years afterwards the church, which had originally been dedicated 
 to the apostles Peter and Paul, changed these guardians for St. 
 Swithin, who in turn had to yield to Henry YlII.'s substitution 
 of the Holy Trinity. 
 
 It may be added that Swithin was never regularly canonized 
 by the Pope, — a practice not introduced until two hundred years 
 after his translation, which is the only ceremony on which he 
 rests his claim to the title. 
 
 One of the earliest literary allusions to the saint's powers as 
 a weather-prophet is in Ben Jonson's " Every Man out of his 
 Humor," where Sordido, sarcastically critical of an almanac, 
 cries, " 'Slid, stay, this is worse and worse. What says he of St. 
 Swithin's ? Turn back, look : St. Swithin's, the xv day— variable 
 weather, for the most part rain, good. For the most part rain ; 
 why it should rain forty days after now, more or less ; it was a 
 rule held afore I was able to hold a plough, and yet here are two 
 days no rain ; ha! it makes me muse !" 
 
 In " Poor Robin's Almanac" for 1697 are the following verses : 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 909 
 
 In this month is St. S within 's Day, 
 On which if that it rain, they say 
 Full forty days after it will, 
 Or more or less, some rain distil. 
 This Swithin was a saint, I trow, 
 And Winchester's hishop also, 
 "Who in his time did many a feat, 
 As Popish legends do repeat ; 
 A woman, having broke her eggs, 
 By stumbling at another's legs. 
 For which she made a woful cry, 
 St. Swithin chanced for to come by, 
 Who made them all as sound or more 
 Than ever that they were before. 
 But whether this were so or no 
 'Tis more than you or I do know ; 
 Better it is to rise betime. 
 And to make hay while sun doth shine. 
 Than to believe in tales and lies 
 Which idle monks and friars devise. 
 
 The satirical Churchill also mentions the superstitious notions 
 concerning rain on this day : 
 
 July, to whom the dog-star in her train, 
 St. James gives oisters, and St. Swithin rain. 
 
 Hone's " Every Day Book" tells the story of an old lady who 
 when St. Swithin's Day opened bright and fair expressed her 
 belief in an approaching term of fine weather, but, a few drops 
 of rain having fallen in the evening, changed her tune and an- 
 nounced that the next six weeks would be wet. Her prediction 
 failed, the weather having been i^markably fine. " No matter," 
 she would say ; " if there has been no rain during the day there 
 certainly has been during the night." 
 
 The shrine of St. Swithin early sprang into great repute. 
 Worshippers, sick folk, the maimed and the halt, flocked hither 
 and left behind them substantial signs of gratitude. For cen- 
 turies Swithin was the most popular healing saint in England. 
 He entirely overshadowed the rival St. Josse or Jodocus long 
 previously established in the neighboring minster of St. Grim- 
 bald, and finally drove his competitor out of Winchester. Wulf- 
 stan records an interesting instance of this rivalry : " There was 
 a poor man so sick that be despaired of life. His friends bore 
 him to the city, and were for taking him to St. Josse ; but as 
 they drew nigh to the gate of the new minster, one met them 
 who asked them what they did. St. Swithin's bones, he said, 
 were far more potent in the old minster hard by. To this advice 
 they listened, and so laid the sick man under the relics of the 
 holy St. Swithin; and there they kept watch with him, pray- 
 
910 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 iog and dozing, through the night. Towards daybreak they all 
 fell oif to sleep, and to the sick man in his dreams it seemed as 
 if the shrine above him rocked and swayed mightily, and some 
 one was tugging at his shoes. And he awoke in fear, and lo ! he 
 was healed ; but one of his shoes was gone, and, though men 
 sought diligently for it, to this day it has never been found." 
 
 Sword Dance. This name was anciently given to a curious 
 ceremony annually performed in the North Eiding of Yorkshire on 
 St. Stephen's Day which survived until the beginning of the nine- 
 teenth century. It is thus described in " Time's Telescope" (1814, 
 p. 315) : " Six youths clad in white and bedecked with ribbons, 
 with swords in their hands, travel from one village to another. 
 They are attended by a fiddler, a youth whimsically dressed, 
 named ' Bessy,' and by one who personates a physician. One of 
 the six youths acts the part of a king in a sort of farce, which 
 consists chiefly of music and dancing, when the Bessy interferes 
 while they are making a hexagon with their swords, and is killed." 
 
 Symphorosa, St. A Jewish martyr, better known as the 
 mother of the Maccabees. Her festival is celebrated by the 
 
 Maetykdom of St. Symphokosa's Sons. 
 
 Greek Church on July 18. She and her family belonged to that 
 noble army of Palestinian martyrs who suffered persecution 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 911 
 
 under Antiochus Epiphanes. She beheld her seven sons, one 
 after another, suffer a most excruciating death rather than 
 violate the law of God ; and, after encouraging them with a 
 fortitude unexampled to endure unto the end, she at last died 
 herself, the mother and her seven sons in one day winning 
 the crown of martyrdom. The authentic history of their tor- 
 ture, endurance, and death will be found in the seventh chap- 
 ter of the second book of Maccabees, one of the Apocryphal 
 books of the Bible, the account beginning, "It came to pass 
 also that seven brethren with their mother were taken, and 
 compelled by the king against the law to taste swine's flesh, 
 and were tormented with scourges and whips. But one of 
 them that spake first said thus : What wouldest thou ask or 
 learn of us ? We are ready to die, rather than to transgress the 
 laws of our fathers." 
 
 St. Symphorosa is frequently confounded with the Christian 
 martyr St. Felicitas. She is accepted as a saint by the Greek 
 Church only, who reject St. Felicitas, the latter saint having a 
 place in the calendar of the Eastern Church. Baring-Gould 
 suspects that the saints are really identical. 
 
 Tammany Hall, St. Tammany. The famous Tammany 
 Society, which has always proved one of the mowst formidable 
 organizations of the extreme wing of the Democratic party in 
 the city of New York, was forjnally organized on May 12. 1789, 
 just twelve days after the first installation of Washington as 
 President of the Uniied States. Its germ existed further back. 
 During the Eevolution the British troops had St. George for their 
 patron and his name for their war-cry. The Americans, or some 
 of them, not to be outdone, invented a patron saint of their own. 
 They took for his legendary personality one Tamanend, a famous 
 chieftain of the Delaware Indians, who probably lived at about 
 the time of Columbus's discovery of America, and had his favor- 
 ite hunting-grounds in what is Eastern Pennsylvania, especially 
 around the Delaware Water Gap. A mountain-peak there now 
 bears his name. There are many legends of him, mostly iniagi- 
 native. Fenimore Cooper has drawn a fine picture of him in 
 " The Last of the Mohicans" (chaps, xxviii., xxix.). A story of 
 his personal battle with the devil is widely known, which relates 
 that the Indian vanquished the fiend and drove him from the 
 Pennsylvania mountains to Manhattan Island, where he has since 
 made his home. 
 
912 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 The Pennsylvania troops took to inscribing his name upon 
 their banners and speaking of '' Saint" Tamanend or Tammany 
 as their patron saint. They fixed upon May 12 as his birthday, 
 and celebrated it each year with great festivities, marked by 
 such use of fire-water as at length led to their suppression by 
 the authorities, as tending to debauch the army. Forts were 
 named after him, and in every camp a wigwam was built in his 
 honor, adorned with tomahawks, wampum, and painted totems. 
 There the soldiers would gather from time to time, themselves 
 decked with feathers, paint, and a buck's hide with the tail hang- 
 ing down behind, to listen to a harangue from one of their num- 
 ber personating a sachem and to indulge in a grand powwow. 
 After the war was ended these observances were carried into 
 civil life. Tammany wigwams were built in many towns, Tam- 
 many societies were formed, and St. Tammany's Day, May 12, 
 was a formidable rival of July 4 as a public holiday. 
 
 Such was the state of affairs when Aaron Burr conceived the 
 plan of forming a secret political club. To insure its success, he 
 must himself, at least in the beginning, not appear to be identi- 
 fied or at all concerned with it. In point of fact he never became 
 an actual member. He put forward his friend and most obedient 
 servant William Mooney to be its ostensible founder. This latter 
 was an upholsterer, an ardent patriot, of Irish parentage, with 
 a hatred of the British and of all things aristocratic, and a love 
 for the mysterious and spectacular. Mooney borrowed the gen- 
 eral scheme of the Tammany societies, called the meeting-place 
 of the new organization a Wigwam, its head the Great Father, its 
 council of twelve Sachems, its master of ceremonies a Sagamore, 
 and its door-keeper a Wiskinkie. He wanted to discard the 
 name Tammany, however, and call it " The Columbian Order." 
 But it was deemed desirable to compromise the matter. The 
 " Great Father" was transformed into " Grand Sachem," and the 
 name finally adopted was " The Tammany Society, or Columbian 
 Order." As such it was formed at the date named above, and 
 soon grew into importance and influence. It celebrated both 
 May 12 and July 4 as national holidays, and on the former date 
 in 1790 was introduced to the public in The New York Daily 
 Gazette in these terms: 
 
 "The Society of St. Tammany, being a national society, con- 
 sists of Americans born, who fill all offices, and adopted Ameri- 
 cans, who are eligible to the honorary posts of warrior and 
 hunter. It is founded on the true principles of patriotism, and 
 has for its motives charity and brotherly love. Its officers con- 
 sist of one grand sachem, twelve sachems, one treasurer, one 
 secretary, one door-keeper; it is divided into thirteen tribes, 
 which severally represent a State ; each tribe is governed by a 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 913 
 
 sachem, the honorary posts in which are one warrior and one 
 hunter." 
 
 Its legal incorporation was effected on April 9, 1805, the Legis- 
 lature granting to " William Mooney and other inhabitants of 
 the city of JSTew York" a charter " for the purpose of affording 
 relief to the indigent and distressed members of the association, 
 their widows and orphans, and others who may be found proper 
 objects of their charity." The first Wigwam was in Barden's 
 City Hotel, on Broadway, the second in a Broad Street tavern, 
 and the third, which was used until the first Tammany Hall was 
 erected, in " Martling's Long Room," a drinking-place and dance- 
 hall, commonly known as the " Pig-Pen." The character of the 
 meetings was afterwards well described by Halleck : 
 
 There's a barrel of porter in Tammany Hall, 
 
 And the Buektails are swigging it all the night long. 
 
 The society began the collection of a museum of patriotic 
 relics, of which it presently got tired, and which it turned over 
 to P. T. Barnum, to become the nucleus of his famous museum. 
 One of its most notable early performances, in 1790, was to save 
 the nation from an Indian war. The Creeks were about to go 
 on the war-path, when a delegation of them was induced to visit 
 'New York, then the Federal capital. If the delegates were 
 pleasantly impressed, war might be averted. So the Tammany 
 Society invited them to its Wigwam ; all the Tammany men 
 were arrayed in paint and feathers, and fire-water was abundant. 
 The result was that the Creeks reported to their tribe that it 
 would never do to go to war with their own hospitable brethren : 
 so the peace was kept. 
 
 In 1811 Tammany became rich enough to leave the Pig-Pen 
 and put up a hall of its own. This was a three-story brick 
 building on the southeast corner of Nassau and Frankfort 
 Streets. It contained what was then the finest public ball-room 
 in the city. This building was afterwards enlarged and im- 
 proved, and served the society as its head-quarters until 1868, 
 when the present building in Fourteenth Street was occupied, 
 the corner-stone having been laid on July 4, 1867, with an oration 
 by Gulian C. Yerplanck. 
 
 Tenebrse. The name given to the matins and lauds sung in 
 Poman Catholic churches on the afternoon or evening of Wcd- 
 nesdaj^, Thursday, and Friday in Holy Week. At the beginning 
 of the office thirteen candles are placed on a triangular candela- 
 brum, and at the end of each psalm one is put out, till only a 
 single candle is left lighted at the top of the triangle. During 
 
 58 
 
914 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 the singing of the Benedictus the candles on the high altar are 
 likewise extinguished, and at its close the single candle left alight 
 is taken from the candelabrum and hidden at the Epistle corner 
 of the altar, to be brought out again at the close of the service. 
 
 TENEBR.E,— Extinction of the Lights. 
 
 This extinction of lights (whence probably the name tenebrce, 
 or " darkness") symbolizes the growing darkness of the time 
 when Christ, the light of the world, was taken. The last candle, 
 Benedict XIY. explains, is hidden, not extinguished, to signify 
 that death could not really obtain dominion over Christ, though 
 it appeared to do so. The clapping of hands after the singing 
 of the Miserere symbolizes the confusion consequent on Christ's 
 death. In Eome and other Italian cities the entire congregation 
 joins in clapping, stamping on the floor, and other noisy demon- 
 strations. Children go to the churches carrying sticks entwined 
 with colored ribbons, which are exposed for sale in every street- 
 stall in the city. These are beaten violently and with a deafen- 
 ing clatter against the floor, Avails, or pillars of the church. The 
 juvenile explanation makes this the flagellation of the devil, — 
 apparently a curious evolution from the flagellation of Christ. 
 
 Tenures, Curious. The law-books are full of cases of 
 singular tenures by which estates used to be or are still held, so 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 915 
 
 that, in the quaint language of Blount, one can but " smile at the 
 inoffensive mirth both of our kings in former times and lords of 
 manors in creating them." Here is an out-of-the-way instance. 
 One Solomon Attfield held lands at Repland and Atterton, in 
 Kent, upon condition that, as often as the king should cross the 
 sea, the said Solomon and his heirs should accompany him, in 
 order that they might "hold his head" if his gracious majesty 
 were unfortunately visited with sea-sickness. Take another 
 example. In the reign of Edward III. one John Corapes had 
 the manor of Finchlield given to him as a reward for his arduous 
 services at the king's coronation, — which services consisted in 
 turning the spit in the royal kitchen. 
 
 Many noble lords held manors by the service of carving for 
 the king at annual feasts, or serving him, or bearing a rod before 
 him, or guarding his person (as at Shrewsbury when he lay 
 there). The lord of the manor of Houghton, Cumberland, was 
 obliged to hold the stirrup of the king when he mounted his 
 horse in Carhsle Castle, and the lord of Shirefield had the un- 
 pleasant duty of being master of the king's meretrices, or laun- 
 dresses, as well as of dismembering condemned malefactors and 
 measuring the gallons in the king's household. To carry a hawk 
 for his majesty, to present him with a gray hood or cap or a 
 white ensign whenever he warred in Scotland, to attend with 
 proper arms, a horse, sword, lance, or simple bow and arrows, 
 whenever their services were required, such were the duties in- 
 cumbent upon other manor lords. The service of cornage or 
 blowing horns was very common, especially in the Border coun- 
 ties, where Scottish invasions were frequent. The owner of 
 Kingston Russell, Dorset, was obliged to count the king's chess- 
 men and to put them in a bag when the king had finished the 
 game. 
 
 The tenant of a large farm at Broadhouse, near Langsett, 
 Yorkshire, England, holds the right to the property as long as 
 he shall pay a yearly rental of " a snow-ball at midsummer and 
 a red rose at Christmas" to the landlord, A red rose at Christ- 
 mas in these days of hot-houses is easy enough to obtain. But a 
 snow-ball at midsummer? At first sight it would appear that an 
 utterly disproportionate trouble and expense must be entailed 
 upon the owner of the Broadhouse property. In point of fact, 
 whatever may have been the original intent of the donor, from 
 time immemorial the midsummer rent has been received in the 
 form of a Guelder rose, which is called a snow-ball in the neigh- 
 borhood. 
 
 One of the dukes of Scotland relinquishes his rights to his 
 lands if it should ever get warm enough to melt the snow from 
 the highest peak of the highest mountain in Scotland. 
 
916 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 William de Albemarle holds the manor of Leaston "by the 
 service of finding for our lord the king two arrows and one loaf 
 of oat bread when the sovereign should hunt in the forest of 
 Eastmoor." Although the forest is no longer a hunting ground, 
 and arrows have long since given place to rifles and shot-guns of 
 the best make, still the heirs of Albemarle keep the arrows and 
 the oat bread ready for any stray king that may happen that 
 way, thus holding good the title to their estates. 
 
 Geoffrey Frumbrand and heirs hold sixty acres of land in 
 Suffolk, England, on condition that they pay the sovereign a 
 yearly rental of two white doves. 
 
 Not many of these ancient tenures have survived, But for 
 over seven hundred years the Corporation of London has 
 annually discharged two quaint ceremonies as quit-rents to the 
 reigning sovereign for certain lands in the counties of Salop and 
 Middlesex of which the Corporation are tenants in capite to the 
 crown. The actual site of the property itself has been lost in 
 the mists of antiquity. But the ceremony has never been 
 omitted. It now takes place in the office of the Queen's Eemem- 
 brancer, but anciently before the Cursitor Baron of the Ex- 
 chequer, an office which was abolished forty years ago. Here is 
 how the London Daily Chronicle describes the ceremony in 1896 : 
 
 " Many visitors — mostly ladies — were present to see the cere- 
 mony, which dates back to a.d. 1211. The first rental was ren- 
 dered after the following proclamation had been made, viz.: 
 ' Tenants and occupiers of a piece of waste ground called the 
 Moors, in the County of Salop, come forth and do your service.' 
 Whereupon the city solicitor cut a fagot with a hatchet and 
 another with a bill-hook. On this occasion, by desire of the 
 queen, the implements used will be sent to her majesty. The 
 second rental rendered was after the following proclamation : 
 'Tenants and occupiers of a certain tenement called the Forge, 
 in the Parish of St. Clement's Danes, in the County of Middle- 
 sex, come forth and do your service.' The city solicitor came 
 forward again, and counted on the table six horseshoes and 
 sixty-one hobnails, which the Queen's Eemembrancer declared to 
 be 'good numbers.' This brought the ceremony to a close. 
 During her majesty's reign of sixty years, four Queen's Eemem- 
 brancers have taken part in the ceremony, Mr. Pollock being the 
 fourth." 
 
 Terminalia. An ancient Eoman festival celebrated on Feb- 
 ruary 23 in honor of Terminus, the god of boundaries and 
 frontiers. The neighbors on either side of any boundary gathered 
 round the stones (fermini) which marked territorial limits and 
 crowned them with garlands. Cakes and bloodless sacrifices 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 917 
 
 were offered up. In later times, however, a lamb or sucking 
 pig was sometimes slain and the stone sprinkled with the blood. 
 In conclusion the whole neighborhood joined in a general feast. 
 
 Teufelstisch. (Ger., " Devil's Table.") The name given to 
 a large flat rock lying near Graefenberg, Bavaria. Here, it is 
 popularly believed, a glass palace, invisible to mortal eyes, springs 
 up just after midnight on May 1. The devil's table occupies the 
 centre of the banqueting-hall in this palace, and a ghostly crew, 
 including Gambrinus, the inventor of beer, and the shades of the 
 ancient kings of France, hold high revelry around the big flat 
 rock. 
 
 Thanksgiving Day. A holiday now observed in all the 
 United States. Custom prescribes that the date shall be set by 
 special proclamation of the President, and adds that the date 
 shall be the last Thursday in November. The proclamation 
 would appear to stamp the feast with a sort of official character 
 possessed by no other holiday in America. But that character 
 is only apparent. It is not for the Federal government to tell 
 the people of the United States when they shall quit business 
 and take to pleasure. The President's proclamation only recom- 
 mends that the people, ceasing from their ordinary occupations, 
 observe the day with proper ceremony. It only makes it a legal 
 holiday in those States which provide for its legality by special 
 statute. Thanksgiving, though observed in all the States, is not 
 a legal holiday in all of them. 
 
 The celebration has a long and curious history. Days set 
 apart for special thanksgiving 'to the Lord were known to the 
 Israelites, and are mentioned throughout the Bible. They were 
 not uncommon in England before the Eeformation and among 
 Protestants afterwards. So recently as 1872 a day of thanks- 
 giving was appointed on February 27 for the recovery of the 
 Prince of Wales from typhoid fever. 
 
 The ^I'st thanksgiving held in North America was conducted 
 by an English minister named Wolfall, in the year 1578, on the 
 shores of Newfoundland. The reverend gentleman accompanied 
 the expedition under Frobisher which brought the first English 
 colony to settle on these shores. The records of this day's 
 observances are thus preserved in the ship's log: "On Monday 
 morning. May 27, 1578, aboard the Ayde we received all the 
 communion by the minister of Gravescnd and prepared as good 
 Christians toward God and resolute men for all fortunes and 
 toward night we departed toward Tilberry Hope. Here we 
 highly praysed God and altogether upon our knees gave Him 
 duo humble and hearty thanks, and Maister Wolfall, a learned 
 
918 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 man apj join ted by her Majesty's council to be our minister, made 
 unto us a godlye sermon, exhorting all especially to be thankful 
 to God for His strange and miraculous deliverance in those dan- 
 gerous places," etc. This was perhaps the first Christian sermon 
 preached and the first celebration of the Holy Communion in 
 North America. 
 
 The earliest record of any observance of a similar service 
 within the present territory of the United States was held by 
 the Popham colony settled at Sagadahoc, on the coast of Maine, 
 in August, 1607. 
 
 But these were mere thanksgiving services, which only con- 
 sumed a few hours and did not color the whole dsiy. The real 
 origin of Thanksgiving as a day specially set apart for prayer 
 and rejoicing must be attributed to Governor Bradford, the first 
 governor of Massachusetts Colony. In gratitude for the plenteous 
 harvest of 1621, following upon a period of great depression, he 
 proclaimed a day of thanksgiving to be observed on December 
 13 (Old Style) of that year. 
 
 In practical furtherance of his proclamation, he at once sent 
 out four men in search of game. Thus early in the history of 
 the day does our good friend the turkey make his appearance ; 
 for, successful in their quest, the four sportsmen returned, strug- 
 gling under a burden of wild fowl, principally turkeys, sufficient 
 to meet the wants of the little colony for a week. Then the 
 thrifty housewives took the matter in hand and made all the 
 goodies possible from their somewhat limited supply of material. 
 
 At the first gray dawn of that first Thanksgiving Day, one of 
 the cannon that crowned the hill-top thundered forth a salute. 
 A solemn procession to the meeting-house was formed, the men 
 marching three abreast. Elder Brewster, in his long preacher's 
 camlet coat, walking beside them, bearing with a gravity befitting 
 the occasion the great Bible, while the Sergeant in Counsel and 
 Governor Bradford brought up the rear. After the service fol- 
 lowed the dinner, whose savojy odors seem to have penetrated 
 the forest's fastnesses, for in the midst of the festivities an Indian 
 shout was heard, and ninety friendly red men, under King Mas- 
 sasoit, appeared as if by magic, bearing as an addition to the 
 feast huge haunches of venison. The day of Thanksgiving 
 lengthened into three, the mere bodily feastings being varied 
 with the singing of psalms and songs, with war-dances by the 
 savages, with exhibitions of military drill by Captain Standish's 
 well-trained soldier5\ and with such sports and pastimes as char- 
 acterized the recreations of the middle class of English people in 
 those times at home. 
 
 The festival proved the prelude to frequent days of thanks- 
 giving in the following years throughout the New England 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 919 
 
 colonies. Sometimes it was appointed once a year, sometimes 
 twice, sometimes a year or two were skipped, — according as 
 reasons forgiving thanks presented themselves or not. Now the 
 reason was a victory over the Indians, then the arrival of a ship 
 with supplies or " persons of special use and quality," and yet 
 again a bountiful harvest. The frequent appointments for the 
 last cause finally made August the customary month. Beginning 
 with 1684, the festival became a formal and annual one in Massa- 
 chusetts. Her example was soon followed by all the New England 
 colonies. 
 
 One of the potent influences which aided its genei-al acceptance 
 in these colonies was the Puritanic hatred of Christmas as a relic 
 of "Popish mummery." Such "superstitious meats" as baron 
 of beef, boar's head, plum-pudding, and mince pie, all redolent 
 of memories of the ancient feast, were eschewed in favor of the 
 indigenous turkey, Indian pudding, and pumpkin pie. 
 
 In pioneer Thanksgiving times in Ehode Island and Connecti- 
 cut, however, venison or bear's meat rather than turkey was the 
 centre of the festal board. In a new^spaper pubhshed in Con- 
 necticut in colonial times is to be found an account of the feast 
 spread before the Governor and Her Majesty's Commissioners on 
 Thanksgiving Day, 1713, from which it appears that, before the 
 company fell to, the announcement was made that the venison 
 had come from a deer which had been shot " on ye Lord's Day." 
 Thereupon the entire company refused to eat, and it was decided 
 that the Indian who had shot the deer should receive thirty-nine 
 stripes and should restore to the purchaser the price paid for the 
 meat. Then, having inflicted a "just and righteous sentence on 
 ye sinful heathen," the comply (with the exception of one 
 member, whose conscience was not satisfied) fell upon the ven- 
 ison and devoured it. 
 
 During the Revolutionary War Thanksgiving lost some of its 
 local New England character. The Continental Congress recom- 
 mended no less than eight days of Thanksgiving. They fell in 
 April, May, July, and December. The appointments were made 
 in the form of recommendations to the heads of the various 
 colonial governments. With one exception. Congress suspended 
 business on the days appointed. 
 
 Washington issued a proclamation for a general thanksgiving 
 by the Continental Army, Thursday, D.ecember 18, 1777, and 
 again at Valley Forge, May 7, 1778. A few days before the 
 adjournment of Congress in September, 1789, Representative 
 Elias Boudinot moved in the House that the President be re- 
 quested to recommend a day of thanksgiving and prayer in 
 acknowledgment of the many signal favors of Almigiity God, 
 and especially his affording them an opportunity of establishing 
 
920 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 a constitution of government for their safety and happiness. 
 Eoger Sherman, of Connecticut, supported the motion. jEdanus 
 Burke, of South Carolina, did not like "this mimicking of Euro- 
 pean customs," and Thomas T. Tucker, of Virginia, intimated 
 that it might be as well to wait for some experience of the 
 eflSciency of the Constitution before returning thanks for it. In 
 spite of these objections, the motion was carried, and President 
 Washington issued a proclamation appointing as Thanksgiving 
 Day November 26. 
 
 The original manuscript of this proclamation, interesting as 
 the first ever issued by a President of the United States, is now 
 (1897) in the hands of the Eev. J. W. Wellman, who had it as 
 an heirloom from his grandfather, William Eipley, of Cornish, 
 New Hampshire. 
 
 Following Washington, several Presidents issued general pro- 
 clamations on special occasions ; but usually it was left to the 
 governors of the States to determine whether there should be a 
 day of Thanksgiving and what that day should be. 
 
 Now, it happened that Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, coming down from 
 Boston to Philadelphia to edit Godey's Lady's Book, realized as 
 she had not done while in her New England home how limited 
 was the observance of the day. Wherefore she sat down and 
 wrote letters to the governors of all the States and Territories, 
 suggesting that they should, by proclamation, appoint the last 
 Thursday of November as a day for thanksgiving, so that the 
 celebration might be given a national character. This she did 
 year after year, and was so far successful that in 1859 the gov- 
 ernors of all the States but two yielded to her request. But as 
 yet there was no very wide-spread attention from the people 
 invited to keep the day. During the war the custom lagged in 
 those States in which it had not firmly intrenched itself, espe- 
 cially in the South, where indeed it has always had to combat 
 the suspicion of being a Puritan substitute for Christmas. But 
 most of the Northern governors continued to issue their procla- 
 mations, which were generally followed by great devastations 
 among the flocks of turke3'-gobblers. Immediately after the 
 battle of Gettysburg, in July, 1863, Mrs. Hale wrote to President 
 Lincoln, enclosing a copy of Washington's Thanksgiving procla- 
 mation issued from New York in 1789, and suggested that he, 
 too, should proclaim a day of National Thanksgiving. Her sug- 
 gestion was followed on July 15, when the President issued a pro- 
 clamation " for the observance of Thursday, August 6, as a day 
 for national thanksgiving, praise, and prayer." Since then (with 
 only one exception of date) the Presidents have appointed the 
 last Thursday of November, exchanging the local and variable 
 observance of early days for one truly national. 
 
.^c 
 
 POPULAR CUSTOMS. 921 
 
 The Thanksgiving of the present is built upon the Thanks- 
 giving of the past, but has incorporated into itself many of the 
 genial features of Christmas, and this in its turn has among 
 Americans borrowed sbmething from the modern holiday. There 
 has been an unconscious unification of the two feasts in certain 
 material aspects. The Thanksgiving turkey has driven the 
 Christmas goose from all tables; and on the other hand the 
 mince pie of Christmas shares the honor of completing the 
 Thanksgiving indigestion with the pumpkin pie which once 
 monopolized the work. 
 
 A correspondent of the New York Evening Post (November 
 25, 1891) has given a pleasant account of how Thanksgiving was 
 celebrated about the middle of the century in New England. 
 Many of the old forms are still retained, yet some have been so 
 modified or so nearly lost that it is well to keep a record of them. 
 
 " The old country Thanksgiving," this authority tells us, " then 
 ks now had its threefold character, — sportive, iestal, and religious, 
 — but two of its sportive elements have now almost faded away. 
 One was the ' rafiie,' always held on Thanksgiving Eve. Some- 
 times it was held at a farm-house, sometimes at the country 
 store, more often at the local butcher's shop. Each turkey, 
 goose, or chicken, all usuall}^ the relics of the earlier Thanks- 
 giving sales and therefore tough and adamantine, had its number 
 of chances ticketed upon it in sprawling figures. A fair-sized 
 fowl had ten chances of sixpence each; a fat goose ran up to 
 a dozen sixpences, and a turkey, if fat, fair, and not forty, to 
 thirty sixpences or fewer ninepences. A dice-box, two dice, and 
 three throws, with their maximum of thirty-six points, a crowded 
 room in the flickering glow of 'jtaller dips' or camphene lamps, 
 and a jolly crowd of rustics, fringed with small boys, were the 
 other components of the picture. The 'banker,' if such the 
 proprietor of the raflle may be called, had little tricks of his own. 
 Sometimes he loaded up a turkey, fair to the eye but sinewy in 
 flesh, with many high-priced chances. Geese, rotund in figure 
 but rank and fishy from self- fattening on the minnows of their 
 natal pond, were another form of his deceit ; and he had a true 
 Yankee trick of watching keenly the gambling fervor of his 
 patrons and disposing of his toughest fowls when the frenzy ran 
 highest. Human nature cropped out in those ancestral turkey- 
 raffles as clearly as in Wall Street now^adays, 
 
 " Another of the sportive features of the Yankee Thanksgiving 
 Day, now almost extinct, was the shooting-match, usually held 
 in the morning, and therefore not vie^A'ed with favor by the 
 Church, because of its tendency to entice the youth from the 
 Thanksgiving service. In an open field a basc-lino was marked 
 on the turf. From this were laid off" certain shooting-distances. 
 
922 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Eight rods, about, was ' chicken distance ;' about nine rods, tur- 
 key distance ; while for rifle-shooting, with a turkey as target 
 and prize, the distance was more arbitrary, but not often more 
 than twenty rods. There were at each distance ' stools' of block 
 and nail to tie the doomed fowls to, and twenty feet back of the 
 base-line a ' rest' of a dry-goods box, on which shooters so de- 
 siring could place their guns under penalty of the longer range. 
 The match was more between the fowls and the gunner than 
 between the shooters. The chickens and turkeys chosen by the 
 shrewd master of the Yankee Schtitzenfest were ever of the 
 most archaic type, with flesh of iron, and so long as they could 
 ' stand up or fly a rod' the fusillade had to continue. They seemed 
 to absorb shot like cornmeal, and occasionally survived fifteen or 
 twenty of the cruel firings. 
 
 "In its religious character the old Yankee Thanksgiving was 
 a curious hybrid. On the one side was the severe ancestral 
 orthodoxy and a religion which has been aptly described as a 
 brooding sense that something awful was always going to hap- 
 pen ; and on the other hand the ofiicial Church order to rejoice 
 and give thanks on the day, even though the pit yawned on the 
 day before and the day after. To the severely pious, therefore, 
 the day was a sort of paradox, and to the youngsters of the 
 congregation, pent up in the pew, a veritable Sunday, only diluted 
 by the single service and by the aroma of the coming turkey. 
 The wives often stayed at home to prepare the dinner; and this 
 absenteeism was sometimes made the object of severe reproach 
 from the pulpit, aimed at preference for the flesh-pots over spir- 
 itual things. Nevertheless even the Yankee pulpit ' cheered up' 
 perceptibly on Thanksgiving. Not seldom it turned, as on ' fast 
 day,' towards secular topics, local. State, or national ; and it was 
 on a Thanksgiving that one of our stanch Federalist pastors of 
 Connecticut prayed, 'And, O Lord, endovV the President [Jeffer- 
 son] with a goodly portion of thy grace, for thou, O Lord, 
 know est that he needs it.' 
 
 " But the festal trait of the old Yankee Thanksgiving was the 
 prime mark of the day. It was the one time of the year when 
 into the hard-fisted home life and its deep religious gloom the 
 sunlight fairly entered, and it was proportionally made much of, 
 with preparations begun many days before the feast, and the 
 feast itself looked forward to with an excitement of which our 
 later Yankee generation knows nothing. Its reunions, its vacant 
 chairs, its yearly story of profit or of pain, touched the inner 
 chords of those stern old Yankee souls and made them vibrant. 
 The table fare was graded downward on a sort of barn-yard 
 scale: for the squirearch the stall-fed turkey, specially fattened 
 and sometimes rising twenty pounds, at one end of the board, 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 923 
 
 chicken pie at the other ; for the well-to-do farm household, a 
 turkey of minor degree, without the pie ; and for the poorer 
 farmers, the pie without the turkey. But every table, rich or 
 poor, had its cider and its mince pie, which, with a fowl of some 
 land, were the trinity of the feast. They survive still until our 
 time; but from the modern board one very common side-dish of 
 the old Thanksgiving is missed, — pigeon pie. In those days the 
 wild pigeons lighting by hundreds on the buckwheat-fields were 
 enticed by a decoy bird within range of a spring net and taken 
 in multitudes. Kept alive in enclosures and fattened on grain, 
 they entered at iast the dish to whose savory quality our ances- 
 tors could render no higher tribute than by their daring mutila- 
 tion of a favorite h^^mn : 
 
 " When I can read my title clear 
 
 To mansions in the skies, 
 
 I'll bid farewell to every fear 
 
 And live on pigeon pies. 
 
 " In the hospitable glow of the season, no tramp went unfed, 
 and even the town poor-house had its turkey ; old enemies chose 
 the time for ' making up' their feuds ; and the day, as a rule, in- 
 finitely more than now under our sunnier creeds, turned men for 
 a while from the darksome theory of retribution towards the 
 gentle humanities. In our days of liberal theology, expanding 
 Christian unities, and organized charities, we of a later Yankee 
 generation can never fully know how to our ancestors that old 
 and single Thanksgiving Day of the year was worth the whole 
 fifty-two Sundays, and how it tempered the fierce doctrinal heats 
 of a hundred and four sermons." 
 
 In the State of l^ew York the first Thanksgiving proclama- 
 tion was issued by Governor John Jay in 1795. It was an- 
 nounced as an expression of gratitude for the cessation of the 
 yellow fever plague of that year, and was appointed for Thurs- 
 day, November 26'. Political opponents, on the alert for fault- 
 finding, bitterly censured this act as another evidence of the 
 governor's aristocratic or federal notions of government and in 
 excess of his due prerogatives as an executive ofiicer. 
 
 In the middle of the century it was fashionable, and therefore 
 customary, to make calls. Thanksgiving Day rivalled New 
 Year's Day in this respect. Society folk dined at noon, drove 
 to Kingsbridge and back, and then held receptions. It is re- 
 corded that in the days when Ward McAllister and Peter Marie 
 were young beaux and Bond Street was a fashionable prom- 
 enade they never missed a Thanksgiving afternoon call upon 
 a gentleman whose name has come down to posterity only as 
 " Turner the generous." 
 
924 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Mr. Turner lived in lower Fifth Avenue, and his Thanksgiving 
 afternoons were famous. He kept open house, as did many other 
 New Yorkers, and dispensed a peculiarly seductive eggnog, which 
 was sipped through a straw. A box of cigars was offered as a 
 prize to the guest who could drink three of ^hese eggnogs, and 
 tradition says that Mr. McAllister was a prize-winner. 
 
 Another and somewhat strange way of observing the holiday 
 in New York has been, up to very recent years, to dress one's self 
 in the most fantastic costume imaginable and parade the streets. 
 This was undoubtedly a survival of the old Pope Day or Guy 
 Fawkes's Day (q. v.) mummeries translated to a later day in the 
 same month. Hundreds of companies of these motley persons, 
 under some such name as the " Square Back Eangers," the " Slen- 
 derfoot Ai-my," or the " Original Hounds," and dressed chiefly, 
 as an old account says, as "clowns, Yankees, Irishmen, kings, 
 washerwomen, and courtiers," thronged the streets all day. 
 These "ragamuffin parades" have fallen into disuse except for a 
 few small boys, but as recently as 1885 they w^ere in full swing, 
 as the following paragraph, printed in the Sun on November 27, 
 1885, testifies : 
 
 " Fantastic processions burst out all over the town in unusual 
 abundance and filled the popular eye with a panorama that 
 looked like a crazy-quilt show grown crazy and filled the popu- 
 lar ear with the din of thumping drums and blaring trumpets. 
 Thirty-six companies of fantastics had permits to march around 
 making an uproar, and they did it with great success. Local 
 statesmen went around with the down-town paraders and helped 
 them whoop things up. There were lots and lots of fantastics 
 who hadn't any permit, and who didn't care either. They were 
 the thousands and thousands of small boys who put on their 
 sisters' old dresses, smeared paint on their faces, pulled on red, 
 yellow, brown, black, and indiscriminate wigs, and pranced round 
 their own particular streets, without the least fear of police in- 
 terference." 
 
 These fantastic parades sometimes attained the dignity of a 
 political demonstration. In 1870 the chief feature of Thanks- 
 giving Day observances in New York was a parade of the 
 Shandley Legion. The route was from Essex Market to Irving 
 Hall, and the whole town turned out to see it. The newspapers 
 the day before announced that " Senator Tweed will review the 
 troops from the parlor windows of the Blossom Club, and not 
 from the balcony of his residence at Forty-First Street and 
 Fifth Avenue." 
 
 Prizes w^orth over ten thousand dollars were distributed among 
 the paraders. The list of those contributing tow^ards the prizes 
 makes rather interesting reading at this time. Here are a few 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 925 
 
 extracts from the list : Senator William M. Tweed, $500 in gold ; 
 Assistant District Attorney Fellows, a diamond ring, worth $75 ; 
 James Timoney, of Wallack's, silver, $20 ; E. D. Bassford, set of 
 crockery, worth $175 ; the Hon. Tim J. Campbell, check for $50 ; 
 Mr. William Edelstein (law partner of young Tweed), $50 ; a 
 friend of Commissioner Shandley, a set of harness ; General 
 Miles, president of the Sixpenny Savings Bank, gold, $100 ; the 
 Stable Gang, bills, $100 ; W. J. Florence, the comedian, check 
 for $50. The Sun, in concluding its list of these donations, says, 
 " And so on to an almost interminable length, the list comprising 
 everything from a piano to a shirt-stud." 
 
 Theresa, St. (It. Santa Teresa; Fr, Sainte-Therese ; Sp. 
 Santa Teresa), patron saint of Spain. Her festival is celebrated 
 on the day of her death, October 15. 
 
 St. Theresa was born at Avila, in Old Castile, on the 28th of 
 March, 1515. She was of a noble family, and was very piously 
 brought up. Her mind was probably unbalanced by her emo- 
 tional nature, and when she was but nine years old she set off 
 with her brother into the country of the Moors, in the hope 
 of becoming a martyr. The children were brought back, and 
 then resolved to become hermits, but were not allowed to carry 
 out this idea. At. the age of twenty St. Theresa entered the 
 Carmelite convent at Avila, where she was in great stress of 
 mind for a number of years. She has left behind a history of 
 her struggles and temptations, from which it appears that she 
 derived much comfort and consolation from the '• Confessions" 
 of St. Augustine. She became active in deeds of charity, and 
 threw herself into the task of reforming the Carmelite order. 
 She began with eight nuns oply in a small convent, but by the 
 time of her death she had founded thirty convents and had 
 established her lule in a number of monasteries as well. Her 
 main idea was that those who followed the rule should possess 
 absolutely nothing and subsist on charity. Besides the history 
 of her life she wrote many devout works. She died at Alva in 
 1582. Philip III. declared her to be the second patron saint of 
 Spain. She was canonized by Gregory XY. in 1622. Her body 
 was buried at Alva, but was removed to Avila in 1585. The 
 following year, however, it was moved back to Alva by an order 
 from Eome obtained by the Duke of Alva, where it remains to 
 the present day. Many miracles are recorded as wrought by her 
 relics and through her intercession. The body of the saint is 
 not now entire at Alva, and some of her relics have been scat- 
 tered. Her left arm is at Lisbon. Fingers of her right hand 
 are at Seville, Eome, Avila, Paris, and Brussels. Her right foot 
 is in Rome, together with a slice of her flesh. A wooden cross 
 
926 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 with which the saint is said to have combated devils is at Eome, 
 and another at Brussels. Her slippers are shown at Avila, and 
 also her staff and rosary ; her veil is at Cagliari ; a piece of 
 flesh and a tooth are preserved in the Carmelite church of 
 Venice. At Piacenza a napkin stained with the blood of the 
 saint is exposed on the day of her festival. At Milan a slice of 
 her heart and a tooth are shown; at Naples are a lump of 
 flesh and the saint's scapular, and another lump of flesh is at 
 Paris. Two large slices of flesh are at Cracow. St. Theresa is 
 represented in art with a flaming arrow penetrating her heart, 
 or with Christ presenting a nail to her. Sometimes she appears 
 in a biretta with book and pen, and with the Dove whispering 
 in her ear, as a doctor of the Church. 
 
 Thomas a Becket, St. (1117-1170), or St. Thomas of Can- 
 terbury, as he is better known to the hagiologists. The most 
 popular saint of Catholic England. His memory was formerly 
 commemorated not only on the anniversary of his murder or 
 martyrdom, December 29, but also and more particularly on the 
 anniversary of the translation of his relics, July 7 (1223). The 
 latter was and is still known in Great Britain as St. Thomas's 
 Day. Its eve was kept as a strict fast by the clergy and pilgrims 
 to his shrine. The pilgrimages to Canterbury are especially 
 famous in literature through the " Canterbury Tales" of Chaucer. 
 For upwards of three centuries after the translation, pilgrims 
 from every nation, rank, and class thronged to the martyr's 
 tomb on St. Thomas's Day. Up to a comparatively recent time, 
 a faint survival of the festivities of this day was retained in 
 Becket' s Fair, held on July 7 at Canterbury. It may also be 
 noted that according to " Time's Telescope" (1822, p. 192), quoted 
 in Dyer's " British Popular Customs," the Sunday after St. 
 Thomas's Day formerly went by the name of Eelic Sunday in 
 some parts of Northamptonshire. (See also Bodmin Biding.) 
 
 The details of Becket's Hfe are too well known to need any but 
 the briefest recapitulation. He commenced life as a gay com- 
 panion of Henry II., who loaded him with favors and finally 
 conferred on him the archbishopric of Canterbury. From that 
 time Thomas's character underwent a complete transformation. 
 The former worldly-minded courtier now became the devout and 
 ascetic priest, who walked alone in the cloister bewailing his 
 past sins, who washed the feet of pilgrims and beggars, and 
 whose sole aim was the exaltation of the power of Church over 
 State. We need no longer look at the great prelate through the 
 spectacles of his posthumous Protestant opponents. With all its 
 faults, the Church of Becket's day was the only possible helper 
 of the people. The Bishop of Eome was just then a less dan- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 927 
 
 gerous shepherd than Henry, the Angevin king. Becket may 
 not have become consciously a champion of the people when he 
 turned an opponent of the king, nevertheless he proved a mighty 
 agent in winning that long battle for English liberty which was 
 by no means closed on the scaffold of King Charles, five hundred 
 years later. 
 
 Henry, stung by repeated acts of contumacy, one day let fall 
 the angry expression, "Of the cow^ards that eat my bread, are 
 there none that will relieve me of this upstart priest ?" Four 
 Norman knights accepted the unwary remark as a hint. The 
 result was the murder of the archbishop on the very steps of his 
 altar. 
 
 The news filled all Christendom with horror. King Henry, in 
 sackcloth and ashes, bewailed the crime which he had unwittingly 
 instigated. "He shut himself up three days in his closet," says 
 good Bishop Butler, " taking almost no nourishment and admit- 
 ting no comfort, and for forty days never went abroad, never had 
 his table or any diversions as usual, having always before his 
 eyes the death of the holy prelate. He not only wept, but 
 
 Shrine of St. Thomas 1 Becket. 
 
 howled and cried out in the excess of his grief" He assured the 
 Pope of his absolute innocence in intention. He voluntarily 
 made all the concessions which St. Thomas had demanded. The 
 martyr was canonized two years after his death by Alexander 
 III., and there was an immediate outbreak of miracles at his 
 shrine, w^hich long continued to be the most popular pilgrim- 
 age place in England, while his cult spread rapidly throughout 
 every country in Europe. 
 
 Among the first of these pilgrims came Henry II. to do a 
 second penance in expiation of his unwitting crime and sacrilege. 
 
928 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 After having lived upon bread and water for some days, and 
 after walking barefooted to the cathedral, he knelt in the transept, 
 where the martyrdom had occurred, and then in the crypt, where 
 a Becket's tomb then was. Upon this he bowed his head, and, his 
 lower garments having been removed, the King of England, a 
 Plantagenet, received five strokes from the rod of each bishop 
 and abbot who was present, and three from each of the eighty 
 monks! 'After this he stood the whole night barefooted upon 
 the ground, resting only against one of the rude stone pillars 
 of the crypt. 
 
 St. Thomas's fame now extended throughout Europe. Even 
 to this day his hair shirt is preserved in a reliquary in the Eng- 
 lish college at Douay ; a small part in the abbey of Liesse ; a 
 bone of his arm in the church of St. Waltrude, at Mons ; his 
 chalice in the nunnery of Bourbourg ; his mitre and linen, dipped 
 in his blood, at St. Berlin's, in St. Omer, and other relics at 
 Eheims, at Eome, at Florence, at Yerona, at Lisbon. There is a 
 chapel dedicated to him at Lyons, and a house with an inscription 
 bearing his name at Lille ; his figure may still be seen in the 
 church of Monreale at Palermo, and his stoiy is blazoned in the 
 beautiful windows of Chartres, of Sens, and of St. Ouen, while 
 his martyrdom is elaborately embroidered on a cloth still kept 
 in the cathedral of Anagni. The Crusaders founded a church 
 and cemetery in his honor at Acre. 
 
 In England, of course, the tokens of devout homage were 
 more conspicuous and universal. It is hence that the name of 
 Thomas became so common among Englishmen, and that so 
 many of the English ancient bells, like that of Christ Church, 
 Oxford, rejoice in the name " Great Tom." 
 
 It is obvious that the unfeigned and abiding homage which for 
 nearly four centuries was paid to his name marks something 
 in his character and career Avhich awoke a national response in 
 the national heart. In the first half-century after his death the 
 monks kept the door of his vault in which the body lay under 
 lock and key, but on Friday in Easter week and on the Nones 
 of April the door was opened and all persons were permitted to 
 perform their devotions at the tomb. 
 
 On July 7, 1223, the relics were translated from the crypt to 
 a sumptuous shrine in the east end of the cathedral, amid a 
 splendid assemblage of the highest prelates and potentates of 
 England, headed by the primate and by the sovereign himself, 
 Henry III., then a boy of thirteen. 
 
 The shrine is thus described by John Stow in his Annals : " It 
 was built about a man's height of stone, then upward of plain 
 timber, within which was an iron chest, containing the bones of 
 St. Thomas, as also the skull, with the wound of his death, and 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 929 
 
 the piece cut out of the skull laid in the same wound. The 
 timber work of this shrine on the outside was covered with 
 plates of gold, damasked and embossed, garnished with brooches, 
 images, angels, chains, precious stones, and great Oriental pearls." 
 Chief among the jewels was the royal diamond given by Louis, 
 King of France. The marble stones before the place remain to 
 this day, much worn and hollowed by the knees of the pilgrims 
 who resorted thither. 
 
 In 1520, Henry YIII., with his guest the Emperor Charles Y., 
 came to pay his devotions at St. Thomas's shrine. Fifteen years 
 later, on July 6, the eve of the great feast of the Translation of 
 St. Thomas, and therefore, as he touchingly expressed it, " a meet 
 day and very convenient for me," Sir Thomas More was executed 
 for denying the royal supremacy. 
 
 Two years later, that same day, which had always hitherto 
 been observed by the English primates as a strict fast, was 
 ostentatiously kept as a festival at Lambeth Palace, the arehi- 
 episcopal residence, by Archbishop Cranmer, who " ate flesh, and 
 did sup in his hall with his family, which was never seen before." 
 Next year the blow fell. With a ludicrous parody of the forms 
 of justice, the dead archbishop was formally summoned before 
 the Privy Council to answer charges of "treason, contumacy, 
 and rebellion," and was, of course, convicted ; whereupon his 
 name was stricken from the reformed calendar, his bones were 
 ordered to be burned, and the treasures of his shrine forfeited to 
 the crown. A royal commission under the notorious Dr. Leyton 
 was sent down to Canterbury to carry out this order, but unfor- 
 tunately no authentic record is extant of the proceedings, and 
 hence the doubts which have since arisen about the disposal of 
 the body. Dean Stanley says that "the bones were either scat- 
 tered to the winds, or, if interred, mingled indiscriminately with 
 others." And he quotes in proof of it a passage from Harpsfield's 
 Life of Sir Thomas More : " We have of late unshrined him, and 
 buried his holy relics." 
 
 An examination of the text, however, reveals the fact that 
 "burned," and not "buried," was the word used by Harpsfield, 
 and this is now the prevalent belief Nevertheless, in 1888 the 
 despoiled shrine was opened with much ceremony and some 
 bones were discovered. The controversy which raged over the 
 genuineness of these bones as relics of the great saint has ended 
 in their general rejection by historical experts and by the Cath- 
 ohc Church. 
 
 St. Thomas's Day was never restored, even as a black-letter 
 day, to the English Common Prayer Book. It is, however, found 
 in the calendar of Queen Elizabeth's Prices Privata^ (1564), 
 and was often inserted in ordinary almanacs and in calendars 
 
 69 
 
930 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 published by the Stationers' Compan}^, under the authority of 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury, down to 1832. 
 
 On a recent visit of the Archbishop of Canterbury to the 
 cathedral of his diocese a very ancient and very pretty custom 
 was revived. His grace was " received" by an assembly, one and 
 all of whom wore lilies of the valley. The custom is said to date 
 from Thomas a Becket, who was so fond of the flower that he 
 filled his gardens adjoining the cloisters with it. For years after 
 his death and canonization bouquets of his lilies used to be 
 placed upon his shrine, and in time the flower came to be worn 
 in the season by all who attended upon the primate. Even the 
 casual visitor to Canterbury cannot fail to have been struck by 
 the millions of lilies which lend grace to all the gardens in the 
 vicinity of the minster. (London Graphic, March 23, 1892.) 
 
 Thomas Didymus, St., apostle, and patron saint of Por- 
 tugal and of Parma. His festival is celebrated on December 21. 
 
 Besides what is known of St. Thomas from the New Testa- 
 ment, tradition avers that after the Ascension he travelled into 
 India, where among others he baptized the three Magi, and 
 founded the Christian sect which is still known by his name in 
 India. According to one legend, when the apostle was at Caesarea 
 it was revealed to him that he should go to Gondoforus, King 
 of the Indies, and undertake the building of a splendid palace 
 which the king desired. He accordingly went to the king, 
 who intrusted him with the building of the palace and gave him 
 much treasure. The king himself went away for two years, and 
 meantime Thomas distributed the treasure to the poor. When 
 the king returned he was enraged and threw the saint into a 
 dungeon. But just then the king's brother died, and four days 
 afterwards he appeared to the king and told him of a glorious 
 palace of gold and silver that Thomas had built for him in heaven. 
 Then Gondoforus released Thomas. Another legend, known as 
 that of the "Madonna della Cintola," relates that when Mary 
 ascended into heaven Thomas was not present with the rest of 
 the apostles ; and, as he was of a sceptical turn of mind, he would 
 not believe the narrative of his brother apostles. Her tomb was 
 therefore opened, and found to be empty ; moreover, so the legend 
 runs, the Virgin dropped her girdle to Thomas from heaven to 
 assure him of the truth of her ascension. A girdle which is 
 said to be the one the Virgin threw to Thomas is still pre- 
 served in the cathedral of Prato. Tradition relates that St. 
 Thomas suffered martyrdom at Meliapor, now called St. Thomas, 
 on the banks of the Ganges, being pierced with a lance at the 
 foot of a cross he had erected. His body is supposed to have 
 been entombed at Edessa. In 1523 his tomb is said to have been 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 931 
 
 discovered at Meliapor by John III. of Portugal, and the remains 
 were deposited at Goa. Relics are shown at Groa and at Ortona. 
 The Latins keep the feast of St. Thomas on the 21st of Decem- 
 ber, the Greeks on the 6th of October, and the Hindoo Christians 
 
 Martyrdom of S^r. Thomas Didymus. 
 
 on the Ist of July. When St. Thomas is represented in art as 
 an apostle his attribute is a builder's rule or square ; as a martyr 
 he bears a lance. 
 
 In England St. Thomas's Day is still commemorated by old 
 women who perambulate many of the towns in the expectation 
 of receiving small gratuities. This is usually called "going 
 a-goodening" or " a-gooding." But it is locally known in York- 
 shire as "mumping," and in Cheshire as "going a-Thomassing." 
 The last term is obvious enough. The word " gooding" may be 
 derived from "goody," the name given to old widows, though it 
 also may be a corruption of " hodening" and therefore refer to 
 Woden or Odin, the presiding deity of the ancient Yule-tide 
 rites. The word "mumping" comes to us from the Dutch, and 
 signifies to mumble or mutter, the mumpers being usually old 
 and toothless people. 
 
932 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 The following rhyme for this day is taken from the Bilston 
 Mercury^ Staffordshire: 
 
 Well-a-day, well-a-day, 
 
 St. Thomas goes too soon away ; 
 
 Then your gooding we do pray, 
 
 For the good time will not stay. 
 
 St. Thomas Grey, St. Thomas Grey, 
 
 The longest night and the shortest day, 
 
 Please to remember St. Thomas' Pay. 
 
 Three Kings of Cologne. This is the name under which 
 the Wise Men of the East (Malt, ii.) are popularly known. (See 
 Epiphany.) Although there is no Biblical sanction for this at- 
 tribution of royalty, legend has endowed them with specific 
 kingdoms and given them names which were unknown to the 
 Evangelists. According to these authorities, the Wise Men were 
 Caspar, or Jaspar, King of Tarsus, the land of myrrh ; Melchior, 
 King of Arabia, where the soil is ruddy with gold ; and Bal- 
 thasar, King of Saba, where frankincense flows from the trees. 
 They were wise and learned men, for in those days kings and 
 princes were not as they are to-day. 
 
 When they beheld the wondrous star, they arose joyfully 
 and mounted their dromedaries and set forth on their long and 
 perilous journey, the star going before, and arrived at length in 
 Jerusalem. And they asked, " Where is he who is born King of 
 the Jews? We have seen the star, but we have lost it." 
 
 For, indeed, it had disappeared when the kings reached Jeru- 
 salem. This was done in accordance with the will of God, who 
 desired that the nativity of his precious Son should be made 
 known throughout Jerusalem. 
 
 It soon came to the ears of Herod that these Three Kings 
 were making inquiries- concerning a child whom they called the 
 King of the Jews. So he summoned all his learned men and 
 asked them where the prophets had said that the Messiah should 
 be born. And they answered, " In Bethlehem." Herod was 
 grievously troubled. He summoned the Three Kings and feasted 
 them, and told them to go to Bethlehem, and if they found the 
 child they should return and tell him, " that I may come and 
 worship him also." 
 
 So the kings departed, and when they were out of Jerusalem 
 the star reappeared as before in the heavens and guided them to 
 Bethlehem. When Mary heard the tramping of their drome- 
 daries' feet, she was much alarmed, and took Jesus into her 
 arms, fearing that he would be taken from her ; and it was in 
 this attitude the kings found the mother and the child. They 
 threw themselves on their knees with the utmost reverence, and 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 933 
 
 adored Jesus as God and the Saviour of the world. Then they 
 offered him rich gifts. Caspar gave gold, to signify that the 
 babe was king ; Melchior gave frankincense, to show that he 
 was God ; and Balthasar offered myrrh, as a reminder that he 
 was man, and doomed to die. 
 
 In return, the Saviour bestowed upon them gifts of more 
 matchless price. For their gold he gave them charity and 
 spiritual riches ; for their incense, faith; and for their myrrh, 
 truth and meekness. And the Virgin, his mother, also bestowed 
 on them a precious gift and memorial, — namely, one of those 
 linen bands in which she had wrapped the Saviour ; for which 
 they thanked her with great humility and laid it among their 
 treasures. 
 
 When they had performed their devotions and made their 
 offerings, the Three Kings, having been warned in a dream to 
 avoid Herod, turned back again to their own dominions. And, 
 arriving there, they laid down their earthly state and distributed 
 their goods to the poor, and went about in mean attire preaching 
 to their people the Child-King, the Prince of Peace. 
 
 About forty years later, St. Thomas, travelling in India, found 
 the Wise Men there, and he baptized and ordained them. Later 
 still they were martyred for their faith, and were buried to- 
 gether. Divers great and glorious miracles were performed at 
 their tomb. Thither came the devout Empress Helena and 
 found their bones, which she carried to Constantinople and laid 
 in the church of St. Sophia, but at the time of the first Cru- 
 sade they were transported to Milan. Thence Barbarossa took 
 them at the siege of Milan, and deposited them in the cathedral 
 of Cologne. The shrine of the Three Kings became so popular 
 a place of pilgrimage that it wa^ soon felt that the old cathedral 
 was not a fitting shrine for them. A providential fire destroyed 
 the old cathedral, and a new one was built on its ruins. 
 
 And in that marvellous old church the bones of the Three 
 Kings are shown to this day, laid in a shrine of gold and gems, 
 and surrounded with other relics of like interest and authenticity. 
 
 Thump. A local name in Lancashire for a feast held on the 
 Sunday after a village wake (q. v.). The name is said to have 
 arisen from the rude custom of " thumping" any one who en- 
 tered an inn on such an occasion and refused to pay for liquor. 
 '• At a recent Halifax wake," says Ditchfield, " an offender of 
 this description was laid face downward and beaten with a 
 heated fire-shovel. The ringleader of this frolic nearly suffered 
 a month's imp^risonment on account of his strict adherence to old 
 customs." (^Old English Customs, p. 131.) The same authority 
 mentions as still extant the Queensbury Thump, and the Clayton, 
 
934 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Thornton, Denholme, and AllerLon Thumps, when the natives 
 who reside elsewhere make a rule to visit their old home, and the 
 reassembling of scattered families causes much social happiness. 
 " At Great Gransden the feast is held on the Monday after the 
 feast of St. Bartholomew, the patron saint of the village, when 
 stalls are erected near the Plough Inn, and the villagers indulge 
 in dancing. At West Houghton, Lancashire, a huge pie is made 
 in the shape of a cow's head, which is eaten on the day of the 
 wake, the Sunday after St. Bartholomew's Day." 
 
 Tichborne Crawls, The. During the reign of Henry II. 
 the Lady Mabella Ticbborne, who had been bedridden for years, 
 and was then at death's door, besought her husband. Sir Eoger, 
 to bestow upon her such means as should enable her to leave a 
 bequest of a loaf to all applicants on the festival of the An- 
 nunciation (March 25) forever. In reply her husband promised 
 her the produce of so much of his property as she could go 
 round while a brand which he caused to be lighted should burn. 
 He fancied that by reason of her great age and infirmity she 
 would get over very little ground, but, being borne to a corner 
 of the park, she made a vehement effort, hobbled round twenty- 
 three acres of very rich land, known to-day as " the Crawls," 
 and was then carried back to her bed. Presently she called her 
 household around her, and prophesied that the Tichborne family 
 would prosper so long as the dole was continued to the poor, but 
 that if it was neglected the family name would be lost for want 
 of male issue, and that in such case the baronet of the day would 
 have seven sons, but that the next heir would have seven daugh- 
 ters and no male children. In 1796, a great crowd of gypsies, 
 thieves, and other lawless characters having behaved in a very 
 unruly manner during the distribution of the dole, the neighbors 
 made an outcry, and it has never been given regularly since. 
 Strange to say, a partial fulfilment of Lady Mabella's prophecy 
 followed. In 1803 the then head of the family died and left 
 seven sons, the eldest of whom succeeded to the baronetcy, but 
 he died leaving seven daughters, whereupon that branch of the 
 family took the name of Doughty, so that the Tichborne name 
 was actually merged for a time. 
 
 Touching for King's Evil. An old English superstition 
 which survived even to the eighteenth century attributed to the 
 British sovereign the power of curing disease by touching the 
 part affected. Especially was this the case in regard to the 
 disease known as scrofula, or king's evil, which eventually mo- 
 nopolized the supposititious royal curative powers. Edward the 
 Confessor is thought to have commenced the practice, the first 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 935 
 
 mention of which is found in William of Malmesbury, who wrote 
 about eighty years after his reign. Some French writers, how- 
 ever, have sought to trace the gift of healing virtue to Clovis, as 
 conferred upon the first Christian sovereign of France with the 
 holy chrism, and preserved by his successors, asserting that the 
 kings of England exercised it only by some collateral right. It 
 was a custom to bestow upon the sick person some slight gift as 
 a substantial token of the exercise of this healing power. This 
 gift was in the time of Edward I. a small sum of money, prob- 
 ably as alms ; but in later times a gold coin was given, and per- 
 forated for suspension to the neck. Henry YII. gave the angel 
 noble, the smallest gold coin in circulation ; and the angel was 
 the piece distributed at the ceremony of the Eoyal Touch during 
 the succeeding reigns. Charles I. had not always gold to bestow, 
 and he sometimes substituted silver, or even brass. After the 
 Eestoration the applicants for the healing were so numerous that 
 small medals were struck for the special purpose of such distribu- 
 tion. These touch-pieces were themselves looked upon as pana- 
 ceas against king's evil. Charles II. is recorded to have touched 
 not less than ninety thousand seven hundred and ninety-eight ap- 
 plicants, according to the registers which were constantly kept. 
 James II. on one occasion healed three hundred and fifty persons. 
 William III. scoffed at the superstition, and did his best to dis- 
 courage it. When he heard that his palace was besieged by a 
 crowd of sick people towards the close of Lent, he exclaimed, 
 " It is a silly superstition ; give the poor creatures some money, 
 and send them away." On another occasion, to escape from the 
 importunity of a sick man, he laid his hand upon him, with the 
 prayer, " God give you better health and more sense." Under 
 Queen Anne, however, the ceremony was restored to all its 
 ancient dignity. A Church-otEngland prayer-book published 
 in her reign gives a service "At the Healing," in which the fol- 
 lowing instructions appear: "Then shall the infirm persons, one 
 by one, be presented to the queen upon their knees; and as 
 every one is presented, and while the queen is laying her hands 
 upon them, and putting the gold about their necks, the chaplain 
 that officiates, turning himself to her majesty, shall say the 
 words following : ' God give a blessing to this work, and grant 
 that these sick persons, on whom the queen lays her hands, may 
 recover, through Jesus Christ our Lord.' " Here the touch is at 
 once a royal and a religious ceremony. An old man, witness at 
 a trial, averred that when Queen Anne was at Oxford she 
 touched him (then a child) for the evil; ho added that he did 
 not believe himself to have had the evil, but '' his parents were 
 poor, and had no objection to a bit of gold." Queen Anno was 
 the last sovereign of England who performed the rite, and 
 
936 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 among the latest occasions was that when Samuel Johnson, at 
 three years of age, was brought from Lichfield to be touched 
 with two hundred others. Meanwhile the Pretenders succes- 
 sively claimed that as the rightful rulers of England they pos- 
 sessed the only genuine touch. "James III." and "Henry IX." 
 both had silver touch-pieces struck for them. 
 
 A singular anecdote is recorded of George I., who soon after 
 his accession was applied to by a gentleman in behalf of his 
 son. The king referred him to the Pretender, as possessing the 
 hereditary gift of the Stuarts. The result was this, that the 
 son was touched and recovered, and the father became a de- 
 voted partisan of the exiled family. The gift was claimed by 
 the kings of France as well as by the British sovereigns, and the 
 ceremonial, long observed, appears to have been established by 
 St. Louis. A great number of persons were healed by Henry 
 lY., and the inherent virtue was undiminished in Louis XIY. 
 and Louis XY. The ceremony of the touch was even pre- 
 scribed in the authorized ceremonial for the coronation of 
 Charles X. 
 
 Tower Hill, The hill overlooking the Tower of London, made 
 memorable a's a former place of execution for pohtical offenders. 
 The members of the Gruild of Our Lady of Eansom (a Catholic 
 organization of clergy and laity whose hope is the final conver- 
 sion of the English people to Catholicism), besides paying an 
 annual visit to the tombs of British martyrs at Canterbury and 
 Westminster, make a pilgrimage to the gardens on the brow of 
 Tower Hill every May 8, seeking out the spot where Sir Thomas 
 More and Bishop Fisher were executed. Formerly these pil- 
 grimages were made with much pomp and pageantr3^ But the 
 antagonism of No-Popery Protestantism was aroused, and since 
 1894 they have been conducted more quietly. Here is the ac- 
 count of the affair in that year as given by the Daily Graphic 
 on May 10 : 
 
 " The gates of the Tower close at half-past four, and shortly 
 after that time little groups of pilgrims began to gather round 
 the square place in the grass where the scaffold once stood, and 
 lilies and lilac and iris, in wreaths and crosses and loose bunches, 
 began to bloom vividly upon the gray granite stones. A few 
 children loitering about the garden came up wonderingly to 
 watch, and outside the palings of the garden the Tower Hill 
 proletariat, rather draggle-tailed and down at heel, looked on at 
 the curious ceremonies with feelings which hesitated between 
 amusement and disapproval. The ceremony was brief, — a few 
 short addresses by Father Dalton and Father Fletcher setting 
 forth the reasons why the saints and martyrs, Blessed John 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 937 
 
 Fisher and Blessed Thomas More, should be honored in their 
 deaths as in their lives, and, following this, a space for silent 
 prayer. The pilgrims, gentle and simple, went down on their 
 knees upon the stones and remained so in prayer for some 
 moments. When the prayers were over, the little gathering of 
 the faithful stooped down and kissed the stones, and a few of 
 them threw single flowers upon the heap which already bloomed 
 there. A few words were spoken by Mr. Drummond, the secre- 
 tary of the Guild of Eansomers, and then the meagre assembly 
 went away. In the evening a triumphal service was held at the 
 Church of the Martyrs in Great Prescot Street." 
 
 Towers of Silence. The burying-places of the Parsees in 
 Bombay, India. 
 
 " Thou shalt not defile the earth," was one of the teachings of 
 Zoroaster. Therefore no dead Parsee is laid into mother earth, 
 to taint her with his corruption. His body is exposed in the 
 open air to vultures, ravens, or even dogs. In the Towers of 
 
 Towers of Silence. 
 
 Silence, just outside Bombay, this method of burial reaches its 
 most elaborate form. There are six in all. Five are placed to- 
 gether. One stands apart, for here the bones of notorious crim- 
 inals lie crumbling in eternal separation from those of their 
 fellow-believers who have died in good repute. The word 
 " tower" is perhaps a misnomer. Though four hundred and fifty 
 yards in diameter, they are not more than eighteen or twenty in 
 height. They are made of carefully joined blocks of granite, 
 plastered all over with a white cement. Each is surrounded by 
 a shallow, dry moati There is one narrow stone bridge or cause- 
 way, which leads from the ground to the small square door 
 through which the body is taken. 
 
 The top of the tower, forming the platform on which the 
 bodies are laid, is quite hidden by a parapet that surrounds it. 
 
938 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 And on this parapet, motionless themselves as stone, with their 
 bare heads sunk in their bodies, perch the vultures, in one close, 
 unbroken rank! Facing inward, there they rest, silent and still 
 as is all around them, till the white-robed bearers of the dead 
 place the corpse upon the floor before them. Then all swoop 
 down. 
 
 The arrangement of the platform is curious. The surface is 
 divided into three concentric circles of shallow receptacles for 
 the dead; between each circle and between each receptacle is a 
 narrow pathway for the bearers, and in the centre is the grated 
 opening to the well, down which are thrust the dry bones of the 
 dead. These three rings represent the three ma-xims of Zoro- 
 aster, " Good acts, good words, good thoughts." The outer 
 ring, that lies next the parapet, is for the bodies of men, repre- 
 senting "good acts;" the next, those of women, "good words;" 
 and the last, the smallest circle round the well itself, is for the 
 little children, who represent "good thoughts." 
 
 No other persons than the duly appointed bearers of the dead 
 ever enter the building. Neither priest nor layman may approach 
 nearer than a distance of ten or fifteen yards. 
 
 When a body is brought for burial the mourners accompany 
 it to the house of prayer, an old stone building, surrounded by 
 open colonnades, in the garden outside the towers. Within all 
 is dim and still. The cool air is heavy w4th the scent of sandal- 
 wood, for here the sacred fire forever burns, tended day and 
 night by a watchful priest, whose mission it is to feed the holy 
 flame with perfumed precious woods. Solemn prayers are said 
 over the deceased, and the body is then taken out by two carriers 
 to be laid on the platform on the tower. 
 
 Meanwhile the mourners must remain in the flre temple, with 
 heads devoutly bent in prayer, until the skeleton lies bleaching 
 on the sunny summit of the tower. 
 
 Thus they do not see the sudden swoop of the birds upon the 
 corpse, the tearing of the flesh by bloody beaks, the entire sick- 
 ening details. 
 
 A fortnight later the same men that carried in the corpse 
 revisit the tower, and, with a kind of tongs, place the dry and 
 separated bones in the large central well. 
 
 This well is filled with chemicals, to kill any impurity that 
 may arise from the incessant flow of blood and for the destruc- 
 tion of osseous matter. Furnished with subterraneous passages, 
 it is supposed to communicate mysteriously with the other world 
 and afford an easy transit to the regions of the blessed. 
 
 Town and Gown Rows. Quarrels and fights between the 
 undergraduates of Oxford College and the townspeople of Oxford 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 939 
 
 still occur periodically under this name, the favorite time being 
 November 5 (Guy Fawkes's Day), but they are very mild sur- 
 vivals from the bloody brutalities of the past. It might be 
 supposed that, inasmuch as the wealth and prosperity of the 
 city arose out of and depend upon the presence of the uni- 
 versity within its walls, the citizens would regard the gownsmen 
 as their most substantial friends. But it has never been so at 
 any period. Class jealousy has been stronger even than self- 
 interest ; and not even the danger, more than once imminent, of 
 the whole scholastic body migrating to Northampton or to Stam- 
 ford, and condemning the streets of Oxford to a perpetual long 
 vacation, could suffice to make the municipal body regard their 
 guests in any other light than as an alien army of occupation, 
 whose money it was good to take, and whose presence, therefore, 
 must be endured. Not that the fault lay altogether with the 
 citizens. There is an insolence inherent, it would seem, in the 
 student-hfe, whether English, Spanish, or German.. The Ger- 
 man bursch terms the whole non-academic world Philistines, 
 and his fellows at Oxford or Cambridge regard it in much the 
 same light ; a feeling which the other party is not slow to de- 
 tect, and does not fail- to return in its own fashion. For this 
 reason, perhaps, more than any other, when the University of 
 Oxford clung to what was left of Eomanism, the town was 
 Puritan ; when the university was in arms for the king, the 
 townsmen were almost unanimously Eoundheads ; when the uni- 
 versity pronounces for Conservatism, the town feels it a point 
 of honor to return two Eadicals. 
 
 In mediaeval times the ill will between the two classes was 
 fomented by the claim of the students to be exempted as clerks 
 from trial before the ordinary (tribunals. This was intolerable 
 to the townsmen, who thought that the gownsmen would find 
 more lenient judgment in the court of the chancellor than in that 
 of the mayor. 
 
 Now and again a tavern row between scholars and townsmen 
 widened into a general broil, and the academical bell of St. 
 Mary's vied wnth the town bell of St. Martin's in clanging to 
 arms. The rustics from the villages round would flock in to help 
 the citizens against the detested scholars, the latter in their 
 turn would pour out fully armed into the streets, and the aff'rays 
 frequently ended in many wounded and a few killed on both 
 sides. (See St. Scholastioa.) 
 
 Trafalgar Day. The anniversary of the great naval victory 
 won in Trafalgar Bay by Lord Nelson over the combined French 
 and Spanish fleets, October 21, 1805. This eff*ectually blasted 
 all Napoleon's hopes of invading England. In the heat of the 
 
940 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 conflict Nelson on the deck of his flagship received his death- 
 wound, and lived just long enough to know that he had gained 
 his last and greatest victory. Trafalgar Day was long cele- 
 brated at the Portsmouth dockyard and other naval stations of 
 Great Britain by dinners and speeches and by decorating all 
 the Trafalgar ships afloat with wreaths of laurel at the mast- 
 head, bowsprit-points, and yard-arm ends. On the Victory the 
 spot where Nelson fell and the place in the cockpit where he died 
 were similarly decorated, and over the steering-wheel were in- 
 scribed on a scroll the words of Nelson's signal to his fleet: 
 "England expects every man to do his duty." But even these 
 local celebrations had fallen into desuetude when in 1896 the 
 Navy League of Liverpool and Canada revived the commem- 
 oration on a larger scale. They obtained permission to decorate 
 the Nelson column in Trafalgar Square, London, by encircling 
 it from capital to base with a monster roping of laurel and bay 
 leaves. On the main ledge at the base of the pillar was a 
 twelve-foot wreath, and numerous other wreaths were grouped 
 around, ofl'erings from the commander-in-chief, ofiicers, and men 
 of the old Victory, also from the Foudroyant, the Neptune, and 
 the Excellent, from the Navy League of Liverpool and Canada, 
 from the Malta Branch of the Navy League, and from descend- 
 ants of Nelson's ofiicers and men. The square and its neighbor- 
 hood were thronged all day long, and after nightfall were un- 
 comfortably packed. Crowds also visited St. Paul's Cathedral, 
 where during the morning wreaths were placed on Nelson's 
 tomb in the crypt, and the Museum of the United Service 
 Institution, w^here a special display of Nelson's relics was made 
 during the day. A large number of lectures on the navy and 
 on the necessity of preserving its efficiency were delivered in 
 various parts of London by members of the League, this being 
 one of the practical measures included in the celebration of the 
 day. Naval clubs and naval men generally celebrated Trafalgar- 
 Day dinners in London and elsewhere. All through the country 
 Nelson's monuments were decorated, and at Portsmouth the old 
 Victory was hung more elaborately than ever before with gar- 
 lands and festoons of laurel and boughs of evergreen. A large 
 cross was deposited in the place in the cockpit where the hero 
 fell. On board the old Foudroyant, then lying at Cardifl", the 
 famous signal was run up, "England expects every man to do 
 his duty." 
 
 At Montreal, Canada, Nelson's monument in the Jacques- 
 Cartier Square was decorated with flowers, amid which were 
 displayed both the Union Jack and the tricolor. 
 
 " London, October 24. — Last winter, when everj^body in Eng- 
 land surrendered himself to bhnd rage against the German 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 941 
 
 Emperor, and the memorable step of mobilizing a special ser- 
 vice squadron was taken, the people who feel a special interest 
 in strengthening the British Navy took advantage of the popu- 
 lar feeling to arrange that hereafter Trafalgar Day should be 
 celebrated as a national patriotic anniversary. As the date 
 drew near, the government tried all it could quietly to discour- 
 age the thing, but the enthusiasts insisted, and, considering the 
 absence of organization and the official cold water, Wednesday's 
 celebrations throughout the island were really very creditable. 
 Unhappily, however, no amount of British protestations could 
 avail to prevent the French from remembering that Trafalgar 
 was their defeat, and, not unnaturally, they asked why on earth, 
 this year of all others, this piece of ancient history should be 
 so violently revived, especially as the English are just now pro- 
 fessing an exceptional anxiety to establish cordial relations with 
 France. It has been an up-hill task for the English papers to 
 explain the psychology of this paradox, and Paris still only half 
 accepts their plea that John Bull is really such an ingenuous, 
 simple-minded creature that he blunders into these embarrassing 
 performances through sheer mental awkwardness. As the Con- 
 tinental situation stands, it was undoubtedly the most inoppor- 
 tune thing imaginable, but perhaps its effect in stimulating pop- 
 ular feeling here counterbalances any harm it may have done 
 across the Channel." (Harold Frederic, in New York Times, 
 October 25, 1896.) 
 
 Transfiguration, Feast of the. The anniversary of the 
 Transfiguration, when Christ ascended Mount Tabor with his 
 three favorite disciples, Peter, James, and John, and displayed 
 himself to them in his glory, ia kept in the Greek and Latin 
 Churches on August 6. It is not set dow^n in the English Church. 
 This festival was probably initiated in the early ages, but it did 
 not obtain much position in the Western calendar until 1457, 
 when Pope Calixtus decreed that it should thenceforth be kept 
 in commemoration of the successful defence of Belgrade, Mo- 
 hammed II. having abandoned the siege of that place on August 
 6 and removed a cloud from Europe. 
 
 A little chapel dedicated to the Transfiguration caps the 
 highest peak of Mount Athos in Greece, where a great annual 
 service is performed on the recurrence of the festival. The 
 scene is thus described by Tozer : " As we approached from the 
 east we first heard the sound of chanting from within the 
 chapel, and when we came round the platform in front a scene 
 appeared which I shall never forget. Distinctly seen in the 
 moonlight were the weird, ghostly figures of the monks, closely 
 wrapped in their gowns, with long black ^ beards and mushroom 
 
942 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 locks, some sitting close to the little window of the chapel, where 
 the service was going on, some lying about in groups, like the 
 figures of the three apostles in Kaphael's picture of the Trans- 
 figuration ; and on going about to difi"erent points we could see 
 them lying relieved against the white rocks, or dimly seen in 
 the dark shadows, themselves a shadowy band. There were 
 about sixty of them, besides a number of Eussian pilgrims. At 
 intervals, as we sat there, the priest came out arrayed in gor- 
 geous vestments and swung the incense about us. The vigil 
 lasted the whole night." 
 
 Tree, Fete of the. (Sp. Fiesta del Arbol) A Spanish holi- 
 day devoted to tree-planting, evidently copied from our Arbor 
 Day. It is celebrated annually on March 26. The festival was 
 instituted in 1896. The young King Alfonso with the queen 
 regent and the ladies of the court proceeded to some grounds 
 lying near the village of Hortaleza, about two miles to the east 
 of Madrid. There he planted a pine sapling. Two thousand 
 children selected from the Madrid schools followed his example. 
 Grold medals commemorative of the event were distributed among 
 them. The inscription runs, " First Fete of the Tree, instituted 
 in the reign of Alfonso XIII., 1896." The school-boys who 
 planted the saplings are taken periodically by their school- 
 masters to note the progress of their respective trees, and are 
 encouraged to foster tree-planting in their country. 
 
 Trinity Sund-ay. The Sunday after Whitsuntide, or fifty- 
 seven days after Easter, specially devoted to the commemoration 
 of the mystery of the Trinity. The feast is not of very early 
 origin, and its adoption by the universal Church is still more 
 recent. Stephen, Bishop of Liege, about 620 had an ofiice drawn 
 up relating to the my.stery of the Trinity, which made its way 
 into other churches. A decretal of Alexander II. in the Corpus 
 Juris informs us that some churches kept this feast on the Sun- 
 day before Whitsuntide, others on the Sunday before Advent, but 
 that it was not kept at all in Eome, since every day the Trinity 
 was praised and worshipped. Nevertheless when the doctrine 
 of the Trinity was attacked by the Arians the Church thought 
 it right to fix a special day in its honor. In 1334 John XXII. 
 ordered its observance by the whole Church on the Sunday suc- 
 ceeding Whitsunday. Previous to this time it had been intro- 
 duced into England by St. Thomas a Becket, and it still retains a 
 place in the Anglican calendar. 
 
 The records of Lambeth, the palace of the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, show that great expenses were formerly incurred 
 for the due celebration of Trinity-tide. The festivities began on 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 943 
 
 Trinity Even, and concluded on Trinity Tuesday. " It is still 
 a custom of ancient usage in London," Hone tells us, " for the 
 judges and law-officers of the crown, together with the Lord 
 Mayor and Common Council, to attend divine service at St. 
 Paul's Cathedral and hear a sermon which is always preached 
 there on Trinity Sunday by the Lord Mayor's chaplain. At the 
 first ensuing meeting of the Common Council it is usual for that 
 body to pass a vote of thanks to the chaplain for such sermon, 
 and order the same to be printed at the expense of the corpora- 
 tion, unless, as has sometimes occurred, it contained sentiments 
 obnoxious to their views." 
 
 Aubrey mentions in his " Miscellanies" (1714, p. 49) that there 
 was an old custom in Wiltshire upon Trinity Sunday, in remem- 
 brance of a donation made by King Athelstan, to ring the bell, 
 and for a young maiden to carry a garland to church, which she 
 gave to a young bachelor with three kisses ; he then put the gar- 
 land upon her neck and gave her three kisses. The ceremony 
 was considered symbolic of the Trinity. 
 
 In Carnarvonshire, Wales, " a very ancient custom," says Pen- 
 nant, " is still observed on Trinity Sunday. The offerings of calves 
 and lambs which happen to be born with the JSfod Beuno, or 
 mark of St. Beuno, — a certain natural mark in the ear, — have 
 not yet entirely ceased. They are brought to the church (but 
 formerly to the monastery) of Clynnok Yaur on Trinity Sunday, 
 and delivered to the churchwardens, who sell and account for 
 them, depositing the money in a great chest, called Cyff St. 
 Beuno, made of one oak, and secured with three locks. From 
 this, the Welsh have a proverb for attempting any very difficult 
 thing, 'You may as well try to break open St. Beuno's chest.' 
 The little money resulting from the sacred beasts or casual offer- 
 ings is applied either to the relief of the poor or in aid of repairs." 
 (Tennant : Tour through Worth Wales, 1781, vol. ii. p. 210.) 
 
 Trooping the Colors. A military ceremonial which is wit- 
 nessed to perfection only in London and on the queen's birth- 
 day, May 24. The scene is St. James's Park, to which admis- 
 sion is granted by tickets. About nine o'clock a strong body 
 of the Household troops, infantry, make their appearance on 
 the parade-ground and are posted, at some six paces from one 
 another, all round the vast square, each side of which is nearly 
 a quarter of a mile in length. At half-past nine appear the 
 troops selected to represent each regiment of the brigade of 
 Foot Guards, followed by representative cavalry from the Life- 
 Guards. At a little after ten the Prince of Wales, in his uniform 
 as colonel of the Life-Guards, with other members of the royal 
 family and distinguished army generals, makes his appearance. 
 
944 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 After the preliminary saluting, the officer commanding the 
 parade gives a signal to the senior drum-major, who immediately 
 turns round to the bands and gives the command to "Troop!" 
 Three slowly given strokes of the bass drum follow, succeeded 
 by a roll of the side drums, crescendo and diminuendo. As the 
 sound of the rolling dies away, the drum-major, in a loud voice, 
 gives the command, " Slow March ;" and the combined bands, 
 playing a stately march, parade slowly from one end of the line 
 to the other, countermarching at the other side of the parade, 
 and, after a brief pause, returning to their original position in 
 quick time. 
 
 As they cease playing, the escort for the color is called by a 
 pecuhar beat of the drum performed by a drummer standing on 
 the extreme right of the line. Then a captain, a lieutenant, and 
 a company of men advance from the right of the line, and, pre- 
 ceded by the bands playing the "British Grenadiers," proceed to 
 the spot where the State Color is in waiting. Here the escort 
 halts, the sergeant-major takes the color, a handsomely embroid- 
 ered banner, and advances towards the lieutenant. The escort 
 then presents arms, and, after saluting the color, the lieutenant 
 
 H 
 
 j'^/* 
 
 i^'- 
 
 Teooping the Colors. 
 
 sheathes his sword, and receives the color from the sergeant- 
 major. The latter then draws his sword, and salutes the color 
 also, the bands playing " God Save the Queen," and the prince 
 and the troops also saluting. The salute finished, the line shoul- 
 ders arms, and the escort marches in slow time, preceded by the 
 bands playing the " Grenadiers' March," to the left of the line. 
 Arrived there, the bands cease playing, and the captain, followed 
 by the lieutenant with the color, proceeds along the front of the 
 line, while the men forming the escort file along the rear. At 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 945 
 
 the same time, the troops once more present arms, and the bands 
 resume playing until the color and its escort reaches its place at 
 the right of the line. When this ceremony is completed, the 
 whole of the troops march past in slow and quick time, and the 
 cavalry trots past, the bands plaj^ing the parade march of each 
 corps as it passes the saluting-point. Then the whole line ad- 
 vances in review order, gives a royal salute, and the " trooping" 
 is finished. (Chambers's Journal, April 8, 1882.) 
 
 Tulabhara. A curious Hindoo ceremony which consists in 
 ascertaining the weight of some important personage in gold or 
 spices or grain and distributing that weight in charity. It is 
 only the very wealthiest persons, of course, who can afford the 
 gold. The ceremony is performed but once in his lifetime. The 
 Antiquary for June, 1885 (vol. xi. p. 275), records that the Maha- 
 rajah of Travancore submitted in the early part of that year to 
 be weighed against a mass of pure gold, which was then dispensed 
 in charity. This custom is one of great antiquity, and is said to 
 be traceable in Travancore to the fourth century. The Maha- 
 rajah weighed a little over nine stone. The Brahmins, it is said, 
 wished to defer the ceremony, in the hope that the Maharajah 
 might more nearly approach the weight of his father, who did 
 not undergo the rite until forty-seven years old, when he weighed 
 fourteen and three-quarters stone. 
 
 Tynwald Day. The great annual holiday and legal day of 
 the Isle of Man, whereon the people and their representatives 
 and governors meet on Tynwald Hill, an artificial mound in 
 the heart of the island, for the promulgation of their laws, the 
 reading of their constitution, and general festivity. Its ancient 
 date was that of Midsummer Day. It is now fixed on July 5, a 
 change that may be accounted for by the difference between 
 Old and New Style. As the direct lineal descendant of the 
 Althing day or days in the valley of the Loberg at Thingvellir, 
 Iceland, Tynwald Day is another connecting link between the 
 little Manx nation and the Sea-kings of the Sagas. The Althing 
 continued in force in Iceland until its legal abolition in 1800. 
 Thingvellir, the meeting-place, is a lava island, surrounded by a 
 narrow stream, bounded by overhanging walls cut deep with 
 fissures, and standing in the heart of a vast amphitheatre of 
 dark hills and great jokulis tipped with snow. There is no 
 such natural mount of laws in the Isle of Man, but, ages ago, 
 an artificial mount was raised, not of the oval shape of the 
 Loberg at Thingvellir, but circular, bounded by a wall and as- 
 cended by flights of steps cut into the turf In all its essentials 
 the ceremony of Tynwald is similar to that of the old Althing, 
 
 60 
 
946 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 and the constitution of Man is almost identical with that of 
 Iceland. 
 
 The Isle of Man is a dependency of the crown of England, 
 and its legislature consists of three estates : the lord, repre- 
 sented by his governor ; the council, a sort of house of lords, 
 composed of representatives of both church and state ; and the 
 house of keys, consisting of twenty-four delegates elected by 
 the people. The two chambers, council and keys, sit sometimes 
 in joint session, presided over by the governor, and are then 
 known as the Tynwald court. This is the supreme legislative 
 assembly, and when a public measure has received its assent it 
 is called an act of Tynwald. Before the act can become law, 
 however, it is submitted to the crown for formal sanction, and 
 this being obtained it is promulgated on Tynwald Hill in the 
 eve of the day, and in presence of the whole congregation of the 
 people. 
 
 Tynwald Hill is the centre of a grass-plat that is now bounded 
 by inns and small houses, but was, no doubt, at one time as 
 solitary as the plains of Thingvellir, which are broken only by 
 the little church that stands near. 
 
 The legal ceremony of Tynwald Day is still quite primitive, 
 thanks to the precise instructions which have been handed down 
 in the lex scripta of the Isle of Man, as given for law to Sir 
 John Stanley in 1417. " This," says the record, " is the consti- 
 tution of old time, how you shall be governed on the Tynwald 
 day. First, you shall come hither in your royal array, as a 
 king ought to do, by the prerogatives and royalties of the land 
 of Manne. And upon the hill of Tynwald sit in achaire covered 
 with a royal cloath and cushions, and your visage unto the east, 
 and your sword before you, holden with the point upward. Your 
 barons in the third degree sitting beside you, and your beneficed 
 men and your deemsters before you sitting, and your clarke, 
 your knights, your esquires and yeomen about you in the third 
 degree ; and the worthiest men in your land to be called in 
 before your deemsters, and you will ask anything of them, and 
 to hear the government of your land and your will ; and the 
 commons to stand within the circle of the hill, with three 
 clarkes in their surplices. And your deemsters shall make call 
 on the coroner of Glenfaba, and he shall call on all the coroners 
 of Man, and their yardes in their hands, with their weapons on 
 them, either sword or axe ; and the moares, that is, to wit, of 
 every sheading. Then the chief coroner, that is the coroner of 
 Glenfaba, shall make affence, upon paine of life and lyme, that 
 no man make any disturbance or stirr in the time of Tynwald, 
 or any murmur or rising in the king's presence, upon paine of 
 hanging and drawing; and then to proceed in your matters, 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 947 
 
 whatsoever you have to do, in felonie or treason, or other mat- 
 ters that touch the government of your land of Manne." 
 
 Such is the ceremony observed down to this day, with only 
 sucli changes of procedure as the slight differences of constitu- 
 tion have rendered necessary. 
 
 No better authority than that of Hall Caine can be quoted for 
 a description of the day exactly as it is celebrated nowadays. 
 The article quoted from appeared in the London Graphic. July 5, 
 1890 : 
 
 " Prayer is first said in the church of St. John, which stands 
 on the east margin of the green, and then a procession is 
 formed from the church to the mount, beginning with the con- 
 stables, the coroners, and captains of parishes, succeeded by the 
 clergy of the island, the members of the house of keys, and 
 ending with the council, whereof the two deemsters, the attor- 
 ney-general, the lord bishop, and the governor are a part. On 
 arriving at the hill, the governor and the bishop take their seats 
 on the summit, with the council on the first step below, the 
 keys on the second step, the constables on the third, and the 
 general assembly of the people in a throng beyond the wall that 
 bounds the lowest ring. Then, with his face to the east and the 
 sword of state held before him, the governor begins the Tyn- 
 wald by calling on the chief coroner of the island to ' fence' the 
 court, a solemnizing and hallowing ceremony, similar in purpose 
 to that of the bishop's opening prayer at the Loberg, and prom- 
 ising pains and penalties to such as ' do bawl or quarrel, lye, lean, 
 or sit.' Then the coroner gives in his wand of office, for his 
 term expires on Tynwald Day, and his successor is appointed at 
 the nomination of the governor, and takes an oath administered 
 by the elder deemster. After that the acts of Tynwald are 
 read, or their titles recited, by the deemster in English, and by 
 the senior coroner in Manx. This, with certain other formali- 
 ties, constitutes the business of Tynwald, which concludes with 
 the return of the procession to the chapel, where the laws that 
 have been promulgated are signed and attested by the governor, 
 council, and keys. 
 
 " Thereafter the mount and its green are given up to the 
 people for their annual fair, and the proceedings are of a mixed 
 and various sort, for Tynwald Day is not only the little nation's 
 legal day, but its day of general holiday, and as such is as much 
 looked forward to and zealously preserved, at least so far as 
 concerns its recreative functions. The Manx people come to 
 Tynwald from north, south, east, and west, and there the man 
 from Andreas meets the man from Malew, and the man from 
 Braddan meets the man from Michael. 
 
 "In old times the powers of Tynwald over life and death ap- 
 
948 * GumosiTiEs OF 
 
 pear to have been absolute, and equal in all respects to martial 
 law. No jury was necessary to a capital conviction on a charge 
 of treason ; and in this respect, among others, we recognize the 
 connection which Mr. Gladstone mentioned between the Isle of 
 Man and Scandinavia. Down to comparatively recent times it 
 was within the power of the Logsogumadur, or speaker of the 
 Althing, to try even capital charges without jury, wheresoever 
 he might be, and under whatsoever conditions, — walking, riding, 
 at home, or on a journey. In like manner no inquest by a 
 deemster was necessary to the death-sentence of a man who 
 rose against the governor on his seat on Tynwald. It was also 
 in old times a common right of the people to present petitions 
 at the Tynwald, a common privilege of persons unjustly pun- 
 ished to appeal against judgment, and a common prerogative of 
 outlaws to ask for the removal of their outlawry. No doubt 
 all these ancient powers still exist, though they are now never 
 exercised, and have rarely, if ever, been asserted since the time 
 of Bishop Wilson, serenest of saints and most despotic of tyrants. 
 Exactly the same powers, privileges, and prerogatives appear to 
 have existed in Iceland down to the abolition of the annual 
 meeting at Thingvellir at the beginning of this century." 
 
 u. 
 
 Uphalie Day. An ancient festival on January 29, the 
 twenty-fourth night after Christmas (Old Style), which marked 
 the close of the Yule-tide season. 
 
 The Aiitiquary for March, 1889, notes its celebration in that 
 year at Lerwick : " At nine o'clock a large number of mas- 
 queraders, representing all sorts of characters, assembled at the 
 Market Cross, at which a great crowd had gathered. Here over 
 a hundred torches were served out, and the masqueraders, falling 
 into procession, marched through the principal thoroughfares of 
 the town." 
 
 Urban, St., Pope and martyr. He succeeded Pope Calixtus 
 in the year 223, and reigned about seven years. The exact date 
 and method of his martyrdom are unknown. His festival. May 
 25, which may be the anniversary of his death, was celebrated 
 in France with particular devotion in the sixth century. His 
 body was found, in 821, with that of St. Cecilia, in an old church 
 dedicated to St. Urban on the Appian Eoad, near the place of 
 his reputed first sepulture, the cemetery of St. Pretextatus. Pope 
 Paschal translated it into the church of St. Cecilia. The mon- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 949 
 
 astery of St. Urban, near Joinville, France, has a body which is 
 claimed to be this one, sent to the monks of St. Germanus by 
 Pope Nicholas I. in 862. But Papebrooke is at some pains to 
 show that this is the body of another saint of the same name. 
 
 St. Urban fares ill, especially in Germany, if his festival be 
 not a fair day. " Upon St. Urban's Day," says Aubanus, " all 
 the vintners and masters of vineyards sit at a table, either in the 
 market stand, or in some other open and public place, and, cover- 
 ing it with fine drapery, and strewing upon it green leaves and 
 sweet flowers, place upon the table the image of the holy bishop ; 
 and then, if the day be fair, they crown the image with great 
 store of wine ; but if the weather prove unpleasant and rainy 
 (believing that the saint has withdrawn his protection), they cast 
 mire and puddle water upon it, persuading themselves that if 
 that day be fair and calm, their grapes, which then begin to 
 flourish, will be good that year ; but if it be stormy and tem- 
 pestuous, they will have a bad vintage." 
 
 St. Paul and St. Yincent Terrier are also invoked by vintners. 
 There is an old Latin saying, " Vicenti festo, si sol radiet, memor 
 esto," which the French translate into a proverb that may be 
 Englished thus : 
 
 If St. Vincent's Day be fine, 
 'Twill be a famous year for wine. 
 
 Ursula, St., patroness of young girls, especially school-girls, 
 and of educational institutions. Her festival is on October 21, 
 the date of her martyrdom with eleven thousand companions. 
 According to the legend, she was the daughter of Dunnat, King 
 of Cornwall, and was famous for her beauty, her learning, and 
 her virtue. So when Conan, a Scotch prince, a Christian serving 
 in the army of Maximus, was appointed by that Emperor King 
 of Armorica, or Little Britain, he sent deputies to demand 
 Ursula in marriage, with the further request that she should 
 bring with her as many young women as would bear her com- 
 pany and become the wives of the Christian Britons who had 
 followed him to Armorica. So the princess with eleven thousand 
 other virgins set sail from London. But a storm carried them 
 towards the Ehine. Opposite Cologne the ships were captured 
 by the Huns, and as the maidens, incited by St. Ursula, refused 
 to sacrifice their virginity, they were barbarously massacred. 
 This was in 383. 
 
 Many attempts have been made by sceptics to rationalize the 
 legend by minimizing the number of the virgin martyrs. Ac- 
 cording to one guess, this number may have been eleven. Their 
 massacre, it is conjectured, was commemorated in an inscription 
 running thus : 
 
950 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 YESYLA ET XI MM YY 
 
 which read rightly would signify Ursula et undecim martyres 
 virgines, or " Ursula and eleven virgin martyrs." An ignorant 
 translator read millia instead of martyres, and so multiplied by 
 one thousand the number of victims. This explanation is simple 
 and plausible enough. Nothing prevents the characters MM 
 from meaning millia (" thousands") instead of martyres (" mar- 
 tyrs"). But it has not met with unqualified approval. 
 
 Another suggestion reduces the total number of martyrs to 
 two. It runs in this wise : It was a frequent usage, when the 
 family was numerous, to give to the children a name that should 
 denote the order of their birth. The first was thus called Pri- 
 mus, the second Secundus, and so on. Two of these praenomens 
 have survived. To this day the names of Septimus and Octavius 
 are not rare. Now, Septimus means " seventh" and Octavius 
 " eighth." The eleventh child would then take the name Un- 
 decimus, and if it was a girl the form would be Undecim a. The 
 eleventh child might be regarded as the pet of the house, — the 
 " baby." Undecima then would become Undecimilla, a diminu- 
 tive form of the name. 
 
 St. Ursula might have had for a companion a young girl of 
 this name. Now, in place of Ursula et Undecimilla it would 
 have been easy to read Ursula et Undecimillia (" eleven thou- 
 sand"), whence the legend of eleven thousand virgins could have 
 arisen. As letters were never doubled in writing, the error is 
 easily explained; it becomes altogether probable if the story 
 of the martyr Ursula was handed down by tradition. It would 
 sufiice that the narrator, or even the writer, was ignorant of 
 this name of Undecimilla, which was perhaps very rare, and so 
 transformed it into undecimillia. 
 
 Still a third : 
 
 Baring-Gould in " The Lives of the Saints" and in " Curious 
 Myths of the Middle Ages" identifies St. Ursula with the god- 
 dess Isis, the Norse Freya, and the Thuringian Horsel. In 
 Thuringia she was said to live in the Horselberg, surrounded by 
 her thousand maidens, and by Marten and Seelen, " spirits" and 
 " souls," which accompanied her everywhere. 
 
 Tacitus tells us that a ship was carried about in the festivals 
 of Isis. Now, Horsel sailed about the blue heavenly seas in her 
 silver ship, seeking her husband. She Avas, in fact, the moon- 
 deity, accompanied by her train of stars. 
 
 Not only is Ursula an obvious corruption of Horsel, but the 
 names of two of her companions are given as Martha and Saula, 
 which look like less obvious corruptions of Marten and Seelen. 
 A still more remarkable coincidence kinning Ursula to Isis and 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 951 
 
 Horsel is the fact that in the Middle Ages there grew up a curi- 
 ous custom of founding confraternities or guilds in Germany 
 called " the Skiffs of St. Ursula." The symbol of the confra- 
 ternity was a boat, which was carried about in public processions. 
 But St. Ursula's skiff was a purely imaginary vessel, which every 
 member of the guild had to help load with prayers, masses, pen- 
 ances, and good works for the general good. To this day a relic 
 of the custom survives in the Ommegang at Brussels, and in a 
 similar festival at Boulogne, in which ships are drawn by horses 
 through the town. 
 
 Now, it is quite possible that Christian maidens may have 
 been slaughtered by Huns in Cologne. Indeed, the very fact 
 that a church dedicated to virgin martyrs existed here at a 
 very early date seems to indicate that there had occurred some 
 martyrdom of maidens there. But this Mr. Gould thinks is 
 absolutely all that can be said in favor of these saints, whom 
 popular tradition has enveloped with the attributes and even the 
 names of old Teutonic mythological personages. 
 
 So much for the virgins. IS^ow for their remains. These 
 to the number of several thousands are preserved in Cologne. 
 They were gathered together in the church of St. Ursula, where 
 the princess lay canonized, with the story of her tragic fate pic- 
 tured on the walls about her. This queer old twelfth-century 
 church is one great tomb, the walls being filled in with bones, of 
 which glimpses may be had through gratings. In the treasury 
 the walls have been adorned with all manner of fantastic devices 
 wrought with the martyrs' remains, many of their skulls en- 
 closed in silver busts being set in the niches. More of these 
 skulls are preserved in a cupboard and enclosed in velvet cases 
 wrought with gold thread and studded with gems, the cases open 
 at the top to show the blow that cleft or crushed the skull ; one 
 of them with wisps of auburn hair still clinging to either side 
 of the gaping wound and a row of superb pearls sewn across 
 the velvet that covers the mouth. 
 
 It was in the seventh century that the body of St. Ursula her- 
 self was recovered. While St. Cunibert was saying mass in the 
 church of the Holy Yirgins, he saw a white dove which rested 
 on a tomb. He opened it and discovered the remains of St. 
 Ursula. He translated them to the abbey of Deutz. January 
 28 is observed by the Church as the anniversary of this trans- 
 lation. There were no further discoveries till 1106, when the 
 walls of the city were being rebuilt. Near the church of St. 
 Cunibert the workmen came on a considerable number of bones. 
 Yisions assured the workmen that these were the relics of the 
 martyred virgins. It is not improbable that the new walls had 
 traversed an old burial-ground belonging to the church of St. 
 
952 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Cunibert. But this explanation was too simple to be received 
 by the credulous populace. And in fact, trading on this cre- 
 dulity, Gerlach, the abbot of Deutz in 1155, made the greatest 
 "invention" of all. " It is perhaps one of the most painful his- 
 tories of fraud which have ever been recorded," says Mr. Gould. 
 " So preposterous is it, that the Jesuit father, De Buck, waxes 
 wroth and indignant over it." 
 
 Gerlach did not content himself with digging up all the bodies 
 he could find, but he connived at the manufacture of inscriptions 
 and tombstones which pretended to give the names of the former 
 tenants of the bodies. He also induced a nun named Elizabeth 
 to see visions in which appropriate legends were devised for each. 
 
 V. 
 
 Valentine, St. Custom, more potent than any other au- 
 thority known to man, has decreed that on St. Valentine's Day, 
 which in the Eoman and Anglican calendar falls on February 14, 
 young folks of both sexes, and older ones, too, for that matter, 
 should exchange missives and epistles, either comic or senti- 
 mental, in which the foibles of the receiver or the love of the 
 sender are set forth in prose, in verse, and in emblematic picture. 
 !N"ow, there is no custom without a reason. But the reason for 
 this cannot be found in the life of the good saint who is made to 
 indorse the custom with his name. He wrote no love-songs. No 
 one rises up to accuse him of casting sheep's eyes on any Roman 
 maiden. He was a bishop or Pope of Rome who stood steadfast 
 to the faith during the Claudian persecutions, and for that faith 
 was cast into jail, where he cured his keeper's daughter of blind- 
 ness. Honi soit qui mal y pense. It is the pleasure of Cupid, 
 blind himself, to bring upon his votaries a similar blindness, not 
 to cure it. 
 
 Kor was there anything, either comic or sentimental, in the 
 fate of St. Valentine when the miracle was made known to the 
 authorities. They first beat him with clubs and then beheaded 
 him. What was left of him is preserved in the church of St. 
 Praxedes at Rome, where a gate, now known as the Porta del 
 Popolo, was formerly named, in his honor. Porta Yalentini, or 
 Valentine's Gate. 
 
 Another Valentine also claims a share in the day, who has as 
 little to do with comed}^ or sentiment. He was the bishop who 
 healed a son of Craton the rhetorician, and was choked to death 
 by a fish-bone. In Italy and Germany they pray to him to cuie 
 epilepsy. Either Valentine would be surprised to find himself a 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 953 
 
 lovers' saint, but he has his compensation. Truly spoke Charles 
 Lamb to the bishop, "Like unto thee, assuredly, there is no 
 mitred father in the calendar; not Jerome, nor Ambrose, nor 
 Cyril ; nor the consignor of undipt infants to eternal torments, 
 Austin, whom all mothers hate ; nor he who hated all mothers, 
 Origen ; nor Bishop Bull, nor Archbishop Parker, nor Whitgift. 
 Thou comest attended with thousands and ten thousands little 
 Loves, and the air is 
 
 Brush't with the hiss of rustling wings. 
 
 " Singing Cupids are thy choristers and thy precentors, and 
 instead of the crosier the mystical arrow is borne before thee." 
 
 In default of any light thrown upon the custom by biography, 
 etymologists and lexicographers, antiquarians and hagiologists, 
 have drawn more or less satisfactory explanations from their 
 special studies. 
 
 Hearken first to the etymologist. He points out that v and g 
 were frequently interchangeable in popular speech, and as a 
 notable instance produces the words gallant and valiant, which 
 both spring from the Latin valens. He then explains that the 
 IN'orman word galantin, a lover of the fair sex, or what in these 
 slangy days might be called a masher, was frequently written 
 and pronounced valantan or valentin. And from these premises 
 he concludes that by a natural confusion of names Bishop Yalen- 
 tine was established as the patron saint of sweethearts and lovers, 
 although he has no real connection, not even an etymological one, 
 with that class of beings. 
 
 So far so good. As a guess why St. Valentine became asso- 
 ciated with the custom this is plausible, though not convinQing. 
 Still, it leaves the origin of the custom as much in the dark as 
 ever. 
 
 Try we, therefore, the lexicographer. And, as there is far 
 more amusement to be extracted from the ancient than from the 
 modern lexicon, let us turn to Bailey's, the first of the great 
 English dictionaries (1721). Here we find the following : " Valen- 
 tines (in England). About this time of the year — month of Feb- 
 ruary — the Birds choose their Mates, and probably thence came 
 the Custom of the Young Men and Maidens choosing Valentines, 
 or special loving Friends, on that Lay." Pretty and poetical, 
 but not entirely satisfactory. So let us turn to the antiquary. 
 Francis Douce, in his " Illustrations of Shakespeare" (1807), 
 suggests that St. Valentine's Day is the Christianized form of 
 the classic Lupercalia, which were feasts held in Pome during 
 the month of February in honor of Pan and Juno (hence known 
 as Juno Februata), when among other ceremonies it was cus- 
 
954 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 tomary to put the names of young women into a box, from 
 which they were drawn by the men as chance directed, and that 
 the Christian clergy, finding it diflScult or impossible to extir- 
 pate the pagan practice, gave it at least a religious aspect by 
 substituting the names of particular saints for those of the 
 women. 
 
 He buttresses up his opinion by an appeal to the hagiologist. 
 This is no less a person than the Eev. Alban Butler, who, in his 
 "Lives of the Saints," explains that pastors of the Christian 
 Church, '• by every means in their power, worked zealously to 
 eradicate the vestiges of pagan superstition ; chiefly by the 
 simple process of retaining the ceremonies, but modifying their 
 significance ; and substituted, for the drawing of names in honor 
 of the goddess Februata Juno, the names of some particular 
 saints. But as the festival of the Lupercalia took place during 
 February, the 14th of that month, St. Yalentine's Day, was 
 selected for this new feast, as occurring about the same time. 
 The saints whose names were drawn were proposed for imitation 
 to the persons who received the slips of paper whereon they were 
 written, and in many religious houses, where this custom still 
 prevails, each member of the community preserves his billet 
 during the year, as an incitement to imitate the virtues and 
 invoke the special intercession of his holy Valentine." 
 
 But see how strong is the old Adam in the hearts of the un- 
 regenerate. "Wanton youth was not satisfied to imitate these 
 holy fathers and ballot for a ghostly partner in heaven. It 
 longed for tangible flesh and blood here on earth, — flesh and 
 blood of that delightful variety which has a spice of the devil 
 in it (teste many holy men who have fled aghast from its witch- 
 eries), and is known as woman. So it went back to something 
 like the pagan custom. 
 
 This was at least as early as the fourteenth century, for we 
 find these lines in a poem written by John Lydgate in praise of 
 Catherine, the wife of Henry Y. : 
 
 Seynte Valentine of custome yeere by yeere 
 Men have an usuance, in this regioun, 
 
 To loke and serche Cupides kalendere, 
 
 And chose theyr choyse by grete affeccioun, 
 Such as ben move with Cupides mocioun, 
 
 Takyng theyre choyse as they re sort doth falle ; 
 
 But I love oon whiche excelleth alle. 
 
 In the latter part of the sixteenth century the Church, in the 
 person of St. Francis de Sales, once more stepped in to sanctify 
 the rites of St. Valentine's Day. Again Butler is our authority. 
 He tells us how St. Francis " severely forbad the custom of Val. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 955 
 
 entines, or giving Boys in writing the name of Girls to be ad- 
 mired and attended on by them ; and, to abolish it, he changed 
 it into giving billets with the names of certain Saints, for them 
 to honor and imitate in a particular manner." 
 
 But in the end the Boys and the Girls triumphed over the 
 Saint. Nay, the Girls triumphed also over the Boys, wrest- 
 ing from them their exclusive privilege of choosing mates. In 
 France itself it appears that the names of young people of both 
 sexes were written out and put into proper receptacles, and 
 drawings took place, in which each sex could secure a partner 
 from the other, and it was customary for the sentimental bond 
 set up by the selection so made to inure for one year and no 
 longer, unless, as a sarcastic bachelor observes, " terminated by 
 the marriage or death of the parties." During the year ea^b 
 stood to the other in the relation of Cavalier and Lady oP 
 Beauty, the knight being bound to the honor and defence of 
 his fair one, for which she repaid him in smiles and silk favors, 
 when silk was obtainable and too much good-natured encourage- 
 ment was not strictly forbidden by parents and guardians. 
 
 The same mutuality obtained across the Channel. Misson, 
 in his " Travels in England" (1698), tells us that on the eve of 
 St. Valentine's Day " an equal number of Maids and Bachelors 
 get together, each writes their true or some feigned name upon 
 separate billets, which they roll up and draw by way of lots, 
 the Maids taking the Men's billets, and the Men the Maids' ; so 
 that each of the young Men lights upon a Girl that he calls his 
 Yalentine, and each of the Girls upon a young Man which she 
 calls hers. By this means each has two Valentines — but the 
 Man sticks faster to the Valentine that is fallen to him than to 
 the Valentine to whom he is fallen. Fortune having thus di- 
 vided the company into so many couples, the Valentines give 
 balls and treats to their mistresses, wear their billets several 
 days upon their bosoms or sleeves, and this little sport often 
 ends in Love. This ceremony is practised differently in differ- 
 ent Countries, and according to the freedom or severity of 
 Madame Valentine. There is another kind of Valentine, which 
 is the first young Man or Woman chance throws in your way in 
 the street, or elsewhere," on Valentine's Day itself The latter 
 appears at an early date to have been the manner in Scotland, 
 if Sir Walter is right in his description of the wooing of the 
 Fair Maid of Perth and of Hal of the Wynd. A more notable 
 example is Ophelia's song : 
 
 Good morrow, 'tis St. Valentino's Day, 
 
 All in the morn betime, 
 And I a maid at your window, 
 
 To be your valentine. 
 
956 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 It is evident, therefore, that in Shakespeare's day the custom 
 of challenging your valentine had already commenced. The 
 challenge consisted simply in saying, " Good morrow, 'tis St. 
 Valentine's Day," and he or she who said it first on meeting a 
 person of the opposite sex received a present. Later a gallant 
 custom enacted that the gentleman alone should give the present, 
 but only if he were successfully challenged. This explains good 
 Mr. Pepys's anxiety when early on St. Valentine's Day (1664) 
 he called at Sir William Batten's and would not go in " till I 
 asked whether they that opened the door was a man or a woman, 
 and Mingo, who was there, answered a woman, which, with his 
 tones, made me laugh ; so up I went, and took Mrs. Martha for 
 my Valentine (which I do only for complacency) ; and Sir W. 
 Batten he go in the same manner to my wife, and so we were 
 very merry." 
 
 It seems also that some element of choice as well as of chance 
 had now been introduced into the sport, for a person could wil- 
 fully close his or her eyes and refuse to open them until an ap- 
 propriate mate arrived. Thus, on next St. Valentine's Day Mr. 
 Pepys records that Will Bowyer came to be his wife's valentine, 
 " she having (at which I made good sport to myself) held her 
 hands all the morning, that she might not see the painters that 
 were at work gilding my chimney-piece and pictures in my 
 dining-room." 
 
 From the same diarist we get the first record of a drawing or 
 illustration as connected with the day. This is under date of 
 February 14, 1667 : " This morning came up to my wife's bed- 
 side little Will Mercer to be her valentine, and brought her name 
 writ upon blue paper, in gold letters, done by himself very pretty ; 
 and we were both well pleased with it." Another innovation is 
 mentioned under the same date : " I do first observe the draw- 
 ing of mottoes as well as of names ; so that Pierce, who drew 
 my wife's, did draw also a motto. Her motto was ' most cour- 
 teous and most fair,' which, as it may be used for an anagram 
 upon each name, might be very pretty." 
 
 And so in the pages of Pepys we trace the bint for the modern 
 valentine. It only remained to join the illustration and the 
 motto, to enlarge the latter into a verse, original or selected, 
 and to give the sender an unlimited choice as to the person or 
 persons whom he should favor. Exactly when this union of 
 qualities was eff^ected we have no later Pepys to inform us. But 
 we know that by the beginning of the present century the new 
 method had fully established itself in popular favor. 
 
 In the days of quill pens and dear postage the transmission 
 of valentines through the post was an expensive luxury. The 
 amorous swains of that period had to content themselves and 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 957 
 
 their idolized fair ones with thick sheets of gilt-edged letter- 
 paper, — envelopes had not then come into use, and book postage 
 was still unknown, — the first page of each sheet being adorned 
 with a gilt Cupid, carefully gummed on, surmounting a few lines, 
 the favorite formula announcing in terms still held sacred to St. 
 Valentine that because the 
 
 rose is red and the violet > — .':-,: : : -^-_\ 
 
 blue, therefore the sender is 
 as sweet as sugar. 
 
 With the reduction of the 
 heavy postal charges printed 
 valentines gradually came 
 into use. They generally 
 consisted of a gaudily col- 
 ored picture, representing a 
 loving couple seated in a 
 bower, with a church in the 
 distance, and a few lines de- 
 scriptive of the tender sen- 
 timents of the persons for- 
 warding the same. The 
 designers of these amatory 
 
 billets seem to have entertained rather singular notions respect- 
 ing the proper attire of the ladies and gentlemen of whose feel- 
 ings they sought to become the interpreters. The lady was in- 
 variably dressed in a scarlet gown, with a blue or green shawl ; 
 the gentleman was attired in lavender trousers, yellow waist- 
 coat, blue surtout, and green or crimson cravat. The effect thus 
 obtained was, as might be imagined, somewhat striking; but 
 our fathers and mothers were apparently satisfied with these 
 quaint productions. The introduction of the cheap postage of 
 tO-day laid the foundation of the present trade in valentines, 
 the manufacture of which now constitutes an important branch 
 of industrial activity, furnishing, directly or indirectly, employ- 
 ment to several thousand persons of both sexes. 
 
 Cheap postage is also responsible for the introduction of the 
 comic valentine, that hideous bit of vulgarity sold for a cent in 
 the United States and in Great Britain for a penny or a half- 
 penny, which still remains one of the tribulations of the day. 
 But side by side with this monstrosity grew up the pretty and 
 fanciful cards whose use in a modified form has been extended 
 also to Christmas and to New Year's. 
 
 The First Printed Valentine. 
 
 Veiled Prophet. An annual pageant performed in St. Louis, 
 Missouri, on the first Tuesday in October. It consists of a great 
 evening procession through the streets of the city, in which 
 
958 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 thousands of maskers take part, many of them seated on 
 elaborate floats. The feature of the occasion is Mokanna, the 
 Veiled Prophet himself. He wears a long beard, a crown with 
 wings, and an elaborate Turkish costume of the finest satin, and 
 bears in his hand an incandescent boss. He is surrounded by 
 electric lights, fairies, pages, high-priests, sword-bearers, and 
 maids of honor. The rest of the masqueraders are a quaint 
 mixture of Eastern and Western, modern and ancient, mythology. 
 Comus, the Lord of Misrule, Gambrinus, are mingled together in 
 defiance of chronology and geography. But the general effect 
 is gorgeous, and is enhanced by the fireworks that are let off all 
 along the route from the many floats and by the calcium lights 
 and other illuminations. The procession concludes with a ball at 
 the Merchants' Exchange Hall, where the Veiled Prophet chooses 
 and crowns a queen. 
 
 The story of the Veiled Prophet was made familiar to lovers 
 of poetry by Moore's "Lalla Eookh," in which it forms an episode. 
 Mokanna, however, was not a creation of fancy, but a genuine 
 historic character of the eighth century. His name was Hakem 
 ben Allah, but he called himself Al-Mokanna ("the Veiled"). 
 Having lost one eye from an arrow wound, he wore a thick veil 
 to conceal the deformity, and laid claim to be an incarnation of 
 the Deity. He had many followers in Arabia, and soon possessed 
 himself of a large part of that country, and was acknowledged 
 by a number of cities. His influence was retained by many 
 devices, such being his skill in magic and legerdemain that his 
 tricks passed for miracles. 
 
 Troops were sent against him by the caliph Almahdi, his armies 
 were defeated in the field, and he was besieged in a small fortress 
 in the south of Arabia. Finding success impossible, and deeming 
 escape hopeless, he poisoned his attendants in a banquet and 
 leaped into a well or cistern which had been partly filled with 
 destructive acids. When the conquerors forced a way into the 
 castle they searched in vain for him or his body, the latter having 
 been entirely dissolved by the corrosive fluids. The secret was 
 discovered by the confession of one who had beheld the prepara- 
 tions for suicide; but in some parts of Arabia there are still per- 
 sons who believe that Mokanna ascended to heaven. 
 
 Veronica, St. Her festival is celebrated on Shrove Tuesday. 
 There are varying accounts concerning this saint. According to 
 some, she was the daughter of Salome and the niece of Herod; 
 according to others, she was the woman who was healed of an 
 issue of blood by touching the hem of Christ's garment. When 
 the Saviour was bearing the cross to Calvary, she handed him 
 her handkerchief to wipe his face, and ever afterwards Christ's 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 959 
 
 features remained impressed on the cloth. The Emperor Tiberius 
 summoned St. Veronica to Eome, that she might heal him of a 
 terrible disease, but he died before her arrival there. She is said 
 to have subsequently suffered martyrdom with St. Peter and St. 
 Paul. Another account makes her go to Europe with Lazarus 
 and his sisters and suffer death in Provence or Aquitaine. A 
 chapel in St. Peter's at Eome is dedicated to St. Veronica, and 
 the face of the Saviour painted on linen is shown there as the 
 veritable handkerchief of the legend. In art St. Veronica is 
 represented holding the napkin. 
 
 Vessel-Cup, also known as ^Vesley-Cup and Wesley 
 
 Bob. The name is evidently a corruption of " wassail :" but the 
 thing is a curious admixture of the old Catholic crib (see Pre- 
 SEPio) and the semi-pagan wassail customs. As it survives at 
 present in Yorkshire and other parts of rural England, the 
 vessel-cup is made of holly and evergreens, like a bower, inside 
 which are placed either one or two dolls, adorned with ribbons. 
 The whole affair is wrapped in a veil and borne upon a stick 
 during Christmas week by children who go from house to house 
 singing either the well-known strains of " God rest you, merry 
 gentlemen," or a carol beginning, — 
 
 God bless the master of this house, 
 
 The mistress also, 
 And all the little children 
 
 That round the table go. 
 
 When they come to a house they uncover the cup, in the ex- 
 pectation of some small gratuity. In some localities young girls 
 and women are the bearers, as' was formerly the case with the 
 wassail-cup. Up to almost the middle of the nineteenth century 
 the dolls were known as Advent Images, a name which clearly 
 indicated their Catholic origin. They were dressed to represent 
 the Virgin and the infant Christ, and were carried in a box with 
 a glass lid. This was covered over by a white napkin, and car- 
 ried from door to door in the arms of a woman. On reaching a 
 house the bearer uncovered the box and sang this carol : 
 
 The first good joy that Mary had, it was the joy of one, 
 To see her own son Jesus to suck at her breast-bone. 
 It brings tidings of comfort and joy ! 
 
 The next good joy that Mary had, it was the joy of two. 
 To see her own son Jesus to make the lame to go. 
 It brings, etc. 
 
 The next good joy that Mary had, it was the joy of three, 
 To see her own son Jesus to make the blind to see. 
 It brings, etc. 
 
960 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 The next good joy that Mary had, it was the joy of four, 
 
 To see her own 
 It brings, etc 
 
 son Jesus to read the Bible o'er. 
 
 The next good joy that Mary had, it was the joy of five, 
 
 To see her own 
 It brings, etc 
 
 son Jesus to make the dead alive. 
 
 To see her own 
 It brings, etc 
 
 The next good joy that Mary had, it was the joy of six, 
 To see her own 
 It brings, etc, 
 
 son Jesus to bear the crucifix. 
 
 The next good joy that Mary had, it was the joy of seven. 
 
 son Jesus to wear the crown of heaven. 
 
 At every house before which the bearers stopped a halfpenny 
 was expected, in return for which the giver was allowed to take 
 a leaf or a flower, which was carefully preserved as a cure for 
 toothache. That household which was not visited was deemed 
 in danger of ill luck. An old proverbial expression in Yorkshire 
 ran, " As unhappy as the man who has seen no Advent Images." 
 
 It was infinitely more unlucky, however, to withhold the half- 
 penny in case the Advent Images came along. 
 
 Viaticum. (Lat., "Provision for a journey," — hence for the 
 last journey from this world to the next.) This name is given 
 to the communion administered to the dying. In countries 
 where Protestantism prevails the consecrated host is carried to 
 the bedside by the Catholic priest without public display. But in 
 Catholic countries a solemn procession escorts it from the church 
 to the door of the patient. At any hour of the day or night this 
 procession may be seen traversing the streets. You first hear a 
 bell in the distance, and as the sound draws nearer lights begin 
 to appear in the windows, and the passers-by slacken their pace 
 and presently kneel down. The procession comes by; it is simple 
 enough, consisting of a priest, bearing the sacred host in a pyx 
 or golden box, with a sort of umbrella held over him (a bal- 
 dacchino, as it is called), in token of reverence, a few clerics 
 carrying lighted torches, and a crowd of poorly dressed followers 
 clustering behind. The crowd swells as it goes, many falling 
 into the ranks as they pass by, and making, as it were, a guard 
 of honor about the door of the sick person's house. In Naples 
 it is customary for any noble or wealthy occupant of a carriage, 
 who may happen to meet such a procession, to alight upon the 
 spot and give up his carriage to the priest, following it on foot 
 himself. At Eome one often sees richly dressed ladies get out of 
 their carriages and kneel among the crowd, regardless of dust 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 961 
 
 or mud, as the viaticum is carried past. Similar customs are 
 common in all Catholic countries. 
 
 Special state was observed in the older days when the Pope 
 himself carried the viaticum to some great personage. 
 
 The Viaticum in Papal Procession. 
 
 In France until the Eevolution, when the viaticum was borne 
 to the sick or dying the priest placed himself under a dais. He 
 was preceded by a lantern-bearer, a bell-bearer, and a deacon. 
 At the tinkhng of the bell all the wayfarers knelt down, and 
 horses and carriages stopped in the street. If the patient were 
 a person of quality, all the servants and often the master of the 
 house provided themselves with torches to receive the priest at 
 the threshold. Madame de Sevigne on November 19, 1664, de- 
 scribes how the viaticum was borne to Queen Marie Therese, 
 then in danger as the result of a confinement : " It was the most 
 magnificent and the saddest thing in the world to see the king 
 and all his court with tapers and thousands of torches go to seek 
 and bring back the Holy Sacrament." One day Louis XV., 
 returning from the Palais de Justice, met the viaticum at the 
 Pont-Neuf. Descending from his carriage, ho dropped on his 
 knees in the mud, and the priest emerging from beneath the dais 
 took his seat in the royal carriage amid the acclamations of the 
 people. 
 
 In Madrid on EaSter Sunday the host is sent round in one of 
 the royal coaches, preceded b}^ bands of music, and escorted by 
 
 61 
 
962 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 a body of troops. It stops at the houses of sick persons, and is 
 taken in to them. Three priests alight from the carriage, the 
 centre one wearing a gold and silver robe, and bearing the con- 
 secrated wafer, which, in common Spanish parlance, is called 
 Dios, or God. Four assistants carry, by means of four sticks, a 
 silken awning over the priests and their sacred charge. The 
 centre of the awning sinks a little, and on it rest fresh flowers. 
 The royal carriage is of an antique form, of a deep cherry -red, 
 with burnished gildings. It is drawn by six grays, with postilion 
 and coachman. When the host descends from the carriage, the 
 military band plays the Royal March, — played only on such 
 occasions and in the presence of royalty. The people at the 
 windows throw out flowers and little squares of paper of various 
 colors, with grotesque wood-cuts and barbarous verses printed 
 upon them. These. aleluy as, as they are called, are the invariable 
 accompaniments of processions here, and are thrown out in great 
 quantities, thickly strewing the ground, much to the delight of 
 the street-urchins, who make collections of them. 
 
 Victor, St., patron of Marseilles, France. A Roman soldier 
 in the army of the Emperor Maximian who refused to worship 
 heathen gods and with three companions suffered martyrdom at 
 Marseilles. Their bodies were thrown into the sea, but, being 
 cast ashore, were buried by the Christians in a grotto hewn out 
 of a rock. 
 
 After Jerusalem and Rome, Marseilles is claimed by the lovers 
 of St. Yictor as the earliest place of Christian worship. It is 
 told that at one time as many as five thousand monks lived in 
 the rocks and met in the catacombs for prayer. This was in the 
 time of St. Cassien. Early in the fifth century, after his Oriental 
 wanderings, this remarkable character came to Marseilles, and 
 was allowed by the bishop to establish himself in the grotto. 
 Finally he was surrounded by imitators of his pietj' and peni- 
 tence to the number of thousands. In 420 he built a church and 
 a monastery above ground, and also founded a house for women. 
 To this church the greater part of the relics of St. Victor were 
 transferred, the remainder being conveyed to Paris and laid in a 
 chapel dedicated in his honor, which was subsequently enlarged 
 and turned into the royal monastery of St. Victor's. 
 
 Saracens destroyed the first abbey of St. Victor in Marseilles. 
 Its successor of 1040 suffered also. The building of 1200 re- 
 mains, and is a favorite place of pilgrimage for devout Catholics. 
 Besides the relics of its eponymic saint, it contains a number 
 of hagiological " attractions." Among these are the legendary 
 cross on which St. Andrew was crucified, and the equally legen- 
 dary tomb of Lazarus, who after his resurrection came to Mar- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 963 
 
 seilles with his sisters about a.d. 40. (See Maries, the Three.) 
 The latter is in the chapel of Mary Magdalene in the grotto be- 
 neath, where is also preserved a smooth stone known as the seat 
 of Lazarus. Its hollowed end forms a basin where Christians 
 received baptism, and here, " very ancient and respectable tradi- 
 tion" reports, the " sainted bishop and friend of the Saviour of 
 men" used to hear confession and administer the sacrament to 
 his converts. 
 
 The magnificent tomb of Pope Urban Y., which was one of 
 the former glories of the place, disappeared in the Eevolution- 
 ary year 1793. Urban in 1361 was head of the abbey, and after 
 death he was buried within its walls. His tomb was the shrine 
 of the upper church, and had to be protected by an iron grating 
 from the indiscreet piety of pilgrims. Many lords, kings, and 
 princes have heaped treasure there, and sought intercession for 
 their sins. In the Eevolutionary turmoil this monument suffered 
 with others. Eecently its remains have been discovered, but not 
 the bones. 
 
 The Eevolutionists used the crypts of St. Victor as a prison, 
 and confined there their convict galley-slaves. With this century 
 restoration began, and in 1804 the upper church was purified and 
 restored to sacred use, while in 1822 worship was resumed in the 
 poor shorn catacombs. 
 
 In the chapel of Notre-Dame de la Confession is preserved the 
 famous Black Virgin, an image vulgarly attributed to St. Luke, 
 but evidently of mediaeval date. It has a child on its knee, and 
 is darkly stained. The peculiar color, or the uncanny fact that 
 the bluest skies darkened and rain fell in torrents whenever the 
 Virgin was carried out of doors, or similarly good reasons, pro- 
 tected her in the Saracen raids, while during the Eevolutionary 
 assaults some faithful monk managed to secrete her in a cottage. 
 Crutches and other mementos of the miraculously healed hang 
 about her shrine. 
 
 The stories of the Black Virgin's power are voluminous and 
 characteristic. One of the most popular legends is that of the 
 green candles. A devout maid of the early ages worshipped at 
 this shrine until her constancy became proverbial. Arriving 
 home in the crypts one morning before four o'clock, the mass 
 began and proceeded with her as the only attendant. Coming to 
 the next mass, she met grieved and wondering reproof for her 
 neglect of the morning service from the priests, who, in turn, 
 were amazed by her assurance that she had attended. Ilurt by 
 their disbelief, she told them to look for her offering, and surely 
 there was a ring she had left on the altar. But they were yet 
 only half convinced, until she reminded them tliat at the mass 
 green candles had replaced the usual white ones. They again 
 
964 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 visited Xotre-Dame de la Confession, and, lo ! the candles were 
 all given. And then they knew that the Black Virgin, about 
 whom the lights blinked so sleepily, had recognized the piety of 
 the earthly virgin and had caused to be celebrated for her solely 
 this miraculous mass. 
 
 The Black Virgin is now taken from her underground home 
 but one day in the year, the first of the great '' Chandelcur" 
 (Candlemas) week or " octave" which affects Marseilles life so 
 picturesquely during the early daj^s of February. It is a medi- 
 iBval time of cakes and candles and priests and white-robed 
 virgins, with nineteenth-century pilgrims swarming the narrow 
 streets that meet at the broad earth platform overlooking the 
 glorious sea and port and " Old Town" views, and surrounding 
 the dark walls of the sacred fortress with its blocked and secretly 
 wrought windows, and its flag-decked towers, where great black 
 bells turn and swing in the openings against the blue sky. 
 
 " The church entrance, where every species of pitiful deformity 
 begs, is approached through an avenue formed by booths for the 
 selling of cakes, candles, and souvenirs, and presided over by 
 comfortable white-capped old women or beribboned young ones. 
 Inside, the church is rapidly filled with chairs, of which every 
 comer receives one, in return for a sou, from more smiling gran- 
 nies. Forward where the crowd presses about the Black Virgin 
 little can be seen but burning tapers and the white gowns of the 
 3^oung girls who that morning bore her from the crypts. At 
 four o'clock in the morning the initial service of the Chandeleur 
 is held amid suffocating crowds, and then is formed the priestly 
 procession, which, accompanying the Virgin, winds through the 
 subterranean waj's arid up the staircase to the church above, 
 where all day the people throng about their Lady in solicitation 
 and adoration, and where services are held at intervals until six 
 o'clock, when the Virgin is returned to her chapel. 
 
 "The services in the crypts during the remaining days are 
 most interesting, — the soft taper lights, the altar richly dressed 
 in green, white, and gold, the kneeling multitude,* the passing 
 costumes of various religious orders, the tapping response of the 
 stone pavement, and, above all, the associations of saints, monks, 
 sovereigns, and martyrs, imparting a peculiar fascination. Amid 
 such scenes the nineteenth-century bonnets seem incongruous 
 and emphasize the sweet propriety of the peasant's native cos- 
 tume, when the eye rests on some placid Aries woman in her 
 folds of black and white, or an Italian girl from the fishers' quar- 
 ter, in nondescript garb, gracefully resting against a pillar, or a 
 type from the Catalans, some scarfed Spanish contour poised by a 
 happ3^ instinct in one of the balcony-like openings, which forms 
 a stone frame. Many of the Chandeleur candles are specially 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 965 
 
 blessed to be burned at sea to allay tempests, and among the 
 thousands sold are many green ones in memory of the old 
 legend. And a yet older custom still is kept, whereby on de- 
 parting from the church every one buys one of the little boat- 
 shaped cakes called ' navettes,' which probably originated in 
 commemoration of the voyage of Lazarus to Provence." (M. 
 K. B., in JSfew York Evening Post, April 17, 1897.) 
 
 Vincent, St., patron saint of Lisbon, Valencia, Saragossa, 
 Milan, and Chalons. His festival is celebrated on January 22. 
 At the age of twenty he was an ordained deacon. He was de- 
 nounced as a Christian together with his bishop, Yalerius. St. 
 Vincent proclaimed his faith and defied torture, whereupon the 
 proconsul gave him over to terrible tortures. Legend has it that 
 angels came down and strengthened him, and that his jailers 
 heard their songs and beheld the prison filled with light, and 
 were converted. As his spirit could not be conquered by tor- 
 ture, the proconsul had him placed on a bed of roses, and every- 
 thing was done to ease his pain, in order that he might be seduced 
 by luxury. But he expired on his bed of roses, and, according 
 to legend, angels bore his soul to glory. His body was thrown 
 to wild beasts, but it was untouched and was guarded by a raven. 
 Then it was attached to a millstone and thrown into the sea. 
 But w^hen the boatmen who had taken the body out returned to 
 the shore they found that the body had preceded them. They 
 ran away in terror, and the waves hollowed out a grave for the 
 corpse. Here it lay for many years, when it was revealed to 
 some Christians, who took the remains to Valencia and interred 
 them. Some of his relics found their way to Saragossa. It is 
 related that when Childebert^laid siege to this city he raised 
 the siege on condition that the stole of St. Vincent should be 
 given to him. He carried it to Paris and placed it in a church 
 which he built. In the year 885 some of the bones of St. Vin- 
 cent were translated from Valencia to France and deposited 
 in the abbey of Castres. The greater portion of the bones of 
 the saint was taken from Valencia by the Christians when 
 driven out by the Moors, and deposited on a promontory since 
 called Cape St. Vincent. Here ravens are said to have guarded 
 the remains. In 1147 Alonzo I. removed these relics to Lisbon 
 and placed them in the cathedral. This translation is annually 
 commemorated by the Portuguese ; the feast was confirmed by 
 Sixtus V. St. Vincent is represented in art as a handsome young 
 man, and his proper attribute is a crow or a raven. 
 
 Vincent de Paul, St., founder of the order of the Sisters 
 of Charity. His festival is celebrated on July 19. 
 
966 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 St. Vincent de Paul was born in Gascony in 1576. At the 
 age of twenty he entered the Franciscan order. On a voyage 
 from Marseilles to Narbonne he was captured by pirates and 
 was sold into slavery at Tunis, but he finally converted his 
 master and his wife, and together they made their escape, land- 
 ing in France in 1607. Thence he went to Eome, where he was 
 intrusted with a mission to the French court, and became almo- 
 ner of Queen Marguerite de Yalois. He then set himself to 
 work for the relief of prisoners, as well as for the poor and out- 
 casts in general, thus gaining the title of the Father of the Poor. 
 He died at St. Lazare on the 27th of September, 1660, and was 
 buried in the church of that name. The saint was canonized 
 in 1737 by Pope Clement XII. Many miracles are reported as 
 having been worked at his shrine. 
 
 Vine of the Lord. (It. Vigna di Bio ; Fr. Vigne du Seigneur.') 
 A vine in a corner of the Vatican gardens which for generations 
 has been tended by the Pope himself and his vicar. It pro- 
 duces annually one or two tuns of wine, white in color, with a 
 faint rosy tinge, and of a most choice and exquisite bouquet. 
 The first pressing is the best. This virgin juice, the cream of 
 the entire crop, is sedulously preserved for a special purpose. 
 Every Tuesday morning, in accordance with a noble old custom, 
 His present Holiness celebrates divine service in his private 
 chapel, and this service is " for the benefit of the enemies of the 
 Church." There and then the holy Father prays earnestly for 
 the souls of the most militant sceptics and most outspoken radi- 
 cals, as also for the souls of Freemasons and all others who in any 
 way make war or try to cast discredit on the Eoman CathoHc 
 Church. And at this service the only wine used is the first juice 
 of the Lord's vine. 
 
 The second pressing is used at the Pope's table, just as it has 
 been used for centuries at the tables of his predecessors. The 
 Pope, indeed, is in a sense bound to use it, for it is his duty 
 to care for the vine and to hand it down unharmed to his suc- 
 cessor. 
 
 The origin of this great vine is lost in the night of time. A 
 legend says that it first blossomed and bore fruit in the earthly 
 Paradise in company with other delicious fruits and other food, 
 and that Adam in his blindness did not discover its virtue and 
 potency until it was too late for him to enjoy it. As all the 
 world knows, our first father preferred apples. So the vine, 
 called into being by the Lord, remained undiscovered until the 
 patriarch Noah passed by one day and leisurely ate a few of the 
 luscious grapes. He at once cherished the goodly plant and 
 warmed his heart with the wine. On one occasion, indeed, he 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 967 
 
 indulged a trifle over-much, thereby setting a bad example to his 
 sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 
 
 Subsequently the vine passed into the possession of many 
 celebrated personages, and was coveted by all the kings of 
 Israel. Many deadly contests were waged on account of it, 
 and often was it sorely injured. But in adversity as in pros- 
 perity it flourished ever the same, producing beautiful grapes 
 and delicious wine. Its fame spread throughout the world on 
 one memorable occasion, for when Christ turned water into 
 wine at the wedding feast at Cana of Galilee, the story went 
 abroad that wine from the Lord's vine was used. 
 
 The vine has seen many evil days since then. It has seen the 
 Papacy disturbed and the temporal power shorn away from the 
 hands of its masters. It has heard the sound of battles, and 
 has often come near to death for want of nourishment. It has 
 even more than once seen its wealth of grapes scattered on the 
 ground and trampled underfoot. A happy season came when 
 it went with the Popes to Avignon. A little vineyard was 
 planted there, and, from the Popes down to the humblest peas- 
 ants, all took pleasure in tending the vines. When the Popes 
 went back to Rome these young vines were transplanted to the 
 Yatican, and in due time wine was again made and carefully 
 stored away in a cellar. 
 
 Vine-Growers' Feast. (Fr. Fete des Vignerons.) A pa- 
 geant performed at irregular intervals at Yevay by the members 
 of the Swiss confraternity of wine-growers. It is believed that, 
 the society was born about the year 1536, but this fact cannot 
 be positively ascertained, because its records were unfortunately 
 destroyed by fire in 1688. Tlie festival, however, may be of 
 much earlier date ; indeed, it is not impossible that it is a direct 
 survival from the Cerealia of pagan times. In 1688 the society 
 consisted of only thirty members. Their duty was to super- 
 intend the culture of the vines. They visited and inspected the 
 vineyards at fixed periods, and had authorit}^ to dispossess any 
 proprietor or tenant who neglected his vines for other forms of 
 horticulture. At that time the fete was a very modest affair, 
 hardly more than a parade in costume through the village to 
 the blare of trumpets. 
 
 By the eighteenth century the membership had increased into 
 the hundreds. Christian and pagan mythology were represented 
 among the paraders, and the concluding banquet was attended 
 by civic and even national dignitaries. The latest performance 
 was in August, 1889. Tlie festivities were kept up for an entire 
 week, but the processions in the amphitheatre took place only 
 on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, leaving Wedncs- 
 
968 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 day and Saturday for the participants to rest from their labors 
 and enjoy themselves in a general merrymaking holiday, finish- 
 ing with a grand illumination in the town and on the lake at 
 night. 
 
 Two thousand performers took part in the processions. These 
 consisted of Swiss guards in their red and white uniforms; the 
 members of the confraternity, some in Louis Quinze costumes 
 and others in green hats and small clothes, with white waist- 
 coats and stockings ; figures of Pales, Ceres, and Bacchus, with 
 their followers, each headed by a high-priest and accompanied by 
 a band dressed in ancient Eoman costumes, but in colors suited to 
 the season they represented. 
 
 After the procession the followers of each divinity took part 
 in turn in characteristic dances and ballets. Pales was personi- 
 fied by a handsome brunette, arrayed in light blue and crowned 
 with flowers, occupying a decorated throne, drawn by white 
 oxen with gilded horns and hoofs. In her train were little boys 
 and girls dressed in blue, white, and pink, named the children 
 of spring, shej^herds and shepherdesses in blue and pink, gar- 
 deners in blue and white, mowers, rakers, alpine yodlers, milkers, 
 and cheese-makers. 
 
 Ceres, the goddess of corn, was a blonde, with golden hair, 
 dressed in red and occupying a similar throne drawn by red 
 oxen. Her attendants were reapers and binders, threshers and 
 gleaners, and lastly the miller and his wife, with their mill in 
 full operation grinding out the flour. 
 
 Bacchus and his cortege were of course tbe most important 
 features of the occasion. Bacchus was a young man crowned 
 with ivy leaves sitting on a throne drawn by four gray horses. 
 Wine-growers, grape-gatherers, tun-makers, and wine-makers, 
 all engaged in the practice of their vocations, gave way finally 
 to the clown of the occasion, Silenus on his donkey, so full of 
 sack that he had to be supported by a negro slave on each side, 
 ushering in a merry rout of satyrs, fauns, and bacchanals in 
 tights and leopard-skins. The programme in the amphitheatre 
 concluded by the two thousand figurantes gathering in front 
 of the president's platform and singing the Hymne finale. 
 Then all filed out in the order of their entree and marched in 
 grand procession through the principal streets. 
 
 Vitus, St., patron saint of Bohemia, Saxony, and Sicily, and 
 of dancers and actors. 
 
 St. Vitus was born in the third century, in Sicily, of a noble 
 family. His father was a pagan, but the saint was converted by 
 his nurse, and declared his faith in Christianity when a mere 
 boy. His father, in a rage, threw him into a dungeon, but 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 969 
 
 legend relates that angels came and danced in the dungeon in 
 the midst of a dazzling light. When the father looked in to the 
 prisoner he was struck blind, but was cured by the intercession 
 of his son. The father continued to persecute the son, and he 
 fled into Italy. There he was denounced as a Christian and 
 thrown into a caldron of boiling oil. Afier his death, it is re- 
 lated, a wolf kept guard over his body until it was found and 
 buried by the Christians. In art St. Vitus is represented as a 
 beautiful boy, and has many attributes, — a palm, a caldron of 
 oil, a wolf, a lion, and a cock. 
 
 Votive Offerings. These are now known in ecclesiastical 
 Latin as offerta ex-voto. Among the ancient Eomans similar 
 offerings to the gods, known as votiva paries^ were hung up in 
 temples as tributes of gratitude for divine aid in emergencies. 
 Models of arms and legs with records of their cure once deco- 
 rated the temple of vEsculapius on the Tiber island, as they do 
 now the images of wonder-working saints and Madonnas. The 
 heathen Eomans, after escape from shipwreck, hung pictures of 
 the tempest and sometimes also their sea-drenched apparel in 
 the temple of Neptune, or made the votive offering of a minia- 
 ture marble galley to Jupiter Eedax. The same practices are now 
 continued under Christian forms. In all the famous shrines of 
 Europe and in a large number of churches there may be seen a 
 greater or less nuuiber of waxen or silver representations of 
 bodily members that have been healed, crutches that restored 
 patients have discarded, and rude drawings of dangers escaped, 
 while the bushes in the vicinity of holy wells (see Wells, Holy) 
 are hung with rags and the beds of the waters are lined with 
 pins. 
 
 Hindoo and Buddhist temples in the East are decorated in 
 similar fashion. In Japan the offerings assume a peculiarly 
 grotesque mixture of the ancient and the modern. At the 
 great shrine of Kompira, for example, may be seen a life- 
 preserver bearing in English letters the name of the ship, Tosa, 
 to which it belonged ; and there, also, among old-fashioned 
 ex-voto pictures of junks saved from wreck by divine power, 
 are new pictures of steamers and modern schooners similarly 
 rescued by the god. At nearly all of the greater temples, and 
 at many of the smaller ones, are spoils of the war with China. 
 Among these are Gatling and Armstrong guns, canister shot 
 and 32-centimetre shells, Mannlicher rifles and Martinis, Colt re- 
 volvers and Winchester repeaters, as well as Chinese banners, 
 uniforms, and lances, — a vast part of the captured armament 
 having been disposed of in this manner. 
 
970 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 W. 
 
 "Waits, Christmas. (Old Fr. tvaite, gaite, " a guard," " sen- 
 tinel," " watchman.") At present these are unorganized bands of 
 boys and men who on the nights preceding Christmas, and espe- 
 cially on Christmas Eve, parade the streets of towns and villages 
 in England, singing carols and accompanying themselves on 
 simple instruments of music, expecting in return to receive a 
 gratuity from the houses in front of which they stop. In their 
 origin, which may be dated back to the fourteenth or fifteenth 
 century, they were probably musical watchmen who were re- 
 quired to give practical evidence of their vigilance by playing 
 on the hautboy or flageolet at stated times during the night. In 
 the household of Edward lY. there is made mention in the 
 "Liber Niger Domus Regis" of "a Wayte, that nyghtely from 
 Mychelmas to Shreve Thorsdaye pipe the watch within this 
 courte fowere tymes ; in the Somere nightes three tymes, and 
 maketh boo gayte at every chambre doare and offyce, as well 
 for feare of pyckeres and pilfers [pickers and stealers]." 
 
 These " Waytes" afterwards became organized bands of mu- 
 sicians, who held themselves in readiness to play at weddings, 
 banquets, etc. Almost every city and town had its corporation 
 waits. In London they earned a small stipend for playing before 
 the lord mayor in his inaugural procession, and eked out a living 
 by performing at private festivities. Their regular uniform in 
 the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was blue gowns, red 
 sleeves and caps, and a silver collar about the neck. 
 
 The dedication of Morley's " Consort Lessons" (1599) to the 
 lord mayor and aldermen of London seems to indicate that 
 these waits were no mean musicians : 
 
 " As the ancient custom of this most honorable and renowned 
 city hath been ever to retain and maintain excellent and expert 
 musicians to adorn your Honor's favor, feasts, and solemn meet- 
 ings — to these your Lordships' Wayts, I recommend the same — 
 to your servants' careful and skilful handling." 
 
 "Wake. (Originally lyke-wake or Uche-wake, from the Anglo- 
 Saxon lie, "a corpse," and wcecce or wake, "to watch," "to keep 
 vigil.") An all-night watch of friends and relations over the 
 remains of the dead before the funeral. The custom is of un- 
 known origin and antiquity. Although at present it is almost 
 entirely confined to Ireland and to Irish communities in foreign 
 lands, it flourished at one time in many parts of Grreat Britain 
 and later in colonial Nev/ England. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 971 
 
 How that the liche-wake was yholde 
 Al thilke night. 
 
 (Chaitcer: Knighfs Tale, 1. 2100.) 
 
 It may have originated from a superstition that the body 
 would be carried away or defaced by evil spirits, or from a 
 more rational idea of injury to it from rats or from wild 
 beasts. Christianity introduced the idea of making it an occasion 
 for offering prayers for the repose of the soul of the deceased. 
 Usually the corpse was deposited under a table with a plate of 
 salt on its breast, and the table was covered with various kinds 
 of liquor to revive the flagging energies of mourners and 
 watchers. But it was found in very early days that, in Miss 
 Edgeworth's words, the presence of liquor turned these meetings 
 " held professedly for the indulgence of holy sorrow into orgies 
 of unholy joy." Church and State both made efforts to regulate 
 the wake and to weed out its objectionable features, though 
 both were unwilling to abolish it altogether. The tenth canon 
 of the provincial synod held in London during the reign of 
 Edward III. warned the faithful that the design of people's 
 meeting together upon such occasions was to join their prayers 
 for the benefit of the dead person ; that this ancient and ser- 
 viceable usage was overgrown with superstition and turned into 
 a convenience for theft and debauchery; therefore for a remedy 
 against this disorder it was decreed that upon the death of any 
 person none should be allowed to watch before the corpse in a 
 private house excepting near relations and friends of the de- 
 ceased and such as offered to repeat a number of psalms for the 
 benefit of his soul. The penalty annexed was excommunication. 
 This may have been one of the factors which worked towards 
 the abolition of the custom in England. The Eeformation and 
 the consequent disuse of prayers for the dead gave it its death- 
 blow. 
 
 That some sort of funeral feasts not entirely unlike wakes 
 were practised at a remote antiquity is evident from frequent 
 allusions in the Old Testament and other ancient writers. " Deli- 
 cates poured upon a mouth shut up are as messes of meat set 
 upon a grave," says Ecclesiasticus. " Pour out thy bread upon 
 the burial of the just," says the book of Tobit ; and Jeremiah, 
 foretelling the calamities that shall befall the Jews, predicts that 
 "they shall not be buried, . . . neither shall men give them the 
 cup of consolation to di-ink for their father or for their mother." 
 At the present day a feast in honor of the dead is practised by 
 the Albanians and the Abyssinians which is almost identical 
 with the Irish wake. This fact is frequently used as an argu- 
 ment for the common origin of the Oriental races and the Celts. 
 
972 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Something very like a wake was observed by the Puritans in 
 colonial New England. Hawthorne has recorded the jollity that 
 was usual at a funeral among these otherwise stern and sober 
 folk : " They were the only class of scenes, so far as my investi- 
 gation has taught me, in which our ancestors were wont to steep 
 their tough old hearts in wine and strong drink and indulge in 
 an outbreak of grisly joUity. Look back through all the social 
 customs of New England in the first century of her existence 
 and read all her traits of character, and find one occasion other 
 than a funeral feast where jollity was sanctioned by universal 
 practice." 
 
 Miss Alice Morse Earle, in "Customs and Fashions of Old 
 New England," p. 310, quotes a bill for the mortuary expenses 
 of David Porter of Hartford, who was drowned in 1678, which 
 shows how universally liquor was served to all who had to do 
 with a funeral : 
 
 By a pint of liquor for those who dived for him Is. 
 
 By a quart of liquor for those who bro't him home .... 2s. 
 
 By 2 quarts of wine & 1 gallon of cyder to jury of inquest . 5s. 
 
 By 8 gallons and 3 qts. wine for funeral £1 15s. 
 
 By barrel cyder for funeral 16s. 
 
 1 coffin 12s. 
 
 Windeing sheet 18s. 
 
 Not only at a gathering held on the night before the funeral, 
 but also at the funeral itself, copious draughts of liquor were con- 
 sumed. Even town paupers had two or three gallons of rum or 
 a barrel of cider given by the town to be drunk at their burial. 
 The liquor at the funeral of a minister was usually paid for by 
 the church or the town. An experienced committee was ap- 
 pointed to superintend the mixing of the grog or punch which 
 was the ceremonious tap of the occasion and to see that it was 
 liberally dispensed among the mourners. 
 
 Sargent tells us that in his boyhood a table with liquors was 
 always provided at country funerals : " Every one, as he entered, 
 took off his hat with his left hand, smoothed down his hair with 
 his right, walked up to the coffin, gazed upon the corpse, made a 
 crooked face, passed on to the table, took a glass of his favorite 
 liquor, went forth upon the plat before the house, and talked 
 politics, or the new road, or compared crops, or swapped heifers 
 or horses, until it was time to lift. A clergyman told me that 
 when settled at Concord, New Hampshire, he officiated at the 
 funeral of a little boy. The body was borne in a chaise, and six 
 little nominal pall bearers, the oldest not thirteen, walked by the 
 side of the vehicle. Before they left the house a sort of master 
 of ceremonies took them to the table and mixed a tumbler of 
 gin, water, and sugar for each." 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 973 
 
 Something resembling a wake was practised among the early 
 Knickerbockers. Both in New York and in Albany each house 
 had its dood-kamer, or dead-chamber, where the dead were placed 
 until the funeral. Dutch ladies were famous for their attendance 
 on such occasions, and, if the deceased were of their sex, burnt 
 wine was served them in silver tankards. The funeral was 
 always a great event, and the good vrouw's skill was spent to 
 the utmost to load her table with choicest delicacies for the dood- 
 feest^ the most prominent dish being the dood-koecks (q. v.). They 
 were thick disks about four inches in diameter and similar in 
 ingredients to our New- Year cakes, and were kept for years as 
 mementos of the departed. "Each burgher had a pipe of wine 
 spiced in reserve for his funeral, and I regret to say the mourners 
 were often in a mournful condition after the event ; and in this 
 connection we recall an incident. A familiar name in the old 
 Dutch times in Albany was Wyngaard. Skipper Block, in his 
 cruise of discovery, called an island he came across Martin Wyn- 
 gaard's Island, Martin Vineyard's Island^ corrupted to Martha's 
 Yineyard; and likewise Wyngaard's Point is now known as 
 Yineyard Point. The last in the male line was one Lucas Wyn- 
 gaard, who died about 1756, unmarried, and leaving estate. The 
 invitations to the funeral were general, — a custom still kept up 
 among old Dutch families in Albany, — and all relatives and 
 friends received a written invitation to be present. Of course the 
 attendance was large, and those who attended returned, as was 
 the custom, to the house, not leaving till morning's light. In 
 the course of the night a pipe of wine was drunk, dozens of 
 pounds of tobacco consumed, grosses of pipes broken, not a 
 whole decanter or glass left in the house, and finally the pall- 
 bearers ended the debauch by^ kindling a fire with their scarfs." 
 (A Glimpse of an Old Dutch Town: Harper's Magazine, vol. Ixii. 
 p. 54.) 
 
 Walburga, St., also called Walpurgis, Walbourg, Val- 
 purge, Gualbourg, and Avangour. Her festival is celebrated 
 on February 25, the anniversary of her death, and on May 1, 
 that of the enshrinement of her relics at Furncs. 
 
 St. Walburga was born in the kingdom of the West Saxons in 
 England, and was educated in the monaster}^ of Winburn, where 
 she took the veil and remained for twenty-seven years. She 
 accompanied her uncle St. Boniface and her brother St. Wilii- 
 bald to the continent, and went with ten other nuns to Mayence. 
 She afterwards was made abbess of the convent of Ileidenhoim. 
 After the death of Willibald she also governed a community of 
 monks which he had founded at Eichstiidt. She had studied 
 medicine, and is reported to have made some wonderful cures. 
 
974 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 She died about the year 778, and was entombed in a rock near 
 Eichstadt which exuded a bituminous oil. It was believed by 
 the people that this oil came from the remains of the saint, and 
 that it had remarkable curative powers : it was called Wal- 
 purgls oil. The rock became a place of pilgrimage, and a church 
 was built on the spot. On the eve of her festival, Walpurgis 
 ^ight, the witches are supposed to hold their orgies on the sum- 
 mit of the Blocksberg. A considerable portion of the remains 
 of the saint was translated to Furnes, and enshrined on May 
 1, on which day her chief festival is celebrated in the Belgic 
 martyrologies. From Furnes small parts of the relics were 
 distributed to Antwerp, Brussels, Thiel, Arnhem, Wtirtemberg, 
 Cologne, Hanover, and other places. Christ Church at Can- 
 terbury received some of the relics. The saint's festival, on 
 account of various translations of her relics, is marked on sev- 
 eral days of the year, but is kept in most places on the day of 
 her death. She is represented in art in the Benedictine habit 
 with a crosier and a flask, the latter a symbol of the Wal- 
 purgis oil. 
 
 Walsingham, Our Lady of. A wonder-working image of 
 the Blessed Virgin which in old Catholic days was preserved in 
 the church at Walsingham, Norfolk, which thence became one 
 of the chief objects of pilgrimages in England. 
 
 Erasmus informs us that Walsingham was almost entirely 
 supported by the vast numbers of persons who came to make 
 their offerings to the Virgin. In the church in which the image 
 stood was a little chapel of wood, into which the pilgrims were 
 admitted from each side by a narrow door. There was scarcely 
 any light, except that of the gratefully odorous wax tapers ; but 
 a person looking in would say that it was an abode of the gods, 
 so bright and resplendent was it all over with jewels, gold, and 
 silver. 
 
 To show what constant tribute was paid to " Our Lad}' of 
 Walsingham," a few extracts may be given from the " Household 
 book of the Earl of Northumberland :" " Sect. 43. Item : My 
 lord useth yearly to send afore Michaelmas for his lordship's 
 offering to our lady of Walsingham — M. Item : My lord useth 
 and accustometh to send yearly for the upholding of the light 
 of wax which his lordship findeth burning yearly before our lady 
 of Walsingham, containing eleven pounds of wax in it after — 
 7d Ob. For the finding of every pound ready wrought by a 
 covenant made with the channon by great, for the whole year, 
 for the finding of the said light burning — Qs. Sd. Item : My 
 lord useth and accustometh to send yearly to the channon that 
 keepeth the light before our lady of Walsingham, for his reward 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 975 
 
 for the whole year, for keeping of the said light, lighting it at 
 all service times daily throughout the year — 12d. Item : My 
 lord useth and aecustometh yearly to send to the priest that 
 keepeth the light, lighting of it at all service times daily through- 
 out the year — 35. 4:dr 
 
 Eoyalty as well as the nobility delighted to do honor to the 
 Walsingham shrine. In May, 1469, Edward lY. and his queen 
 made a pilgrimage thither, as we read in a letter from James 
 Hawte to Sir John Paston : " As for the king, as I understand, 
 he departs to Walsingham upon Friday com sev'night, and the 
 queen also, if Grod send her health." 
 
 In 1538 Henry YIII. stripped the magnificent shrine of all 
 its treasure, and dissolved the religious house of which it was 
 the pride and the support. The wonder-working image, and 
 those of Ipswich, Worcester, and many others, were all taken 
 away at the instance of Cromwell ; those of Walsingham and 
 Ij)swich were brought up to London, " with all the jewels that 
 hung about them," and along with the rest were burned at 
 Chelsea. (See also Pilgrimages.) 
 
 But though the shrine has disappeared, the holy wells which 
 it sanctified still remain, — two circular stone pits filled with 
 water, enclosed with a square wall, where the pilgrims used to 
 kneel and throw in a piece of gold, whilst they prayed for health. 
 These waters formerly had the reputation of curing disorders of 
 the head and stomach. This property, however, has been re- 
 placed by another of a more comprehensive character, — the 
 power of accomplishing all human wishes. In order to attain 
 this desirable end, writes Mr. Glyde in the Norfolk Garland^ " the 
 votary, with a due qualification of faith and pious awe, must 
 apply the right knee bare ta a stone placed for that purpose 
 between the wells. He must then plunge to the wrist each hand, 
 ba^e also, into the water of the wells, which are near enough to 
 admit of the immersion. A wish must then be formed, but not 
 uttered with the lips, either at the time or afterwards, even in 
 confidential communication to the dearest friend. The hands 
 are then to be withdrawn, and as much of* the water as can be 
 obtained in the hollow of each is to be swallowed. This silent 
 wish will be accomplished within the following twelve months." 
 
 AA^ashington's Birthday, February 22. It was the most 
 natural thing for our forefathers to choose Washington's Birth- 
 day as a time for general thanksgiving and rejoicing, and it is 
 interesting to note that the observance was not delayed until 
 after the death of Washington. Washington had the satisfac- 
 tion of receiving the congratulations of his fellow-citizens many 
 times upon the return of his birthday, frequently being a guest 
 
976 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 at the banquets given in honor of the occasion. In fact, after 
 the Eevolution, Washington's Birthday practically took the place 
 of the birthday of the various crowned heads of Great Britain, 
 which had always been celebrated with enthusiasm during colo- 
 nial times. When independence was established, all these royal 
 birthdays were cast aside, and the birthday of Washington natu- 
 rally became one of the most conspicuous in the calendar of 
 America's holidays. 
 
 It may be interesting at this time to look back upon those 
 early days of the republic and see how the newly liberated citi- 
 zens attested their admiration for their great general and the 
 first President of their country. But the people did not wait 
 until Washington was raised to the highest position his country 
 could give him before honoring his birthday. 
 
 The first recorded mention of the celebration is said to be the 
 one in The Virginia Gazette or The American Advertiser of Rich- 
 mond : " Tuesday last being the birthday of his Excellency Gen- 
 eral Washington, our illustrious Commander-in-Chief, the same 
 was commemorated herewith the utmost demonstrations of joy." 
 The day thus celebrated was February 11, 1782, the Old Style 
 in the calendar not having then been everywhere and for every 
 purpose abandoned. Indeed, the stone placed as late as in 1815 
 on the site of his birthplace in Westmoreland County, Yirginia, 
 had the following inscription : " Here, the 11th of February, 1732, 
 George Washington was born." 
 
 Twelve months later the 11th was commemorated at Talbot 
 Court-House in Maryland. On the same day a number of gen- 
 tlemen met in a tavern in New York. One had written an ode. 
 Another brought a list of toasts. All, before they went reeling 
 and singing home, agreed to assemble in future on the same anni- 
 versary and make merry over the birth of Washington. 
 
 Next year they had an ampler opportunity. In the previous 
 October the British troops had evacuated New York city, which 
 was gradually recovering from the distresses of the long war. 
 The demonstrations were not very elaborate, but they were in- 
 tensely patriotic. In a newspaper of February 17, 1784, we 
 find an interesting account of this first public celebration in 
 New York : 
 
 " Wednesday last being the birthday of his Excellency, Gen- 
 eral Washington, the same was celebrated here by all the true 
 friends of American Independence and Constitutional Liberty 
 with that hilarity and manly decorum ever attendant on the 
 Sons of Freedom. In the evening an entertainment was given 
 on board the East India ship in this harbor to a very brilliant 
 and respectable company, and a discharge of thirteen cannon was 
 fired on this joyful occasion." 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 977 
 
 A club called a "Select Club of Whigs" assembled in New 
 York on the evening of February 11, and a brief account of the 
 proceedings at its meeting was sent to the JVew York Gazette, 
 with an amusing song, written, it was stated, especially for this 
 occasion. The following stanzas ^vill serve as a sample of this 
 effusion of poetical patriotism : 
 
 Americans, rejoice ; 
 
 While songs employ the voice, 
 
 Let trumpets sound. 
 The thirteen stripes display- 
 In flags and streamers gay, 
 'Tis Washington's Birthday, 
 
 Let joy abound. 
 
 Long may he live to see 
 This .land of liberty 
 
 Flourish in peace ; 
 Long may he live to prove 
 A grateful people's love, 
 And late to heaven remove, 
 
 Where joys ne'er cease. 
 
 Fill the glass to the brink, 
 Washington's health we'll drink, 
 
 'Tis his birthday. 
 Glorious deeds he has done, 
 By him our cause is won. 
 Long live great Washington ! 
 
 Huzza ! Huzza ! 
 
 The following is also an interesting example of newspaper edi- 
 torial patriotism which appeared in the JVew York Gazette at the 
 same time: "After the Almig^hty Author of our existence and 
 happiness, to whom, as a people, are we under the greatest obli- 
 gations ? I know you will answer, ' To Washington.' That great, 
 that gloriously disinterested man has, without the idea of pe- 
 cuniary reward, on the contrary, much to his private danger, 
 borne the greatest and most distinguished part in our political sal- 
 vation. He is now retired from public service, with, I trust, the 
 approbation of God, his country, and his own heart. But shall 
 we forget him ? 'No ; rather let our hearts cease to beat than an 
 ungrateful forgetfulness shall sully the part any of us have taken 
 in the redemption of our country. On this day, the hero enters 
 into the fifty-third year of his age. Shall such a day pass un- 
 noticed? No ; let a temperate manifestation of joy express the 
 sense we have of the blessings that arose upon America on that 
 day which gave birth to Washington. Let us call our children 
 around us and tell them the many blessings they owe to him and 
 to those illustrious characters who have assisted him in the great 
 
 G2 
 
978 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 work of the emancipation of our country, and urge them by 
 such examples to transmit the delights of freedom and indepen- 
 dence to their posterity." 
 
 It is also interesting to know that New York city was not 
 the only place in the country remembering Washington's Birth- 
 day in this year 1784. The residents of Eichmond, Virginia, 
 were not forgetful of the day, and in the evening an elegant 
 entertainment and ball were given in the Capitol Building, which, 
 we are informed, were largely attended. So late as 1796, Ken- 
 tucky and Virginia persisted in preserving the Old Style date. 
 But we have documentary evidence that in 1790 the Tammany 
 Society of New York celebrated the day on February 22. The 
 society had been organized less than a year, and it is interesting 
 to see that it did not allow the first Washington's Birthday in its 
 history to pass by without fitting expressions of regard for the 
 man who was then living in the city as President of the United 
 States. Washington, at that time, lived in the lower part of 
 Broadway, a few doors below Trinity Church. Congress was in 
 session in the old City Hall, on the corner of Wall and Nassau 
 Streets, now occupied by the Sub-Treasury. New York w^as the 
 capital of the country, but it was the last year that it enjoyed 
 that distinction, for before the close of 1790 the seat of govern- 
 ment was removed to Philadelphia, where it remained until 1800, 
 when permanent governmental quarters were taken up at Wash- 
 ington. It may be of interest to know how the founders of 
 this famous political organization commemorated Washington's 
 Birthday. Fortunately, the complete account of this first Tam- 
 many celebration has been preserved. It was published in a New 
 York newspaper, a day or two after the event, as follows: 
 
 " At a meeting of the Society of St. Tammany, at their wig- 
 wam in I his city, on Monday evening last, after finishing the 
 ordinary business of the evening, it was unanimously resolved : 
 That the 22d day of February be, from this day and ever after, 
 commemorated by this society as the birthday of the Illus- 
 trious George Washington, President of the United States of 
 America. The society then proceeded to the commemoration 
 of the auspicious day which gave birth to the distinguished 
 chief, and the following toasts were drank in porter, the produce 
 of the United States, accompanied with universal acclamations 
 of applause : 
 
 "1. May the auspicious birthday of our great Grand Sachem, George 
 Washington, ever be commemorated by all the real sons of St. Tammany. 
 
 2. The birthday of those chiefs who lighted the great Council Fire in 1775. 
 
 3. The glorious Fourth of July, 1776, the birth of American Independence. 
 
 4. The perpetual memory of those Sachems and warriors who have been 
 called by the Kitchi Manitou to the Wigwam above since the Ke volution. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 979 
 
 5. The births of the Sachems and warriors who have presided at the differ- 
 ent council fires of the thirteen tribes since 1776. 
 
 6. Our Chief Sachem, who presides over the council fire of our tribe. 
 
 7. The 12th of May, which is the birthday of our titular saint and patron. 
 
 8. The birth of Columbus, our secondary patron. 
 
 9. The memory of the great Odagh 'Segte, first Grand Sachem of the 
 Oneida Nation, and all his successors. 
 
 10. The friends and patrons of virtue and freedom from Tammany to 
 Washington. 
 
 11. The birth of the present National Constitution, 17th of September, 
 1787. 
 
 12. The Sachems and warriors who composed that council. 
 
 13. May the guardian genius of freedom pronounce at the birth of all her 
 sons — Where Liberty dwells, there is his country. 
 
 "After mutual reciprocations of friendship on the joyous oc- 
 casion, the society adjourned with their usual order and har- 
 mony." 
 
 In Washington ever since the first President was inaugurated 
 it had been the practice of the House to adjourn for half an 
 hour to congratulate him on the happy return of his natal day. 
 But this observance was dropped in 1796, on account of the ani- 
 mosities excited by the Jay Treaty. 
 
 The Philadelphians, always patriotic, never allowed Washing- 
 ton's Birthday to go by without due celebration. In 1793 a num- 
 ber of old Eevolutionary oflScers belonging to the First Brigade 
 of Pennsylvania Militia had a " very splendid entertainment at 
 Mr. Hill's tavern in Second Street, near Eace Street." Accord- 
 ing to a Philadelphia newspaper account, the company was nu- 
 merous and truly respectable, and among the guests on that 
 occasion were the Governor of Pennsylvania, Thomas Mi film, 
 and Mr. Muhlenberg, Speaker of the House of Eepresentatives. 
 At all these patriotic banquets it was customary to give as many 
 toasts as there were States in the Union, so that during the 
 early years we invariably find that thirteen toasts w^as the rule. 
 As new States were added, however, extra toasts were added 
 to the list. Just when this custom died out can perhaps not 
 be definitely determined, but probably the rapid increase of the 
 States may have had something to do with it, as the diners 
 probably saw that it was taxing their drinking abilities too 
 heavily with the addition of each new State. However, at this 
 Philadelphia celebration the toasts were fifteen, as two new 
 States had recently been added, and among some of the most 
 interesting are the following: 
 
 The people of the United States — May their dignity and happiness be 
 perpetual, and may the gratitude of the Nation be ever commensurate with 
 their privileges. 
 
 The President of the United States — May the evening of his life be 
 attended with felicity equal to the utility and glory of its meridian. 
 
980 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 The Fair Daughters of America — May the purity, the rectitude, and the 
 virtues of their mind ever continue equal to their beauty and external accom- 
 plishments. 
 
 The Republic of France — Wisdom and stability to her councils, success to 
 her armies and navies, and may her enemies be compensated for their defeats 
 by the speedy and general diffusion of that liberty which they are vainly 
 attf^mpting to suppress. 
 
 May Columbia be ever able to boast a Jefferson in council, a Hamilton in 
 finance, and, when necessary, a Washington to lead her armies to conquest 
 and glory. 
 
 The Day — May such auspicious periods not cease to recur till every day in 
 the year shall have smiled on Columbia with the birth of a Washington. 
 
 Our Unfortunate Friend, the Marquis de Lafayette — May America become 
 shortly his asylum from indignity and wrong, and may the noon and evening 
 of his life be yet honorable and happy in the bosom of that country where its 
 morning shone with such unclouded splendor. 
 
 In conclusion, the newspaper account of this celebration states 
 that " the afternoon and evening were agreeably spent in social 
 pleasures and convivial mirth, and the conduct of the whole 
 company was marked by that politeness, harmony, and friend- 
 ship which ought ever to characterize the intercourse of fellow- 
 citizens and gentlemen." 
 
 Balls and banquets, it will be seen, were the chief methods 
 employed in celebrating the day, and there was hardly a town 
 so small that it could not manage to have at least one of these 
 functions in honor of George Washington. The early news- 
 papers for a month, and often longer, after the 22d of February, 
 were filled with brief accounts of these celebrations from diflPor- 
 ent localities. Many of them are very interesting, showing, as 
 they do, the patriotism of the people, as well as their customs 
 and habits in their social entertainments. For instance, when 
 Washington's Birthday was celebrated in Alexandria, Virginia, 
 in 1791, the Baltimore Advertiser gives us the following amusing 
 account of a ball held at Wise's tavern : 
 
 " The meeting was numerous and brilliant. Joy beamed in 
 every countenance. Sparkling eyes, dimpled cheeks dressed in 
 smiles, prompted by the occasion with all the various graces 
 of female beauty, contributed to heighten the pleasure of the 
 scene. At an interesting moment a portrait of the President, a 
 striking likeness, was suddenly exhibited. The illustrious origi- 
 nal had been often seen in the same room in the mild character 
 of a friend, a pleased and pleasing guest. The song of' God 
 bless great Washington, Long live great Washington,' succeeded. 
 In this prayer many voices and all hearts united. May it not be 
 breathed in vain." 
 
 Wassail. (Anglo-Saxon, wes hdl, "be whole," "be well," 
 equivalent to " here's to your health.") Originally a pledge drunk 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 981 
 
 between friends. The word is now applied especially to a 
 festive occasion or meeting where drinking and toasting are 
 the order of the hour, and also to the liquor used thereat. 
 The wassail bowl which still survives locally was a prominent 
 feature of the mediaeval English Christmas festivities, making 
 its appearance not only on the day itself, but on New Year's 
 and Twelfth Night or Epiphany. This bowl was often of mas- 
 sive silver, and was frequently decked with ribbons and sprigs 
 of rosemary. The component parts of its good cheer were ale, 
 sugar, nutmeg, and roasted apples, a mixture which also went 
 under the name of " lamb's-wool." It is evident that crab-apples 
 were often used in the wassail bowl, as frequent allusions are 
 made in old English poetry to " turning a crabbe in the fire," 
 and Shakespeare makes Puck say, — 
 
 And sometimes lurk I in a gossip's bowl, 
 In very likeness of a roasted crab, 
 And when she drinks, against her lips I bob, 
 And on her withered dewlap pour the ale. 
 
 One of the earliest mentions of the wassail bowl in England is 
 that well-known scene when Rowena, the daughter of Hengist, 
 presented to her father's guest. King Yortigern, a bowl of wine, 
 with the words, "Louerd King Wass-heil!" to which he replied, 
 " Drinc Heil !" The American New Year's toasts of health and 
 happiness seem the legitimate successors of these ancient pledges. 
 In the early part of the nineteenth century the mistress of many 
 an American home was wont to rise before daybreak and with 
 the help of her maids prepare a huge bowl of eggnog, of which 
 each member of the family drank, servants as well, and to which 
 each chance guest of the Christmas or New Year's morn was 
 invited. 
 
 In a collection of ordinances for the regulation of the royal 
 household in the reign of Henry YII. on Twelfth Night the 
 steward was enjoined, when entering with the spiced and 
 smoking bowl, to cry " Wassail" three times, to which the royal 
 chaplain had to respond with an appropriate song, whether he 
 was in voice or not. 
 
 The custom of wassailing at New Year's obtained in monas- 
 teries as well as in private houses. The mighty bowl called 
 " Poculum Caritatis" was placed at the upper end of the re- 
 fectory table at the front of the abbey, and from it the Superior 
 drank to all, and all drank in succession to one another. 
 
 A custom much like this is still kept up in the Corporation 
 feasts of London. A double-handled flagon, full of sweetened 
 and spiced wine, is handed to the master, who drinks, standing, 
 to the general health as announced by the toast-master, then 
 
b82 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 passes it to his neighbor on the left, who drinks, standing, to his 
 next neighbor, also standing, and so on until all have drunk. 
 This is the popular ceremony of the "loving-cup." 
 
 While the wealthier classes were pouring down their copious 
 libations, young women of the poorer classes went from house 
 to house with wassail bowls adorned with ribbons, and singing 
 carols calculated to beguile even the hard heart of a Midas into 
 giving. If, however, the combined efforts of song and wine 
 failed to elicit a sufficient pecuniary recognition, the carol 
 speedily terminated in malignant anathemas. Here is a good 
 old wassail song : 
 
 A Jolly Wassail Bowl, 
 
 A Wassail of good ale ; 
 Well fare the butler's soul 
 
 That setteth this to sale — 
 
 Our jolly Wassail. 
 
 Good Dame, here at your door 
 
 Our Wassail we begin ; 
 We are all maidens poor, 
 
 We pray now let us in 
 
 With our Wassail. 
 
 Our Wassail we do fill 
 
 With apples and with spice ; 
 Then grant us your good will 
 
 To taste here once or twice 
 
 Of our good Wassail. 
 
 But here they let us stand 
 
 All freezing in the cold. 
 Good Master, give command 
 
 To enter and be bold 
 
 With our Wassail. 
 
 Much joy into this hall 
 
 With us is entered in. 
 Our Master, first of all, 
 
 We hope will now begin 
 
 Of our Wassail. 
 
 If songs like the above met with no immediate acknow- 
 ledgment, the singers followed them up with verses like these: 
 
 Give way, give way, ye gates ! and win 
 An easy blessing to your bin 
 And basket by our entering in. 
 
 Oh, may your dairies prosper so 
 
 As that your pans no ebb may know ; 
 
 But if they do, the more to flow, 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 983 
 
 Like to a solemn sober stream 
 Banked all with lilies, and the cream 
 Of sweetest cowslips filling them ; 
 
 Last, may your harrows, shares, and ploughs, 
 Your stacks, your stalls, your sweetest mows, 
 All prosper by our virgin vows. 
 
 Alas ! we bless, but see none here 
 That brings us either ale or beer : 
 In a dry house, all things are near. 
 
 On St. Stephen's Day it was the fashion, in the early part of 
 the century, to exhibit a " merry disport," or pageant, which 
 perhaps had something to do with the Eeformation, in the hall 
 of the Inner Temple in London. Mr. Hone describes it in his 
 " Year Book." Revelling appears to have formed an important 
 part of the scene, if we may judge from one of the stanzas 
 chanted by the " ancientest of masters :" 
 
 Bring hither the bowle. 
 
 The brimming brown bowle, 
 And quaff the rich juice right merrilie ; 
 
 Let the wine-cup go round 
 
 Till the solid ground 
 ■Shall quake at the noise of our revelrie. 
 
 Let wassail and wine 
 
 Their pleasures combine. 
 While we quaff the rich juice right merrilie ; 
 
 Let us drink till we die. 
 
 When the saints we relie 
 Will mingle their songs with our revelrie. 
 
 The custom of drinking wassail in Scotland prevailed even 
 into the early part of the i^ineteenth century. As the clock 
 struck the knell of the departing year, it was accompanied by a 
 cordial shaking of hands, and a decorous dance around the table, 
 and the following song : 
 
 Weel may we a' be ; 
 Illmay we never see. 
 Here's to the King 
 And the gude companie ! 
 
 The elders of the family would then sally forth, bearing the 
 hot bowl and a generous supply of 'buns and short-cake or bread 
 and cheese, to interchange cordial greeting with their neighbors. 
 So general was this custom that in Edinburgh the principal 
 streets were more densely thronged between the hours of twelve 
 and one a.m. than at mid-day. 
 
 An unlucky circumstance, however, on January 1, 1812, put an 
 end to this national custom. A party of young ruflians decided to 
 
984 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 turn this custom of their elders to account for purposes of per- 
 sonal aggrandizement. No sooner bad the thrifty well-meaning 
 people come abroad with their refreshments than these rascals 
 sallied forth in small bands and began their attack. Their pre- 
 vious agreement was to " strike for" the white neck-cloths, as- 
 tutely reasoning that the highly respectable wearers of those 
 immaculate cravats would be most likely to carry property 
 worth the taking. 
 
 W^assailing the Orchards. An old English custom was 
 that of wassailing the fruit-trees on Christmas Eve, New Year's, 
 or Epiphany. Herrick says, — 
 
 Wassail the trees, that they may beare 
 You many a plum, and many a peare : 
 For more or less fruits they will bring 
 As you do give them wassailing. 
 
 This custom differed i.n date and in ceremonial detail accord- 
 ing to the locality. In Devonshire and other cider counties the 
 farmer with bis family, his friends, and bis servants would 
 march out in the evening of Twelfth Night. One of the party 
 bore a large pitcher filled with " cyder" and roasted apples 
 hissing therein. The procession encircled the biggest and most 
 productive tree, as a representative of the rest, and drank the 
 following toast three times : 
 
 Here's to thee, old apple-tree. 
 
 Whence thou mayst bud, and then mayst blow I 
 
 And whence thou mayst bear apples enow ! 
 
 Hats full ! Caps full ! 
 
 Bushel, bushel, sacks full ! 
 
 And my pockets full, too, huzza ! 
 
 They then sprinkled the tree with cider, or dashed a bowl of 
 cider against it. In other places only the farmer and his ser- 
 vants assembled on the occasion, and after immersing cakes in 
 cider hung them on the apple-trees. They then sprinkled the 
 trees with cider, pronounced their incantation, and went home 
 to feast. 
 
 In the western counties of England and some parts of Wales 
 it is the regular practice to salute the apple-trees on Christmas 
 morning. The inhabitants of a village turn out about seven 
 o'clock, while it is yet dark, and gather at a rendezvous previ- 
 ously decided upon. There they are joined by the parson of 
 the village church, the beadle, parish clerk, and school-master. 
 A procession is then formed and marches around the adjacent 
 district, visiting each large orchard in turn. On arriving at an 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 985 
 
 orchard the people are received by the owner and admitted. 
 Then they are conducted to one of the best trees, which is 
 considered a representative of all the others in the orchard, 
 and around it they gather. The beadle or a well-known man 
 in the village produces a large bottle of cider and sprinkles the 
 tree with the beverage. Meanwhile all the other people remain 
 silent, and the officiating villager addresses the tree in a quaint 
 fashion something like this : 
 
 '' O tree ! O tree ! O tree ! Bear fruit and flourish. Thy 
 owner nourish. Give wealth and plenty." 
 
 The people repeat these words, and then, accompanied by 
 the owner, the procession re-forms and marches to another 
 orchard, where a like ceremony is performed. It is supposed 
 that every plantation treated in this way will be a fruitful 
 source of income to its owner during the coming year. 
 
 Horsfield in his " History of Sussex" tells us that in his time 
 the wassailing or, as it is locally termed, the worsting of the 
 fruit-trees is considered a matter of great importance there, and 
 its omission is believed to bring ill-luck, if not the loss of the 
 entire year's crop. Those who engage in the ceremony are 
 called " howlers." 
 
 The farm-laborers or village boys assemble under the lead of 
 a trumpeter equipped with a cow's horn. After gaining the 
 owner's consent, which is rarely denied, they proceed to the 
 orchard, and, encircling the representative tree, chant in a low 
 voice some variant of the rhyme already quoted. This ended, 
 the trumpeter blows a loud blast, and all shout in chorus. Then 
 they go from tree to tree, rapping each with their sticks, and 
 after wassailing the whole orchard return to the owner and sing 
 at his door a song which obtains them admission. Ranging 
 themselves around the kitchen fire, they are treated to ale and 
 join in various in-door amusements. 
 
 In the neighborhood of the New Forest the following lines are 
 sung at the wassailing of the trees : 
 
 Apples and pears, with right good corn, 
 Come in plenty to every one ; 
 Eat and drink good cake and hot ale, 
 Give earth to drink, and she'll not fail. 
 
 Analogous customs are found in many parts of Continental 
 Europe. In Southern Germany during the Christmas season 
 the table-cloths are shaken over the roots of the fruit-trees as 
 an offering. A more ancient custom was for some one to go in 
 a state of nudity at midnight on Christmas Eve and bind the 
 fruit-trees with ropes of straw. In the Tyrol the fruit-trees are 
 violently beaten with clubs and staves. A like custom prevails 
 
986 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 in Bohemia, where till of the household, at the hour of midnight 
 on Christmas Eve, go about the orchard shaking the trees. In 
 some agricultural sections, during the night preceding Christmas 
 Day lighted torches are carried in procession through the or- 
 chards, and hymns are sung which contain prayers for a large 
 harvest. In others the fruit-trees are regaled with the remains 
 of the Christmas supper, to which they have been previously 
 and speciallj' invited. 
 
 These Teutonic customs all point to the mysterious influences 
 attributed by the ancient Germans to the Twelve Mghts as the 
 origin of the wassailing customs. 
 
 Well- Dressing. A ceremony which still survives in Eng- 
 land and is probably an adaptation to Christian usage of the 
 ancient Eoraan Fontinalia, or annual flower- festival of the spirits 
 of the streams and fountains. Derbyshire with. the adjacent 
 counties is the home of the custom. The most famous of all the 
 well-dressings occurs at Tissington on Ascension Day. Derby 
 and Wirksworth select Whitsuntide ; Goulgrave, St. John's Day ; 
 Barton, the Thursday nearest to the latter date ; Endon, in Staf- 
 fordshire, Eoyal Oak Day. 
 
 The origin of the Tissington custom is popularly attributed 
 to a great drought that occurred in 1615, when the people for 
 miles around drove their cattle to drink at the five wells or 
 springs of Tissington and a thanksgiving service was appointed 
 for every succeeding Ascension Day. But the custom is prob- 
 ably far more ancient. 
 
 The five springs are rather fountains or cascades, the water 
 descending from above, and not rising, as in a well. These are 
 decorated for the occasion with flowers arranged in the most 
 beautiful devices. Boards are cut into arches, pediments, pinna- 
 cles, and other ornamental forms, and are covered with moist 
 clay to the thickness of about half an inch ; the flowers are cut 
 off their stems and impressed into the clay as closely together 
 as possible, forming mottoes, borders, and other devices; these 
 are then placed over the wells, and it is impossible to conceive a 
 more beautiful appearance than the}^ present, the water gurgling 
 from beneath them, and overhung by the fine foliage of the 
 numerous evergreens and forest trees by which they are sur- 
 rounded. There is one particular variety of the double daisy, 
 known to gardeners as the Tissington daisy, which appears 
 almost peculiar to the place, and is in much repute for forming 
 the letters of the texts and mottoes with which the wells are 
 adorned. The day is observed as a complete holiday, and the 
 festival attracts a- considerable number of visitors from all the 
 neighboring towns and villages. Divine service is performed in 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 987 
 
 the church, and on its conclusion the minister and congregation 
 join in procession and visit each well. 
 
 The three Psalms appointed for the day are read successively 
 at the first three wells, and a hymn is sung. The Epistle and 
 Gospel are read ut the last two wells. 
 
 At Endon there are two wells, one very ancient and almost 
 dried up, the second comparatively modern, which supplies the 
 village with water. The proceedings are under the personal 
 guidance of the vicar of the parish, and at two o'clock a pro- 
 cession of school-children is formed at the new well, headed by a 
 band of music. The children wave flags vigorously, and the pro- 
 cession marches to the old parish church, where a solemn service 
 is held and the villagers attend in large numbers. Hymns and 
 psalms applicable to a thanksgiving service for water are sung, 
 and at the conclusion of the service the procession is re-formed 
 and marches back to the new well. Then the clergy and choir 
 walk slowly round the well, singing " Eock of Ages" and " A 
 living stream so crystal clear." The well is adorned, as at Tis- 
 sington, with a large wooden framework erected in front of it, 
 covered with a surface of clay, and thickly studded with flowers 
 of every kind of hue. " O ye wells, bless the Lord !" was the 
 text that garnished the summit. Maypole dances, including the 
 crowning of the May Queen, occupy the greater part of the 
 afternoon, and in the evening the band plays for dancing, and 
 the Maypole dances are repeated. After dusk there is a display 
 of fireworks. (Ditchfield : Old English Customs^ p. 187 ; Dyer : 
 British Popular Customs, p. 211. See also Chambers's Book of 
 Days, vol. i. p. 595.) 
 
 Wells, Holy. Water- worship was an element of all primeval 
 faiths. It still survives in the superstitious reverence accorded 
 to wells and springs not only by Christians of the more primitive 
 type, but by Jews and Mohammedans, by savages and semi- 
 savages. The Pool of Beihesda and Zemzem (q. v.), the Holy 
 Well of Mecca, find their counterparts all over Europe and Asia, 
 and wherever the aboriginal races dominate in the New World. 
 
 Mr. Dorman, in his "Origin of Primitive Superstitions," tells 
 us how the tribes of Central America, Mexico, and New Mexico 
 had their sacred springs, and mentions the various sacrifices 
 ofl'ered to them. The Indians of Colorado regard springs that 
 bubble up from the ground with awe and reverence, and bring 
 their sick thither to be cured. The bubbling of the water is 
 supposed to be due to spirits breathing into it, the healing power 
 being ascribed to these supernatural agents. In New Mexico, 
 near the thirty-fifth parallel, Lieutenant Whipple found a spring 
 which from lime immemorial " had been held sacred to the rain- 
 
988 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 god." Some idea of the respect paid to this spring may be 
 gathered from the fact that no animal may drink of its waters, 
 and it must be annually cleansed " with ancient vases, which, 
 having been transmitted from generation to generation by the 
 caciques, are then placed on the walls, never to be removed." Dr. 
 Bell also, in the Ethnological Journal^ informs us that in New 
 Mexico, not far from Zuiii, there is a sacred spring about eight 
 feet in diameter, walled around with stones, of which neither 
 man nor cattle may drink. Once a year the cacique and his 
 attendants perform certain religious rites at this spring, oiferings 
 being presented to it. 
 
 Again, in the Deccan and in Ceylon, trees and bushes near 
 springs and wells are of common occurrence, and may frequently 
 be seen covered with votive offerings. Atkinson, in his " Ori- 
 ental and Western Siberia," speaking of the Bouriats, informs 
 us that they have their sacred lakes or wells. In one of his 
 rambles, he says, " I came upon the small and picturesque lake 
 of Ikeougoun, which lies in the mountains to the north of San- 
 ghin-dalai and is held in vene^;ation. They have erected a small 
 wooden temple on the shore, and here they come to sacrifice, 
 offering up milk, butter, and the fat of animals, which they burn 
 on the little altars. The large rock in the lake is with them a 
 sacred stone on which some rude figures are traced ; and on the 
 bank opposite they place rods with small silk flags having in- 
 scriptions printed on them." In Northern Asia, writes Sir John 
 Lubbock, in his " Origin of Civilization," the Tunguses and 
 Yotyaks worship various springs ; and in the tenth century a 
 schism took place in Persia among the Armenians, one party 
 being accused of despising the holy well of Yagarschiebat. 
 
 In Northern Europe almost every village has its sacred spring, 
 and Danish folk-lore tells us of the traditionary origin of many 
 of the wishing wells still regarded with so much superstitious 
 reverence. Thus, near Harrested, in Seeland, is the far-famed 
 St. Knud's Well, which is much visited by persons afflicted with 
 bodily ailments, and also by those anxious to gain an insight 
 into futurity, — it having suddenly gushed forth, runs the legend, 
 on the spot where Duke Knud Lavard was treacherously mur- 
 dered by the king's son Magnus, in the year 1129. In the 
 same locality is Helen's Well, which has acquired a wide-spread 
 celebrity on account of its miraculous virtues. On St. John's 
 Day pilgrimages are made to it by the sick and crippled, many 
 travelling from distant parts to visit it. According to one tra- 
 ditionary account, given by Thorpe in his " Northern Mythol- 
 ogy," Helen was a Scanian princess, and much famed for her 
 beauty. A king fell in love with her ; and, as he could not win 
 her affection, he resolved on violence. In her distress, Helen 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 989 
 
 fled from place to place, pursued by the king ; and when, on 
 reaching the sea-shore, the king was about to seize her, she 
 plunged into the deep. But she did not perish, for a large stone 
 rose from the bottom of the ocean and received her, on which 
 she floated over to Seeland. On the spot where she first set her 
 foot there sprang forth a fountain, which still bears her name. 
 
 Sir John Lubbock also adds that in the Scotch islands are 
 many sacred wells, and that he himself has seen the holy well 
 in one of the islands completely surrounded by the little off'erings 
 of the peasantry, consisting principally of rags and halfpence. 
 One may further quote the testimony of Mr. Campbell, who in 
 his " Popular Tales of the West Highlands" writes thus: "Holy 
 healing wells are common all over the Highlands, and the people 
 still leave offerings of pins and nails and bits of rag, though few 
 would confess it. There is a well in Islay where I myself have, 
 after drinking, deposited copper caps among a hoard of pins and 
 buttons and similar gear placed in chinks and trees at the edge 
 of the Witches' Well. There is another well with similar offer- 
 ings freshly placed beside it in Loch Maree." Among further 
 illustrations, he informs us how a small well in the Black Isle of 
 Cromarty has miraculous healing powers, and adds, " A country- 
 woman tells me that about forty years ago she remembers it 
 being surrounded by a crowd of people every first Tuesday in 
 June, who bathed in and drank of it before sunrise. Each 
 patient tied a string of rag to one of the trees that overhung it 
 before leaving." 
 
 The same custom obtains at various holy wells in Ireland. 
 Indeed, it survives in all countries where Eoman Catholicism 
 flourishes, which is not surprising when it is borne in mind that 
 the Eoman Church had a special prayer for blessing clouts used 
 for the cure of diseases. At Wierre-Effroy, in France, where 
 the water of St. Godeleine's Well is esteemed efficacious for 
 ague, rheumatism, gout, and all affections of the limbs, a hetero- 
 geneous collection of crutches, bandages, rolls of rag, and other 
 rejected adjuncts of medical treatment is to be seen hanging 
 upon the surrounding shrubs. These are intended as thank- 
 offerings and testimonies of restoration. Other springs, famous 
 for curing ophthalmia, abound in the same district ; and here, 
 too, bandages, shades, guards, and rags innumerable are ex- 
 hibited. 
 
 ■■^ The most famous of these sacred places in England are the 
 wells at Tissington in Derbyshire (see Well-Dressing), and St. 
 Winifred's well at Hol_ywell. 
 
 Cornwall boasts of the well of St. Madron, near Penzance, 
 and another at Gulval. The latter is thus described in Gilbert's 
 "Parochial History of Cornwall:" "To this place numbers of 
 
990 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 people, time out of mind, have resorted for pleasure and profit 
 of their health, as the credulous countrj^-people do in these days, 
 not only to drink the waters thereof, but to inquire after the life 
 or death of their absent friends ; where, being arrived, they de- 
 mand the question at the well whether such a person by name 
 be living, in health, sick, or dead. If the party be living and in 
 health, the still quiet water of the well-pit, as soon as the ques- 
 tion is put, will instantly bubble or boil up as a pot ; but if it 
 remain quiet it is an indication that the party is dead." 
 ^ Throughout the British isles there are numerous holy wells 
 where the passer-by has but to breathe a wish and drop a pin or 
 other valueless offering into the water to obtain what he wants. 
 Such is St. Helen's well, near Sefton, Lancashire, the bottom of 
 which, says Mr. Hampson, in his " Medii ^vi Kalendarium," "I 
 have frequently seen almost covered with pins, which must have 
 been thrown in for this purpose." It seems that young ladies 
 have still continued up to recent times to throw pins into this 
 well, and to draw conclusions as to the fidelity of their lovers, 
 the date of marriage, and so forth, from the turning of the pin 
 to the north or any other point of the compass. 
 
 Wepebort. (Ger., "Willow Wheel.") An apparatus that 
 forms part of the rural German festivities on St. Sylvester's Day, 
 or ]N"ew Year's Eve. This consists of a wheel made of willow, in 
 the centre of which there is a gilded ornament that flashes like 
 a star. At the extremity of the spokes on the exterior of the 
 rim there is a succession of spikes, upon which apples are stuck. 
 Just after midnight the bearer throws it into the house of his 
 lady-love, demanding a token in return. He then fires a pistol, 
 and runs away at the top of his speed, pursued by the inmates 
 of the house, who, if he is caught and brought back, compel 
 him to drink rothwasser and ride astride of the pot-hanger. 
 
 Werburga, St., patron saint of Chester. Her festival is 
 celebrated on the day of her death, February 3. 
 
 St. Werburga was the daughter of a king of Mercia, and 
 flourished in the seventh century. She was abbess of Eepandum, 
 and founded many convents. She died in 708, and her body was 
 interred at Hamburg. In the reign of King Alfred her remains 
 were translated to Chester. The cathedral of Chester was dedi- 
 cated to her in 800. Her relics were scattered in the reign 
 of Henry YIII., but her shrine was converted into the episcopal 
 throne of the cathedral. The monument is of stone, embellished 
 with antique images of the kings of Mercia. Many miraculous 
 cures and preservations of the city of Chester from assaults and 
 fire are attributed to St. Werburga's intercessions. In 1180 a 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 991 
 
 fire broke out which threatened to consume the city ; but it is 
 related that the shrine of the virgin was carried in procession, 
 and that immediately the fire was extinguished. 
 
 Wheel. In many modern ceremonies which survive as relics 
 of ancient paganism, a wheel itself or some rotary motion sug- 
 gests solar symbolism. G-rimm's " Teutonic Mythology" has 
 shown a curious analogy between the very words sun and wheel. 
 After explaining that the sun was likened to a wheel of fire and 
 the element blazing out of him was represented in the shape of 
 a wheel, he continues : 
 
 " The Gothic letter O [ = HV] is the very symbol of the sun, 
 and plainly shows the shape of a wheel ; we must therefore sup- 
 pose it to have been the initial of a Goth. Jivil = AS. hweol, ON. 
 hvel. From ' hvel' was developed the Icel. hiol, Swed. Dan. hjul, 
 O. Swed. hiughl ; and from ' hweol, hweohl' the Engl, wheel^ J^ethl. 
 wlel, and Fris. fial. In view of all these variations, some have even 
 ventured to bring in the ON. jol^ Swed. Dan. jul [Yule], the name 
 of the winter solstice, and fasten upon it also the meaning of 
 wheel ; on that hypothesis the two forms must have parted com- 
 pany very early, supposing the Gothic name of November, jVw^m, 
 to be cognate. The word wheel seems to be of the same root as 
 while, Goth, hveila, OHG-. huUa, i.e., revolving time." 
 
 In many parts of Germany it is customary to wrap straw 
 around an old cart-wheel, set it on fire, and send it rolling down 
 a hill. Barrels are sometimes substituted. Elsewhere lighted 
 torches are carried round in a sunwise movement (see Pradak- 
 shina). The burning of the Clavie (q. v.) is an analogous Brit- 
 ish custom, one of the few that have survived, though they were 
 once very common in England-and Scotland as well as Ireland. 
 Originally it is more than probable that these ceremonies were 
 part of the Midsummer rites (see John the Baptist, St.), but 
 when their solar origin had been forgotten they naturally at- 
 tached themselves to the feasts of the principal local saints or 
 other chief holidays. Thus, in Northern Germany Easter is 
 generally the favored day, as St. John's Eve is in Southern. 
 Germany also yields us examples of burning wheels on St. 
 Michael's Day (September 29) and St. Martin's Day (November 
 11). On St. Peter's Day (February 22) the children in West- 
 phalia are wont to go begging from door to door, and as they 
 beg they turn an old wheel round and round. 
 
 Although the wheel figures also in the fetes on French soil, 
 there are no accounts of its being rolled down the side of a hill 
 as in Germany. Still in both countries the ceremonies were sup- 
 posed to be a propitiation of fortune. In Germany at several 
 places along the Moselle, notably at Konz, if the wheel rolled 
 
992 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 down burning to the river an abundant vintage was expected. 
 In France, in the former province of Poitou, a burning wheel is 
 carried around the fields at midsummer in the expectation of se- 
 curing a blessing on the crop. M. Gaidoz in " Le l)ieu Gaulois du 
 Soleil" quotes an old document which shows that burning wheels 
 figured among the ceremonies at one time in Lorraine. The trans- 
 action took place in 1565 between Madame lolande de Bassom- 
 pierre, an abbess of Epinal, and the magistrates of that place, in 
 which that lady transfers to the town a portion of the forest, so 
 that in future she might be free from the obligation of furnish- 
 ing " la roue de Fortune et la paille pour la former." As Epi- 
 nal is near the German frontier, the celebration at that place 
 would probably be the same as at Konz; and the two towns not 
 being far distant from each other helps to confirm this sugges- 
 tion. There is a further confirmation in the fact, which at the 
 same time gives importance to these customs, that in both places 
 the civic authorities took part in them. At the Konz ceremo- 
 nies the maire of Sierk officiated, and received a basket of cher- 
 ries, " according to ancient custom," for so doing. At Epinal it 
 was the magistrates that entered into the negotiations with the 
 abbess about the wheel and the straw, showing that they took 
 some part in the aifair as a public business. In Paris, at the 
 bonfires on St. John's Day, the king attended and was an 
 important actor in the rite. These details are evidence that 
 the customs were no children's pastimes, but were serious per- 
 formances. 
 
 Whitebait Banquet at Greenwich. Properly speaking, there 
 is no such fish as whitebait. The popular en/re'^; served at London 
 or Blackwall dinners and which bears that name, and the similar 
 dishes ofiered in American restaurants, consist of whatever mess 
 of " fry" fishermen are able to catch. When first the attention 
 of naturalists was turned to whitebait it was generally held to 
 be the young of the shad, until it was proved that the shad is 
 not common enough in English waters nor prolific enough to 
 furnish forth the vast quantities of whitebait eaten in England. 
 Then Yarrell, in 1828, proclaimed that the fish was a distinct 
 member of the herring family, and baptized it Clupea alba. It 
 is singular that it should not have occurred to so practical a nat- 
 uralist as Yarrell to look for an example of Clupea alba contain- 
 ing eggs or milt, because every fish, no matter what its size, 
 must spawn at some time. No one has ever seen an example of 
 whitebait with spawn in it. Dr. Gunther's conclusion may be 
 accepted that five-sixths of the fish which are served under the 
 name of whitebait are the young of either the sprat or the 
 herring. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 993 
 
 It is sometimes asserted that whitebait was first brought to 
 public notice in 1780 by one Eichard Conner, a fisherman of 
 Blackwall. But so far back as 1612, at the general feast of the 
 founder of the Charterhouse, given on May 28 in Stationers' 
 Hall, London, we read that among the delicacies were " six 
 dishes of whitebait." It is even conjectured that the savory 
 fry was not unknown to Henry YIII. and to Queen Elizabeth 
 at their banquets in the palace of Greenwich. In the early 
 part of this century Lovegrove's " Bait-Kitchen" at Blackwall 
 was a favorite resort of Londoners. But whitebait is especially 
 famous through the annual dinner of Enghsh cabinet ministers 
 at Greenwich. 
 
 The history of the dinner is involved in some antiquarian 
 doubt. But all accounts agree that it was originally celebrated 
 at Dagenham, a village in Essex. On December 17, 1707, an 
 extraordinarily high tide in the Thames broke down a part of 
 the sea-wall that protected the neighboring marshes. About 
 one thousand acres of land were flooded. After many unsuc- 
 cessful efforts, the breach was closed in 1721. The land was all 
 drained, save sixty acres, still known as Dagenham Breach, or 
 Dagenham Lake, and constituting a large sheet of reedy water 
 well stocked with pike, carp, roach, and eels. So important was 
 deemed the maintenance of the restored embankment that a 
 commission was appointed by Parliament to make a periodical 
 inspection. This inspection, in course of time, became little more 
 than an excuse for an annual holiday. The commissioners, 
 mostly City magnates, with Sir Eobert Preston, M.P. for Dover, 
 as president, and some members of the Admiralty, went down in 
 state just about the time when Parliament broke up in the 
 autumn. After the official inspection, a dish of freshly caught 
 whitebait was served up in the board-room, — the latter being 
 situated in a building erected for the accommodation of the 
 superintendents, close to the flood-gates, and usually known on 
 the river as the Breach House. One year Prime Minister Pitt, 
 who was always a great favorite with the City men, was invited 
 by the commissioners to partake of their annual fish dinner. He 
 was so highly pleased that next year some of his political col- 
 leagues and private friends were included in the invitation. And 
 so every year the dtnner became more sumptuous and acquired 
 more and more the character of a ministerial banquet. Even 
 after the inspection was given up Sir Eobert Preston continued 
 to send out the annual invitations until his death in 1834, 
 when the dinner was transferred to Greenwich and became 
 strictly ministerial. 
 
 Such is one account of the Whitebait Dinner. Another, 
 equally circumstantial, differs somewhat in detail. According 
 
 63 
 
994 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 to this, Sir Robert Preston had a cottage on the banks of Dagen- 
 ham Lake. He called it his fishing cottage, and often in the 
 spring retired tbither with a friend or two, to forget the cares 
 of state and of business. His most frequent guest was George 
 Rose, Secretary to the Treasury. One day Mr. Rose intimated 
 to Sir Robert that Mr. Pitt, of whose friendship they were both 
 justly proud, would no doubt much delight in the comfort of 
 such a retreat. Sir Robert cordially accepted the suggestion. 
 A day was named, and the Premier was accordingly invited, and 
 received with great cordiality at the fishing cottage. He was 
 80 well pleased with his visit and the hospitality of the baronet 
 — they were all considered two if not three bottle men — that, on 
 taking leave, Mr. Pitt readily accepted an invitation lor the fol- 
 lowing year, Sir Robert engaging to remind him at the proper 
 time. Yov a few years, Mr. Pitt, accompanied by " Old George 
 Rose," was a regular visitor at Dagenham Breach. But the dis- 
 tance was great for those days. Railways had not yet started 
 into existence, and the going and coming were considered some- 
 what inconvenient. 
 
 But Sir Robert — hearty Briton as he was — was equal to 
 the occasion. Why not dine near London ? Greenwich was 
 suggested as the new meeting-place, and the suggestion was 
 accepted. 
 
 The party was now changed from a trio to a quartette, Mr. 
 Pitt having requested to be allowed to bring Lord Camden. The 
 ice thus broken, a fifth guest was soon added to the number, — 
 namely, Mr. Long, afterwards Lord Farnborough. All still were 
 the guests of Sir Robert Preston ; but, one by one, other men of 
 position — all of the Tory school — were invited, until at last Lord 
 Camden reasonably remarked that, as they w^ere all dining at a 
 tavern, it was only fair that Sir Robert should be released from 
 the expense. It was then arranged that the dinner should be 
 given as usual by Sir Robert Preston, — that is to say, at his invi- 
 tation, — and he insisted on still contributing a, buck and cham- 
 pagne ; but the remaining charges were to be defrayed by the 
 other guests, and on this arrangement the dinners continued to 
 be held annually till the death of Mr. Pitt. Sir Robert Preston 
 was requested, in the following year, to summon the several 
 guests, the list of whom by this time included most of the cab- 
 inet ministers. The time for meeting was usually after Trinity 
 Monday, a short period before the end of the session. 
 
 Whatever the exact origin of the Whitebait banquets, they 
 continued to flourish at Greenwich, whether Whig or Tory were 
 the head of the feast, until 1870, when they were discontinued, 
 but were revived by the Disraeli ministry in 1874. 
 
 Some of the corporations of London indulge in a similar 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 995 
 
 annual festivity, and the town council of Exeter likewise cel- 
 ebrates an annual dinner of which whitebait is the distinctive 
 feature. 
 
 White Horse of Berkshire. A colossal representation of 
 a galloping horse cut in outline on the side of a steep hill, known 
 as White Horse Hill, near Great Faringdon, Berkshire. The 
 cutting is done in the form of trenches eighteen feet wide and 
 six deep hollowed out in the yellowish-white clay soil, but seen 
 from a distance against the dark background of herbage the out- 
 lines appear to be delicately traced in chalk crayons. The figure 
 is five hundred and ten feet long, the horse's ears alone measuring 
 forty -five feet, and its eye six feet, and the space it occupies is 
 about two acres. It can be seen at a distance of fifteen miles 
 across country on a clear day. 
 
 No exact evidence can be adduced regarding the origin of this 
 remarkable figure. Thomas Hughes, in his " Scouring of the 
 White Horse" (1857), is inclined to accept the popular tradition 
 that it was carved to commemorate the victory of King Ethelred 
 and his brother Alfred, afterwards Alfred the Great, over the 
 Danes at Ashdown, in the year 871. The actual site of this 
 great battle is not known, and has been the subject of some dis- 
 cussion ; but the balance of probability is in favor of its having 
 been fought in the neighborhood of White Horse Hill, on the 
 summit of which, at the height of eight hundred and ninety- 
 three feet above the sea, is an ancient encampment, consisting 
 of a plain of more than eight acres in extent, surrounded by a 
 rampart and ditch. This enclosure is called Ufiington Castle, 
 and immediately beneath it is the stupendous engraving of the 
 White Horse. 
 
 Once every three years in September the peasantry used to 
 assemble and carefully remove any of the turf that had en- 
 croached upon the figure, a ceremony known as " Scouring the 
 White Horse." Since Mr. Hughes renewed attention to both the 
 Horse and the ceremony, the latter has occurred every year. 
 These meetings form a sort of rural carnival to the people for 
 fifty miles around. After the trenches have been carefully 
 cleaned and scoured, the participants engage in rustic and 
 athletic games of various kinds, and prizes are distributed to the 
 most successful. The festival lasts for two days, and, according 
 to immemorial usage, the lord of the manor entertains the par- 
 ticipants at his own expense. 
 
 White Thursday. (Welsh, Jeu-nhydn.) In Cornwall this 
 was the name given to the last Thursday that was one clear 
 week before Christmas Day. According to tradition, this was 
 
996 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 the annual recurrence of the period when black tin or ore was 
 first melted or turned into white tin or metal in these parts. 
 Hence until quite recently the tinners claimed a holiday on this 
 day. 
 
 Whit Monday or Whitsun Monday. The day after Whit- 
 sunday. It is now one of the English Bank holidays (q. v.) 
 which owe their being to the efforts of Sir John Lubbock. This 
 and Whitsun Tuesday were anciently semi-holidays in England. 
 
 Southey, in his " Common-Place Book" (1849, Second Series, 
 p. 336), gives the following extract from Mrs. Fienne's MSS. : 
 
 " At Lichfield they have a custom at Whitsuntide, ye Monday 
 and Tuesday, called the Green Bower Feast, by which they hold 
 their charter. The bailiff^ and sheriff assist at the ceremony of 
 dressing up babies with garlands of flowers and greens, and 
 carry them in procession through all the streets, and then 
 assemble themselves at the market-place, and so go in a solemn 
 procession through the great street to a hill beyond the town, 
 where is a large green bower made, in which they have their 
 feast. Many smaller bowers are made around for company, and 
 for booths to sell fruits, sweetmeats, gingerbread," etc. 
 
 In Lancashire the Whitsun fairs were held on Whit Monday, 
 and Hiring Fairs (q. v.) are still kept up in this county and else- 
 where. At Hinckley in the same county until the beginning of 
 the nineteenth century the custom was kept up of millers riding 
 in procession dressed in ribbons, with what they called the King 
 of the Millers at their head. 
 
 A writer (in 1787) describing one of these fairs says. To the 
 old ceremony of riding millers, many improvements were made 
 upon a more extensive and significant plan, — several personages 
 introduced that bore allusions to the manufacture and were con- 
 nected with the place. Old Hugo Baron de Grentemaisnel, who 
 made his first appearance in 1786, armed in light and easy paste- 
 board armor, was this second time armed cap-a-pie in heavy 
 sinker plate, with pike and shield, on the latter the arms of the 
 town. The representative baron of Hinckley had the satisfac- 
 tion of being accompanied by his lady, the Baroness Adeliza, 
 habited in the true antique style, with steeple hat, ruff-points, 
 mantle, etc., all in suitable colors, each riding on nimble white 
 steeds properly caparisoned; they were preceded by the town 
 banner, and two red streamers embroidered with their respective 
 names. Several bands of music gave a cheerful spirit to the 
 pageant, but more particularly the militia band from Leicester. 
 The framework knitters, wool-combers, butchers, carpenters, 
 etc., had each their plays, and rode in companies bearing devices 
 or allusions to their different trades. Two characters well sup- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 997 
 
 ported were Bishop Blaise and his chaplain, who figured at the 
 head of the wool-combers. In their train appeared a pretty 
 innocent young pair, a gentle shepherd and shepherdess, the 
 latter carrying a lamb, the emblem of her little self more than 
 of the trade. Some other little folks, well dressed, were mounted 
 on ponies, holding instruments the marks of their fathers' busi- 
 nesses, and ornamented with ribbons of all colors waving in the 
 air. (See Nichols : History of Hinckley, 1813, p. 678.) 
 
 A correspondent of the Gentleman's Magazine (1783, vol. liii. 
 p. 578) says there seems to be a trace of the descent of the Holy 
 Ghost on the heads of the apostles in what passes at "Whitsuntide 
 Fair in some parts of Lancashire, where one person holds a stick 
 over the head of another, whilst a third, unperceived, strikes the 
 stick, and thus gives a smart blow to the first. 
 
 The London Graphic for May 19, 1894, thus describes the Whit 
 Monday bank holiday of that year: "London was a wonderful 
 sight. Every place with a pretence to providing entertainment 
 was full, and yet all day long people seemed to be getting some- 
 where. Every omnibus was full on top ; the parks, but for the 
 absence of banners, might have been the scene of demonstra- 
 tions in favor of more Whit Mondays, and every restaurant 
 made hay while the sun shone or the money lasted. Even the 
 museums — those curious places in which to seek amusement — 
 kept their turnstiles moving all day long, and the National Gal- 
 lery held quite a reception. But this ability to be easily amused 
 is one of the pleasantest and perhaps it is also one of the most 
 pathetic sights of London taking a holiday. Go where you 
 would on Monday, there you would see people upon whom ' toil 
 had left a furrowed trace on every feature of their face,' sitting 
 down in the sun and doing nothing but ' doing nothing.' Some- 
 times they carried babies, venerable-looking little creatures who 
 had yet to learn the difference between Bank Holidays and other 
 days ; and sometimes they eat fragments of stodgy-looking lunch 
 out of baskets or pieces of newspaper. But mostly they simply 
 sat there, perhaps beating time to the tune of any band within 
 hearing, or perhaps vaguely conscious that it was a very pleasant 
 thing to have, for once in a way, nothing much to bother them. 
 In the places just outside London — Greenwich, Richmond and 
 the River, Happy Hampton and Chingford — the people saw the 
 country as sweet as English spring could make it. Besides, the 
 entrepreneurs had provided special entertainments for Monday's 
 visitors. In Epping Forest, as on Ilampstead Heath, the don- 
 keys had been for weeks in training, and for days before the 
 proprietors of 'Aunt Sally' and other games of skill had»been 
 selecting carefully deceptive places in which to set up this form 
 of amusement. Their ingenuity met with an abundant reward 
 
998 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 during the latter part of Monday, and all day long in the cocoa- 
 nut groves of Epping Forest natives might have been seen gath- 
 ering fruit. At Hampton Court the boat- builders had prepared 
 for the occasion by putting up their prices, a precaution for 
 which they will not be very much blamed by those who have 
 been privileged to observe the experimental methods by which 
 the Bank holiday waterman propels his craft ; and at Greenwich, 
 where the amusements are not so varied, consisting mainly of 
 rolling down Greenwich Hill and comparing watches with the 
 Observatory clock, the restaurateurs of the neighborhood had 
 risen to the occasion by providing unusual quantities of ' tea and 
 s'rimps.' 
 
 " In the great places of entertainment — the emporiums of 
 amusement we might almost call them — a new era has set in, an 
 era which began with the tropical summer of last year and to 
 which a day like Whit Monday was eminently favorable : the 
 era of the cigarette and the small table. Earl's Court was per- 
 haps the first to begin it ; the Crystal Palace has been the latest 
 to adopt it. It arose from the disposition, which Earl's Court 
 was the first to discover, of the public to enjoy itself after the 
 Continental fashion, — which is to sit at a small table in company 
 with a cigarette and coffee and the music of a first-class band. 
 If the first-class band can first accompany a first-class dinner 
 at a reasonable price, so much the better, but the small table and 
 the music and the illuminations, and the presence of hundreds 
 of other couples enjoying them in the same way as ourselves, 
 these are the essentials." 
 
 On Whitsun Monday a curious sight was formerly to be seen 
 in St. Petersburg. Mothers belonging to the merchant class 
 arrayed their marriageable daughters in their best attire, hung 
 about their necks the jewelry and silver-ware which formed a 
 part of their dowry, and took them to the Summer Garden to be 
 inspected and proposed for by the young men. 
 
 Whitsunday, or Pentecost. An annual feast of the East- 
 ern and Western Churches instituted in commemoration of the 
 day upon which the Holy Ghost descended upon the apostles 
 and when the three thousand were baptized. It occurs exactly 
 fifty days after Easter Sunday. The entire fifty days, known as 
 Whitsuntide or Pentecost, was an especial season in the early 
 Church for the administration of adult baptism. On Whitsunday 
 the catechumens, and those who had been baptized in the course 
 of the season, presented themselves in albs, or white garments. 
 Hence the name Whit- or White-Sunday. Another etymon is 
 suggested in a poem of the fourteenth century, which assumes 
 that whit is a corruption of wit or wisdom : 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 999 
 
 This day Whitsonday is cald, 
 
 For wisdome and wit sevenfald 
 
 Was gov en to the Apostles on this day. 
 
 Pentecost means " fiftieth." The feast was alternatively so called 
 because the first Whitsunday occurred on the Jewish Pentecost, 
 or Shebuoth (q. v.), which is exactly fifty days after Passover. 
 Hence the Christian Pentecost bears the same numerical relation 
 to Easter that the Jewish Pentecost does to the Passover. 
 
 Whitsunday Avas kept as a Christian festival from very early 
 times. It is mentioned by Origen and in the canons of the 
 Council of Elvira (a.d. 306). Benedict XIY. mentions many 
 customs which formerly prevailed on this day in some places, 
 as the blessing of the candle, the blowing of trumpets at the 
 " Yeni, Sancte Spiritus" in the Whitsunday mass, the discharge 
 of fire from the roof, the letting doves loose in the church, and 
 the scattering of roses. Doves are a symbol of the Holy Ghost : 
 hence they frequently reappear in the popular customs associated 
 with the day. In Holland, according to Picart, children used to 
 go to church with doves in their hands. Naogeorgus has these 
 lines : 
 
 On Whitsunday whyte pigeons tame in strings from heaven flie, 
 And one that framed is of wood still hangeth in the skie. 
 Thou seest how they with idols play, and teache the people too, 
 None otherwise than little gyrls with puppets used to do. 
 
 The allusion here is to the dramatization of the descent of the 
 Holy Ghost which was common both in Germany and in Eng- 
 land in Eoman Catholic times. Lambarde says that " when a 
 child he saw in St. Paul's the descent of the Holy Spirit per- 
 formed by a white pigeon let fly out of a hole in the midst of 
 the roof of the great aisle, with a long censer, which, descending 
 from the same place almost to the ground, was swung up and 
 down at such length that it reached with one sweep almost to 
 the west gate of the church, and with the other to the choir 
 stairs, breathing out over the whole multitude a most pleasant 
 perfume." 
 
 A Puritan writer mentions as an historical fact that in 1640, on 
 Whitsunday, in Cornwall, during service the church was struck 
 by lightning, there being an awful storm, and that many were 
 injured, which he regarded as a " fearfull judgment" upon cere- 
 monies. But these "judgments" do not seem to have been gen- 
 eral. Fosbroke remarks that Whitsunday \vas formerly " cele- 
 brated in Spain with representations of the gift of the Holy 
 Ghost and of thunder from engines which did much damage. 
 Wafers or cakes, preceded by water, oak leaves, or burning 
 
1000 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 torches, were thrown down from the roof of the church ; small 
 birds with cakes tied to their legs, and pigeons, were let loose ; 
 sometimes there were tame ones tied with strings, or one of 
 wood, suspended." 
 
 Similar scenes used also to be enacted in Ireland. The Irish 
 often kept the feast with milk, like the Hebrews, and with 
 cakes and bread made with hot water and wheaten bran. Whit- 
 sun ales (see Ales) were long in vogue in England. 
 
 In Eome Whitsunday is celebrated with great effect, like all 
 the other leading feasts of the Church. The ceremonies are 
 chiefly religious. 
 
 Whitsuntide was also noted once for the ceremony of font- 
 hallowing. This was done in anticipation of the christenings 
 which were to take place. The following is from Strutt's 
 "Manners and Customs," iii. 174: "Among many various cere- 
 monies, I find that they had one called the 'Font hallowing,' 
 which was performed on Easter Even and Whitsunday Eve ; 
 and, says the author of a volume of Homilies in Harl. MS. 
 2371, 'in the begynnyng of holy chirch, all the children weren 
 kept to be crystened on thys even, at the Font hallowyng ; but 
 now, for enchesone that in so long abydynge they might dye 
 without chrystendome, therefore holi chirch ordeyneth to crys- 
 ten at all tymes of the yeare ; save eyght dayes before these 
 Evenys, the chylde shalle abyde till the Font hallowing, if it 
 may savely for perrill of death, and ells not.' " It was usual 
 also in some places to strew the church floors with grass, and 
 everj^where to give alms to the poor. 
 
 A superstitious notion appears anciently to have prevailed in 
 England, that " whatsoever one did ask of God upon Whitsun- 
 day morning at the instant when the sun arose and play'd, God 
 would grant it him." See Arise Evans's " Echo to the Yoice 
 from Heaven ; or, A Narration of his Life," 1652, p. 9. He 
 says " he went up a hill to see the sun rise betimes on Whitsun- 
 day morning," and saw it at its rising " skip, play, dance, and 
 turn about like a wheel." 
 
 Whitsuntide in England was long a semi-holiday season, es- 
 pecially among the young folk, who used to indulge in various 
 games and amusements. Drop-handkerchief was played in 
 Greenwich Park as late as 1825. Many marriages in humble 
 life have had their origin in the games of this season. The gay- 
 eties were continued through Whit Monday and Whit Tuesday, 
 and were all of a similar character. 
 
 In the Kennet Valley, near Newbury, Whitsuntide is the 
 great village holiday. Decked out in their best clothes, adorned 
 with ribbons and banners, the men parade the lanes preceded by 
 a band, and march to the church, where a special service is held. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 1001 
 
 Then they adjourn to a barn and have dinner, and later in the 
 day go to one or two of the principal houses in the neighbor- 
 hood, where dancing takes place on the lawn or drives, while 
 the band plays vigorously. " Village sports, running, and racing 
 are not uncommon at these club feasts, and at Brindle, near 
 Preston, Lancashire, we have seen a most graceful company of 
 morris-dancers, consisting of about sixteen young men, dressed 
 in tight-fitting purple knickerbockers and stockings, with foot- 
 ball 'sweaters' of the same color. They had staves in their 
 hands, and danced up the village street, striking their staves 
 together in rhythmic time, while a band played stirring melo- 
 dies. It was a graceful and pleasing spectacle, and may still be 
 seen in the neighborhood of Preston and Chorley." (Ditch- 
 field : Old Eyiglish Customs, p. 128.) 
 
 The Irish peasants believe that on a particular day at Whit- 
 suntide all those who have been drowned in the sea come up 
 and ride over the waves on white horses and hold strange 
 revels. A fisherman who remained on the water on the night 
 of this ghastly pageant saw a crowd of the dead on white horses 
 making their way towards him. Their faces were pale with the 
 hue of death, and their eyes burned with fire. They stretched 
 out thin long arms to lay hold on him, but he managed to escape 
 from their fearful grasp. As he landed, however, one of the 
 horsemen rode close to him, and he saw the face of a friend 
 who had been drowned the year before, and heard a voice call- 
 ing to him to escape. Accordingly he fled at full speed, never 
 daring to look back to see whether he was pursued. 
 
 A mild variation of the Feast of Fools (g. v.) was in ancient 
 times performed on Whitsunday in Chalons-sur-Saone and other 
 French cities. This was known as the Dance of the Canons. 
 Immediately after complines the dean, the canons, and the 
 minor priests went in procession from the church to the re- 
 fectory or other large room in the monastery. There, holding 
 on to the ends of one another's surplices, two by two they made 
 the circuit of the apartment, chanting the responses of the feast. 
 Though the pastime was an innocent one, it shared the general 
 condemnation of the Church against the Feast of Fools, and was 
 finally abolished through the efforts of Cyrus de Thiard, Bishop 
 of Chalons-sur-Saone. 
 
 At Whitsuntide the Servians celebrate the Feast of the Kra- 
 litze, or Queen. The young girls assemble ; one represents 
 the standard-bearer, another the king, and a third the queen 
 herself, who, her face veiled, and attended by a maid of honor, 
 stops to dance and sing before each house in the village. The 
 subject of these songs is generally marriage, the choice of a hus- 
 band, the happiness of married life, or the cares of maternity. 
 
1002 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 At the end of each stanza they repeat the refrain, "Lelio," ihe 
 name of the divinity who presided over love among the ancient 
 Slavs, and who seems to be the same as the Lado of the Eussians 
 and the Selum of the Poles. 
 
 They also repeat in procession symbolical chants in honor 
 of the Vila, or nymphs of the forest, whom they represent as 
 dancing under the trees where the fruit is ripening; or of the 
 Radischa (elves), who delight in shaking the dew from the 
 flowers and leaves, and who, pursuing some nymph, tr}^ to entice 
 her into the shade of the forest by the promise that she shall 
 there, by her mother's side, spin precious silk with a golden distaff. 
 On Whitsunday the churches in Eussia are decorated with 
 birch-tree boughs, and young birch-irees are stood up in every 
 corner, brought thither by the peasantry. The tradition is that 
 one must shed as many tears for his sins as there are dew-drops 
 on the birch bough which he carries if he have no flowers. In 
 spite of a recent law which forbids the destruction of young 
 
 trees, this Pentecostal cus- 
 tom is winked at by the au- 
 thorities. But the well-to-do 
 classes, and indeed many poor 
 people who make a special 
 effort, bring a bouquet of 
 flowers with them to church. 
 Every one is clad in white or 
 light colors, as at Easter, even 
 those who are in mourning 
 having donned the bluish- 
 gray which serves them for 
 festive garb. 
 
 In Naples the festival of 
 Monte Yergine begins on 
 Whitsunday and lasts for 
 three days. The central fea- 
 ture is the pilgrimage to a 
 church on Monte Yergine, 
 near Avellino. This being a 
 day's journey from Naples, all 
 sorts of vehicles are called 
 into requisition, which on the 
 return journey are decorated 
 with flowers and boughs of trees. A donkey and a bullock, 
 gayly bedecked with ribbons, frequently form the driving-team. 
 Numerous bands of merrymakers bearing sticks with flowers 
 and pictures of the Madonna dance untiringly alongside. 
 
 But it is in Holland that Whitsuntide " under the name of 
 
 Dutch Children's Whitsunday Festival. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 1003 
 
 Pinkster (q. v.), is most ceremoniously observed. Sunday, Mon- 
 day, and Tuesday exceed even the Christmas season in impor- 
 tance. Processions of children carrying doves in their hands 
 appear in all the streets. Formerly it was also the custom for 
 maidens in cities and villages to bear one of their number on a 
 plank upon their shoulders and collect offerings of money irom 
 the passers-by in the streets or the dwellers in the houses. 
 
 Whit or Whitsun Tuesday. The Tuesday after Whitsun- 
 day. Formerly the Whitsun festivities were kept up until this 
 day in England, as they still are in many Catholic countries. 
 The Eton Montem originally held on Innocents' Day was later 
 transferred to Whit Tuesday. 
 
 For a long time in England Whit Monday and Whit Tuesday 
 were reproductions of May-Day, except in the matter of mar- 
 riage, for it was deemed unlucky to marry in May, while it was 
 considered fortunate to marry during Whitsuntide. But the 
 revelries were reproduced. Thus, poles were erected and adorned 
 with flowers and flags, and merry meetings were held around 
 them with games and dances. Even clubs were instituted for 
 the maintenance of these amusements. At Necton, ISTorfolk, his 
 seat, a Major Mason established a guild for rural sports upon 
 these days. 
 
 William, St., patron of Bruges. His festival is celebrated 
 on January 10, the anniversary of his death. William Berriiyer 
 was born in the twelfth century of an illustrious family, and was 
 educated by his uncle, Peter the Hermit, Archdeacon of Soissons. 
 He was made canon of Soissons and afterwards of Paris. He 
 entered the Cistercian order, and was made abbot of Challis. In 
 the year 1200 he was consecrated Archbisbop of Bruges. He 
 was about to start on a mission among the Albigenses when he 
 died on January 10, 1209. His body was interred in his cathe- 
 dral, and his relics were preserved until 1562, when they were 
 burnt by the Huguenots. A bone of his arm is shown at Chal- 
 lis, and a rib in the College of Navarre at Paris. The saint was 
 canonized by Pope Honorius III. in 1218. 
 
 In art St. William is represented holding a monstrance, or in 
 adoration before one, to show his great devotion towards the 
 host. He is also represented with tears on his cheeks, for he is 
 said to have wept whenever he heard of some scandal in his 
 diocese or some oppression of the poor. 
 
 Willibrod, St., Dancing Festival of. An annual ceremony 
 performed on the first Tuesday after Whitsunday at Echtcrnach, 
 a small village near. Treves, in the grand duchy of Luxemburg. 
 
1004 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 St. Willibrod, who lived in tbe seventh century, was to the 
 Netherlands and the Flemish and Lower Countries w^hat St. 
 Patrick was to Ireland. He carried thither the Christian faith, 
 and finally, after a lifetime of missionary work, sought rest for his 
 last days in Echternach, where he founded an abbey. Tradition 
 saj's that his return to the village was celebrated by the sacred 
 dances which are renewed every year. Only during the French 
 Revolution was the custom interrupted. The festival now at- 
 tracts thousands of pilgrims from the neighboring provinces, as 
 well as curious spectators trom all parts of the world. Most of 
 the former come on foot, camping wherever they can in the open 
 air or in barns. Those who are musical bring their instruments 
 with them. In the morning all this crowd form themselves on 
 the German territory beyond the bridge across the Sure, which 
 is the river frontier between Germany and the grand duchy. A 
 priest, who must be a native of Echternach, makes a short ad- 
 dress and then places himself at the head of the pilgrims and 
 leads the procession across the bridge to the old church. The 
 advance guard sing the litany of the saint in a calm, dignified, 
 religious tone which strangely contrasts with the clamors of the 
 thousand instruments and the extraordinary dances in the rear. 
 These are nothing but repeated jumps. The higher the jump 
 the greater the evidence of devotion. Arriving at the old 
 church, the priests bless the many articles which the pilgrims 
 wish to place under the saint's patronage. Mass is celebrated, 
 everybody partakes of communion, and the pilgrims spend the 
 rest of the day in the streets of the village, where a fete some- 
 thing like the Flemish Kermesse is celebrated. 
 
 Wilmington Giant. A rude figure of a man, colossal in 
 proportions, cut in outline on a hill of the South Downs, near 
 Wilmington, Surrey, England, the slope being so steep that the 
 figure appears almost upright, and by its size and altitude brings 
 to mind the Colossus of Ehodes. 
 
 Until recently, few comparatively were aware of its existence, 
 /for it had been so nearly obliterated by the turf that it required 
 a peculiar light to be easily traced ; and those who looked on 
 the " Long Man," as it was locally called, were not likely to 
 recognize the interest of the inquiry which it had the power to 
 awaken. At length the figure became known as the Wilmington 
 Giant, and as such it has undergone some restoration. The 
 Giant is two hundred and forty feet in length, while the head is 
 above twenty-one feet in diameter. In each of the outstretched 
 arms is a club or staff. 
 
 These clubs are sometimes supposed to have a gnomonic char- 
 acter, — that is, they may indicate the hours of the day, accord- 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 1005 
 
 ing to the shadows that are thrown upon the surface. At noon 
 the sun is exactly over the Giant's head, and the whole figure is 
 then seen in its restored outline; while the most casual observer 
 can easily trace by the shadows, as they lessen or deepen in tone, 
 the hours before or after noon. If the whole surface were kept 
 clean, as is the case with the White Horse of Berkshire (q. v.), 
 this power would be intensified; realizing which, we are the 
 better able to understand the part it would play in regulating 
 and directing the move- 
 ments of the ancient Brit- 
 ons. It has indeed been 
 calculated that, with the 
 chalk fully exposed to view, 
 it could have been used as a 
 day-signal and made the 
 means of communicating 
 over a vast area. 
 
 Another suggestion is 
 worth considering. Csesar 
 in his notice of the painted 
 savages whom he found at 
 his first landing in Britain 
 refers to their habits and 
 religious ceremonies, where- 
 in sacrificial rites had a 
 prominent place. " They 
 have," he says, " figures of a 
 vast size, the limbs of which 
 are formed of osiers ; they 
 
 fill these with living men, which being set on fire, the men 
 perish in the flames." This terse and simple statement appears 
 to have been the foundation for the belief that wicker-work idols 
 of the human form were the recognized deities of the Britons. 
 This idea has been introduced into ballad literature and popu- 
 larized by pictorial illustrations. But recent researches have 
 made plausible the belief that on sacrificial days such figures as 
 the Wilmington Giant and the White Horse of Berkshire had 
 hurdles of osiers placed around them as enclosures. The whole 
 district over which the Giant towered was formerly occupied by 
 an enormous wood, sacred to two deities knoMm as Andred and 
 Andras, — in other words, the powers of nature ; and probably 
 there is some connecting link between the remaining monument 
 and the departed forest-like feature of the country. 
 
 Wilmington Giant. 
 
 Winifred, St. A noble British maiden of the seventh cen- 
 tury. Eepulsing the dishonorable advances of a certain Prince 
 
1006 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Cradocus, he cut off her head, and was straightway swallowed 
 up by the earth. As to his victim, her head rolled down the 
 hill, and where it stopped a miraculous spring or well gushed 
 forth. St. Beuno picked it up and skilfully reunited it to the 
 body, after which St. Winifred lived a life of sanctity for fifteen 
 years. Her festival is celebrated on JN^ovember 3. 
 
 St. Winifred's miraculous well is still extant in Holywell, 
 Flintshire, and is the most famous of all the holy wells in the 
 United Kingdom, but the statues of the Virgin Mary and of 
 St. Winifred herself which decorated it seem to have disappeared 
 with the Eeformation. 
 
 Even up to the seventeenth century the well was a constant 
 resort for the sick and the devout, both Catholic and Protestant. 
 Pennant found the roof of the vault hung with the crutches 
 of grateful cripples. But he says that the number of pilgrims 
 had much decreased in his day : " In the summer still a few are 
 to be seen in the water, in deep devotion, up to their chins for 
 hours, sending up their prayers, or performing a number of 
 evolutions round the polygonal well, or threading the arches a 
 prescribed number of times." 
 
 The fountain is enshrined within a perpendicular Gothic build- 
 ing. The enormous quantity of water that bubbles up (one 
 hundred tons a minute), the coloring of the stones by the red 
 moss, attributed to the blood of the saint, the singular fact that, 
 although intensely cold, the water never freezes, are all features 
 worth notice in themselves. 
 
 M. de Montalembert has a pleasant passage about this well: 
 "At the spot where the head of this martyr of modesty struck 
 the soil, there sprung up an abundant fountain, which is still 
 frequented and even venerated by a population divided into 
 twenty different sects, but animated by one common hatred for 
 Catholic truth. This fountain has given its name to the town 
 of Holywell. Its source is covered by a fine Gothic porch of 
 three arches, under which it forms a vast basin, where from 
 morning to evening the sick and infirm of a region ravaged by 
 heresy come to bathe, with a strange confidence in the miracu- 
 lous virtue of these icy waters." Some two or three years ago, 
 however, the well passed into the hands of the Jesuits. 
 
 A writer in The Senate gives this account of Holywell and its 
 pilgrims as he saw them under the new conditions in 1895 : 
 
 "The flooring of the chapel is damp with the water, the 
 prayers echo with a hollow mournful sound in the chill air of 
 the autumn ; the very water we know flows away, a force care- 
 fully stored, to turn some flannel-works at the bottom of the 
 hill ; but over all a sentiment of fervor, a wonderful warmth 
 of faith, a desire to be healed and to live, with the unspoken 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 1007 
 
 acknowledgment of weakness and sin alone in the way, give to 
 the place a strange })ersonality, growing upon one curiously as 
 one watches the poor thin white figures slip into the green 
 water, the fingers that take tremblingly the iron rails and for a 
 moment are endowed with wonderful strength to retain their 
 hold, the quick-moving lips that mutter prayers alone to be 
 heard in the silence; these are the things that seize for a 
 moment upon one, for they are, and have always been, the 
 working machinery of miracles. 
 
 " It is amazing what the priests have done for the place, how 
 well they have understood the possibilities of their new acquire- 
 ment. Twenty years ago the name was scarcely known or 
 unregarded, a few cases of cures there are on record, a few 
 stray visitors in the summer-time of the year, but now almost 
 throughout the whole year the gates are open, prayers and 
 hymns are chanted, while in the warmer days excursions bring 
 hundreds of sufferers up the steep hill in conveyances, and some 
 there are of them who have finished the ascent to the town, 
 walking alone, who had not looked to walk again. There are 
 many besides who go for a pilgrimage. Two bicycles leaned 
 prosaically outside against the outer wall of the chapel. Inside, 
 their owners, shivering in the cold waters, muttered quickly 
 their devotions, kissed, standing in the water of the inner wc41, 
 the stone now smooth with many lips, and finished by plunging 
 into the water head first. Afterwards I watched them slowly 
 wheel their bicj'cles down the hill. The bicycles looked strangely 
 prosaic, with their fat, vulgar pneumatic tires. It was incom- 
 prehensible as a dream. It was above all essentially Eoman 
 Catholic. 
 
 " As to the miracles, are th^y real ? 
 
 " Yes, I think so : false miracles do not pay ; and there are 
 every year cases of semi-paralysis and nervous disorders cured 
 upon dipping in the icy waters. I had myself the pleasure of 
 conversing with a little child cured by the waters, as she told me, 
 of hip-disease. She was certainly able to walk up the hill with 
 a gait that showed but small traces of her former malady ; and 
 I can believe there are several who have received temporary 
 benefit, and not a few who have been more permanently restored 
 to natural vigor and use of limb, by the power of faith develop- 
 ing a state ot auto-suggestion, the groundwork and basis of all 
 curative miracles." 
 
 Wren, Hunting the. A custom which survives locally in the 
 Isle of Man. in Essex County, England, and in Ireland, though 
 the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has stamped 
 out its general observance. It consisted in killing wrens with 
 
1008 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 stones and carrying them about on furze bushes from house to 
 house. It sometimes occurred on Christmas or on New Year, 
 but most frequently on St. Stephen's Day. Hence a connection 
 has been fancied between it and the stoning of the martyr. An 
 Irish legend is to the eifect that one of St. Stephen's guards was 
 awakened by a wren just as the prisoner was about to escape. 
 The popular Manx legend, however, explains that once there 
 lived on the island a beautiful elf or lorelei, who by her charms 
 and songs lured many of the young men into the sea, where the 
 waves, rising at her spell, swept them away to death. At last 
 the people rose in a rage and attacked the sorceress, who fled in 
 fear, and, being close pressed, took the form of a wren and so 
 escaped. But from a higher power a decree went forth that 
 every year on St. Stephen's Day she must appear as a wren, 
 until it should come to pass that she perish by man's hand. 
 For this reason the people of the Isle of Man devoted the hours 
 between sunrise and sunset to the effort of extirpating the fairy. 
 All wrens that showed themselves on this fatal day were pursued, 
 pelted, fired at, and destroyed without mercy. Their feathers 
 were preserved by fishermen as a preventive from death by 
 shipwreck. When the chase ceased, one of the little victims was 
 affixed to the top of a long pole with its wings extended, and 
 carried in front of the hunters, who marched in procession to 
 every house, chanting the following rhyme : 
 
 We hunted the wren for Kobin the Bobbin, 
 We hunted the wren for Jack of the Can, 
 
 "We hunted the wren for Robin the Bobbin, 
 We hunted the wren for every one. 
 
 After making the usual circuit and collecting all the money they 
 could obtain, they laid the wren on a bier and carried it in pro- 
 cession to the parish churchyard, where, with a whimsical kind 
 of solemnity, they made a grave, buried it, and sang dirges over 
 it in the Manx language, which they called its knell. After the 
 obsequies were performed, the company, outside the churchyard 
 wall, formed a circle and danced to music which they had pro- 
 vided for the occasion. 
 
 At present the custom is followed only by boys, who are satis- 
 fied with a far less promiscuous slaughter. A " bush," consisting 
 of two hoops crossed, sometimes with a wren suspended by the 
 legs in the centre, and sometimes minus the bird, is carried 
 around to the singing of the quatrain already quoted. They 
 collect money, and in return present each donor with a feather, 
 which is supposed to avert the danger of shipwreck. Afterwards 
 the bird is buried on the sea-shore (no longer in the churchyard) 
 with much solemnity. 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 1009 
 
 In Ireland groups of young villagers used to bear about a 
 holly-bush adorned with ribbons and having many wrens depend- 
 ing from it. " This is carried from house to house with some 
 ceremony, the ' wren-boys' chanting several verses, the burthen 
 of which may be collected from the following lines of their song : 
 
 "The wren, the wren, the king of all birds, 
 St. Stephen's Day was caught in the furze. 
 Although he is little, his family's great, 
 I pray you, good landlady, give us a treat. 
 
 " My box would speak if it had but a tongue. 
 And two or three shillings would do it no wrong ; 
 Sing holly, sing ivy — sing ivy, sing holly, 
 A drop just to drink, it would drown melancholy. 
 
 *' And if you draw it of the best, 
 I hope in heaven your soul may rest ; 
 But if you draw it of the small, 
 It won't agree with the wren boys at all ; etc. 
 
 A small piece of money is usually bestowed on them, and the 
 evening concludes in merrymaking with the money thus col- 
 lected." (Croker : Researches in the South of Ireland, 1824, p. 
 233.) 
 
 Ditchfield in " Old English Customs," p. 32, informs us that a 
 wren-box was sold at Christie's a few years ago which used to 
 be carried in procession in some parts of Wales on St. Stephen's 
 Day. It is about seven inches square, and has a glass window 
 at one end. Into this box a wren was placed, and it was hoisted 
 on two long poles and carried round the town by four strong 
 men, who affected to find the burden heavy. Stopping at inter- 
 vals, they sang, — 
 
 " Oh, where are you going ?" says milder to melder ; 
 " Oh, where are you going ?" says the younger to the elder. 
 "Oh, I cannot tell," says Festel to Fose ; 
 n ^e're going to the woods," says John the Ked Nose. 
 We're going, etc. 
 
 " Oh, what will you do there?" says milder to melder; 
 " Oh, what will you do there ?" says the younger to the elder. 
 " Oh, I do not know," says Festel to Fose ; 
 " To shoot the cutty wren," says John the Red Nose. 
 To shoot, etc. 
 
 And so on for eight more verses, taking the form of question and 
 answer, as in the ballad of " Cock Eobin," and describing the 
 method of shooting the wren, cutting it up, and finally boiling it. 
 
 64 
 
1010 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 Yeomen of the Guard, familiarly known as Beef-Eaters. 
 A corps organized by Henry YII. for his own protection on the 
 day of his coronation, October 30, 1485, which has served as a 
 body-guard of the English sovereign ever since. In the reign 
 of Henry VIII. there were two hundred of them, half of whom 
 were mounted. In that reign they acquired the name of Beef- 
 eaters, — a name generally supposed to be a corruption of hvffe- 
 tiers, but the etymology is doubtful, as the Yeomen never had 
 charge of the royal buffet or sideboard. Preston (" History of 
 the Yeomen of the Guard," 1885) suggests that they may have 
 received their name from a bird called beef-eater, wJtiose strong 
 thick bill bore some resemblance lo their partisans. Indeed, 
 the Yeomen were often referred to as " billmen" because they 
 carried a weapon with a hook like the beak or bill of a bird. 
 
 At the Eestoration their number was reduced to one hundred. 
 The corps was reorganized in 1861, purchases of officers' com- 
 missions abohshed, and future vacancies directed to be given to 
 officers of the army of long and good service. The captain is 
 always a peer, and goes out with each ministry ; the lieutenant 
 must be, or have been, a colonel or lieutenant-colonel in the 
 army ; the ensign and clerk of the cheque, lieutenant-colonels 
 or majors ; the exons, or exempts, captains ; and the privates, 
 non-commissioned officers not below the rank of sergeant. 
 
 The "Yeomen Warders of the Tower," whose duty it is to 
 keep watch over the historic Tower of London, are honorary 
 members of the Yeomen of the Guard. They are appointed, 
 forty in number, by the constable, and are recruited from the 
 retired non-commissioned officers of the army. 
 
 The ceremony of closing the Tower gates every night is full 
 of antique quaintness. A few minutes before the clock strikes 
 the hour of eleven — on Tuesdays and Fridays, twelve — the Head 
 Warden or Yeoman Porter appears at the Main Guard and ap- 
 plies for the " Escort for the Keys." This consists of a party 
 of six privates, commanded by a sergeant, who accompany the 
 porter to the outer gate and assist him to close it. Having 
 locked both the gate and the wicket, the Yeoman Porter re- 
 turns, bearing the keys, and followed by the escort. As he 
 passes the sentries, on his way back to the Main Guard, each of 
 them challenges, and in reply to " Who goes there ?" is answered, 
 " The keys." The sentry rejoins, " What keys ?" to which the 
 reply is given, " The Queen's keys," and the escort passes on till 
 it arrives at the Main Guard, which now turns out, and after the 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 1011 
 
 same questions and answers as to the "keys" and what keys 
 they are, the officer opens the ranks, and presents arms to " the 
 Queen's keys," which are then carried by the Yeoman Porter to 
 the Governor's house and placed in his office. All this ceremony 
 and precaution may seem superfluous, but it is a remarkable 
 fact, and not less so from the late Duke of Wellington having 
 caused much inquiry to be made on the subject, at the Home 
 Office and elsewhere, that there has never been any riot or serious 
 disturbance in London without some plan being laid by the ring- 
 leaders for the attack and seizure of the Tower. 
 
 An annual inspection of the Yeomen of the Guard is held in 
 the gardens of St. James's Palace on June 14. The friends and 
 relatives of the Yeomen, as 
 
 well as persons of distinction, , J 
 
 are privileged to be present. „ | | fj j 
 
 Here is the Daily G-raphic's \\ jj J' Jl\ j# | 
 
 account of the inspection ,| j ' ' '' i 1 vJi^ 1X1 (Hfct _ il 
 of 1895: " Field-Marshal Sir 
 Donald Stewart was received 
 on his arrival at midday by 
 Lord Kensington, captain of 
 the Yeomen of the Guard, 
 and was conducted to the 
 parade ground. Sir Donald 
 Stewart's inspection of the 
 men was one which was more 
 than merely formal, for as he 
 made his way down the lines 
 there was not one of the vet- 
 erans with whom he did not 
 stop for a moment to ask a 
 question, to examine a medal, or to pay a kindly compliment. 
 When the inspection was over the old soldiers were drawn up in 
 square, and were addressed in a few well-chosen soldierly words 
 by the Field-Marshal. They were the flower of the British army, 
 he told them ; and he hoped that their long and brilliant ser- 
 vices to their country would be an incentive to young men of the 
 present day to follow their example." 
 
 Yom Kippur (Heb., "The Day of Atonement"), also known 
 as a day of prayer and fasting in the Jewish calendar, based 
 upon the command in Leviticus xvi. 29-34. Falling on the tenth 
 day of the month Tisri, it is the concluding ceremonial in the New 
 Year observances. On Eosh Hashanah (</. i;.), or New Year's 
 Day, there were praise and prayer, but no afflicting of the flesh. 
 Then the fate of the pious was merely inscribed in the great book 
 
 Annual Inspection of the Yeomen. 
 
1012 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 which lies open for changeR during ten days; but after Yom 
 Kippur the register is closed and sealed, and what is written is 
 written. So the greeting for the first day is " Chaihivoh Tovoh," 
 the short for " May you have a good inscription," while that of 
 Yom Kippur is " Chatimoh Tovoh," "a good seal." 
 
 As the Jewish day lasts from sunset to sunset, the ceremonies 
 begin on what we should call the preceding evening. 
 
 Every family purchases a cock. The eldest male, taking it by 
 the legs, swings it nine times over the heads of the others, 
 praying God to transfer their sins into the body of the fowl. 
 The bird is then either killed as a sacrifice or given to the 
 poor. 
 
 The last meal for twenty-four hours is taken just before the 
 first dark hour. Until sunset next day not a drop of water, not 
 a mouthful of food, can pass the lips of the fasters. All are 
 now in readiness to start for the synagogue, which has been 
 strewn with straw. The anxious mothers and wives question 
 the men eagerly about the state of their souls. Have they for- 
 given all transgressions against them ? If they have not, theirs 
 may not be forgiven them. 
 
 Though unprescribed in the laws, this domestic ceremony, 
 which may be called the parting for the synagogue, is often a 
 most harrowing and touching scene, especially among the sterner 
 believers of orthodox Jewry. The mother, with tears in her 
 eyes, embraces her son and beseeches him to purify his soul, and 
 the wife does likewise with her husband. In the tense emotional 
 excitement, with the dark, obscure dread of atonement upon 
 them, the men sometimes make up quarrels they had thought 
 too bitter ever to be settled. Brothers and sisters are reconciled, 
 and not infrequently husbands and wives, who have separated 
 in anger, rush into each other's arms in this hour. 
 
 In the basement of the synagogue are arranged dozens of long 
 narrow boxes filled with sand. Each worshipper brings with 
 him a candle, sticks it in the sand, lights it, and in a brief prayer 
 beseeches God to let the light of his mercy shine upon the candle 
 and by making it burn long and clear indicate a long and happy 
 fife for the supplicant. 
 
 The men remove their shoes and take their places in stocking- 
 feet on the floor of the synagogue. The women are usually in 
 the gallery. Many of the men wear the kittel, or burial-robe of 
 white trimmed with black stripes, and the talith, or white satin 
 death-cap. The ceremonies commence with the Kol Midre, or 
 service for the absolution of all vows, which is thrice repeated. 
 Prayers and readings break the spell of it, and the Jews believe, 
 as the name implies, that they are absolved from all the vows 
 of the previous year, and that those made on New Year's 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 1013 
 
 Day are satisfactory and are inscribed with a good omen for the 
 twelve months. 
 
 After the Kol Midre most of the Jews go home and sleep. 
 But the more devout remain in the synagogues all night, and all 
 return early in the morning, at five or six o'clock, to resume 
 their devotions. The morning service is the Shachvith. It in- 
 cludes the reading of the Torah, or scroll, and lasts till ten 
 or eleven o'clock. The second service, from eleven till one or 
 two o'clock, is the Musoph. Then comes in the afternoon 
 the Minchah, which continues till the closing hour, when the 
 Neeloh supersedes. This ceremony must be continued till three 
 stars are out. Sometimes all the Psalms are read, but if the 
 day is not yet over, the reading begins again, or some other 
 book of the Bible is taken up and is painfully repeated by the 
 reader till at last the stars are announced and the ram's horn 
 sounds the glad tidings. The Book of Life is closed, the seal is 
 affixed, the judgment is set. 
 
 Yue-Ping (Chinese, "Moon- Cakes"), Feast of. The Chinese 
 Thanksgiving, held at the full moon in the eighth month of 
 their calendar. A clear sky is always eagerly prayed for, as a 
 sight of the moon on this occasion is held to be of happy au- 
 gury. It is a very old festival, and is chiefly commemorated by 
 an abundance of good things to eat. They have no turkeys in 
 China, or if they have them they prefer pigs, and hence the 
 proper dish on this day is a porker of eight pounds' weight, 
 roasted to a rich brownish red and seasoned with many sweet- 
 smelling herbs. With this as the main dish come the moon- 
 cakes, which in point of complexity and number of ingredients 
 put the plum-pudding of our English sires to the blush. They 
 are round, are served with a sweet sauce, and are stuffed with a 
 hash of minced pork, watermelon- seeds, nuts, ginger, and spices. 
 So far as their appearance goes, they are supposed to resemble 
 a full moon ; but, it may be said with emphasis, the resemblance 
 is a conventional one, and a Chinese convention at that. 
 
 JSTot only are moon-cakes eaten at home, but friends and rela- 
 tives pay visits to present them to one another, with many pro- 
 testations of affection and with a preliminary pouring out of 
 libations to the moon. It is very remarkable that a verse of 
 one of the Jewish prophets should be explained by this Chinese 
 custom. "The children gather wood," said the seer, "and the 
 fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough to 
 make cakes to the queen of heaven." 
 
 Yule Doughs or Doos. A peculiar sort of cake made at 
 Christnuis in many parts of Northern England for distribution 
 
1014 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 among the young people. They are from six to twelve inches 
 long, roughly fashioned in the shape of a human figure, doubt- 
 less representing the infant Jesus. Eaisins are inserted for the 
 eyes and nose. There are various other cakes peculiar to the 
 season, as in Cornwall, where each household makes a batch of 
 currant cakes on Christmas Eve. A small portion of the dough 
 in the centre of each top is pulled up, and this small head-piece 
 to the cake is called "the Christmas." Each member of the 
 family has his own special cake ; but every one ought to taste 
 a small piece of every other person's cake. In Alnwick a cus- 
 tom existed of giving sweetmeats to children at Christmas time. 
 These were called Yule Babies. Ben Jonson's " Masque of 
 Christmas" has a character called Baby Cake, but this is ex- 
 plained to refer to the Twelfth Night cake. 
 
 Yule- Log. The name given by the ancient Goths and Sax- 
 ons to the festival of the winter solstice was Jul, or Yule. The 
 latter term is still preserved by the Scotch, and obsolescently by 
 the English, and it survives everywhere in English-speaking 
 countries in the compound Yule-log. The etymology of the 
 word is uncertain. The Greek ooXoq or louXoq, the name of a 
 hymn in honor of Demeter, the Latin juUlum, " a time of re- 
 joicing," and the Gothic ol or oel, a feast as well as the favorite 
 liquor used at the feast, namely our ale, — all these have been 
 suggested. But a more probable derivation is from the Gothic 
 giul or Mul, "wheel," — the wheel being everywhere a symbol 
 of the turning-point of the year, or the period when the sun made 
 a revolution in his annual circuit and entered on his northern 
 journey. 
 
 Now, the burning of the Yule-log or Yule-clog, known by 
 other names in Continental Europe, was an ancient Christmas 
 ceremony descending from the Scandinavians, who at their feast 
 of Jul used to kindle huge bonfires in honor of their god Thor. 
 Similar bonfires were kindled in Europe and elsewhere at the 
 summer solstice (see John the Baptist, St.), whence it is sur- 
 mised that all these customs have their source in sun-worship. 
 
 The English ceremony of bringing in and burning the Yule-log 
 on Christmas Eve, which still has its local survivals, was full of 
 picturesque detail. The log was a massive piece of wood, fre- 
 quently the rugsjed and grotesquely marked root of an oak. It 
 was drawn in triumph from its resting-place amid shouts and 
 laughter, every wayfarer doffing his hat as it passed. On its 
 entrance into the baronial hall the minstrels hailed it with song 
 and music, or in the absence of the minstrels each member of 
 the family sat upon it in turn and sang a Yule song. A favor- 
 ite Yule song began with — 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 1015 
 
 Welcome be thou, heavenly King, 
 Welcome born on this morning, 
 Welcome for whom we shall sing 
 Welcome Yule. 
 
 Meanwhile Yule doughs (q. v.) were eaten and washed down 
 with draughts from the mighty wassail bowls (see Wassail) and 
 tankards of spiced ale. 
 
 The sport of " Dun in the Mire" was often played ere the 
 final conflagration. The Yule stock, drawn into the middle of 
 the floor, became "Dun, the cart-horse," for the nonce; the cry 
 was raised that he had stuck in the mire : 
 
 If thou art Dun, we'll draw thee from the mire, 
 Of this (save reverence) love, wherein thou stick'st 
 Up to the ears. 
 
 Two of the company, with or without ropes, advanced to 
 extricate Dun ; after various real and feigned exertions, they 
 called for more help, until all present were mixed up in the 
 rough-and-tumble exertion ; the fun rose from the horse-play of 
 the revellers, falling about, and contriving to roll or drop the log 
 on each other's toes ; this was kept up with hearty enjoyment 
 until, the fun being exhausted, " Dun was drawn out." 
 
 In " Eomeo and Juliet," Mercutio observes to Eomeo, — 
 
 Tut, Dun's the mouse, the constable's own ward : 
 If thou art Dun, we'll draw thee from the mire. 
 
 After the endless amusement afforded by the Yule games, the 
 log was kindled to cheer upHhe hearts of the revellers and to 
 defy the cold. The flring was to be accomplished, according to 
 traditional usage, from a portion of the charred Yule block care- 
 fully preserved from the preceding Christmas for this purpose : 
 
 Kindle the Christmas brand, and then 
 
 Till sunneset 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 mischief there. 
 
 It was believed that the preservation of last year's Christmas 
 log was a most effectual security to the house against fire. We 
 are further informed that it was regarded as a sign of very bad 
 luck if a squinting person entered the hall when the log was 
 
1016 CURIOSITIES OF 
 
 burning, and a similarly evil omen was exhibited in the arrival 
 of a barefooted person, and, above all, of a flat-footed woman. 
 As an accompaniment to the Yule-log, a candle of monstrous 
 size, called the Yule Candle, or Christmas Candle, shed its light 
 on the festive board during the evening. Brand, in his " Popu- 
 lar Antiquities," states that in the buttery of St. John's College, 
 Oxford, an ancient candle-socket of stone still remains, orna- 
 mented with the figure of the Holy Lamb. It was formerly 
 used for holding the Christmas Candle, which during the twelve 
 nights of the Christmas festival was burned on the high table at 
 supper. 
 
 In Provence the analogue of the Yule-log of the Northern 
 nations is called the Cachofio. Every household has one, which 
 is burned from Christmas Eve to January 1. Naturally it must 
 be a good stout log some five feet long. The head of the family — 
 grandfather, father, or eldest son — must make the first incision in 
 the tree, which is usually an olive or an almond, though any fruit- 
 bearing tree will do. The log when cut is borne home in triumph 
 on the shoulders of the two sturdiest members of the family, 
 the father and the eldest son, or the husband and wife, while the 
 children caracole around them or lend little helping hands. 
 Already, because destined for the Christmas rites, it has acquired 
 a sacrosanct character, so that it would resent any unduly rough 
 handling or disrespect. But when treated reverently and burned 
 with fitting rites, the log brings a blessing on the household, and 
 its very ashes are potent for good. 
 
 Formerly when the Counts of Provence lived and ruled in Aix 
 it was customary for the magistrates of the city to carry in sol- 
 emn procession a huge cachofio to the palace and formally pre- 
 sent it to the sovereign or his seneschal as a free-will and good- 
 will offering. And after the ceremony of presentation the city 
 fathers were served with a collation in the great hall of the 
 palace and enabled to drink the health of the count in his own 
 good wine. 
 
 The Servians also have their Yule-log. On Christmas Eve the 
 father of the family goes to the wood and cuts down a straight 
 and well-grown young oak. He brings it in, saying, " Good- 
 evening, and a merry Christmas ;" to which all present reply, 
 " May God grant both to thee, and mayest thou have riches and 
 honor." Then they throw over him grains of corn. Presently 
 the young tree is placed upon the coals, where it remains until 
 the morning, which is saluted by repeated pistol-shots. When a 
 neighbor pays a visit he first throws grains of wheat through 
 the open door, crying, " Christ is born !" Those upon whom the 
 grain has fallen answer, " He is born indeed !" The visitor then 
 enters, and, striking the log with a piece of iron, adds, " For as 
 
POPULAR CUSTOMS. 1017 
 
 many sparks as come out of you, let there be as many oxen, 
 horses, sheep, goats, pigs, and bee-hives." At length the mis- 
 tress of the house throws a veil over all the assembled guests, 
 and the remains of the log are carried out into the orchard. 
 The ashes are retained, as they are believed to bring good luck. 
 
 z. 
 
 Zemzem. (So called, by obvious onomatopoeia, from the 
 murmuring sound of its waters.) A holy well in Mecca, one of 
 the most sacred objects within the precincts of the Kaaba. (See 
 Mecca.) According to Moslem legend, when Hagar and the 
 infant Ishmael were abandoned by Abraham for domestic 
 reasons which every family man must approve, they wandered 
 into the valley of Mecca, or rather where Mecca was afterwards 
 founded, and Hagar, oppressed by the heat, began to search for 
 water to relieve the thirst from which she and the child were 
 suffering. She ran backward and forward between the hills of 
 Safa and Marwa, seeking in vain, but, returning to the spot 
 where she had left the infant, found that Ishmael had himself 
 discovered the spring they both needed by a simple expedient, 
 familiar to babies of all nations and all periods. Kicking out 
 against the ground, his infantile efforts had laid bare one of those 
 springs which in Arabia are frequently concealed by a light 
 layer of sand. This was the well Zemzem. 
 
 It is certain that Zemzem, like the Kaaba, is one of the most 
 ancient of the antiquities of Arabia. Both were connected with 
 the oldest rites of the pagan Arabs, and existed in very much 
 their present form and were applied to very much their present 
 uses before the time of Mohammed. It was the Prophet's grand- 
 father who reopened the well, of the position of which he had 
 been informed in a dream, whilst he was trying to devise some 
 convenient means of fulfilling his special duty and privilege of 
 supplying water to the tribes who flocked annually to worship 
 at the Kaaba. Digging in the appointed spot, he found the 
 remains of an ancient piece of masonry enclosing a copious and 
 never-failing spring, which was at once accepted as the tradi- 
 tional well of Hagar. It is probable at least that the masonry 
 dated from the old days of the mercantile prosperity of Mecca, 
 perhaps even from pre-Christian times. Ever since this redis- 
 covery of the well, Zemzem has held a prominent place among 
 the holy things of the Arabian temple. The millions of pil- 
 grims to Mecca do not leave the " Haram esh-Sherif " without 
 washing in, or at least tasting, the water of the well Zemzem, 
 
1018 CURIOSITIES OF POPULAR CUSTOMS. 
 
 and most of them carry away a flask of the holy water. No 
 more valuable present can be offered by a returned hajji to his 
 friends than a bottle of this miraculous, though admittedly 
 brackish, fluid. Its properties are quite unique in the eyes of 
 the faitbful. It can cure diseases ; sprinkled on grave-clothes it 
 produces the most salutary results in the future state of the 
 deceased ; while a single sip is the best cordial that a host can 
 off'er to his most distinguished guest. One famous traditionist, 
 whose memorj^ was proverbial, ascribed his retentive powers 
 entirely to the copious draughts he had taken of the water of 
 Zemzem, which Sale gravely remarks appears to be really as 
 eflicacious in its own province as the spring of Helicon has 
 proved to the inspiration of poets. But from what one knows of 
 the sanitary methods of the East there is nothing surprising in 
 the discovery that the well of Zemzem is as foul as a good many 
 other saintly springs. The water in the fountains of mosques 
 never strikes the eye or nose with any very pleasing impression, 
 and Zemzem is in the midst of a thicldy built city, where drain- 
 age is of a peculiarly primitive description, and the well is almost 
 necessarily affected by the drainings from the countless carcasses 
 of beasts which ai-e annually sacrificed by the pilgrims in the 
 neighboring valley of Mina. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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