{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_19098/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_19098","id":"gutenberg_19098","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19098","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Religious","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Christmas","Christmas -- History","Fasts and feasts"],"text":"Produced by David Starner, Robert Ledger and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\nChristmas In Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan\n\nby Clement A. Miles\n\n\nPublished by T. Fisher Unwin\n\n1912\n\n\n[Illustration:\n\nTHE ADORATION OF THE MAGI (DETAIL).\n\nGENTILE DA FABRIANO\n\n(_Florence: Accademia_)]\n\n|5|\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nIn this volume I have tried to show how Christmas is or has been kept in\nvarious lands and ages, and to trace as far as possible the origin of the\npagan elements that have mingled with the Church's feast of the Nativity.\n\nIn Part I. I have dealt with the festival on its distinctively Christian\nside. The book has, however, been so planned that readers not interested\nin this aspect of Christmas may pass over Chapters II.-V., and proceed at\nonce from the Introduction to Part II., which treats of pagan survivals.\n\nThe book has been written primarily for the general reader, but I venture\nto hope that, with all its imperfections, it may be of some use to the\nmore serious student, as a rough outline map of the field of Christmas\ncustoms, and as bringing together materials hitherto scattered through a\nmultitude of volumes in various languages. There is certainly room for a\ncomprehensive English book on Christmas, taking account of the results of\nmodern historical and folk-lore research.\n\nThe writer of a work of this kind necessarily owes an immense debt to the\nlabours of others. In my bibliographical notes I have done my best to\nacknowledge the sources from which I have drawn. It is only right that\nI should express here my special obligation, both for information and for\nsuggestions, to Mr. E. K. Chambers's \"The Mediaeval Stage,\" an invaluable\nstorehouse of fact, theory, and bibliographical references. I also owe\nmuch to the important monographs of Dr. A. Tille, \"Die Geschichte der\ndeutschen Weihnacht\" and \"Yule and Christmas\"; to Dr. Feilberg's Danish\nwork, \"Jul,\" the fullest account of Christmas |6|  customs yet written;\nand of course, like every student of folk-lore, to Dr. Frazer's \"The\nGolden Bough.\"\n\nReferences to authorities will be found at the end of the volume, and are\nindicated by small numerals in the text; notes requiring to be read in\nclose conjunction with the text are printed at the foot of the pages to\nwhich they relate, and are indicated by asterisks, &c.\n\n   [Transcriber's Note: The 'small numerals' are represented in this\n   ebook by numbers in {curly braces}. The footnotes appear at the end\n   of the ebook and are indicated by numbers in [square brackets]. Page\n   numbers from the original edition have been retained and appear in\n   the text between |pipe characters|.]\n\nI have to thank Mr. Frank Sidgwick for most kindly reading my proofs and\nportions of my MS., and for some valuable suggestions.\n\n                                                                C. A. M.\n\n|7|\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n  PREFACE                                                            5\n\n  CHAPTER I\n  INTRODUCTION                                                       15\n\n    The Origin and Purpose of Festivals--Ideas suggested by\n    Christmas--Pagan and Christian Elements--The Names of the\n    Festival--Foundation of the Feast of the Nativity--Its\n    Relation to the Epiphany--December 25 and the _Natalis\n    Invicti_--The Kalends of January--Yule and Teutonic\n    Festivals--The Church and Pagan Survivals--Two Conflicting\n    Types of Festival--Their Interaction--Plan of the Book.\n\n\n  PART I--THE CHRISTIAN FEAST\n\n  CHAPTER II\n  CHRISTMAS POETRY (I)                                               29\n\n    Ancient Latin Hymns, their Dogmatic, Theological\n    Character--Humanizing Influence of Franciscanism--Jacopone da\n    Todi's Vernacular Verse--German Catholic Poetry--Mediaeval\n    English Carols.\n\n  CHAPTER III\n  CHRISTMAS POETRY (II)                                              53\n\n    The French _Noel_--Latin Hymnody in Eighteenth-century\n    France--Spanish Christmas Verse--Traditional Carols of Many\n    Countries--Christmas Poetry in Protestant\n    Germany--Post-Reformation Verse in England--Modern English\n    Carols. |8|\n\n  CHAPTER IV\n  CHRISTMAS IN LITURGY AND POPULAR DEVOTION                          87\n\n    Advent and Christmas Offices of the Roman Church--The Three\n    Masses of Christmas, their Origin and their Celebration in\n    Rome--The Midnight Mass in Many Lands--Protestant Survivals of\n    the Night Services--Christmas in the Greek Church--The Eastern\n    Epiphany and the Blessing of the Waters--The _Presepio_ or\n    Crib, its Supposed Institution by St. Francis--Early Traces of\n    the Crib--The Crib in Germany, Tyrol, &c.--Cradle-rocking in\n    Mediaeval Germany--Christmas Minstrels in Italy and\n    Sicily--The _Presepio_ in Italy--Ceremonies with the _Culla_\n    and the _Bambino_ in Rome--Christmas in Italian London--The\n    Spanish Christmas--Possible Survivals of the Crib in England.\n\n  CHAPTER V\n  CHRISTMAS DRAMA                                                    119\n\n    Origins of the Mediaeval Drama--Dramatic Tendencies in the\n    Liturgy--Latin Liturgical Plays--The Drama becomes\n    Laicized--Characteristics of the Popular Drama--The Nativity\n    in the English Miracle Cycles--Christmas Mysteries in\n    France--Later French Survivals of Christmas Drama--German\n    Christmas Plays--Mediaeval Italian Plays and Pageants--Spanish\n    Nativity Plays--Modern Survivals in Various Countries--The\n    Star Singers, &c.\n\n  POSTSCRIPT                                                         155\n\n\n  PART II--PAGAN SURVIVALS\n\n  CHAPTER VI\n  PRE-CHRISTIAN WINTER FESTIVALS                                     159\n\n    The Church and Superstition--Nature of Pagan Survivals--Racial\n    Origins--Roman Festivals of the _Saturnalia_ and Kalends--Was\n    there a Teutonic Midwinter Festival?--The Teutonic, Celtic, and\n    Slav New Year--Customs attracted to Christmas or January 1--\n    The Winter Cycle of Festivals--_Rationale_ of Festival Ritual:\n    (_a_) Sacrifice and Sacrament, (_b_) The Cult of the Dead,\n    (_c_) Omens and Charms for the New Year--Compromise in the\n    Later Middle Ages--The Puritans and Christmas--Decay of Old\n    Traditions. |9|\n\n  CHAPTER VII\n  ALL HALLOW TIDE TO MARTINMAS                                       187\n\n    All Saints' and All Souls' Days, their Relation to a New Year\n    Festival--All Souls' Eve and Tendance of the Departed--Soul\n    Cakes in England and on the Continent--Pagan Parallels of All\n    Souls'--Hallowe'en Charms and Omens--Hallowe'en Fires--Guy\n    Fawkes Day--\"Old Hob,\" the _Schimmelreiter_, and other Animal\n    Masks--Martinmas and its Slaughter--Martinmas Drinking--St.\n    Martin's Fires in Germany--Winter Visitors in the Low\n    Countries and Germany--St. Martin as Gift-bringer--St.\n    Martin's Rod.\n\n  CHAPTER VIII\n  ST. CLEMENT TO ST. THOMAS                                          209\n\n    St. Clement's Day Quests and Processions--St. Catherine's Day\n    as Spinsters' Festival--St. Andrew's Eve Auguries--The\n    _Kloepfelnaechte_--St. Nicholas's Day, the Saint as\n    Gift-bringer, and his Attendants--Election of the Boy\n    Bishop--St. Nicholas's Day at Bari--St. Lucia's Day in Sweden,\n    Sicily, and Central Europe--St. Thomas's Day as School\n    Festival--Its Uncanny Eve--\"Going a-Thomassin'.\"\n\n  CHAPTER IX\n  CHRISTMAS EVE AND THE TWELVE DAYS                                  227\n\n    Christkind, Santa Klaus, and Knecht Ruprecht--Talking Animals\n    and other Wonders of Christmas Eve--Scandinavian Beliefs about\n    Trolls and the Return of the Dead--Traditional Christmas Songs\n    in Eastern Europe--The Twelve Days, their Christian Origin and\n    Pagan Superstitions--The Raging Host--Hints of Supernatural\n    Visitors in England--The German _Frauen_--The Greek\n    _Kallikantzaroi_.\n\n  CHAPTER X\n  THE YULE LOG                                                       249\n\n    The Log as Centre of the Domestic Christmas--Customs of the\n    Southern Slavs--The _Polaznik_--Origin of the Yule\n    Log--Probable Connection with Vegetation-cults or\n    Ancestor-worship--The _Souche de Noel_ in France--Italian and\n    German Christmas Logs--English Customs--The Yule Candle in\n    England and Scandinavia. |10|\n\n  CHAPTER XI\n  THE CHRISTMAS-TREE, DECORATIONS, AND GIFTS                         261\n\n    The Christmas-tree a German Creation--Charm of the German\n    Christmas--Early Christmas-trees--The Christmas\n    Pyramid--Spread of the Tree in Modern Germany and other\n    Countries--Origin of the Christmas-tree--Beliefs about\n    Flowering Trees at Christmas--Evergreens at the\n    Kalends--Non-German Parallels to the Christmas-tree--Christmas\n    Decorations connected with Ancient Kalends Customs--Sacredness\n    of Holly and Mistletoe--Floors strewn with Straw--Christmas\n    and New Year Gifts, their Connection with the Roman _Strenae_\n    and St. Nicholas--Present-giving in Various\n    Countries--Christmas Cards.\n\n  CHAPTER XII\n  CHRISTMAS FEASTING AND SACRIFICIAL SURVIVALS                       281\n\n    Prominence of Eating in the English Christmas--The Boar's\n    Head, the Goose, and other Christmas Fare--Frumenty, Sowens,\n    Yule Cakes, and the Wassail Bowl--Continental Christmas\n    Dishes, their Possible Origins--French and German Cakes--The\n    Animals' Christmas Feast--Cakes in Eastern Europe--Relics of\n    Animal Sacrifice--Hunting the Wren--Various Games of\n    Sacrificial Origin.\n\n  CHAPTER XIII\n  MASKING, THE MUMMERS' PLAY, THE FEAST OF FOOLS, AND THE BOY BISHOP 295\n\n    English Court Masking--\"The Lord of Misrule\"--The Mummers'\n    Play, the Sword-Dance, and the Morris Dance--Origin of St.\n    George and other Characters--Mumming in Eastern Europe--The\n    Feast of Fools, its History and Suppression--The Boy Bishop,\n    his Functions and Sermons--Modern Survivals of the Boy Bishop.\n\n  CHAPTER XIV\n  ST. STEPHEN'S, ST. JOHN'S, AND HOLY INNOCENTS' DAYS                309\n\n    Horse Customs of St. Stephen's Day--The Swedish St.\n    Stephen--St. John's Wine--Childermas and its Beatings. |11|\n\n  CHAPTER XV\n  NEW YEAR'S DAY                                                     319\n\n    Principle of New Year Customs--The New Year in France,\n    Germany, the United States, and Eastern\n    Europe--\"First-footing\" in Great Britain--Scottish New Year\n    Practices--Highland Fumigation and \"Breast-strip\"\n    Customs--Hogmanay and Aguillanneuf--New Year Processions in\n    Macedonia, Roumania, Greece, and Rome--Methods of\n    Augury--Sundry New Year Charms.\n\n  CHAPTER XVI\n  EPIPHANY TO CANDLEMAS                                              335\n\n    The Twelfth Cake and the \"King of the Bean\"--French Twelfth\n    Night Customs--St. Basil's Cake in Macedonia--Epiphany and the\n    Expulsion of Evils--The Befana in Italy--The Magi as\n    Present-bringers--Greek Epiphany Customs--Wassailing\n    Fruit-trees--Herefordshire and Irish Twelfth Night\n    Practices--The \"Haxey Hood\" and Christmas Football--St. Knut's\n    Day in Sweden--Rock Day--Plough Monday--Candlemas, its\n    Ecclesiastical and Folk Ceremonies--Farewells to Christmas.\n\n  CONCLUSION                                                         357\n\n  NOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY                                             361\n\n  INDEX                                                              389\n\n|12|\n\n[Illustration: MADONNA AND CHILD. _By Albrecht Duerer._]\n\n|13|\n\n\n\n\nILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\n  THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI (DETAIL)                       Frontispiece\n    Gentile da Fabriano. (_Florence: Accademia_)\n\n  MADONNA AND CHILD                                                  13\n    Albert Duerer\n\n  MADONNA ENTHRONED WITH SAINTS AND ANGELS                           31\n    Pesellino. (_Empoli Gallery_)\n\n  JACOPONE IN ECSTASY BEFORE THE VIRGIN                              40\n    From \"Laude di Frate Jacopone da Todi\" (Florence, 1490)\n\n  THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS                                     55\n    By Fouquet. (_Musee Conde, Chantilly_)\n\n  THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT: THE REST BY THE WAY                         70\n    Master of the Seven Sorrows of Mary. (Also attributed to Joachim\n    Patinir.) (_Vienna: Imperial Gallery_)\n\n  SINGING \"VOM HIMMEL HOCH\" FROM A CHURCH TOWER AT CHRISTMAS         71\n    By Ludwig Richter\n\n  THE NATIVITY                                                       89\n    From Add. MS. 32454 in the British Museum. (French, 15th Century)\n\n  A NEAPOLITAN _PRESEPIO_                                            108\n\n  CALABRIAN SHEPHERDS PLAYING IN ROME AT CHRISTMAS                   112\n    After an Etching by D. Allan. From Hone's \"Every-day Book\"\n    (London, 1826)\n\n  ST. FRANCIS INSTITUTES THE _PRESEPIO_ AT GRECCIO                   114\n    By Giotto. (_Upper Church of St. Francis, Assisi_)\n\n|14|\n\n  THE _BAMBINO_ OF ARA COELI                                         115\n\n  THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS                                     121\n    From Broadside No. 305 in the Collection of the Society of\n    Antiquaries at Burlington House\n\n  THE SHEPHERDS OF BETHLEHEM                                         140\n    From \"Le grant Kalendrier & compost des Bergiers\" (N. le Rouge,\n    Troyes, 1529)\n\n  THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI                                          154\n    Masaccio. (_Berlin: Kaiser Friedrich Museum_)\n\n  NEW YEAR MUMMERS IN MANCHURIA                                      161\n    An Asiatic example of animal masks\n\n  CHRISTMAS EVE IN DEVONSHIRE--THE MUMMERS COMING IN                 229\n\n  THE GERMAN CHRISTMAS-TREE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY                263\n    From an engraving by Joseph Kellner\n\n  CHRISTMAS MORNING IN LOWER AUSTRIA                                 281\n    By Ferdinand Waldmueller (b. 1793)\n\n  YORKSHIRE SWORD-ACTORS: ST. GEORGE IN COMBAT WITH ST. PETER        297\n    From an article by Mr. T. M. Fallow in _The Antiquary_, May, 1895\n\n  THE EPIPHANY IN FLORENCE                                           337\n\n|15| |16| |17|\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\n    The Origin and Purpose of Festivals--Ideas suggested by\n    Christmas--Pagan and Christian Elements--The Names of the\n    Festival--Foundation of the Feast of the Nativity--Its Relation to\n    the Epiphany--December 25 and the _Natalis Invicti_--The Kalends of\n    January--Yule and Teutonic Festivals--The Church and Pagan\n    Survivals--Two Conflicting Types of Festival--Their Interaction--Plan\n    of the Book.\n\nIt has been an instinct in nearly all peoples, savage or civilized, to\nset aside certain days for special ceremonial observances, attended by\noutward rejoicing. This tendency to concentrate on special times answers\nto man's need to lift himself above the commonplace and the everyday, to\nescape from the leaden weight of monotony that oppresses him. \"We tend to\ntire of the most eternal splendours, and a mark on our calendar, or a\ncrash of bells at midnight maybe, reminds us that we have only recently\nbeen created.\"[1]{1} That they wake people up is the great justification\nof festivals, and both man's religious sense and his joy in life have\ngenerally tended to rise \"into peaks and towers and turrets, into\nsuperhuman exceptions which really prove the rule.\"{2} It is difficult\nto be religious, impossible to be merry, at every moment of life, and\nfestivals are as sunlit peaks, testifying, above dark valleys, to the\neternal radiance. This is one view of the purpose and value of festivals,\nand their function of cheering people and giving them larger perspectives\nhas no doubt been an important reason for their maintenance in the past.\nIf we could trace the custom of festival-keeping back to its origins in\nprimitive society |18| we should find the same principle of\nspecialization involved, though it is probable that the practice came\ninto being not for the sake of its moral or emotional effect, but from\nman's desire to lay up, so to speak, a stock of sanctity, magical not\nethical, for ordinary days.\n\nThe first holy-day-makers were probably more concerned with such material\ngoods as food than with spiritual ideals, when they marked with sacred\ndays the rhythm of the seasons.{3} As man's consciousness developed, the\nsubjective aspect of the matter would come increasingly into prominence,\nuntil in the festivals of the Christian Church the main object is to\nquicken the devotion of the believer by contemplation of the mysteries of\nthe faith. Yet attached, as we shall see, to many Christian festivals,\nare old notions of magical sanctity, probably quite as potent in the\nminds of the common people as the more spiritual ideas suggested by the\nChurch's feasts.\n\nIn modern England we have almost lost the festival habit, but if there is\none feast that survives among us as a universal tradition it is\nChristmas. We have indeed our Bank Holidays, but they are mere days of\nrest and amusement, and for the mass of the people Easter and Whitsuntide\nhave small religious significance--Christmas alone has the character of\nsanctity which marks the true festival. The celebration of Christmas has\noften little or nothing to do with orthodox dogma, yet somehow the sense\nof obligation to keep the feast is very strong, and there are few English\npeople, however unconventional, who escape altogether the spell of\ntradition in this matter.\n\n_Christmas_--how many images the word calls up: we think of carol-singers\nand holly-decked churches where people hymn in time-honoured strains the\nBirth of the Divine Child; of frost and snow, and, in contrast, of warm\nhearths and homes bright with light and colour, very fortresses against\nthe cold; of feasting and revelry, of greetings and gifts exchanged; and\nlastly of vaguely superstitious customs, relics of long ago, performed\nperhaps out of respect for use and wont, or merely in jest, or with a\ndeliberate attempt to throw ourselves back into the past, to re-enter for\na moment the mental childhood of the race. These are a few of |19| the\npictures that rise pell-mell in the minds of English folk at the mention\nof Christmas; how many other scenes would come before us if we could\nrealize what the festival means to men of other nations. Yet even these\nwill suggest what hardly needs saying, that Christmas is something far\nmore complex than a Church holy-day alone, that the celebration of the\nBirth of Jesus, deep and touching as is its appeal to those who hold the\nfaith of the Incarnation, is but one of many elements that have entered\ninto the great winter festival.\n\nIn the following pages I shall try to present a picture, sketchy and\ninadequate though it must be, of what Christmas is and has been to the\npeoples of Europe, and to show as far as possible the various elements\nthat have gone into its make-up. Most people have a vague impression that\nthese are largely pagan, but comparatively few have any idea of the\nprocess by which the heathen elements have become mingled with that which\nis obviously Christian, and equal obscurity prevails as to the nature and\nmeaning of the non-Christian customs. The subject is vast, and has not\nbeen thoroughly explored as yet, but the labours of historians and\nfolk-lorists have made certain conclusions probable, and have produced\nhypotheses of great interest and fascination.\n\nI have spoken of \"Christian\"[2] and \"pagan\" elements. The distinction is\nblurred to some extent by the clothing of heathen customs in a\nsuperficial Christianity, but on the whole it is clear enough to justify\nthe division of this book into two parts, one dealing with the Church's\nfeast of the Holy Birth, the other with those remains of pagan winter\nfestivals which extend from November to January, but cluster especially\nround Christmas and the Twelve Days.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBefore we pass to the various aspects of the Church's Christmas, we must\nbriefly consider its origins and its relation to certain |20| pagan\nfestivals, the customs of which will be dealt with in detail in Part II.\n\nThe names given to the feast by different European peoples throw a\ncertain amount of light on its history. Let us take five of\nthem--_Christmas_, _Weihnacht_, _Noel_, _Calendas_, and _Yule_--and see\nwhat they suggest.\n\nI. The English _Christmas_ and its Dutch equivalent _Kerstmisse_, plainly\npoint to the ecclesiastical side of the festival; the German\n_Weihnacht_{4} (sacred night) is vaguer, and might well be either pagan\nor Christian; in point of fact it seems to be Christian, since it does\nnot appear till the year 1000, when the Faith was well established in\nGermany.{5} _Christmas_ and _Weihnacht_, then, may stand for the\ndistinctively Christian festival, the history of which we may now briefly\nstudy.\n\nWhen and where did the keeping of Christmas begin? Many details of its\nearly history remain in uncertainty, but it is fairly clear that the\nearliest celebration of the Birth of Christ on December 25 took place at\nRome about the middle of the fourth century, and that the observance of\nthe day spread from the western to the eastern Church, which had before\nbeen wont to keep January 6 as a joint commemoration of the Nativity and\nthe Baptism of the Redeemer.[3]\n\nThe first mention of a Nativity feast on December 25 is found in a Roman\ndocument known as the Philocalian Calendar, dating from the year 354, but\nembodying an older document evidently belonging to the year 336. It is\nuncertain to which date the Nativity reference belongs;[4] but further\nback than 336 at all events the festival cannot be traced.\n\nFrom Rome, Christmas spread throughout the West, with the |21| conversion\nof the barbarians. Whether it came to England through the Celtic Church\nis uncertain, but St. Augustine certainly brought it with him, and\nChristmas Day, 598, witnessed a great event, the baptism of more than\nten thousand English converts.{9} In 567 the Council of Tours had\ndeclared the Twelve Days, from Christmas to Epiphany, a festal tide;{10}\nthe laws of Ethelred (991-1016) ordained it to be a time of peace and\nconcord among Christian men, when all strife must cease.{11} In Germany\nChristmas was established by the Synod of Mainz in 813;{12} in Norway by\nKing Hakon the Good about the middle of the tenth century.{13}\n\nIn the East, as has been seen, the Birth of the Redeemer was at first\ncelebrated not on December 25, but on January 6, the feast of the\nEpiphany or manifestation of Christ's glory. The Epiphany can be traced\nas far back as the second century, among the Basilidian heretics, from\nwhom it may have spread to the Catholic Church. It was with them\ncertainly a feast of the Baptism, and possibly also of the Nativity, of\nChrist. The origins of the Epiphany festival{14} are very obscure, nor\ncan we say with certainty what was its meaning at first. It may be that\nit took the place of a heathen rite celebrating the birth of the World or\nAEon from the Virgin on January 6.[5] At all events one of its objects was\nto commemorate the Baptism, the appearance of the Holy Dove, and the\nVoice from heaven, \"Thou art my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased\"\n(or, as other MSS. read, \"This day have I begotten thee\").\n\n|22| In some circles of early Christianity the Baptism appears to have\nbeen looked upon as the true Birth of Christ, the moment when, filled by\nthe Spirit, He became Son of God; and the carnal Birth was regarded as of\ncomparatively little significance. Hence the Baptism festival may have\narisen first, and the celebration of the Birth at Bethlehem may have been\nlater attached to the same day, partly perhaps because a passage in St.\nLuke's Gospel was supposed to imply that Jesus was baptized on His\nthirtieth birthday. As however the orthodox belief became more sharply\ndefined, increasing stress was laid on the Incarnation of God in Christ\nin the Virgin's womb, and it may have been felt that the celebration of\nthe Birth and the Baptism on the same day encouraged heretical views.\nHence very likely the introduction of Christmas on December 25 as a\nfestival of the Birth alone. In the East the concelebration of the two\nevents continued for some time after Rome had instituted the separate\nfeast of Christmas. Gradually, however, the Roman use spread: at\nConstantinople it was introduced about 380 by the great theologian,\nGregory Nazianzen; at Antioch it appeared in 388, at Alexandria in 432.\nThe Church of Jerusalem long stood out, refusing to adopt the new feast\ntill the seventh century, it would seem.{18} One important Church, the\nArmenian, knows nothing of December 25, and still celebrates the Nativity\nwith the Epiphany on January 6.{19} Epiphany in the eastern Orthodox\nChurch has lost its connection with the Nativity and is now chiefly a\ncelebration of the Baptism of Christ, while in the West, as every one\nknows, it is primarily a celebration of the Adoration by the Magi, an\nevent commemorated by the Greeks on Christmas Day. Epiphany is, however,\nas we shall see, a greater festival in the Greek Church than Christmas.\n\nSuch in bare outline is the story of the spread of Christmas as an\nindependent festival. Its establishment fitly followed the triumph of the\nCatholic doctrine of the perfect Godhead or Christ at the Council of\nNicea in 325.\n\nII. The French _Noel_ is a name concerning whose origin there has been\nconsiderable dispute; there can, however, be little doubt that it is the\nsame word as the Provencal _Nadau_ or _Nadal_, |23| the Italian\n_Natale_, and the Welsh _Nadolig_, all obviously derived from the Latin\n_natalis_, and meaning \"birthday.\" One naturally takes this as referring\nto the Birth of Christ, but it may at any rate remind us of another\nbirthday celebrated on the same date by the Romans of the Empire, that of\nthe unconquered Sun, who on December 25, the winter solstice according to\nthe Julian calendar, began to rise to new vigour after his autumnal\ndecline.\n\nWhy, we may ask, did the Church choose December 25 for the celebration of\nher Founder's Birth? No one now imagines that the date is supported by a\nreliable tradition; it is only one of various guesses of early Christian\nwriters. As a learned eighteenth-century Jesuit{20} has pointed out,\nthere is not a single month in the year to which the Nativity has not\nbeen assigned by some writer or other. The real reason for the choice of\nthe day most probably was, that upon it fell the pagan festival just\nmentioned.\n\nThe _Dies Natalis Invicti_ was probably first celebrated in Rome by order\nof the Emperor Aurelian (270-5), an ardent worshipper of the Syrian\nsun-god Baal.{21} With the _Sol Invictus_ was identified the figure of\nMithra, that strange eastern god whose cult resembled in so many ways the\nworship of Jesus, and who was at one time a serious rival of the Christ\nin the minds of thoughtful men.[6]{22} It was the sun-god, poetically\nand philosophically conceived, whom the Emperor Julian made the centre of\nhis ill-fated revival of paganism, and there is extant a fine prayer of\nhis to \"King Sun.\"{23}\n\nWhat more natural than that the Church should choose this day to\ncelebrate the rising of her Sun of Righteousness with healing in His\nwings, that she should strive thus to draw away to His worship some\nadorers of the god whose symbol and representative was the earthly sun!\nThere is no direct evidence of deliberate substitution, but at all events\necclesiastical writers soon after the foundation of Christmas made good\nuse of the idea |24| that the birthday of the Saviour had replaced the\nbirthday of the sun.[7]\n\nLittle is known of the manner in which the _Natalis Invicti_ was kept; it\nwas not a folk-festival, and was probably observed by the classes rather\nthan the masses.{24} Its direct influence on Christmas customs has\nprobably been little or nothing. It fell, however, just before a Roman\nfestival that had immense popularity, is of great importance for our\nsubject, and is recalled by another name for Christmas that must now be\nconsidered.\n\nIII. The Provencal _Calendas_ or _Calenos_, the Polish _Kolenda_, the\nRussian _Kolyada_, the Czech _Koleda_ and the Lithuanian _Kalledos_, not\nto speak of the Welsh _Calenig_ for Christmas-box, and the Gaelic\n_Calluinn_ for New Year's Eve, are all derived from the Latin _Kalendae_,\nand suggest the connection of Christmas with the Roman New Year's Day,\nthe Kalends or the first day of January, a time celebrated with many\nfestive customs. What these were, and how they have affected Christmas we\nshall see in some detail in Part II.; suffice it to say here that the\nfestival, which lasted for at least three days, was one of riotous life,\nof banqueting and games and licence. It was preceded, moreover, by the\n_Saturnalia_ (December 17 to 23) which had many like features, and must\nhave formed practically one festive season with it. The word _Saturnalia_\nhas become so familiar in modern usage as to suggest sufficiently the\ncharacter of the festival for which it stands.\n\n|25| Into the midst of this season of revelry and licence the Church\nintroduced her celebration of the beginning of man's redemption from the\nbondage of sin. Who can wonder that Christmas contains incongruous\nelements, for old things, loved by the people, cannot easily be uprooted.\n\nIV. One more name yet remains to be considered, _Yule_ (Danish _Jul_),\nthe ordinary word for Christmas in the Scandinavian languages, and not\nextinct among ourselves. Its derivation has been widely discussed, but so\nfar no satisfactory explanation of it has been found. Professor Skeat in\nthe last edition of his Etymological Dictionary (1910) has to admit that\nits origin is unknown. Whatever its source may be, it is clearly the name\nof a Germanic season--probably a two-month tide covering the second half\nof November, the whole of December, and the first half of January.{26}\nIt may well suggest to us the element added to Christmas by the barbarian\npeoples who began to learn Christianity about the time when the festival\nwas founded. Modern research has tended to disprove the idea that the old\nGermans held a Yule feast at the winter solstice, and it is probable, as\nwe shall see, that the specifically Teutonic Christmas customs come from\na New Year and beginning-of-winter festival kept about the middle of\nNovember. These customs transferred to Christmas are to a great extent\nreligious or magical rites intended to secure prosperity during the\ncoming year, and there is also the familiar Christmas feasting,\napparently derived in part from the sacrificial banquets that marked the\nbeginning of winter.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWe have now taken a general glance at the elements which have combined in\nChristmas. The heathen folk-festivals absorbed by the Nativity feast were\nessentially life-affirming, they expressed the mind of men who said \"yes\"\nto this life, who valued earthly good things. On the other hand\nChristianity, at all events in its intensest form, the religion of the\nmonks, was at bottom pessimistic as regards this earth, and valued it\nonly as a place of discipline for the life to come; it was essentially a\nreligion of renunciation that said \"no\" to the world. The |26| Christian\nhad here no continuing city, but sought one to come. How could the\nChurch make a feast of the secular New Year; what mattered to her the\nworld of time? her eye was fixed upon the eternal realities--the great\ndrama of Redemption. Not upon the course of the temporal sun through the\nzodiac, but upon the mystical progress of the eternal Sun of\nRighteousness must she base her calendar. Christmas and New Year's\nDay--the two festivals stood originally for the most opposed of\nprinciples.\n\nNaturally the Church fought bitterly against the observance of the\nKalends; she condemned repeatedly the unseemly doings of Christians in\njoining in heathenish customs at that season; she tried to make the first\nof January a solemn fast; and from the ascetic point of view she was\nprofoundly right, for the old festivals were bound up with a lusty\nattitude towards the world, a seeking for earthly joy and well-being.\n\nThe struggle between the ascetic principle of self-mortification,\nworld-renunciation, absorption in a transcendent ideal, and the natural\nhuman striving towards earthly joy and well-being, is, perhaps, the most\ninteresting aspect of the history of Christianity; it is certainly shown\nin an absorbingly interesting way in the development of the Christian\nfeast of the Nativity. The conflict is keen at first; the Church\nauthorities fight tooth and nail against these relics of heathenism,\nthese devilish rites; but mankind's instinctive paganism is\ninsuppressible, the practices continue as ritual, though losing much of\ntheir meaning, and the Church, weary of denouncing, comes to wink at\nthem, while the pagan joy in earthly life begins to colour her own\nfestival.\n\nThe Church's Christmas, as the Middle Ages pass on, becomes increasingly\n\"merry\"--warm and homely, suited to the instincts of ordinary humanity,\nfilled with a joy that is of this earth, and not only a mystical rapture\nat a transcendental Redemption. The Incarnate God becomes a real child to\nbe fondled and rocked, a child who is the loveliest of infants, whose\nbirthday is the supreme type of all human birthdays, and may be kept with\nfeasting and dance and song. Such is the Christmas of popular tradition,\nthe Nativity as it is reflected in the carols, the cradle-rocking, the\nmystery plays of the later Middle Ages. This |27| Christmas, which\nstill lingers, though maimed, in some Catholic regions, is strongly\nlife-affirming; the value and delight of earthly, material things is\nkeenly felt; sometimes, even, it passes into coarseness and riot. Yet a\ncertain mysticism usually penetrates it, with hints that this dear life,\nthis fair world, are not all, for the soul has immortal longings in her.\nNearly always there is the spirit of reverence, of bowing down before the\nInfant God, a visitor from the supernatural world, though bone of man's\nbone, flesh of his flesh. Heaven and earth have met together; the rough\nstable is become the palace of the Great King.\n\nThis we might well call the \"Catholic\" Christmas, the Christmas of the\nage when the Church most nearly answered to the needs of the whole man,\nspiritual and sensuous. The Reformation in England and Germany did not\ntotally destroy it; in England the carol-singers kept up for a while the\nold spirit; in Lutheran Germany a highly coloured and surprisingly\nsensuous celebration of the Nativity lingered on into the eighteenth\ncentury. In the countries that remained Roman Catholic much of the old\nChristmas continued, though the spirit of the Counter-Reformation, faced\nby the challenge of Protestantism, made for greater \"respectability,\" and\noften robbed the Catholic Christmas of its humour, its homeliness, its\ntruly popular stamp, substituting pretentiousness for simplicity, sugary\nsentiment for naive and genuine poetry.\n\nApart from the transformation of the Church's Christmas from something\naustere and metaphysical into something joyous and human, warm and\nkindly, we shall note in our Second Part the survival of much that is\npurely pagan, continuing alongside of the celebration of the Nativity,\nand often little touched by its influence. But first we must consider the\nside of the festival suggested by the English and French names:\n_Christmas_ will stand for the liturgical rites commemorating the wonder\nof the Incarnation--God in man made manifest--_Noel_ or \"the Birthday,\"\nfor the ways in which men have striven to realize the human aspect of the\ngreat Coming.\n\nHow can we reach the inner meaning of the Nativity feast, its\nsignificance for the faithful? Better, perhaps, by the way of |28|\npoetry than by the way of ritual, for it is poetry that reveals the\nemotions at the back of the outward observances, and we shall understand\nthese better when the singers of Christmas have laid bare to us their\nhearts. We may therefore first give attention to the Christmas poetry of\nsundry ages and peoples, and then go on to consider the liturgical and\npopular ritual in which the Church has striven to express her joy at the\nRedeemer's birth. Ceremonial, of course, has always mimetic tendencies,\nand in a further chapter we shall see how these issued in genuine drama;\nhow, in the miracle plays, the Christmas story was represented by the\nforms and voices of living men.\n\n|29| |30| |31|\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPart I--The Christian Feast\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nCHRISTMAS POETRY (I)[8]{1}\n\n\n    Ancient Latin Hymns, their Dogmatic, Theological\n    Character--Humanizing Influence of Franciscanism--Jacopone da Todi's\n    Vernacular Verse--German Catholic Poetry--Mediaeval English Carols.\n\n[Illustration:\n\nMADONNA ENTHRONED WITH SAINTS AND ANGELS.\n\nPESELLINO\n\n(_Empoli Gallery_)]\n\nChristmas, as we have seen, had its beginning at the middle of the fourth\ncentury in Rome. The new feast was not long in finding a hymn-writer to\nembody in immortal Latin the emotions called forth by the memory of the\nNativity. \"Veni, redemptor gentium\" is one of the earliest of Latin\nhymns--one of the few that have come down to us from the father of Church\nsong, Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan (d. 397). Great as theologian and\nstatesman, Ambrose was great also as a poet and systematizer of Church\nmusic. \"Veni, redemptor gentium\" is above all things stately and severe,\nin harmony with the austere character of the zealous foe of the Arian\nheretics, the champion of monasticism. It is the theological aspect alone\nof Christmas, the redemption of sinful man by the mystery of the\nIncarnation and the miracle of the Virgin Birth, that we find in St.\nAmbrose's terse and pregnant Latin; there is no feeling for the human\npathos and poetry of the scene at Bethlehem--\n\n   \"Veni, redemptor gentium,\n    Ostende partum virginis;\n    Miretur omne saeculum:\n    Talis decet partus Deum. |32|\n    Non ex virili semine,\n    Sed mystico spiramine,\n    Verbum Dei factum caro,\n    Fructusque ventris floruit.\"[9]{2}\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAnother fine hymn often heard in English churches is of a slightly later\ndate. \"Corde natus ex Parentis\" (\"Of the Father's love begotten\") is a\ncento from a larger hymn by the Spanish poet Prudentius (_c._ 348-413).\nPrudentius did not write for liturgical purposes, and it was several\ncenturies before \"Corde natus\" was adopted into the cycle of Latin hymns.\nIts elaborate rhetoric is very unlike the severity of \"Veni, redemptor\ngentium,\" but again the note is purely theological; the Incarnation as a\nworld-event is its theme. It sings the Birth of Him who is\n\n   \"Corde natus ex Parentis\n    Ante mundi exordium,\n    Alpha et O cognominatus,\n    Ipse fons et clausula\n    Omnium quae sunt, fuerunt,\n    Quaeque post futura sunt\n        Saeculorum saeculis.\"[10]{3}\n\nOther early hymns are \"A solis ortus cardine\" (\"From east to west, from\nshore to shore\"), by a certain Coelius Sedulius (d. _c._ 450), still sung\nby the Roman Church at Lauds on Christmas Day, and \"Jesu, redemptor\nomnium\" (sixth century), the office hymn at Christmas Vespers. Like the\npoems of Ambrose and Prudentius, they are in classical metres, unrhymed,\nand based upon quantity, not accent, and they have the same general\ncharacter, doctrinal rather than humanly tender.\n\nIn the ninth and tenth centuries arose a new form of hymnody, the Prose\nor Sequence sung after the Gradual (the anthem between the Epistle and\nGospel at Mass). The earliest writer of sequences was Notker, a monk of\nthe abbey of St. Gall, near |33| the Lake of Constance. Among those\nthat are probably his work is the Christmas \"Natus ante saecula Dei\nfilius.\" The most famous Nativity sequence, however, is the \"Laetabundus,\nexsultet fidelis chorus\" of St. Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153), once sung\nall over Europe, and especially popular in England and France. Here are\nits opening verses:--\n\n   \"Laetabundus,\n    Exsultet fidelis chorus;\n        Alleluia!\n    Regem regum\n    Intactae profudit thorus;\n        Res miranda!\n\n    Angelus consilii\n    Natus est de Virgine,\n        Sol de stella!\n    Sol occasum nesciens,\n    Stella semper rutilans,\n        Semper clara.\"[11]{4}\n\nThe \"Laetabundus\" is in rhymed stanzas; in this it differs from most\nearly proses. The writing of rhymed sequences, however, became common\nthrough the example of the Parisian monk, Adam of St. Victor, in the\nsecond half of the twelfth century. He adopted an entirely new style of\nversification and music, derived from popular songs; and he and his\nsuccessors in |34| the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries wrote\nvarious proses for the Christmas festival.\n\nIf we consider the Latin Christmas hymns from the fourth century to the\nthirteenth, we shall find that however much they differ in form, they have\none common characteristic: they are essentially theological--dwelling on\nthe Incarnation and the Nativity as part of the process of man's\nredemption--rather than realistic. There is little attempt to imagine\nthe scene in the stable at Bethlehem, little interest in the Child as a\nchild, little sense of the human pathos of the Nativity. The explanation\nis, I think, very simple, and it lights up the whole observance of\nChristmas as a Church festival in the centuries we are considering:\n_this poetry is the poetry of monks, or of men imbued with the monastic\nspirit_.\n\nThe two centuries following the institution of Christmas saw the break-up\nof the Roman Empire in the west, and the incursions of barbarians\nthreatening the very existence of the Christian civilization that had\nconquered classic paganism. It was by her army of monks that the Church\ntamed and Christianized the barbarians, and both religion and culture\ntill the middle of the twelfth century were predominantly monastic. \"In\nwriting of any eminently religious man of this period\" [the eleventh\ncentury], says Dean Church, \"it must be taken almost as a matter of\ncourse that he was a monk.\"{5} And a monastery was not the place for\nhuman feeling about Christmas; the monk was--at any rate in ideal--cut\noff from the world; not for him were the joys of parenthood or tender\nfeelings for a new-born child. To the monk the world was, at least in\ntheory, the vale of misery; birth and generation were, one may almost\nsay, tolerated as necessary evils among lay folk unable to rise to the\nheights of abstinence and renunciation; one can hardly imagine a true\nearly Benedictine filled with \"joy that a man is born into the world.\"\nThe Nativity was an infinitely important event, to be celebrated with a\nchastened, unearthly joy, but not, as it became for the later Middle Ages\nand the Renaissance, a matter upon which human affection might lavish\nitself, which imagination might deck with vivid concrete detail. In the\nlater Christmas |35| the pagan and the Christian spirit, or delight in\nearthly things and joy in the invisible, seem to meet and mingle; to the\ntrue monk of the Dark and Early Middle Ages they were incompatible.\n\nWhat of the people, the great world outside the monasteries? Can we\nimagine that Christmas, on its Christian side, had a deep meaning for\nthem? For the first ten centuries, to quote Dean Church again,\nChristianity \"can hardly be said to have leavened society at all.... It\nacted upon it doubtless with enormous power; but it was as an extraneous\nand foreign agent, which destroys and shapes, but does not mingle or\nrenew.... Society was a long time unlearning heathenism; it has not done\nso yet; but it had hardly begun, at any rate it was only just beginning,\nto imagine the possibility of such a thing in the eleventh century.\"{6}\n\n\"The practical religion of the illiterate,\" says another ecclesiastical\nhistorian, Dr. W. R. W. Stephens, \"was in many respects merely a survival\nof the old paganism thinly disguised. There was a prevalent belief in\nwitchcraft, magic, sortilegy, spells, charms, talismans, which mixed\nitself up in strange ways with Christian ideas and Christian worship....\nFear, the note of superstition, rather than love, which is the\ncharacteristic of a rational faith, was conspicuous in much of the\npopular religion. The world was haunted by demons, hobgoblins, malignant\nspirits of divers kinds, whose baneful influence must be averted by\ncharms or offerings.\"{7}\n\nThe writings of ecclesiastics, the decrees of councils and synods, from\nthe fourth century to the eleventh, abound in condemnations of pagan\npractices at the turn of the year. It is in these customs, and in secular\nmirth and revelry, not in Christian poetry, that we must seek for the\nexpression of early lay feeling about Christmas. It was a feast of\nmaterial good things, a time for the fulfilment of traditional heathen\nusages, rather than a joyous celebration of the Saviour's birth. No doubt\nit was observed by due attendance at church, but the services in a tongue\nnot understanded of the people cannot have been very full of meaning to\nthem, and we can imagine |36| their Christmas church-going as rather a\nduty inspired by fear than an expression of devout rejoicing. It is\nnoteworthy that the earliest of vernacular Christmas carols known to us,\nthe early thirteenth-century Anglo-Norman \"Seignors, ore entendez a nus,\"\nis a song not of religion but of revelry. Its last verse is typical:\n\n   \"Seignors, jo vus di par Noel,\n    E par li sires de cest hostel,\n            Car bevez ben;\n    E jo primes beverai le men,\n    E pois aprez chescon le soen,\n        Par mon conseil;\n    Si jo vus di trestoz, 'Wesseyl!'\n    Dehaiz eit qui ne dirra, 'Drincheyl!'\"[12]{8}\n\nNot till the close of the thirteenth century do we meet with any\nvernacular Christmas poetry of importance. The verses of the\n_troubadours_ and _trouveres_ of twelfth-century France had little to do\nwith Christianity; their songs were mostly of earthly and illicit love.\nThe German Minnesingers of the thirteenth century were indeed pious, but\ntheir devout lays were addressed to the Virgin as Queen of Heaven, the\nideal of womanhood, holding in glory the Divine Child in her arms, rather\nthan to the Babe and His Mother in the great humility of Bethlehem.\n\nThe first real outburst of Christmas joy in a popular tongue is found in\nItaly, in the poems of that strange \"minstrel of the Lord,\" the\nFranciscan Jacopone da Todi (b. 1228, d. 1306). _Franciscan_, in that\nname we have an indication of the change in religious feeling that came\nover the western world, and |37| especially Italy, in the thirteenth\ncentury.{9} For the twenty all-too-short years of St. Francis's\napostolate have passed, and a new attitude towards God and man and the\nworld has become possible. Not that the change was due solely to St.\nFrancis; he was rather the supreme embodiment of the ideals and\ntendencies of his day than their actual creator; but he was the spark\nthat kindled a mighty flame. In him we reach so important a turning-point\nin the history of Christmas that we must linger awhile at his side.\n\nEarly Franciscanism meant above all the democratizing, the humanizing of\nChristianity; with it begins that \"carol spirit\" which is the most\nwinning part of the Christian Christmas, the spirit which, while not\nforgetting the divine side of the Nativity, yet delights in its simple\nhumanity, the spirit that links the Incarnation to the common life of the\npeople, that brings human tenderness into religion. The faithful no\nlonger contemplate merely a theological mystery, they are moved by\naffectionate devotion to the Babe of Bethlehem, realized as an actual\nliving child, God indeed, yet feeling the cold of winter, the roughness\nof the manger bed.\n\nSt. Francis, it must be remembered, was not a man of high birth, but the\nson of a silk merchant, and his appeal was made chiefly to the traders\nand skilled workmen of the cities, who, in his day, were rising to\nimportance, coming, in modern Socialist terms, to class-consciousness.\nThe monks, although boys of low birth were sometimes admitted into the\ncloister, were in sympathy one with the upper classes, and monastic\nreligion and culture were essentially aristocratic. The rise of the\nFranciscans meant the bringing home of Christianity to masses of\ntown-workers, homely people, who needed a religion full of vivid\nhumanity, and whom the pathetic story of the Nativity would peculiarly\ntouch.\n\nLove to man, the sense of human brotherhood--that was the great thing\nwhich St. Francis brought home to his age. The message, certainly, was\nnot new, but he realized it with infectious intensity. The second great\ncommandment, \"Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself,\" had not indeed\nbeen forgotten by |38| mediaeval Christianity; the common life of\nmonasticism was an attempt to fulfil it; yet for the monk love to man was\noften rather a duty than a passion. But to St. Francis love was very\nlife; he loved not by duty but by an inner compulsion, and his burning\nlove of God and man found its centre in the God-man, Christ Jesus. For no\nsaint, perhaps, has the earthly life of Christ been the object of such\npassionate devotion as for St. Francis; the Stigmata were the awful, yet,\nto his contemporaries, glorious fruit of his meditations on the Passion;\nand of the ecstasy with which he kept his Christmas at Greccio we shall\nread when we come to consider the _Presepio_. He had a peculiar affection\nfor the festival of the Holy Child; \"the Child Jesus,\" says Thomas of\nCelano, \"had been given over to forgetfulness in the hearts of many in\nwhom, by the working of His grace, He was raised up again through His\nservant Francis.\"{10}\n\nTo the Early Middle Ages Christ was the awful Judge, the _Rex tremendae\nmajestatis_, though also the divine bringer of salvation from sin and\neternal punishment, and, to the mystic, the Bridegroom of the Soul. To\nFrancis He was the little brother of all mankind as well. It was a new\nhuman joy that came into religion with him. His essentially artistic\nnature was the first to realize the full poetry of Christmas--the coming\nof infinity into extremest limitation, the Highest made the lowliest, the\nKing of all kings a poor infant. He had, in a supreme degree, the mingled\nreverence and tenderness that inspire the best carols.\n\nThough no Christmas verses by St. Francis have come down to us, there is\na beautiful \"psalm\" for Christmas Day at Vespers, composed by him partly\nfrom passages of Scripture. A portion of Father Paschal Robinson's\ntranslation may be quoted:--\n\n   \"Rejoice to God our helper.\n    Shout unto God, living and true,\n    With the voice of triumph.\n    For the Lord is high, terrible:\n    A great King over all the earth.\n    For the most holy Father of heaven, |39|\n    Our King, before ages sent His Beloved\n      Son from on high, and He\n      was born of the Blessed Virgin,\n      holy Mary.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n   This is the day which the Lord\n      hath made: let us rejoice and be glad in it.\n    For the beloved and most holy\n    Child has been given to us and\n      born for us by the wayside.\n    And laid in a manger because He\n      had no room in the inn.\n    Glory to God in the highest: and\n      on earth peace to men of good will.\"{11}\n\n[Illustration:\n\nJACOPONE IN ECSTASY BEFORE THE VIRGIN.\n\nFrom \"Laude di Frate Jacopone da Todi\"\n\n(Florence, 1490).]\n\nIt is in the poetry of Jacopone da Todi, born shortly after the death of\nSt. Francis, that the Franciscan Christmas spirit finds its most intense\nexpression. A wild, wandering ascetic, an impassioned poet, and a soaring\nmystic, Jacopone is one of the greatest of Christian singers, unpolished\nas his verses are. Noble by birth, he made himself utterly as the common\npeople for whom he piped his rustic notes. \"Dio fatto piccino\" (\"God made\na little thing\") is the keynote of his music; the Christ Child is for him\n\"our sweet little brother\"; with tender affection he rejoices in\nendearing diminutives--\"Bambolino,\" \"Piccolino,\" \"Jesulino.\" He sings of\nthe Nativity with extraordinary realism.[13] Here, in words, is a picture\nof the Madonna and her Child that might well have inspired an early\nTuscan artist:--\n\n   \"Veggiamo il suo Bambino\n    Gammettare nel fieno,\n    E le braccia scoperte\n    Porgere ad ella in seno, |40|\n    Ed essa lo ricopre\n    El meglio che puo almeno,\n    Mettendoli la poppa\n    Entro la sua bocchina.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n    A la sua man manca,\n    Cullava lo Bambino,\n    E con sante carole\n    Nenciava il suo amor fino....\n    Gli Angioletti d' intorno\n    Se ne gian danzando,\n    Facendo dolci versi\n    E d' amor favellando.\"[14]{12}\n\nBut there is an intense sense of the divine, as well as the human, in the\nHoly Babe; no one has felt more vividly the paradox of the Incarnation:--\n\n   \"Ne la degna stalla del dolce Bambino\n    Gli Angeli cantano d' intorno al piccolino;\n      Cantano e gridano gli Angeli diletti,\n    Tutti riverenti timidi e subietti, |41|\n    Al Bambolino principe de gli eletti,\n    Che nudo giace nel pungente spino.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n      Il Verbo divino, che e sommo sapiente,\n    In questo di par che non sappia niente,\n    Guardal su' l fieno, che gambetta piangente,\n    Como elli non fusse huomo divino.\"[15]{13}\n\nHere, again, are some sweet and homely lines about preparation for the\nInfant Saviour:--\n\n      \"Andiamo a lavare\n    La casa a nettare,\n    Che non trovi bruttura.\n      Poi el menaremo,\n    Et gli daremo\n    Ben da ber' e mangiare.\n      Un cibo espiato,\n    Et d' or li sia dato\n    Senza alcuna dimura.\n      Lo cor adempito\n    Dagiamoli fornito\n    Senza odio ne rancura.\"[16]{14}\n\n|42| There have been few more rapturous poets than Jacopone; men deemed\nhim mad; but, \"if he is mad,\" says a modern Italian writer, \"he is mad as\nthe lark\"--\"Nessun poeta canta a tutta gola come questo frate minore. S'\ne pazzo, e pazzo come l' allodola.\"\n\nTo him is attributed that most poignant of Latin hymns, the \"Stabat Mater\ndolorosa\"; he wrote also a joyous Christmas pendant to it:--\n\n   \"Stabat Mater speciosa,\n    Juxta foenum gaudiosa,\n      Dum jacebat parvulus.\n    Cujus animam gaudentem,\n    Laetabundam ac ferventem,\n      Pertransivit jubilus.\"[17]{15}\n\nIn the fourteenth century we find a blossoming forth of Christmas poetry\nin another land, Germany.{16} There are indeed Christmas and Epiphany\npassages in a poetical Life of Christ by Otfrid of Weissenburg in the\nninth century, and a twelfth-century poem by Spervogel, \"Er ist gewaltic\nunde starc,\" opens with a mention of Christmas, but these are of little\nimportance for us. The fourteenth century shows the first real outburst,\nand that is traceable, in part at least, to the mystical movement in the\nRhineland caused by the preaching of the great Dominican, Eckhart of\nStrasburg, and his followers. It was a movement towards inward piety as\ndistinguished from, though not excluding, external observances, which\nmade its way largely by sermons listened to by great congregations in the\ntowns. Its impulse came not from the monasteries proper, but from the\nconvents of Dominican friars, and it was for Germany in the fourteenth\ncentury something like what Franciscanism had been for Italy in the\nthirteenth. One of the central doctrines of the school |43| was that of\nthe Divine Birth in the soul of the believer; according to Eckhart the\nsoul comes into immediate union with God by \"bringing forth the Son\"\nwithin itself; the historic Christ is the symbol of the divine humanity\nto which the soul should rise: \"when the soul bringeth forth the Son,\" he\nsays, \"it is happier than Mary.\"{17} Several Christmas sermons by\nEckhart have been preserved; one of them ends with the prayer, \"To this\nBirth may that God, who to-day is new born as man, bring us, that we,\npoor children of earth, may be born in Him as God; to this may He bring\nus eternally! Amen.\"{18} With this profound doctrine of the Divine\nBirth, it was natural that the German mystics should enter deeply into\nthe festival of Christmas, and one of the earliest of German Christmas\ncarols, \"Es komt ein schif geladen,\" is the work of Eckhart's disciple,\nJohn Tauler (d. 1361). It is perhaps an adaptation of a secular song:--\n\n   \"A ship comes sailing onwards\n      With a precious freight on board;\n    It bears the only Son of God,\n      It bears the Eternal Word.\"\n\nThe doctrine of the mystics, \"Die in order to live,\" fills the last\nverses:--\n\n   \"Whoe'er would hope in gladness\n      To kiss this Holy Child,\n    Must suffer many a pain and woe,\n      Patient like Him and mild;\n\n    Must die with Him to evil\n      And rise to righteousness,\n    That so with Christ he too may share\n      Eternal life and bliss.\"{19}\n\nTo the fourteenth century may perhaps belong an allegorical carol still\nsung in both Catholic and Protestant Germany:--\n\n   \"Es ist ein Ros entsprungen\n    Aus einer Wurzel zart, |44|\n    Als uns die Alten sungen,\n    Von Jesse kam die Art,\n    Und hat ein Bluemlein bracht,\n    Mitten im kalten Winter,\n    Wohl zu der halben Nacht.\n    Das Roeslein, das ich meine,\n    Davon Jesajas sagt,\n    Hat uns gebracht alleine\n    Marie, die reine Magd.\n    Aus Gottes ew'gem Rat\n    Hat sie ein Kind geboren\n    Wohl zu der halben Nacht.\"[18]{20}\n\nIn a fourteenth-century Life of the mystic Heinrich Suso it is told how\none day angels came to him to comfort him in his sufferings, how they\ntook him by the hand and led him to dance, while one began a glad song of\nthe child Jesus, \"In dulci jubilo.\" To the fourteenth century, then,\ndates back that most delightful of German carols, with its interwoven\nlines of Latin. I may quote the fine Scots translation in the \"Godlie and\nSpirituall Sangis\" of 1567:--\n\n   \"_In dulci Jubilo_, Now lat us sing with myrth and jo\n    Our hartis consolatioun lyis _in praesepio_,\n    And schynis as the Sone, _Matris in gremio_,\n    _Alpha es et O, Alpha es et O._\n    _O Jesu parvule!_ I thrist sore efter the, |45|\n    Confort my hart and mynde, _O puer optime_,\n    God of all grace sa kynde, _et princeps gloriae_\n    _Trahe me post te, Trahe me post te_.\n    _Ubi sunt gaudia_, in ony place bot thair,\n    Quhair that the Angellis sing _Nova cantica_,\n    Bot and the bellis ring _in regis curia_,\n    God gif I war thair, God gif I war thair.\"{21}\n\nThe music of \"In dulci jubilo\"[19] has, with all its religious feeling,\nsomething of the nature of a dance, and unites in a strange fashion\nsolemnity, playfulness, and ecstatic delight. No other air, perhaps,\nshows so perfectly the reverent gaiety of the carol spirit.\n\nThe fifteenth century produced a realistic type of German carol. Here is\nthe beginning of one such:--\n\n   \"Da Jesu Krist geboren wart,\n    do was es kalt;\n    in ain klaines kripplein\n    er geleget wart.\n    Da stunt ain esel und ain rint,\n    die atmizten ueber das hailig kint\n    gar unverborgen.\n    Der ain raines herze hat, der darf nit sorgen.\"[20]{22}\n\nIt goes on to tell in naive language the story of the wanderings of the\nHoly Family during the Flight into Egypt.\n\nThis carol type lasted, and continued to develop, in Austria and the\nCatholic parts of Germany through the sixteenth, seventeenth, and\neighteenth centuries, and even in the nineteenth. In Carinthia in the\nearly nineteenth century, almost every parish had its local poet, who\nadded new songs to the old treasury.{23} Particularly popular were the\n_Hirtenlieder_ or shepherd songs, in which the peasant worshippers joined\nthemselves to the shepherds of Bethlehem, and sought to share their\ndevout |46| emotions. Often these carols are of the most rustic\ncharacter and in the broadest dialect. They breathe forth a great\nkindliness and homeliness, and one could fill pages with quotations. Two\nmore short extracts must, however, suffice to show their quality.\n\nHow warm and hearty is their feeling for the Child:--\n\n   \"Du herzliabste Muater, gib Acht auf does Kind,\n    Es is ja gar frostig, thuas einfatschen gschwind.\n    Und du alter Voda, decks Kindlein schen zua,\n    Sonst hats von der Koelden und Winden kan Ruah.\n    Hiazt nemen mir Urlaub, o gettliches Kind,\n    Thua unser gedenken, verzeich unser Suend.\n    Es freut uns von Herzen dass d'ankomen bist;\n    Es haett uns ja niemand zu helfen gewist.\"[21]{24}\n\nAnd what fatherly affection is here:--\n\n   \"Das Kind is in der Krippen gloegn,\n    So herzig und so rar!\n    Mei klaner Hansl war nix dgoegn,\n    Wenn a glei schener war.\n    Kolschwarz wie d'Kirchen d'Augen sein,\n    Sunst aber kreidenweiss;\n    Die Haend so huebsch recht zart und fein,\n    I hans angruert mit Fleiss.\n\n    Aft hats auf mi an Schmutza gmacht,\n    An Hoescheza darzue;\n    O warst du mein, hoan i gedacht,\n    Werst wol a munter Bue.\n    Dahoam in meiner Kachelstub\n    Liess i brav hoazen ein,\n    Do in den Stal kimt ueberal\n    Der kalte Wind herein.\"[22]{25}\n\n|47| We have been following on German ground a mediaeval tradition that\nhas continued unbroken down to modern days; but we must now take a leap\nbackward in time, and consider the beginnings of the Christmas carol in\nEngland.\n\nNot till the fifteenth century is there any outburst of Christmas poetry\nin English, though other forms of religious lyrics were produced in\nconsiderable numbers in the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries.\nWhen the carols come at last, they appear in the least likely of all\nplaces, at the end of a versifying of the whole duty of man, by John\nAwdlay, a blind chaplain of Haghmon, in Shropshire. In red letters he\nwrites:--\n\n   \"I pray you, sirus, boothe moore and lase,\n    Sing these caroles in Cristemas,\"\n\nand then follows a collection of twenty-five songs, some of which are\ngenuine Christmas carols, as one now understands the word.{26}\n\nA carol, in the modern English sense, may perhaps be defined as a\nreligious song, less formal and solemn than the ordinary Church hymn--an\nexpression of popular and often naive devotional feeling, a thing\nintended to be sung outside rather than within church walls. There still\nlinger about the word some echoes of its original meaning, for \"carol\"\nhad at first a secular or even pagan significance: in twelfth-century\nFrance it was used to describe the amorous song-dance which hailed the\ncoming of spring; in Italian it meant a ring- or song-dance; while by\nEnglish writers from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century it was used\nchiefly of singing joined with dancing, and had no necessary connection\nwith religion. Much as the mediaeval Church, with its ascetic tendencies,\ndisliked religious dancing, it could not always suppress it; and in\nGermany, as we shall see, there was choral dancing at Christmas round the\ncradle of the Christ Child. Whether Christmas carols were ever danced to\nin England |48| is doubtful; many of the old airs and words have,\nhowever, a glee and playfulness as of human nature following its natural\ninstincts of joy even in the celebration of the most sacred mysteries. It\nis probable that some of the carols are religious parodies of love-songs,\nwritten for the melodies of the originals, and many seem by their\nstructure to be indirectly derived from the choral dances of farm folk, a\nnotable feature being their burden or refrain, a survival of the common\noutcry of the dancers as they leaped around.\n\nAwdlay's carols are perhaps meant to be sung by \"wassailing neighbours,\nwho make their rounds at Christmastide to drink a cup and take a gift,\nand bring good fortune upon the house\"{27}--predecessors of those\ncarol-singers of rural England in the nineteenth century, whom Mr. Hardy\ndepicts so delightfully in \"Under the Greenwood Tree.\" Carol-singing by a\nband of men who go from house to house is probably a Christianization of\nsuch heathen processions as we shall meet in less altered forms in Part\nII.\n\nIt must not be supposed that the carols Awdlay gives are his own work;\nand their exact date it is impossible to determine. Part of his book was\ncomposed in 1426, but one at least of the carols was probably written in\nthe last half of the fourteenth century. They seem indeed to be the later\nblossomings of the great springtime of English literature, the period\nwhich produced Chaucer and Langland, an innumerable company of minstrels\nand ballad-makers, and the mystical poet, Richard Rolle of Hampole.[23]\n\nThrough the fifteenth century and the first half of the sixteenth, the\nflowering continued; and something like two hundred carols of this period\nare known. It is impossible to attempt here anything like representative\nquotation; I can only sketch in |49| roughest outline the main\ncharacteristics of English carol literature, and refer the reader for\nexamples to Miss Edith Rickert's comprehensive collection, \"Ancient\nEnglish Carols, MCCCC-MDCC,\" or to the smaller but fine selection in\nMessrs. E. K. Chambers and F. Sidgwick's \"Early English Lyrics.\" Many may\nhave been the work of _goliards_ or wandering scholars, and a common\nfeature is the interweaving of Latin with English words.\n\nSome, like the exquisite \"I sing of a maiden that is makeles,\"{29} are\nrather songs to or about the Virgin than strictly Christmas carols; the\nAnnunciation rather than the Nativity is their theme. Others again tell\nthe whole story of Christ's life. The feudal idea is strong in such lines\nas these:--\n\n   \"Mary is quene of alle thinge,\n    And her sone a lovely kinge.\n    God graunt us alle good endinge!\n          _Regnat dei gracia_.\"{30}\n\nOn the whole, in spite of some mystical exceptions, the mediaeval English\ncarol is somewhat external in its religion; there is little deep\nindividual feeling; the caroller sings as a member of the human race,\nwhose curse is done away, whose nature is exalted by the Incarnation,\nrather than as one whose soul is athirst for God:--\n\n   \"Now man is brighter than the sonne;\n    Now man in heven an hie shall wonne;\n    Blessed be God this game is begonne\n      And his moder emperesse of helle.\"{31}\n\nSalvation is rather an objective external thing than an inward and\nspiritual process. A man has but to pray devoutly to the dear Mother and\nChild, and they will bring him to the heavenly court. It is not so much\npersonal sin as an evil influence in humanity, that is cured by the great\nevent of Christmas:--\n\n   \"It was dark, it was dim,\n    For men that leved in gret sin;\n    Lucifer was all within,\n      Till on the Cristmes day. |50|\n\n    There was weping, there was wo,\n    For every man to hell gan go.\n    It was litel mery tho,\n      Till on the Cristmes day.\"{32}\n\nBut now that Christ is born, and man redeemed, one may be blithe\nindeed:--\n\n   \"Jhesus is that childes name,\n    Maide and moder is his dame,\n    And so oure sorow is turned to game.\n          _Gloria tibi domine._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n    Now sitte we downe upon our knee,\n    And pray that child that is so free;\n    And with gode herte now sing we\n          _Gloria tibi domine_.\"{33}\n\nSometimes the religious spirit almost vanishes, and the carol becomes\nlittle more than a gay pastoral song:--\n\n   \"The shepard upon a hill he satt;\n    He had on him his tabard and his hat,\n    His tar-box, his pipe, and his flagat;\n    His name was called Joly Joly Wat,\n      For he was a gud herdes boy.\n                  Ut hoy!\n      For in his pipe he made so much joy.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n    Whan Wat to Bedlem cum was,\n    He swet, he had gone faster than a pace;\n    He found Jesu in a simpell place,\n    Betwen an ox and an asse.\n                  Ut hoy!\n      For in his pipe he made so much joy.\n\n    'Jesu, I offer to thee here my pipe,\n    My skirt, my tar-box, and my scripe;\n    Home to my felowes now will I skipe,\n    And also look unto my shepe.'\n                  Ut hoy!\n      For in his pipe he made so much joy.\"{34}\n\n|51| But to others again, especially the lullabies, the hardness of the\nNativity, the shadow of the coming Passion, give a deep note of sorrow\nand pathos; there is the thought of the sword that shall pierce Mary's\nbosom:--\n\n   \"This endris night I saw a sight,\n      A maid a cradell kepe,\n    And ever she song and seid among\n      'Lullay, my child, and slepe.'\n\n    'I may not slepe, but I may wepe,\n      I am so wo begone;\n    Slepe I wold, but I am colde\n      And clothes have I none.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n    'Adam's gilt this man had spilt;\n      That sin greveth me sore.\n    Man, for thee here shall I be\n      Thirty winter and more.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n    'Here shall I be hanged on a tree,\n      And die as it is skill.\n    That I have bought lesse will I nought;\n      It is my fader's will.'\"{35}\n\nThe lullabies are quite the most delightful, as they are the most human,\nof the carols. Here is an exquisitely musical verse from one of 1530:--\n\n   \"In a dream late as I lay,\n    Methought I heard a maiden say\n      And speak these words so mild:\n    'My little son, with thee I play,\n    And come,' she sang, 'by, lullaby.'\n      Thus rocked she her child.\n\n    _By-by, lullaby, by-by, lullaby,_\n      _Rocked I my child._\n    _By-by, by-by, by-by, lullaby,_\n      _Rocked I my child._\"{36}\n\n|52| |53| |54| |55|\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nCHRISTMAS POETRY (II)\n\n\n    The French _Noel_--Latin Hymnody in Eighteenth-century\n    France--Spanish Christmas Verse--Traditional Carols of Many\n    Countries--Christmas Poetry in Protestant Germany--Post-Reformation\n    Verse in England--Modern English Carols.\n\n[Illustration:\n\nTHE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS.\n\n_By Fouquet._\n\n(Musee Conde, Chantilly.)]\n\nThe Reformation marks a change in the character of Christmas poetry in\nEngland and the larger part of Germany, and, instead of following its\ndevelopment under Protestantism, it will be well to break off and turn\nawhile to countries where Catholic tradition remained unbroken. We shall\ncome back later to Post-Reformation England and Protestant Germany.\n\nIn French{1} there is little or no Christmas poetry, religious in\ncharacter, before the fifteenth century; the earlier carols that have\ncome down to us are songs rather of feasting and worldly rejoicing than\nof sacred things. The true _Noel_ begins to appear in fifteenth-century\nmanuscripts, but it was not till the following century that it attained\nits fullest vogue and was spread all over the country by the printing\npresses. Such _Noels_ seem to have been written by clerks or recognized\npoets, either for old airs or for specially composed music. \"To a great\nextent,\" says Mr. Gregory Smith, \"they anticipate the spirit which\nstimulated the Reformers to turn the popular and often obscene songs into\ngood and godly ballads.\"{2}\n\nSome of the early _Noels_ are not unlike the English carols of the\nperiod, and are often half in Latin, half in French. Here are a few such\n\"macaronic\" verses:--\n\n   \"Celebrons la naissance\n    _Nostri Salvatoris_, |56|\n    Qui fait la complaisance\n    _Dei sui Patris_.\n    Cet enfant tout aimable,\n    _In nocte media_,\n    Est ne dans une etable,\n    _De casta Maria_.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n    Mille esprits angeliques,\n    _Juncti pastoribus_,\n    Chantent dans leur musique,\n    _Puer vobis natus_,\n    Au Dieu par qui nous sommes,\n    _Gloria in excelsis_,\n    Et la paix soit aux hommes\n    _Bonae voluntatis_.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n    Qu'on ne soit insensible!\n    _Adeamus omnes_\n    A Dieu rendu passible,\n    _Propter nos mortales_,\n    Et tous, de compagnie,\n    _Deprecemur eum_\n    Qu'a la fin de la vie,\n    _Det regnum beatum_.\"{3}\n\nThe sixteenth century is the most interesting _Noel_ period; we find then\na conflict of tendencies, a conflict between Gallic realism and broad\nhumour and the love of refined language due to the study of the ancient\nclassics. There are many anonymous pieces of this time, but three\nimportant _Noelistes_ stand out by name: Lucas le Moigne, Cure of Saint\nGeorges, Puy-la-Garde, near Poitiers; Jean Daniel, called \"Maitre Mitou,\"\na priest-organist at Nantes; and Nicholas Denisot of Le Mans, whose\n_Noels_ appeared posthumously under the pseudonym of \"Comte d'Alsinoys.\"\n\nLucas le Moigne represents the _esprit gaulois_, the spirit that is often\ncalled \"Rabelaisian,\" though it is only one side of the genius of\nRabelais. The good Cure was a contemporary of |57| the author of\n\"Pantagruel.\" His \"Chansons de Noels nouvaulx\" was published in 1520, and\ncontains carols in very varied styles, some naive and pious, others\nhardly quotable at the present day. One of his best-known pieces is a\ndialogue between the Virgin and the singers of the carol: Mary is asked\nand answers questions about the wondrous happenings of her life. Here are\nfour verses about the Nativity:--\n\n   \"Or nous dites, Marie,\n    Les neuf mois accomplis,\n    Naquit le fruit de vie,\n    Comme l'Ange avoit dit?\n    --Oui, sans nulle peine\n    Et sans oppression,\n    Naquit de tout le monde\n    La vraie Redemption.\n\n      Or nous dites, Marie,\n    Du lieu imperial,\n    Fut-ce en chambre paree,\n    Ou en Palais royal?\n    --En une pauvre etable\n    Ouverte a l'environ\n    Ou n'avait feu, ni flambe\n    Ni latte, ni chevron.\n\n      Or nous dites, Marie,\n    Qui vous vint visiter;\n    Les bourgeois de la ville\n    Vous ont-ils confortee?\n    --Oncque, homme ni femme\n    N'en eut compassion,\n    Non plus que d'un esclave\n    D'etrange region.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n      Or nous dites, Marie,\n    Des pauvres pastoureaux\n    Qui gardaient es montagnes\n    Leurs brebis & aigneaux. |58|\n    --Ceux-la m'ont visitee\n    Par grande affection;\n    Moult me fut agreable\n    Leur visitation.\"{4}\n\nThe influence of the \"Pleiade,\" with its care for form, its respect for\nclassical models, its enrichment of the French tongue with new Latin\nwords, is shown by Jean Daniel, who also owes something to the poets of\nthe late fifteenth century. Two stanzas may be quoted from him:--\n\n       \"C'est ung tres grant mystere\n        Qu'ung roy de si hault pris\n        Vient naistre en lieu austere,\n        En si meschant pourpris:\n    Le Roy de tous les bons espritz,\n        C'est Jesus nostre frere,\n    Le Roy de tous les bons espritz,\n        Duquel sommes apris.\n\n    Saluons le doulx Jesuchrist,\n        Notre Dieu, notre frere,\n    Saluons le doulx Jesuchrist,\n        Chantons Noel d'esprit!\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n        En luy faisant priere,\n        Soyons de son party,\n        Qu'en sa haulte emperiere\n        Ayons lieu de party;\n    Comme il nous a droict apparty,\n        Jesus nostre bon frere,\n    Comme il nous a droict apparty\n        Au celeste convy.\n    Saluons, etc.\n        Amen. Noel.\"{5}\n\nAs for Denisot, I may give two charming verses from one of his\npastorals:--\n\n   \"Suz, Bergiez, en campaigne,\n    Laissez la vos troppeaux, |59|\n    Avant qu'on s'accompaigne,\n    Enflez vos chalumeaux.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n    Enflez vos cornemuses,\n    Dansez ensemblement,\n    Et vos doucettes muses,\n    Accollez doucement.\"{6}\n\nOne result of the Italian influences which came over France in the\nsixteenth century was a fondness for diminutives. Introduced into carols,\nthese have sometimes a very graceful effect:--\n\n   \"Entre le boeuf & le bouvet,\n        Noel nouvellet,\n    Voulust Jesus nostre maistre,\n    En un petit hostelet,\n        Noel nouvellet,\n    En ce pauvre monde naistre,\n        O Noel nouvellet!\n\n    Ne couche, ne bercelet,\n        Noel nouvellet,\n    Ne trouverent en cette estre,\n    Fors ung petit drappelet,\n        Noel nouvellet,\n    Pour envelopper le maistre,\n        O Noel nouvellet!\"{7}\n\nThese diminutives are found again, though fewer, in a particularly\ndelightful carol:--\n\n      \"Laissez paitre vos bestes\n    Pastoureaux, par monts et par vaux;\n      Laissez paitre vos bestes,\n      Et allons chanter Nau.\n\n    J'ai oui chanter le rossignol,\n    Qui chantoit un chant si nouveau,\n      Si haut, si beau,\n      Si resonneau, |60|\n\n      Il m'y rompoit la tete,\n    Tant il chantoit et flageoloit:\n      Adonc pris ma houlette\n      Pour aller voir Naulet.\n      Laissez paitre, etc.\"{8}\n\nThe singer goes on to tell how he went with his fellow-shepherds and\nshepherdesses to Bethlehem:--\n\n   \"Nous dimes tous une chanson\n    Les autres en vinrent au son,\n        Chacun prenant\n        Son compagnon:\n      Je prendrai Guillemette,\n    Margot tu prendras gros Guillot;\n      Qui prendra Peronelle?\n      Ce sera Talebot.\n      Laissez paitre, etc.\n\n    Ne chantons plus, nous tardons trop,\n    Pensons d'aller courir le trot.\n        Viens-tu, Margot?--\n        J'attends Guillot.--\n      J'ai rompu ma courette,\n    Il faut ramancher mon sabot.--\n      Or, tiens cette aiguillette,\n      Elle y servira trop.\n      Laissez paitre, etc.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n    Nous courumes de grand' roideur\n    Pour voir notre doux Redempteur\n        Et Createur\n        Et Formateur,\n      Qui etait tendre d'aage\n    Et sans linceux en grand besoin,\n      Il gisait en la creche\n      Sur un botteau de foin.\n      Laissez paitre, etc. |61|\n\n    Sa mere avecque lui etait:\n    Et Joseph si lui eclairait,\n        Point ne semblait\n        Au beau fillet,\n      Il n'etait point son pere;\n    Je l'apercus bien au cameau (_visage_)\n      Il semblait a sa mere,\n      Encore est-il plus beau.\n      Laissez paitre, etc.\"\n\nThis is but one of a large class of French _Noels_ which make the\nNativity more real, more present, by representing the singer as one of a\ncompany of worshippers going to adore the Child. Often these are\nshepherds, but sometimes they are simply the inhabitants of a parish, a\ntown, a countryside, or a province, bearing presents of their own produce\nto the little Jesus and His parents. Barrels of wine, fish, fowls,\nsucking-pigs, pastry, milk, fruit, firewood, birds in a cage--such are\ntheir homely gifts. Often there is a strongly satiric note: the\npeculiarities and weaknesses of individuals are hit off; the reputation\nof a place is suggested, a village whose people are famous for their\nstinginess offers cider that is half rain-water; elsewhere the\ninhabitants are so given to law-suits that they can hardly find time to\ngo to Bethlehem.\n\nSuch _Noels_ with their vivid local colour, are valuable pictures of the\nmanners of their time. They are, unfortunately, too long for quotation\nhere, but any reader who cares to follow up the subject will find some\ninteresting specimens in a little collection of French carols that can be\nbought for ten _centimes_.{9} They are of various dates; some probably\nwere written as late as the eighteenth century. In that century, and\nindeed in the seventeenth, the best Christmas verses are those of a\nprovincial and rustic character, and especially those in _patois_; the\nmore cultivated poets, with their formal classicism, can ill enter into\nthe spirit of the festival. Of the learned writers the best is a woman,\nFrancoise Paschal, of Lyons (b. about 1610); in spite of her Latinity she\nshows a real feeling for her subjects. Some of her _Noels_ are dialogues\nbetween the sacred personages; one presents |62| Joseph and Mary as\nweary wayfarers seeking shelter at all the inns of Bethlehem and\neverywhere refused by host or hostess:--\n\n        \"_Saint Joseph._\n\n    Voyons la _Rose-Rouge_.\n    Madame de ceans,\n    Auriez-vous quelque bouge\n    Pour de petites gens?\n\n        _L'Hotesse._\n\n    Vous n'avez pas la mine\n    D'avoir de grands tresors;\n    Voyez chez ma voisine,\n    Car, quant a moi, je dors.\n\n        _Saint Joseph._\n\n    Monsieur des _Trois-Couronnes_,\n    Avez-vous logement,\n    Chez vous pour trois personnes,\n    Quelque trou seulement.\n\n        _L'Hote._\n\n    Vous perdez votre peine,\n    Vous venez un peu tard,\n    Ma maison est fort pleine,\n    Allez quelqu'autre part.\"{10}\n\nThe most remarkable of the _patois Noelistes_ of the seventeenth century\nare the Provencal Saboly and the Burgundian La Monnoye, the one kindly\nand tender, the other witty and sarcastic. Here is one of Saboly's\nProvencal _Noels_:--\n\n   \"Quand la miejonue sounavo,\n    Ai sauta dou liech au sou;\n    Ai vist un bel ange que cantavo\n    Milo fes pu dous qu'un roussignou.\n\n    Lei mastin dou vesinage\n    Se soun toutes atroupa; |63|\n    N'avien jamai vist aqueu visage\n    Se soun tout-d'un-cop mes a japa.\n\n    Lei pastre dessus la paio\n    Dourmien coume de soucas;\n    Quand an aussi lou bru dei sounaio\n    Au cresegu qu'ero lou souiras.\n\n    S'eron de gent resounable,\n    Vendrien sens estre envita:\n    Trouvarien dins un petit estable\n    La lumiero emai la verita.\"[24]{11}\n\nAs for La Monnoye, here is a translation of one of his satirical\nverses:--\"When in the time of frost Jesus Christ came into the world the\nass and ox warmed Him with their breath in the stable. How many asses and\noxen I know in this kingdom of Gaul! How many asses and oxen I know who\nwould not have done as much!\"{12}\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nApart from the rustic _Noels_, the eighteenth century produced little\nFrench Christmas poetry of any charm. Some of the carols most sung in\nFrench churches to-day belong, however, to this period, _e.g._, the\n\"Venez, divin Messie\" of the Abbe Pellegrin.{13}\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOne cannot leave the France of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries\nwithout some mention of its Latin hymnody. From a date near 1700,\napparently, comes the sweet and solemn \"Adeste, fideles\"; by its music\nand its rhythm, perhaps, rather than by its actual words it has become\nthe best beloved of Christmas hymns. The present writer has heard it sung\nwith equal reverence and heartiness in English, German, French, and\nItalian churches, and no other hymn seems so full of the spirit of\nChristmas devotion--wonder, |64| awe, and tenderness, and the sense of\nreconciliation between Heaven and earth. Composed probably in France,\n\"Adeste, fideles\" came to be used in English as well as French Roman\nCatholic churches during the eighteenth century. In 1797 it was sung at\nthe chapel of the Portuguese Embassy in London; hence no doubt its once\ncommon name of \"Portuguese hymn.\" It was first used in an Anglican church\nin 1841, when the Tractarian Oakley translated it for his congregation at\nMargaret Street Chapel, London.\n\nAnother fine Latin hymn of the eighteenth-century French Church is\nCharles Coffin's \"Jam desinant suspiria.\"{14} It appeared in the\nParisian Breviary in 1736, and is well known in English as \"God from on\nhigh hath heard.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe Revolution and the decay of Catholicism in France seem to have killed\nthe production of popular carols. The later nineteenth century, however,\nsaw a revival of interest in the _Noel_ as a literary form. In 1875 the\nbicentenary of Saboly's death was celebrated by a competition for a\n_Noel_ in the Provencal tongue, and something of the same kind has been\ndone in Brittany.{15} The _Noel_ has attracted by its aesthetic charm\neven poets who are anything but devout; Theophile Gautier, for instance,\nwrote a graceful Christmas carol, \"Le ciel est noir, la terre est\nblanche.\"\n\nOn a general view of the vernacular Christmas poetry of France it must be\nadmitted that the devotional note is not very strong; there is indeed a\nformal reverence, a courtly homage, paid to the Infant Saviour, and the\nmiraculous in the Gospel story is taken for granted; but there is little\nsense of awe and mystery. In harmony with the realistic instincts of the\nnation, everything is dramatically, very humanly conceived; at times,\nindeed, the personages of the Nativity scenes quite lose their sacred\ncharacter, and the treatment degenerates into grossness. At its best,\nhowever, the French _Noel_ has a gaiety and a grace, joined to a genuine,\nif not very deep, piety, that are extremely charming. Reading these\nrustic songs, we are carried in imagination to French countrysides; we\nthink of the long walk through the snow to the Midnight Mass, the\ncheerful _reveillon_ spread on the |65| return, the family gathered\nround the hearth, feasting on wine and chestnuts and _boudins_, and\nsinging in traditional strains the joys of _Noel_.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAcross the Pyrenees, in Spain, the late sixteenth and early seventeenth\ncenturies saw a great output of Christmas verse. Among the chief writers\nwere Juan Lopez de Ubeda, Francisco de Ocana, and Jose de\nValdivielso.{16} Their _villancicos_ remind one of the paintings of\nMurillo; they have the same facility, the same tender and graceful\nsentiment, without much depth. They lack the homely flavour, the\nquaintness that make the French and German folk-carols so delightful;\nthey have not the rustic tang, and yet they charm by their simplicity and\nsweetness.\n\nHere are a few stanzas by Ocana:--\n\n   \"Dentro de un pobre pesebre\n    y cobijado con heno\n    yace Jesus Nazareno.\n\n      En el heno yace echado\n    el hijo de Dios eterno,\n    para librar del infierno\n    al hombre que hubo criado,\n    y por matar el pecado\n    el heno tiene por bueno\n    nuestro Jesus Nazareno.\n\n      Esta entre dos animales\n    que le calientan del frio,\n    quien remedia nuestros males\n    con su grande poderio:\n    es su reino y senorio\n    el mundo y el cielo sereno,\n    y agora duerme en el heno.\n\n      Tiene por bueno sufrir\n    el frio y tanta fortuna,\n    sin tener ropa ninguna\n    con que se abrigar ni cubrir, |66|\n    y por darnos el vivir\n    padecio frio en el heno,\n    nuestro Jesus Nazareno.\"[25]{17}\n\nMore of a peasant flavour is found in some snatches of Christmas carols\ngiven by Fernan Caballero in her sketch, \"La Noche de Navidad.\"\n\n      \"Ha nacido en un portal,\n    Llenito de telaranas,\n    Entre la mula y el buey\n    El Redentor de las almas.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n      En el portal de Belen\n    Hay estrella, sol y luna:\n    La Virgen y San Jose\n    Y el nino que esta en la cuna.\n\n      En Belen tocan a fuego,\n    Del portal sale la llama,\n    Es una estrella del cielo,\n    Que ha caido entre la paja.\n\n      Yo soy un pobre gitano\n    Que vengo de Egipto aqui,\n    Y al nino de Dios le traigo\n    Un gallo quiquiriqui\n\n      Yo soy un pobre gallego\n    Que vengo de la Galicia,\n    Y al nino de Dios le traigo\n    Lienzo para una camisa. |67|\n\n      Al nino recien nacido\n    Todos le traen un don;\n    Yo soy chico y nada tengo;\n    Le traigo mi corazon.\"[26]{18}\n\nIn nearly every western language one finds traditional Christmas carols.\nEurope is everywhere alive with them; they spring up like wild flowers.\nSome interesting Italian specimens are given by Signor de Gubernatis in\nhis \"Usi Natalizi.\" Here are a few stanzas from a Bergamesque cradle-song\nof the Blessed Virgin:--\n\n      \"Dormi, dormi, o bel bambin,\n    Re divin.\n    Dormi, dormi, o fantolin.\n    Fa la nanna, o caro figlio,\n    Re del Ciel,\n    Tanto bel, grazioso giglio.\n\n      Chiuedi i luemi, o mio tesor,\n    Dolce amor,\n    Di quest' alma, almo Signor;\n    Fa la nanna, o regio infante,\n    Sopra il fien,\n    Caro ben, celeste amante.\n\n      Perche piangi, o bambinell,\n    Forse il giel\n    Ti da noia, o l'asinell?\n    Fa la nanna, o paradiso\n    Del mio cor,\n    Redentor, ti bacio il viso.\"[27]{19}\n\n|68| With this lullaby may be compared a singularly lovely and quite\nuntranslatable Latin cradle-song of unknown origin:--\n\n   \"Dormi, fili, dormi! mater\n         Cantat unigenito:\n    Dormi, puer, dormi! pater,\n         Nato clamat parvulo:\n    Millies tibi laudes canimus\n         Mille, mille, millies.\n\n    Lectum stravi tibi soli,\n         Dormi, nate bellule!\n    Stravi lectum foeno molli:\n         Dormi, mi animule.\n    Millies tibi laudes canimus\n         Mille, mille, millies.\n\n    Ne quid desit, sternam rosis,\n         Sternam foenum violis,\n    Pavimentum hyacinthis\n         Et praesepe liliis.\n    Millies tibi laudes canimus\n         Mille, mille, millies. |69|\n\n    Si vis musicam, pastores\n        Convocabo protinus;\n    Illis nulli sunt priores;\n        Nemo canit castius.\n    Millies tibi laudes canimus\n        Mille, mille, millies.\"{21}\n\nCurious little poems are found in Latin and other languages, making a\ndialogue of the cries of animals at the news of Christ's birth.{22} The\nfollowing French example is fairly typical:--\n\n   \"Comme les bestes autrefois\n    Parloient mieux latin que francois,\n    Le coq, de loin voyant le fait,\n    S'ecria: _Christus natus est._\n    Le boeuf, d'un air tout ebaubi,\n    Demande: _Ubi? Ubi? Ubi?_\n    La chevre, se tordant le groin,\n    Repond que c'est a _Bethleem_.\n    Maistre Baudet, _curiosus_\n    De l'aller voir, dit: _Eamus_;\n    Et, droit sur ses pattes, le veau\n    Beugle deux fois: _Volo, Volo!_\"[28]{23}\n\nIn Wales, in the early nineteenth century, carol-singing was more\npopular, perhaps, than in England; the carols were sung to the harp, in\nchurch at the _Plygain_ or early morning service on Christmas Day, in the\nhomes of the people, and at the doors of the houses by visitors.{24} In\nIreland, too, the custom of carol-singing then prevailed.{25} Dr.\nDouglas Hyde, in his \"Religious Songs of Connacht,\" gives and translates\nan interesting Christmas hymn in Irish, from which two verses may be\nquoted. They set forth the great paradox of the Incarnation:--\n\n   \"Little babe who art so great,\n      Child so young who art so old, |70|\n    In the manger small his room,\n      Whom not heaven itself could hold.\n\n    Father--not more old than thou?\n      Mother--younger, can it be?\n    Older, younger is the Son,\n      Younger, older, she than he.\"{27}\n\nEven in dour Scotland, with its hatred of religious festivals, some kind\nof carolling survived here and there among Highland folk, and a\nremarkable and very \"Celtic\" Christmas song has been translated from the\nGaelic by Mr. J. A. Campbell. It begins:--\n\n   \"Sing hey the Gift, sing ho the Gift,\n    Sing hey the Gift of the Living,\n    Son of the Dawn, Son of the Star,\n    Son of the Planet, Son of the Far [twice],\n    Sing hey the Gift, sing ho the Gift.\"{28}\n\n[Illustration:\n\nTHE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT: THE REST BY THE WAY\n\nMASTER OF THE SEVEN SORROWS OF MARY (ALSO ATTRIBUTED TO JOACHIM PATINIR)\n\n(_Vienna: Imperial Gallery_)]\n\n[Illustration:\n\nSINGING \"VOM HIMMEL HOCH\" FROM A CHURCH TOWER AT CHRISTMAS.\n\n_By Ludwig Richter._]\n\nBefore I close this study with a survey of Christmas poetry in England\nafter the Reformation, it may be interesting to follow the developments\nin Protestant Germany. The Reformation gave a great impetus to German\nreligious song, and we owe to it some of the finest of Christmas hymns.\nIt is no doubt largely due to Luther, that passionate lover of music and\nfolk-poetry, that hymns have practically become the liturgy of German\nProtestantism; yet he did but give typical expression to the natural\ninstincts of his countrymen for song. Luther, though a rebel, was no\nPuritan; we can hardly call him an iconoclast; he had a conservative\nmind, which only gradually became loosened from its old attachments. His\nwas an essentially artistic nature: \"I would fain,\" he said, \"see all\narts, especially music, in the service of Him who has given and created\nthem,\" and in the matter of hymnody he continued, in many respects, the\nmediaeval German tradition. Homely, kindly, a lover of children, he had a\ndeep feeling for the festival of Christmas; and not only did he translate\ninto German \"A solis ortus cardine\" and \"Veni, redemptor |71| gentium,\"\nbut he wrote for his little son Hans one of the most delightful and\ntouching of all Christmas hymns--\"Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her.\"\n\n   \"Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her,\n    Ich bring euch gute neue Maer,\n    Der guten Maer bring ich so viel,\n    Davon ich singen und sagen will.\n\n    Euch ist ein Kindlein heut gebor'n\n    Von einer Jungfrau auserkor'n,\n    Ein Kindelein so zart und fein,\n    Das soll eu'r Freud und Wonne sein.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n    Merk auf, mein Herz, und sich dort hin:\n    Was liegt doch in dem Kripplein drin?\n    Wess ist das schoene Kindelein?\n    Es ist das liebe Jesulein.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n    Ach Herr, du Schoepfer aller Ding,\n    Wie bist du worden so gering,\n    Dass du da liegst auf duerrem Gras,\n    Davon ein Rind und Esel ass?\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n    Ach, mein herzliebes Jesulein,\n    Mach dir ein rein sanft Bettelein,\n    Zu ruhen in mein's Herzens Schrein,\n    Dass ich nimmer vergesse dein.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n    Davon ich allzeit froehlich sei,\n    Zu springen, singen immer frei\n    Das rechte Lied dem Gottessohn\n    Mit Herzenslust, den suessen Ton.\"[29]{29}\n\n|72| \"Vom Himmel hoch\" has qualities of simplicity, directness, and\nwarm human feeling which link it to the less ornate forms of carol\nliterature. Its first verse is adapted from a secular song; its melody\nmay, perhaps, have been composed by Luther himself. There is another\nChristmas hymn of Luther's, too--\"Vom Himmel kam der Engel\nSchar\"--written for use when \"Vom Himmel hoch\" was thought too long, and\nhe also composed additional verses for the mediaeval \"Gelobet seist du,\nJesu Christ.\"\n\n   \"Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ,\n    Dass du Mensch geboren bist\n    Von einer Jungfrau, das ist wahr,\n    Des freuet sich der Engel Schar.\n              _Kyrieleis!_\n\n    Des ew'gen Vaters einig Kind\n    Jetzt man in der Krippe find't,\n    In unser armes Fleisch und Blut\n    Verkleidet sich das ewig Gut.\n              _Kyrieleis!_ |73|\n\n    Den aller Weltkreis nie beschloss,\n    Der lieget in Marie'n Schoss;\n    Er ist ein Kindlein worden klein,\n    Der alle Ding' erhaelt allein.\n              _Kyrieleis!_\"[30]{31}\n\nThe first stanza alone is mediaeval, the remaining six of the hymn are\nLuther's.\n\nThe Christmas hymns of Paul Gerhardt, the seventeenth-century Berlin\npastor, stand next to Luther's. They are more subjective, more finished,\nless direct and forcible. Lacking the finest qualities of poetry, they\nare nevertheless impressive by their dignity and heartiness. Made for\nmusic, the words alone hardly convey the full power of these hymns. They\nshould be heard sung to the old chorales, massive, yet sweet, by the\nlusty voices of a German congregation. To English people they are\nprobably best known through the verses introduced into the \"Christmas\nOratorio,\" where the old airs are given new beauty by Bach's marvellous\nharmonies. The tone of devotion, one feels, in Gerhardt and Bach is the\nsame, immeasurably greater as is the genius of the composer; in both\nthere is a profound joy in the Redemption begun by the Nativity, a robust\nfaith joined to a deep sense of the mystery of suffering, and a keen\nsympathy with childhood, a tender fondness for the Infant King.\n\n|74| The finest perhaps of Gerhardt's hymns is the Advent \"Wie soll ich\ndich empfangen?\" (\"How shall I fitly meet Thee?\"), which comes early in\nthe \"Christmas Oratorio.\" More closely connected with the Nativity,\nhowever, are the _Weihnachtslieder_, \"Wir singen dir, Emanuel,\" \"O Jesu\nChrist, dein Kripplein ist,\" \"Froehlich soll mein Herze springen,\" \"Ich\nsteh an deiner Krippen hier,\" and others. I give a few verses from the\nthird:--\n\n   \"Froehlich soll mein Herze springen\n            Dieser Zeit,\n            Da fuer Freud\n            Alle Engel singen.\n    Hoert, hoert, wie mit vollen Choren\n            Alle Luft\n            Laute ruft:\n            Christus ist geboren.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n    Nun, er liegt in seiner Krippen,\n            Ruft zu sich\n            Mich und dich,\n            Spricht mit suessen Lippen:\n    Lasset fahrn, O lieben Brueder\n            Was euch quaelt,\n            Was euch fehlt;\n            Ich bring alles wieder.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n    Suesses Heil, lass dich umfangen;\n            Lass mich dir,\n            Meine Zier,\n            Unverrueckt anhangen.\n    Du bist meines Lebens Leben;\n            Nun kann ich\n            Mich durch dich\n            Wohl zufrieden geben.\"[31]{33}\n\n|75| One more German Christmas hymn must be mentioned, Gerhard\nTersteegen's \"Jauchzet, ihr Himmel, frohlocket, ihr englischen Choere.\"\nTersteegen represents one phase of the mystical and emotional reaction\nagainst the religious formalism and indifference of the eighteenth\ncentury. In the Lutheran Church the Pietists, though they never seceded,\nsomewhat resembled the English Methodists; the Moravians formed a\nseparate community, while from the \"Reformed\" or Calvinistic Church\ncertain circles of spiritually-minded people, who drew inspiration from\nthe mediaeval mystics and later writers like Boehme and Madame Guyon,\ngathered into more or less independent groups for religious intercourse.\nOf these last Tersteegen is a representative singer. Here are three\nverses from his best known Christmas hymn:--\n\n   \"Jauchzet, ihr Himmel, frohlocket, ihr englischen Choere,\n    Singet dem Herrn, dem Heiland der Menschen, zur Ehre:\n           Sehet doch da!\n           Gott will so freundlich und nah\n           Zu den Verlornen sich kehren. |76|\n\n    Koenig der Ehren, aus Liebe geworden zum Kinde,\n    Dem ich auch wieder mein Herz in der Liebe verbinde;\n           Du sollst es sein,\n           Den ich erwaehle allein,\n           Ewig entsag' ich der Suende.\n\n    Treuer Immanuel, werd' auch in mir neu geboren;\n    Komm doch, mein Heiland, und lass mich nicht laenger verloren;\n           Wohne in mir,\n           Mach mich ganz eines mit dir,\n           Den du zum Leben erkoren.\"[32]{35}\n\nThe note of personal religion, as distinguished from theological\ndoctrine, is stronger in German Christmas poetry than in that of any\nother nation--the birth of Christ in the individual soul, not merely the\nredemption of man in general, is a central idea.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWe come back at last to England. The great carol period is, as has\nalready been said, the fifteenth, and the first half of the sixteenth,\ncentury; after the Reformation the English domestic Christmas largely\nloses its religious colouring, and the best carols of the late sixteenth\nand early seventeenth centuries are songs of |77| feasting and pagan\nceremonies rather than of the Holy Child and His Mother. There is no lack\nof fine Christmas verse in the Elizabethan and early Stuart periods, but\nfor the most part it belongs to the oratory and the chamber rather than\nthe hall. The Nativity has become a subject for private contemplation,\nfor individual devotion, instead of, as in the later Middle Ages, a\nmatter for common jubilation, a wonder-story that really happened, in\nwhich, all alike and all together, the serious and the frivolous could\nrejoice, something that, with all its marvel, could be taken as a matter\nof course, like the return of the seasons or the rising of the sun on the\njust and on the unjust.\n\nEnglish Christmas poetry after the mid-sixteenth century is, then,\nindividual rather than communal in its spirit; it is also a thing less of\nthe people, more of the refined and cultivated few. The Puritanism which\nso deeply affected English religion was abstract rather than dramatic in\nits conception of Christianity, it was concerned less with the events of\nthe Saviour's life than with Redemption as a transaction between God and\nman; St. Paul and the Old Testament rather than the gospels were its\ninspiration. Moreover, the material was viewed not as penetrated by and\nrevealing the spiritual, but as sheer impediment blocking out the vision\nof spiritual things. Hence the extremer Puritans were completely out of\ntouch with the sensuous poetry of Christmas, a festival which, as we\nshall see, they actually suppressed when they came into power.\n\nThe singing of sacred carols by country people continued, indeed, but the\ncreative artistic impulse was lost. True carols after the Reformation\ntend to be doggerel, and no doubt many of the traditional pieces printed\nin such collections as Bramley and Stainer's[33]{37} are debased\nsurvivals from the Middle Ages, or perhaps new words written for old\ntunes. Such carols as \"God rest you merry, gentlemen,\" have unspeakably\ndelightful airs, and the words charm us moderns by their quaintness and\nrusticity, but they are far from the exquisite loveliness of the\nmediaeval |78| things. Gleams of great beauty are, however, sometimes\nfound amid matter that in the process of transmission has almost ceased\nto be poetry. Here, for instance, are five stanzas from the traditional\n\"Cherry-tree Carol\":--\n\n   \"As Joseph was a-walking,\n      He heard an angel sing:\n    'This night shall be born\n      Our heavenly King.\n\n    'He neither shall be born\n      In housen nor in hall,\n    Nor in the place of Paradise,\n      But in an ox's stall.\n\n    'He neither shall be clothed\n      In purple nor in pall,\n    But all in fair linen\n      As wear babies all.\n\n    'He neither shall be rocked\n      In silver nor in gold,\n    But in a wooden cradle\n      That rocks on the mould.\n\n    'He neither shall be christened\n      In white wine nor red,\n    But with fair spring water\n      With which we were christened.'\"\n\nThe old carols sung by country folk have often not much to do with the\nNativity; they are sometimes rhymed lives of Christ or legends of the\nHoly Childhood. Of the latter class the strangest is \"The Bitter Withy,\"\ndiscovered in Herefordshire by Mr. Frank Sidgwick. It tells how the\nlittle Jesus asked three lads to play with Him at ball. But they\nrefused:--\n\n   \"'O we are lords' and ladies' sons,\n      Born in bower or in hall;\n    And you are but a poor maid's child,\n      Born in an oxen's stall.' |79|\n\n    'If I am but a poor maid's child,\n      Born in an oxen's stall,\n    I will let you know at the very latter end\n      That I am above you all.'\n\n    So he built him a bridge with the beams of the sun,\n      And over the sea went he,\n    And after followed the three jolly jerdins,\n      And drowned they were all three.\n\n    Then Mary mild called home her child,\n      And laid him across her knee,\n    And with a handful of green withy twigs\n      She gave him slashes three.\n\n    'O the withy, O the withy, O bitter withy\n      That causes me to smart!\n    O the withy shall be the very first tree\n      That perishes at the heart.'\"\n\nFrom these popular ballads, mediaeval memories in the rustic mind, we\nmust return to the devotional verse of the late sixteenth and early\nseventeenth centuries. Two of the greatest poets of the Nativity, the\nRoman priests Southwell and Crashaw, are deeply affected by the wave of\nmysticism which passed over Europe in their time. Familiar as is\nSouthwell's \"The Burning Babe,\" few will be sorry to find it here:--\n\n   \"As I in hoary winter's night\n      Stood shivering in the snow,\n    Surprised I was with sudden heat,\n      Which made my heart to glow;\n    And lifting up a fearful eye\n      To view what fire was near,\n    A pretty Babe all burning bright\n      Did in the air appear;\n    Who, scorched with excessive heat,\n      Such floods of tears did shed,\n    As though His floods should quench His flames\n      Which with His tears were fed. |80|\n    'Alas!' quoth He, 'but newly born,\n      In fiery heats I fry,\n    Yet none approach to warm their hearts\n      Or feel my fire, but I!\n    My faultless breast the furnace is,\n      The fuel, wounding thorns;\n    Love is the fire, and sighs the smoke,\n      The ashes, shame and scorns;\n    The fuel Justice layeth on,\n      And Mercy blows the coals,\n    The metal in this furnace wrought\n      Are men's defiled souls,\n    For which, as now on fire I am,\n      To work them to their good,\n    So will I melt into a bath,\n      To wash them in my blood.'\n    With this he vanished out of sight,\n      And swiftly shrunk away:\n    And straight I called unto mind\n      That it was Christmas Day.\"{38}\n\nAs for Crashaw,\n\n   \"That the great angel-blinding light should shrink\n    His blaze to shine in a poor shepherd's eye,\n    That the unmeasured God so low should sink\n    As Pris'ner in a few poor rags to lie,\n    That from His mother's breast He milk should drink\n    Who feeds with nectar heaven's fair family,\n      That a vile manger His low bed should prove\n      Who in a throne of stars thunders above:\n\n    That He, whom the sun serves, should faintly peep\n    Through clouds of infant flesh; that He the old\n    Eternal Word should be a Child and weep,\n    That He who made the fire should fear the cold:\n    That heaven's high majesty His court should keep\n    In a clay cottage, by each blast controll'd:\n      That glory's self should serve our griefs and fears,\n      And free Eternity submit to years--\"{39}\n\nsuch are the wondrous paradoxes celebrated in his glowing imagery. The\ncontrast of the winter snow with the burning |81| heat of Incarnate\nLove, of the blinding light of Divinity with the night's darkness, indeed\nthe whole paradox of the Incarnation--Infinity in extremest\nlimitation--is nowhere realized with such intensity as by him. Yet,\nmagnificent as are his best lines, his verse sometimes becomes too like\nthe seventeenth-century Jesuit churches, with walls overladen with\ndecoration, with great languorous pictures and air heavy with incense;\nand then we long for the dewy freshness of the early carols.\n\nThe representative Anglican poets of the seventeenth century, Herbert and\nVaughan, scarcely rise to their greatest heights in their treatment of\nChristmas, but with them as with the Romanists it is the mystical note\nthat is dominant. Herbert sings:--\n\n   \"O Thou, whose glorious, yet contracted, light,\n      Wrapt in night's mantle, stole into a manger;\n    Since my dark soul and brutish is Thy right,\n      To man, of all beasts, be not Thou a stranger.\n\n    Furnish and deck my soul, that thou may'st have\n    A better lodging than a rack or grave.\"{40}\n\nAnd Vaughan:--\n\n   \"I would I had in my best part\n    Fit rooms for Thee! or that my heart\n          Were so clean as\n          Thy manger was!\n    But I am all filth, and obscene:\n    Yet, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make clean.\n\n    Sweet Jesu! will then. Let no more\n    This leper haunt and soil thy door!\n          Cure him, ease him,\n          O release him!\n    And let once more, by mystic birth,\n    The Lord of life be born in earth.\"{41}\n\nIn Herrick--how different a country parson from Herbert!--we find a sort\nof pagan piety towards the Divine Infant which, |82| though purely\nEnglish in its expression, makes us think of some French _Noeliste_ or\nsome present-day Italian worshipper of the _Bambino_:--\n\n   \"Instead of neat enclosures\n    Of interwoven osiers,\n    Instead of fragrant posies\n    Of daffodils and roses,\n    Thy cradle, kingly Stranger,\n        As gospel tells,\n        Was nothing else\n    But here a homely manger.\n\n    But we with silks not crewels,\n    With sundry precious jewels,\n    And lily work will dress Thee;\n    And, as we dispossess Thee\n    Of clouts, we'll make a chamber,\n        Sweet Babe, for Thee,\n        Of ivory,\n    And plaster'd round with amber.\"{42}\n\nPoems such as Herrick's to the Babe of Bethlehem reveal in their writers\na certain childlikeness, an _insouciance_ without irreverence, the spirit\nindeed of a child which turns to its God quite simply and naturally,\nwhich makes Him after its own child-image, and sees Him as a friend who\ncan be pleased with trifles--almost, in fact, as a glorious playmate.\nSuch a nature has no intense feeling of sin, but can ask for forgiveness\nand then forget; religion for it is rather an outward ritual to be duly\nand gracefully performed than an inward transforming power. Herrick is a\nstrange exception among the Anglican singers of Christmas.\n\nMilton's great Nativity hymn, with its wondrous blending of pastoral\nsimplicity and classical conceits, is too familiar for quotation here; it\nmay be suggested, however, that this work of the poet's youth is far more\nAnglican than Puritan in its spirit.\n\nSweet and solemn Spenserian echoes are these verses from Giles Fletcher's\n\"Christ's Victory in Heaven\":-- |83|\n\n   \"Who can forget--never to be forgot--\n    The time, that all the world in slumber lies,\n    When, like the stars, the singing angels shot\n    To earth, and heaven awaked all his eyes\n    To see another sun at midnight rise\n      On earth? Was never sight of pareil fame,\n      For God before man like Himself did frame,\n    But God Himself now like a mortal man became.\n\n    A Child He was, and had not learnt to speak,\n    That with His word the world before did make;\n    His mother's arms Him bore, He was so weak,\n    That with one hand the vaults of heaven could shake,\n    See how small room my infant Lord doth take,\n      Whom all the world is not enough to hold!\n      Who of His years, or of His age hath told?\n    Never such age so young, never a child so old.\"{43}\n\nThe old lullaby tradition is continued by Wither, though the infant in\nthe cradle is an ordinary human child, who is rocked to sleep with the\nstory of his Lord:--\n\n   \"A little Infant once was He,\n        And strength in weakness then was laid\n    Upon His virgin-mother's knee,\n        That power to thee might be conveyed.\n            Sweet baby, then, forbear to weep;\n            Be still, my babe; sweet baby, sleep.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n    Within a manger lodged thy Lord,\n        Where oxen lay and asses fed;\n    Warm rooms we do to thee afford,\n        An easy cradle or a bed.\n            Sweet baby, then, forbear to weep;\n            Be still, my babe; sweet baby, sleep.\"{44}\n\nWhen we come to the eighteenth century we find, where we might least\nexpect it, among the moral verses of Dr. Watts, a charming cradle-song\nconceived in just the same way:-- |84|\n\n   \"Hush, my dear, lie still and slumber,\n        Holy angels guard thy bed!\n    Heavenly blessings without number\n        Gently falling on thy head.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n    Soft and easy is thy cradle;\n        Coarse and hard thy Saviour lay.\n    When His birthplace was a stable,\n        And His softest bed was hay.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n    Lo He slumbers in His manger\n        Where the horned oxen fed;\n    --Peace, my darling, here's no danger;\n        Here's no ox a-near thy bed.\"{45}\n\nIt is to the eighteenth century that the three most popular of English\nChristmas hymns belong. Nahum Tate's \"While shepherds watched their\nflocks by night\"--one of the very few hymns (apart from metrical psalms)\nin common use in the Anglican Church before the nineteenth century--is a\nbald and apparently artless paraphrase of St. Luke which, by some\naccident, has attained dignity, and is aided greatly by the simple and\nnoble tune now attached to it. Charles Wesley's \"Hark, the herald angels\nsing,\" or--as it should be--\"Hark, how all the welkin rings,\" is much\nadmired by some, but to the present writer seems a mere piece of\ntheological rhetoric. Byrom's \"Christians, awake, salute the happy morn,\"\nhas the stiffness and formality or its period, but it is not without a\ncertain quaintness and dignity. One could hardly expect fine Christmas\npoetry of an age whose religion was on the one hand staid, rational,\nunimaginative, and on the other \"Evangelical\" in the narrow sense,\nfinding its centre in the Atonement rather than the Incarnation.\n\nThe revived mediaevalism, religious and aesthetic, of the nineteenth\ncentury, produced a number of Christmas carols. Some, like Swinburne's\n\"Three damsels in the queen's chamber,\" with |85| its exquisite verbal\nmusic and delightful colour, and William Morris's less successful\n\"Masters, in this hall,\" and \"Outlanders, whence come ye last?\" are the\nwork of unbelievers and bear witness only to the aesthetic charm of the\nChristmas story; but there are others, mostly from Roman or\nAnglo-Catholic sources, of real religious inspiration.[34] The most\nspontaneous are Christina Rossetti's, whose haunting rhythms and delicate\nfeeling are shown at their best in her songs of the Christ Child. More\nstudied and self-conscious are the austere Christmas verses of Lionel\nJohnson and the graceful carols of Professor Selwyn Image. In one poem\nMr. Image strikes a deeper and stronger note than elsewhere; its solemn\nmusic takes us back to an earlier century:--\n\n   \"Consider, O my soul, what morn is this!\n        Whereon the eternal Lord of all things made,\n    For us, poor mortals, and our endless bliss,\n        Came down from heaven; and, in a manger laid,\n        The first, rich, offerings of our ransom paid:\n    Consider, O my soul, what morn is this!\"{46}\n\nNot a few contemporary poets have given us Christmas carols or poems.\nAmong the freshest and most natural are those of Katharine Tynan, while\nMr. Gilbert Chesterton has written some Christmas lyrics full of colour\nand vitality, and with a true mystical quality. Singing of Christmas, Mr.\nChesterton is at his best; he has instinctive sympathy with the spirit of\nthe festival, its human kindliness, its democracy, its sacramentalism,\nits exaltation of the child:--\n\n   \"The thatch of the roof was as golden\n        Though dusty the straw was and old;\n    The wind had a peal as of trumpets,\n        Though blowing and barren and cold. |86|\n\n    The mother's hair was a glory,\n        Though loosened and torn;\n    For under the eaves in the gloaming\n        A child was born.\"{47}\n\nThus opens a fine poem on the Nativity as symbolizing miracle of birth,\nof childhood with its infinite possibilities, eternal renewal of faith\nand hope.\n\n|87| |88| |89|\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nCHRISTMAS IN LITURGY AND POPULAR DEVOTION\n\n\n    Advent and Christmas Offices of the Roman Church--The Three Masses of\n    Christmas, their Origin and their Celebration in Rome--The Midnight\n    Mass in Many Lands--Protestant Survivals of the Night\n    Services--Christmas in the Greek Church--The Eastern Epiphany and the\n    Blessing of the Waters--The _Presepio_ or Crib, its Supposed\n    Institution by St. Francis--Early Traces of the Crib--The Crib in\n    Germany, Tyrol, &c.--Cradle-rocking in Mediaeval Germany--Christmas\n    Minstrels in Italy and Sicily--The _Presepio_ in Italy--Ceremonies\n    with the _Culla_ and the _Bambino_ in Rome--Christmas in Italian\n    London--The Spanish Christmas--Possible Survivals of the Crib in\n    England.\n\n[Illustration:\n\nTHE NATIVITY.\n\nFrom Add. MS. 32454 in the British Museum\n\n(French, 15th century).]\n\nFrom a study of Christmas as reflected in lyric poetry, we now pass to\nother forms of devotion in which the Church has welcomed the Redeemer at\nHis birth. These are of two kinds--liturgical and popular; and they\ncorrespond in a large degree to the successive ways of apprehending the\nmeaning of Christmas which we traced in the foregoing chapters. Strictly\nliturgical devotions are little understanded of the people: only the\nclergy can fully join in them; for the mass of the lay folk they are\nmysterious rites in an unknown tongue, to be followed with reverence, as\nfar as may be, but remote and little penetrated with humanity. Side by\nside with these, however, are popular devotions, full of vivid colour,\nhighly anthropomorphic, bringing the mysteries of religion within the\nreach of the simplest minds, and warm with human feeling. The austere\nLatin hymns of the earlier centuries belong to liturgy; the vernacular\nChristmas poetry of later ages is largely associated with popular\ndevotion.\n\n|90| Liturgiology is a vast and complicated, and except to the few, an\nunattractive, subject. To attempt here a survey of the liturgies in their\nrelation to Christmas is obviously impossible; we must be content to\ndwell mainly upon the present-day Roman offices, which, in spite of\nvarious revisions, give some idea of the mediaeval services of Latin\nChristianity, and to cast a few glances at other western rites, and at\nthose of the Greek Church.\n\nWhatever may be his attitude towards Catholicism, or, indeed,\nChristianity, no one sensitive to the music of words, or the suggestions\nof poetic imagery, can read the Roman Breviary and Missal without\nprofound admiration for the amazing skill with which the noblest passages\nof Hebrew poetry are chosen and fitted to the expression of Christian\ndevotion, and the gold of psalmists, prophets, and apostles is welded\ninto coronals for the Lord and His saints. The office-books of the Roman\nChurch are, in one aspect, the greatest of anthologies.\n\nFew parts of the Roman Breviary have more beauty than the Advent[35]\noffices, where the Church has brought together the majestic imagery of\nthe Hebrew prophets, the fervent exhortation of the apostles, to prepare\nthe minds of the faithful for the coming of the Christ, for the\ncelebration of the Nativity.\n\nAdvent begins with a stirring call. If we turn to the opening service of\nthe Christian Year, the First Vespers of the First Sunday in Advent, we\nshall find as the first words in the \"Proper of the Season\" the\ntrumpet-notes of St. Paul: \"Brethren, it is high time to awake out of\nsleep; for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.\" This, the\nLittle Chapter for the office, is followed by the ancient hymn, \"Creator\nalme siderum,\"{1} chanting in awful tones the two comings of |91|\nChrist, for redemption and for judgment; and then are sung the words that\nstrike the keynote of the Advent services, and are heard again and again.\n\n   \"_Rorate, coeli, desuper, et nubes pluant Justum_\n    (Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down the\n          Righteous One).\n    _Aperiatur terra et germinet Salvatorem_\n    (Let the earth open, and let her bring forth the Saviour).\"\n\n_Rorate, coeli, desuper_--Advent is a time of longing expectancy. It is a\nseason of waiting patiently for the Lord, whose coming in great humility\nis to be commemorated at Christmas, to whose coming again in His glorious\nmajesty to judge both the quick and the dead the Christian looks forward\nwith mingled hope and awe. There are four weeks in Advent, and an ancient\nsymbolical explanation interprets these as typifying four comings of the\nSon of God: the first in the flesh, the second in the hearts of the\nfaithful through the Holy Spirit, the third at the death of every man,\nand the fourth at the Judgment Day. The fourth week is never completed\n(Christmas Eve is regarded as not part of Advent), because the glory\nbestowed on the saints at the Last Coming will never end.\n\nThe great Eucharistic hymn, \"Gloria in excelsis,\" is omitted in Advent,\nin order, say the symbolists, that on Christmas night, when it was first\nsung by the angels, it may be chanted with the greater eagerness and\ndevotion. The \"Te Deum\" at Matins too is left unsaid, because Christ is\nregarded as not yet come. But \"Alleluia\" is not omitted, because Advent\nis only half a time of penitence: there is awe at the thought of the\nComing for Judgment, but joy also in the hope of the Incarnation to be\ncelebrated at Christmas, and the glory in store for the faithful.{3}\n\nLooking forward is above all things the note of Advent; the Church seeks\nto share the mood of the Old Testament saints, and she draws more now\nthan at any other season, perhaps, on the treasures of Hebrew prophecy\nfor her lessons, antiphons, versicles, and responds. Looking for the\nglory that shall be revealed, she awaits, at this darkest time of the\nyear, the rising |92| of the Sun of Righteousness. _Rorate, coeli,\ndesuper_--the mood comes at times to all idealists, and even those\nmoderns who hope not for a supernatural Redeemer, but for the triumph of\nsocial justice on this earth, must be stirred by the poetry of the Advent\noffices.\n\nIt is at Vespers on the seven days before Christmas Eve that the Church's\nlonging finds its noblest expression--in the antiphons known as the\n\"Great O's,\" sung before and after the \"Magnificat,\" one on each day. \"O\nSapientia,\" runs the first, \"O Wisdom, which camest out of the mouth of\nthe Most High, and reachest from one end to another, mightily and sweetly\nordering all things: come and teach us the way of prudence.\" \"O Adonai,\"\n\"O Root of Jesse,\" \"O Key of David,\" \"O Day-spring, Brightness of Light\nEverlasting,\" \"O King of the Nations,\" thus the Church calls to her Lord,\n\"O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the Desire of all nations, and their\nSalvation: come and save us, O Lord our God.\"{4}\n\nAt last Christmas Eve is here, and at Vespers we feel the nearness of the\ngreat Coming. \"Lift up your heads: behold your redemption draweth nigh,\"\nis the antiphon for the last psalm. \"To-morrow shall be done away the\niniquity of the earth,\" is the versicle after the Office Hymn. And before\nand after the \"Magnificat\" the Church sings: \"When the sun shall have\nrisen, ye shall see the King of kings coming forth from the Father, as a\nbridegroom out of his chamber.\"\n\nYet only with the night office of Matins does the glory of the festival\nbegin. There is a special fitness at Christmas in the Church's keeping\nwatch by night, like the shepherds of Bethlehem, and the office is full\nof the poetry of the season, full of exultant joy. To the \"Venite,\nexultemus Domino\" a Christmas note is added by the oft-repeated\nInvitatory, \"Unto us the Christ is born: O come, let us adore Him.\"\nPsalms follow--among them the three retained by the Anglican Church in\nher Christmas Matins--and lessons from the Old and New Testaments and the\nhomilies of the Fathers, interspersed with Responsories bringing home to\nthe faithful the wonders of the Holy Night. Some are almost dramatic;\nthis, for instance:-- |93|\n\n \"Whom saw ye, O shepherds? speak; tell us who hath appeared on the earth.\n  We saw the new-born Child, and angels singing praise unto the Lord.\n  Speak, what saw ye? and tell us of the birth of Christ.\n  We saw the new-born Child, and angels singing praise unto the Lord.\"\n\nIt is the wonder of the Incarnation, the marvel of the spotless Birth,\nthe song of the Angels, the coming down from heaven of true peace, the\ndaybreak of redemption and everlasting joy, the glory of the\nOnly-begotten, now beheld by men--the supernatural side, in fact, of the\nfestival, that the Church sets forth in her radiant words; there is\nlittle thought of the purely human side, the pathos of Bethlehem.\n\nIt was customary at certain places, in mediaeval times, to lay on the\naltar three veils, and remove one at each nocturn of Christmas Matins.\nThe first was black, and symbolised the time of darkness before the\nMosaic Law; the second white, typifying, it would seem, the faith of\nthose who lived under that Law of partial revelation; the third red,\nshowing the love of Christ's bride, the Church, in the time of grace\nflowing from the Incarnation.{5}\n\nA stately ceremony took place in England in the Middle Ages at the end of\nChristmas Matins--the chanting of St. Matthew's genealogy of Christ. The\ndeacon, in his dalmatic, with acolytes carrying tapers, with thurifer and\ncross-bearer, all in albs and unicles, went in procession to the pulpit\nor the rood-loft, to sing this portion of the Gospel. If the bishop were\npresent, he it was who chanted it, and a rich candlestick was held to\nlight him.[36] Then followed the chanting of the \"Te Deum.\"{6} The\nceremony does not appear in the ordinary Roman books, but it is still\nperformed by the Benedictines, as one may read in the striking account of\nthe monastic Christmas given by Huysmans in \"L'Oblat.\"{7}\n\n|94| Where, as in religious communities, the offices of the Church are\nperformed in their full order, there follows on Matins that custom\npeculiar to Christmas, the celebration of Midnight Mass. On Christmas\nmorning every priest is permitted to say three Masses, which should in\nstrictness be celebrated at midnight, at dawn, and in full daylight. Each\nhas its own Collect, Epistle, and Gospel, each its own Introit, Gradual,\nand other anthems. In many countries the Midnight Mass is the distinctive\nChristmas service, a great and unique event in the year, something which\nby its strangeness gives to the feast of the Nativity a place by itself.\nFew Catholic rites are more impressive than this Midnight Mass,\nespecially in country places; through the darkness and cold of the\nwinter's night, often for long distances, the faithful journey to worship\nthe Infant Saviour in the splendour of the lighted church. It is a\nre-enactment of the visit of the shepherds to the cave at Bethlehem,\naglow with supernatural light.\n\nVarious symbolical explanations of the three Masses were given by\nmediaeval writers. The midnight celebration was supposed to represent\nmankind's condition before the Law of Moses, when thick darkness covered\nthe earth; the second, at dawn, the time of the Law and the Prophets with\nits growing light; the third, in full daylight, the Christian era of\nlight and grace. Another interpretation, adopted by St. Thomas Aquinas,\nis more mystical; the three Masses stand for the threefold birth of\nChrist, the first typifying the dark mystery of the eternal generation of\nthe Son, the second the birth of Christ the morning-star within the\nhearts of men, the third the bodily birth of the Son of Mary.{8}\n\nAt the Christmas Masses the \"Gloria in excelsis\" resounds again. This\nsong of the angels was at first chanted only at Christmas; it was\nintroduced into Rome during the fifth century at Midnight Mass in\nimitation of the custom of the Church of Jerusalem.{9}\n\nIt is, indeed, from imitation of the services at Jerusalem and Bethlehem\nthat the three Roman Masses of Christmas seem to have sprung. From a late\nfourth-century document known as |95| the \"Peregrinatio Silviae,\" the\nnarrative of a pilgrimage to the holy places of the east by a great lady\nfrom southern Gaul, it appears that at the feast of the Epiphany--when\nthe Birth of Christ was commemorated in the Palestinian Church--two\nsuccessive \"stations\" were held, one at Bethlehem, the other at\nJerusalem. At Bethlehem the station was held at night on the eve of the\nfeast, then a procession was made to the church of the Anastasis or\nResurrection--where was the Holy Sepulchre--arriving \"about the hour when\none man begins to recognise another, _i.e._, near daylight, but before\nthe day has fully broken.\" There a psalm was sung, prayers were said, and\nthe catechumens and faithful were blessed by the bishop. Later, Mass was\ncelebrated at the Great Church at Golgotha, and the procession returned\nto the Anastasis, where another Mass was said.{10}\n\nAt Bethlehem at the present time impressive services are held on the\nLatin Christmas Day. The Patriarch comes from Jerusalem, with a troop of\ncavalry and Kavasses in gorgeous array. The office lasts from 10 o'clock\non Christmas Eve until long after midnight. \"At the reading of the Gospel\nthe clergy and as many of the congregation as can follow leave the\nchurch, and proceed by a flight of steps and a tortuous rock-hewn passage\nto the Grotto of the Nativity, an irregular subterranean chamber, long\nand narrow. They carry with them a waxen image of an infant--the\n_bambino_--wrap it in swaddling bands and lay it on the site which is\nsaid to be that of the manger.\"{11}\n\nThe Midnight Mass appears to have been introduced into Rome in the first\nhalf of the fifth century. It was celebrated by the Pope in the church of\nSanta Maria Maggiore, while the second Mass was sung by him at Sant'\nAnastasia--perhaps because of the resemblance of the name to the\nAnastasis at Jerusalem--and the third at St. Peter's.{12} On Christmas\nEve the Pope held a solemn \"station\" at Santa Maria Maggiore, and two\nVespers were sung, the first very simple, the second, at which the Pope\npontificated, with elaborate ceremonial. Before the second Vespers, in\nthe twelfth century, a good meal had to |96| be prepared for the papal\nhousehold by the Cardinal-Bishop of Albano. After Matins and Midnight\nMass at Santa Maria Maggiore, the Pope went in procession to Sant'\nAnastasia for Lauds and the Mass of the Dawn. The third Mass, at St.\nPeter's, was an event of great solemnity, and at it took place in the\nyear 800 that profoundly significant event, the coronation of Charlemagne\nby Leo III.--a turning-point in European history.{13}\n\nLater it became the custom for the Pope, instead of proceeding to St.\nPeter's, to return to Santa Maria Maggiore for the third Mass. On his\narrival he was given a cane with a lighted candle affixed to it; with\nthis he had to set fire to some tow placed on the capitals of the\ncolumns.{14} The ecclesiastical explanation of this strange ceremony was\nthat it symbolised the end of the world by fire, but one may conjecture\nthat some pagan custom lay at its root. Since 1870 the Pope, as \"the\nprisoner of the Vatican,\" has of course ceased to celebrate at Santa\nMaria Maggiore or Sant' Anastasia. The Missal, however, still shows a\ntrace of the papal visit to Sant' Anastasia in a commemoration of this\nsaint which comes as a curious parenthesis in the Mass of the Dawn.\n\nOn Christmas Day in the Vatican the Pope blesses a hat and a sword, and\nthese are sent as gifts to some prince. The practice is said to have\narisen from the mediaeval custom for the Holy Roman Emperor or some other\nsovereign to read one of the lessons at Christmas Matins, in the papal\nchapel, with his sword drawn.{15}\n\nCelebrated in countries as distant from one another, both geographically\nand in character, as Ireland and Sicily, Poland and South America, the\nMidnight Mass naturally varies greatly in its tone and setting. Sometimes\nit is little more than a fashionable function, sometimes the devotion of\nthose who attend is shown by a tramp over miles of snow through the\ndarkness and the bitter wind.\n\nIn some charming memories of the Christmas of her childhood, Madame Th.\nBentzon thus describes the walk to the Midnight Mass in a French country\nplace about sixty years ago:-- |97|\n\n    \"I can see myself as a little girl, bundled up to the tip of\n    my nose in furs and knitted shawls, tiny wooden shoes on my feet, a\n    lantern in my hand, setting out with my parents for the Midnight Mass\n    of Christmas Eve.... We started off, a number of us, together in a\n    stream of light.... Our lanterns cast great shadows on the white\n    road, crisp with frost. As our little group advanced it saw others on\n    their way, people from the farm and from the mill, who joined us, and\n    once on the Place de l'Eglise we found ourselves with all the\n    parishioners in a body. No one spoke--the icy north wind cut short\n    our breath; but the voice of the chimes filled the silence.... We\n    entered, accompanied by a gust of wind that swept into the porch at\n    the same time we did; and the splendours of the altar, studded with\n    lights, green with pine and laurel branches, dazzled us from the\n    threshold.\"{16}\n\nIn devout Tyrol, the scenes on Christmas Eve before the Midnight Mass are\noften extremely impressive, particularly in narrow valleys where the\nhouses lie scattered on the mountain slopes. Long before midnight the\ntorches lighting the faithful on their way to Mass begin to twinkle;\ndownward they move, now hidden in pine-woods and ravines, now reappearing\non the open hill-side. More and more lights show themselves and throw\nruddy flashes on the snow, until at last, the floor of the valley\nreached, they vanish, and only the church windows glow through the\ndarkness, while the solemn strains of the organ and chanting break the\nsilence of the night.{17}\n\nNot everywhere has the great Mass been celebrated amid scenes so still\nand devotional. In Madrid, says a writer of the early nineteenth century,\n\"the evening of the vigil is scarcely dark when numbers of men, women,\nand boys are seen traversing the streets with torches, and many of them\nsupplied with tambourines, which they strike loudly as they move along in\na kind of Bacchanal procession. There is a tradition here that the\nshepherds who visited Bethlehem on the day of the Nativity had\ninstruments of this sort upon which they expressed the sentiment of joy\nthat animated them when they received the intelligence that a Saviour was\nborn.\" At the Midnight Mass crowds of people who, perhaps, had been\ntraversing the streets the whole night, came into the church |98| with\ntheir tambourines and guitars, and accompanied the organ. The Mass over,\nthey began to dance in the very body of the church.{18} A later writer\nspeaks of the Midnight Mass in Madrid as a fashionable function to which\nmany gay young people went in order to meet one another.{19} Such is the\ncharacter of the service in the Spanish-American cities. In Lima the\nstreets on Christmas Eve are crowded with gaily dressed and noisy folks,\nmany of them masked, and everybody goes to the Mass.{20} In Paris the\nelaborate music attracts enormous and often not very serious crowds. In\nSicily there is sometimes extraordinary irreverence at the midnight\nservices: people take provisions with them to eat in church, and from\ntime to time go out to an inn for a drink, and between the offices they\nimitate the singing of birds.{21} We may see in such things the licence\nof pagan festivals creeping within the very walls of the sanctuary.\n\nIn the Rhineland Midnight Mass has been abolished, because the\nconviviality of Christmas Eve led to unseemly behaviour at the solemn\nservice, but Mass is still celebrated very early--at four or five--and\ngreat crowds of worshippers attend. It is a stirring thing, this first\nMass of Christmas, in some ancient town, when from the piercing cold, the\nintense stillness of the early morning, one enters a great church\nthronged with people, bright with candles, warm with human fellowship,\nand hears the vast congregation break out into a slow solemn chorale,\nfull of devout joy that\n\n   \"In Bethlehem geboren\n    Ist uns ein Kindelein.\"\n\nIt is interesting to trace survivals of the nocturnal Christmas offices\nin Protestant countries. In German \"Evangelical\" churches, midnight or\nearly morning services were common in the eighteenth century; but they\nwere forbidden in some places because of the riot and drunkenness which\naccompanied them. The people seem to have regarded them as a part of\ntheir Christmas revellings rather than as sacred functions; one writer\ncompares the congregation to a crowd of wild drunken sailors in a |99|\ntavern, another gives disgusting particulars of disorders in a church\nwhere the only sober man was the preacher.{22}\n\nIn Sweden the Christmas service is performed very early in the morning,\nthe chancel is lighted up with many candles, and the celebrant is vested\nin a white chasuble with golden orphreys.{23}\n\nA Midnight Mass is now celebrated in many Anglican churches, but this is\npurely a modern revival. The most distinct British _survival_ is to be\nfound in Wales in the early service known as _Plygain_ (dawn), sometimes\na celebration of the Communion. At Tenby at four o'clock on Christmas\nmorning it was customary for the young men of the town to escort the\nrector with lighted torches from his house to the church. Extinguishing\ntheir torches in the porch, they went in to the early service, and when\nit was ended the torches were relighted and the procession returned to\nthe rectory. At St. Peter's Church, Carmarthen, an early service was\nheld, to the light of coloured candles brought by the congregation. At\nSt. Asaph, Caerwys, at 4 or 5 a.m., _Plygain_, consisting of carols sung\nround the church in procession, was held.{24} The _Plygain_ continued in\nWelsh churches until about the eighteen-fifties, and, curiously enough,\nwhen the Established Church abandoned it, it was celebrated in\nNonconformist chapels.{25}\n\nIn the Isle of Man on Christmas Eve, or _Oiel Verry_ (Mary's Eve), \"a\nnumber of persons used to assemble in each parish church and proceed to\nshout carols or 'Carvals.' There was no unison or concert about the\nchanting, but a single person would stand up with a lighted candle in his\nor her hand, and chant in a dismal monotone verse after verse of some old\nManx 'Carval,' until the candle was burnt out. Then another person would\nstart up and go through a similar performance. No fresh candles might be\nlighted after the clock had chimed midnight.\"{26}\n\nOne may conjecture that the common English practice of ringing bells\nuntil midnight on Christmas Eve has also some connection with the\nold-time Midnight Mass.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFor the Greek Church Christmas is a comparatively unimportant festival by\nthe side of the Epiphany, the celebration of |100| Christ's Baptism;\nthe Christmas offices are, however, full of fine poetry. There is far\nless restraint, far less adherence to the words of Scripture, far greater\nrichness of original composition, in the Greek than in the Roman\nservice-books, and while there is less poignancy there is more amplitude\nand splendour. Christmas Day, with the Greeks, is a commemoration of the\ncoming of the Magi as well as of the Nativity and the adoration of the\nshepherds, and the Wise Men are very prominent in the services. The\nfollowing hymn of St. Anatolius (fifth century), from the First Vespers\nof the feast, is fairly typical of the character of the Christmas\noffices:--\n\n   \"When Jesus Our Lord was born of Her,\n    The Holy Virgin, all the universe\n    Became enlightened.\n    For as the shepherds watched their flocks,\n    And as the Magi came to pray,\n    And as the Angels sang their hymn\n    Herod was troubled; for God in flesh appeared,\n    The Saviour of our souls.\n\n    Thy kingdom, Christ our God, the kingdom is\n    Of all the worlds, and Thy dominion\n    O'er every generation bears the sway,\n    Incarnate of the Holy Ghost,\n    Man of the Ever-Virgin Mary,\n    By Thy presence, Christ our God,\n    Thou hast shined a Light on us.\n    Light of Light, the Brightness of the Father,\n    Thou hast beamed on every creature.\n    All that hath breath doth praise Thee,\n    Image of the Father's glory.\n    Thou who art, and wast before,\n    God who shinedst from the Maid,\n    Have mercy upon us.\n\n    What gift shall we bring to Thee,\n    O Christ, since Thou as Man on earth\n    For us hast shewn Thyself? |101|\n    Since every creature made by Thee\n    Brings to Thee its thanksgiving.\n      The Angels bring their song,\n      The Heavens bring their star,\n      The Magi bring their gifts,\n      The Shepherds bring their awe,\n    Earth gives a cave, the wilderness a manger,\n    And we the Virgin-Mother bring.\n    God before all worlds, have mercy upon us!\"{27}\n\nA beautiful rite called the \"Peace of God\" is performed in Slavonic\nchurches at the end of the \"Liturgy\" or Mass on Christmas morning--the\npeople kiss one another on both cheeks, saying, \"Christ is born!\" To this\nthe answer is made, \"Of a truth He is born!\" and the kisses are returned.\nThis is repeated till everyone has kissed and been kissed by all\npresent.{28}\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWe must pass rapidly over the feasts of saints within the Octave of the\nwestern Christmas, St. Stephen (December 26), St. John the Evangelist\n(December 27), the Holy Innocents (December 28), and St. Sylvester\n(December 31). None of these, except the feast of the Holy Innocents,\nhave any special connection with the Nativity or the Infancy, and the\npopular customs connected with them will come up for consideration in our\nSecond Part.\n\nThe commemoration of the Circumcision (\"when eight days were accomplished\nfor the circumcising of the child\") falls naturally on January 1, the\nOctave of Christmas. It is not of Roman origin, and was not observed in\nRome until it had long been established in the Byzantine and Gallican\nChurches.{29} In Gaul, as is shown by a decree of the Council of Tours\nin 567, a solemn fast was held on the Circumcision and the two days\nfollowing it, in order to turn away the faithful from the pagan\nfestivities of the Kalends.{30}\n\nThe feast of the Epiphany on January 6, as we have seen, is in the\neastern Church a commemoration of the Baptism of Christ. In the West it\nhas become primarily the festival of the adoration |102| of the Magi,\nthe manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles. Still in the Roman offices\nmany traces of the baptismal commemoration remain, and the memory of yet\nanother manifestation of Christ's glory appears in the antiphon at\n\"Magnificat\" at the Second Vespers of the feast:--\n\n    \"We keep holy a day adorned by three wonders: to-day a star led the\n    Magi to the manger; to-day at the marriage water was made wine;\n    to-day for our salvation Christ was pleased to be baptized of John in\n    Jordan. Alleluia.\"\n\nOn the Octave of the Epiphany at Matins the Baptism is the central idea,\nand the Gospel at Mass bears on the same subject. In Rome itself even the\nBlessing of the Waters, the distinctive ceremony of the eastern Epiphany\nrite, is performed in certain churches according to a Latin ritual.{31}\nAt Sant' Andrea della Valle, Rome, during the Octave of the Epiphany a\nSolemn Mass is celebrated every morning in Latin, and afterwards, on each\nof the days from January 7-13, there follows a Mass according to one of\nthe eastern rites: Greco-Slav, Armenian, Chaldean, Coptic,\nGreco-Ruthenian, Greco-Melchite, and Greek.{32} It is a week of great\nopportunities for the liturgiologist and the lover of strange ceremonial.\n\nThe Blessing of the Waters is an important event in all countries where\nthe Greek Church prevails. In Greece the \"Great Blessing,\" as it is\ncalled, is performed in various ways according to the locality; sometimes\nthe sea is blessed, sometimes a river or reservoir, sometimes merely\nwater in a church. In seaport towns, where the people depend on the water\nfor their living, the celebration has much pomp and elaborateness. At the\nPiraeus enormous and enthusiastic crowds gather, and there is a solemn\nprocession of the bishop and clergy to the harbour, where the bishop\nthrows a little wooden cross, held by a long blue ribbon, into the water,\nwithdraws it dripping wet, and sprinkles the bystanders. This is done\nthree times. At Nauplia and other places a curious custom prevails: the\narchbishop throws a wooden cross into the waters of the harbour, and the\nfishermen |103| of the place dive in after it and struggle for its\npossession; he who wins it has the right of visiting all the houses of\nthe town and levying a collection, which often brings in a large sum. In\nSamos all the women send to the church a vessel full of water to be\nblessed by the priest; with this water the fields and the trees are\nsprinkled.{33}\n\nThe sense attached to the ceremony by the Church is shown in this\nprayer:--\n\n    \"Thou didst sanctify the streams of Jordan by sending from Heaven Thy\n    Holy Spirit, and by breaking the heads of the dragons lurking there.\n    Therefore, O King, Lover of men, be Thou Thyself present also now by\n    the visitation of Thy Holy Spirit, and sanctify this water. Give also\n    to it the grace of ransom, the blessing of Jordan: make it a fountain\n    of incorruption; a gift of sanctification; a washing away of sins; a\n    warding off of diseases; destruction to demons; repulsion to the\n    hostile powers; filled with angelic strength; that all who take and\n    receive of it may have it for purification of souls and bodies, for\n    healing of sicknesses, for sanctification of houses, and meet for\n    every need.\"{34}\n\nThough for the Church the immersion of the cross represents the Baptism\nof Christ, and the blessings springing from that event are supposed to be\ncarried to the people by the sprinkling with the water, it is held by\nsome students that the whole practice is a Christianization of a\nprimitive rain-charm--a piece of sympathetic magic intended to produce\nrain by imitating the drenching which it gives. An Epiphany song from\nImbros connects the blessing of rain with the Baptism of Christ, and\nanother tells how at the river Jordan \"a dove came down, white and\nfeathery, and with its wings opened; it sent rain down on the Lord, and\nagain it rained and rained on our Lady, and again it rained and rained on\nits wings.\"{35}\n\nThe Blessing of the Waters is performed in the Greek church of St.\nSophia, Bayswater, London, on the morning of the Epiphany, which, through\nthe difference between the old and new \"styles,\" falls on our 19th of\nJanuary. All is done within the church; the water to be blessed is placed\non a table under |104| the dome, and is sanctified by the immersion of\na small cross; afterwards it is sprinkled on everyone present, and some\nis taken home by the faithful in little vessels.{36}\n\nIn Moscow and St. Petersburg the Blessing is a function of great\nmagnificence, but it is perhaps even more interesting as performed in\nRussian country places. Whatever may be the orthodox significance of the\nrite, to the country people it is the chasing away of \"forest demons,\nsprites, and fairies, once the gods the peasants worshipped, but now\ndethroned from their high estate,\" who in the long dark winter nights\nbewitch and vex the sons of men. A vivid and imaginative account of the\nceremony and its meaning to the peasants is given by Mr. F. H. E. Palmer\nin his \"Russian Life in Town and Country.\" The district in which he\nwitnessed it was one of forests and of lakes frozen in winter. On one of\nthese lakes had been erected \"a huge cross, constructed of blocks of ice,\nthat glittered like diamonds in the brilliant winter sunlight.... At\nlength, far away could be heard the sound of human voices, singing a\nstrange, wild melody. Presently there was a movement in the snow among\nthe trees, and waving banners appeared as a procession approached, headed\nby the pope in his vestments, and surrounded by the village dignitaries,\nvenerable, grey-bearded patriarchs.\" A wide space in the procession was\nleft for \"a strange and motley band of gnomes and sprites, fairies and\nwood-nymphs,\" who, as the peasants believed, had been caught by the holy\nsinging and the sacred sign on the waving banner. The chanting still went\non as the crowd formed a circle around the glittering cross, and all\nlooked on with awe while half a dozen peasants with their axes cut a\nlarge hole in the ice. \"And now the priest's voice is heard, deep and\nsonorous, as he pronounces the words of doom. Alas for the poor sprites!\nInto that yawning chasm they must leap, and sink deep, deep below the\nsurface of that ice-cold water.\"{37}\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFollowing these eastern Epiphany rites we have wandered far from the\ncycle of ideas generally associated with Christmas. We |105| must now\npass to those popular devotions to the Christ Child which, though they\nform no part of the Church's liturgy, she has permitted and encouraged.\nIt is in the West that we shall find them; the Latin Church, as we have\nseen, makes far more of Christmas than the Greek.\n\nRome is often condemned for using in her liturgy the dead language of\nLatin, but it must not be forgotten that in every country she offers to\nthe faithful a rich store of devotional literature in their own tongue,\nand that, supplementary to the liturgical offices, there is much public\nprayer and praise in the vernacular. Nor, in that which appeals to the\neye, does she limit herself to the mysterious symbolism of the sacraments\nand the ritual which surrounds them; she gives to the people concrete,\npictorial images to quicken their faith. How ritual grew in mediaeval\ntimes into full-fledged drama we shall see in the next chapter; here let\nus consider that cult of the Christ Child in which the scene of Bethlehem\nis represented not by living actors but in plastic art, often most simple\nand homely.\n\nThe use of the \"crib\" (French _creche_, Italian _presepio_, German\n_krippe_) at Christmas is now universally diffused in the Roman Church.\nMost readers of this book must have seen one of these structures\nrepresenting the stable at Bethlehem, with the Child in the manger, His\nmother and St. Joseph, the ox and the ass, and perhaps the shepherds, the\nthree kings, or worshipping angels. They are the delight of children, who\nthrough the season of Christmas and Epiphany wander into the open\nchurches at all times of day to gaze wide-eyed on the life-like scene and\noffer a prayer to their Little Brother. No one with anything of the\nchild-spirit can fail to be touched by the charm of the Christmas crib.\nFaults of artistic taste there may often be, but these are wont to be\nsoftened down by the flicker of tapers, the glow of ruby lights, amidst\nthe shades of some dim aisle or chapel, and the scene of tender humanity,\ngently, mysteriously radiant, as though with \"bright shoots of\neverlastingness,\" is full of religious and poetic suggestions.\n\nThe institution of the _presepio_ is often ascribed to St. Francis of\nAssisi, who in the year 1224 celebrated Christmas at Greccio |106| with\na Bethlehem scene with a real ox and ass. About fifteen days before the\nNativity, according to Thomas of Celano, the blessed Francis sent for a\ncertain nobleman, John by name, and said to him: \"If thou wilt that we\ncelebrate the present festival of the Lord at Greccio, make haste to go\nbefore and diligently prepare what I tell thee. For I would fain make\nmemorial of that Child who was born in Bethlehem, and in some sort behold\nwith bodily eyes His infant hardships; how He lay in a manger on the hay,\nwith the ox and the ass standing by.\" The good man prepared all that the\nSaint had commanded, and at last the day of gladness drew nigh. The\nbrethren were called from many convents; the men and women of the town\nprepared tapers and torches to illuminate the night. Finding all things\nready, Francis beheld and rejoiced: the manger had been prepared, the hay\nwas brought, and the ox and ass were led in. \"Thus Simplicity was\nhonoured, Poverty exalted, Humility commended, and of Greccio there was\nmade as it were a new Bethlehem. The night was lit up as the day, and was\ndelightsome to men and beasts.... The woodland rang with voices, the\nrocks made answer to the jubilant throng.\" Francis stood before the\nmanger, \"overcome with tenderness and filled with wondrous joy\"; Mass was\ncelebrated, and he, in deacon's vestments, chanted the Holy Gospel in an\n\"earnest, sweet, and loud-sounding voice.\" Then he preached to the people\nof \"the birth of the poor King and the little town of Bethlehem.\"\n\"Uttering the word 'Bethlehem' in the manner of a sheep bleating, he\nfilled his mouth with the sound,\" and in naming the Child Jesus \"he\nwould, as it were, lick his lips, relishing with happy palate and\nswallowing the sweetness of that word.\" At length, the solemn vigil\nended, each one returned with joy to his own place.{38}\n\nIt has been suggested by Countess Martinengo{39} that this beautiful\nceremony was \"the crystallization of haunting memories carried away by\nSt. Francis from the real Bethlehem\"; for he visited the east in 1219-20,\nand the Greccio celebration took place in 1224. St. Francis and his\nfollowers may well have helped greatly to popularize the use of the\n_presepio_, but it can be |107| traced back far earlier than their\ntime. In the liturgical drama known as the \"Officium Pastorum,\" which\nprobably took shape in the eleventh century, we find a _praesepe_ behind\nthe altar as the centre of the action{40}; but long before this\nsomething of the kind seems to have been in existence in the church of\nSanta Maria Maggiore in Rome--at one time called \"Beata Maria ad\npraesepe.\" Here Pope Gregory III. (731-41) placed \"a golden image of the\nMother of God embracing God our Saviour, in various gems.\"{41} According\nto Usener's views this church was founded by Pope Liberius (352-66), and\nwas intended to provide a special home for the new festival of Christmas\nintroduced by him, while an important part of the early Christmas ritual\nthere was the celebration of Mass over a \"manger\" in which the\nconsecrated Host was laid, as once the body of the Holy Child in the crib\nat Bethlehem.{42} Further, an eastern homily of the late fourth century\nsuggests that the preacher had before his eyes a representation of the\nNativity. Such material representations, Usener conjectures, may have\narisen from the devotions of the faithful at the supposed actual\nbirthplace at Bethlehem, which would naturally be adorned with the sacred\nfigures of the Holy Night.{43}\n\nIn the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the crib can be traced at\nMilan, Parma, and Modena, and an Italian example carved in 1478 still\nexists.{44} The Bavarian National Museum at Munich has a fine collection\nof cribs of various periods and from various lands--Germany, Tyrol,\nItaly, and Sicily--showing what elaborate care has been bestowed upon the\npreparation of these models. Among them is a great erection made at\nBotzen in the first half of the nineteenth century, and large enough to\nfill a fair-sized room. It represents the central square of a town, with\nimposing buildings, including a great cathedral not unlike our St.\nPaul's. Figures of various sizes were provided to suit the perspective,\nand the crib itself was probably set up in the porch of the church, while\nprocessions of puppets were arranged on the wide open square. Another,\nmade in Munich, shows the adoration of the shepherds in a sort of ruined\ncastle, while others, from Naples, lay the scene among remains of\nclassical temples. One Tyrolese crib has a wide landscape background with\na |108| village and mountains typical of the country. The figures are\noften numerous, and, as their makers generally dressed them in the\ncostume of their contemporaries, are sometimes exceedingly quaint. An\nangel with a wasp-waist, in a powdered wig, a hat trimmed with big\nfeathers, and a red velvet dress with heavy gold embroidery, seems comic\nto us moderns, yet this is how the Ursuline nuns of Innsbruck conceived\nthe heavenly messenger. Many of the cribs and figures, however, are of\nfine artistic quality, especially those from Naples and Sicily, and to\nthe student of costume the various types of dress are of great\ninterest.{45}\n\nThe use of the Christmas crib is by no means confined to churches; it is\ncommon in the home in many Catholic regions, and in at least one\nProtestant district, the Saxon Erzgebirge.{46} In Germany the _krippe_\nis often combined with the Christmas-tree; at Treves, for instance, the\npresent writer saw a magnificent tree covered with glittering lights and\nornaments, and underneath it the cave of the Nativity with little figures\nof the holy persons. Thus have pagan and Christian symbols met together.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThere grew up in Germany, about the fourteenth century, the extremely\npopular Christmas custom of \"cradle-rocking,\" a response to the people's\nneed of a life-like and homely presentation of Christianity. By the\n_Kindelwiegen_ the lay-folk were brought into most intimate touch with\nthe Christ Child; the crib became a cradle (_wiege_) that could be\nrocked, and the worshippers were thus able to express in physical action\ntheir devotion to the new-born Babe. The cradle-rocking seems to have\nbeen done at first by priests, who impersonated the Virgin and St.\nJoseph, and sang over the Child a duet:--\n\n   \"Joseph, lieber neve min,\n    Hilf mir wiegen daz kindelin.\n\n    Gerne, liebe muome min,\n    Hilf ich dir wiegen din kindelin.\"[37]\n\n[Illustration:\n\nA NEAPOLITAN \"PRESEPIO.\"\n\n_Photo_] [_Meisenbach, Riffarth & Co., Munich_.]\n\n|109| The choir and people took their part in the singing; and dancing,\nto the old Germans a natural accompaniment of festive song, became common\naround the cradle, which in time the people were allowed to rock with\ntheir own hands.{47} \"In dulci jubilo\" has the character of a dance, and\nthe same is true of another delightful old carol, \"Lasst uns das Kindlein\nwiegen,\" still used, in a form modified by later editors, in the churches\nof the Rhineland. The present writer has heard it sung, very slowly, in\nunison, by vast congregations, and very beautiful is its mingling of\nsolemnity, festive joy, and tender sentiment:--\n\n[Illustration: Music]\n\n   \"Lasst uns das Kindlein wiegen,\n    Das Herz zum Krippelein biegen!\n    Lasst uns den Geist erfreuen,\n    Das Kindlein benedeien:\n    O Jesulein suess! O Jesulein suess!\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n    Lasst uns sein Haendel und Fuesse,\n    Sein feuriges Herzlein gruessen!\n    Und ihn demuetiglich eren\n    Als unsern Gott und Herren!\n    O Jesulein suess! O Jesulein suess!\"[38]{48}\n\nTwo Latin hymns, \"Resonet in laudibus\" and \"Quem pastores\nlaudavere,\"{49} were also sung at the _Kindelwiegen_, and |110| a\ncharming and quite untranslatable German lullaby has come down to us:--\n\n   \"Sausa ninne, gottes minne,\n    Nu sweig und ru!\n    Wen du wilt, so wellen wir deinen willen tun,\n    Hochgelobter edler furst, nu schweig und wein auch nicht,\n    Tuste das, so wiss wir, dass uns wol geschicht.\"{50}\n\nIt was by appeals like this _Kindelwiegen_ to the natural, homely\ninstincts of the folk that the Church gained a real hold over the masses,\nmaking Christianity during the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth\ncenturies a genuinely popular religion in Germany. Dr. Alexander Tille,\nthe best historian of the German Christmas, has an interesting passage on\nthe subject: \"In the dancing and jubilation around the cradle,\" he\nwrites, \"the religion of the Cross, however much it might in its inmost\ncharacter be opposed to the nature of the German people and their\nessential healthiness, was felt no longer as something alien. It had\nbecome naturalized, but had lost in the process its very core. The\npreparation for a life after death, which was its Alpha and Omega, had\npassed into the background. It was not joy at the promised 'Redemption'\nthat expressed itself in the dance around the cradle; for the German has\nnever learnt to feel himself utterly vile and sinful: it was joy at the\nsimple fact that a human being, a particular human being in peculiar\ncircumstances, was born into the world.... The Middle Ages showed in the\ncradle-rocking 'a true German and most lovable childlikeness.' The Christ\nChild was the 'universal little brother of all children of earth,' and\nthey acted accordingly, they lulled Him to sleep, they fondled and rocked\nHim, they danced before Him and leapt around Him _in dulci jubilo_.\"{51}\nThere is much here that is true of the cult of the Christ Child in other\ncountries than Germany, though perhaps Dr. Tille underestimates the\nreligious feeling that is often joined to the human sentiment.\n\nThe fifteenth century was the great period for the _Kindelwiegen_, the\ntime when it appears to have been practised in all the churches of\nGermany; in the sixteenth it began to seem |111| irreverent to the\nstricter members of the clergy, and the figure of the infant Jesus was in\nmany places no longer rocked in the cradle but enthroned on the\naltar.{52} This usage is described by Naogeorgus (1553):--\n\n         \"A woodden childe in clowtes is on the aultar set,\n    About the which both boyes and gyrles do daunce and trymly jet,\n    And Carrols sing in prayse of Christ, and, for to helpe them heare,\n    The organs aunswere every verse with sweete and solemne cheare.\n    The priestes do rore aloude; and round about the parentes stande\n    To see the sport, and with their voyce do helpe them and their\n          hande.\"{53}\n\nThe placing of a \"Holy Child\" above the altar at Christmas is still\ncustomary in many Roman Catholic churches.\n\nProtestantism opposed the _Kindelwiegen_, on the grounds both of\nsuperstition and of the disorderly proceedings that accompanied it, but\nit was long before it was utterly extinguished even in the Lutheran\nchurches. In Catholic churches the custom did not altogether die out,\nthough the unseemly behaviour which often attended it--and the growth of\na pseudo-classical taste--caused its abolition in most places.{54}\n\nAt Tuebingen as late as 1830 at midnight on Christmas Eve an image of the\nChrist Child was rocked on the tower of the chief church in a small\ncradle surrounded with lights, while the spectators below sang a\ncradle-song.{55} According to a recent writer the \"rocking\" is still\ncontinued in the Upper Innthal.{56} In the Tyrolese cathedral city of\nBrixen it was once performed every day between Christmas and Candlemas by\nthe sacristan or boy-acolytes. That the proceedings had a tendency to be\ndisorderly is shown by an eighteenth-century instruction to the\nsacristan: \"Be sure to take a stick or a thong of ox-hide, for the boys\nare often very ill-behaved.\"{57}\n\nThere are records of other curious ceremonies in German or Austrian\nchurches. At St. Peter am Windberge in Muehlkreis in Upper Austria, during\nthe service on Christmas night a life-sized wooden figure of the Holy\nChild was offered in |112| a basket to the congregation; each person\nreverently kissed it and passed it on to his neighbour. This was done as\nlate as 1883.{58} At Crimmitschau in Saxony a boy, dressed as an angel,\nused to be let down from the roof singing Luther's \"Vom Himmel hoch,\" and\nthe custom was only given up when the breaking of the rope which\nsupported the singer had caused a serious accident.{59}\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt is in Italy, probably, that the cult of the Christ Child is most\nardently practised to-day. No people have a greater love of children than\nthe Italians, none more of that dramatic instinct which such a form of\nworship demands. \"Easter,\" says Countess Martinengo-Cesaresco, \"is the\ngreat popular feast in the eastern Church, Christmas in the\nLatin--especially in Italy. One is the feast of the next world, and the\nother of this. Italians are fond of this world.\"{60} Christmas is for\nthe poorer Italians a summing up of human birthdays, an occasion for\npouring out on the _Bambino_ parental and fraternal affection as well as\nreligious worship.\n\nIn Rome, Christmas used to be heralded by the arrival, ten days before\nthe end of Advent, of the Calabrian minstrels or _pifferari_ with their\nsylvan pipes (_zampogne_), resembling the Scottish bagpipe, but less\nharsh in sound. These minstrels were to be seen in every street in Rome,\nplaying their wild plaintive music before the shrines of the Madonna,\nunder the traditional notion of charming away her labour-pains. Often\nthey would stop at a carpenter's shop \"per politezza al messer San\nGiuseppe.\"{61} Since 1870 the _pifferari_ have become rare in Rome, but\nsome were seen there by an English lady quite recently. At Naples, too,\nthere are _zampognari_ before Christmas, though far fewer than there used\nto be; for one _lira_ they will pipe their rustic melodies before any\nhouseholder's street Madonna through a whole _novena_.{62}\n\n[Illustration:\n\nCALABRIAN SHEPHERDS PLAYING IN ROME AT CHRISTMAS.\n\n_After an Etching by D. Allan._\n\nFrom Hone's \"Every-day Book\" (London, 1826).]\n\nIn Sicily, too, men come down from the mountains nine days before\nChristmas to sing a _novena_ to a plaintive melody accompanied by 'cello\nand violin. \"All day long,\" writes Signora Caico about Montedoro in\nCaltanissetta, \"the melancholy dirge  |113| was sung round the village,\nhouse after house, always the same minor tune, the words being different\nevery day, so that in nine days the whole song was sung out.... I often\nlooked out of the window to see them at a short distance, grouped before\na house, singing their stanzas, well muffled in shawls, for the air is\ncold in spite of the bright sunshine.... The flat, white houses all\nround, the pure sky overhead, gave an Oriental setting to the scene.\"\n\nAnother Christmas custom in the same place was the singing of a _novena_\nnot outside but within some of the village houses before a kind of altar\ngaily decorated and bearing at the top a waxen image of the Child Jesus.\n\"Close to it the orchestra was grouped--a 'cello, two violins, a guitar,\nand a tambourine. The kneeling women huddled in front of the altar. All\nhad on their heads their black _mantelline_. They began at once singing\nthe _novena_ stanzas appointed for that day; the tune was primitive and\nvery odd: the first half of the stanza was quick and merry, the second\nhalf became a wailing dirge.\" A full translation of a long and very\ninteresting and pathetic _novena_ is given by Signora Caico.[39]{63}\n\nThe _presepio_ both in Rome and at Naples is the special Christmas symbol\nin the home, just as the lighted tree is in Germany. In Rome the Piazza\nNavona is the great place for the sale of little clay figures of the holy\npersons. (Is there perchance a survival here of the _sigillaria_, the\nlittle clay dolls sold in Rome at the _Saturnalia_?) These are bought in\nthe market for two _soldi_ each, and the _presepi_ or \"Bethlehems\" are\nmade at home with cardboard and moss.{64} The home-made _presepi_ at\nNaples are well described by Matilde Serao; they are pasteboard models of\nthe landscape of Bethlehem--a hill with the sacred cave beneath it and\ntwo or three paths leading down to the grotto, a little tavern, a\nshepherd's hut, a few trees, sometimes a stream in glittering glass. The\nground is made verdant with moss, and there is |114| straw within the\ncave for the repose of the infant Jesus; singing angels are suspended by\nthin wires, and the star of the Wise Men hangs by an invisible thread.\nThere is little attempt to realize the scenery of the East; the Child is\nborn and the Magi adore Him in a Campanian or Calabrian setting.{66}\n\nItalian churches, as well as Italian homes, have their _presepi_.\n\"Thither come the people, bearing humble gifts of chestnuts, apples,\ntomatoes, and the like, which they place as offerings in the hands of the\nfigures. These are very often life-size. Mary is usually robed in blue\nsatin, with crimson scarf and white head-dress. Joseph stands near her\ndressed in the ordinary working-garb. The onlookers are got up like\nItalian contadini. The Magi are always very prominent in their grand\nclothes, with satin trains borne by black slaves, jewelled turbans, and\nsatin tunics all over jewels.\"{67}\n\n[Illustration:\n\nST. FRANCIS INSTITUTES THE \"PRESEPIO\" AT GRECCIO.\n\n_By Giotto._\n\n(Upper Church of St Francis, Assissi)]\n\n[Illustration: THE \"BAMBINO\" OF ARA COELI.]\n\nIn Rome the two great centres of Christmas devotion are the churches of\nSanta Maria Maggiore, where are preserved the relics of the cradle of\nChrist, and Ara Coeli, the home of the most famous _Bambino_ in the\nworld. A vivid picture of the scene at Santa Maria Maggiore in the early\nnineteenth century is given by Lady Morgan. She entered the church at\nmidnight on Christmas Eve to wait for the procession of the _culla_, or\ncradle. \"Its three ample naves, separated by rows of Ionic columns of\nwhite marble, produced a splendid vista. Thousands of wax tapers marked\ntheir form, and contrasted their shadows; some blazed from golden\ncandlesticks on the superb altars of the lateral chapels.... Draperies of\ngold and crimson decked the columns, and spread their shadows from the\ninter-columniations over the marble pavement. In the midst of this\nimposing display of church magnificence, sauntered or reposed a\npopulation which displayed the most squalid misery. The haggard natives\nof the mountains ... were mixed with the whole mendicity of Rome.... Some\nof these terrific groups lay stretched in heaps on the ground,\ncongregating for warmth; and as their dark eyes scowled from beneath the\nmantle which half hid a sheepskin dress, they had the air of banditti\nawaiting their prey; others with their wives and children knelt, half\nasleep, |115| round the chapel of the _Santa Croce_.... In the centre\nof the nave, multitudes of gay, gaudy, noisy persons, the petty\nshopkeepers, laquais, and _popolaccio_ of the city, strolled and laughed,\nand talked loud.\" About three o'clock the service began, with a choral\nswell, blazing torches, and a crowded procession of priests of every rank\nand order. It lasted for two hours; then began the procession to the cell\nwhere the cradle lay, enshrined in a blaze of tapers and guarded by\ngroups of devotees. Thence it was borne with solemn chants to the chapel\nof _Santa Croce_. A musical Mass followed, and the _culla_ being at last\ndeposited on the High Altar, the wearied spectators issued forth just as\nthe dome of St. Peter's caught the first light of the morning.{68}\n\nStill to-day the scene in the church at the five o'clock High Mass on\nChristmas morning is extraordinarily impressive, with the crowds of poor\npeople, the countless lights at which the children gaze in open-eyed\nwonder, the many low Masses said in the side chapels, the imposing\nprocession and the setting of the silver casket on the High Altar. The\nhistory of the relics of the _culla_--five long narrow pieces of wood--is\nobscure, but it is admitted even by some orthodox Roman Catholics that\nthere is no sufficient evidence to connect them with Bethlehem.{69}\n\nThe famous _Bambino_ at the Franciscan church of Ara Coeli on the citadel\nof Rome is \"a flesh-coloured doll, tightly swathed in gold and silver\ntissue, crowned, and sparkling with jewels,\" no thing of beauty, but\nbelieved to have miraculous powers. An inscription in the sacristy of the\nchurch states that it was made by a devout Minorite of wood from the\nMount of Olives, and given flesh-colour by the interposition of God\nHimself. It has its own servants and its own carriage in which it drives\nout to visit the sick. There is a strange story of a theft of the\nwonder-working image by a woman who feigned sickness, obtained permission\nto have the _Bambino_ left with her, and then sent back to the friars\nanother image dressed in its clothes. That night the Franciscans heard\ngreat ringing of bells and knockings at the church door, and found\noutside the true _Bambino_, naked in the wind and rain. Since then it has\nnever been allowed out alone.{70}\n\n|116| All through the Christmas and Epiphany season Ara Coeli is\ncrowded with visitors to the _Bambino_. Before the _presepio_, where it\nlies, is erected a wooden platform on which small boys and girls of all\nranks follow one another with little speeches--\"preaching\" it is\ncalled--in praise of the infant Lord. \"They say their pieces,\" writes\nCountess Martinengo, \"with an infinite charm that raises half a smile and\nhalf a tear.\" They have the vivid dramatic gift, the extraordinary\nabsence of self-consciousness, typical of Italian children, and their\n\"preaching\" is anything but a wooden repetition of a lesson learned by\nheart. Nor is there any irksome constraint; indeed to northerners the\nscene in the church might seem irreverent, for the children blow toy\ntrumpets and their parents talk freely on all manner of subjects. The\nchurch is approached by one hundred and twenty-four steps, making an\nextraordinarily picturesque spectacle at this season, when they are\nthronged by people ascending and descending, and by vendors of all sorts\nof Christmas prints and images. On the Octave of the Epiphany there is a\ngreat procession, ending with the blessing of Rome by the Holy Child. The\n_Bambino_ is carried out to the space at the top of the giddy flight of\nmarble steps, and a priest raises it on high and solemnly blesses the\nEternal City.{71}\n\nA glimpse of the southern Christmas may be had in London in the Italian\ncolony in and around Eyre Street Hill, off the Clerkenwell Road, a little\ntown of poor Italians set down in the midst of the metropolis. The steep,\nnarrow Eyre Street Hill, with its shops full of southern wares, is dingy\nenough by day, but after dark on Christmas Eve it looks like a bit of\nNaples. The windows are gay with lights and coloured festoons, there are\nlantern-decked sweetmeat stalls, one old man has a _presepio_ in his\nroom, other people have little altars or shrines with candles burning,\nand bright pictures of saints adorn the walls. It is a strangely pathetic\nsight, this _festa_ of the children of the South, this attempt to keep an\nItalian Christmas amid the cold damp dreariness of a London slum. The\ncolony has its own church, San Pietro, copied from some Renaissance\nbasilica at Rome, a building half tawdry, half magnificent, which\ntransports him who enters it far away to the South. Like every Italian\nchurch, it is |117| at once the Palace of the Great King and the refuge\nof the humblest--no other church in London is quite so intimately the\nhome of the poor. Towards twelve o'clock on Christmas Eve the deep-toned\nbell of San Pietro booms out over the colony, and the people crowd to the\nMidnight Mass, and pay their devotions at a great _presepio_ set up for\nthe veneration of the faithful. When on the Octave of the Epiphany[40]\nthe time comes to close the crib, an impressive and touching ceremony\ntakes place. The afternoon Benediction over, the priest, with the\nacolytes, goes to the _presepio_ and returns to the chancel with the\n_Bambino_. Holding it on his arm, he preaches in Italian on the story of\nthe Christ Child. The sermon ended, the notes of \"Adeste, fideles\" are\nheard, and while the Latin words are sung the faithful kneel at the altar\nrails and reverently kiss the Holy Babe. It is their farewell to the\n_Bambino_ till next Christmas.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nA few details may here be given about the religious customs at Christmas\nin Spain. The Midnight Mass is there the great event of the festival.\nSomething has already been said as to its celebration in Madrid. The\nscene at the midnight service in a small Andalusian country town is thus\ndescribed by an English traveller:--\"The church was full; the service\norderly; the people of all classes. There were muleteers, wrapped in\ntheir blue and white checked rugs; here, Spanish gentlemen, enveloped in\ntheir graceful capas, or capes ... here, again, were crowds of the\ncommonest people,--miners, fruitsellers, servants, and the like,--the\nwomen kneeling on the rush matting of the dimly-lit church, the men\nstanding in dark masses behind, or clustering in groups round every\npillar.... At last, from under the altar, the senior priest ... took out\nthe image of the Babe New-born, reverently and slowly, and held it up in\nhis hands for adoration. Instantly every one crossed himself, and fell on\nhis knees in silent worship.\"{72} The crib is very popular in Spanish\nhomes and is the delight of children, as may be learnt from Fernan\nCaballero's interesting sketch of Christmas Eve in Spain, \"La Noche de\nNavidad.\"{73}\n\n|118| In England the Christmas crib is to be found nowadays in most\nRoman, and a few Anglican, churches. In the latter it is of course an\nimitation, not a survival. It is, however, possible that the custom of\ncarrying dolls about in a box at Advent or Christmas time, common in some\nparts of England in the nineteenth century, is a survival, from the\nMiddle Ages, of something like the crib. The so-called \"vessel-cup\" was\n\"a box containing two dolls, dressed up to represent the Virgin and the\ninfant Christ, decorated with ribbons and surrounded by flowers and\napples.\" The box had usually a glass lid, was covered by a white napkin,\nand was carried from door to door by a woman.{74} It was esteemed very\nunlucky for any household not to be visited by the \"Advent images\" before\nChristmas Eve, and the bearers sang the well-known carol of the \"Joys of\nMary.\"{75} In Yorkshire only one image was carried about.{76} At\nGilmorton, Leicestershire, a friend of the present writer remembers that\nthe children used to carry round what they called a \"Christmas Vase,\" an\nopen box without lid in which lay three dolls side by side, with oranges\nand sprigs of evergreen. Some people regarded these as images of the\nVirgin, the Christ Child, and Joseph.[41]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn this study of the feast of the Nativity as represented in liturgy and\nceremonial we have already come close to what may strictly be called\ndrama; in the next chapter we shall cross the border line and consider\nthe religious plays of the Middle Ages and the relics of or parallels to\nthem found in later times.\n\n|119| |120| |121|\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nCHRISTMAS DRAMA\n\n\n    Origins of the Mediaeval Drama--Dramatic Tendencies in the\n    Liturgy--Latin Liturgical Plays--The Drama becomes\n    Laicized--Characteristics of the Popular Drama--The Nativity in the\n    English Miracle Cycles--Christmas Mysteries in France--Later French\n    Survivals of Christmas Drama--German Christmas Plays--Mediaeval\n    Italian Plays and Pageants--Spanish Nativity Plays--Modern Survivals\n    in Various Countries--The Star-singers, &c.\n\n[Illustration:\n\nTHE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS.\n\nFrom Broadside No. 305 in the Collection of the Society of Antiquaries at\nBurlington House (by permission).\n\n(Photo lent by Mr. F. Sidgwick, who has published the print on a modern\nChristmas broadside.)]\n\nIn this chapter the Christian side only of the Christmas drama will be\ntreated. Much folk-drama of pagan origin has gathered round the festival,\nbut this we shall study in our Second Part. Our subject here is the\ndramatic representation of the story of the Nativity and the events\nimmediately connected with it. The Christmas drama has passed through the\nsame stages as the poetry of the Nativity. There is first a monastic and\nhieratic stage, when the drama is but an expansion of the liturgy, a\npiece of ceremonial performed by clerics with little attempt at\nverisimilitude and with Latin words drawn mainly from the Bible or the\noffices of the Church. Then, as the laity come to take a more personal\ninterest in Christianity, we find fancy beginning to play around the\nsubject, bringing out its human pathos and charm, until, after a\ntransitional stage, the drama leaves the sanctuary, passes from Latin to\nthe vulgar tongue, is played by lay performers in the streets and squares\nof the city, and, while its framework remains religious, takes into\nitself episodes of a more or less secular character. The Latin liturgical\nplays are to the \"miracles\" and \"mysteries\" of the later Middle Ages as a\nRomanesque church, solemn, oppressive, hieratic, to |122| a Gothic\ncathedral, soaring, audacious, reflecting every phase of the popular\nlife.\n\nThe mediaeval religious drama{1} was a natural development from the\nCatholic liturgy, not an imitation of classical models. The classical\ndrama had expired at the break-up of the Roman Empire; its death was due\nlargely, indeed, to the hostility of Christianity, but also to the rude\nindifference of the barbarian invaders. Whatever secular dramatic\nimpulses remained in the Dark Ages showed themselves not in public and\norganized performances, but obscurely in the songs and mimicry of\nminstrels and in traditional folk-customs. Both of these classes of\npractices were strongly opposed by the Church, because of their\nconnection with heathenism and the licence towards which they tended. Yet\nthe dramatic instinct could not be suppressed. The folk-drama in such\nforms as the Feast of Fools found its way, as we shall see, even into the\nsanctuary, and--most remarkable fact of all--the Church's own services\ntook on more and more a dramatic character.\n\nWhile the secular stage decayed, the Church was building up a stately\nsystem of ritual. It is needless to dwell upon the dramatic elements in\nCatholic worship. The central act of Christian devotion, the Eucharist,\nis in its essence a drama, a representation of the death of the Redeemer\nand the participation of the faithful in its benefits, and around this\nhas gathered in the Mass a multitude of dramatic actions expressing\ndifferent aspects of the Redemption. Nor, of course, is there merely\nsymbolic _action_; the offices of the Church are in great part\n_dialogues_ between priest and people, or between two sets of singers. It\nwas from this antiphonal song, this alternation of versicle and respond,\nthat the religious drama of the Middle Ages took its rise. In the ninth\ncentury the \"Antiphonarium\" traditionally ascribed to Pope Gregory the\nGreat had become insufficient for ambitious choirs, and the practice grew\nup of supplementing it by new melodies and words inserted at the\nbeginning or end or even in the middle of the old antiphons. The new\ntexts were called \"tropes,\" and from the ninth to the thirteenth century\nmany were written. An interesting Christmas |123| example is the\nfollowing ninth-century trope ascribed to Tutilo of St. Gall:--\n\n    \"Hodie cantandus est nobis puer, quem gignebat ineffabiliter ante\n    tempora pater, et eundem sub tempore generavit inclyta mater. (To-day\n    must we sing of a Child, whom in unspeakable wise His Father begat\n    before all times, and whom, within time, a glorious mother brought\n    forth.)\n\n    Int[errogatio].\n\n    Quis est iste puer quem tam magnis praeconiis dignum vociferatis?\n    Dicite nobis ut collaudatores esse possimus. (Who is this Child whom\n    ye proclaim worthy of so great laudations? Tell us that we also may\n    praise Him.)\n\n    Resp[onsio].\n\n    Hic enim est quem praesagus et electus symmista Dei ad terram\n    venturum praevidens longe ante praenotavit, sicque praedixit. (This\n    is He whose coming to earth the prophetic and chosen initiate into\n    the mysteries of God foresaw and pointed out long before, and thus\n    foretold.)\"\n\nHere followed at once the Introit for the third Mass of Christmas Day,\n\"Puer natus est nobis, et filius datus est nobis, &c. (Unto us a child is\nborn, unto us a son is given.)\" The question and answer were no doubt\nsung by different choirs.{2}\n\nOne can well imagine that this might develop into a regular little drama.\nAs a matter of fact, however, it was from an Easter trope in the same\nmanuscript, the \"Quem quaeritis,\" a dialogue between the three Maries and\nthe angel at the sepulchre, that the liturgical drama sprang. The trope\nbecame very popular, and was gradually elaborated into a short symbolic\ndrama, and its popularity led to the composition of similar pieces for\nChristmas and Ascensiontide. Here is the Christmas trope from a St. Gall\nmanuscript:--\n\n    \"_On the Nativity of the Lord at Mass let there be ready two deacons\n    having on dalmatics, behind the altar, saying_:\n\n    Quem quaeritis in praesepe, pastores, dicite? (Whom seek ye in the\n    manger, say, ye shepherds?) |124|\n\n    _Let two cantors in the choir answer_:\n\n    Salvatorem Christum Dominum, infantem pannis involutum, secundum\n    sermonem angelicum. (The Saviour, Christ the Lord, a child wrapped in\n    swaddling clothes, according to the angelic word.)\n\n    _And the deacons_:\n\n    Adest hic parvulus cum Maria, matre sua, de qua, vaticinando, Isaias\n    Propheta: ecce virgo concipiet et pariet filium; et nuntiantes dicite\n    quia natus est. (Present here is the little one with Mary, His\n    Mother, of whom Isaiah the prophet foretold: Behold, a virgin shall\n    conceive, and shall bring forth a son; and do ye say and announce\n    that He is born.)\n\n    _Then let the cantor lift up his voice and say_:\n\n    Alleluia, alleluia, jam vere scimus Christum natum in terris, de quo\n    canite, omnes, cum Propheta dicentes: Puer natus est! (Alleluia,\n    alleluia. Now we know indeed that Christ is born on earth, of whom\n    sing ye all, saying with the Prophet: Unto us a child is born.)\"{3}\n\nThe dramatic character of this is very marked. A comparison with later\nliturgical plays suggests that the two deacons in their broad vestments\nwere meant to represent the midwives mentioned in the apocryphal Gospel\nof St. James, and the cantors the shepherds.\n\nA development from this trope, apparently, was the \"Office of the\nShepherds,\" which probably took shape in the eleventh century, though it\nis first given in a Rouen manuscript of the thirteenth. It must have been\nan impressive ceremony as performed in the great cathedral, dimly lit\nwith candles, and full of mysterious black recesses and hints of\ninfinity. Behind the high altar a _praesepe_ or \"crib\" was prepared, with\nan image of the Virgin. After the \"Te Deum\" had been sung five canons or\ntheir vicars, clad in albs and amices, entered by the great door of the\nchoir, and proceeded towards the apse. These were the shepherds. Suddenly\nfrom high above them came a clear boy's voice: \"Fear not, behold I bring\nyou good tidings of great joy,\" and the rest of the angelic message. The\n\"multitude of the heavenly host\" was represented by other boys stationed\nprobably |125| in the triforium galleries, who broke out into the\nexultant \"Gloria in excelsis.\" Singing a hymn, \"Pax in terris nunciatur,\"\nthe shepherds advanced towards the crib where two priests--the\nmidwives--awaited them. These addressed to the shepherds the question\n\"Whom seek ye in the manger?\" and then came the rest of the \"Quem\nquaeritis\" which we already know, a hymn to the Virgin being sung while\nthe shepherds adored the Infant. Mass followed immediately, the little\ndrama being merely a prelude.{4}\n\nMore important than this Office of the Shepherds is an Epiphany play\ncalled by various names, \"Stella,\" \"Tres Reges,\" \"Magi,\" or \"Herodes,\"\nand found in different forms at Limoges, Rouen, Laon, Compiegne,\nStrasburg, Le Mans, Freising in Bavaria, and other places. Mr. E. K.\nChambers suggests that its kernel is a dramatized Offertory. It was a\ncustom for Christian kings to present gold, frankincense, and myrrh at\nthe Epiphany--the offering is still made by proxy at the Chapel Royal,\nSt. James's--and Mr. Chambers takes \"the play to have served as a\nsubstitute for this ceremony, when no king actually regnant was\npresent.\"{5} Its most essential features were the appearance of the Star\nof Bethlehem to the Magi, and their offering of the mystic gifts. The\nstar, bright with candles, hung from the roof of the church, and was\nsometimes made to move.\n\nIn the Rouen version of the play it is ordered that on the day of the\nEpiphany, Terce having been sung, three clerics, robed as kings, shall\ncome from the east, north, and south, and meet before the altar, with\ntheir servants bearing the offerings of the Magi. The king from the east,\npointing to the star with his stick, exclaims:--\n\n    \"Stella fulgore nimio rutilat. (The star glows with exceeding\n    brightness.)\"\n\nThe second monarch answers:\n\n    \"Quae regem regum natum demonstrat. (Which shows the birth of the\n    King of Kings.)\" |126|\n\nAnd the third:\n\n    \"Quem venturum olim prophetiae signaverant. (To whose coming the\n    prophecies of old had pointed.)\"\n\nThen the Magi kiss one another and together sing:\n\n    \"Eamus ergo et inquiramus eum, offerentes ei munera: aurum, thus, et\n    myrrham. (Let us therefore go and seek Him, offering unto Him gifts:\n    gold, frankincense, and myrrh.)\"\n\nAntiphons are sung, a procession is formed, and the Magi go to a certain\naltar above which an image of the Virgin has been placed with a lighted\nstar before it. Two priests in dalmatics--apparently the\nmidwives--standing on either side of the altar, inquire who the Magi are,\nand receiving their answer, draw aside a curtain and bid them approach to\nworship the Child, \"for He is the redemption of the world.\" The three\nkings do adoration, and offer their gifts, each with a few pregnant\nwords:--\n\n     \"Suscipe, rex, aurum. (Receive, O King, gold.)\"\n     \"Tolle thus, tu vere Deus. (Accept incense, Thou very God.)\"\n     \"Myrrham, signum sepulturae. (Myrrh, the sign of burial.)\"\n\nThe clergy and people then make their offerings, while the Magi fall\nasleep and are warned by an angel to return home another way. This they\ndo symbolically by proceeding back to the choir by a side aisle.{6}\n\nIn its later forms the Epiphany play includes the appearance of Herod,\nwho is destined to fill a very important place in the mediaeval drama.\nHamlet's saying \"he out-Herods Herod\" sufficiently suggests the raging\ntyrant whom the playwrights of the Middle Ages loved. His appearance\nmarks perhaps the first introduction into the Christian religious play of\nthe evil principle so necessary to dramatic effect. At first Herod holds\nmerely a mild conversation with the Magi, begging them to tell him when\nthey have found the new-born King; in later versions of the play,\nhowever, his wrath is shown on learning that the Wise Men have |127|\ndeparted home by another way; he breaks out into bloodthirsty tirades,\norders the slaying of the Innocents, and in one form takes a sword and\nbrandishes it in the air. He becomes in fact the outstanding figure in\nthe drama, and one can understand why it was sometimes named after him.\n\nIn the Laon \"Stella\" the actual murder of the Innocents was represented,\nthe symbolical figure of Rachel weeping over her children being\nintroduced. The plaint and consolation of Rachel, it should be noted,\nseem at first to have formed an independent little piece performed\nprobably on Holy Innocents' Day.{7} This later coalesced with the\n\"Stella,\" as did also the play of the shepherds, and, at a still later\ndate, another liturgical drama which we must now consider--the\n\"Prophetae.\"\n\nThis had its origin in a sermon (wrongly ascribed to St. Augustine)\nagainst Jews, Pagans, and Arians, a portion of which was used in many\nchurches as a Christmas lesson. It begins with a rhetorical appeal to the\nJews who refuse to accept Jesus as the Messiah in spite of the witness of\ntheir own prophets. Ten prophets are made to give their testimony, and\nthen three Pagans are called upon, Virgil, Nebuchadnezzar and the\nErythraean Sibyl. The sermon has a strongly dramatic character, and when\nchanted in church the parts of the preacher and the prophets were\npossibly distributed among different choristers. In time it developed\ninto a regular drama, and more prophets were brought in. It was, indeed,\nthe germ of the great Old Testament cycles of the later Middle Ages.{8}\n\nAn extension of the \"Prophetae\" was the Norman or Anglo-Norman play of\n\"Adam,\" which began with the Fall, continued with Cain and Abel, and\nended with the witness of the prophets. In the other direction the\n\"Prophetae\" was extended by the addition of the \"Stella.\" It so happens\nthat there is no text of a Latin drama containing both these extensions\nat the same time, but such a play probably existed. From the\nmid-thirteenth to the mid-fourteenth century, indeed, there was a\ntendency for the plays to run together into cycles and become too long\nand too elaborate for performance in church. In the eleventh century,\neven, they had begun to pass out into the churchyard or |128| the\nmarket-place, and to be played not only by the clergy but by laymen. This\nchange had extremely important effects on their character. In the first\nplace the vulgar tongue crept in. As early, possibly, as the twelfth\ncentury are the Norman \"Adam\" and the Spanish \"Misterio de los Reyes\nMagos,\" the former, as we have seen, an extended vernacular \"Prophetae,\"\nthe latter, a fragment of a highly developed vernacular \"Stella.\" They\nare the first of the popular as distinguished from the liturgical plays;\nthey were meant, as their language shows, for the instruction and delight\nof the folk; they were not to be listened to, like the mysterious Latin\nof the liturgy, in uncomprehending reverence, but were to be understanded\nof the people.\n\nThe thirteenth and fourteenth centuries saw a progressive supplanting of\nLatin by the common speech, until, in the great cycles, only a few scraps\nof the church language were left to tell of the liturgical origin of the\ndrama. The process of popularization, the development of the plays from\nreligious ceremonial to lively drama, was probably greatly helped by the\n_goliards_ or vagabond scholars, young, poor, and fond of amusement, who\nwandered over Europe from teacher to teacher, from monastery to\nmonastery, in search of learning. Their influence is shown not merely in\nthe broadening of the drama, but also in its passing from the Latin of\nthe monasteries to the language of the common folk.\n\nA consequence of the outdoor performance of the plays was that Christmas,\nin the northern countries at all events, was found an unsuitable time for\nthem. The summer was naturally preferred, and we find comparatively few\nmentions of plays at Christmas in the later Middle Ages. Whitsuntide and\nCorpus Christi became more popular dates, especially in England, and the\npieces then performed were vast cosmic cycles, like the York, Chester,\nTowneley, and \"Coventry\" plays, in which the Christmas and Epiphany\nepisodes formed but links in an immense chain extending from the Creation\nto the Last Judgment, and representing the whole scheme of salvation. It\nis in these Nativity scenes, however, that we have the only English\nrenderings of the Christmas story in drama,{9} and though they |129|\nwere actually performed not at the winter festival[42] but in the summer,\nthey give in so striking a way the feelings, the point of view, of our\nmediaeval forefathers in regard to the Nativity that we are justified in\ndealing with them here at some length.\n\nAs the drama became laicized, it came to reflect that strange medley of\nconflicting elements, pagan and Christian, materialistic and spiritual,\nwhich was the actual religion of the folk, as distinguished from the\nphilosophical theology of the doctors and councils and the mysticism of\nthe ascetics. The popularizing of Christianity had reached its climax in\nmost countries of western Europe in the fifteenth century, approximately\nthe period of the great \"mysteries.\" However little the ethical teaching\nof Jesus may have been acted upon, the Christian religion on its external\nside had been thoroughly appropriated by the people and wrought into a\nmany-coloured polytheism, a true reflection of their minds.\n\nThe figures of the drama are contemporaries of the spectators both in\ngarb and character; they are not Orientals of ancient times, but\nEuropeans of the end of the Middle Ages. Bethlehem is a \"faier borow,\"\nHerod a \"mody king,\" like unto some haughty, capricious, and violent\nmonarch of the time, the shepherds are rustics of England or Germany or\nFrance or Italy, the Magi mighty potentates with gorgeous trains, and the\nChild Himself is a little being subject to all the pains and necessities\nof infancy, but delighted with sweet and pleasant things like a bob of\ncherries or a ball. The realism of the writers is sometimes astounding,\nand comic elements often appear--to the people of the Middle Ages\nreligion was so real and natural a thing that they could laugh at it\nwithout ceasing to believe in or to love it.\n\nThe English mediaeval playwrights, it may safely be said, are surpassed\nby no foreigners in their treatment of Christmas subjects. To illustrate\ntheir way of handling the scenes I may |130| gather from the four great\ncycles a few of the most interesting passages.\n\nFrom the so-called \"Ludus Coventriae\" I take the arrival of Joseph and\nMary at Bethlehem; they ask a man in the street where they may find an\ninn:--\n\n   \"_Joseph._  Heyl, wurchepful sere, and good day!\n      A ceteceyn of this cyte ye seme to be;\n    Of herborwe[43] ffor spowse and me I yow pray,\n      ffor trewly this woman is fful were,\n              And fayn at reste, sere, wold she be;\n\n    We wolde ffulffylle the byddynge of oure emperoure,\n    ffor to pay tribute, as right is oure,\n    And to kepe oureselfe ffrom dolowre,\n              We are come to this cyte.\n\n    _Cives._  Sere, ostage in this towne know I non,\n      Thin wyff and thou in for to slepe;\n    This cete is besett with pepyl every won,\n      And yett thei ly withowte fful every strete.\n\n    Withinne no walle, man, comyst thou nowth,\n      Be thou onys[44] withinne the cyte gate;\n    Onethys[45] in the strete a place may be sowth,\n      Theron to reste, withowte debate.\n\n    _Joseph._  Nay, sere, debate that wyl I nowth;\n      Alle suche thyngys passyn my powere:\n    But yitt my care and alle my thought\n      Is for Mary, my derlynge dere.\n\n    A! swete wyff, wat xal we do?\n      Wher xal we logge this nyght?\n    Onto the ffadyr of heffne pray we so,\n      Us to kepe ffrom every wykkyd whyt.\n\n    _Cives._  Good man, o word I wyl the sey,\n      If thou wylt do by the counsel of me;\n    Yondyr is an hous of haras[46] that stant be the wey,\n      Amonge the bestys herboryd may ye be. |131|\n\n    _Maria._  Now the fadyr of hefne he mut yow yelde!\n      His sone in my wombe forsothe he is;\n    He kepe the and thi good be fryth and ffelde!\n      Go we hens, husbond, for now tyme it is.\"{11}\n\nThe scene immediately after the Nativity is delicately and reverently\npresented in the York cycle. The Virgin worships the Child, saluting Him\nthus:--\n\n   \"Hayle my lord God! hayle prince of pees!\n    Hayle my fadir, and hayle my sone!\n    Hayle souereyne sege all synnes to sesse!\n    Hayle God and man in erth to wonne![47]\n                Hayle! thurgh whos myht\n    All this worlde was first be-gonne,\n                merkness[48] and light.\n\n    Sone, as I am sympill sugett of thyne,\n    Vowchesaffe, swete sone I pray the,\n    That I myght the take in the[r] armys of mine,\n    And in this poure wede to arraie the;\n                Graunte me thi blisse!\n    As I am thy modir chosen to be\n                in sothfastnesse.\"\n\nJoseph, who has gone out to get a light, returns, and this dialogue\nfollows:--\n\n   \"_Joseph._  Say, Marie doghtir, what chere with the?\n    _Mary._    Right goode, Joseph, as has been ay.\n    _Joseph._  O Marie! what swete thyng is that on thy kne?\n    _Mary._    It is my sone, the soth to saye, that is so gud\n    _Joseph._  Wel is me I bade this day, to se this foode![49]\n        Me merueles mekill of this light\n        That thus-gates shynes in this place,\n        For suth it is a selcouth[50] sight! |132|\n    _Mary._    This hase he ordand of his grace, my sone so ying,\n        A starne to be schynyng a space at his bering\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n    _Joseph._ Nowe welcome, floure fairest of hewe,\n        I shall the menske[51] with mayne and myght.\n        Hayle! my maker, hayle Crist Jesu!\n        Hayle, riall king, roote of all right!\n                           Hayle, saueour.\n        Hayle, my lorde, lemer[52] of light,\n                           Hayle, blessid floure!\n\n    _Mary._    Nowe lord! that all this worlde schall wynne,\n        To the my sone is that I saye,\n        Here is no bedde to laye the inne,\n        Therfore my dere sone, I the praye sen it is soo,\n        Here in this cribbe I myght the lay betwene ther bestis two.\n        And I sall happe[53] the, myn owne dere childe,\n        With such clothes as we haue here.\n\n    _Joseph._  O Marie! beholde thes beestis mylde,\n        They make louyng in ther manere as thei wer men.\n        For-sothe it semes wele be ther chere thare lord thei ken.\n\n    _Mary._    Ther lorde thai kenne, that wate I wele,\n        They worshippe hym with myght and mayne;\n        The wedir is colde, as ye may feele,\n        To halde hym warme thei are full fayne, with thare warme\n            breth.\"{12}\n\nThe playwrights are at their best in the shepherd scenes; indeed these\nare the most original parts of the cycles, for here the writers found\nlittle to help them in theological tradition, and were thrown upon their\nown wit. In humorous dialogue and naive sentiment the lusty burgesses of\nthe fifteenth century were thoroughly at home, and the comedy and pathos\nof these scenes must have been as welcome a relief to the spectators,\nfrom the |133| long-winded solemnity of many of the plays, as they are\nto modern readers. In the York mysteries the shepherds make uncouth\nexclamations at the song of the angels and ludicrously try to imitate it.\nThe Chester shepherds talk in a very natural way of such things as the\ndiseases of sheep, sit down with much relish to a meal of \"ale of\nHalton,\" sour milk, onions, garlick and leeks, green cheese, a sheep's\nhead soused in ale, and other items; then they call their lad Trowle, who\ngrumbles because his wages have not been paid, refuses to eat, wrestles\nwith his masters and throws them all. They sit down discomfited; then the\nStar of Bethlehem appears, filling them with wonder, which grows when\nthey hear the angels' song of \"Gloria in excelsis.\" They discuss what the\nwords were--\"glore, glare with a glee,\" or, \"glori, glory, glorious,\" or,\n\"glory, glory, with a glo.\" At length they go to Bethlehem, and arrived\nat the stable, the first shepherd exclaims:--\n\n   \"Sym, Sym, sickerlye\n    Heare I see Marye,\n    And Jesus Christe faste by,\n    Lapped in haye.\"{13}\n\nJoseph is strangely described:--\n\n   \"Whatever this oulde man that heare is,\n    Take heede howe his head is whore,\n    His beirde is like a buske of breyers,\n    With a pound of heaire about his mouth and more.\"{14}\n\nTheir gifts to the Infant are a bell, a flask, a spoon to eat pottage\nwith, and a cape. Trowle the servant has nought to offer but a pair of\nhis wife's old hose; four boys follow with presents of a bottle, a hood,\na pipe, and a nut-hook. Quaint are the words of the last two givers:--\n\n        \"_The Thirde Boye._\n\n    O, noble childe of thee!\n    Alas! what have I for thee,\n    Save only my pipe? |134|\n    Elles trewly nothinge,\n    Were I in the rockes or in,\n    I coulde make this pippe\n    That all this woode should ringe,\n    And quiver, as yt were.\n\n        _The Fourth Boye._\n\n    Nowe, childe, although thou be comon from God,\n    And be God thy selfe in thy manhoode,\n    Yet I knowe that in thy childehoode\n    Thou wylte for sweete meate loke,\n    To pull downe aples, peares, and plumes,\n    Oulde Joseph shall not nede to hurte his thombes,\n    Because thou hast not pleintie of crombes,\n    I geve thee heare my nutthocke.\"{15}\n\nLet no one deem this irreverent; the spirit of this adoration of the\nshepherds is intensely devout; they go away longing to tell all the world\nthe wonder they have seen; one will become a pilgrim; even the rough\nTrowle exclaims that he will forsake the shepherd's craft and will betake\nhimself to an anchorite's hard by, in prayers to \"wache and wake.\"\n\nMore famous than this Chester \"Pastores\" are the two shepherd plays in\nthe Towneley cycle.{16} The first begins with racy talk, leading to a\nwrangle between two of the shepherds about some imaginary sheep; then a\nthird arrives and makes fun of them both; a feast follows, with much\nhomely detail; they go to sleep and are awakened by the angelic message;\nafter much debate over its meaning and over the foretellings of the\nprophets--one of them, strangely enough, quotes a Latin passage from\nVirgil--they go to Bethlehem and present to the Child a \"lytyll spruse\ncofer,\" a ball, and a gourd-bottle.\n\nThe second play surpasses in humour anything else in the mediaeval drama\nof any country. We find the shepherds first complaining of the cold and\ntheir hard lot; they are \"al lappyd in sorow.\" They talk, almost like\nmodern Socialists, of the oppressions of the rich:--\n\n     \"For the tylthe of our landys lyys falow as the floore,\n           As ye ken. |135|\n      We ar so hamyd,[54]\n      For-taxed and ramyd,[55]\n      We ar mayde hand-tamyd,\n        With thyse gentlery men.\n\n    Thus thay refe[56] us our rest, Our Lady theym wary![57]\n    These men that ar lord-fest,[58] they cause the ploghe tary.\"\n\nTo these shepherds joins himself Mak, a thieving neighbour. Going to\nsleep, they make him lie between them, for they doubt his honesty. But\nfor all their precautions he manages to steal a sheep, and carries it\nhome to his wife. She thinks of an ingenious plan for concealing it from\nthe shepherds if they visit the cottage seeking their lost property: she\nwill pretend that she is in child-bed and that the sheep is the new-born\ninfant. So it is wrapped up and laid in a cradle, and Mak sings a\nlullaby. The shepherds do suspect Mak, and come to search his house; his\nwife upbraids them and keeps them from the cradle. They depart, but\nsuddenly an idea comes to one of them:--\n\n     \"_The First Shepherd._  Gaf ye the chyld any thyng?\n      _The Second._  I trow not oone farthyng.\n      _The Third._  Fast agane will I flyng,\n          Abyde ye me there. [_He goes back._]\n    Mak, take it to no grefe, if I com to thi barne.\"\n\nMak tries to put him off, but the shepherd will have his way:--\n\n   \"Gyf me lefe hym to kys, and lyft up the clowtt.\n    What the devill is this? he has a long snowte.\"\n\nSo the secret is out. Mak's wife gives a desperate explanation:--\n\n   \"He was takyn with an elfe,\n    I saw it myself.\n    When the clok stroke twelf\n      Was he forshapyn.\"\n\n|136| Naturally this avails nothing, and her husband is given a good\ntossing by the shepherds until they are tired out and lie down to rest.\nThen comes the \"Gloria in excelsis\" and the call of the angel:--\n\n   \"Ryse, hyrd men heynd! for now is he borne\n    That shall take fro the feynd that Adam had lorne:\n    That warloo[59] to sheynd,[60] this nyght is he borne,\n    God is made youre freynd: now at this morne\n      He behestys,\n    At Bedlem go se,\n    Ther lygys that fre[61]\n    In a cryb fulle poorely,\n      Betwyx two bestys.\"\n\nThe shepherds wonder at the song, and one of them tries to imitate it;\nthen they go even unto Bethlehem, and there follows the quaintest and\nmost delightful of Christmas carols:--\n\n        \"_Primus Pastor._\n\n    Hail, comly and clene,\n      Hail, yong child!\n    Hail, maker, as I meene,\n      Of a maden so milde!\n    Thou has wared,[62] I weene,\n      The warlo[63] so wilde;\n    The fals giler of teen,[64]\n      Now goes he begilde.\n        Lo! he merys,[65]\n    Lo! he laghes, my sweting.\n    A welfare meting!\n    I have holden my heting.[66]\n    Have a bob of cherys!\n\n        _Secundus Pastor._\n\n    Hail, sufferan Savioure,\n      For thou has us soght!\n    Hail, frely[67] foyde[68] and floure,\n      That all thing has wroght! |137|\n    Hail, full of favoure,\n      That made all of noght!\n    Hail, I kneel and I cowre.\n      A bird have I broght\n        To my barne.\n    Hail, litel tine mop![69]\n    Of oure crede thou art crop;[70]\n    I wold drink on thy cop,\n        Litel day starne.\n\n            _Tertius Pastor._\n\n    Hail, derling dere,\n      Full of godhede!\n    I pray thee be nere\n      When that I have nede.\n    Hail! swete is thy chere;[71]\n      My hart wolde blede\n    To see thee sitt here\n      In so poore wede,\n        With no pennys.\n    Hail! Put forth thy dall![72]\n    I bring thee bot a ball;\n    Have and play thee with all,\n        And go to the tenis!\"{17}\n\nThe charm of this will be felt by every reader; it lies in a curious\nincongruity--extreme homeliness joined to awe; the Infinite is contained\nwithin the narrowest human bounds; God Himself, the Creator and Sustainer\nof the universe, a weak, helpless child. But a step more, and all would\nhave been irreverence; as it is we have devotion, human, naive, and\ntouching.\n\nIt would be interesting to show how other scenes connected with Christmas\nare handled in the English miracle-plays: how Octavian (Caesar Augustus)\nsent out the decree that all the world should be taxed, and learned from\nthe Sibyl the birth of Christ; how the Magi were led by the star and\noffered their symbolic gifts; how the raging of the boastful tyrant\nHerod, the |138| Slaughter of the Innocents, and the Flight into Egypt\nare treated; but these scenes, though full of colour, are on the whole\nless remarkable than the shepherd and Nativity pieces, and space forbids\nus to dwell upon them. They contain many curious anachronisms, as when\nHerod invokes Mahounde, and talks about his princes, prelates, barons,\nbaronets and burgesses.[73]\n\nThe religious play in England did not long survive the Reformation. Under\nthe influence of Protestantism, with its vigilant dread of profanity and\nsuperstition, the cycles were shorn of many of their scenes, the\nperformances became irregular, and by the end of the sixteenth century\nthey had mostly ceased to be. Not sacred story, but the play of human\ncharacter, was henceforth the material of the drama. The rich, variegated\nreligion of the people, communal in its expression, tinged everywhere\nwith human colour, gave place to a sterner, colder, more individual\nfaith, fearful of contamination by the use of the outward and visible.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThere is little or no trace in the vernacular Christmas plays of direct\ntranslation from one language into another, though there was some\nborrowing of motives. Thus the Christmas drama of each nation has its own\nspecial flavour.\n\nIf we turn to France, we find a remarkable fifteenth-century cycle that\nbelongs purely to the winter festival, and shows the strictly Christmas\ndrama at its fullest development. This great mystery of the \"Incarnacion\net nativite de nostre saulveur et redempteur Jesuchrist\" was performed\nout-of-doors at Rouen in 1474, an exceptional event for a northern city\nin winter-time. The twenty-four _establies_ or \"mansions\" set up for the\nvarious scenes reached across the market-place from the \"Axe and Crown\"\nInn to the \"Angel.\"\n\n|139| After a prologue briefly explaining its purpose, the mystery\nbegins, like the old liturgical plays, with the witness of the prophets;\nthen follows a scene in Limbo where Adam is shown lamenting his fate, and\nanother in Heaven where the Redemption of mankind is discussed and the\nIncarnation decided upon. With the Annunciation and the Visitation of the\nVirgin the first day closed. The second day opened with the ordering by\nOctavian of the world-census. The edict is addressed:--\n\n   \"A tous roys, marquis, ducs et contes,\n    Connestables, bailifs, vicomtes\n    Et tous autres generalment\n    Qui sont desoubz le firmament.\"\n\nJoseph, in order to fulfil the command of Cyrenius, governor of Syria,\nleaves Nazareth for Bethlehem. A comic shepherds' scene follows, with a\nrustic song:--\n\n   \"Joyeusement, la garenlo,\n    Chantons en venant a la veille,\n    Puisque nous avons la bouteille\n    Nous y berons jusques a bo.\"\n\nWhen Joseph and Mary reach the stable where the Nativity is to take\nplace, there is a charming dialogue. Joseph laments over the meanness of\nthe stable, Mary accepts it with calm resignation.\n\n        _Joseph._\n\n   \"Las! vecy bien povre merrien\n    Pour edifier un hostel\n    Et logis a ung seigneur tel.\n    Il naistra en bien povre place.\n\n        _Marie._\n\n    Il plait a Dieu qu'ainsy se face.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n        _Joseph._\n\n    Ou sont ces chambres tant fournies\n    De Sarges, de Tapiceries |140|\n    Batus d'or, ou luyt mainte pierre,\n    Et nates mises sur la terre,\n    Affin que le froit ne mefface?\n\n        _Marie._\n\n    Il plait a Dieu qu'ainsy se face.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n        _Joseph._\n\n    Helas! cy gerra povrement\n    Le createur du firmament\n    Celui qui fait le soleil luire,\n    Qui fait la terre fruis produire,\n    Qui tient la mer en son espace.\n\n        _Marie._\n\n    Il plait a Dieu qu'ainsy se face.\"\n\nAt last Christ is born, welcomed by the song of the angels, adored by His\nmother. In the heathen temples the idols fall; Hell mouth opens and shows\nthe rage of the demons, who make a hideous noise; fire issues from the\nnostrils and eyes and ears of Hell, which shuts up with the devils within\nit. And then the angels in the stable worship the Child Jesus. The\nadoration of the shepherds was shown with many naive details for the\ndelight of the people, and the performance ended with the offering of a\nsacrifice in Rome by the Emperor Octavian to an image of the Blessed\nVirgin.{19}\n\nThe French playwrights, quite as much as the English, love comic shepherd\nscenes with plenty of eating and drinking and brawling. A traditional\nfigure is the shepherd Rifflart, always a laughable type. In the strictly\nmediaeval plays the shepherds are true French rustics, but with the\nprogress of the Renaissance classical elements creep into the pastoral\nscenes; in a mystery printed in 1507 Orpheus with the Nymphs and Oreads\nis introduced. As might be expected, anachronisms often occur; a\npeculiarly piquant instance is found in the S. Genevieve mystery, where\nCaesar Augustus gets a piece of Latin translated into French for his\nconvenience.\n\n[Illustration:\n\nTHE SHEPHERDS OF BETHLEHEM.\n\nFrom \"Le grant Kalendrier compost des Bergiers\"\n(N. le Rouge, Troyes, 1529).\n\n(Reproduced from a modern broadside published\nby Mr. F. Sidgwick.)]\n\n|141| Late examples of French Christmas mysteries are the so-called\n\"comedies\" of the Nativity, Adoration of the Kings, Massacre of the\nInnocents, and Flight into Egypt contained in the \"Marguerites\"\n(published in 1547) of Marguerite, Queen of Navarre, sister of Francois\nI. Intermingled with the traditional figures treated more or less in the\ntraditional way are personified abstractions like Philosophy,\nTribulation, Inspiration, Divine Intelligence, and Contemplation, which\nlargely rob the plays of dramatic effect. There is some true poetry in\nthese pieces, but too much theological learning and too little\nsimplicity, and in one place the ideas of Calvin seem to show\nthemselves.{20}\n\nThe French mystery began to fall into decay about the middle of the\nsixteenth century. It was attacked on every side: by the new poets of the\nRenaissance, who preferred classical to Christian subjects; by the\nProtestants, who deemed the religious drama a trifling with the solemn\ntruths of Scripture; and even by the Catholic clergy, who, roused to\ngreater strictness by the challenge of Protestantism, found the comic\nelements in the plays offensive and dangerous, and perhaps feared that\ntoo great familiarity with the Bible as represented in the mysteries\nmight lead the people into heresy.{21} Yet we hear occasionally of\nChristmas dramas in France in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth\ncenturies. In the neighbourhood of Nantes, for instance, a play of the\nNativity by Claude Macee, hermit, probably written in the seventeenth\ncentury, was commonly performed in the first half of the nineteenth.{22}\nAt Clermont the adoration of the shepherds was still performed in 1718,\nand some kind of representation of the scene continued in the diocese of\nCambrai until 1834, when it was forbidden by the bishop. In the south,\nespecially at Marseilles, \"pastorals\" were played towards the end of the\nnineteenth century; they had, however, largely lost their sacred\ncharacter, and had become a kind of review of the events of the\nyear.{23} At Dinan, in Brittany, some sort of Herod play was performed,\nthough it was dying out, in 1886. It was acted by young men on the\nEpiphany, and there was an \"innocent\" whose throat they pretended to cut\nwith a wooden sword.{24}\n\n|142| An interesting summary of a very full Nativity play performed in\nthe churches of Upper Gascony on Christmas Eve is given by Countess\nMartinengo-Cesaresco.{25} It ranges from the arrival of Joseph and Mary\nat Bethlehem to the Flight into Egypt and the Murder of the Innocents,\nbut perhaps the most interesting parts are the shepherd scenes. After the\nmessage of the angel--a child in a surplice, with wings fastened to his\nshoulders, seated on a chair drawn up to the ceiling and supported by\nropes--the shepherds leave the church, the whole of which is now regarded\nas the stable of the Divine Birth. They knock for admittance, and Joseph,\nregretting that the chamber is \"so badly lighted,\" lets them in. They\nfall down before the manger, and so do the shepherdesses, who \"deposit on\nthe altar steps a banner covered with flowers and greenery, from which\nhang strings of small birds, apples, nuts, chestnuts, and other fruits.\nIt is their Christmas offering to the cure; the shepherds have already\nplaced a whole sheep before the altar, in a like spirit.\" The play is not\nmere dumb-show, but has a full libretto.\n\nA rather similar piece of dramatic ceremonial is described by Barthelemy\nin his edition of Durandus,{26} as customary in the eighteenth century\nat La Villeneuve-en-Chevrie, near Mantes. At the Midnight Mass a _creche_\nwith a wax figure of the Holy Child was placed in the choir, with tapers\nburning about it. After the \"Te Deum\" had been sung, the celebrant,\naccompanied by his attendants, censed the _creche_, to the sound of\nviolins, double-basses, and other instruments. A shepherd then prostrated\nhimself before the crib, holding a sheep with a sort of little saddle\nbearing sixteen lighted candles. He was followed by two shepherdesses in\nwhite with distaffs and tapers. A second shepherd, between two\nshepherdesses, carried a laurel branch, to which were fastened oranges,\nlemons, biscuits, and sweetmeats. Two others brought great _pains-benits_\nand lighted candles; then came four shepherdesses, who made their\nadoration, and lastly twenty-six more shepherds, two by two, bearing in\none hand a candle and in the other a festooned crook. The same ceremonial\nwas practised at the Offertory and after the close of the Mass. All was\ndone, it is said, with such piety and edification that |143| St. Luke's\nwords about the Bethlehem shepherds were true of these French\nswains--they \"returned glorifying and praising God for all the things\nthey had heard and seen.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn German there remain very few Christmas plays earlier than the\nfifteenth century. Later periods, however, have produced a multitude, and\ndramatic performances at Christmas have continued down to quite modern\ntimes in German-speaking parts.\n\nAt Oberufer near Pressburg--a German Protestant village in Hungary--some\nfifty years ago, a Christmas play was performed under the direction of an\nold farmer, whose office as instructor had descended from father to son.\nThe play took place at intervals of from three to ten years and was acted\non all Sundays and festivals from Advent to the Epiphany. Great care was\ntaken to ensure the strictest piety and morality in the actors, and no\nsecular music was allowed in the place during the season for the\nperformances. The practices began as early as October. On the first\nSunday in Advent there was a solemn procession to the hall hired for the\nplay. First went a man bearing a gigantic star--he was called the \"Master\nSinger\"--and another carrying a Christmas-tree decked with ribbons and\napples; then came all the actors, singing hymns. There was no scenery and\nno theatrical apparatus beyond a straw-seated chair and a wooden stool.\nWhen the first was used, the scene was understood to be Jerusalem, when\nthe second, Bethlehem. The Christmas drama, immediately preceded by an\nAdam and Eve play, and succeeded by a Shrove Tuesday one, followed\nmediaeval lines, and included the wanderings of Joseph and Mary round the\ninns of Bethlehem, the angelic tidings to the shepherds, their visit to\nthe manger, the adoration of the Three Kings, and various Herod scenes.\nProtestant influence was shown by the introduction of Luther's \"Vom\nHimmel hoch,\" but the general character was very much that of the old\nmysteries, and the dialogue was full of quaint naivete.{27}\n\nAt Brixlegg, in Tyrol, as late as 1872 a long Christmas play was acted\nunder Catholic auspices; some of its dialogue was in |144| the Tyrolese\n_patois_ and racy and humorous, other parts, and particularly the\nspeeches of Mary and Joseph--out of respect for these holy\npersonages--had been rewritten in the eighteenth century in a very\nstilted and undramatic style. Some simple shepherd plays are said to be\nstill presented in the churches of the Saxon Erzgebirge.{28}\n\nThe German language is perhaps richer in real Christmas plays, as\ndistinguished from Nativity and Epiphany episodes in great cosmic cycles,\nthan any other. There are some examples in mediaeval manuscripts, but the\nmost interesting are shorter pieces performed in country places in\ncomparatively recent times, and probably largely traditional in\nsubstance. Christianity by the fourteenth century had at last gained a\nreal hold upon the German people, or perhaps one should rather say the\nGerman people had laid a strong hold upon Christianity, moulding it into\nsomething very human and concrete, materialistic often, yet not without\nspiritual significance. In cradle-rocking and religious dancing at\nChristmas the instincts of a lusty, kindly race expressed themselves, and\nthe same character is shown in the short popular Christmas dramas\ncollected by Weinhold and others.{29} Many of the little pieces--some\nare rather duets than plays--were sung or acted in church or by the\nfireside in the nineteenth century, and perhaps even now may linger in\nremote places. They are in dialect, and the rusticity of their language\nharmonizes well with their naive, homely sentiment. In them we behold the\nscenes of Bethlehem as realized by peasants, and their mixture of rough\nhumour and tender feeling is thoroughly in keeping with the subject.\n\nOne is made to feel very vividly the amazement of the shepherds at the\nwondrous and sudden apparition of the angels:--\n\n   \"_Riepl._ Woas is das fuer a Getuemmel,\n             I versteh mi nit in d'Welt.\n    _Joergl._ Is den heunt eingfalln der Himmel,\n             Fleugn d'Engeln auf unserm Feld?\n    _R._     Thuen Sprueng macha\n    _J._     Von oben acha! |145|\n    _R._     I turft das Ding nit noacha thoan,\n             that mir brechn Hals und Boan.\"[74]{30}\n\nThe cold is keenly brought home to us when they come to the manger:--\n\n   \"_J._     Mei Kind, kanst kei Herberg finden?\n             Muest so viel Frost leiden schoan.\n    _R._     Ligst du under kalden Windeln!\n             Laegts ihm doch a Gwandl oan!\n    _J._     Machts ihm d'Fueess ein,\n             Huellts in zue fein!\"[75]{31}\n\nVery homely are their presents to the Child:--\n\n   \"Ein drei Eier und ein Butter\n    Bringen wir auch, nemt es an!\n    Einen Han zu einer Suppen,\n    Wanns die Mutter kochen kann.\n    Giessts ein Schmalz drein, wirds wol guet sein.\n    Weil wir sonsten gar nix han,\n    Sind wir selber arme Hirten,\n    Nemts den guten Willen an.\"[76]{32}\n\nOne of the dialogues ends with a curious piece of ordinary human\nkindliness, as if the Divine nature of the Infant were quite forgotten\nfor the moment:--\n\n   \"_J._     Bleib halt fein gsund, mein kloans Liebl,\n             Wannst woas brauchst, so komm ze mir.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n    _J._     Pfueet di Got halt! |146|\n    _R._     Waer fein gross bald!\n    _J._     Kannst in mein Dienst stehen ein,\n             Wann darzu wirst gross gnue sein.\"[77]{33}\n\nFar more interesting in their realism and naturalness are these little\nplays of the common folk than the elaborate Christmas dramas of more\nlearned German writers, Catholic and Lutheran, who in the sixteenth and\nseventeenth centuries became increasingly stilted and bombastic.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe Italian religious drama{34} evolved somewhat differently from that\nof the northern countries. The later thirteenth century saw the outbreak\nof the fanaticism of the Flagellants or _Battuti_, vast crowds of people\nof all classes who went in procession from church to church, from city to\ncity, scourging their naked bodies in terror and repentance till the\nblood flowed. When the wild enthusiasm of this movement subsided it left\nenduring traces in the foundation of lay communities throughout the land,\ncontinuing in a more sober way the penitential practices of the\nFlagellants. One of their aids to devotion was the singing or reciting of\nvernacular poetry, less formal than the Latin hymns of the liturgy, and\nknown as _laude_.[78] These _laude_ developed a more or less dramatic\nform, which gained the name of _divozioni_.[79] They were, perhaps\n(though not certainly, for there seems to have been another tradition\nderived from the regular liturgical drama), the source from which sprang\nthe gorgeously produced _sacre rappresentazioni_ of the fifteenth\ncentury.\n\nThe _sacre rappresentazioni_ corresponded, though with considerable\ndifferences, to the miracle-plays of England and France. Their great\nperiod was the fifty years from 1470 to 1520, and |147| they were\nperformed, like the _divozioni_, by confraternities of religious laymen.\nThe actors were boys belonging to the brotherhoods, and the plays were\nintended to be edifying for youth. They are more refined than the\nnorthern religious dramas, but only too often fall into insipidity.\n\nAmong the texts given by D'Ancona in his collection of _sacre\nrappresentazioni_ is a Tuscan \"Nativita,\"{36} opening with a pastoral\nscene resembling those in the northern mysteries, but far less vigorous.\nIt cannot compare, for character and humour, with the Towneley plays.\nStill the shepherds, whose names are Bobi del Farucchio, Nencio di\nPucchio, Randello, Nencietto, Giordano, and Falconcello, are at least\nmeant to have a certain rusticity, as they feast on bread and cheese and\nwine, play to the Saviour on bagpipe or whistle, and offer humble\npresents like apples and cheese. The scenes which follow, the coming of\nthe Magi and the Murder of the Innocents, are not intrinsically of great\ninterest.\n\nIt is possible that this play may have been the spectacle performed in\nFlorence in 1466, as recorded by Machiavelli, \"to give men something to\ntake away their thoughts from affairs of state.\" It \"represented the\ncoming of the three Magi Kings from the East, following the star which\nshowed the Nativity of Christ, and it was of so great pomp and\nmagnificence that it kept the whole city busy for several months in\narranging and preparing it.\"{37}\n\nAn earlier record of an Italian pageant of the Magi is this account by\nthe chronicler Galvano Flamma of what took place at Milan in 1336:--\n\n    \"There were three kings crowned, on great horses, ... and an\n    exceeding great train. And there was a golden star running through\n    the air, which went before these three kings, and they came to the\n    columns of San Lorenzo, where was King Herod in effigy, with the\n    scribes and wise men. And they were seen to ask King Herod where\n    Christ was born, and having turned over many books they answered,\n    that He should be born in the city of David distant five miles from\n    Jerusalem. And having heard this, those three kings, crowned with\n    golden crowns, holding in their hands golden cups with gold, incense,\n    |148| and myrrh, came to the church of Sant' Eustorgio, the star\n    preceding them through the air, ... and a wonderful train, with\n    resounding trumpets and horns going before them, with apes, baboons,\n    and diverse kinds of animals, and a marvellous tumult of people.\n    There at the side of the high altar was a manger with ox and ass, and\n    in the manger was the little Christ in the arms of the Virgin Mother.\n    And those kings offered gifts unto Christ; then they were seen to\n    sleep, and a winged angel said to them that they should not return by\n    the region of San Lorenzo but by the Porta Romana; which also was\n    done. There was so great a concourse of the people and soldiers and\n    ladies and clerics that scarce anything like it was ever beheld. And\n    it was ordered that every year this festal show should be\n    performed.\"{38}\n\nHow suggestive this is of the Magi pictures of the fifteenth century,\nwith their gorgeous eastern monarchs and retinues of countless servants\nand strange animals. No other story in the New Testament gives such\nopportunity for pageantry as the Magi scene. All the wonder, richness,\nand romance of the East, all the splendour of western Renaissance princes\ncould lawfully be introduced into the train of the Three Kings. With\nGentile da Fabriano and Benozzo Gozzoli it has become a magnificent\nprocession; there are trumpeters, pages, jesters, dwarfs, exotic\nbeasts--all the motley, gorgeous retinue of the monarchs of the time,\nwhile the kings themselves are romantic figures in richest attire,\nvelvet, brocade, wrought gold, and jewels. It may be that much of this\nsplendour was suggested to the painters by dramatic spectacles which\nactually passed before their eyes.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nI have already alluded to the Spanish \"Mystery of the Magi Kings,\" a mere\nfragment, but of peculiar interest to the historian of the drama as one\nof the two earliest religious plays in a modern European language. Though\nplays are known to have been performed in Spain at Christmas and Easter\nin the Middle Ages,{39} we have no further texts until the very short\n\"Representation of the Birth of Our Lord,\" by Gomez Manrique, Senor de\nVillazopeque (1412-91), acted at the convent at Calabazanos, of which the\nauthor's sister was Superior. The characters |149| introduced are the\nVirgin, St. Joseph, St. Gabriel, St. Michael, St. Raphael, another angel,\nand three shepherds.{40}\n\nTouched by the spirit of the Renaissance, and particularly by the\ninfluence of Virgil, is Juan del Encina of Salamanca (1469-1534), court\npoet to the Duke of Alba, and author of two Christmas eclogues.{41} The\nfirst introduces four shepherds who bear the names of the Evangelists,\nMatthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and are curiously mixed personages, their\nwords being half what might be expected from the shepherds of Bethlehem\nand half sayings proper only to the authors of the Gospels. It ends with\na _villancico_ or carol. The second eclogue is far more realistic, and\nindeed resembles the English and French pastoral scenes. The shepherds\ngrumble about the weather--it has been raining for two months, the floods\nare terrible, and no fords or bridges are left; they talk of the death of\na sacristan, a fine singer; and they play a game with chestnuts; then\ncomes the angel--whom one of them calls a \"smartly dressed lad\" (_garzon\nrepicado_)--to tell them of the Birth, and they go to adore the Child,\ntaking Him a kid, butter-cakes, eggs, and other presents.\n\nInfinitely more ambitious is \"The Birth of Christ\"{42} by the great Lope\nde Vega (1562-1635). It opens in Paradise, immediately after the\nCreation, and ends with the adoration of the Three Kings. Full of\nallegorical conceits and personified qualities, it will hardly please the\ntaste of modern minds. Another work of Lope's, \"The Shepherds of\nBethlehem,\" a long pastoral in prose and verse, published in 1612,\ncontains, amid many incongruities, some of the best of his shorter poems;\none lullaby, sung by the Virgin in a palm-grove while her Child sleeps,\nhas been thus translated by Ticknor:--\n\n   \"Holy angels and blest,\n      Through these palms as ye sweep,\n    Hold their branches at rest,\n      For my babe is asleep.\n\n    And ye Bethlehem palm-trees,\n      As stormy winds rush |150|\n    In tempest and fury,\n      Your angry noise hush;\n    Move gently, move gently,\n      Restrain your wild sweep;\n    Hold your branches at rest,\n      My babe is asleep.\n\n    My babe all divine,\n      With earth's sorrows oppressed,\n    Seeks in slumber an instant\n      His grievings to rest;\n    He slumbers, he slumbers,\n      O, hush, then, and keep\n    Your branches all still,\n      My babe is asleep!\"{43}\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nApart from such modern revivals of the Christmas drama as Mr. Laurence\nHousman's \"Bethlehem,\" Miss Buckton's \"Eager Heart,\" Mrs. Percy Dearmer's\n\"The Soul of the World,\" and similar experiments in Germany and France, a\ngenuine tradition has lingered on in some parts of Europe into modern\ntimes. We have already noticed some French and German instances; to these\nmay be added a few from other countries.\n\nIn Naples there is no Christmas without the \"Cantata dei pastori\"; it is\nlooked forward to no less than the Midnight Mass. Two or three theatres\ncompete for the public favour in the performance of this play in rude\nverse. It begins with Adam and Eve and ends with the birth of Jesus and\nthe adoration of the shepherds. Many devils are brought on the stage,\ntheir arms and legs laden with brass chains that rattle horribly. Awful\nare their names, Lucifero, Satanasso, Belfegor, Belzebu, &c. They not\nonly tempt Adam and Eve, but annoy the Virgin and St. Joseph, until an\nangel comes and frightens them away. Two non-Biblical figures are\nintroduced, Razzullo and Sarchiapone, who are tempted by devils and aided\nby angels.{44} In Sicily too the Christmas play still lingers under the\nname of _Pastorale_.{45}\n\n|151| A nineteenth-century Spanish survival of the \"Stella\" is\ndescribed in Fernan Caballero's sketch, \"La Noche de Navidad.\"{46} At\nthe foot of the altar of the village church, according to this account,\nimages of the Virgin and St. Joseph were placed, with the Holy Child\nbetween them, lying on straw. On either side knelt a small boy dressed as\nan angel. Solemnly there entered the church a number of men attired as\nshepherds, bearing their offerings to the Child; afterwards they danced\nwith slow and dignified movements before the altar. The shepherds were\nfollowed by the richest men of the village dressed as the Magi Kings,\nmounted on horseback, and followed by their train. Before them went a\nshining star. On reaching the church they dismounted; the first,\nrepresenting a majestic old man with white hair, offered incense to the\nBabe; the others, Caspar and Melchior, myrrh and gold respectively. This\nwas done on the feast of the Epiphany.\n\nA remnant possibly of the \"Stella\" is to be found in a Christmas custom\nextremely widespread in Europe and surviving even in some Protestant\nlands--the carrying about of a star in memory of the Star of Bethlehem.\nIt is generally borne by a company of boys, who sing some sort of carol,\nand expect a gift in return.\n\nThe practice is--or was--found as far north as Sweden. All through the\nChristmas season the \"star youths\" go about from house to house. Three\nare dressed up as the Magi Kings, a fourth carries on a stick a paper\nlantern in the form of a six-pointed star, made to revolve and lighted by\ncandles. There are also a Judas, who bears the purse for the collection,\nand, occasionally, a King Herod. A doggerel rhyme is sung, telling the\nstory of the Nativity and offering good wishes.{47} In Norway and\nDenmark processions of a like character were formerly known.{48}\n\nIn Normandy at Christmas children used to go singing through the village\nstreets, carrying a lantern of coloured paper on a long osier rod.{49}\nAt Pleudihen in Brittany three young men representing the Magi sang\ncarols in the cottages, dressed in their holiday clothes covered with\nribbons.{50}\n\n|152| In England there appears to be no trace of the custom, which is\nhowever found in Germany, Austria, Holland, Italy, Bohemia, Roumania,\nPoland, and Russia.{51}\n\nIn Thuringia a curious carol used to be sung, telling how Herod tried to\ntempt the Wise Men--\n\n   \"'Oh, good Wise Men, come in and dine;\n    I will give you both beer and wine,\n    And hay and straw to make your bed,\n    And nought of payment shall be said.'\"\n\nBut they answer:--\n\n   \"'Oh, no! oh, no! we must away,\n    We seek a little Child to-day,\n    A little Child, a mighty King,\n    Him who created everything.'\"{52}\n\nIn Tyrol the \"star-singing\" is very much alive at the present day. In the\nUpper Innthal three boys in white robes, with blackened faces and gold\npaper crowns, go to every house on Epiphany Eve, one of them carrying a\ngolden star on a pole. They sing a carol, half religious, half\ncomic--almost a little drama--and are given money, cake, and drink. In\nthe Ilsethal the boys come on Christmas Eve, and presents are given them\nby well-to-do people. In some parts there is but one singer, an old man\nwith a white beard and a turban, who twirls a revolving star. A\nremarkable point about the Tyrolese star-singers is that before anything\nis given them they are told to stamp on the snowy fields outside the\nhouses, in order to promote the growth of the crops in summer.{53}\n\nIn Little Russia the \"star\" is made of pasteboard and has a transparent\ncentre with a picture of Christ through which the light of a candle\nshines. One boy carries the star and another twirls the points.{54} In\nRoumania it is made of wood and adorned with frills and little bells. A\nrepresentation of the \"manger,\" illuminated from behind, forms the\ncentre, and the star also shows pictures of Adam and Eve and angels.{55}\n\n|153| A curious traditional drama, in which pagan elements seem to have\nmingled with the Herod story, is still performed by the Roumanians during\nthe Christmas festival. It is called in Wallachia \"Vicleim\" (from\nBethlehem), in Moldavia and Transylvania \"Irozi\" (plural from _Irod_ =\nHerod). At least ten persons figure in it: \"Emperor\" Herod, an old\ngrumbling monarch who speaks in harsh tones to his followers; an officer\nand two soldiers in Roman attire; the three Magi, in Oriental garb, a\nchild, and \"two comical figures--the _paiata_ (the clown) and the\n_mosul_, or old man, the former in harlequin accoutrement, the latter\nwith a mask on his face, a long beard, a hunch on his back, and dressed\nin a sheepskin with the wool on the outside. The plot of the play is\nquite simple. The officer brings the news that three strange men have\nbeen caught, going to Bethlehem to adore the new-born Messiah; Herod\norders them to be shown in: they enter singing in a choir. Long dialogues\nensue between them and Herod, who at last orders them to be taken to\nprison. But then they address the Heavenly Father, and shout imprecations\non Herod, invoking celestial punishment on him, at which unaccountable\nnoises are heard, seeming to announce the fulfilment of the curse. Herod\nfalters, begs the Wise Men's forgiveness, putting off his anger till more\nopportune times. The Wise Men retire.... Then a child is introduced, who\ngoes on his knees before Herod, with his hands on his breast, asking\npity. He gives clever answers to various questions and foretells the\nChrist's future career, at which Herod stabs him. The whole troupe now\nstrikes up a tune of reproach to Herod, who falls on his knees in deep\nrepentance.\" The play is sometimes performed by puppets instead of living\nactors.{56}\n\nChristmas plays performed by puppets are found in other countries too. In\nPoland \"during the week between Christmas and New Year is shown the\n_Jaselki_ or manger, a travelling series of scenes from the life of\nChrist or even of modern peasants, a small travelling puppet-theatre,\ngorgeous with tinsel and candles, and something like our 'Punch and Judy'\nshow. The market-place of Cracow, especially at night, is a very pretty\nspectacle, its sidewalks all lined with these glittering Jaselki.\"{57}\nIn Madrid |154| at the Epiphany a puppet-play was common, in which the\nevents of the Nativity and the Infancy were mimed by wooden figures,{58}\nand in Provence, in the mid-nineteenth century, the Christmas scenes were\nrepresented in the same way.{59}\n\nLast may be mentioned a curious Mexican mixture of religion and\namusement, a sort of drama called the \"Posadas,\" described by Madame\nCalderon de la Barca in her \"Life in Mexico\" (1843).{60} The custom was\nbased upon the wanderings of the Virgin and St. Joseph in Bethlehem in\nsearch of repose. For eight days these wanderings of the holy pair to the\ndifferent _posadas_ were represented. On Christmas Eve, says the\nnarrator, \"a lighted candle was put into the hand of each lady [this was\nat a sort of party], and a procession was formed, two by two, which\nmarched all through the house ... the whole party singing the\nLitanies.... A group of little children, dressed as angels, joined the\nprocession.... At last the procession drew up before a door, and a shower\nof fireworks was sent flying over our heads, I suppose to represent the\ndescent of the angels; for a group of ladies appeared, dressed to\nrepresent the shepherds.... Then voices, supposed to be those of Mary and\nJoseph, struck up a hymn, in which they begged for admittance, saying\nthat the night was cold and dark, that the wind blew hard, and that they\nprayed for a night's shelter. A chorus of voices from within refused\nadmittance. Again those without entreated shelter, and at length declared\nthat she at the door, who thus wandered in the night, and had not where\nto lay her head, was the Queen of Heaven! At this name the doors were\nthrown wide open, and the Holy Family entered singing. The scene within\nwas very pretty: a _nacimiento_.... One of the angels held a waxen baby\nin her arms.... A padre took the baby from the angel and placed it in the\ncradle, and the _posada_ was completed. We then returned to the\ndrawing-room--angels, shepherds, and all, and danced till\nsupper-time.\"{60} Here the religious drama has sunk to little more than\na \"Society\" game.\n\n[Illustration:\n\nTHE ADORATION OF THE MAGI. MASACCIO\n\n(_Berlin: Kaiser Friedrich Museum_)]\n\n|155|\n\n\n\n\nPOSTSCRIPT\n\n\nBefore we pass on to the pagan aspects of Christmas, let us gather up our\nthoughts in an attempt to realize the peculiar appeal of the Feast of the\nNativity, as it has been felt in the past, as it is felt to-day even by\nmoderns who have no belief in the historical truth of the story it\ncommemorates.\n\nThis appeal of Christmas seems to lie in the union of two modes of\nfeeling which may be called the _carol spirit_ and the _mystical spirit_.\nThe _carol spirit_--by this we may understand the simple, human\njoyousness, the tender and graceful imagination, the kindly, intimate\naffection, which have gathered round the cradle of the Christ Child. The\nfolk-tune, the secular song adapted to a sacred theme--such is the carol.\nWhat a sense of kindliness, not of sentimentality, but of genuine human\nfeeling, these old songs give us, as though the folk who first sang them\nwere more truly comrades, more closely knit together than we under modern\nindustrialism.\n\nOne element in the carol spirit is the rustic note that finds its\nsanction as regards Christmas in St. Luke's story of the shepherds\nkeeping watch over their flocks by night. One thinks of the stillness\nover the fields, of the hinds with their rough talk, \"simply chatting in\na rustic row,\" of the keen air, and the great burst of light and song\nthat dazes their simple wits, of their journey to Bethlehem where \"the\nheaven-born Child all meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies,\" of the ox\nand ass linking the beasts of the field to the Christmas adoration of\nmankind.[80]\n\nFor many people, indeed, the charm of Christmas is inseparably associated\nwith the country; it is lost in London--the city is too vast, too modern,\ntoo sophisticated. It is bound up with the thought of frosty fields, of\nbells heard far away, of bare trees |156| against the starlit sky, of\ncarols sung not by trained choirs but by rustic folk with rough accent,\nirregular time, and tunes learnt by ear and not by book.\n\nAgain, without the idea of winter half the charm of Christmas would be\ngone. Transplanted in the imagination of western Christendom from an\nundefined season in the hot East to Europe at midwinter, the Nativity\nscenes have taken on a new pathos with the thought of the bitter cold to\nwhich the great Little One lay exposed in the rough stable, with the\ncontrast between the cold and darkness of the night and the fire of love\nveiled beneath that infant form. _Lux in tenebris_ is one of the\nstrongest notes of Christmas: in the bleak midwinter a light shines\nthrough the darkness; when all is cold and gloom, the sky bursts into\nsplendour, and in the dark cave is born the Light of the World.\n\nThere is the idea of royalty too, with all it stands for of colour and\nmagnificence, though not so much in literature as in painting is this\nside of the Christmas story represented. The Epiphany is the great\nopportunity for imaginative development of the regal idea. Then is seen\nthe union of utter poverty with highest kingship; the monarchs of the\nEast come to bow before the humble Infant for whom the world has found no\nroom in the inn. How suggestive by their long, slow syllables are the\nItalian names of the Magi. Gasparre, Baldassarre, Melchiorre--we picture\nOriental monarchs in robes mysteriously gorgeous, wrought with strange\npatterns, heavy with gold and precious stones. With slow processional\nmotion they advance, bearing to the King of Kings their symbolic gifts,\ngold for His crowning, incense for His worship, myrrh for His mortality,\nand with them come the mystery, colour, and perfume of the East, the\noccult wisdom which bows itself before the revelation in the Child.\n\nAbove all, as the foregoing pages have shown, it is the _childhood_ of\nthe Redeemer that has won the heart of Europe for Christmas; it is the\nappeal to the parental instinct, the love for the tender, weak, helpless,\nyet all-potential babe, that has given the Church's festival its\nstrongest hold. And this side of Christmas is penetrated often by the\n_mystical spirit_--that sense of the Infinite in the finite without which\nthe highest human life is impossible.\n\n|157| The feeling for Christmas varies from mere delight in the Christ\nChild as a representative symbol on which to lavish affection, as a child\ndelights in a doll, to the mystical philosophy of Eckhart, in whose\nChristmas sermons the Nativity is viewed as a type of the Birth of God in\nthe depths of man's being. Yet even the least spiritual forms of the cult\nof the Child are seldom without some hint of the supersensual, the\nInfinite, and even in Eckhart there is a love of concrete symbolism.\nChristmas stands peculiarly for the sacramental principle that the\noutward and visible is a sign and shadow of the inward and spiritual. It\nmeans the seeing of common, earthly things shot through by the glory of\nthe Infinite. \"Its note,\" as has been said of a stage of the mystic\nconsciousness, the Illuminative Way, \"is sacramental not ascetic. It\nentails ... the discovery of the Perfect One ablaze in the Many, not the\nforsaking of the Many in order to find the One ... an ineffable radiance,\na beauty and a reality never before suspected, are perceived by a sort of\nclairvoyance shining in the meanest things.\"{1} Christmas is the\nfestival of the Divine Immanence, and it is natural that it should have\nbeen beloved by the saint and mystic whose life was the supreme\nmanifestation of the _Via Illuminativa_, Francis of Assisi.\n\nChristmas is the most human and lovable of the Church's feasts. Easter\nand Ascensiontide speak of the rising and exaltation of a glorious being,\nclothed in a spiritual body refined beyond all comparison with our\nnatural flesh; Whitsuntide tells of the coming of a mysterious,\nintangible Power--like the wind, we cannot tell whence It cometh and\nwhither It goeth; Trinity offers for contemplation an ineffable paradox\nof Pure Being. But the God of Christmas is no ethereal form, no mere\nspiritual essence, but a very human child, feeling the cold and the\nroughness of the straw, needing to be warmed and fed and cherished.\nChristmas is the festival of the natural body, of this world; it means\nthe consecration of the ordinary things of life, affection and\ncomradeship, eating and drinking and merrymaking; and in some degree the\nmemory of the Incarnation has been able to blend with the pagan joyance\nof the New Year.\n\n|158| |159|\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPart II--Pagan Survivals\n\n|160| |161|\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nPRE-CHRISTIAN WINTER FESTIVALS\n\n\n    The Church and Superstition--Nature of Pagan Survivals--Racial\n    Origins--Roman Festivals of the _Saturnalia_ and Kalends--Was there a\n    Teutonic Midwinter Festival?--The Teutonic, Celtic, and Slav New\n    Year--Customs attracted to Christmas or January 1--The Winter Cycle\n    of Festivals--_Rationale_ of Festival Ritual: (_a_) Sacrifice and\n    Sacrament, (_b_) the Cult of the Dead, (_c_) Omens and Charms for the\n    New Year--Compromise in the Later Middle Ages--The Puritans and\n    Christmas--Decay of Old Traditions.\n\n[Illustration:\n\nNEW YEAR MUMMERS IN MANCHURIA.\n\nAn Asiatic example of animal masks.]\n\nWe have now to leave the commemoration of the Nativity of Christ, and to\nturn to the other side of Christmas--its many traditional observances\nwhich, though sometimes coloured by Christianity, have nothing to do with\nthe Birth of the Redeemer. This class of customs has often, especially in\nthe first millennium of our era, been the object of condemnations by\necclesiastics, and represents the old paganism which Christianity failed\nto extinguish. The Church has played a double part, a part of sheer\nantagonism, forcing heathen customs into the shade, into a more or less\nsurreptitious and unprogressive life, and a part of adaptation, baptizing\nthem into Christ, giving them a Christian name and interpretation, and\noften modifying their form. The general effect of Christianity upon pagan\nusages is well suggested by Dr. Karl Pearson:--\n\n    \"What the missionary could he repressed, the more as his church grew\n    in strength; what he could not repress he adopted or simply left\n    unregarded.... What the missionary tried to repress became mediaeval\n    witchcraft; what he judiciously disregarded survives to this |162|\n    day in peasant weddings and in the folk-festivals at the great\n    changes of season.\"{1}\n\nWe find then many pagan practices concealed beneath a superficial\nChristianity--often under the mantle of some saint--but side by side with\nthese are many usages never Christianized even in appearance, and\nobviously identical with heathen customs against which the Church\nthundered in the days of her youth. Grown old and tolerant--except of\nnovelties--she has long since ceased to attack them, and they have\nthemselves mostly lost all definite religious meaning. As the old pagan\nfaith decayed, they tended to become in a literal sense \"superstition,\"\nsomething standing over, like shells from which the living occupant has\ngone. They are now often mere \"survivals\" in the technical folk-lore\nsense, pieces of custom separated from the beliefs that once gave them\nmeaning, performed only because in a vague sort of way they are supposed\nto bring good luck. In many cases those who practise them would be quite\nunable to explain how or why they work for good.\n\nMental inertia, the instinct to do and believe what has always been done\nand believed, has sometimes preserved the animating faith as well as the\nexternal form of these practices, but often all serious significance has\ndeparted. What was once religious or magical ritual, upon the due\nobservance of which the welfare of the community was believed to depend,\nhas become mere pageantry and amusement, often a mere children's\ngame.{2}\n\nSometimes the spirit of a later age has worked upon these pagan customs,\nrevivifying and transforming them, giving them charm. Often, however, one\ndoes not find in them the poetry, the warm humanity, the humour, which\nmark the creations of popular Catholicism. They are fossils and their\ninterest is that of the fossil: they are records of a vanished world and\nhelp us to an imaginative reconstruction of it. But further, just as on a\nstratum of rock rich in fossils there may be fair meadows and gardens and\ngroves, depending for their life on the denudation of the rock beneath,\nso have these ancient religious products largely supplied the soil in\nwhich more spiritual and more |163| beautiful things have flourished.\nAmid these, as has been well said, \"they still emerge, unchanged and\nunchanging, like the quaint outcrops of some ancient rock formation amid\nrich vegetation and fragrant flowers.\"{3}\n\nThe survivals of pagan religion at Christian festivals relate not so much\nto the worship of definite divinities--against this the missionaries made\ntheir most determined efforts, and the names of the old gods have\npractically disappeared--as to cults which preceded the development of\nanthropomorphic gods with names and attributes. These cults, paid to less\npersonally conceived spirits, were of older standing and no doubt had\ndeeper roots in the popular mind. Fundamentally associated with\nagricultural and pastoral life, they have in many cases been preserved by\nthe most conservative element in the population, the peasantry.\n\nMany of the customs we shall meet with are magical, rather than religious\nin the proper sense; they are not directed to the conciliation of\nspiritual beings, but spring from primitive man's belief \"that in order\nto produce the great phenomena of nature on which his life depended he\nhad only to imitate them.\"{4} Even when they have a definitely religious\ncharacter, and are connected with some spirit, magical elements are often\nfound in them.\n\nBefore we consider these customs in detail it will be necessary to survey\nthe pagan festivals briefly alluded to in Chapter I., to note the various\nideas and practices that characterized them, and to study the attitude of\nthe Church towards survivals of such practices while the conversion of\nEurope was in progress, and also during the Middle Ages.\n\nThe development of religious custom and belief in Europe is a matter of\nsuch vast complexity that I cannot in a book of this kind attempt more\nthan the roughest outline of the probable origins of the observances,\npurely pagan or half-Christianized, clustering round Christmas. It is\ndifficult, in the present state of knowledge, to discern clearly the\ncontributions of different peoples to the traditional customs of Europe,\nand even, in many cases, to say whether a given custom is \"Aryan\" or\npre-Aryan. The proportion of the Aryan military aristocracy to the\npeoples whom they conquered was not uniform in all countries, and |164|\nprobably was often small. While the families of the conquerors succeeded\nin imposing their languages, it by no means necessarily follows that the\nfolk-practices of countries now Aryan in speech came entirely or even\nchiefly from Aryan sources. Religious tradition has a marvellous power of\npersistence, and it must be remembered that the lands conquered by men of\nAryan speech had been previously occupied for immense periods.{5}\nSimilarly, in countries like our own, which have been successively\ninvaded by Celts, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Danes, and Normans, it is often\nextraordinarily hard to say even to what _national_ source a given custom\nshould be assigned.\n\nIt is but tentatively and with uncertain hands that scholars are trying\nto separate the racial strains in the folk-traditions of Europe, and here\nI can hardly do more than point out three formative elements in Christian\ncustoms: the ecclesiastical, the classical (Greek and Roman), and the\nbarbarian, taking the last broadly and without a minute racial analysis.\nSo far, indeed, as ritual, apart from mythology, is concerned, there\nseems to be a broad common ground of tradition among the Aryan-speaking\npeoples. How far this is due to a common derivation we need not here\nattempt to decide. The folk-lore of the whole world, it is to be noted,\n\"reveals for the same stages of civilization a wonderful uniformity and\nhomogeneity.... This uniformity is not, however, due to necessary\nuniformity of origin, but to a great extent to the fact that it\nrepresents the state of equilibrium arrived at between minds at a certain\nlevel and their environment.\"{6}\n\nThe scientific study of primitive religion is still almost in its\ninfancy, and a large amount of conjecture must necessarily enter into any\nexplanations of popular ritual that can be offered. In attempting to\naccount for Christmas customs we must be mindful, therefore, of the\ntentative nature of the theories put forward. Again, it is important to\nremember that ritual practices are far more enduring than the\nexplanations given to them. \"The antique religions,\" to quote the words\nof Robertson Smith, \"had for the most part no creed; they consisted\nentirely of institutions and practices ... as a rule we find that while\nthe practice was |165| rigorously fixed, the meaning attached to it was\nextremely vague, and the same rite was explained by different people in\ndifferent ways.\"{7}\n\nThus if we can arrive at the significance of a rite at a given period, it\nby no means follows that those who began it meant the same thing. At the\ntime of the conflict of the heathen religions with Christianity elaborate\nstructures of mythology had grown up around their traditional ceremonial,\nassigning to it meanings that had often little to do with its original\npurpose. Often, too, when the purpose was changed, new ceremonies were\nadded, so that a rite may look very unlike what it was at first.\n\nWith these cautions and reservations we must now try to trace the\nconnection between present-day or recent goings-on about Christmas-time\nand the festival practices of pre-Christian Europe.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nChristmas, as we saw in Chapter I., has taken the date of the _Natalis\nInvicti_. We need not linger over this feast, for it was not attended by\nfolk-customs, and there is nothing to connect it with modern survivals.\nThe Roman festivals that really count for our present purpose are the\nKalends of January and, probably, the _Saturnalia_. The influence of the\nKalends is strongest naturally in the Latin countries, but is found also\nall over Europe. The influence of the _Saturnalia_ is less certain; the\nfestival is not mentioned in ecclesiastical condemnations after the\ninstitution of Christmas, and possibly its popularity was not so\nwidespread as that of the Kalends. There are, however, some curiously\ninteresting Christmas parallels to its usages.\n\nThe strictly religious feast of the _Saturnalia_{8} was held on December\n17, but the festal customs were kept up for seven days, thus lasting\nuntil the day before our Christmas Eve. Among them was a fair called the\n_sigillariorum celebritas_, for the sale of little images of clay or\npaste which were given away as presents.[81] Candles seem also to have\nbeen given away, perhaps |166| as symbols of, or even charms to ensure,\nthe return of the sun's power after the solstice. The most remarkable and\ntypical feature, however, of the _Saturnalia_ was the mingling of all\nclasses in a common jollity. Something of the character of the\ncelebration (in a Hellenized form) may be gathered from the \"Cronia\" or\n\"Saturnalia\" of Lucian, a dialogue between Cronus or Saturn and his\npriest. We learn from it that the festivities were marked by \"drinking\nand being drunk, noise and games and dice, appointing of kings and\nfeasting of slaves, singing naked, clapping of tremulous hands, an\noccasional ducking of corked faces in icy water,\" and that slaves had\nlicence to revile their lords.{9}\n\nThe spirit of the season may be judged from the legislation which Lucian\nattributes to Cronosolon, priest and prophet of Cronus, much as a modern\nwriter might make Father Christmas or Santa Klaus lay down rules for the\ndue observance of Yule. Here are some of the laws:--\n\n    \"_All business, be it public or private, is forbidden during the\n    feast days, save such as tends to sport and solace and delight. Let\n    none follow their avocations saving cooks and bakers._\n\n    _All men shall be equal, slave and free, rich and poor, one with\n    another._\n\n    _Anger, resentment, threats, are contrary to law._\n\n    _No discourse shall be either composed or delivered, except it be\n    witty and lusty, conducing to mirth and jollity._\"\n\nThere follow directions as to the sending of presents of money, clothing,\nor vessels, by rich men to poor friends, and as to poor men's gifts in\nreturn. If the poor man have learning, his return gift is to be \"an\nancient book, but of good omen and festive humour, or a writing of his\nown after his ability.... For the unlearned, let him send a garland or\ngrains of frankincense.\" The \"Cronosolon\" closes with \"Laws of the\nBoard,\" of which the following are a few:--\n\n    \"_Every man shall take place as chance may direct; dignities and\n    birth and wealth shall give no precedence._ |167|\n\n    _All shall be served with the same wine.... Every man's\n    portion of meat shall be alike._\n\n    _When the rich man shall feast his slaves, let his friends serve with\n    him._\"{11}\n\nOver the whole festival brooded the thought of a golden age in the\ndistant past, when Saturn ruled, a just and kindly monarch, when all men\nwere good and all men were happy.\n\nA striking feature of the _Saturnalia_ was the choosing by lot of a mock\nking, to preside over the revels. His word was law, and he was able to\nlay ridiculous commands upon the guests; \"one,\" says Lucian, \"must shout\nout a libel on himself, another dance naked, or pick up the flute-girl\nand carry her thrice round the house.\"{12} This king may have been\noriginally the representative of the god Saturn himself. In the days of\nthe classical writers he is a mere \"Lord of Misrule,\" but Dr. Frazer has\npropounded the very interesting theory that this time of privilege and\ngaiety was once but the prelude to a grim sacrifice in which he had to\ndie in the character of the god, giving his life for the world.{13} Dr.\nFrazer's theory, dependent for its evidence upon the narrative of the\nmartyrdom of a fourth-century saint, Dasius by name, has been keenly\ncriticized by Dr. Warde Fowler. He holds that there is nothing whatever\nto show that the \"Saturn\" who in the fourth century, according to the\nstory, was sacrificed by soldiers on the Danube, had anything to do with\nthe customs of ancient Rome.{14} Still, in whatever way the king of the\n_Saturnalia_ may be explained, it is interesting to note his existence\nand compare him with the merry monarchs whom we shall meet at Christmas\nand Twelfth Night.\n\nHow far the Saturnalian customs in general were of old Latin origin it is\ndifficult to say; the name Saturnus (connected with the root of _serere_,\nto sow) and the date point to a real Roman festival of the sowing of the\ncrops, but this was heavily overlaid with Greek ideas and practice.{15}\nIt is especially important to bear this in mind in considering Lucian's\nstatements.\n\nThe same is true of the festival of the January Kalends, a few days after\nthe _Saturnalia_. On January 1, the Roman New |168| Year's Day, the new\nconsuls were inducted into office, and for at least three days high\nfestival was kept. The houses were decorated with lights and\ngreenery--these, we shall find, may be partly responsible for the modern\nChristmas-tree. As at the _Saturnalia_ masters drank and gambled with\nslaves. _Vota_, or solemn wishes of prosperity for the Emperor during the\nNew Year, were customary, and the people and the Senate were even\nexpected to present gifts of money to him. The Emperor Caligula excited\nmuch disgust by publishing an edict requiring these gifts and by standing\nin the porch of his palace to receive them in person. Such gifts, not\nonly presented to the Emperor, but frequently exchanged between private\npersons, were called _strenae_, a name still surviving in the French\n_etrennes_ (New Year's presents).{16}\n\nAn interesting and very full account of the Kalends celebrations is given\nin two discourses of Libanius, the famous Greek sophist of the fourth\ncentury:--\n\n    \"The festival of the Kalends,\" he says, \"is celebrated everywhere as\n    far as the limits of the Roman Empire extend.... Everywhere may be\n    seen carousals and well-laden tables; luxurious abundance is found in\n    the houses of the rich, but also in the houses of the poor better\n    food than usual is put upon the table. The impulse to spend seizes\n    everyone. He who the whole year through has taken pleasure in saving\n    and piling up his pence, becomes suddenly extravagant. He who\n    erstwhile was accustomed and preferred to live poorly, now at this\n    feast enjoys himself as much as his means will allow.... People are\n    not only generous towards themselves, but also towards their\n    fellow-men. A stream of presents pours itself out on all sides....\n    The highroads and footpaths are covered with whole processions of\n    laden men and beasts.... As the thousand flowers which burst forth\n    everywhere are the adornment of Spring, so are the thousand presents\n    poured out on all sides, the decoration of the Kalends feast. It may\n    justly be said that it is the fairest time of the year.... The\n    Kalends festival banishes all that is connected with toil, and allows\n    men to give themselves up to undisturbed enjoyment. From the minds of\n    young people it removes two kinds of dread: the dread of the\n    schoolmaster and the dread of the stern pedagogue. The slave also it\n    allows, so far as possible, to breathe the air of freedom.... |169|\n    Another great quality of the festival is that it teaches men not to\n    hold too fast to their money, but to part with it and let it pass\n    into other hands.\"{17}\n\nThe resemblances here to modern Christmas customs are very striking. In\nanother discourse Libanius speaks of processions on the Eve of the\nfestival. Few people, he says, go to bed; most go about the streets with\nsinging and leaping and all sorts of mockery. The severest moralist\nutters no blame on this occasion. When morning begins to dawn they\ndecorate their houses with laurels and other greenery, and at daybreak\nmay go to bed to sleep off their intoxication, for many deem it necessary\nat this feast to follow the flowing bowl. On the 1st of January money is\ndistributed to the populace; on the 2nd no more presents are given: it is\ncustomary to stay at home playing dice, masters and slaves together. On\nthe 3rd there is racing; on the 4th the festivities begin to decline, but\nthey are not altogether over on the 5th.{18}\n\nAnother feature of the Kalends, recorded not in the pages of classical\nwriters but in ecclesiastical condemnations, was the custom of dressing\nup in the hides of animals, in women's clothes, and in masks of various\nkinds.{19} Dr. Tille{20} regards this as Italian in origin, but it\nseems likely that it was a native custom in Greece, Gaul, Germany, and\nother countries conquered by the Romans. In Greece the skin-clad mummers\nmay have belonged to the winter festivals of Dionysus supplanted by the\n_Kalendae_.{21}\n\nThe Church's denunciations of pagan festal practices in the winter season\nare mainly directed against the Kalends celebrations, and show into how\nmany regions the keeping of the feast had spread. Complaints of its\ncontinued observance abound in the writings of churchmen and the decrees\nof councils. In the second volume of his \"Mediaeval Stage\"{22} Mr.\nChambers has made an interesting collection of forty excerpts from such\ndenunciations, ranging in date from the fourth century to the eleventh,\nand coming from Spain, Italy, Antioch, northern Africa, Constantinople,\nGermany, England, and various districts of what is now France.\n\n|170| As a specimen I may translate a passage describing at some length\nthe practices condemned. It is from a sermon often ascribed to St.\nAugustine of Hippo, but probably composed in the sixth century, very\nlikely by Caesarius of Arles in southern Gaul:--\n\n    \"On those days,\" says the preacher, speaking of the Kalends of\n    January, \"the heathen, reversing the order of all things, dress\n    themselves up in indecent deformities.... These miserable men, and\n    what is worse, some who have been baptized, put on counterfeit forms\n    and monstrous faces, at which one should rather be ashamed and sad.\n    For what reasonable man would believe that any men in their senses\n    would by making a stag (_cervulum_) turn themselves into the\n    appearance of animals? Some are clothed in the hides of cattle;\n    others put on the heads of beasts, rejoicing and exulting that they\n    have so transformed themselves into the shapes of animals that they\n    no longer appear to be men.... How vile, further, it is that those\n    who have been born men are clothed in women's dresses, and by the\n    vilest change effeminate their manly strength by taking on the forms\n    of girls, blushing not to clothe their warlike arms in women's\n    garments; they have bearded faces, and yet they wish to appear\n    women.... There are some who on the Kalends of January practise\n    auguries, and do not allow fire out of their houses or any other\n    favour to anyone who asks. Also they both receive and give diabolical\n    presents (_strenas_). Some country people, moreover, lay tables with\n    plenty of things necessary for eating ... thinking that thus the\n    Kalends of January will be a warranty that all through the year their\n    feasting will be in like measure abundant. Now as for them who on\n    those days observe any heathen customs, it is to be feared that the\n    name of Christian will avail them nought. And therefore our holy\n    fathers of old, considering that the majority of men on those days\n    became slaves to gluttony and riotous living and raved in drunkenness\n    and impious dancing, determined for the whole world that throughout\n    the Churches a public fast should be proclaimed.... Let us therefore\n    fast, beloved brethren, on those days.... For he who on the Kalends\n    shows any civility to foolish men who are wantonly sporting, is\n    undoubtedly a partaker of their sin.\"{23}\n\nThere are several points to be noted here. First, the zeal of the Church\nagainst the Kalends celebrations as impious relics of |171| heathenism:\nto root them out she even made the first three days of the year a solemn\nfast with litanies.{24} Next, the particular offences should be\nobserved. These are: first, the dressing up of men in the hides of\nanimals and the clothes of women; next, the New Year auguries and the\nsuperstition about fire, the giving of presents, and the laying of tables\nwith good things; and last, drunkenness and riot in general. All these we\nshall find fully represented in modern Christmas customs.\n\nThat Roman customs either spread to Germany, or were paralleled there, is\nshown by a curious letter written in 742 by St. Boniface to Pope\nZacharias. The saint complained that certain Alamanni, Bavarians, and\nFranks refused to give up various heathen practices because they had seen\nsuch things done in the sacred city of Rome, close to St. Peter's, and,\nas they deemed, with the sanction of the clergy. On New Year's Eve, it\nwas alleged, processions went through the streets of Rome, with impious\nsongs and heathen cries; tables of fortune were set up, and at that time\nno one would lend fire or iron or any other article to his neighbour. The\nPope replied that these things were odious to him, and should be so to\nall Christians; and next year all such practices at the January Kalends\nwere formally forbidden by the Council of Rome.{25}\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSo much for Roman customs; if indeed such practices as beast-masking are\nRoman, and not derived from the religion of peoples conquered by the\nimperial legions. We must now turn to the winter festivals of the\nbarbarians with whom the Church began to come into contact soon after the\nestablishment of Christmas.\n\nMuch attention has been bestowed upon a supposed midwinter festival of\nthe ancient Germans. In the mid-nineteenth century it was customary to\nspeak of Christmas and the Twelve Nights as a continuation of the holy\nseason kept by our forefathers at the winter solstice. The festive fires\nof Christmas were regarded as symbols of the sun, who then began his\nupward journey in the heavens, while the name Yule was traced back to the\nAnglo-Saxon word _hweol_ (wheel), and connected with the circular |172|\ncourse of the sun through the wheeling-points of the solstices and\nequinoxes. More recent research, however, has thrown the gravest doubts\nupon the existence of any Teutonic festival at the winter solstice.[82]\nIt appears from philology and the study of surviving customs that the\nTeutonic peoples had no knowledge of the solstices and equinoxes, and\nuntil the introduction of the Roman Calendar divided their year not into\nfour parts but into two, three, and six, holding their New Year's Day\nwith its attendant festivities not at the end of December or beginning of\nJanuary, but towards the middle of November. At that time in Central\nEurope the first snowfall usually occurred and the pastures were closed\nto the flocks. A great slaughter of cattle would then take place, it\nbeing impossible to keep the beasts in stall throughout the winter, and\nthis time of slaughter would naturally be a season of feasting and\nsacrifice and religious observances.[83]{26}\n\nThe Celtic year, like the Teutonic, appears to have begun in November\nwith the feast of _Samhain_--a name that may mean either \"summer-end\" or\n\"assembly.\" It appears to have been in origin a \"pastoral and\nagricultural festival, which in time came to be looked upon as affording\nassistance to the powers of growth in their conflict with the powers of\nblight,\" and to have had many features in common with the Teutonic feast\nat the same season, for instance animal sacrifice, commemoration of the\ndead, and omens and charms for the New Year.{27}\n\nThere is some reason also to believe that the New Year |173| festival\nof the Slavs took place in the autumn and that its usages have been\ntransferred to the feast of the Nativity.{29} A description based on\ncontemporary documents cannot be given of these barbarian festivals; we\nhave, rather, to reconstruct them from survivals in popular custom. At\nthe close of this book, when such relics have been studied, we may have\ngained some idea of what went on upon these pre-Christian holy-days. It\nis the Teutonic customs that have been most fully recorded and discussed\nby scholars, and these will loom largest in our review; at the same time\nCeltic and Slav practices will be considered, and we shall find that they\noften closely resemble those current in Teutonic lands.\n\nThe customs of the old New Year feasts have frequently wandered from\ntheir original November date, and to this fact we owe whatever elements\nof northern paganism are to be found in Christmas. Some practices seem to\nhave been put forward to Michaelmas; one side of the festivals, the cult\nof the dead, is represented especially by All Saints' and All Souls' days\n(November 1 and 2). St. Martin's Day (November 11) probably marks as\nnearly as possible the old Teutonic date, and is still in Germany an\nimportant folk-feast attended by many customs derived from the\nbeginning-of-winter festival. Other practices are found strewn over\nvarious holy-days between Martinmas and Epiphany, and concentrated above\nall on the Church's feast of the Nativity and the Roman New Year's Day,\nJanuary 1, both of which had naturally great power of attraction.{30}\n\nThe progress of agriculture, as Dr. Tille points out,{31} tended to\ndestroy the mid-November celebration. In the Carolingian period an\nimprovement took place in the cultivation of meadows, and the increased\nquantity of hay made it possible to keep the animals fattening in stall,\ninstead of slaughtering them as soon as the pastures were closed. Thus\nthe killing-time, with its festivities, became later and later. St.\nAndrew's Day (November 30) and St. Nicholas's (December 6) may mark\nstages in its progress into the winter. In St. Nicholas's Day, indeed, we\nfind a feast that closely resembles Martinmas, and seems to be the same\nfolk-festival transferred to a later date. Again, as regards England we\n|174| must remember the difference between its climate and that of\nCentral Europe. Mid-November would here not be a date beyond which\npasturing was impossible, and thus the slaughter and feast held then by\nAngles and Saxons in their old German home would tend to be delayed.{32}\n\nChristmas, as will be gathered from the foregoing, cannot on its pagan\nside be separated from the folk-feasts of November and December. The\nmeaning of the term will therefore here be so extended as to cover the\nwhole period between All Saints' Day and Epiphany. That this is not too\nviolent a proceeding will be seen later on.\n\nFor the purposes of this book it seems best to treat the winter festivals\ncalendarially, so to speak: to start at the beginning of November, and\nshow them in procession, suggesting, as far as may be, the probable\norigins of the customs observed. Thus we may avoid the dismemberment\ncaused by taking out certain practices from various festivals and\ngrouping them under their probable origins, a method which would,\nmoreover, be perilous in view of the very conjectural nature of the\ntheories offered.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBefore we pass to our procession of festivals, something must be said\nabout the general nature and _rationale_ of the customs associated with\nthem. For convenience these customs may be divided into three groups:--\n\n  I. _Sacrificial or Sacramental Practices._\n  II. _Customs connected with the Cult of the Dead and the Family Hearth._\n  III. _Omens and Charms for the New Year._\n\nThough these three classes overlap and it is sometimes difficult to place\na given practice exclusively in one of them, they will form a useful\nframework for a brief account of the primitive ritual which survives at\nthe winter festivals.\n\n\nI. SACRIFICIAL AND SACRAMENTAL PRACTICES.\n\nTo most people, probably, the word \"sacrifice\" suggests an offering,\nsomething presented to a divinity in order to obtain his favour. Such\nseems to have been the meaning generally given to |175| sacrificial\nrites in Europe when Christianity came into conflict with paganism. It\nis, however, held by many scholars that the original purpose of sacrifice\nwas sacramental--the partaking by the worshipper of the divine life,\nconceived of as present in the victim, rather than the offering of a gift\nto a divinity.{33}\n\nThe whole subject of sacred animals is obscure, and in regard,\nespecially, to totemism--defined by Dr. Frazer{34} as \"belief in the\nkinship of certain families with certain species of animals\" and\npractices based upon that belief--the most divergent views are held by\nscholars. The religious significance which some have seen in totemistic\ncustoms is denied by others, while there is much disagreement as to the\nprobability of their having been widespread in Europe. Still, whatever\nmay be the truth about totemism, there is much that points to the\nsometime existence in Europe of sacrifices that were not offerings, but\nsolemn feasts of communion in the flesh and blood of a worshipful\nanimal.{35} That the idea of sacrificial communion preceded the\nsacrifice-gift is suggested by the fact that in many customs which appear\nto be sacrificial survivals the body of the victim has some kind of\nsacramental efficacy; it conveys a blessing to that which is brought into\ncontact with it. The actual eating and drinking of the flesh and blood is\nthe most perfect mode of contact, but the same end seems to have been\naimed at in such customs as the sprinkling of worshippers with blood, the\ncarrying of the victim in procession from house to house, the burying of\nflesh in furrows to make the crops grow, and the wearing of hides, heads,\nor horns of sacrificed beasts.{36} We shall meet, during the Christmas\nseason, with various practices that seem to have originated either in a\nsacrificial feast or in some such sacramental rites as have just been\ndescribed. So peculiarly prominent are animal masks, apparently derived\nfrom hide-, head-, and horn-wearing, that we may dwell upon them a little\nat this point.\n\nWe have already seen how much trouble the Kalends custom of beast-masking\ngave the ecclesiastics. Its probable origin is thus suggested by\nRobertson Smith:--\n\n    \"It is ... appropriate that the worshipper should dress himself in\n    |176| the skin of a victim, and so, as it were, envelop himself in\n    its sanctity. To rude nations dress is not merely a physical comfort,\n    but a fixed part of social religion, a thing by which a man\n    constantly bears on his body the token of his religion, and which is\n    itself a charm and a means of divine protection.... When the dress of\n    sacrificial skin, which at once declared a man's religion and his\n    sacred kindred, ceased to be used in ordinary life, it was still\n    retained in holy and especially in piacular functions; ... examples\n    are afforded by the Dionysiac mysteries and other Greek rites, and by\n    almost every rude religion; while in later cults the old rite\n    survives at least in the religious use of animal masks.\"[84]{37}\n\nIf we accept the animal-worship and sacrificial communion theory, many a\nChristmas custom will carry us back in thought to a stage of religion far\nearlier than the Greek and Roman classics or the Celtic and Teutonic\nmythology of the conversion period: we shall be taken back to a time\nbefore men had come to have anthropomorphic gods, when they were not\nconscious of their superiority to the beasts of the field, but regarded\nthese beings, mysterious in their actions, extraordinary in their powers,\nas incarnations of potent spirits. At this stage of thought, it would\nseem, there were as yet no definite divinities with personal names and\ncharacters, but the world was full of spirits immanent in animal or plant\nor chosen human being, and able to pass from one incarnation to another.\nOr indeed it may be that animal sacrifice originated at a stage of\nreligion before the idea of definite \"spirits\" had arisen, when man was\nconscious rather of a vague force like the Melanesian _mana_, in himself\nand in almost everything, and \"constantly trembling on the verge of\npersonality.\"{38} \"_Mana_\" better than \"god\" or \"spirit\" may express\nthat with which the partaker in the communal feast originally sought\ncontact. \"When you sacrifice,\" to quote some words of Miss Jane Harrison,\n\"you build as it were a bridge between your _mana_, your will, your\ndesire, which is weak and impotent, and |177| that unseen outside\n_mana_ which you believe to be strong and efficacious. In the fruits of\nthe earth which grow by some unseen power there is much _mana_; you want\nthat _mana_. In the loud-roaring bull and the thunder is much _mana_; you\nwant that _mana_. It would be well to get some, to eat a piece of that\nbull raw, but it is dangerous, not a thing to do unawares alone; so you\nconsecrate the first-fruits, you sacrifice the bull and then in safety\nyou--communicate.\"{39} \"Sanctity\"--the quality of awfulness and\nmystery--rather than divinity or personality, may have been what\nprimitive man saw in the beasts and birds which he venerated in \"their\nsilent, aloof, goings, in the perfection of their limited doings.\"{40}\nWhen we use the word \"spirit\" in connection with the pagan sacramental\npractices of Christmastide, it is well to bear in mind the possibility\nthat at the origin of these customs there may have been no notion of\ncommunion with strictly personal beings, but rather some such _mana_ idea\nas has been suggested above.\n\nIt is probable that animal-cults had their origin at a stage of human\nlife preceding agriculture, when man lived not upon cultivated plants or\ntamed beasts, but upon roots and fruits and the products of the chase.\nSome scholars, indeed, hold that the domestication of animals for\npractical use was an outcome of the sacred, inviolable character of\ncertain creatures: they may originally have been spared not for reasons\nof convenience but because it was deemed a crime to kill them--except\nupon certain solemn occasions--and may have become friendly towards man\nthrough living by his side.{41} On the other hand it is possible that\ntotems were originally staple articles of food, that they were sacred\nbecause they were eaten with satisfaction, and that the very awe and\nrespect attached to them because of their life-giving powers tended to\nremove them from common use and limit their consumption to rare\nceremonial occasions.\n\nClosely akin to the worship of animals is that of plants, and especially\ntrees, and there is much evidence pointing to sacramental cults in\nconnection with the plant-world.{42} Some cakes and special vegetable\ndishes eaten on festal days may be survivals of sacramental feasts\nparallel to those upon the flesh and blood of |178| an animal victim.\nBenediction by external contact, again, is suggested by the widespread\nuse in various ways of branches or sprigs or whole trees. The\nChristmas-tree and evergreen decorations are the most obvious examples;\nwe shall see others in the course of our survey, and in connection with\nplants as well as with animals we shall meet with processions intended to\nconvey a blessing to every house by carrying about the sacred\nelements--to borrow a term from Christian theology. Even the familiar\npractice of going carol-singing may be a Christianized form of some such\nperambulation.\n\nIt is possible that men and women had originally separate cults. The cult\nof animals, according to a theory set forth by Mr. Chambers, would at\nfirst belong to the men, who as hunters worshipped the beasts they slew,\napologizing to them, as some primitive people do to-day, for the\nslaughter they were obliged to commit. Other animals, apparently, were\nheld too sacred to be slain, except upon rare and solemn occasions, and\nhence, as we have seen, may have arisen domestication and the pastoral\nlife which, with its religious rites, was the affair of the men. To\nwomen, on the other hand, belonged agriculture; the cult of Mother Earth\nand the vegetation-spirits seems to have been originally theirs. Later\nthe two cults would coalesce, but a hint of the time when certain rites\nwere practised only by women may be found in that dressing up of men in\nfemale garments which appears not merely in the old Kalends customs but\nin some modern survivals.[85]{43}\n\nApart from any special theory of the origin of sacrifice, we may note the\nassociation at Christmas of physical feasting with religious rejoicing.\nIn this the modern European is the heir of an agelong tradition.\n\"Everywhere,\" says Robertson Smith, |179| \"we find that a sacrifice\nordinarily involves a feast, and that a feast cannot be provided without\na sacrifice. For a feast is not complete without flesh, and in early\ntimes the rule that all slaughter is sacrifice was not confined to the\nSemites. The identity of religious occasions and festal seasons may\nindeed be taken as the determining characteristic of the type of ancient\nreligion generally; when men meet their god they feast and are glad\ntogether, and whenever they feast and are glad they desire that the god\nshould be of the party.\"{45} To the paganism that preceded Christianity\nwe must look for the origin of that Christmas feasting which has not\nseldom been a matter of scandal for the severer type of churchman.\n\n   [Transcriber's Note: The marker for note {44} was not present in\n   the page scan]\n\nA letter addressed in 601 by Pope Gregory the Great to Abbot Mellitus,\ngiving him instructions to be handed on to Augustine of Canterbury,\nthrows a vivid light on the process by which heathen sacrificial feasts\nwere turned into Christian festivals. \"Because,\" the Pope says of the\nAnglo-Saxons, \"they are wont to slay many oxen in sacrifices to demons,\nsome solemnity should be put in the place of this, so that on the day of\nthe dedication of the churches, or the nativities of the holy martyrs\nwhose relics are placed there, they may make for themselves tabernacles\nof branches of trees around those churches which have been changed from\nheathen temples, and may celebrate the solemnity with religious feasting.\nNor let them now sacrifice animals to the Devil, but to the praise of God\nkill animals for their own eating, and render thanks to the Giver of all\nfor their abundance; so that while some outward joys are retained for\nthem, they may more readily respond to inward joys. For from obdurate\nminds it is undoubtedly impossible to cut off everything at once, because\nhe who strives to ascend to the highest place rises by degrees or steps\nand not by leaps.\"{46}\n\nWe see here very plainly the mind of the ecclesiastical compromiser.\nDirect sacrifice to heathen gods the Church of course could not dream of\ntolerating; it had been the very centre of her attack since the days of\nSt. Paul, and refusal to take part in it had cost the martyrs their\nlives. Yet the festivity and merrymaking to which it gave occasion were\nto be left to the |180| people, for a time at all events. The policy\nhad its advantages, it made the Church festivals popular; but it had also\nits dangers, it encouraged the intrusion of a pagan fleshly element into\ntheir austere and chastened joys. A certain orgiastic licence crept in,\nan unbridling of the physical appetites, which has ever been a source of\nsorrow and anger to the most earnest Christians and even led the Puritans\nof the seventeenth century to condemn all festivals as diabolical.\n\nBefore we leave the subject of sacrificial survivals, it must be added\nthat certain Christmas customs may come, little as those who practise\nthem suspect it, from that darkest of religious rites, human sacrifice.\nReference has already been made to Dr. Frazer's view of the Saturnalian\nking and his awful origin. We shall meet with various similar figures\nduring the Christmas season--the \"King of the Bean,\" for instance, and\nthe \"Bishop of Fools.\" If the theories about human sacrifice set forth in\n\"The Golden Bough\" be accepted, we may regard these personages as having\nonce been mock kings chosen to suffer instead of the real kings, who had\nat first to perish by a violent death in order to preserve from the decay\nof age the divine life incarnate in them. Such mock monarchs, according\nto Dr. Frazer, were exalted for a brief season to the glory and luxury of\nkingship ere their doom fell upon them;{47} in the Christmas \"kings\" the\nsplendour alone has survived, the dark side is forgotten.\n\n\nII. THE CULT OF THE DEAD AND THE FAMILY HEARTH.\n\nRound the winter festival cluster certain customs apparently connected\nwith distinctively domestic religion, rather than with such public and\ncommunal cults as we have considered under the heading of Sacrifice and\nSacrament. A festival of the family--that is, perhaps, what Christmas\nmost prominently is to-day: it is the great season for gatherings \"round\nthe old fireside\"; it is a joyous time for the children of the house, and\nthe memory of the departed is vivid then, if unexpressed. Further, by the\nYule log customs and certain other ceremonies still practised in the\nremoter corners of Europe, we are carried back to a stage of thought at\nwhich the dead were conceived as hovering about or |181| visiting the\nabodes of the living. Ancestral spirits, it seems, were once believed to\nbe immanent in the fire that burned on the hearth, and had to be\npropitiated with libations, while elsewhere the souls of the dead were\nthought to return to their old homes at the New Year, and meat and drink\nhad to be set out for them. The Church's establishment of All Souls' Day\ndid much to keep practices of tendance of the departed to early November,\nbut sometimes these have wandered to later dates and especially to\nChristmas. In folk-practices directed towards the dead two tendencies are\nto be found: on the one hand affection or at all events consideration for\nthe departed persists, and efforts are made to make them comfortable; on\nthe other, they are regarded with dread, and the sight of them is avoided\nby the living.\n\nIn the passage quoted from Caesarius of Arles there was mention of the\nlaying of tables with abundance of food at the Kalends. The same practice\nis condemned by St. Jerome in the fifth century, and is by him specially\nconnected with Egypt.{48} He, like Caesarius and others, regards it as a\nkind of charm to ensure abundance during the coming year, but it is very\npossible that its real purpose was different, that the food was an\noffering to supernatural beings, the guardians and representatives of the\ndead.{49} Burchardus of Worms in the early eleventh century says\ndefinitely that in his time tables were laid with food and drink and\nthree knives for \"those three Sisters whom the ancients in their folly\ncalled _Parcae_.\"{50} The _Parcae_ were apparently identified with the\nthree \"weird\" Sisters known in England and in other Teutonic regions, and\nseem to have some connection with the fairies. As we shall see later on,\nit is still in some places the custom to lay out tables for supernatural\nbeings, whether, as at All Souls' tide, explicitly for the dead, or for\nFrau Perchta, or for the Virgin or some other Christian figure. Possibly\nthe name _Modranicht_ (night of mothers), which Bede gives to Christmas\nEve,{51} may be connected with this practice.\n\nNot remote, probably, in origin from a belief in \"ghosts\" is the driving\naway of spirits that sometimes takes place about |182| Christmas-time.\nMany peoples, as Dr. Frazer has shown, have an annual expulsion of\ngoblins, ghosts, devils, witches, and evil influences, commonly at the\nend of the Old or beginning of the New Year. Sometimes the beings so\ndriven away are definitely the spirits of the departed. An appalling\nracket and a great flare of torches are common features of these\nexpulsions, and we shall meet with similar customs during the Christmas\nseason. Such purifications, according to Dr. Frazer, are often preceded\nor followed by periods of licence, for when the burden of evil is about\nto be, or has just been, removed, it is felt that a little temporary\nfreedom from moral restraints may be allowed with impunity.{52} Hence\npossibly, in part, the licence which has often attended the Christmas\nseason.\n\n\nIII. OMENS AND CHARMS FOR THE NEW YEAR.\n\nCustoms of augury are to be met with at various dates, which may mark the\ngradual shifting of the New Year festival from early November to January\n1, while actual charms to secure prosperity are commonest at Christmas\nitself or at the modern New Year. Magical rather than religious in\ncharacter, they are attempts to discover or influence the future by a\nsort of crude scientific method based on supposed analogies. Beneath the\ncharms lie the primitive ideas that like produces like and that things\nwhich have once been in contact continue to act upon one another after\nthey are separated in space.{53} The same ideas obviously underlie many\nof the sacramental practices alluded to a few pages back, and these are\noften of the nature of charms. Probably, too, among New Year charms\nshould be included such institutions as the bonfires on Hallowe'en in\nCeltic countries, on Guy Fawkes Day in England, and at Martinmas in\nGermany, for it would seem that they are intended to secure by imitation\na due supply of sunshine.{54} The principle that \"well begun is well\nended\"--or, as the Germans have it, \"_Anfang gut, alles gut_\"--is\nfundamental in New Year practices: hence the custom of giving presents as\nauguries of wealth during the coming year; hence perhaps partly the heavy\neating and drinking--a kind of charm to ensure abundance.\n\n|183| Enough has already been said about the attitude of the early\nChurch towards traditional folk-customs. Of the position taken up by the\nlater mediaeval clergy we get an interesting glimpse in the \"Largum Sero\"\nof a certain monk Alsso of Brevnov, an account of Christmas practices in\nBohemia written about the year 1400. It supplies a link between modern\ncustoms and the Kalends prohibitions of the Dark Ages. Alsso tells of a\nnumber of laudable Christmas Eve practices, gives elaborate Christian\ninterpretations of them, and contrasts them with things done by bad\nCatholics with ungodly intention. Here are some of his complaints:--\n\n    Presents, instead of being given, as they should be, in memory of\n    God's great Gift to man, are sent because he who does not give freely\n    will be unlucky in the coming year. Money, instead of being given to\n    the poor, as is seemly, is laid on the table to augur wealth, and\n    people open their purses that luck may enter. Instead of using fruit\n    as a symbol of Christ the Precious Fruit, men cut it open to predict\n    the future [probably from the pips]. It is a laudable custom to make\n    great white loaves at Christmas as symbols of the True Bread, but\n    evil men set out such loaves that the gods may eat of them.\n\nAlsso's assumption is that the bad Catholics are diabolically perverting\nvenerable Christmas customs, but there can be little doubt that precisely\nthe opposite was really the case--the Christian symbolism was merely a\ngloss upon pagan practices. In one instance Alsso admits that the Church\nhad adopted and transformed a heathen usage: the old _calendisationes_ or\nprocessions with an idol Bel had been changed into processions of clergy\nand choir-boys with the crucifix. Round the villages on the Eve and\nduring the Octave of Christmas went these messengers of God, robed in\nwhite raiment as befitted the servants of the Lord of purity; they would\nchant joyful anthems of the Nativity, and receive in return some money\nfrom the people--they were, in fact, carol-singers. Moreover with their\nincense they would drive out the Devil from every corner.{55}\n\nAlsso's attitude is one of compromise, or at least many of the old\nheathen customs are allowed by him, when reinterpreted in a |184|\nChristian sense. Such seems to have been the general tendency of the\nlater Catholic Church, and also of Anglicanism in so far as it continued\nthe Catholic tradition. It will be seen, however, from what has already\nbeen said, that the English Puritans were but following early Christian\nprecedents when they attacked the paganism that manifested itself at\nChristmas.\n\nA strong Puritan onslaught is to be found in the \"Anatomie of Abuses\" by\nthe Calvinist, Philip Stubbes, first published in 1583. \"Especially,\" he\nsays, \"in Christmas tyme there is nothing els vsed but cardes, dice,\ntables, maskyng, mumming, bowling, and suche like fooleries; and the\nreason is, that they think they haue a commission and prerogatiue that\ntyme to doe what they list, and to followe what vanitie they will. But\n(alas!) doe they thinke that they are preuiledged at that time to doe\neuill? The holier the time is (if one time were holier than an other, as\nit is not), the holier ought their exercises to bee. Can any tyme\ndispence with them, or giue them libertie to sinne? No, no; the soule\nwhich sinneth shall dye, at what tyme soeuer it offendeth....\nNotwithstandyng, who knoweth not that more mischeef is that tyme\ncommitted than in all the yere besides?\"{56}\n\nWhen the Puritans had gained the upper hand they proceeded to the\nsuppression not only of abuses, but of the festival itself. An excellent\nopportunity for turning the feast into a fast--as the early Church had\ndone, it will be remembered, with the Kalends festival--came in 1644. In\nthat year Christmas Day happened to fall upon the last Wednesday of the\nmonth, a day appointed by the Lords and Commons for a Fast and\nHumiliation. In its zeal against carnal pleasures Parliament published\nthe following \"Ordinance for the better observation of the Feast of the\nNativity of Christ\":--\n\n    \"Whereas some doubts have been raised whether the next Fast shall be\n    celebrated, because it falleth on the day which, heretofore, was\n    usually called the Feast of the Nativity of our Saviour; the lords\n    and commons do order and ordain that public notice be given, that the\n    Fast appointed to be kept on the last Wednesday in every month, ought\n    to be observed until it be otherwise ordered by both houses; |185|\n    and that this day particularly is to be kept with the more solemn\n    humiliation because it may call to remembrance our sins and the sins\n    of our forefathers, who have turned this Feast, pretending the memory\n    of Christ, into an extreme forgetfulness of him, by giving liberty to\n    carnal and sensual delights; being contrary to the life which Christ\n    himself led here upon earth, and to the spiritual life of Christ in\n    our souls; for the sanctifying and saving whereof Christ was pleased\n    both to take a human life, and to lay it down again.\"{57}\n\nBut the English people's love of Christmas could not be destroyed. \"These\npoor simple creatures are made after superstitious festivals, after\nunholy holidays,\" said a speaker in the House of Commons. \"I have known\nsome that have preferred Christmas Day before the Lord's Day,\" said\nCalamy in a sermon to the Lords in Westminster Abbey, \"I have known those\nthat would be sure to receive the Sacrament on Christmas Day though they\ndid not receive it all the year after. This was the superstition of this\nday, and the profaneness was as great. There were some that did not play\ncards all the year long, yet they must play at Christmas.\" Various\nprotests were made against the suppression of the festival. Though\nParliament sat every Christmas Day from 1644 to 1656, the shops in London\nin 1644 were all shut, and in 1646 the people who opened their shops were\nso roughly used that next year they petitioned Parliament to protect them\nin future. In 1647 the shops were indeed all closed, but evergreen\ndecorations were put up in the City, and the Lord Mayor and City Marshal\nhad to ride about setting fire to them. There were even riots in country\nplaces, notably at Canterbury. With the Restoration Christmas naturally\ncame back to full recognition, though it may be doubted whether it has\never been quite the same thing since the Puritan Revolution.{58}\n\nProtestantism, in proportion to its thoroughness and the strength of its\nPuritan elements, has everywhere tended to destroy old pagan traditions\nand the festivals to which they cling. Calvinism has naturally been more\ndestructive than Lutheranism, which in the Scandinavian countries has\nleft standing many of the externals of Catholicism and also many\nChristmas customs that are purely pagan, while in Germany it has\ntolerated and even hallowed the |186| ritual of the Christmas-tree. But\nmore powerful than religious influences, in rooting out the old customs,\nhave been modern education and the growth of modern industry, breaking up\nthe old traditional country life, and putting in its place the mobile,\nrestless life of the great town. Many of the customs we shall have to\nconsider belong essentially to the country, and have no relation to the\nlife of the modern city. When communal in their character, a man could\nnot perform them in separation from his rustic neighbours. Practices\ndomestic in their purpose may indeed be transferred to the modern city,\nbut it is the experience of folk-lorists that they seldom descend to the\nsecond generation.\n\nIt is in regions like Bavaria, Tyrol, Styria, or the Slav parts of the\nAustrian Empire, or Roumania and Servia, that the richest store of\nfestival customs is to be found nowadays. Here the old agricultural life\nhas been less interfered with, and at the same time the Church, whether\nRoman or Greek, has succeeded in keeping modern ideas away from the\npeople and in maintaining a popular piety that is largely polytheistic in\nits worship of the saints, and embodies a great amount of traditional\npaganism. In our half-suburbanized England but little now remains of\nthese vestiges of primitive religion and magic whose interest and\nimportance were only realized by students in the later nineteenth\ncentury, when the wave of \"progress\" was fast sweeping them away.\n\nOld traditions have a way of turning up unexpectedly in remote corners,\nand it is hard to say for certain that any custom is altogether extinct;\nevery year, however, does its work of destruction, and it may well be\nthat some of the practices here described in the present tense have\npassed into the Limbo of discarded things.\n\n|187| |188| |189|\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nALL HALLOW TIDE TO MARTINMAS\n\n\n    All Saints' and All Souls' Days, their Relation to a New Year\n    Festival--All Souls' Eve and Tendance of the Departed--Soul Cakes in\n    England and on the Continent--Pagan Parallels of All\n    Souls'--Hallowe'en Charms and Omens--Hallowe'en Fires--Guy Fawkes\n    Day--\"Old Hob,\" the _Schimmelreiter_, and other Animal\n    Masks--Martinmas and its Slaughter--Martinmas Drinking--St. Martin's\n    Fires in Germany--Winter Visitors in the Low Countries and\n    Germany--St. Martin as Gift-bringer--St. Martin's Rod.\n\n\nALL SAINTS' AND ALL SOULS' DAYS.\n\nIn the reign of Charles I. the young gentlemen of the Middle Temple were\naccustomed to reckon All Hallow Tide (November 1) the beginning of\nChristmas.{1} We may here do likewise and start our survey of winter\nfestivals with November, in the earlier half of which, apparently, fell\nthe Celtic and Teutonic New Year's Days. It is impossible to fix precise\ndates, but there is reason for thinking that the Celtic year began about\nNovember 1,[86]{2} and the Teutonic about November 11.{3}\n\nOn November 1 falls one of the greater festivals of the western Church,\nAll Saints'--or, to give it its old English name, All Hallows'--and on\nthe morrow is the solemn commemoration of the departed--All Souls'. In\nthese two anniversaries the Church has |190| preserved at or near the\noriginal date one part of the old beginning-of-winter festival--the part\nconcerned with the cult of the dead. Some of the practices belonging to\nthis side of the feast have been transferred to the season of Christmas\nand the Twelve Days, but these have often lost their original meaning,\nand it is to All Souls' Day that we must look for the most conscious\nsurvivals of that care for the departed which is so marked a feature of\nprimitive religion. Early November, when the leaves are falling, and all\naround speaks of mortality, is a fitting time for the commemoration of\nthe dead.\n\nThe first clear testimony to All Souls' Day is found at the end of the\ntenth century, and in France. All Saints' Day, however, was certainly\nobserved in England, France, and Germany in the eighth century,{5} and\nprobably represents an attempt on the part of the Church to turn the\nminds of the faithful away from the pagan belief in and tendance of\n\"ghosts\" to the contemplation of the saints in the glory of Paradise. It\nwould seem that this attempt failed, that the people needed a way of\nactually doing something for their own dead, and that All Souls' Day with\nits solemn Mass and prayers for the departed was intended to supply this\nneed and replace the traditional practices.{6} Here again the attempt\nwas only partly successful, for side by side with the Church's rites\nthere survived a number of usages related not to any Christian doctrine\nof the after-life, but to the pagan idea, widespread among many peoples,\nthat on one day or night of the year the souls of the dead return to\ntheir old homes and must be entertained.\n\nAll Souls' Day then appeals to instincts older than Christianity. How\nstrong is the hold of ancient custom even upon the sceptical and\nirreligious is shown very strikingly in Roman Catholic countries: even\nthose who never go to church visit the graves of their relations on All\nSouls' Eve to deck them with flowers.\n\nThe special liturgical features of the Church's celebration are the\nVespers, Matins, and Lauds of the Dead on the evening of November 1, and\nthe solemn Requiem Mass on November 2, with the majestic \"Dies irae\" and\nthe oft-recurrent versicle, \"Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux\nperpetua luceat |191| eis,\" that most beautiful of prayers. The priest\nand altar are vested in black, and a catafalque with burning tapers round\nit stands in the body of the church. For the popular customs on the Eve\nwe may quote Dr. Tylor's general description:--\n\n    \"In Italy the day is given to feasting and drinking in honour of the\n    dead, while skulls and skeletons in sugar and paste form appropriate\n    children's toys. In Tyrol, the poor souls released from purgatory\n    fire for the night may come and smear their burns with the melted fat\n    of the 'soul light' on the hearth, or cakes are left for them on the\n    table, and the room is kept warm for their comfort. Even in Paris the\n    souls of the departed come to partake of the food of the living. In\n    Brittany the crowd pours into the churchyard at evening, to kneel\n    barefoot at the grave of dead kinsfolk, to fill the hollow of the\n    tombstone with holy water, or to pour libations of milk upon it. All\n    night the church bells clang, and sometimes a solemn procession of\n    the clergy goes round to bless the graves. In no household that night\n    is the cloth removed, for the supper must be left for the souls to\n    come and take their part, nor must the fire be put out, where they\n    will come to warm themselves. And at last, as the inmates retire to\n    rest, there is heard at the door a doleful chant--it is the souls,\n    who, borrowing the voices of the parish poor, have come to ask the\n    prayers of the living.\"{7}\n\nTo this may be added some further accounts of All Souls' Eve as the one\nnight in the year when the spirits of the departed are thought to revisit\ntheir old homes.\n\nIn the Vosges mountains while the bells are ringing in All Souls' Eve it\nis a custom to uncover the beds and open the windows in order that the\npoor souls may enter and rest. Prayer is made for the dead until late in\nthe night, and when the last \"De profundis\" has been said \"the head of\nthe family gently covers up the beds, sprinkles them with holy water, and\nshuts the windows.\"{8}\n\nThe Esthonians on All Souls' Day provide a meal for the dead and invite\nthem by name. The souls arrive at the first cock-crow and depart at the\nsecond, being lighted out of the house by the head of the family, who\nwaves a white cloth after them and bids them come again next year.{9}\n\nIn Brittany, as we have seen, the dead are thought to return at |192|\nthis season. It is believed that on the night between All Saints' and All\nSouls' the church is lighted up and the departed attend a nocturnal Mass\ncelebrated by a phantom priest. All through the week, in one district,\npeople are afraid to go out after nightfall lest they should see some\ndead person.{10} In Tyrol it is believed that the \"poor souls\" are\npresent in the howling winds that often blow at this time.{11}\n\nIn the Abruzzi on All Souls' Eve \"before people go to sleep they place on\nthe table a lighted lamp or candle and a frugal meal of bread and water.\nThe dead issue from their graves and stalk in procession through every\nstreet of the village.... First pass the souls of the good, and then the\nsouls of the murdered and the damned.\"{12}\n\nIn Sicily a strange belief is connected with All Souls' Day (_jornu di li\nmorti_): the family dead are supposed, like Santa Klaus in the North, to\nbring presents to children; the dead relations have become the good\nfairies of the little ones. On the night between November 1 and 2 little\nSicilians believe that the departed leave their dread abode and come to\ntown to steal from rich shopkeepers sweets and toys and new clothes.\nThese they give to their child relations who have been \"good\" and have\nprayed on their behalf. Often they are clothed in white and wear silken\nshoes, to elude the vigilance of the shopkeepers. They do not always\nenter the houses; sometimes the presents are left in the children's shoes\nput outside doors and windows. In the morning the pretty gifts are\nattributed by the children to the _morti_ in whose coming their parents\nhave taught them to believe.{13}\n\nA very widespread custom at this season is to burn candles, perhaps in\norder to lighten the darkness for the poor souls. In Catholic Ireland\ncandles shine in the windows on the Vigil of All Souls',{14} in Belgium\na holy candle is burnt all night, or people walk in procession with\nlighted tapers, while in many Roman Catholic countries, and even in the\nProtestant villages of Baden, the graves are decked with lights as well\nas flowers.{15}\n\nAnother practice on All Saints' and All Souls' Days, curiously |193|\ncommon formerly in Protestant England, is that of making and giving\n\"soul-cakes.\" These and the quest of them by children were customary in\nvarious English counties and in Scotland.{16} The youngsters would beg\nnot only for the cakes but also sometimes for such things as \"apples and\nstrong beer,\" presumably to make a \"wassail-bowl\" of \"lambswool,\" hot\nspiced ale with roast apples in it.{17} Here is a curious rhyme which\nthey sang in Shropshire as they went round to their neighbours,\ncollecting contributions:--\n\n   \"Soul! soul! for a soul-cake!\n    I pray, good missis, a soul-cake!\n    An apple or pear, a plum or a cherry,\n    Any good thing to make us merry.\n    One for Peter, two for Paul,\n    Three for Him who made us all.\n    Up with the kettle, and down with the pan,\n    Give us good alms, and we'll be gone.\"{18}\n\nShropshire is a county peculiarly rich in \"souling\" traditions, and one\nold lady had cakes made to give away to the souling-children up to the\ntime of her death in 1884. At that period the custom of \"souling\" had\ngreatly declined in the county, and where it still existed the rewards\nwere usually apples or money. Grown men, as well as children, sometimes\nwent round, and the ditties sung often contained verses of good-wishes\nfor the household practically identical with those sung by wassailers at\nChristmas.{19}\n\nThe name \"soul-cake\" of course suggests that the cakes were in some way\nassociated with the departed, whether given as a reward for prayers for\nsouls in Purgatory, or as a charity for the benefit of the \"poor souls,\"\nor baked that the dead might feast upon them.[87] It seems most probable\nthat they were relics of a feast once laid out for the souls. On the\nother hand it is just possible that they were originally a sacrament of\nthe corn-spirit. |194| A North Welsh tradition recorded by Pennant may\nconceivably have preserved a vague memory of some agricultural\nconnection: he tells us that on receiving soul-cakes the poor people used\nto pray to God to bless the next crop of wheat.{20}\n\nNot in Great Britain alone are soul-cakes found; they are met with in\nBelgium, southern Germany, and Austria. In western Flanders children set\nup on All Souls' Eve little street altars, putting a crucifix or Madonna\nwith candles on a chair or stool, and begging passers-by for money \"for\ncakes for the souls in Purgatory.\" On All Souls' morning it is customary,\nall over the Flemish part of Belgium, to bake little cakes of finest\nwhite flour, called \"soul-bread.\" They are eaten hot, and a prayer is\nsaid at the same time for the souls in Purgatory. It is believed that a\nsoul is delivered for every cake eaten. At Antwerp the cakes are coloured\nyellow with saffron to suggest the Purgatorial flames. In southern\nGermany and Austria little white loaves of a special kind are baked; they\nare generally oval in form, and are usually called by some name into\nwhich the word \"soul\" enters. In Tyrol they are given to children by\ntheir godparents; those for the boys have the shape of horses or hares,\nthose for the girls, of hens. In Tyrol the cakes left over at supper\nremain on the table and are said to \"belong to the poor souls.\"{21}\n\nIn Friuli in the north-east of Italy there is a custom closely\ncorresponding to our \"soul-cakes.\" On All Souls' Day every family gives\naway a quantity of bread. This is not regarded as a charity; all the\npeople of the village come to receive it and before eating it pray for\nthe departed of the donor's family. The most prosperous people are not\nashamed to knock at the door and ask for this _pane dei morti_.{22}\n\nIn Tyrol All Souls' is a day of licensed begging, which has become a\nserious abuse. A noisy rabble of ragged and disorderly folk, with bags\nand baskets to receive gifts, wanders from village to village, claiming\nas a right the presents of provisions that were originally a freewill\noffering for the benefit of the departed, and angrily abusing those who\nrefuse to give.{23}\n\nThe New Year is the time for a festival of the dead in many parts of the\nworld.{24} I may quote Dr. Frazer's account of what |195| goes on in\nTonquin; it shows a remarkable likeness to some European customs[88]:--\n\n    \"In Tonquin, as in Sumba, the dead revisit their kinsfolk and their\n    old homes at the New Year. From the hour of midnight, when the New\n    Year begins, no one dares to shut the door of his house for fear of\n    excluding the ghosts, who begin to arrive at that time. Preparations\n    have been made to welcome and refresh them after their long journey.\n    Beds and mats are ready for their weary bodies to repose upon, water\n    to wash their dusty feet, slippers to comfort them, and canes to\n    support their feeble steps.\"{25}\n\nIn Lithuania, the last country in Europe to be converted to Christianity,\nheathen traditions lingered long, and sixteenth- and seventeenth-century\ntravellers give accounts of a pagan New Year's feast which has great\ninterest. In October, according to one account, on November 2, according\nto another, the whole family met together, strewed the tables with straw\nand put sacks on the straw. Bread and two jugs of beer were then placed\non the table, and one of every kind of domestic animal was roasted before\nthe fire after a prayer to the god Zimiennik (possibly an ancestral\nspirit), asking for protection through the year and offering the animals.\nPortions were thrown to the corners of the room with the words \"Accept\nour burnt sacrifice, O Zimiennik, and kindly partake thereof.\" Then\nfollowed a great feast. Further, the spirits of the dead were invited to\nleave their graves and visit the bath-house, where platters of food were\nspread out and left for three days. At the end of this time the remains\nof the repast were set out over the graves and libations poured.{26}\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe beginning of November is not solely a time of memory of the dead;\ncustoms of other sorts linger, or until lately used to linger, about it,\nespecially in Scotland, northern England, Ireland, Cornwall, Wales, and\nthe West Midlands. One may conjecture that these are survivals from the\nCeltic New Year's Day, for most of them are of the nature of omens or\ncharms. Apples and nuts are prominent on Hallowe'en, the Eve of All\n|196| Saints;[89] they may be regarded either as a kind of sacrament of\nthe vegetation-spirit, or as simply intended by homoeopathic magic to\nbring fulness and fruitfulness to their recipients. A custom once common\nin the north of England{27} and in Wales{28} was to catch at apples\nwith the mouth, the fruit being suspended on a string, or on one end of a\nlarge transverse beam with a lighted candle at the other end. In the\nnorth apples and nuts were the feature of the evening feast, hence the\nname \"Nutcrack night.\"{29}\n\nAgain, at St. Ives in Cornwall every child is given a big apple on\nAllhallows' Eve--\"Allan Day\" as it is called.{30} Nuts and apples were\nalso used as means of forecasting the future. In Scotland for instance\nnuts were put into the fire and named after particular lads and lasses.\n\"As they burn quietly together or start from beside one another, the\ncourse and issue of the courtship will be.\"{31} On Hallowe'en in\nNottinghamshire if a girl had two lovers and wanted to know which would\nbe the more constant, she took two apple-pips, stuck one on each cheek\n(naming them after her lovers) and waited for one to fall off. The poet\nGay alludes to this custom:--\n\n   \"See from the core two kernels now I take,\n    This on my cheek for Lubberkin is worn,\n    And Booby Clod on t'other side is borne;\n    But Booby Clod soon falls upon the ground,\n    A certain token that his love's unsound;\n    While Lubberkin sticks firmly to the last;\n    Oh! were his lips to mine but joined so fast.\"{32}\n\nIn Nottinghamshire apples are roasted and the parings thrown over the\nleft shoulder. \"Notice is taken of the shapes which the parings assume\nwhen they fall to the ground. Whatever letter a paring resembles will be\nthe initial letter of the Christian name of the man or woman whom you\nwill marry.\"{33}\n\n|197| Hallowe'en is indeed in the British Isles the favourite time for\nforecasting the future, and various methods are employed for this\npurpose.\n\nA girl may cross her shoes upon her bedroom floor in the shape of a T and\nsay these lines:--\n\n   \"I cross my shoes in the shape of a T,\n    Hoping this night my true love to see,\n    Not in his best or worst array,\n    But in the clothes of every day.\"\n\nThen let her get into bed backwards without speaking any more that night,\nand she will see her future husband in her dreams.{34}\n\n\"On All Hallowe'en or New Year's Eve,\" says Mr. W. Henderson, \"a Border\nmaiden may wash her sark, and hang it over a chair to dry, taking care to\ntell no one what she is about. If she lie awake long enough, she will see\nthe form of her future spouse enter the room and turn the sark. We are\ntold of one young girl who, after fulfilling this rite, looked out of bed\nand saw a coffin behind the sark; it remained visible for some time and\nthen disappeared. The girl rose up in agony and told her family what had\noccurred, and the next morning she heard of her lover's death.\"{35}\n\nIn Scotland{36} and Ireland{37} other methods of foreseeing the future\nare practised on Hallowe'en; we need not consider them here, for we shall\nhave quite enough of such auguries later on. (Some Scottish customs are\nintroduced by Burns into his poem \"Hallowe'en.\") I may, however, allude\nto the custom formerly prevalent in Wales for women to congregate in the\nchurch on this \"Night of the Winter Kalends,\" in order to discover who of\nthe parishioners would die during the year.{38} East of the Welsh\nborder, at Dorstone in Herefordshire, there was a belief that on All\nHallows' Eve at midnight those who were bold enough to look through the\nwindows would see the church lighted with an unearthly glow, and Satan in\nmonk's habit fulminating anathemas from the pulpit and calling out the\nnames of those who were to render up their souls.{39}\n\n|198| Again, there are numerous Hallowe'en fire customs, probably\nsun-charms for the New Year, a kind of homoeopathic magic intended to\nassist the sun in his struggle with the powers of darkness. To this day\ngreat bonfires are kindled in the Highlands, and formerly brands were\ncarried about and the new fire was lit in each house.{40} It would seem\nthat the Yule log customs (see Chapter X.) are connected with this new\nlighting of the house-fire, transferred to Christmas.\n\nIn Ireland fire was lighted at this time at a place called Tlachtga, from\nwhich all the hearths in Ireland are said to have been annually\nsupplied.{41} In Wales the habit of lighting bonfires on the hills is\nperhaps not yet extinct.{42} Within living memory when the flames were\nout somebody would raise the cry, \"May the tailless black sow seize the\nhindmost,\" and everyone present would run for his life.{43} This may\npoint to a former human sacrifice, possibly of a victim laden with the\naccumulated evils of the past year.{44}\n\nIn North Wales, according to another account, each family used to make a\ngreat bonfire in a conspicuous place near the house. Every person threw\ninto the ashes a white stone, marked; the stones were searched for in the\nmorning, and if any one were missing the person who had thrown it in\nwould die, it was believed, during the year.{45} The same belief and\npractice were found at Callander in Perthshire.{46}\n\nThough, probably, the Hallowe'en fire rites had originally some\nconnection with the sun, the conscious intention of those who practised\nthem in modern times was often to ward off witchcraft. With this object\nin one place the master of the family used to carry a bunch of burning\nstraw about the corn, in Scotland the red end of a fiery stick was waved\nin the air, in Lancashire a lighted candle was borne about the fells, and\nin the Isle of Man fires were kindled.{47}\n\n\nGUY FAWKES DAY.\n\nProbably the burning of Guy Fawkes on November 5 is a survival of a New\nYear bonfire. There is every reason to think that the commemoration of\nthe deliverance from \"gunpowder |199| treason and plot\" is but a modern\nmeaning attached to an ancient traditional practice, for the burning of\nthe effigy has many parallels in folk-custom. Dr. Frazer{48} regards\nsuch effigies as representatives of the spirit of vegetation--by burning\nthem in a fire that represented the sun men thought they secured sunshine\nfor trees and crops. Later, when the ideas on which the custom was based\nhad faded away, people came to identify these images with persons whom\nthey regarded with aversion, such as Judas Iscariot, Luther (in Catholic\nTyrol), and, apparently, Guy Fawkes in England. At Ludlow in Shropshire,\nit is interesting to note, if any well-known local man had aroused the\nenmity of the populace his effigy was substituted for, or added to, that\nof Guy Fawkes. Bonfire Day at Ludlow is marked by a torchlight procession\nand a huge conflagration.{49} At Hampstead the Guy Fawkes fire and\nprocession are still in great force. The thing has become a regular\ncarnival, and on a foggy November night the procession along the steep\ncurving Heath Street, with the glare of the torches lighting up the faces\nof dense crowds, is a strangely picturesque spectacle.[90]\n\n\nANIMAL MASKS.\n\nOn All Souls' Day in Cheshire there began to be carried about a curious\nconstruction called \"Old Hob,\" a horse's head enveloped in a sheet; it\nwas taken from door to door, and accompanied by the singing of begging\nrhymes.{50} Old Hob, who continued to appear until Christmas, is an\nEnglish parallel to the German _Schimmel_ or white horse. We have here to\ndo with one of those strange animal forms which are apparently relics of\nsacrificial customs. They come on various days in the winter festival\nseason, and also at other times, and may as well be considered at this\npoint. In some cases they are definitely imitations of animals, and may\nhave replaced real sacrificial beasts taken about in procession, in\nothers they are simply men wearing the head, horn, hide, or tail of a\nbeast, like the worshippers at many |200| a heathen sacrifice to-day.\n(Of the _rationale_ of masking something has already been said in Chapter\nVI.)\n\nThe mingling of Roman and non-Roman customs makes it very hard to\nseparate the different elements in the winter festivals. In regard\nparticularly to animal masks it is difficult to pronounce in favour of\none racial origin rather than another; we may, however, infer with some\nprobability that when a custom is attached not to Christmas or the\nJanuary Kalends but to one of the November or early December feasts, it\nis not of Roman origin. For, as the centuries have passed, Christmas and\nthe Kalends--the Roman festivals ecclesiastical and secular--have\nincreasingly tended to supplant the old northern festal times, and a\ntransference of, for instance, a Teutonic custom from Martinmas to\nChristmas or January 1, is far more conceivable than the attraction of a\nRoman practice to one of the earlier and waning festivals.\n\nLet us take first the horse-forms, seemingly connected with that\nsacrificial use of the horse among the Teutons to which Tacitus and other\nwriters testify.{51} \"Old Hob\" is doubtless one form of the hobby horse,\nso familiar in old English festival customs. His German parallel, the\n_Schimmel_, is mostly formed thus in the north: a sieve with a long pole\nto whose end a horse's head is fastened, is tied beneath the chest of a\nyoung man, who goes on all fours, and some white cloths are thrown over\nthe whole. In Silesia the _Schimmel_ is formed by three or four youths.\nThe rider is generally veiled, and often wears on his head a pot with\nglowing coals shining forth through openings that represent eyes and a\nmouth.{52} In Pomerania the thing is called simply _Schimmel_,{53} in\nother parts emphasis is laid upon the rider, and the name\n_Schimmelreiter_ is given. Some mythologists have seen in this rider on a\nwhite horse an impersonation of Woden on his great charger; but it is\nmore likely that the practice simply originated in the taking round of a\nreal sacrificial horse.{54} The _Schimmelreiter_ is often accompanied by\na \"bear,\" a youth dressed in straw who plays the part of a bear tied to a\npole.{55} He may be connected with some such veneration of the animal as\nis suggested by the custom still surviving at Berne, of keeping bears at\nthe public expense.\n\nTo return to Great Britain, here is an account of a so-called |201|\n\"hodening\" ceremony once performed at Christmas-time at Ramsgate: \"A\nparty of young people procure the head of a dead horse, which is affixed\nto a pole about four feet in length, a string is tied to the lower jaw, a\nhorse-cloth is then attached to the whole, under which one of the party\ngets, and by frequently pulling the string keeps up a loud snapping noise\nand is accompanied by the rest of the party grotesquely habited and\nringing hand-bells. They thus proceed from house to house, sounding their\nbells and singing carols and songs.\"{56}\n\nAgain, in Wales a creature called \"the Mari Llwyd\" was known at\nChristmas. A horse's skull is \"dressed up with ribbons, and supported on\na pole by a man who is concealed under a large white cloth. There is a\ncontrivance for opening and shutting the jaws, and the figure pursues and\nbites everybody it can lay hold of, and does not release them except on\npayment of a fine.\"{57} The movable jaws here give the thing a likeness\nto certain Continental figures representing other kinds of animals and\nprobably witnessing to their former sacrificial use. On the island of\nUsedom appears the _Klapperbock_, a youth who carries a pole with the\nhide of a buck thrown over it and a wooden head at the end. The lower jaw\nmoves up and down and clatters, and he charges at children who do not\nknow their prayers by heart.{58} In Upper Styria we meet the\n_Habergaiss_. Four men hold on to one another and are covered with white\nblankets. The foremost one holds up a wooden goat's head with a movable\nlower jaw that rattles, and he butts children.{59} At Ilsenburg in the\nHarz is found the _Habersack_, formed by a person taking a pole ending in\na fork, and putting a broom between the prongs so that the appearance of\na head with horns is obtained. The carrier is concealed by a sheet.{60}\n\nIn connection with horns we must not forget the \"horn-dance\" at Abbots\nBromley in Staffordshire, held now in September, but formerly at\nChristmas. Six of the performers wear sets of horns kept from year to\nyear in the church.{61} Plot, in his \"Natural History of Staffordshire\"\n(1686, p. 434) calls it a \"_Hobby-horse Dance_ from a person who carried\nthe image of a horse between his legs, made of thin boards.\"{62}\n\n|202| In Denmark, Sweden, and Norway creatures resembling both the\n_Schimmelreiter_ and the _Klapperbock_ are or were to be met with at\nChristmas. The name _Julebuk_ (yule buck) is used for various objects:\nsometimes for a person dressed up in hide and horns, or with a buck's\nhead, who \"goes for\" little boys and girls; sometimes for a straw puppet\nset up or tossed about from hand to hand; sometimes for a cake in the\nform of a buck. People seem to have had a bad conscience about these\nthings, for there are stories connecting them with the Devil. A girl, for\ninstance, who danced at midnight with a straw _Julebuk_, found that her\npartner was no puppet but the Evil One himself. Again, a fellow who had\ndressed himself in black and put horns on his head, claws on his hands,\nand fiery tow in his mouth, was carried off by the Prince of Darkness\nwhose form he had mimicked.{63} The association of animal maskings with\nthe infernal powers is doubtless the work of the Church. To the zealous\nmissionary the old heathen ritual was no mere foolish superstition but a\nservice of intensely real and awful beings, the very devils of hell, and\none may even conjecture that the traditional Christian devil-type, half\nanimal half human, was indirectly derived from skin-clad worshippers at\npagan festivals.\n\n\nMARTINMAS.\n\nBetween All Souls' Day and Martinmas (November 11) there are no\nfolk-festivals of great importance, though on St. Hubert's Day, November\n3, in Flemish Belgium special little cakes are made, adorned with the\nhorn of the saint, the patron of hunting, and are eaten not only by human\nbeings but by dogs, cats, and other domestic animals.{64} The English\nGuy Fawkes Day has already been considered, while November 9, Lord\nMayor's Day, the beginning of the municipal year, may remind us of the\nold Teutonic New Year.\n\nRound Martinmas popular customs cluster thickly, as might be expected,\nsince it marks as nearly as possible the date of the old\nbeginning-of-winter festival, the feast perhaps at which Germanicus\nsurprised the Marsi in A.D. 14.{65}\n\nThe most obvious feature of Martinmas is its physical feasting. |203|\nEconomic causes, as we saw in Chapter VI., must have made the middle of\nNovember a great killing season among the old Germans, for the snow which\nthen began rendered it impossible longer to pasture the beasts, and there\nwas not fodder enough to keep the whole herd through the winter. Thus it\nwas a time of feasting on flesh, and of animal sacrifices, as is\nsuggested by the Anglo-Saxon name given to November by Bede,\n_Blot-monath_, sacrifice-month.{66}\n\nChristmas does not seem to have quickly superseded the middle of November\nas a popular feast in Teutonic countries; rather one finds an outcome of\nthe conciliatory policy pursued by Gregory the Great (see Chapter VI.) in\nthe development of Martinmas. Founded in the fifth century, it was made a\ngreat Church festival by Pope Martin I. (649-654),{67} and it may well\nhave been intended to absorb and Christianize the New Year festivities of\nthe Teutonic peoples. The veneration of St. Martin spread rapidly in the\nchurches of northern Europe, and he came to be regarded as one of the\nvery chief of the saints.{68} His day is no longer a Church feast of\nhigh rank, but its importance as a folk festival is great.\n\nThe tradition of slaughter is preserved in the British custom of killing\ncattle on St. Martin's Day--\"Martlemas beef\"{69}--and in the German\neating of St. Martin's geese and swine.{70} The St. Martin's goose,\nindeed, is in Germany as much a feature of the festival as the English\nMichaelmas goose is of the September feast of the angels.\n\nIn Denmark too a goose is eaten at Martinmas, and from its breast-bone\nthe character of the coming winter can be foreseen. The white in it is a\nsign of snow, the brown of very great cold. Similar ideas can be traced\nin Germany, though there is not always agreement as to what the white and\nthe brown betoken.{71}\n\nAt St. Peter's, Athlone, Ireland, a very obviously sacrificial custom\nlasted on into the nineteenth century. Every household would kill an\nanimal of some kind, and sprinkle the threshold with its blood. A cow or\nsheep, a goose or turkey, or merely a cock or hen, was used according to\nthe means of the family.{72} It seems that the animal was actually\noffered to St. Martin, apparently as |204| the successor of some god,\nand bad luck came if the custom were not observed. Probably these rites\nwere transferred to Martinmas from the old Celtic festival of _Samhain_.\nAgain, in a strange Irish legend the saint himself is said to have been\ncut up and eaten in the form of an ox.{73}\n\nIn the wine-producing regions of Germany Martinmas was the day for the\nfirst drinking of the new wine, and the feasting in general on his day\ngave the saint the reputation of a guzzler and a glutton; it even became\ncustomary to speak of a person who had squandered his substance in\nriotous living as a _Martinsmann_.{74} As we have seen survivals of\nsacrifice in the Martinmas slaughter, so we may regard the _Martinsminne_\nor toast as originating in a sacrifice of liquor.{75} In the Boehmerwald\nit is believed that wine taken at Martinmas brings strength and beauty,\nand the lads and girls gather in the inns to drink, while a common German\nproverb runs:--\n\n   \"Heb an Martini,\n    Trink Wein per circulum anni.\"[91]{76}\n\nHere, by the way, is a faint suggestion that Martinmas is regarded as the\nbeginning of the year; as such it certainly appears in a number of legal\ncustoms, English, French, and German, which existed in the Middle Ages\nand in some cases in quite recent times. It was often at Martinmas that\nleases ended, rents had to be paid, and farm-servants changed their\nplaces.{77}\n\nThere is a survival, perhaps, of a cereal sacrifice or sacrament in the\nso-called \"Martin's horns,\" horseshoe pastries given at Martinmas in many\nparts of Germany.{78} Another kind of sacrifice is suggested by a Dutch\ncustom of throwing baskets of fruit into Martinmas bonfires, and by a\nGerman custom of casting in empty fruit-baskets.{79} In Venetia the\npeasants keep over from the vintage a few grapes to form part of their\nMartinmas supper, and as far south as Sicily it is considered essential\nto taste the new wine at this festival.{80}\n\nBonfires appear at Martinmas in Germany, as at All Hallows tide in the\nBritish Isles. On St. Martin's Eve in the Rhine |205| Valley between\nCologne and Coblentz, numbers of little fires burn on the heights and by\nthe river-bank,{81} the young people leap through the flames and dance\nabout them, and the ashes are strewn on the fields to make them\nfertile.{82} Survivals of fire-customs are found also in other regions.\nIn Belgium, Holland, and north-west Germany processions of children with\npaper or turnip lanterns take place on St. Martin's Eve. In the Eichsfeld\ndistrict the little river Geislede glows with the light of candles placed\nin floating nutshells. Even the practice of leaping through the fire\nsurvives in a modified form, for in northern Germany it is not uncommon\nfor people on St. Martin's Day or Eve to jump over lighted candles set on\nthe parlour floor.{83} In the fifteenth century the Martinmas fires were\nso many that the festival actually got the name of _Funkentag_ (Spark\nDay).{84}\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOn St. Martin's Eve in Germany and the Low Countries we begin to meet\nthose winter visitors, bright saints and angels on the one hand,\nmock-terrible bogeys and monsters on the other, who add so much to the\nromance and mystery of the children's Christmas. Such visitors are to be\nfound in many countries, but it is in the lands of German speech that\nthey take on the most vivid and picturesque forms. St. Martin, St.\nNicholas, Christkind, Knecht Ruprecht, and the rest are very real and\npersonal beings to the children, and are awaited with pleasant\nexpectation or mild dread. Often they are beheld not merely with the\nimagination but with the bodily eye, when father or friend is wondrously\ntransformed into a supernatural figure.\n\nWhat are the origins of these holy or monstrous beings? It is hard to say\nwith certainty, for many elements, pagan and Christian, seem here to be\nclosely blended. It is pretty clear, however, that the grotesque\nhalf-animal shapes are direct relics of heathendom, and it is highly\nprobable that the forms of saints or angels--even, perhaps, of the Christ\nChild Himself--represent attempts of the Church to transform and sanctify\nalien things which she could not suppress. What some of these may have\nbeen we shall tentatively guess as we go along. Though no grown-up person\nwould take the mimic Martin or Nicholas |206| seriously nowadays, there\nseem to be at the root of them things once regarded as of vital moment.\nJust as fairy-tales, originally serious attempts to explain natural\nfacts, have now become reading for children, so ritual practices which\nour ancestors deemed of vast importance for human welfare have become\nmere games to amuse the young.\n\nOn St. Martin's Eve, to come back from speculation to the facts of\npopular custom, the saint appears in the nurseries of Antwerp and other\nFlemish towns. He is a man dressed up as a bishop, with a pastoral staff\nin his hand. His business is to ask if the children have been \"good,\" and\nif the result of his inquiries is satisfactory he throws down apples,\nnuts, and cakes. If not, it is rods that he leaves behind. At Ypres he\ndoes not visibly appear, but children hang up stockings filled with hay,\nand next morning find presents in them, left by the saint in gratitude\nfor the fodder provided for his horse. He is there imagined as a rider on\na white horse, and the same conception prevails in Austrian Silesia,\nwhere he brings the \"Martin's horns\" already mentioned.{85} In Silesia\nwhen it snows at Martinmas people say that the saint is coming on his\nwhite horse, and there, it may be noted, the _Schimmelreiter_ appears at\nthe same season.{86} In certain respects, it has been suggested, St.\nMartin may have taken the place of Woden.{87} It is perhaps not without\nsignificance that, like the god, he is a military hero, and conceived as\na rider on horseback. At Duesseldorf he used to be represented in his\nfestival procession by a man riding on another fellow's back.{88}\n\nAt Mechlin and other places children go round from house to house,\nsinging and collecting gifts. Often four boys with paper caps on their\nheads, dressed as Turks, carry a sort of litter whereon St. Martin sits.\nHe has a long white beard of flax and a paper mitre and stole, and holds\na large wooden spoon to receive apples and other eatables that are given\nto the children, as well as a leather purse for offerings of money.{89}\n\nIn the Ansbach region a different type of being used to\nappear--Pelzmaerten (Skin Martin) by name; he ran about and frightened the\nchildren, before he threw them their apples and nuts. In several places\nin Swabia, too, Pelzmaerte was known; |207| he had a black face, a\ncow-bell hung on his person, and he distributed blows as well as nuts and\napples.{90} In him there is obviously more of the pagan mummer than the\nChristian bishop.\n\nIn Belgium St. Martin is chiefly known as the bringer of apples and nuts\nfor children; in Bavaria and Austria he has a different aspect: a _gerte_\nor rod, supposed to promote fruitfulness among cattle and prosperity in\ngeneral, is connected with his day. The rods are taken round by the\nneatherds to the farmers, and one is given to each--two to rich\nproprietors; they are to be used, when spring comes, to drive out the\ncattle for the first time. In Bavaria they are formed by a birch-bough\nwith all the leaves and twigs stripped off--except at the top, to which\noak-leaves and juniper-twigs are fastened. At Etzendorf a curious old\nrhyme shows that the herdsman with the rod is regarded as the\nrepresentative of St. Martin.{91}\n\nCan we connect this custom with the saint who brings presents to\nyoungsters?[92] There seems to be a point of contact when we note that at\nAntwerp St. Martin throws down rods for naughty children as well as nuts\nand apples for good ones, and that Pelzmaerte in Swabia has blows to\nbestow as well as gifts. St. Martin's main functions--and, as we shall\nsee, St. Nicholas has the same--are to beat the bad children and reward\nthe good with apples, nuts, and cakes. Can it be that the ethical\ndistinction is of comparatively recent origin, an invention perhaps for\nchildren when the customs came to be performed solely for their benefit,\nand that the beating and the gifts were originally shared by all alike\nand were of a sacramental character? We shall meet with more whipping\ncustoms later on, they are common enough in folk-ritual, and are not\npunishments, but kindly services; their purpose is to drive away evil\ninfluences, and to bring to the flogged one the life-giving virtues of\nthe tree from which the twigs or boughs are taken.{92} Both the flogging\nand the eating of fruit may, indeed, be means of contact with the\nvegetation-spirit, the one in |208| an external, the other in a more\ninternal way. Or possibly the rod and the fruit may once have been\nconjoined, the beating being performed with fruit-laden boughs in order\nto produce prosperity. It is noteworthy that at Etzendorf so many head of\ncattle and loads of hay are augured for the farmer as there are\njuniper-_berries_ and twigs on St. Martin's _gerte_.{94}\n\nAttempts to account for the figures of SS. Martin and Nicholas in\nnorthern folk-customs have been made along various lines. Some scholars\nregard them as Christianizations of the pagan god Woden; but they might\nalso be taken as akin to the \"first-foots\" whom we shall meet on January\n1--visitors who bring good luck--or as maskers connected with animal\nsacrifices (Pelzmaerte suggests this), or again as related to the Boy\nBishop, the Lord of Misrule and the Twelfth Night King. May I suggest\nthat some at least of their aspects could be explained on the supposition\nthat they represent administrants of primitive vegetation sacraments, and\nthat these administrants, once ordinary human beings, have taken on the\nname and attributes of the saint who under the Christian dispensation\npresides over the festival? In any case it is a strange irony of history\nthat around the festival of Martin of Tours, the zealous soldier of\nChrist and deadly foe of heathenism, should have gathered so much that is\nunmistakably pagan.\n\n|209| |210| |211|\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nST. CLEMENT TO ST. THOMAS\n\n\n    St. Clement's Day Quests and Processions--St. Catherine's Day as\n    Spinsters' Festival--St. Andrew's Eve Auguries--The\n    _Kloepfelnaechte_--St. Nicholas's Day, the Saint as Gift-bringer, and\n    his Attendants--Election of the Boy Bishop--St. Nicholas's Day at\n    Bari--St. Lucia's Day in Sweden, Sicily, and Central Europe--St.\n    Thomas's Day as School Festival--Its Uncanny Eve--\"Going\n    a-Thomassin'.\"\n\n\nST. CLEMENT'S DAY.\n\nThe next folk-feast after Martinmas is St. Clement's Day, November 23,\nonce reckoned the first day of winter in England.{1} It marks apparently\none of the stages in the progress of the winter feast towards its present\nsolstitial date. In England some interesting popular customs existed on\nthis day. In Staffordshire children used to go round to the village\nhouses begging for gifts, with rhymes resembling in many ways the\n\"souling\" verses I have already quoted. Here is one of the Staffordshire\n\"clemencing\" songs:--\n\n   \"Clemany! Clemany! Clemany mine!\n    A good red apple and a pint of wine,\n    Some of your mutton and some of your veal,\n    If it is good, pray give me a deal;\n    If it is not, pray give me some salt.\n    Butler, butler, fill your bowl;\n    If thou fill'st it of the best,\n    The Lord'll send your soul to rest;\n    If thou fill'st it of the small,\n    Down goes butler, bowl and all. |212|\n\n    Pray, good mistress, send to me\n    One for Peter, one for Paul,\n    One for Him who made us all;\n    Apple, pear, plum, or cherry,\n    Any good thing to make us merry;\n    A bouncing buck and a velvet chair,\n    Clement comes but once a year;\n    Off with the pot and on with the pan,\n    A good red apple and I'll be gone.\"{2}\n\nIn Worcestershire on St. Clement's Day the boys chanted similar rhymes,\nand at the close of their collection they would roast the apples received\nand throw them into ale or cider.{3} In the north of England men used to\ngo about begging drink, and at Ripon Minster the choristers went round\nthe church offering everyone a rosy apple with a sprig of box on it.{4}\nThe Cambridge bakers held their annual supper on this day,{5} at Tenby\nthe fishermen were given a supper,{6} while the blacksmiths' apprentices\nat Woolwich had a remarkable ceremony, akin perhaps to the Boy Bishop\ncustoms. One of their number was chosen to play the part of \"Old Clem,\"\nwas attired in a great coat, and wore a mask, a long white beard, and an\noakum wig. Seated in a large wooden chair, and surrounded by attendants\nbearing banners, torches, and weapons, he was borne about the town on the\nshoulders of six men, visiting numerous public-houses and the blacksmiths\nand officers of the dockyard. Before him he had a wooden anvil, and in\nhis hands a pair of tongs and a wooden hammer, the insignia of the\nblacksmith's trade.{7}\n\n\nST. CATHERINE'S DAY.\n\nNovember 25 is St. Catherine's Day, and at Woolwich Arsenal a similar\nceremony was then performed: a man was dressed in female attire, with a\nlarge wheel by his side to represent the saint, and was taken round the\ntown{8} in a wooden chair. At Chatham there was a torchlight procession\non St. Catherine's Day, and a woman in white muslin with a gilt crown was\ncarried about in a chair. She was said to represent not the saint, but\nQueen Catherine.{9}\n\n|213| St. Catherine's Day was formerly a festival for the lacemakers of\nNorthamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, and Bedfordshire. She was the\npatroness of spinsters in the literal as well as the modern sense of the\nword, and at Peterborough the workhouse girls used to go in procession\nround the city on her day, dressed in white with coloured ribbons; the\ntallest was chosen as Queen and bore a crown and sceptre. As they went to\nbeg money of the chief inhabitants they sang a quaint ballad which begins\nthus:--\n\n   \"Here comes Queen Catherine, as fine as any queen,\n    With a coach and six horses a-coming to be seen,\n        And a-spinning we will go, will go, will go,\n        And a-spinning we will go.\"{10}\n\nWe may perhaps see in this Saint or Queen Catherine a female counterpart\nof the Boy Bishop, who began his career on St. Nicholas's Day. Catherine,\nit must be remembered, is the patron saint of girls as Nicholas is of\nboys. In Belgium her day is still a festival for the \"young person\" both\nin schools and in families.{11} Even in modern Paris the\ndressmaker-girls celebrate it, and in a very charming way, too.\n\n\"At midday the girls of every workroom present little mob-caps trimmed\nwith yellow ribbons to those of their number who are over twenty-five and\nstill unmarried. Then they themselves put on becoming little caps with\nyellow flowers and yellow ribbons and a sprig of orange blossom on them,\nand out they go arm-in-arm to parade the streets and collect a tribute of\nflowers from every man they meet.... Instead of working all the\nafternoon, the midinettes entertain all their friends (no men admitted,\nthough, for it is the day of St. Catherine) to concerts and even to\ndramatic performances in the workrooms, where the work-tables are turned\ninto stages, and the employers provide supper.\"{12}\n\n\nST. ANDREW'S DAY.\n\nThe last day of November is the feast of St. Andrew. Of English customs\non this day the most interesting perhaps are those connected with the\n\"Tander\" or \"Tandrew\" merrymakings |214| of the Northamptonshire\nlacemakers. A day of general licence used to end in masquerading. Women\nwent about in male attire and men and boys in female dress.{13} In Kent\nand Sussex squirrel-hunting was practised on this day{14}--a survival\napparently of some old sacrificial custom comparable with the hunting of\nthe wren at Christmas (see Chapter XII.).\n\nIn Germany St. Andrew's Eve is a great occasion for prognostications of\nthe future. Indeed, like Hallowe'en in Great Britain, _Andreasabend_ in\nGermany seems to have preserved the customs of augury connected with the\nold November New Year festival.{15} To a large extent the practices are\nperformed by girls anxious to know what sort of husband they will get.\nMany and various are the methods.\n\nSometimes it suffices to repeat some such rhyme as the following before\ngoing to sleep, and the future husband will appear in a dream:--\n\n   \"St. Andrew's Eve is to-day,\n    Sleep all people,\n    Sleep all children of men,\n    Who are between heaven and earth,\n    Except this only man,\n    Who may be mine in marriage.\"{16}\n\nAgain, at nightfall let a girl shut herself up naked in her bedroom, take\ntwo beakers, and into one pour clear water, into the other wine. These\nlet her place on the table, which is to be covered with white, and let\nthe following words be said:--\n\n   \"My dear St. Andrew!\n    Let now appear before me\n    My heart's most dearly beloved.\n    If he shall be rich,\n    He will pour a cup of wine;\n    If he is to be poor,\n    Let him pour a cup of water.\"\n\nThis done, the form of the future husband will enter and drink |215| of\none of the cups. If he is poor, he will take the water; if rich, the\nwine.{17}\n\nOne of the most common practices is to pour molten lead or tin through a\nkey into cold water, and to discover the calling of the future husband by\nthe form it takes, which will represent the tools of his trade. The white\nof an egg is sometimes used for the same purpose.{18} Another very\nwidespread custom is to put nutshells to float on water with little\ncandles burning in them. There are twice as many shells as there are\ngirls present; each girl has her shell, and to the others the names of\npossible suitors are given. The man and the girl whose shells come\ntogether will marry one another. Sometimes the same method is practised\nwith little cups of silver foil.{19}\n\nOn the border of Saxony and Bohemia, a maiden who wishes to know the\nbodily build of her future husband goes in the darkness to a stack of\nwood and draws out a piece. If the wood is smooth and straight the man\nwill be slim and well built; if it is crooked, or knotted, he will be\nill-developed or even a hunchback.{20}\n\nThese are but a few of the many ways in which girls seek to peer into the\nfuture and learn something about the most important event in their lives.\nFar less numerous, but not altogether absent on this night, are other\nkinds of prognostication. A person, for instance, who wishes to know\nwhether he will die in the coming year, must on St. Andrew's Eve before\ngoing to bed make on the table a little pointed heap of flour. If by the\nmorning it has fallen asunder, the maker will die.{21}\n\nThe association of St. Andrew's Eve with the foreseeing of the future is\nnot confined to the German race; it is found also on Slavonic and\nRoumanian ground. In Croatia he who fasts then will behold his future\nwife in a dream,{22} and among the Roumanians mothers anxious about\ntheir children's luck break small sprays from fruit-trees, bind them\ntogether in bunches, one for each child, and put them in a glass of\nwater. The branch of the lucky one will blossom.{23}\n\nIn Roumania St. Andrew's Eve is a creepy time, for on it vampires are\nsupposed to rise from their graves, and with coffins |216| on their\nheads walk about the houses in which they once lived. Before nightfall\nevery woman takes some garlic and anoints with it the door locks and\nwindow casements; this will keep away the vampires. At the cross-roads\nthere is a great fight of these loathsome beings until the first cock\ncrows; and not only the dead take part in this, but also some living men\nwho are vampires from their birth. Sometimes it is only the souls of\nthese living vampires that join in the fight; the soul comes out through\nthe mouth in the form of a bluish flame, takes the shape of an animal,\nand runs to the crossway. If the body meanwhile is moved from its place\nthe person dies, for the soul cannot find its way back.{24}\n\nSt. Andrew's Day is sometimes the last, sometimes the first important\nfestival of the western Church's year. It is regarded in parts of Germany\nas the beginning of winter, as witness the saying:--\n\n   \"Suenten-Dres-Misse,\n    es de Winter gewisse.\"[93]{25}\n\nThe nights are now almost at their longest, and as November passes away,\ngiving place to the last month of the year, Christmas is felt to be near\nat hand.\n\nIn northern Bohemia it is customary for peasant girls to keep for\nthemselves all the yarn they spin on St. Andrew's Eve, and the _Hausfrau_\ngives them also some flax and a little money. With this they buy coffee\nand other refreshments for the lads who come to visit the parlours where\nin the long winter evenings the women sit spinning. These evenings, when\nmany gather together in a brightly lighted room and sing songs and tell\nstories while they spin, are cheerful enough, and spice is added by the\nvisits of the village lads, who in some places come to see the girls\nhome.{26}\n\n\nTHE KLOePFELNAeCHTE.\n\nOn the Thursday nights in Advent it is customary in southern Germany for\nchildren or grown-up people to go from house |217| to house, singing\nhymns and knocking on the doors with rods or little hammers, or throwing\npeas, lentils, and the like against the windows. Hence these evenings\nhave gained the name of _Kloepfel_ or _Knoepflinsnaechte_ (Knocking\nNights).{27} The practice is described by Naogeorgus in the sixteenth\ncentury:--\n\n   \"Three weekes before the day whereon was borne the Lord of Grace,\n    And on the Thursdaye Boyes and Girles do runne in every place,\n    And bounce and beate at every doore, with blowes and lustie snaps,\n    And crie, the Advent of the Lorde not borne as yet perhaps.\n    And wishing to the neighbours all, that in the houses dwell,\n    A happie yeare, and every thing to spring and prosper well:\n    Here have they peares, and plumbs, and pence, ech man gives willinglee,\n    For these three nightes are alwayes thought, unfortunate to bee;\n    Wherein they are afrayde of sprites and cankred witches' spight,\n    And dreadfull devils blacke and grim, that then have chiefest\n          might.\"{28}\n\nWith it may be compared the Macedonian custom for village boys to go in\nparties at nightfall on Christmas Eve, knocking at the cottage doors with\nsticks, shouting _Kolianda! Kolianda!_ and receiving presents,{29} and\nalso one in vogue in Holland between Christmas and the Epiphany. There\n\"the children go out in couples, each boy carrying an earthenware pot,\nover which a bladder is stretched, with a piece of stick tied in the\nmiddle. When this stick is twirled about, a not very melodious grumbling\nsound proceeds from the contrivance, which is known by the name of\n'Rommelpot.' By going about in this manner the children are able to\ncollect some few pence.\"{30}\n\nCan such practices have originated in attempts to drive out evil spirits\nfrom the houses by noise? Similar methods are used for that purpose by\nvarious European and other peoples.{31} Anyhow something mysterious\nhangs about the _Kloepfelnaechte_. They are occasions for girls to learn\nabout their future husbands, and upon them in Swabia goes about\nPelzmaerte, whom we already know.{32}\n\n|218| In Tyrol curious mummeries are then performed. At Pillersee in\nthe Lower Innthal two youths combine to form a mimic ass, upon which a\nthird rides, and they are followed by a motley train. The ass falls sick\nand has to be cured by a \"vet,\" and all kinds of satirical jokes are made\nabout things that have happened in the parish during the year. Elsewhere\ntwo men dress up in straw as husband and wife, and go out with a masked\ncompany. The pair wrangle with one another and carry on a play of wits\nwith the peasants whose house they are visiting. Sometimes the satire is\nso cutting that permanent enmities ensue, and for this reason the\npractice is gradually being dropped.{33}\n\n\nST. NICHOLAS'S DAY.\n\nOn December 6 we reach the most distinctive children's festival of the\nwhole year, St. Nicholas's Day. In England it has gone out of mind, and\nin the flat north of Germany Protestantism has largely rooted it out, as\nsavouring too much of saint-worship, and transferred its festivities to\nthe more Evangelical season of Christmas.{34} In western and southern\nGermany, however, and in Austria, Switzerland, and the Low Countries, it\nis still a day of joy for children, though in some regions even there its\nradiance tends to pale before the greater glory of the Christmas-tree.\n\nIt is not easy either to get at the historic facts about St. Nicholas,\nthe fourth-century bishop of Myra in Asia Minor, or to ascertain why he\nbecame the patron saint of boys. The legends of his infant piety and his\nlater wondrous works for the benefit of young people may either have\ngiven rise, or be themselves due to, his connection with children.{35}\nIn eastern Europe and southern Italy he is above all things the saint of\nseafaring men, and among the Greeks his cult has perhaps replaced that of\nArtemis as a sea divinity.{36} This aspect of him does not, however,\nappear in the German festival customs with which we are here chiefly\nconcerned.\n\nIt has already been hinted that in some respects St. Nicholas is a\nduplicate of St. Martin. His feast, indeed, is probably a later\nbeginning-of-winter festival, dating from the period when |219|\nimproved methods of agriculture and other causes made early December,\nrather than mid-November, the time for the great annual slaughter and its\nattendant rejoicings. Like St. Martin he brings sweet things for the good\nchildren and rods for the bad.\n\nSt. Nicholas's Eve is a time of festive stir in Holland and Belgium; the\nshops are full of pleasant little gifts: many-shaped biscuits, gilt\ngingerbreads, sometimes representing the saint, sugar images, toys, and\nother trifles. In many places, when evening comes on, people dress up as\nSt. Nicholas, with mitre and pastoral staff, enquire about the behaviour\nof the children, and if it has been good pronounce a benediction and\npromise them a reward next morning. Before they go to bed the children\nput out their shoes, with hay, straw, or a carrot in them for the saint's\nwhite horse or ass. When they wake in the morning, if they have been\n\"good\" the fodder is gone and sweet things or toys are in its place; if\nthey have misbehaved themselves the provender is untouched and no gift\nbut a rod is there.{37}\n\nIn various parts of Germany, Switzerland, and Austria St. Nicholas is\nmimed by a man dressed up as a bishop.{38} In Tyrol children pray to the\nsaint on his Eve and leave out hay for his white horse and a glass of\n_schnaps_ for his servant. And he comes in all the splendour of a\nchurch-image, a reverend grey-haired figure with flowing beard,\ngold-broidered cope, glittering mitre, and pastoral staff. Children who\nknow their catechism are rewarded with sweet things out of the basket\ncarried by his servant; those who cannot answer are reproved, and St.\nNicholas points to a terrible form that stands behind him with a rod--the\nhideous Klaubauf, a shaggy monster with horns, black face, fiery eyes,\nlong red tongue, and chains that clank as he moves.{39}\n\nIn Lower Austria the saint is followed by a similar figure called Krampus\nor Grampus;{40} in Styria this horrible attendant is named Bartel;{41}\nall are no doubt related to such monsters as the _Klapperbock_ (see\nChapter VII.). Their heathen origin is evident though it is difficult to\ntrace their exact pedigree. Sometimes St. Nicholas himself appears in a\nnon-churchly form like Pelzmaerte, with a bell,{42} or with a sack of\nashes which gains him the name of Aschenklas.{43}\n\n|220| Not only by hideous figures is St. Nicholas attended. Sometimes,\nas at Warnsdorf near Rumburg, there come with him the forms of Christ\nHimself, St. Peter, an angel, and the famous Knecht Ruprecht, whom we\nshall meet again on Christmas Eve. They are represented by children, and\na little drama is performed, one personage coming in after the other and\ncalling for the next in the manner of the English mummers' play. St.\nNicholas, St. Peter, and Ruprecht accuse the children of all kinds of\nnaughtiness, the \"Heiliger Christ\" intercedes and at last throws nuts\ndown and receives money from the parents.{44} In Tyrol there are St.\nNicholas plays of a more comic nature, performed publicly by large\ncompanies of players and introducing a number of humorous characters and\nmuch rude popular wit.{45}\n\nSometimes a female bogey used to appear: Budelfrau in Lower Austria,\nBerchtel in Swabia, Buzebergt in the neighbourhood of Augsburg.{46} The\nlast two are plainly variants of Berchte, who is specially connected with\nthe Epiphany. Berchtel used to punish the naughty children with a rod,\nand reward the good with nuts and apples; Buzebergt wore black rags, had\nher face blackened and her hair hanging unkempt, and carried a pot of\nstarch which she smeared upon people's faces.{47}\n\nAs Santa Klaus St. Nicholas is of course known to every English child,\nbut rather as a sort of incarnation of Christmas than as a saint with a\nday of his own. Santa Klaus, probably, has come to us _via_ the United\nStates, whither the Dutch took him, and where he has still immense\npopularity.\n\nIn the Middle Ages in England as elsewhere the Eve of St. Nicholas was a\nday of great excitement for boys. It was then that the small choristers\nand servers in cathedral and other churches generally elected their \"Boy\nBishop\" or \"Nicholas.\"{48} He had in some places to officiate at First\nVespers and at the services on the festival itself. As a rule, however,\nthe feast of the Holy Innocents, December 28, was probably the most\nimportant day in the Boy Bishop's career, and we may therefore postpone\nour consideration of him. We will here only note his connection with the\nfestival of the patron saint of boys, a connection perhaps implying a\ncommon origin for him and |221| for the St. Nicholases who in bishops'\nvestments make their present-giving rounds.\n\nThe festival of St. Nicholas is naturally celebrated with most splendour\nat the place where his body lies, the seaport of Bari in south-eastern\nItaly. The holy bones are preserved in a sepulchre beneath a crypt of\nrich Saracenic architecture, above which rises a magnificent church.\nLegend relates that in the eleventh century they were stolen by certain\nmerchants of Bari from the saint's own cathedral at Myra in Asia Minor.\nThe tomb of St. Nicholas is a famous centre for pilgrimages, and on the\n6th of December many thousands of the faithful, bearing staves bound with\nolive and pine, visit it. An interesting ceremony on the festival is the\ntaking of the saint's image out to sea by the sailors of the port. They\nreturn with it at nightfall, and a great procession escorts it back to\nthe cathedral with torches and fireworks and chanting.{49} Here may be\nseen the other, the seafaring, aspect of St. Nicholas; by this mariners'\ncult we are taken far away from the present-giving saint who delights the\nsmall children of the North.\n\n\nST. LUCIA'S DAY.\n\nThe only folk-festivals of note between St. Nicholas's Day and Christmas\nare those of St. Lucia (December 13) and St. Thomas the Apostle (December\n21).\n\nIn Sweden St. Lucia's Day was formerly marked by some interesting\npractices. It was, so to speak, the entrance to the Christmas festival,\nand was called \"little Yule.\"{50} At the first cock-crow, between 1 and\n4 a.m., the prettiest girl in the house used to go among the sleeping\nfolk, dressed in a white robe, a red sash, and a wire crown covered with\nwhortleberry-twigs and having nine lighted candles fastened in it. She\nawakened the sleepers and regaled them with a sweet drink or with\ncoffee,[94] sang a special song, and was named \"Lussi\" or \"Lussibruden\"\n(Lucy bride). When everyone was dressed, breakfast was taken, the room\nbeing lighted by many candles. The domestic animals |222| were not\nforgotten on this day, but were given special portions. A peculiar\nfeature of the Swedish custom is the presence of lights on Lussi's crown.\nLights indeed are the special mark of the festival; it was customary to\nshoot and fish on St. Lucy's Day by torchlight, the parlours, as has been\nsaid, were brilliantly illuminated in the early morning, in West Gothland\nLussi went round the village preceded by torchbearers, and in one parish\nshe was represented by a cow with a crown of lights on her head. In\nschools the day was celebrated with illuminations.{51}\n\nWhat is the explanation of this feast of lights? There is nothing in the\nlegend of the saint to account for it; her name, however, at once\nsuggests _lux_--light. It is possible, as Dr. Feilberg supposes, that the\nname gave rise to the special use of lights among the Latin-learned monks\nwho brought Christianity to Sweden, and that the custom spread from them\nto the common people. A peculiar fitness would be found in it because St.\nLucia's Day according to the Old Style was the shortest day of the year,\nthe turning-point of the sun's light.{52}\n\nIn Sicily also St. Lucia's festival is a feast of lights. After sunset on\nthe Eve a long procession of men, lads, and children, each flourishing a\nthick bunch of long straws all afire, rushes wildly down the streets of\nthe mountain village of Montedoro, as if fleeing from some danger, and\nshouting hoarsely. \"The darkness of the night,\" says an eye-witness, \"was\nlighted up by this savage procession of dancing, flaming torches, whilst\nbonfires in all the side streets gave the illusion that the whole village\nwas burning.\" At the end of the procession came the image of Santa Lucia,\nholding a dish which contained her eyes.[95] In the midst of the _piazza_\na great mountain of straw had been prepared; on this everyone threw his\nown burning torch, and the saint was placed in a spot from which she\ncould survey the vast bonfire.{53}\n\nIn central Europe we see St. Lucia in other aspects. In the Boehmerwald\nshe goes round the village in the form of a nanny-goat with horns, gives\nfruit to the good children, and threatens to rip open the belly of the\nnaughty. Here she is evidently related |223| to the pagan monsters\nalready described. In Tyrol she plays a more graceful part: she brings\npresents for girls, an office which St. Nicholas is there supposed to\nperform for boys only.{55}\n\nIn Lower Austria St. Lucia's Eve is a time when special danger from\nwitchcraft is feared and must be averted by prayer and incense. A\nprocession is made through each house to cense every room. On this\nevening, too, girls are afraid to spin lest in the morning they should\nfind their distaffs twisted, the threads broken, and the yarn in\nconfusion. (We shall meet with like superstitions during the Twelve\nNights.) At midnight the girls practise a strange ceremony: they go to a\nwillow-bordered brook, cut the bark of a tree partly away, without\ndetaching it, make with a knife a cross on the inner side of the cut\nbark, moisten it with water, and carefully close up the opening. On New\nYear's Day the cutting is opened, and the future is augured from the\nmarkings found. The lads, on the other hand, look out at midnight for a\nmysterious light, the _Luzieschein_, the forms of which indicate coming\nevents.{56}\n\nIn Denmark, too, St. Lucia's Eve is a time for seeing the future. Here is\na prayer of Danish maids: \"Sweet St. Lucy let me know: whose cloth\nI shall lay, whose bed I shall make, whose child I shall bear, whose\ndarling I shall be, whose arms I shall sleep in.\"{57}\n\n\nST. THOMAS'S DAY.\n\nMany and various are the customs and beliefs associated with the feast of\nSt. Thomas (December 21). In Denmark it was formerly a great children's\nday, unique in the year, and rather resembling the mediaeval Boy Bishop\nfestival. It was the breaking-up day for schools; the children used to\nbring their master an offering of candles and money, and in return he\ngave them a feast. In some places it had an even more delightful side:\nfor this one day in the year the children were allowed the mastery in the\nschool. Testimonials to their scholarship and industry were made out, and\nelaborate titles were added to their names, as exalted sometimes as\n\"Pope,\" \"Emperor,\" or \"Empress.\" Poor children used to go about showing\nthese |224| documents and collecting money. Games and larks of all\nsorts went on in the schools without a word of reproof, and the children\nwere wont to burn their master's rod.{58}\n\nIn the neighbourhood of Antwerp children go early to school on St.\nThomas's Day, and lock the master out, until he promises to treat them\nwith ale or other drink. After this they buy a cock and hen, which are\nallowed to escape and have to be caught by the boys or the girls\nrespectively. The girl who catches the hen is called \"queen,\" the boy who\ngets the cock, \"king.\" Elsewhere in Belgium children lock out their\nparents, and servants their masters, while schoolboys bind their teacher\nto his chair and carry him over to the inn. There he has to buy back his\nliberty by treating his scholars with punch and cakes. Instead of the\nchase for the fowls, it was up to 1850 the custom in the Ardennes for the\nteacher to give the children hens and let them chop the heads off.{59}\nSome pagan sacrifice no doubt lies at the root of this barbarous\npractice, which has many parallels in the folk-lore of western and\nsouthern Europe.{60}\n\nAs for schoolboys' larks with their teachers, the custom of \"barring out\nthe master\" existed in England, and was practised before Christmas{61}\nas well as at other times of the year, notably Shrove Tuesday. At\nBromfield in Cumberland on Shrove Tuesday there was a regular siege, the\nschool doors were strongly barricaded within, and the boy-defenders were\narmed with pop-guns. If the master won, heavy tasks were imposed, but if,\nas more often happened, he was defeated in his efforts to regain his\nauthority, he had to make terms with the boys as to the hours of work and\nplay.{62}\n\nSt. Thomas's Eve is in certain regions one of the uncanniest nights in\nthe year. In some Bohemian villages the saint is believed to drive about\nat midnight in a chariot of fire. In the churchyard there await him all\nthe dead men whose name is Thomas; they help him to alight and accompany\nhim to the churchyard cross, which glows red with supernatural radiance.\nThere St. Thomas kneels and prays, and then rises to bless his namesakes.\nThis done, he vanishes beneath the cross, and each Thomas returns to his\ngrave. The saint here seems to have taken over |225| the character of\nsome pagan god, who, like the Teutonic Odin or Woden, ruled the souls of\nthe departed. In the houses the people listen with awe for the sound of\nhis chariot, and when it is heard make anxious prayer to him for\nprotection from all ill. Before retiring to rest the house-father goes to\nthe cowhouse with holy water and consecrated salt, asperges it from\nwithout, and then entering, sprinkles every cow. Salt is also thrown on\nthe head of each animal with the words, \"St. Thomas preserve thee from\nall sickness.\" In the Boehmerwald the cattle are fed on this night with\nconsecrated bayberries, bread, and salt, in order to avert disease.{63}\n\nIn Upper and Lower Austria St. Thomas's Eve is reckoned as one of the\nso-called _Rauchnaechte_ (smoke-nights) when houses and farm-buildings\nmust be sanctified with incense and holy water, the other nights being\nthe Eves of Christmas, the New Year, and the Epiphany.{64}\n\nIn Germany St. Thomas's, like St. Andrew's Eve, is a time for forecasting\nthe future, and the methods already described are sometimes employed by\ngirls who wish to behold their future husbands. A widely diffused custom\nis that of throwing shoes backwards over the shoulders. If the points are\nfound turned towards the door the thrower is destined to leave the house\nduring the year; if they are turned away from it another year will be\nspent there. In Westphalia a belief prevails that you must eat and drink\nheartily on this night in order to avert scarcity.{65}\n\nIn Lower Austria it is supposed that sluggards can cure themselves of\noversleeping by saying a special prayer before they go to bed on St.\nThomas's Eve, and in Westphalia in the mid-nineteenth century the same\nassociation of the day with slumber was shown by the schoolchildren's\ncustom of calling the child who arrived last at school _Domesesel_\n(Thomas ass). In Holland, again, the person who lies longest in bed on\nSt. Thomas's Day is greeted with shouts of \"lazybones.\" Probably the fact\nthat December 21 is the shortest day is enough to account for this.{66}\n\nIn England there was divination by means of \"St. Thomas's onion.\" Girls\nused to peel an onion, wrap it in a handkerchief and put it under their\nheads at night, with a prayer to the satin |226| to show them their\ntrue love in a dream.{67} The most notable English custom on this day,\nhowever, was the peregrinations of poor people begging for money or\nprovisions for Christmas. Going \"a-gooding,\" or \"a-Thomassin',\" or\n\"a-mumping,\" this was called. Sometimes in return for the charity\nbestowed a sprig of holly or mistletoe was given.{68} Possibly the sprig\nwas originally a sacrament of the healthful spirit of growth: it may be\ncompared with the olive- or cornel-branches carried about on New Year's\nEve by Macedonian boys,{69} and also with the St. Martin's rod (see last\nchapter).\n\nOne more English custom on December 21 must be mentioned--it points to a\nsometime sacrifice--the bull-baiting practised until 1821 at Wokingham in\nBerkshire. Its abolition in 1822 caused great resentment among the\npopulace, although the flesh continued to be duly distributed.{70}\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWe are now four days from the feast of the Nativity, and many things\ncommonly regarded as distinctive of Christmas have already come under\nnotice. We have met, for instance, with several kinds of present-giving,\nwith auguries for the New Year, with processions of carol-singers and\nwell-wishers, with ceremonial feasting that anticipates the Christmas\neating and drinking, and with various figures, saintly or monstrous,\nmimed or merely imagined, which we shall find reappearing at the greatest\nof winter festivals. These things would seem to have been attracted from\nearlier dates to the feast of the Nativity, and the probability that\nChristmas has borrowed much from an old November festival gradually\nshifted into December, is our justification for having dwelt so long upon\nthe feasts that precede the Twelve Days.\n\n|227| |228| |229|\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nCHRISTMAS EVE AND THE TWELVE DAYS\n\n\n    Christkind, Santa Klaus, and Knecht Ruprecht--Talking Animals and\n    other Wonders of Christmas Eve--Scandinavian Beliefs about Trolls and\n    the Return of the Dead--Traditional Christmas Songs in Eastern\n    Europe--The Twelve Days, their Christian Origin and Pagan\n    Superstitions--The Raging Host--Hints of Supernatural Visitors in\n    England--The German _Frauen_--The Greek _Kallikantzaroi_.\n\n[Illustration: CHRISTMAS EVE IN DEVONSHIRE--THE MUMMERS COMING IN]\n\n\nCHRISTMAS EVE.\n\nChristmas in the narrowest sense must be reckoned as beginning on the\nevening of December 24. Though Christmas Eve is not much observed in\nmodern England, throughout the rest of Europe its importance so far as\npopular customs are concerned is far greater than that of the Day itself.\nThen in Germany the Christmas-tree is manifested in its glory; then, as\nin the England of the past, the Yule log is solemnly lighted in many\nlands; then often the most distinctive Christmas meal takes place.\n\nWe shall consider these and other institutions later; though they appear\nfirst on Christmas Eve, they belong more or less to the Twelve Days as a\nwhole. Let us look first at the supernatural visitors, mimed by human\nbeings, who delight the minds of children, especially in Germany, on the\nevening of December 24, and at the beliefs that hang around this most\nsolemn night of the year.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFirst of all, the activities of St. Nicholas are not confined to his own\nfestival; he often appears on Christmas Eve. We have already seen how he\nis attended by various companions, including |230| Christ Himself, and\nhow he comes now vested as a bishop, now as a masked and shaggy figure.\nThe names and attributes of the Christmas and Advent visitors are rather\nconfused, but on the whole it may be said that in Protestant north\nGermany the episcopal St. Nicholas and his Eve have been replaced by\nChristmas Eve and the Christ Child, while the name Klas has become\nattached to various unsaintly forms appearing at or shortly before\nChristmas.\n\nWe can trace a deliberate substitution of the Christ Child for St.\nNicholas as the bringer of gifts. In the early seventeenth century a\nProtestant pastor is found complaining that parents put presents in their\nchildren's beds and tell them that St. Nicholas has brought them. \"This,\"\nhe says, \"is a bad custom, because it points children to the saint, while\nyet we know that not St. Nicholas but the holy Christ Child gives us all\ngood things for body and soul, and He alone it is whom we ought to call\nupon.\"{1}\n\nThe ways in which the figure, or at all events the name, of Christ\nHimself, is introduced into German Christmas customs, are often\nsurprising. The Christ Child, \"Christkind,\" so familiar to German\nchildren, has now become a sort of mythical figure, a product of\nsentiment and imagination working so freely as almost to forget the\nsacred character of the original. Christkind bears little resemblance to\nthe Infant of Bethlehem; he is quite a tall child, and is often\nrepresented by a girl dressed in white, with long fair hair. He hovers,\nindeed, between the character of the Divine Infant and that of an angel,\nand is regarded more as a kind of good fairy than as anything else.\n\nIn Alsace the girl who represents Christkind has her face \"made up\" with\nflour, wears a crown of gold paper with lighted candles in it--a parallel\nto the headgear of the Swedish Lussi; in one hand she holds a silver\nbell, in the other, a basket of sweetmeats. She is followed by the\nterrible Hans Trapp, dressed in a bearskin, with blackened face, long\nbeard, and threatening rod. He \"goes for\" the naughty children, who are\nonly saved by the intercession of Christkind.{2}\n\nIn the Mittelmark the name of _de hele_ (holy) _Christ_ is strangely\n|231| given to a skin- or straw-clad man, elsewhere called Knecht\nRuprecht, Klas, or Joseph.{3} In the Ruppin district a man dresses up in\nwhite with ribbons, carries a large pouch, and is called _Christmann_ or\n_Christpuppe_. He is accompanied by a _Schimmelreiter_ and by other\nfellows who are attired as women, have blackened faces, and are named\n_Feien_ (we may see in them a likeness to the Kalends maskers condemned\nby the early Church). The procession goes round from house to house. The\n_Schimmelreiter_ as he enters has to jump over a chair; this done, the\n_Christpuppe_ is admitted. The girls present begin to sing, and the\n_Schimmelreiter_ dances with one of them. Meanwhile the _Christpuppe_\nmakes the children repeat some verse of Scripture or a hymn; if they know\nit well, he rewards them with gingerbreads from his wallet; if not, he\nbeats them with a bundle filled with ashes. Then both he and the\n_Schimmelreiter_ dance and pass on. Only when they are gone are the\n_Feien_ allowed to enter; they jump wildly about and frighten the\nchildren.{4}\n\nKnecht Ruprecht, to whom allusion has already been made, is a prominent\nfigure in the German Christmas. On Christmas Eve in the north he goes\nabout clad in skins or straw and examines children; if they can say their\nprayers perfectly he rewards them with apples, nuts and gingerbreads; if\nnot, he punishes them. In the Mittelmark, as we have seen, a personage\ncorresponding to him is sometimes called \"the holy Christ\"; in\nMecklenburg he is \"ru Klas\" (rough Nicholas--note his identification with\nthe saint); in Brunswick, Hanover, and Holstein \"Klas,\" \"Klawes,\" \"Klas\nBur\" and \"Bullerklas\"; and in Silesia \"Joseph.\" Sometimes he wears bells\nand carries a long staff with a bag of ashes at the end--hence the name\n\"Aschenklas\" occasionally given to him.{5} An ingenious theory connects\nthis aspect of him with the _polaznik_ of the Slavs, who on Christmas Day\nin Crivoscian farms goes to the hearth, takes up the ashes of the Yule\nlog and dashes them against the cauldron-hook above so that sparks fly\n(see Chapter X.).{6} As for the name \"Ruprecht\" the older mythologists\ninterpreted it as meaning \"shining with glory,\" _hruodperaht_, and\nidentified its owner with the god Woden.{7} Dr. Tille, however, regards\nhim |232| as dating only from the seventeenth century.{8} It can\nhardly be said that any satisfactory account has as yet been given of the\norigins of this personage, or of his relation to St. Nicholas, Pelzmaerte,\nand monstrous creatures like the _Klapperbock_.\n\nIn the south-western part of Lower Austria, both St. Nicholas--a proper\nbishop with mitre, staff, and ring--and Ruprecht appear on Christmas Eve,\nand there is quite an elaborate ceremonial. The children welcome the\nsaint with a hymn; then he goes to a table and makes each child repeat a\nprayer and show his lesson-books. Meanwhile Ruprecht in a hide, with\nglowing eyes and a long red tongue, stands at the door to overawe the\nyoung people. Each child next kneels before the saint and kisses his\nring, whereupon Nicholas bids him put his shoes out-of-doors and look in\nthem when the clock strikes ten. After this the saint lays on the table a\nrod dipped in lime, solemnly blesses the children, sprinkling them with\nholy water, and noiselessly departs. The children steal out into the\ngarden, clear a space in the snow, and set out their shoes; when the last\nstroke of ten has sounded they find them filled with nuts and apples and\nall kinds of sweet things.{9}\n\nIn the Troppau district of Austrian Silesia, three figures go round on\nChristmas Eve--Christkindel, the archangel Gabriel, and St. Peter--and\nperform a little play before the presents they bring are given.\nChristkindel announces that he has gifts for the good children, but the\nbad shall feel the rod. St. Peter complains of the naughtiness of the\nyoungsters: they play about in the streets instead of going straight to\nschool; they tear up their lesson-books and do many other wicked things.\nHowever, the children's mother pleads for them, and St. Peter relents and\ngives out the presents.{10}\n\nIn the Erzgebirge appear St. Peter and Ruprecht, who is clad in skin and\nstraw, has a mask over his face, a rod, a chain round his body, and a\nsack with apples, nuts, and other gifts; and a somewhat similar\nperformance is gone through.{11}\n\nIf we go as far east as Russia we find a parallel to the girl Christkind\nin Kolyada, a white-robed maiden driven about in a sledge from house to\nhouse on Christmas Eve. The young people who attended her sang carols,\nand presents were given |233| them in return. _Kolyada_ is the name for\nChristmas and appears to be derived from _Kalendae_, which probably\nentered the Slavonic languages by way of Byzantium. The maiden is one of\nthose beings who, like the Italian Befana, have taken their names from\nthe festival at which they appear.{12}\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nNo time in all the Twelve Nights and Days is so charged with the\nsupernatural as Christmas Eve. Doubtless this is due to the fact that the\nChurch has hallowed the night of December 24-5 above all others in the\nyear. It was to the shepherds keeping watch over their flocks _by night_\nthat, according to the Third Evangelist, came the angelic message of the\nBirth, and in harmony with this is the unique Midnight Mass of the Roman\nChurch, lending a peculiar sanctity to the hour of its celebration. And\nyet many of the beliefs associated with this night show a large admixture\nof paganism.\n\nFirst, there is the idea that at midnight on Christmas Eve animals have\nthe power of speech. This superstition exists in various parts of Europe,\nand no one can hear the beasts talk with impunity. The idea has given\nrise to some curious and rather grim tales. Here is one from Brittany:--\n\n\"Once upon a time there was a woman who starved her cat and dog. At\nmidnight on Christmas Eve she heard the dog say to the cat, 'It is quite\ntime we lost our mistress; she is a regular miser. To-night burglars are\ncoming to steal her money; and if she cries out they will break her\nhead.' ''Twill be a good deed,' the cat replied. The woman in terror got\nup to go to a neighbour's house; as she went out the burglars opened the\ndoor, and when she shouted for help they broke her head.\"{13}\n\nAgain a story is told of a farm servant in the German Alps who did not\nbelieve that the beasts could speak, and hid in a stable on Christmas Eve\nto learn what went on. At midnight he heard surprising things. \"We shall\nhave hard work to do this day week,\" said one horse. \"Yes, the farmer's\nservant is heavy,\" answered the other. \"And the way to the churchyard is\nlong and steep,\" said the first. The servant was buried that day\nweek.{14}\n\n|234| It may well have been the traditional association of the ox and\nass with the Nativity that fixed this superstition to Christmas Eve, but\nthe conception of the talking animals is probably pagan.\n\nRelated to this idea, but more Christian in form, is the belief that at\nmidnight all cattle rise in their stalls or kneel and adore the new-born\nKing. Readers of Mr. Hardy's \"Tess\" will remember how this is brought\ninto a delightful story told by a Wessex peasant. The idea is widespread\nin England and on the Continent,{15} and has reached even the North\nAmerican Indians. Howison, in his \"Sketches of Upper Canada,\" relates\nthat an Indian told him that \"on Christmas night all deer kneel and look\nup to Great Spirit.\"{16} A somewhat similar belief about bees was held\nin the north of England: they were said to assemble on Christmas Eve and\nhum a Christmas hymn.{17} Bees seem in folk-lore in general to be\nspecially near to humanity in their feelings.\n\nIt is a widespread idea that at midnight on Christmas Eve all water turns\nto wine. A Guernsey woman once determined to test this; at midnight she\ndrew a bucket from the well. Then came a voice:--\n\n   \"Toute l'eau se tourne en vin,\n    Et tu es proche de ta fin.\"\n\nShe fell down with a mortal disease, and died before the end of the year.\nIn Sark the superstition is that the water in streams and wells turns\ninto blood, and if you go to look you will die within the year.{18}\n\nThere is also a French belief that on Christmas Eve, while the genealogy\nof Christ is being chanted at the Midnight Mass, hidden treasures are\nrevealed.{19} In Russia all sorts of buried treasures are supposed to be\nrevealed on the evenings between Christmas and the Epiphany, and on the\neves of these festivals the heavens are opened, and the waters of springs\nand rivers turn into wine.{20}\n\nAnother instance of the supernatural character of the night is found in a\nBreton story of a blacksmith who went on working after the sacring bell\nhad rung at the Midnight Mass. To him |235| came a tall, stooping man\nwith a scythe, who begged him to put in a nail. He did so; and the\nvisitor in return bade him send for a priest, for this work would be his\nlast. The figure disappeared, the blacksmith felt his limbs fail him, and\nat cock-crow he died. He had mended the scythe of the _Ankou_--Death the\nreaper.{21}\n\nIn the Scandinavian countries simple folk have a vivid sense of the\nnearness of the supernatural on Christmas Eve. On Yule night no one\nshould go out, for he may meet uncanny beings of all kinds. In Sweden the\nTrolls are believed to celebrate Christmas Eve with dancing and revelry.\n\"On the heaths witches and little Trolls ride, one on a wolf, another on\na broom or a shovel, to their assemblies, where they dance under their\nstones.... In the mount are then to be heard mirth and music, dancing and\ndrinking. On Christmas morn, during the time between cock-crowing and\ndaybreak, it is highly dangerous to be abroad.\"{22}\n\nChristmas Eve is also in Scandinavian folk-belief the time when the dead\nrevisit their old homes, as on All Souls' Eve in Roman Catholic lands.\nThe living prepare for their coming with mingled dread and desire to make\nthem welcome. When the Christmas Eve festivities are over, and everyone\nhas gone to rest, the parlour is left tidy and adorned, with a great fire\nburning, candles lighted, the table covered with a festive cloth and\nplentifully spread with food, and a jug of Yule ale ready. Sometimes\nbefore going to bed people wipe the chairs with a clean white towel; in\nthe morning they are wiped again, and, if earth is found, some kinsman,\nfresh from the grave, has sat there. Consideration for the dead even\nleads people to prepare a warm bath in the belief that, like living\nfolks, the kinsmen will want a wash before their festal meal.[96] Or\nagain beds were made ready for them while the living slept on straw. Not\nalways is it consciously the dead for whom these preparations are made,\nsometimes they are said to be for the Trolls and sometimes even for\n|236| the Saviour and His angels.{24} (We may compare with this\nChristian idea the Tyrolese custom of leaving some milk for the Christ\nChild and His Mother{25} at the hour of Midnight Mass, and a Breton\npractice of leaving food all through Christmas night in case the Virgin\nshould come.{26})\n\nIt is difficult to say how far the other supernatural beings--their name\nis legion--who in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland are believed to\ncome out of their underground hiding-places during the long dark\nChristmas nights, were originally ghosts of the dead. Twenty years ago\nmany students would have accounted for them all in this way, but the\ntendency now is strongly against the derivation of all supernatural\nbeings from ancestor-worship. Elves, trolls, dwarfs, witches, and other\nuncanny folk--the beliefs about their Christmas doings are too many to be\ntreated here; readers of Danish will find a long and very interesting\nchapter on this subject in Dr. Feilberg's \"Jul.\"{27} I may mention just\none familiar figure of the Scandinavian Yule, Tomte Gubbe, a sort of\ngenius of the house corresponding very much to the \"drudging goblin\" of\nMilton's \"L'Allegro,\" for whom the cream-bowl must be duly set. He may\nperhaps be the spirit of the founder of the family. At all events on\nChristmas Eve Yule porridge and new milk are set out for him, sometimes\nwith other things, such as a suit of small clothes, spirits, or even\ntobacco. Thus must his goodwill be won for the coming year.{28}\n\nIn one part of Norway it used to be believed that on Christmas Eve, at\nrare intervals, the old Norse gods made war on Christians, coming down\nfrom the mountains with great blasts of wind and wild shouts, and\ncarrying off any human being who might be about. In one place the memory\nof such a visitation was preserved in the nineteenth century. The people\nwere preparing for their festivities, when suddenly from the mountains\ncame the warning sounds. \"In a second the air became black, peals of\nthunder echoed among the hills, lightning danced about the buildings, and\nthe inhabitants in the darkened rooms heard the clatter of hoofs and the\nweird shrieks of the hosts of the gods.\"{29}\n\n|237| The Scandinavian countries, Protestant though they are, have\nretained many of the outward forms of Catholicism, and the sign of the\ncross is often used as a protection against uncanny visitors. The\ncross--perhaps the symbol was originally Thor's hammer--is marked with\nchalk or tar or fire upon doors and gates, is formed of straw or other\nmaterial and put in stables and cowhouses, or is smeared with the remains\nof the Yule candle on the udders of the beasts--it is in fact displayed\nat every point open to attack by a spirit of darkness.{30}\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nChristmas Eve is in Germany a time for auguries. Some of the methods\nalready noted on other days are practised upon it--for instance the\npouring of molten lead into water, the flinging of shoes, the pulling out\nof pieces of wood, and the floating of nutshells--and there are various\nothers which it might be tedious to describe.{31}\n\nAmong the southern Slavs if a girl wants to know what sort of husband she\nwill get, she covers the table on Christmas Eve, puts on it a white loaf,\na plate, and a knife, spoon, and fork, and goes to bed. At midnight the\nspirit of her future husband will appear and fling the knife at her. If\nit falls without injuring her she will get a good husband and be happy,\nbut if she is hurt she will die early. There is a similar mode of\ndivination for a young fellow. On Christmas Eve, when everybody else has\ngone to church, he must, naked and in darkness, sift ashes through a\nsieve. His future bride will then appear, pull him thrice by the nose,\nand go away.{32}\n\nIn eastern Europe Christmas, and especially Christmas Eve, is the time\nfor the singing of carols called in Russian _Kolyadki_, and in other Slav\ncountries by similar names derived from _Kalendae_.{33} More often than\nnot these are without connection with the Nativity; sometimes they have a\nChristian form and tell of the doings of God, the Virgin and the saints,\nbut frequently they are of an entirely secular or even pagan character.\nInto some the sun, moon, and stars and other natural objects are\nintroduced, and they seem to be based on myths to which a Christian\nappearance has been given by a sprinkling of names of holy persons of the\n|238| Church. Here for instance is a fragment from a Carpathian song:--\n\n   \"A golden plough goes ploughing,\n    And behind that plough is the Lord Himself.\n    The holy Peter helps Him to drive,\n    And the Mother of God carries the seed corn,\n    Carries the seed corn, prays to the Lord God,\n    'Make, O Lord, the strong wheat to grow,\n    The strong wheat and the vigorous corn!\n    The stalks then shall be like reeds!'\"{34}\n\nOften they contain wishes for the prosperity of the household and end\nwith the words, \"for many years, for many years.\" The Roumanian songs are\nfrequently very long, and a typical, oft-recurring refrain is:--\n\n   \"This evening is a great evening,\n        White flowers;\n    Great evening of Christmas,\n        White flowers.\"{35}\n\nSometimes they are ballads of the national life.\n\nIn Russia a carol beginning \"Glory be to God in heaven, Glory!\" and\ncalling down blessings on the Tsar and his people, is one of the most\nprominent among the _Kolyadki_, and opens the singing of the songs called\n_Podblyudnuiya_. \"At the Christmas festival a table is covered with a\ncloth, and on it is set a dish or bowl (_blyudo_) containing water. The\nyoung people drop rings or other trinkets into the dish, which is\nafterwards covered with a cloth, and then the _Podblyudnuiya_ Songs\ncommence. At the end of each song one of the trinkets is drawn at random,\nand its owner deduces an omen from the nature of the words which have\njust been sung.\"{36}\n\n\nTHE TWELVE DAYS.\n\nWhatever the limits fixed for the beginning and end of the Christmas\nfestival, its core is always the period between Christmas |239| Eve and\nthe Epiphany--the \"Twelve Days.\"[97] A cycle of feasts falls within this\ntime, and the customs peculiar to each day will be treated in calendarial\norder. First, however, it will be well to glance at the character of the\nTwelve Days as a whole, and at the superstitions which hang about the\nseason. So many are these superstitions, so \"bewitched\" is the time, that\nthe older mythologists not unnaturally saw in it a Teutonic festal\nseason, dating from pre-Christian days. In point of fact it appears to be\nsimply a creation of the Church, a natural linking together of Christmas\nand Epiphany. It is first mentioned as a festal tide by the eastern\nFather, Ephraem Syrus, at the end of the fourth century, and was declared\nto be such by the western Council of Tours in 567.{37}\n\nWhile Christmas Eve is the night _par excellence_ of the supernatural,\nthe whole season of the Twelve Days is charged with it. It is hard to see\nwhence Shakespeare could have got the idea which he puts into the mouth\nof Marcellus in \"Hamlet\":--\n\n   \"Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes\n    Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,\n    The bird of dawning singeth all night long;\n    And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad;\n    The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,\n    No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,\n    So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.\"{38}\n\nAgainst this is the fact that in folk-lore Christmas is a quite\npeculiarly uncanny time. Not unnatural is it that at this midwinter\nseason of darkness, howling winds, and raging storms, men should have\nthought to see and hear the mysterious shapes and voices of dread beings\nwhom the living shun.\n\nThroughout the Teutonic world one finds the belief in a \"raging |240|\nhost\" or \"wild hunt\" or spirits, rushing howling through the air on\nstormy nights. In North Devon its name is \"Yeth (heathen) hounds\";{40}\nelsewhere in the west of England it is called the \"Wish hounds.\"{41} It\nis the train of the unhappy souls of those who died unbaptized, or by\nviolent hands, or under a curse, and often Woden is their leader.{42} At\nleast since the seventeenth century this \"raging host\" (_das wuethende\nHeer_) has been particularly associated with Christmas in German\nfolk-lore,{43} and in Iceland it goes by the name of the \"Yule\nhost.\"{44}\n\nIn Guernsey the powers of darkness are supposed to be more than usually\nactive between St. Thomas's Day and New Year's Eve, and it is dangerous\nto be out after nightfall. People are led astray then by Will o' the\nWisp, or are preceded or followed by large black dogs, or find their path\nbeset by white rabbits that go hopping along just under their feet.{45}\n\nIn England there are signs that supernatural visitors were formerly\nlooked for during the Twelve Days. First there was a custom of cleansing\nthe house and its implements with peculiar care. In Shropshire, for\ninstance, \"the pewter and brazen vessels had to be made so bright that\nthe maids could see to put their caps on in them--otherwise the fairies\nwould pinch them, but if all was perfect, the worker would find a coin in\nher shoe.\" Again in Shropshire special care was taken to put away any\nsuds or \"back-lee\" for washing purposes, and no spinning might be done\nduring the Twelve Days.{46} It was said elsewhere that if any flax were\nleft on the distaff, the Devil would come and cut it.{47}\n\nThe prohibition of spinning may be due to the Church's hallowing of the\nseason and the idea that all work then was wrong. This churchly hallowing\nmay lie also at the root of the Danish tradition that from Christmas till\nNew Year's Day nothing that runs round should be set in motion,{48} and\nof the German idea that no thrashing must be done during the Twelve Days,\nor all the corn within hearing will spoil. The expectation of uncanny\nvisitors in the English traditions calls, however, for special attention;\nit is perhaps because of their coming that the house must be left\nspotlessly clean and with as little as possible about on which they can\nwork mischief.{49} Though I know of no distinct English belief in the\n|241| return of the family dead at Christmas, it may be that the fairies\nexpected in Shropshire were originally ancestral ghosts. Such a\nderivation of the elves and brownies that haunt the hearth is very\nprobable.{50}\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe belief about the Devil cutting flax left on the distaff links the\nEnglish superstitions to the mysterious _Frau_ with various names, who in\nGermany is supposed to go her rounds during the Twelve Nights. She has a\nspecial relation to spinning, often punishing girls who leave their flax\nunspun. In central Germany and in parts of Austria she is called Frau\nHolle or Holda, in southern Germany and Tyrol Frau Berchta or Perchta, in\nthe north down to the Harz Mountains Frau Freen or Frick, or Fru Gode or\nFru Harke, and there are other names too.{51} Attempts have been made to\ndispute her claim to the rank of an old Teutonic goddess and to prove her\na creation of the Middle Ages, a representative of the crowd of ghosts\nsupposed to be specially near to the living at Christmastide.{52} It is\nquestionable whether she can be thus explained away, and at the back of\nthe varying names, and much overlaid no doubt with later superstitions,\nthere may be a traditional goddess corresponding to that old divinity\nFrigg to whom we owe the name of Friday. The connection of Frick with\nFrigg is very probable, and Frick shares characteristics with the other\n_Frauen_.{53}\n\nAll are connected with spinning and spinsters (in the literal sense). Fru\nFrick or Freen in the Uckermark and the northern Harz permits no spinning\nduring the time when she goes her rounds, and if there are lazy spinsters\nshe soils the unspun flax on their distaff. In like manner do Holda,\nHarke, Berchta, and Gode punish lazy girls.{54}\n\nThe characters of the _Frauen_ can best be shown by the things told of\nthem in different regions. They are more dreaded than loved, but if\nsevere in their chastisements they are also generous in rewarding those\nwho do them service.\n\nFrau Gaude (also called Gode, Gaue, or Wode) is said in Mecklenburg to\nlove to drive through the village streets on the Twelve Nights with a\ntrain of dogs. Wherever she finds a street-door open she sends a little\ndog in. Next morning he wags his |242| tail at the inmates and whines,\nand will not be driven away. If killed, he turns into a stone by day;\nthis, though it may be thrown away, always returns and is a dog again by\nnight. All through the year he whines and brings ill luck upon the house;\nso people are careful to keep their street-doors shut during the Twelve\nNights.{55}\n\nGood luck, however, befalls those who do Frau Gaude a service. A man who\nput a new pole to her carriage was brilliantly repaid--the chips that\nfell from the pole turned to glittering gold. Similar stories of golden\nchips are told about Holda and Berchta.{56}\n\nA train of dogs belongs not only to Frau Gaude but also to Frau Harke;\nwith these howling beasts they go raging through the air by night.{57}\nThe _Frauen_ in certain aspects are, indeed, the leaders of the \"Wild\nHost.\"\n\nHolda and Perchta, as some strange stories show, are the guides and\nguardians of the _heimchen_ or souls of children who have died\nunbaptized. In the valley of the Saale, so runs a tale, Perchta, queen of\nthe _heimchen_, had her dwelling of old, and at her command the children\nwatered the fields, while she worked with her plough. But the people of\nthe place were ungrateful, and she resolved to leave their land. One\nnight a ferryman beheld on the bank of the Saale a tall, stately lady\nwith a crowd of weeping children. She demanded to be ferried across, and\nthe children dragged a plough into the boat, crying bitterly. As a reward\nfor the ferrying, Perchta, mending her plough, pointed to the chips. The\nman grumblingly took three, and in the morning they had turned to\ngold-pieces.{58}\n\nHolda, whose name means \"the kindly one,\" is the most friendly of the\n_Frauen_. In Saxony she brings rewards for diligent spinsters, and on\nevery New Year's Eve, between nine and ten o'clock, she drives in a\ncarriage full of presents through villages where respect has been shown\nto her. At the crack of her whip the people come out to receive her\ngifts. In Hesse and Thuringia she is imagined as a beautiful woman clad\nin white with long golden hair, and, when it snows hard, people say,\n\"Frau Holle is shaking her featherbed.\"{59}\n\n|243| More of a bugbear on the whole is Berchte or Perchte (the name is\nvariously spelt). She is particularly connected with the Eve of the\nEpiphany, and it is possible that her name comes from the old German\n_giper(c)hta Na(c)ht_, the bright or shining night, referring to the\nmanifestation of Christ's glory.{60} In Carinthia the Epiphany is still\ncalled _Berchtentag_.{61}\n\nBerchte is sometimes a bogey to frighten children. In the mountains round\nTraunstein children are told on Epiphany Eve that if they are naughty she\nwill come and cut their stomachs open.{62} In Upper Austria the girls\nmust finish their spinning by Christmas; if Frau Berch finds flax still\non their distaffs she will be angered and send them bad luck.{63}\n\nIn the Orlagau (between the Saale and the Orle) on the night before\nTwelfth Day, Perchta examines the spinning-rooms and brings the spinners\nempty reels with directions to spin them full within a very brief time;\nif this is not done she punishes them by tangling and befouling the flax.\nShe also cuts open the body of any one who has not eaten _zemmede_\n(fasting fare made of flour and milk and water) that day, takes out any\nother food he has had, fills the empty space with straw and bricks, and\nsews him up again.{64} And yet, as we have seen, she has a kindly\nside--at any rate she rewards those who serve her--and in Styria at\nChristmas she even plays the part of Santa Klaus, hearing children repeat\ntheir prayers and rewarding them with nuts and apples.{65}\n\nThere is a charming Tyrolese story about her. At midnight on Epiphany Eve\na peasant--not too sober--suddenly heard behind him \"a sound of many\nvoices, which came on nearer and nearer, and then the Berchtl, in her\nwhite clothing, her broken ploughshare in her hand, and all her train of\nlittle people, swept clattering and chattering close past him. The least\nwas the last, and it wore a long shirt which got in the way of its little\nbare feet, and kept tripping it up. The peasant had sense enough left to\nfeel compassion, so he took his garter off and bound it for a girdle\nround the infant, and then set it again on its way. When the Berchtl saw\nwhat he had done, she turned back and thanked him, and told him that in\nreturn for his compassion his children should never come to want.\"{66}\n\n|244| In Tyrol, by the way, it is often said that the Perchtl is\nPontius Pilate's wife, Procula.{67} In the Italian dialects of south\nTyrol the German Frau Berchta has been turned into _la donna Berta_.{68}\nIf one goes further south, into Italy itself, one meets with a similar\nbeing, the Befana, whose name is plainly nothing but a corruption of\n_Epiphania_. She is so distinctly a part of the Epiphany festival that we\nmay leave her to be considered later.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOf all supernatural Christmas visitors, the most vividly realized and\nbelieved in at the present day are probably the Greek _Kallikantzaroi_ or\n_Karkantzaroi_.{69} They are the terror of the Greek peasant during the\nTwelve Days; in the soil of his imagination they flourish luxuriantly,\nand to him they are a very real and living nuisance.\n\nTraditions about the _Kallikantzaroi_ vary from region to region, but in\ngeneral they are half-animal, half-human monsters, black, hairy, with\nhuge heads, glaring red eyes, goats' or asses' ears, blood-red tongues\nhanging out, ferocious tusks, monkeys' arms, and long curved nails, and\ncommonly they have the foot of some beast. \"From dawn till sunset they\nhide themselves in dark and dank places ... but at night they issue forth\nand run wildly to and fro, rending and crushing those who cross their\npath. Destruction and waste, greed and lust mark their course.\" When a\nhouse is not prepared against their coming, \"by chimney and door alike\nthey swarm in, and make havoc of the home; in sheer wanton mischief they\noverturn and break all the furniture, devour the Christmas pork, befoul\nall the water and wine and food which remains, and leave the occupants\nhalf dead with fright or violence.\" Many like or far worse pranks do they\nplay, until at the crowing of the third cock they get them away to their\ndens. The signal for their final departure does not come until the\nEpiphany, when, as we saw in Chapter IV., the \"Blessing of the Waters\"\ntakes place. Some of the hallowed water is put into vessels, and with\nthese and with incense the priests sometimes make a round of the village,\nsprinkling the people and their houses. The fear of the |245|\n_Kallikantzaroi_ at this purification is expressed in the following\nlines:--\n\n   \"Quick, begone! we must begone,\n    Here comes the pot-bellied priest,\n    With his censer in his hand\n    And his sprinkling-vessel too;\n    He has purified the streams\n    And he has polluted us.\"\n\nBesides this ecclesiastical purification there are various Christian\nprecautions against the _Kallikantzaroi_--_e.g._, to mark the house-door\nwith a black cross on Christmas Eve, the burning of incense and the\ninvocation of the Trinity--and a number of other means of aversion: the\nlighting of the Yule log, the burning of something that smells strong,\nand--perhaps as a peace-offering--the hanging of pork-bones, sweetmeats,\nor sausages in the chimney.\n\nJust as men are sometimes believed to become vampires temporarily during\ntheir lifetime, so, according to one stream of tradition, do living men\nbecome _Kallikantzaroi_. In Greece children born at Christmas are thought\nlikely to have this objectionable characteristic as a punishment for\ntheir mothers' sin in bearing them at a time sacred to the Mother of God.\nIn Macedonia{70} people who have a \"light\" guardian angel undergo the\nhideous transformation.\n\nMany attempts have been made to account for the _Kallikantzaroi_. Perhaps\nthe most plausible explanation of the outward form, at least, of the\nuncanny creatures, is the theory connecting them with the masquerades\nthat formed part of the winter festival of Dionysus and are still to be\nfound in Greece at Christmastide. The hideous bestial shapes, the noise\nand riot, may well have seemed demoniacal to simple people slightly\n\"elevated,\" perhaps, by Christmas feasting, while the human nature of the\nmaskers was not altogether forgotten.{71} Another theory of an even more\nprosaic character has been propounded--\"that the Kallikantzaroi are\nnothing more than established nightmares, limited like indigestion to the\ntwelve days of feasting. This view is |246| taken by Allatius, who says\nthat a Kallikantzaros has all the characteristics of nightmare, rampaging\nabroad and jumping on men's shoulders, then leaving them half senseless\non the ground.\"{72}\n\nSuch theories are ingenious and suggestive, and may be true to a certain\ndegree, but they hardly cover all the facts. It is possible that the\n_Kallikantzaroi_ may have some connection with the departed; they\ncertainly appear akin to the modern Greek and Slavonic vampire, \"a corpse\nimbued with a kind of half-life,\" and with eyes gleaming like live\ncoals.{73} They are, however, even more closely related to the werewolf,\na man who is supposed to change into a wolf and go about ravening. It is\nto be noted that \"man-wolves\" ([Greek: lykanthropoi]) is the very name\ngiven to the _Kallikantzaroi_ in southern Greece, and that the word\n_Kallikantzaros_ itself has been conjecturally derived by Bernhard\nSchmidt from two Turkish words meaning \"black\" and \"werewolf.\"{74} The\nconnection between Christmas and werewolves is not confined to Greece.\nAccording to a belief not yet extinct in the north and east of Germany,\neven where the real animals have long ago been extirpated, children born\nduring the Twelve Nights become werewolves, while in Livonia and Poland\nthat period is the special season for the werewolf's ravenings.{75}\n\nPerhaps on no question connected with primitive religion is there more\nuncertainty than on the ideas of early man about the nature of animals\nand their relation to himself and the world. When we meet with\nhalf-animal, half-human beings we must be prepared to find much that is\nobscure.\n\nWith the _Kallikantzaroi_ may be compared some goblins of the Celtic\nimagination; especially like is the Manx _Fynnodderee_ (lit. \"the\nhairy-dun one\"), \"something between a man and a beast, being covered with\nblack shaggy hair and having fiery eyes,\" and prodigiously strong.{76}\nThe Russian _Domovy_ or house-spirit is also a hirsute creature,{77} and\nthe Russian _Ljeschi_, goat-footed woodland sprites, are, like the\n_Kallikantzaroi_, supposed to be got rid of by the \"Blessing of the\nWaters\" at the Epiphany.{78} Some of the monstrous German figures\nalready dealt with here |247| bear strong resemblances to the Greek\ndemons. And, of course, on Greek ground one cannot help thinking of Pan\nand the Satyrs and Centaurs.[98]\n\n|248| |249| |250| |251|\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nTHE YULE LOG\n\n\n    The Log as Centre of the Domestic Christmas--Customs of the Southern\n    Slavs--The _Polaznik_--Origin of the Yule Log--Probable Connection\n    with Vegetation-cults or Ancestor-worship--The _Souche de Noel_ in\n    France--Italian and German Christmas Logs--English Customs--The Yule\n    Candle in England and Scandinavia.\n\nThe peoples of Europe have various centres for their Christmas rejoicing.\nIn Spain and Italy the crib is often the focus of the festival in the\nhome as well as the church. In England--after the old tradition--, in\nrural France, and among the southern Slavs, the centre is the great log\nsolemnly brought in and kindled on the hearth, while in Germany, one need\nhardly say, the light-laden tree is the supreme symbol of Christmas. The\ncrib has already been treated in our First Part, the Yule log and the\nChristmas-tree will be considered in this chapter and the next.\n\nThe log placed on the fire on the Vigil of the Nativity no longer forms\nan important part of the English Christmas. Yet within the memory of many\nit was a very essential element in the celebration of the festival, not\nmerely as giving out welcome warmth in the midwinter cold, but as\npossessing occult, magical properties. In some remote corners of England\nit probably lingers yet. We shall return to the traditional English Yule\nlog after a study of some Continental customs of the same kind.\n\nFirst, we may travel to a part of eastern Europe where the log ceremonies\nare found in their most elaborate form. Among the Serbs and Croats on\nChristmas Eve two or three young oaks are felled for every house, and, as\ntwilight comes on, are brought in and laid on the fire. (Sometimes there\nis one for each male |252| member of the family, but one large log is\nthe centre of the ritual.) The felling takes place in some districts\nbefore sunrise, corn being thrown upon the trees with the words, \"Good\nmorning, Christmas!\" At Risano and other places in Lower Dalmatia the\nwomen and girls wind red silk and gold wire round the oak trunks, and\nadorn them with leaves and flowers. While they are being carried into the\nhouse lighted tapers are held on either side of the door. As the\nhouse-father crosses the threshold in the twilight with the first log,\ncorn--or in some places wine--is thrown over him by one of the family.\nThe log or _badnjak_ is then placed on the fire. At Ragusa the\nhouse-father sprinkles corn and wine upon the _badnjak_, saying, as the\nflame shoots up, \"Goodly be thy birth!\" In the mountains above Risano he\nnot only pours corn and wine but afterwards takes a bowl of corn, an\norange, and a ploughshare, and places them on the upper end of the log in\norder that the corn may grow well and the beasts be healthy during the\nyear. In Montenegro, instead of throwing corn, he more usually breaks a\npiece of unleavened bread, places it upon the log, and pours over it a\nlibation of wine.{1}\n\nThe first visit on Christmas Day is considered important--we may compare\nthis with \"first-footing\" in the British Isles on January 1--and in order\nthat the right sort of person may come, some one is specially chosen to\nbe the so-called _polaznik_. No outsider but this _polaznik_ may enter a\nhouse on Christmas Day, where the rites are strictly observed. He appears\nin the early morning, carries corn in his glove and shakes it out before\nthe threshold with the words, \"Christ is born,\" whereupon some member of\nthe household sprinkles him with corn in return, answering, \"He is born\nindeed.\" Afterwards the _polaznik_ goes to the fire and makes sparks fly\nfrom the remains of the _badnjak_, at the same time uttering a wish for\nthe good luck of the house-father and his household and farm. Money and\nsometimes an orange are then placed on the _badnjak_. It is not allowed\nto burn quite away; the last remains of the fire are extinguished and the\nembers are laid between the branches of young fruit-trees to promote\ntheir growth.{2}\n\nHow shall we interpret these practices? Mannhardt regards the log as an\nembodiment of the vegetation-spirit, and its burning |253| as an\nefficacious symbol of sunshine, meant to secure the genial vitalizing\ninfluence of the sun during the coming year.{3} It is, however, possible\nto connect it with a different circle of ideas and to see in its burning\nthe solemn annual rekindling of the sacred hearth-fire, the centre of the\nfamily life and the dwelling-place of the ancestors. Primitive peoples in\nmany parts of the world are accustomed to associate fire with human\ngeneration,{4} and it is a general belief among Aryan and other peoples\nthat ancestral spirits have their seat in the hearth. In Russia, for\ninstance, \"in the Nijegorod Government it is still forbidden to break up\nthe smouldering faggots in a stove, because to do so might cause the\nancestors to fall through into hell. And when a Russian family moves from\none house to another, the fire is conveyed to the new one, where it is\nreceived with the words, 'Welcome, grandfather, to the new home!'\"{5}\n\nSir Arthur Evans in three articles in _Macmillan's Magazine_ for 1881{6}\ngave a minute account of the Christmas customs of the Serbian highlanders\nabove Risano, who practise the log-rites with elaborate ceremonial, and\nexplained them as connected in one way or other with ancestor-worship,\nthough the people themselves attach a Christian meaning to many of them.\nHe pointed to the following facts as showing that the Serbian Christmas\nis at bottom a feast of the dead:--(1) It is said on Christmas Eve,\n\"To-night Earth is blended with Paradise\" [_Raj_, the abode of the dead\namong the heathen Slavs]. (2) There is talk of unchristened folk beneath\nthe threshold wailing \"for a wax-light and offerings to be brought them;\nwhen that is done they lie still enough\"--here there may be a modified\nsurvival of the idea that ancestral spirits dwell beneath the doorway.\n(3) The food must on no account be cleared away after the Christmas meal,\nbut is left for three days, apparently for the house-spirits. (4)\nBlessings are invoked upon the \"Absent Ones,\" which seems to mean the\ndeparted, and (5) a toast is drunk and a bread-cake broken in memory of\n\"the Patron Namegiver of all house-fathers,\" ostensibly Christ but\nperhaps originally the founder of the family. Some of these customs\nresemble those we have noted on All Souls' Eve and--in Scandinavia--on\nChristmas Eve; other parallels we shall meet |254| with later. Among\nthe Slav races the old organization of the family under an elective\nhouse-elder and holding things in common has been faithfully preserved,\nand we might expect to find among the remote Serbian highlanders\nspecially clear traces of the old religion of the hearth. One remarkable\npoint noted by Sir Arthur Evans was that in the Crivoscian cottage where\nhe stayed the fire-irons, the table, and the stools were removed to an\nobscure corner before the logs were brought in and the Christmas rites\nbegan--an indication apparently of the extreme antiquity of the\ncelebration, as dating from a time when such implements were unknown.{7}\n\nIf we take the view that ancestral spirits are the centre of the\n_badnjak_ observances, we may regard the libations upon the fire as\nintended for their benefit. On the sun and vegetation hypothesis,\nhowever, the libations would be meant to secure, by homoeopathic magic,\nthat sunshine should alternate with the rain necessary for the welfare of\nplants.[99]{8} The fertilizing powers possessed by the sparks and ashes\nof the Christmas log appear frequently in folk-lore, and may be explained\neither by the connection of fire with human generation already noted, or,\non the other theory, by the burning log being a sort of sacrament of\nsunshine. It is not perhaps necessary to exclude the idea of the log's\nconnection with the vegetation-spirit even on the ancestral cult\nhypothesis, for the tree which furnished the fuel may have been regarded\nas the source of the life of the race.{9} The Serbian rites certainly\nsuggest very strongly some sort of veneration for the log itself as well\nas for the fire that it feeds.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWe may now return to western Europe. In France the Christmas log or\n_souche de Noel_ is common in the less modernized places, particularly in\nthe south. In Dauphine it is called _chalendal_, |255| in Provence\n_calignaou_ (from _Kalendae_, of course) or _trefoir_, in Orne\n_trefouet_. On Christmas Eve in Provence the whole family goes solemnly\nout to bring in the log. A carol meanwhile is sung praying for blessings\non the house, that the women may bear children, the nanny-goats kids, and\nthe ewes lambs, that corn and flour may abound, and the cask be full of\nwine. Then the youngest child in the family pours wine on the log in the\nname of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The log is then thrown upon the\nfire, and the charcoal is kept all the year and used as a remedy for\nvarious ills.{11}\n\nAnother account is given in his Memoirs by Frederic Mistral, the\nProvencal poet. On Christmas Eve everyone, he says, speaking of his\nboyhood, sallied forth to fetch the Yule log, which had to be cut from a\nfruit-tree:--\n\n    \"Walking in line we bore it home, headed by the oldest at one end,\n    and I, the last born, bringing up the rear. Three times we made the\n    tour of the kitchen, then, arrived at the flagstones of the hearth,\n    my father solemnly poured over the log a glass of wine, with the\n    dedicatory words:\n\n    'Joy, joy. May God shower joy upon us, my dear children. Christmas\n    brings us all good things. God give us grace to see the New Year, and\n    if we do not increase in numbers may we at all events not decrease.'\n\n    In chorus we responded:\n\n    'Joy, joy, joy!' and lifted the log on the fire dogs. Then as the\n    first flame leapt up my father would cross himself, saying, 'Burn the\n    log, O fire,' and with that we all sat down to the table.\"{12}\n\nIn some places the _trefoir_ or _tison de Noel_ is burnt every evening\nduring the Thirteen Nights. If put under the bed its charcoal protects\nthe house all the year round from lightning; contact with it preserves\npeople from chilblains and animals from various diseases; mixed with\nfodder it makes cows calve; its brands thrown into the soil keep the corn\nhealthy. In Perigord the portion which has not been burnt is used to form\npart of a plough, and is believed to make the seed prosper; women also\nkeep some fragments until Epiphany that their poultry may thrive.{13} In\n|256| Brittany the _tison_ is a protection against lightning and its\nashes are put in wells to keep the water good.{14}\n\nIn northern Italy also the _ceppo_ or log is (or was) known--the\nPiedmontese call it _suc_--and in Tuscany Christmas is called after it\n_Festa di Ceppo_. In the Val di Chiana on Christmas Eve the family\ngathers, a great log is set on the fire, the children are blindfolded and\nhave to beat it with tongs, and an _Ave Maria del Ceppo_ is sung.{15}\nUnder the name in Lombardy of _zocco_, in Tuscany of _ciocco_, _di\nNatale_, the Yule log was in olden times common in Italian cities; the\ncustom can there be traced back to the eleventh century. A little book\nprobably printed in Milan at the end of the fifteenth century gives\nminute particulars of the ritual observed, and we learn that on Christmas\nEve the father, or the head of the household, used to call all the family\ntogether and with great devotion, in the name of the Holy Trinity, take\nthe log and place it on the fire. Juniper was put under it, and on the\ntop money was placed, afterwards to be given to the servants. Wine in\nabundance was poured three times on the fire when the head of the house\nhad drunk and given drink to all present. It was an old Italian custom to\npreserve the ashes of the _zocco_ as a protection against hail. A modern\nsuperstition is to keep some splinters of the wood and burn them in the\nfires made for the benefit of silkworms; so burnt, they are supposed to\nkeep ills away from the creatures.{16}\n\nIn many parts of Germany Yule log customs can be traced. In Hesse and\nWestphalia, for instance, it was the custom on Christmas Eve or Day to\nlay a large block of wood on the fire and, as soon as it was charred a\nlittle, to take it off and preserve it. When a storm threatened, it was\nkindled again as a protection against lightning. It was called the\n_Christbrand_.{17} In Thuringia a _Christklotz_ (Christ log) is put on\nthe fire before people go to bed, so that it may burn all through the\nnight. Its remains are kept to protect the house from fire and ill-luck.\nIn parts of Thuringia and in Mecklenburg, Pomerania, East Prussia,\nSaxony, and Bohemia, the fire is kept up all night on Christmas or New\nYear's Eve, and the ashes are used to rid cattle of vermin and protect\nplants and fruit-trees from insects, while in the country between the\nSieg |257| and Lahn the powdered ashes of an oaken log are strewn\nduring the Thirteen Nights on the fields, to increase their\nfertility.{18} In Sweden, too, some form of Yule log was known,{19} and\nin Greece, as we have seen, the burning of a log is still supposed to be\na protection against _Kallikantzaroi_.\n\nAs for the English customs, they can hardly be better introduced than in\nHerrick's words:--\n\n     \"Come, bring, with a noise,\n      My merry, merry boys,\n    The Christmas Log to the firing:\n      While my good Dame she\n      Bids ye all be free,\n    And drink to your hearts' desiring.\n\n      With the last year's Brand\n      Light the new Block, and\n    For good success in his spending,\n      On your psaltries play,\n      That sweet luck may\n    Come while the log is a-teending.\"[100]{20}\n\nWe may note especially that the block must be kindled with last year's\nbrand; here there is a distinct suggestion that the lighting of the log\nat Christmas is a shrunken remnant of the keeping up of a perpetual fire,\nthe continuity being to some extent preserved by the use of a brand from\nlast year's blaze.\n\nAnother tradition and its origin are thus described by Sir Laurence\nGomme:--\n\n    \"From there being an ever-burning fire, it has come to be that the\n    fire must not be allowed to be extinguished on the last day of the\n    old year, so that the old year's fire may last into the new year. In\n    Lanarkshire it is considered unlucky to give out a light to any one\n    on the morning of the new year, and therefore if the house-fire has\n    been allowed to become extinguished recourse must be had to the\n    embers of |258| the village pile [for on New Year's Eve a great\n    public bonfire is made]. In some places the self-extinction of the\n    yule-log at Christmas is portentous of evil.\"{21}\n\nIn the north of England in the days of tinder-boxes, if any one could not\nget a light it was useless to ask a neighbour for one, so frightfully\nunlucky was it to allow any light to leave the house between Christmas\nEve and New Year's Day.{22} The idea of the unluckiness of giving out\nfire at the Kalends of January can be traced back to the eighth century\nwhen, as we saw in Chapter VI., St. Boniface alluded to this superstition\namong the people or Rome.\n\nIn Shropshire the idea is extended even to ashes, which must not be\nthrown out of the house on Christmas Day, \"for fear of throwing them in\nOur Saviour's face.\" Perhaps such superstitions may originally have had\nto do with dread that the \"luck\" of the family, the household spirit,\nmight be carried away with the gift of fire from the hearth.{23}\n\nWhen Miss Burne wrote in the eighties there were still many West\nShropshire people who could remember seeing the \"Christmas Brand\" drawn\nby horses to the farmhouse door, and placed at the back of the wide open\nhearth, where the flame was made up in front of it. \"The embers,\" says\none informant, \"were raked up to it every night, and it was carefully\ntended that it might not go out during the whole season, during which\ntime no light might either be struck, given, or borrowed.\" At Cleobury\nMortimer in the south-east of the county the silence of the curfew bell\nduring \"the Christmas\" points to a time when fires might not be\nextinguished during that season.{24}\n\nThe place of the Yule log in Devonshire is taken by the \"ashen [sometimes\n\"ashton\"] faggot,\" still burnt in many a farm on Christmas Eve. The\nsticks of ash are fastened together by ashen bands, and the traditional\ncustom is for a quart of cider to be called for and served to the\nmerrymaking company, as each band bursts in the flames.{25}\n\nIn England the Yule log was often supplemented or replaced |259| by a\ngreat candle. At Ripon in the eighteenth century the chandlers sent their\ncustomers large candles on Christmas Eve, and the coopers, logs of\nwood.{26} Hampson, writing in 1841, says:--\n\n    \"In some places candles are made of a particular kind, because the\n    candle that is lighted on Christmas Day must be so large as to burn\n    from the time of its ignition to the close of the day, otherwise it\n    will portend evil to the family for the ensuing year. The poor were\n    wont to present the rich with wax tapers, and yule candles are still\n    in the north of Scotland given by merchants to their customers. At\n    one time children at the village schools in Lancashire were required\n    to bring each a mould candle before the _parting_ or separation for\n    the Christmas holidays.\"[101]{27}\n\nIn the Scandinavian countries the Yule candle is, or was, very prominent\nindeed. In West Jutland (Denmark) two great tallow candles stood on the\nfestive board. No one dared to touch or extinguish them, and if by any\nmischance one went out it was a portent of death. They stood for the\nhusband and wife, and that one of the wedded pair whose candle burnt the\nlonger would outlive the other.{28}\n\nIn Norway also two lights were placed on the table.{29} All over the\nScandinavian lands the Yule candle had to burn throughout the night; it\nwas not to be extinguished till the sun rose or--as was said\nelsewhere--till the beginning of service on Christmas Day. Sometimes the\nputting-out had to be done by the oldest member of the family or the\nfather of the household. In Norway the candle was lighted every evening\nuntil New Year's Day. While it foreshadowed death if it went out, so long\nas it duly burned it shed a blessing with its light, and, in order to\nsecure abundance of good things, money, clothes, food, and drink were\nspread out that its rays might fall upon them. The remains of the candle\nwere used in various ways to benefit man and beast. Sometimes a cross was\nbranded with them upon the animals on Christmas morning; in Sweden the\nplough was smeared with |260| the tallow, when used for the first time\nin spring. Or again the tallow was given to the fowls; and, lastly, in\nDenmark the ends were preserved and burnt in thundery weather to protect\nthe house from lightning.{30} There is an analogy here with the use of\nthe Christmas log, and also of the candles of the Purification (see\nChapter XVI.).\n\n|261| |262| |263|\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nTHE CHRISTMAS-TREE, DECORATIONS, AND GIFTS\n\n\n    The Christmas-tree a German Creation--Charm of the German\n    Christmas--Early Christmas-trees--The Christmas Pyramid--Spread of\n    the Tree in Modern Germany and other Countries--Origin of the\n    Christmas-tree--Beliefs about Flowering Trees at\n    Christmas--Evergreens at the Kalends--Non-German Parallels to the\n    Christmas-tree--Christmas Decorations connected with Ancient Kalends\n    Customs--Sacredness of Holly and Mistletoe--Floors strewn with\n    Straw--Christmas and New Year Gifts, their Connection with the Roman\n    _Strenae_ and St. Nicholas--Present-giving in Various\n    Countries--Christmas Cards.\n\n[Illustration:\n\nTHE GERMAN CHRISTMAS-TREE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.\n\nFrom an engraving by Joseph Kellner.]\n\n\nTHE CHRISTMAS-TREE.\n\nThe most widespread, and to children the most delightful, of all festal\ninstitutions is the Christmas-tree. Its picturesqueness and gay charm\nhave made it spread rapidly all over Europe without roots in national\ntradition, for, as most people know, it is a German creation, and even in\nGermany it attained its present immense popularity only in the nineteenth\ncentury. To Germany, of course, one should go to see the tree in all its\nglory. Many people, indeed, maintain that no other Christmas can compare\nwith the German _Weihnacht_. \"It is,\" writes Miss I. A. R. Wylie, \"that\nchildish, open-hearted simplicity which, so it seems to me, makes\nChristmas essentially German, or at any rate explains why it is that\nnowhere else in the world does it find so pure an expression. The German\nis himself simple, warm-hearted, unpretentious, with something at the\nbottom of him which is childlike in the best sense. He is the last\n'Naturmensch' in civilization.\" Christmas suits him \"as well as a play\nsuits an actor for whose character and temperament it has been especially\nwritten.\"{1}\n\n|264| In Germany the Christmas-tree is not a luxury for well-to-do\npeople as in England, but a necessity, the very centre of the festival;\nno one is too poor or too lonely to have one. There is something about a\nGerman _Weihnachtsbaum_--a romance and a wonder--that English\nChristmas-trees do not possess. For one thing, perhaps, in a land of\nforests the tree seems more in place; it is a kind of sacrament linking\nmankind to the mysteries of the woodland. Again the German tree is simply\na thing of beauty and radiance; no utilitarian presents hang from its\nboughs--they are laid apart on a table--and the tree is purely splendour\nfor splendour's sake. However tawdry it may look by day, at night it is a\ntrue thing of wonder, shining with countless lights and glittering\nornaments, with fruit of gold and shimmering festoons of silver. Then\nthere is the solemnity with which it is surrounded; the long secret\npreparations behind the closed doors, and, when Christmas Eve arrives,\nthe sudden revelation of hidden glory. The Germans have quite a religious\nfeeling for their _Weihnachtsbaum_, coming down, one may fancy, from some\ndim ancestral worship of the trees of the wood.\n\nAs Christmas draws near the market-place in a German town is filled with\na miniature forest of firs; the trees are sold by old women in quaint\ncostumes, and the shop-windows are full of candles and ornaments to deck\nthem. Mrs. Alfred Sidgwick in her \"Home Life in Germany\" gives a\ndelightful picture of such a Christmas market in \"one of the old German\ncities in the hill country, when the streets and the open places are\ncovered with crisp clean snow, and the mountains are white with it....\nThe air is cold and still, and heavy with the scent of the\nChristmas-trees brought from the forest for the pleasure of the children.\nDay by day you see the rows of them growing thinner, and if you go to the\nmarket on Christmas Eve itself you will find only a few trees left out in\nthe cold. The market is empty, the peasants are harnessing their horses\nor their oxen, the women are packing up their unsold goods. In every home\nin the city one of the trees that scented the open air a week ago is\nshining now with lights and little gilded nuts and apples, and is helping\nto make that Christmas smell, all compact of the pine forest, wax |265|\ncandles, cakes and painted toys, you must associate so long as you live\nwith Christmas in Germany.\"{2}\n\nEven in London one may get a glimpse of the Teutonic Christmas in the\nhalf-German streets round Fitzroy Square. They are bald and drab enough,\nbut at Christmas here and there a window shines with a lighted tree, and\nthe very prosaic Lutheran church in Cleveland Street has an unwonted\nsight to show--two great fir-trees decked with white candles, standing\none on each side of the pulpit. The church of the German Catholics, too,\nSt. Boniface's, Whitechapel, has in its sanctuary two Christmas-trees\nstrangely gay with coloured glistening balls and long strands of gold and\nsilver _engelshaar_. The candles are lit at Benediction during the\nfestival, and between the shining trees the solemn ritual is performed by\nthe priest and a crowd of serving boys in scarlet and white with tapers\nand incense.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThere is a pretty story about the institution of the _Weihnachtsbaum_ by\nMartin Luther: how, after wandering one Christmas Eve under the clear\nwinter sky lit by a thousand stars, he set up for his children a tree\nwith countless candles, an image of the starry heaven whence Christ came\ndown. This, however, belongs to the region of legend; the first\nhistorical mention of the Christmas-tree is found in the notes of a\ncertain Strasburg citizen of unknown name, written in the year 1605. \"At\nChristmas,\" he writes, \"they set up fir-trees in the parlours at\nStrasburg and hang thereon roses cut out of many-coloured paper, apples,\nwafers, gold-foil, sweets, &c.\"{3}\n\nWe next meet with the tree in a hostile allusion by a distinguished\nStrasburg theologian, Dr. Johann Konrad Dannhauer, Professor and Preacher\nat the Cathedral. In his book, \"The Milk of the Catechism,\" published\nabout the middle of the seventeenth century, he speaks of \"the\nChristmas- or fir-tree, which people set up in their houses, hang with\ndolls and sweets, and afterwards shake and deflower.\" \"Whence comes the\ncustom,\" he says, \"I know not; it is child's play.... Far better were it\nto point the children to the spiritual cedar-tree, Jesus Christ.\"{4}\n\nIn neither of these references is there any mention of candles--the\n|266| most fascinating feature of the modern tree. These appear,\nhowever, in a Latin work on Christmas presents by Karl Gottfried Kissling\nof the University of Wittenberg, written in 1737. He tells how a certain\ncountry lady of his acquaintance set up a little tree for each of her\nsons and daughters, lit candles on or around the trees, laid out presents\nbeneath them, and called her children one by one into the room to take\nthe trees and gifts intended for them.{5}\n\nWith the advance of the eighteenth-century notices of the\n_Weihnachtsbaum_ become more frequent: Jung Stilling, Goethe, Schiller,\nand others mention it, and about the end of the century its use seems to\nhave been fairly general in Germany.{6} In many places, however, it was\nnot common till well on in the eighteen hundreds: it was a Protestant\nrather than a Catholic institution, and it made its way but slowly in\nregions where the older faith was held.{7} Well-to-do townspeople\nwelcomed it first, and the peasantry were slow to adopt it. In Old\nBavaria, for instance, in 1855 it was quite unknown in country places,\nand even to-day it is not very common there, except in the towns.{8} \"It\nis more in vogue on the whole,\" wrote Dr. Tille in 1893, \"in the\nProtestant north than in the Catholic south,\"{9} but its popularity was\nrapidly growing at that time.\n\nA common substitute for the Christmas-tree in Saxony during the\nnineteenth century, and one still found in country places, was the\nso-called \"pyramid,\" a wooden erection adorned with many-coloured paper\nand with lights. These pyramids were very popular among the smaller\n_bourgeoisie_ and artisans, and were kept from one Christmas to\nanother.{10} In Berlin, too, the pyramid was once very common. It was\nthere adorned with green twigs as well as with candles and coloured\npaper, and had more resemblance to the Christmas-tree.{11} Tieck refers\nto it in his story, \"Weihnacht-Abend\" (1805).{12}\n\nPyramids, without lights apparently, were known in England before 1840.\nIn Hertfordshire they were formed of gilt evergreens, apples, and nuts,\nand were carried about just before Christmas for presents. In\nHerefordshire they were known at the New Year.{13}\n\n|267| The Christmas-tree was introduced into France in 1840, when\nPrincess Helene of Mecklenburg brought it to Paris. In 1890 between\nthirty and thirty-five thousand of the trees are said to have been sold\nin Paris.{14}\n\nIn England it is alluded to in 1789,{15} but its use did not become at\nall general until about the eighteen-forties. In 1840 Queen Victoria and\nPrince Albert had a Christmas-tree, and the fashion spread until it\nbecame completely naturalized.{16} In Denmark and Norway it was known in\n1830, and in Sweden in 1863 (among the Swedish population on the coast of\nFinland it seems to have been in use in 1800).{17} In Bohemia it is\nmentioned in 1862.{18} It is also found in Russia, the United States,\nSpain, Italy, and Holland,{19} and of course in Switzerland and Austria,\nso largely German in language and customs. In non-German countries it is\nrather a thing for the well-to-do classes than for the masses of the\npeople.\n\nThe Christmas-tree is essentially a domestic institution. It has,\nhowever, found its way into Protestant churches in Germany and from them\ninto Catholic churches. Even the Swiss Zwinglians, with all their\nPuritanism, do not exclude it from their bare, white-washed fanes. In the\nMuensterthal, for instance, a valley of Romonsch speech, off the Lower\nEngadine, a tree decked with candles, festoons, presents, and\nserpent-squibs, stands in church at Christmas, and it is difficult for\nthe minister to conduct service, for all the time, except during the\nprayers, the people are letting off fireworks. On one day between\nChristmas Eve and New Year there is a great present-giving in\nchurch.{20}\n\nIn Munich, and doubtless elsewhere, the tree appears not only in the\nchurch and in the home, but in the cemetery. The graves of the dead are\ndecked on Christmas Eve with holly and mistletoe and a little\nChristmas-tree with gleaming lights, a touching token of remembrance, an\nattempt, perhaps, to give the departed a share in the brightness of the\nfestival.{21}\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe question of the origin of Christmas-trees is of great interest.\nThough their affinity to other sacraments of the |268| vegetation-spirit\nis evident, it is difficult to be certain of their exact ancestry. Dr.\nTille regards them as coming from a union of two elements: the old Roman\ncustom of decking houses with laurels and green trees at the Kalends of\nJanuary, and the popular belief that every Christmas Eve apple and other\ntrees blossomed and bore fruit.{22}\n\nBefore the advent of the Christmas-tree proper--a fir with lights and\nornaments often imitating and always suggesting flowers and fruit--it\nwas customary to put trees like cherry or hawthorn into water or into\npots indoors, so that they might bud and blossom at New Year or\nChristmas.{23} Even to-day the practice of picking boughs in order that\nthey may blossom at Christmas is to be found in some parts of Austria.\nIn Carinthia girls on St. Lucia's Day (December 13) stick a\ncherry-branch into wet sand; if it blooms at Christmas their wishes will\nbe fulfilled. In other parts the branches--pear as well as cherry--are\npicked on St. Barbara's Day (December 4), and in South Tyrol\ncherry-trees are manured with lime on the first Thursday in Advent so\nthat they may blossom at Christmas.{24} The custom may have had to do\nwith legendary lore about the marvellous transformation of Nature on the\nnight of Christ's birth, when the rivers ran wine instead of water and\ntrees stood in full blossom in spite of ice and snow.{25}\n\nIn England there was an old belief in trees blossoming at Christmas,\nconnected with the well-known legend of St. Joseph of Arimathea. When the\nsaint settled at Glastonbury he planted his staff in the earth and it put\nforth leaves; moreover it blossomed every Christmas Eve. Not only the\noriginal thorn at Glastonbury but trees of the same species in other\nparts of England had this characteristic. When in 1752 the New Style was\nsubstituted for the Old, making Christmas fall twelve days earlier, folks\nwere curious to see what the thorns would do. At Quainton in\nBuckinghamshire two thousand people, it is said, went out on the new\nChristmas Eve to view a blackthorn which had the Christmas blossoming\nhabit. As no sign of buds was visible they agreed that the new Christmas\ncould not be right, and refused to keep it. At Glastonbury itself nothing\n|269| happened on December 24, but on January 5, the right day according\nto the Old Style, the thorn blossomed as usual.[102]{26}\n\nLet us turn to the customs of the Roman Empire which may be in part\nresponsible for the German Christmas-tree. The practice of adorning\nhouses with evergreens at the January Kalends was common throughout the\nEmpire, as we learn from Libanius, Tertullian, and Chrysostom. A grim\ndenunciation of such decorations and the lights which accompanied them\nmay be quoted from Tertullian; it makes a pregnant contrast of pagan and\nChristian. \"Let them,\" he says of the heathen, \"kindle lamps, they who\nhave no light; let them fix on the doorposts laurels which shall\nafterwards be burnt, they for whom fire is close at hand; meet for them\nare testimonies of darkness and auguries of punishment. But thou,\" he\nsays to the Christian, \"art a light of the world and a tree that is ever\ngreen; if thou hast renounced temples, make not a temple of thy own\nhouse-door.\"{27}\n\nThat these New Year practices of the Empire had to do with the\n_Weihnachtsbaum_ is very possible, but on the other hand it has closer\nparallels in certain folk-customs that in no way suggest Roman or Greek\ninfluence. Not only at Christmas are ceremonial \"trees\" to be found in\nGermany. In the Erzgebirge there is dancing at the summer solstice round\n\"St. John's tree,\" a pyramid decked with garlands and flowers, and lit up\nat night by candles.{28} At midsummer \"in the towns of the Upper Harz\nMountains tall fir-trees, with the bark peeled off their lower trunks,\nwere set up in open places and decked with flowers and eggs, which were\npainted yellow and red. Round these trees the young folk danced by day\nand the old folk in the evening\";{29} while on Dutch ground in\nGelderland and Limburg at the beginning of May trees were adorned with\nlights.{30}\n\nNearer to Christmas is a New Year's custom found in some |270| Alsatian\nvillages: the adorning of the fountain with a \"May.\" The girls who visit\nthe fountain procure a small fir-tree or holly-bush, and deck it with\nribbons, egg-shells, and little figures representing a shepherd or a man\nbeating his wife. This is set up above the fountain on New Year's Eve. On\nthe evening of the next day the snow is carefully cleared away and the\ngirls dance and sing around the fountain. The lads may only take part in\nthe dance by permission of the girls. The tree is kept all through the\nyear as a protection to those who have set it up.{31}\n\nIn Sweden, before the advent of the German type of tree, it was customary\nto place young pines, divested of bark and branches, outside the houses\nat Christmastide.{32} An English parallel which does not suggest any\nborrowing from Germany, was formerly to be found at Brough in\nWestmoreland on Twelfth Night. A holly-tree with torches attached to its\nbranches was carried through the town in procession. It was finally\nthrown among the populace, who divided into two parties, one of which\nendeavoured to take the tree to one inn, and the other, to a rival\nhostelry.{33} We have here pretty plainly a struggle of two\nfactions--perhaps of two quarters of a town that were once separate\nvillages--for the possession of a sacred object.[103]\n\nWe may find parallels, lastly, in two remote corners of Europe. In the\nisland of Chios--here we are on Greek ground--tenants are wont to offer\nto their landlords on Christmas morning a _rhamna_, a pole with wreaths\nof myrtle, olive, and orange leaves bound around it; \"to these are fixed\nany flowers that may be found--geraniums, anemones, and the like, and, by\nway of further decoration, oranges, lemons, and strips of gold and\ncoloured paper.\"[104]{34} Secondly, among the Circassians in the early\nhalf of the nineteenth century, a young pear-tree used to be carried into\neach house at an autumn festival, to the sound of music and joyous cries.\nIt was covered with candles, and a cheese was fastened to its top. Round\nabout it they ate, drank, and sang. Afterwards it was |271| removed to\nthe courtyard, where it remained for the rest of the year.{36}\n\nThough there is no recorded instance of the use of a tree at Christmas in\nGermany before the seventeenth century, the _Weihnachtsbaum_ may well be\na descendant of some sacred tree carried about or set up at the\nbeginning-of-winter festival. All things considered, it seems to belong\nto a class of primitive sacraments of which the example most familiar to\nEnglish peoples is the May-pole. This is, of course, an early summer\ninstitution, but in France and Germany a Harvest May is also known--a\nlarge branch or a whole tree, which is decked with ears of corn, brought\nhome on the last waggon from the harvest field, and fastened to the roof\nof farmhouse or barn, where it remains for a year.{37} Mannhardt has\nshown that such sacraments embody the tree-spirit conceived as the spirit\nof vegetation in general, and are believed to convey its life-giving,\nfructifying influences. Probably the idea of contact with the spirit of\ngrowth lay also beneath the Roman evergreen decorations, so that whether\nor not we connect the Christmas-tree with these, the principle at the\nbottom is the same.\n\nCertain Christian ideas, finally, besides that of trees blossoming on the\nnight of the Nativity, may have affected the fortunes of the\nChristmas-tree. December 24 was in old Church calendars the day of Adam\nand Eve, the idea being that Christ the second Adam had repaired by His\nIncarnation the loss caused by the sin of the first. A legend grew up\nthat Adam when he left Paradise took with him an apple or sprout from the\nTree of Knowledge, and that from this sprang the tree from which the\nCross was made. Or it was said that on Adam's grave grew a sprig from the\nTree of Life, and that from it Christ plucked the fruit of redemption.\nThe Cross in early Christian poetry was conceived as the Tree of Life\nplanted anew, bearing the glorious fruit of Christ's body, and repairing\nthe mischief wrought by the misuse of the first tree. We may recall a\nverse from the \"Pange, lingua\" of Passiontide:--\n\n   \"Faithful Cross! above all other,\n      One and only noble tree! |272|\n    None in foliage, none in blossom,\n      None in fruit thy peer may be:\n    Sweetest wood and sweetest iron!\n      Sweetest weight is hung on thee.\"\n\nIn the religious Christmas plays the tree of Paradise was sometimes shown\nto the people. At Oberufer, for instance, it was a fine juniper-tree,\nadorned with apples and ribbons. Sometimes Christ Himself was regarded as\nthe tree of Paradise.{38} The thought of Him as both the Light of the\nWorld and the Tree of Life may at least have given a Christian meaning to\nthe light-bearing tree, and helped to establish its popularity among\npious folk.\n\n\nCHRISTMAS DECORATIONS.\n\nWe have seen that the Christmas-tree may be a development, partly at\nleast, from the custom of decorating buildings with evergreens at the New\nYear, and that such decorations were common throughout the Roman\nEmpire.[105] Some further consideration may now be given to the subject\nof Christmas decorations in various lands. In winter, when all is brown\nand dead, the evergreens are manifestations of the abiding life within\nthe plant-world, and they may well have been used as sacramental means of\ncontact with the spirit of growth and fertility, threatened by the powers\nof blight. Particularly precious would be plants like the holly, the ivy,\nand the mistletoe, which actually bore fruit in the winter-time.{39}\n\nIn spite of ecclesiastical condemnations of Kalends decorations--as late\nas the sixth century the _capitula_ of Bishop Martin of Braga forbid the\nadorning of houses with laurels and green trees{40}--the custom has\nfound its way even into churches, and nowhere more than in England. At\nleast as far back as the fifteenth century, according to Stow's \"Survay\nof London,\" it was the custom at Christmas for \"every man's house, as\nalso the parish churches,\" to be \"decked with holm, ivy, bays, and\nwhatsoever the season of the year afforded to be green. The conduits and\n|273| standards in the streets were likewise garnished.\"{41} Many\npeople of the last generation will remember the old English mode of\ndecoration--how sprigs of holly and yew, stuck into holes in the high\npews, used to make the churches into miniature forests. Only upon the\nmistletoe does a trace of the ecclesiastical taboo remain, and even that\nis not universal, for at York Minster, for instance, some was laid upon\nthe altar.{42}\n\nEnglish popular custom has connected particular plants with the winter\nfestival in a peculiarly delightful way; at the mere mention of holly or\nmistletoe the picture of Christmas with its country charm rises to the\nmind--we think of snowy fields and distant bells, of warm hearths and\nkindly merrymaking.\n\nIt is no wonder that the mistletoe has a special place in Christmas\ndecorations, for it is associated with both Teutonic myth and Celtic\nritual. It was with mistletoe that the beloved Balder was shot, and the\nplant played an important part in a Druidic ceremony described by Pliny.\nA white-robed Druid climbed a sacred oak and cut the mistletoe with a\ngolden sickle. As it fell it was caught in a white cloth, and two white\nbulls were then sacrificed, with prayer. The mistletoe was called\n\"all-healer\" and was believed to be a remedy against poison and to make\nbarren animals fruitful.{43} The significance of the ritual is not easy\nto find. Pliny's account, Dr. MacCulloch has suggested, may be\nincomplete, and the cutting of the mistletoe may have been a preliminary\nto some other ceremony--perhaps the felling of the tree on which it grew,\nwhose soul was supposed to be in it, or perhaps the slaying of a\nrepresentative of the tree-spirit; while the white oxen of Pliny's time\nmay have replaced a human victim.{44}\n\nIt is interesting to find that the name \"all-healer\" is still given to\nthe mistletoe in Celtic speech,[106]{45} and that in various European\ncountries it is believed to possess marvellous powers of healing sickness\nor averting misfortune.{46}\n\n|274| It is hard to say exactly what is the origin of the English\n\"kissing under the mistletoe,\" but the practice would appear to be due to\nan imagined relation between the love of the sexes and the spirit of\nfertility embodied in the sacred bough, and it may be a vestige of the\nlicence often permitted at folk-festivals. According to one form of the\nEnglish custom the young men plucked, each time they kissed a girl, a\nberry from the bough. When the berries were all picked, the privilege\nceased.{48}\n\nSometimes a curious form, reminding one both of the German Christmas-tree\nand of the _Krippe_, is taken by the \"kissing bunch.\" Here is an account\nfrom Derbyshire:--\n\n    \"The 'kissing bunch' is always an elaborate affair. The size depends\n    upon the couple of hoops--one thrust through the other--which form\n    its skeleton. Each of the ribs is garlanded with holly, ivy, and\n    sprigs of other greens, with bits of coloured ribbons and paper\n    roses, rosy-cheeked apples, specially reserved for this occasion, and\n    oranges. Three small dolls are also prepared, often with much taste,\n    and these represent our Saviour, the mother of Jesus, and Joseph.\n    These dolls generally hang within the kissing bunch by strings from\n    the top, and are surrounded by apples, oranges tied to strings, and\n    various brightly coloured ornaments. Occasionally, however, the dolls\n    are arranged in the kissing bunch to represent a manger-scene....\n    Mistletoe is not very plentiful in Derbyshire; but, generally, a bit\n    is obtainable, and this is carefully tied to the bottom of the\n    kissing bunch, which is then hung in the middle of the house-place,\n    the centre of attention during Christmastide.\"{49}\n\nKissing under the mistletoe seems to be distinctively English. There is,\nhowever, a New Year's Eve custom in Lower Austria and the Rhaetian Alps\nthat somewhat resembles our mistletoe bough practices. People linger late\nin the inns, the walls and windows of which are decorated with green\npine-twigs. In the centre of the inn-parlour hangs from a roof-beam a\nwreath of the same greenery, and in a dark corner hides a masked figure\nknown as \"Sylvester,\" old and ugly, with a flaxen beard and _a wreath of\nmistletoe_. If a youth or maiden happens to pass under the pine wreath\nSylvester springs out and imprints a rough kiss. When midnight comes he\nis driven out as the representative of the old year.{50}\n\n|275| There are traces in Britain of the sacredness of holly as well as\nmistletoe. In Northumberland it is used for divination: nine leaves are\ntaken and tied with nine knots into a handkerchief, and put under the\npillow by a person who desires prophetic dreams.{51} For this purpose\nsmooth leaves (without prickles) must be employed, and it is to be noted\nthat at Burford in Shropshire smooth holly only was used for the\nChristmas decorations.{52} Holly is hated by witches,{53} but perhaps\nthis may be due not to any pre-Christian sanctity attached to it but to\nthe association of its thorns and blood-red berries with the Passion--an\nassociation to which it owes its Danish name, _Kristdorn_.\n\nIn some old English Christmas carols holly and ivy are put into a curious\nantagonism, apparently connected with a contest of the sexes. Holly is\nthe men's plant, ivy the women's, and the carols are debates as to the\nrespective merits of each. Possibly some sort of rude drama may once have\nbeen performed.{54} Here is a fifteenth-century example of these\ncarols:--\n\n   \"Holly and Ivy made a great party,\n    Who should have the mastery,\n      In landes where they go.\n\n    Then spoke Holly, 'I am free and jolly,\n    I will have the mastery,\n      In landes where we go.'\n\n    Then spake Ivy, 'I am lov'd and prov'd,\n    And I will have the mastery,\n      In landes where we go.'\n\n    Then spake Holly, and set him down on his knee,\n    'I pray thee, gentle Ivy,\n    Say me no villainy,\n      In landes where we go.'\"{55}\n\nThe sanctity of Christmas house-decorations in England is shown by the\ncare taken in disposing of them when removed from the walls. In\nShropshire old-fashioned people never threw them away, for fear of\nmisfortune, but either burnt them or gave them to the cows; it was very\nunlucky to let a piece |276| fall to the ground. The Shropshire custom\nwas to leave the holly and ivy up until Candlemas, while the\nmistletoe-bough was carefully preserved until the time came for a new one\nnext year. West Shropshire tradition, by the way, connects the mistletoe\nwith the New Year rather than with Christmas; the bough ought not to be\nput up until New Year's Eve.{56}\n\nIn Sweden green boughs, apparently, are not used for decoration, but the\nfloor of the parlour is strewn with sprigs of fragrant juniper or\nspruce-pine, or with rye-straw.{57} The straw was probably intended\noriginally to bring to the house, by means of sacramental contact, the\nwholesome influences of the corn-spirit, though the common people connect\nit with the stable at Bethlehem. The practice of laying straw and the\nsame Christian explanation are found also in Poland{58} and in\nCrivoscia.{59} In Poland before the cloth is laid on Christmas Eve, the\ntable is covered with a layer of hay or straw, and a sheaf stands in the\ncorner. Years ago straw was also spread on the floor. Sometimes it is\ngiven to the cattle as a charm and sometimes it is used to tie up\nfruit-trees.{60}\n\nDr. Frazer conjectures that the Swedish Yule straw comes in part at least\nfrom the last sheaf at harvest, to which, as embodying the corn-spirit, a\npeculiar significance is attached. The Swedish, like the Polish, Yule\nstraw has sundry virtues; scattered on the ground it will make a barren\nfield productive; and it is used to bind trees and make them\nfruitful.{61} Again the peasant at Christmas will sit on a log and throw\nup Yule straws one by one to the roof; as many as lodge in the rafters,\nso many will be the sheaves of rye at harvest.{62}\n\n\nCHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR GIFTS.\n\nWe have come across presents of various kinds at the pre-Christmas\nfestivals; now that we have reached Christmastide itself we may dwell a\nlittle upon the festival as the great present-giving season of the year,\nand try to get at the origins of the custom.\n\nThe Roman _strenae_ offered to the Emperor or exchanged between private\ncitizens at the January Kalends have already |277| been noted.\nAccording to tradition they were originally merely branches plucked from\nthe grove of the goddess Strenia, and the purpose of these may well have\nbeen akin to that of the greenery used for decorations, viz., to secure\ncontact with a vegetation-spirit. In the time of the Empire, however, the\n_strenae_ were of a more attractive character, \"men gave honeyed things,\nthat the year of the recipient might be full of sweetness, lamps that it\nmight be full of light, copper and silver and gold that wealth might flow\nin amain.\"{63} Such presents were obviously a kind of charm for the New\nYear, based on the principle that as the beginning was, so would the rest\nof the year be.\n\nWith the adoption of the Roman New Year's Day its present-giving customs\nappear to have spread far and wide. In France, where the Latin spirit is\nstill strong, January 1 is even now the great day for presents, and they\nare actually called _etrennes_, a name obviously derived from _strenae_.\nIn Paris boxes of sweets are then given by bachelors to friends who have\nentertained them at their houses during the year--a survival perhaps of\nthe \"honeyed things\" given in Roman times.\n\nIn many countries, however, present-giving is attached to the\necclesiastical festival of Christmas. This is doubtless largely due to\nattraction from the Roman New Year's Day to the feast hallowed by the\nChurch, but readers of the foregoing pages will have seen that Christmas\nhas also drawn to itself many practices of a November festival, and it is\nprobable that German Christmas presents, at least, are connected as much\nwith the apples and nuts of St. Martin and St. Nicholas[107] as with the\nRoman _strenae_. It has already been pointed out that the German St.\nNicholas as present-giver appears to be a duplicate of St. Martin, and\nthat St. Nicholas himself has often wandered from his own day to\nChristmas, or has been replaced by the Christ Child. We have also noted\nthe rod associated with the two saints, and seen reason for thinking that\nits original purpose was not disciplinary but health-giving.\n\n|278| It is interesting to find that while, if we may trust tradition,\nthe Roman _strenae_ were originally twigs, Christmas gifts in\nsixteenth-century Germany showed a connection with the twigs or rods of\nSt. Martin and St. Nicholas. The presents were tied together in a bundle,\nand a twig was added to them.{65} This was regarded by the pedagogic\nmind of the period not as a lucky twig but as a rod in the sinister\nsense. In some Protestant sermons of the latter half of the century there\nare curious detailed references to Christmas presents. These are supposed\nto be brought to children by the Saviour Himself, strangely called the\n_Haus-Christ_. Among the gifts mentioned as contained in the\n\"Christ-bundles\" are pleasant things like money, sugar-plums, cakes,\napples, nuts, dolls; useful things like clothes; and also things \"that\nbelong to teaching, obedience, chastisement, and discipline, as A.B.C.\ntablets, Bibles and handsome books, writing materials, paper, &c., _and\nthe_ '_Christ-rod_.'\"{66}\n\nA common gift to German children at Christmas or the New Year was an\napple with a coin in it; the coin may conceivably be a Roman\nsurvival,{67} while the apple may be connected with those brought by St.\nNicholas.\n\nThe Christ Child is still supposed to bring presents in Germany; in\nFrance, too, it is sometimes _le petit Jesus_ who bears the welcome\ngifts.{68} In Italy we shall find that the great time for children's\npresents is Epiphany Eve, when the Befana comes, though in the northern\nprovinces Santa Lucia is sometimes a gift-bringer.{69} In Sicily the\ndays for gifts and the supposed bringers vary; sometimes, as we have\nalready seen, it is the dead who bring them, on All Souls' Eve; sometimes\nit is _la Vecchia di Natali_--the Christmas old woman--who comes with\nthem on Christmas Eve; sometimes they are brought by the old woman\nStrina--note the derivation from _strenae_--at the New Year; sometimes by\nthe Befana at the Epiphany.{70}\n\nA curious mode of giving presents on Christmas Eve belongs particularly\nto Sweden, though it is also found--perhaps borrowed--in Mecklenburg,\nPomerania, and other parts of Germany. The so-called _Julklapp_ is a gift\nwrapped up in innumerable coverings. The person who brings it raps\nnoisily at |279| the door, and throws or pushes the _Julklapp_ into the\nroom. It is essential that he should arrive quite unexpectedly, and come\nand go like lightning without revealing his identity. Great efforts are\nmade to conceal the gift so that the recipient after much trouble in\nundoing the covering may have to search and search again to find it.\nSometimes in Sweden a thin gold ring is hidden away in a great heavy box,\nor a little gold heart is put in a Christmas cake. Occasionally a man\ncontrives to hide in the _Julklapp_ and thus offer himself as a Christmas\npresent to the lady whom he loves. The gift is often accompanied by some\nsatirical rhyme, or takes a form intended to tease the recipient.{71}\n\nAnother custom, sometimes found in \"better-class\" Swedish households, is\nfor the Christmas presents to be given by two masked figures, an old man\nand an old woman. The old man holds a bell in his hand and rings it, the\nold woman carries a basket full of sealed packets, which she delivers to\nthe addressees.{72}\n\nThere is nothing specially interesting in modern English modes of\npresent-giving. We may, however, perhaps see in the custom of Christmas\nboxes, inexorably demanded and not always willingly bestowed, a\ndegeneration of what was once friendly entertainment given in return for\nthe good wishes and the luck brought by wassailers. Instances of gifts to\ncalling neighbours have already come before our notice at several\npre-Christmas festivals, notably All Souls', St. Clement's, and St.\nThomas's. As for the name \"Christmas box,\" it would seem to have come\nfrom the receptacles used for the gifts. According to one account\napprentices, journeymen, and servants used to carry about earthen boxes\nwith a slit in them, and when the time for collecting was over, broke\nthem to obtain the contents.{73}\n\nThe Christmas card, a sort of attenuated present, seems to be of quite\nmodern origin. It is apparently a descendant of the \"school pieces\" or\n\"Christmas pieces\" popular in England in the first half of the nineteenth\ncentury--sheets of writing-paper with designs in pen and ink or\ncopper-plate headings. The first Christmas card proper appears to have\nbeen issued in 1846, but it was not till about 1862 that the custom of\ncard-sending obtained any foothold.{74}\n\n|280|\n\n[Illustration:\n\nCHRISTMAS MORNING IN LOWER AUSTRIA.\n\n_By Ferdinand Waldmuller (b. 1793)._]\n\n|281| |282| |283|\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nCHRISTMAS FEASTING AND SACRIFICIAL SURVIVALS\n\n\n    Prominence of Eating in the English Christmas--The Boar's Head, the\n    Goose, and other Christmas Fare--Frumenty, Sowens, Yule Cakes, and\n    the Wassail Bowl--Continental Christmas Dishes, their Possible\n    Origins--French and German Cakes--The Animals' Christmas Feast--Cakes\n    in Eastern Europe--Relics of Animal Sacrifice--Hunting the\n    Wren--Various Games of Sacrificial Origin.\n\n\nFEASTING CUSTOMS.\n\nIn the mind of the average sensual Englishman perhaps the most vivid\nimages called up by the word Christmas are those connected with eating\nand drinking. \"Ha piu da fare che i forni di Natale in Inghilterra,\"[108]\nan Italian proverb used of a very busy person, sufficiently suggests the\ncharacter of our Christmas.[109] It may be that the Christmas dinner\nlooms larger among the English than among most other peoples, but in\nevery country a distinctive meal of some kind is associated with the\nseason. We have already seen how this illustrates the immemorial\nconnection between material feasting and religious rejoicing.\n\nLet us note some forms of \"Christmas fare\" and try to get an idea of\ntheir origin. First we may look at English feasting customs, though, as\nthey have been pretty fully described by |284| previous writers, no\nvery elaborate account of them need be given.\n\nThe gross eating and drinking in former days at Christmas, of which our\npresent mild gluttony is but a pale reflection, would seem to be\nconnected with the old November feast, though transferred to the season\nhallowed by Christ's birth. The show of slaughtered beasts, adorned with\ngreen garlands, in an English town just before Christmas, reminds one\nstrongly of the old November killing. In displays of this kind the pig's\nhead is specially conspicuous, and points to the time when the swine was\na favourite sacrificial animal.{1} We may recall here the traditional\ncarol sung at Queen's College, Oxford, as the boar's head is solemnly\nbrought in at Christmas, and found elsewhere in other forms:--\n\n   \"The boar's head in hand bear I,\n    Bedeck'd with bays and rosemary;\n    And I pray you, my masters, be merry,\n      _Quot estis in convivio._\n      _Caput apri defero,_\n      _Reddens laudes Domino._\"{2}\n\nThe Christmas bird provided by the familiar \"goose club\" may be compared\nwith the German Martinmas goose. The more luxurious turkey must be\nrelatively an innovation, for that bird seems not to have been introduced\ninto England until the sixteenth century.{3}\n\nCakes and pies, partly or wholly of vegetable origin, are, of course, as\nconspicuous at the English Christmas as animal food. The peculiar\n\"luckiness\" attached to some of them (as when mince-pies, eaten in\ndifferent houses during the Twelve Days, bring a happy month each) makes\none suspect some more serious original purpose than mere gratification of\nthe appetite. A sacrificial or sacramental origin is probable, at least\nin certain cases; a cake made of flour, for instance, may well have been\nregarded as embodying the spirit immanent in the corn.{4} Whether any\nmystic significance ever belonged to the plum-pudding it is hard to say,\nthough the sprig of holly stuck into its |285| top recalls the lucky\ngreen boughs we have so often come across, and a resemblance to the\nlibations upon the Christmas log might be seen in the burning brandy.\n\nA dish once prominent at Christmas was \"frumenty\" or \"furmety\" (variously\nspelt, and derived from the Latin _frumentum_, corn). It was made of\nhulled wheat boiled in milk and seasoned with cinnamon, sugar, &c.{5}\nThis too may have been a cereal sacrament. In Yorkshire it was the first\nthing eaten on Christmas morning, just as ale posset was the last thing\ndrunk on Christmas Eve. Ale posset was a mixture of beer and milk, and\neach member of the family in turn had to take a \"sup,\" as also a piece of\na large apple-pie.{6}\n\nIn the Highlands of Scotland, among those who observed Christmas, a\ncharacteristic dish was new sowens (the husks and siftings of oatmeal),\ngiven to the family early on Christmas Day in their beds. They were\nboiled into the consistence of molasses and were poured into as many\nbickers as there were people to partake of them. Everyone on despatching\nhis bicker jumped out of bed.{7} Here, as in the case of the Yorkshire\nfrumenty, the eating has a distinctly ceremonial character.\n\nIn the East Riding of Yorkshire a special Yule cake was eaten on\nChristmas Eve, \"made of flour, barm, large cooking raisins, currants,\nlemon-peel, and nutmeg,\" and about as large as a dinner-plate.{8} In\nShropshire \"wigs\" or caraway buns dipped in ale were eaten on Christmas\nEve.{9} Again elsewhere there were Yule Doughs or Dows, little images of\npaste, presented by bakers to their customers.{10} We shall see plenty\nof parallels to these on the Continent. When they are in animal or even\nhuman form they may in some cases have taken the place of actual\nsacrificial victims.{11}\n\nIn Nottinghamshire the Christmas cake was associated with the\nwassail-bowl in a manner which may be compared with the Macedonian custom\ndescribed later; it was broken up and put into the bowl, hot ale was\npoured over it, and so it was eaten.{12}\n\nThe wassail-bowl--one cannot leave the subject of English Yuletide\nfeasting without a few words upon this beloved beaker of hot spiced ale\nand toasted apples (\"lambswool\"). _Wassail_ is |286| derived from the\nAnglo-Saxon _wes hal_ = be whole, and wassailing is in its essence the\nwishing of a person's very good health. The origin of drinking healths is\nnot obvious; perhaps it may be sacramental: the draught may have been at\nfirst a means of communion with some divinity, and then its consumption\nmay have come to be regarded not only as benefiting the partaker, but as\na rite that could be performed for the welfare of another person. Apart\nfrom such speculations, we may note the frequent mention of wassailing in\nold English carols of the less ecclesiastical type; the singers carried\nwith them a bowl or cup which they expected their wealthier neighbours to\nfill with drink.{13} Sometimes the bowl was adorned with ribbons and had\na golden apple at the top,{14} and it is a noteworthy fact that the box\nwith the Christmas images, mentioned in Chapter IV. (p. 118), is\nsometimes called \"the Vessel [Wassail] Cup.\"{15}\n\nThe various Christmas dishes of Europe would form an interesting subject\nfor exhaustive study. To suggest a religious origin for each would be\ngoing too far, for merely economic considerations must have had much to\ndo with the matter, but it is very probable that in some cases they are\nrelics of sacrifices or sacraments.\n\nThe pig is a favourite food animal at Christmas in other countries than\nour own, a fact probably connected with sacrificial customs. In Denmark\nand Sweden a pig's head was one of the principal articles of the great\nChristmas Eve repast.{16} In Germany it is a fairly widespread custom to\nkill a pig shortly before Christmas and partake of it on Christmas Day;\nits entrails and bones and the straw which has been in contact with it\nare supposed to have fertilizing powers.{17} In Roumania a pig is the\nChristmas animal _par excellence_,{18} in Russia pigs' trotters are a\nfavourite dish at the New Year,{19} and in every Servian house roast pig\nis the principal Christmas dish.{20}\n\nIn Upper Bavaria there is a custom which almost certainly has at its root\na sacrifice: a number of poor people club together at Christmas-time and\nbuy a cow to be killed and eaten at a common feast.{21}\n\nMore doubtful is the sacrificial origin of the dishes of certain |287|\nspecial kinds of fish on Christmas Eve. In Saxony and Thuringia herring\nsalad is eaten--he who bakes it will have money all the year--and in many\nparts of Germany and also in Styria carp is then consumed.{22} Round\nErce in Brittany the family dish is cod.{23} In Italy the _cenone_ or\ngreat supper held on Christmas Eve has fish for its animal basis, and\nstewed eels are particularly popular. It is to be remembered that in\nCatholic countries the Vigil of the Nativity is a fast, and meat is not\nallowed upon it; this alone would account for the prominence of fish on\nChristmas Eve.\n\nWe have already come across peculiar cakes eaten at various pre-Christmas\nfestivals; at Christmas itself special kinds of bread, pastry, and cakes\nabound on the Continent, and in some cases at least may have a religious\norigin.\n\nIn France various sorts of cakes and loaves are known at the season of\n_Noel_. In Berry on Christmas morning loaves called _cornaboeux_, made in\nthe shape of horns or a crescent, are distributed to the poor. In\nLorraine people give one another _cognes_ or _cogneux_, a kind of pastry\nin the shape of two crescents back to back, or else long and narrow in\nform and with a crescent at either end. In some parts of France the\n_cornaboeux_ are known as _holais_, and ploughmen give to the poor as many\nof these loaves as they possess oxen and horses.{24} These horns may be\nsubstitutes for a sacrifice of oxen.\n\nSometimes the French Christmas cakes have the form of complete oxen or\nhorses--such were the thin unleavened cakes sold in the early nineteenth\ncentury at La Chatre (Indre). In the neighbourhood of Chartres there are\n_cochenilles_ and _coquelins_ in animal and human shapes. Little cakes\ncalled _naulets_ are sold by French bakers, and actually represent the\nHoly Child. With them may be compared the _coignoles_ of French Flanders,\ncakes of oblong form adorned with the figure of the infant Jesus in\nsugar.{25} Sometimes the Christmas loaf or cake in France has healing\nproperties; a certain kind of cake in Berry and Limousin is kept all\nthrough the year, and a piece eaten in sickness has marvellous\npowers.{26}\n\nCortet gives an extraordinary account of a French custom |288|\nconnected with eating and drinking. At Mouthe (Doubs) there used to be\nbrought to the church at Christmas pies, cakes, and other eatables, and\nwine of the best. They were called the \"De fructu,\" and when at Vespers\nthe verse \"De fructu ventris tui ponam super sedem tuam\" was reached, all\nthe congregation made a rush for these refreshments, contended for them,\nand carried them off with singing and shouting.{27}\n\nThe most remarkable of Christmas cakes or loaves is the Swedish and\nDanish \"Yule Boar,\" a loaf in the form of a boar-pig, which stands on the\ntable throughout the festal season. It is often made from the corn of the\nlast sheaf of the harvest, and in it Dr. Frazer finds a clear expression\nof the idea of the corn-spirit as embodied in pig form. \"Often it is kept\ntill sowing-time in spring, when part of it is mixed with the seed corn\nand part given to the ploughman and plough-horses or plough-oxen to eat,\nin the expectation of a good harvest.\" In some parts of the Esthonian\nisland of Oesel the cake has not the form of a boar, but bears the same\nname, and on New Year's Day is given to the cattle. In other parts of the\nisland the \"Yule Boar\" is actually a little pig, roasted on Christmas Eve\nand set up on the table.{28}\n\nIn Germany, besides _stollen_--a sort of plum-loaf--biscuits, often of\nanimal or human shape, are very conspicuous on Christmas Eve. Any one who\nhas witnessed a German Christmas will remember the extraordinary variety\nof them, _lebkuchen_, _pfeffernuesse_, _printen_, _spekulatius_ biscuits,\n&c. In Berlin a great pile of biscuits heaped up on your plate is an\nimportant part of the Christmas Eve supper. These of course are nowadays\nmere luxuries, but they may well have had some sort of sacrificial\norigin. An admirable and exhaustive study of Teutonic Christmas cakes and\nbiscuits has been made, with infinite pains, by an Austrian professor,\nDr. Hoefler, who reproduces some curious old biscuits, stamped with highly\nartistic patterns, preserved in museums.{29}\n\nAmong unsophisticated German peasants there is a belief in magical powers\npossessed by bread baked at Christmas, particularly when moistened by\nChristmas dew. (This dew is held to be peculiarly sacred, perhaps on\naccount of the words \"Rorate, coeli, |289| desuper\" used at the Advent\nMasses.) In Franconia such bread, thrown into a dangerous fire, stills\nthe flames; in the north of Germany, if put during the Twelve Days into\nthe fodder of the cattle, it makes them prolific and healthy throughout\nthe year.{30}\n\nIt is pleasant to note that animals are often specially cared for at\nChristmas. Up till the early nineteenth century the cattle in Shropshire\nwere always better fed at Christmas than at other times, and Miss Burne\ntells of an old gentleman in Cheshire who used then to give his poultry a\ndouble portion of grain, for, he said, \"all creation should rejoice at\nChristmas, and the dumb creatures had no other manner of doing so.\"{31}\nThe saying reminds one of that lover of Christmas and the animals, St.\nFrancis of Assisi. It will be remembered how he wished that oxen and\nasses should have extra corn and hay at Christmas, \"for reverence of the\nSon of God, whom on such a night the most Blessed Virgin Mary did lay\ndown in the stall betwixt the ox and the ass.\"{32} It was a gracious\nthought, and no doubt with St. Francis, as with the old Cheshireman, it\nwas a purely Christian one; very possibly, however, the original object\nof such attention to the dumb creatures was to bring to the animals, by\nmeans of the corn, the influence of the spirit of fertility.\n\nIn Silesia on Christmas night all the beasts are given wheat to make them\nthrive, and it is believed that if wheat be kept in the pocket during the\nChristmas service and then given to fowls, it will make them grow fat and\nlay many eggs.{33} In Sweden on Christmas Eve the cattle are given the\nbest forage the house can afford, and afterwards a mess of all the viands\nof which their masters have partaken; the horses are given the choicest\nhay and, later on, ale; and the other animals are treated to good\nthings.{34}\n\nAt Loblang in Hungary the last sheaf at harvest is kept, and given on New\nYear's morning to the wild birds.{35} In southern Germany corn is put on\nthe roof for them on Christmas Eve, or,{36} as also in Sweden,{37} an\nunthreshed sheaf is set on a pole. In these cases it is possible that the\nfood was originally an offering to ancestral or other spirits.\n\n_Revenons a nos gateaux._ In Rome and elsewhere in Italy an important\narticle of Christmas food is the _panettone_, a currant loaf. |290|\nSuch loaves are sent as presents to friends. In eastern Europe, too,\nChristmas loaves or cakes are very conspicuous. The _chesnitza_ and\n_kolatch_ cakes among the southern Slavs are flat and wheel-like, with a\ncircular hole in the middle and a number of lines radiating from it. In\nthe central hole is sometimes placed a lighted taper or a small\nChristmas-tree hung with ribbons, tinsel, and sweetmeats. These cakes,\nmade with elaborate ceremonial early in the morning, are solemnly broken\nby the house-father on Christmas Day, and a small piece is eaten by each\nmember of the family. In some places one is fixed on the horn of the\n\"eldest ox,\" and if he throws it off it is a good sign.{38} The last\npractice may be compared with a Herefordshire custom which we shall meet\nwith on Twelfth Night (p. 346).\n\nIn southern Greece a special kind of flat loaves with a cross on the top\nis made on Christmas Eve. The name given is \"Christ's Loaves.\" \"The cloth\nis not removed from the table; but everything is left as it is in the\nbelief that 'Christ will come and eat' during the night.\"{39} Probably\nChrist has here taken the place of ancestral spirits.\n\nIn Tyrol peasants eat at Christmastide the so-called _zelten_, a kind of\npie filled with dried pear-slices, nuts, figs, raisins, and the like. It\nis baked on the Eve of St. Thomas, and its filling is as important an\nevent for the whole family as was the plum-pudding and mincemeat making\nin old-fashioned English households. When the _zelten_ is filled the sign\nof the cross is made upon it and it is sprinkled with holy water and put\nin the oven. When baked and cooled, it is laid in the family stock of rye\nand is not eaten until St. Stephen's Day or Epiphany. Its cutting by the\nfather of the family is a matter of considerable solemnity. Smaller pies\nare made at the same time for the maid-servants, and a curious custom is\nconnected with them. It is usual for the maids to visit their relations\nduring the Christmas holidays and share with them their _zelten_. A young\nman who wishes to be engaged to a maid should offer to carry her pie for\nher. This is his declaration of love, and if she accepts the offer she\nsignifies her approval of him. To him falls the duty or privilege of\ncutting the _zelten_.{40}\n\n|291| Other cake customs are associated with the Epiphany, and will be\nconsidered in connection with that festival. We may here in conclusion\nnotice a few further articles of Christmas good cheer.\n\nIn Italy and Spain{41} a sort of nougat known as _torrone_ or _turron_\nis eaten at Christmas. You may buy it even in London in the Italian\nquarter; in Eyre Street Hill it is sold on Christmas Eve on little\ngaily-decked street stalls. Its use may well be a survival of the Roman\ncustom of giving sweet things at the Kalends in order that the year might\nbe full of sweetness.\n\nSome Little Russian feasting customs are probably pagan in origin, but\nhave received a curious Christian interpretation. All Little Russians sit\ndown to honey and porridge on Christmas Eve. They call it _koutia_, and\ncherish the custom as something that distinguishes them from Great and\nWhite Russians. Each dish is said to represent the Holy Crib. First\nporridge is put in, which is like putting straw in the manger; then each\nperson helps himself to honey and fruit, and that symbolizes the Babe. A\nplace is made in the porridge, and then the honey and fruit are poured\nin; the fruit stands for the body, the honey for the spirit or the\nblood.{42}\n\nSomething like this is the special dish eaten in every Roumanian peasant\nhousehold on Christmas Eve--the _turte_. It is made up of a pile of thin\ndry leaves of dough, with melted sugar or honey, or powdered walnut, or\nthe juice of the hemp-seed. The _turte_ are traditionally said to\nrepresent the swaddling clothes of the Holy Child.{43}\n\nIn Poland a few weeks before Christmas monks bring round small packages\nof wafers made of flour and water, blessed by a priest, and with figures\nstamped upon them. No Polish family is without these _oplatki_; they are\nsent in letters to relations and friends, as we send Christmas cards.\nWhen the first star appears on Christmas Eve the whole family, beginning\nwith the eldest member, break one of these wafers between themselves, at\nthe same time exchanging good wishes. Afterwards the master and mistress\ngo to the servants' quarters to divide the wafer there.{44}\n\n|292|\n\n\nRELICS OF SACRIFICE.\n\nWe have noted a connection, partial at least, between Christmas good\ncheer and sacrifice; let us now glance at a few customs of a different\ncharacter but seemingly of sacrificial origin.\n\nTraces of sacrifices of cats and dogs are to be found in Germany and\nBohemia. In Lauenburg and Mecklenburg on Christmas morning, before the\ncattle are watered, a dog is thrown into their drinking water, in order\nthat they may not suffer from the mange. In the Uckermark a cat may be\nsubstituted for the dog. In Bohemia a black cat is caught, boiled, and\nburied by night under a tree, to keep evil spirits from injuring the\nfields.{45}\n\nA strange Christmas custom is the \"hunting of the wren,\" once widespread\nin England and France and still practised in Ireland. In the Isle of Man\nvery early on Christmas morning, when the church bells had rung out\nmidnight, servants went out to hunt the wren. They killed the bird,\nfastened it to the top of a long pole, and carried it in procession to\nevery house, chanting these words:--\n\n   \"We hunted the wren for Robin the Bobbin,\n      We hunted the wren for Jack of the Can,\n    We hunted the wren for Robin the Bobbin,\n      We hunted the wren for every one.\"\n\nAt each house they sought to collect money. At last, when all had been\nvisited, they laid the wren on a bier, carried it to the churchyard, and\nburied it with the utmost solemnity, singing Manx dirges. Another\naccount, from the mid-nineteenth century, describes how on St. Stephen's\nDay Manx boys went from door to door with a wren suspended by the legs in\nthe centre of two hoops crossing one another at right angles and\ndecorated with evergreens and ribbons. In exchange for a small coin they\nwould give a feather of the wren, which was carefully kept as a\npreservative against shipwreck during the year.[110]{46} |293| There\nare also traces of a Manx custom of boiling and eating the bird.{48}\n\nThe wren is popularly called \"the king of birds,\" and it is supposed to\nbe highly unlucky to kill one at ordinary times. Probably it was once\nregarded as sacred, and the Christmas \"hunting\" is the survival of an\nannual custom of slaying the divine animal, such as is found among\nprimitive peoples.{49} The carrying of its body from door to door is\napparently intended to convey to each house a portion of its virtues,\nwhile the actual eating of the bird would be a sort of communion feast.\nPerhaps the custom, in a Cornish village, of eating blackbird pie on\nTwelfth Day should be explained in the same way.{50}\n\nI can here hardly do more than allude to the many games{51} that were\ntraditional in England at Christmas--hoodman-blind, shoe the wild mare,\nhot cockles, steal the white loaf, snap-dragon, and the rest. To attempt\nto describe and explain them would lead me too far, but it is highly\nprobable that some at least might be traced to an origin in sacrificial\nritual. The degeneration of religious rites into mere play is, indeed, as\nwe have seen, a process illustrated by the whole history of Christmas.\n\nOnly two British Christmas games can be discussed in this book:\nblindman's buff and football. An account of a remarkable Christmas\nfootball match will be found in the chapter on Epiphany customs, where it\nis brought into connection with that closely related game, the \"Haxey\nhood.\"\n\nAs for blindman's buff, it is distinctly a Christmas sport, and it is\nknown nearly all over Europe by names derived from animals, _e.g._,\n\"blind cow\" and \"blind mouse.\" Mr. N. W. Thomas has suggested that \"the\nexplanation of these names is that the players originally wore masks; the\ngame is known in some cases as the 'blinde Mumm,' or blind mask.... The\nplayer who is 'it' seems to be the sacrificer; he bears the same name as\nthe victim, just as in agricultural customs the reaper of the last corn\nbears the same name as the last sheaf.\"{52}\n\nThe Scandinavian countries are very rich in Christmas games and\ndances,{53} of which it would be interesting to attempt explanations if\nspace allowed. One Swedish song and dance game--it |294| may be related\nto the sword-dance (see Chapter XIII.)--is obviously sacrificial. Several\nyouths, with blackened faces and persons disguised, are the performers.\nOne of them is put to death with a knife by a woman in hideous attire.\nAfterwards, with gross gestures, she dances with the victim.{54}\nAccording to another account, from Gothland, the victim sits clad in a\nskin, holding in his mouth a wisp of straw cut sharp at the ends and\nstanding out. It has been conjectured that this is meant to resemble a\nswine's bristles, and that the man represents a hog sacrificed to\nFrey.{55}\n\nLastly a Russian game may be mentioned, though it has no sacrificial\nsuggestion. During the Christmas season girls play at what is called \"the\nBurial of the Gold.\" They form a circle, with one girl standing in the\ncentre, and pass from hand to hand a gold ring, which the maiden inside\ntries to detect. Meanwhile a song is sung, \"Gold I bury, gold I bury.\"\nSome imaginative mythologists interpret the ring as representing the sun,\nburied by the clouds of winter.{56}\n\n|295| |296| |297|\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nMASKING, THE MUMMERS' PLAY, THE FEAST OF FOOLS, AND THE BOY BISHOP\n\n\n    English Court Masking--\"The Lord of Misrule\"--The Mummers' Play, the\n    Sword-Dance, and the Morris Dance--Origin of St. George and other\n    Characters--Mumming in Eastern Europe--The Feast of Fools, its\n    History and Suppression--The Boy Bishop, his Functions and\n    Sermons--Modern Survivals of the Boy Bishop.\n\n[Illustration:\n\nYORKSHIRE SWORD-ACTORS: ST. GEORGE IN COMBAT WITH ST. PETER.\n\nFrom an article by Mr. T. M. Fallow in _The Antiquary_, May, 1895.\n\n(By permission of Messrs. Elliot Stock.)]\n\nWe have already seen a good deal of masking in connection with St.\nNicholas, Knecht Ruprecht, and other figures of the German Christmas; we\nmay next give some attention to English customs of the same sort during\nthe Twelve Days, and then pass on to the strange burlesque ceremonies of\nthe Feast of Fools and the Boy Bishop, ceremonies which show an intrusion\nof pagan mummery into the sanctuary itself.\n\n\nCHRISTMAS MASKING.\n\nThe custom of Christmas masking, \"mumming,\" or \"disguising\" can be traced\nat the English court as early as the reign of Edward III. It is in all\nprobability connected with that wearing of beasts' heads and skins of\nwhich we have already noted various examples--its origin in folk-custom\nseems to have been the coming of a band of worshippers clad in this\nuncouth but auspicious garb to bring good luck to a house.{1} The most\ndirect English survival is found in the village mummers who still call\nthemselves \"guisers\" or \"geese-dancers\" and claim the right to enter\nevery house. These will be dealt with shortly, after a consideration of\nmore courtly customs of the same kind.\n\n|298| In the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries the English\ncourt masque reached its greatest developments; the fundamental idea was\nthen generally overlaid with splendid trappings, the dresses and the\narrangements were often extremely elaborate, and the introduction of\ndialogued speech made these \"disguises\" regular dramatic performances. A\nnotable example is Ben Jonson's \"Masque of Christmas.\"{2} Shakespeare,\nhowever, gives us in \"Henry VIII.\"{3} an example of a simpler impromptu\nform: the king and a party dressed up as shepherds break in upon a\nbanquet of Wolsey's.\n\nIn this volume we are more concerned with the popular Christmas than with\nthe festivities of kings and courts and grandees. Mention must, however,\nbe made of a personage who played an important part in the Christmas of\nthe Tudor court and appeared also in colleges, Inns of Court, and the\nhouses of the nobility--the \"Lord of Misrule.\"{4} He was annually\nelected to preside over the revels, had a retinue of courtiers, and was\nsurrounded by elaborate ceremonial. He seems to be the equivalent and was\nprobably the direct descendant of the \"Abbot\" or \"Bishop\" of the Feast of\nFools, who will be noticed later in this chapter. Sometimes indeed he is\nactually called \"Abbot of Misrule.\" A parallel to him is the Twelfth\nNight \"king,\" and he appears to be a courtly example of the temporary\nmonarch of folk-custom, though his name is sometimes extended to \"kings\"\nof quite vulgar origin elected not by court or gentry but by the common\npeople. The \"Lord of Misrule\" was among the relics of paganism most\nviolently attacked by Puritan writers like Stubbes and Prynne, and the\nGreat Rebellion seems to have been the death of him.\n\n\nMUMMERS' PLAYS AND MORRIS DANCES.\n\nLet us turn now to the rustic Christmas mummers, to-day fast\ndisappearing, but common enough in the mid-nineteenth century. Their\ngoings-on are really far more interesting, because more traditional, than\nthe elaborate shows and dressings-up of the court. Their names vary:\n\"mummers\" and \"guisers\" are the commonest; in Sussex they are\n\"tipteerers,\" perhaps because of |299| the perquisites they collect, in\nCornwall \"geese-dancers\" (\"geese\" no doubt comes from \"disguise\"), in\nShropshire \"morris\"--or \"merry\"--\"dancers.\"{5} It is to be noted that\nthey are unbidden guests, and enter your house as of right.{6} Sometimes\nthey merely dance, sing, and feast, but commonly they perform a rude\ndrama.{7}\n\nThe plays acted by the mummers{8} vary so much that it is difficult to\ndescribe them in general terms. There is no reason to suppose that the\nwords are of great antiquity--the earliest form may perhaps date from the\nseventeenth century; they appear to be the result of a crude dramatic and\nliterary instinct working upon the remains of traditional ritual, and\nmanipulating it for purposes of entertainment. The central figure is St.\nGeorge (occasionally he is called Sir, King, or Prince George), and the\nmain dramatic substance, after a prologue and introduction of the\ncharacters, is a fight and the arrival of a doctor to bring back the\nslain to life. At the close comes a _quete_ for money. The name George is\nfound in all the Christmas plays, but the other characters have a\nbewildering variety of names ranging from Hector and Alexander to\nBonaparte and Nelson.\n\nMr. Chambers in two very interesting and elaborately documented chapters\nhas traced a connection between these St. George players and the\nsword-dancers found at Christmas or other festivals in Germany, Spain,\nFrance, Italy, Sweden, and Great Britain. The sword-dance in its simplest\nform is described by Tacitus in his \"Germania\": \"they have,\" he says of\nthe Germans, \"but one kind of public show: in every gathering it is the\nsame. Naked youths, who profess this sport, fling themselves in dance\namong swords and levelled lances.\"{9} In certain forms of the dance\nthere are figures in which the swords are brought together on the heads\nof performers, or a pretence is made to cut at heads and feet, or the\nswords are put in a ring round a person's neck. This strongly suggests\nthat an execution, probably a sacrifice, lies at the bottom of the\ndances. In several cases, moreover, they are accompanied by sets of\nverses containing the incident of a quarrel and the violent death of one\nof the performers. The likeness to the central feature of the |300|\nSt. George play--the slaying--will be noticed. In one of the dances, too,\nthere is even a doctor who revives the victim.\n\nIn England the sword-dance is found chiefly in the north, but with it\nappear to be identical the morris-dances--characterized by the wearing of\njingling bells--which are commoner in the southern counties. Blackened\nfaces are common in both, and both have the same grotesque figures, a man\nand a woman, often called Tommy and Bessy in the sword-dance and \"the\nfool\" and Maid Marian in the morris. Moreover the morris-dancers in\nEngland sometimes use swords, and in one case the performers of an\nundoubted sword-dance were called \"morrice\" dancers in the eighteenth\ncentury. Bells too, so characteristic of the morris, are mentioned in\nsome Continental accounts of the sword-dance.[111]\n\nIntermediate between these dances and the fully developed St. George\ndramas are the plays performed on Plough Monday in Lincolnshire and the\nEast Midlands. They all contain a good deal of dancing, a violent death\nand a revival, and grotesques found both in the dances and in the\nChristmas plays.\n\nThe sword-dance thus passes by a gradual transition, the dancing\ndiminishing, the dramatic elements increasing, into the mummers' plays of\nSt. George. The central motive, death and revival, Mr. Chambers regards\nas a symbol of the resurrection of the year or the spirit of\nvegetation,[112] like the Thuringian custom of executing a \"wild man\"\ncovered with leaves, whom a doctor brings to life again by bleeding. This\npiece of ritual has apparently been attracted to Christmas from an early\nfeast of spring, and Plough Monday, when the East Midland plays take\nplace, is just such an early spring feast. Again, in some places the\n|301| St. George play is performed at Easter, a date alluded to in the\ntitle, \"Pace-eggers'\" or \"Pasque-eggers'\" play.{13}\n\nTwo grotesque figures appear with varying degrees of clearness and with\nvarious names in the dances and in the plays--the \"fool\" (Tommy) who\nwears the skin and tail of a fox or other animal, and a man dressed in\nwoman's clothes (Bessy). In these we may recognize the skin-clad mummer\nand the man aping a woman whom we meet in the old Kalends denunciations.\nSometimes the two are combined, while a hobby-horse also not unfrequently\nappears.{14}\n\nHow exactly St. George came to be the central figure of the Christmas\nplays is uncertain; possibly they may be a development of a dance in\nwhich appeared the \"Seven Champions,\" the English national heroes--of\nwhom Richard Johnson wrote a history in 1596--with St. George at their\nhead. It is more probable, however, that the saint came in from the\nmediaeval pageants held on his day in many English towns.{15}\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nCan it be that the German St. Nicholas plays are more Christianized and\nsophisticated forms of folk-dramas like in origin to those we have been\ndiscussing? They certainly resemble the English plays in the manner in\nwhich one actor calls in another by name; while the grotesque figures\nintroduced have some likeness to the \"fool\" of the morris.\n\nChristmas mumming, it may be added, is found in eastern as well as\nwestern Europe. In Greece, where ecclesiastical condemnations of such\nthings can be traced with remarkable clearness from early times to the\ntwelfth century, it takes sundry forms. \"At Pharsala,\" writes Mr. J. C.\nLawson, \"there is a sort of play at the Epiphany, in which the mummers\nrepresent bride, bridegroom, and 'Arab'; the Arab tries to carry off the\nbride, and the bridegroom defends her.... Formerly also at 'Kozane and in\nmany other parts of Greece,' according to a Greek writer in the early\npart of the nineteenth century, throughout the Twelve Days boys carrying\nbells used to go round the houses, singing songs and having 'one or more\nof their company dressed up with masks and bells and foxes' brushes and\nother such things to give them a weird and monstrous look.'\"{16}\n\n|302| In Russia, too, mummers used to go about at Christmastide,\nvisiting houses, dancing, and performing all kinds of antics. \"Prominent\nparts were always played by human representatives of a goat and a bear.\nSome of the party would be disguised as 'Lazaruses,' that is, as blind\nbeggars.\" A certain number of the mummers were generally supposed to play\nthe part of thieves anxious to break in.{17} Readers of Tolstoy's \"War\nand Peace\" may remember a description of some such maskings in the year\n1810.\n\n\nTHE FEAST OF FOOLS.\n\nSo far, in this Second Part, we have been considering customs practised\nchiefly in houses, streets, and fields. We must now turn to certain\nfestivities following hard upon Christmas Day, which, though pagan in\norigin and sometimes even blasphemous, found their way in the Middle Ages\nwithin the walls of the church.\n\nShortly after Christmas a group of _tripudia_ or revels was held by the\nvarious inferior clergy and ministrants of cathedrals and other churches.\nThese festivals, of which the best known are the Feast of Fools and the\nBoy Bishop ceremonies, have been so fully described by other writers, and\nmy space here is so limited, that I need but treat them in outline, and\nfor detail refer the reader to such admirable accounts as are to be found\nin Chapters XIII., XIV., and XV. of Mr. Chamber's \"The Mediaeval\nStage.\"{18}\n\nJohannes Belethus, Rector of Theology at Paris towards the end of the\ntwelfth century, speaks of four _tripudia_ held after Christmas:--those\nof the deacons on St. Stephen's Day, the priests on St. John's, the\nchoir-boys on Holy Innocents', and the subdeacons on the Circumcision,\nthe Epiphany, or the Octave of the Epiphany. The feast of subdeacons,\nsays Belethus, \"we call that of fools.\" It is this feast which, though\nnot apparently the earliest in origin of the four, was the most riotous\nand disorderly, and shows most clearly its pagan character. Belethus'\nmention of it is the first clear notice, though disorderly revels of the\nsame kind seem to have existed at Constantinople as early as the ninth\ncentury. At first confined to the subdeacons, the Feast of Fools became\nin its later developments a festival not only of that order but of the\n|303| inferior clergy in general, of the vicars choral, the chaplains,\nand the choir-clerks, as distinguished from the canons. For this rabble\nof poor and low-class clergy it was no doubt a welcome relaxation, and\none can hardly wonder that they let themselves go in burlesquing the\nsacred but often wearisome rites at which it was their business to be\npresent through many long hours, or that they delighted to usurp for once\nin a way the functions ordinarily performed by their superiors. The\nputting down of the mighty from their seat and the exalting of them of\nlow degree was the keynote of the festival. While \"Deposuit potentes de\nsede: et exaltavit humiles\" was being sung at the \"Magnificat,\" it would\nappear that the precentor's _baculus_ or staff was handed over to the\nclerk who was to be \"lord of the feast\" for the year, and throughout the\nservices of the day the inferior clergy predominated, under the\nleadership of this chosen \"lord.\" He was usually given some title of\necclesiastical dignity, \"bishop,\" \"prelate,\" \"archbishop,\" \"cardinal,\" or\neven \"pope,\" was vested in full pontificals, and in some cases sat on the\nreal bishop's throne, gave benedictions, and issued indulgences.\n\nThese lower clergy, it must be remembered, belonged to the peasant or\nsmall _bourgeois_ class and were probably for the most part but\nill-educated. They were likely to bring with them into the Church the\nsuperstitions floating about among the people, and the Feast of Fools may\nbe regarded as a recoil of paganism upon Christianity in its very\nsanctuary. \"An ebullition of the natural lout beneath the cassock\" it has\nbeen called by Mr. Chambers, and many of its usages may be explained by\nthe reaction of coarse natures freed for once from restraint. It brought\nto light, however, not merely personal vulgarity, but a whole range of\ntraditional customs, derived probably from a fusion of the Roman feast of\nthe Kalends of January with Teutonic or Celtic heathen festivities.\n\nA general account of its usages is given in a letter addressed in 1445 by\nthe Paris Faculty of Theology to the bishops and chapters of France:--\n\n    \"Priests and clerks may be seen wearing masks and monstrous visages\n    at the hours of office. They dance in the choir dressed as |304|\n    women, panders or minstrels. They sing wanton songs. They eat black\n    puddings at the horn of the altar while the celebrant is saying Mass.\n    They play at dice there. They cense with stinking smoke from the\n    soles of old shoes. They run and leap through the church, without a\n    blush at their own shame. Finally they drive about the town and its\n    theatres in shabby traps and carts, and rouse the laughter of their\n    fellows and the bystanders in infamous performances, with indecent\n    gesture and verses scurrilous and unchaste.\"{19}\n\nThe letter also speaks of \"bishops\" or \"archbishops\" of Fools, who wore\nmitres and held pastoral staffs. We here see clearly, besides mere\nirreverence, an outcrop of pagan practices. Topsy-turvydom, the temporary\nexaltation of inferiors, was itself a characteristic of the Kalends\ncelebrations, and a still more remarkable feature of them was, as we have\nseen, the wearing of beast-masks and the dressing up of men in women's\nclothes. And what is the \"bishop\" or \"archbishop\" but a parallel to, and,\nwe may well believe, an example of, the mock king whom Dr. Frazer has\ntraced in so many a folk-festival, and who is found at the _Saturnalia_?\n\nOne more feature of the Feast of Fools must be considered, the Ass who\ngave to it the not uncommon title of _asinaria festa_. At Bourges, Sens,\nand Beauvais, a curious half-comic hymn was sung in church, the so-called\n\"Prose of the Ass.\" It begins as follows:--\n\n   \"Orientis partibus\n     Adventavit Asinus,\n     Pulcher et fortissimus,\n     Sarcinis aptissimus.\n     Hez, Sir Asnes, car chantez,\n     Belle bouche rechignez,\n     Vous aurez du foin assez\n     Et de l'avoine a plantez.\"\n\nAnd after eight verses in praise of the beast, with some mention of his\nconnection with Bethlehem and the Wise Men, it closes thus:--\n\n   \"Amen dicas, Asine,\n    Iam satur de gramine, |305|\n    Amen, Amen, itera,\n    Aspernare vetera.\n    Hez va, hez va! hez va, hez!\n    Bialx Sire Asnes, car allez:\n    Belle bouche, car chantez.\"{20}\n\nAn ass, it would seem, was actually brought into church, at Beauvais at\nall events, during the singing of this song on the feast of the\nCircumcision. On January 14 an extraordinary ceremony took place there. A\ngirl with a child in her arms rode upon an ass into St. Stephen's church,\nto represent the Flight into Egypt. The Introit, \"Kyrie,\" \"Gloria,\" and\n\"Credo\" at Mass ended in a bray, and at the close of the service the\npriest instead of saying \"Ite, missa est,\" had to bray three times, and\nthe people to respond in like manner. Mr. Chambers's theory is that the\nass was a descendant of the _cervulus_ or hobby-buck who figures so\nlargely in ecclesiastical condemnations of Kalends customs.\n\nThe country _par excellence_ of the Feast of the Fools was France. It can\nalso be traced in Germany and Bohemia, while in England too there are\nnotices of it, though far fewer than in France. Its abuses were the\nsubject of frequent denunciations by Church reformers from the twelfth to\nthe fifteenth century. The feast was prohibited at various times, and\nnotably by the Council of Basle in 1435, but it was too popular to be\nquickly suppressed, and it took a century and a half to die out after\nthis condemnation by a general council of the Church. In one cathedral,\nAmiens, it even lingered until 1721.\n\nWhen in the fifteenth century and later the Feast of Fools was expelled\nfrom the churches of France, associations of laymen sprang up to carry on\nits traditions outside. It was indeed a form of entertainment which the\ntownsfolk as well as the lower clergy thoroughly appreciated, and they\nwere by no means willing to let it die. A _Prince des Sots_ took the\nplace of the \"bishop,\" and was chosen by _societes joyeuses_ organized by\nthe youth of the cities for New Year merrymaking. Gradually their\nactivities grew, and their celebrations came to take place at other\nfestive times beside the Christmas season. The _sots_ had a distinctive\ndress, its |306| most characteristic feature being a hood with asses'\nears, probably a relic of the primitive days when the heads of sacrificed\nanimals were worn by festal worshippers.{21}\n\n\nTHE BOY BISHOP.\n\nOf older standing than the Feast of Fools were the Christmas revels of\nthe deacons, the priests, and the choir-boys. They can be traced back to\nthe early tenth century, and may have originated at the great song-school\nof St. Gall near Constance. The most important of the three feasts was\nthat of the boys on Holy Innocents' Day, a theoretically appropriate\ndate. Corresponding to the \"lord\" of the Feast of Fools was the famous\n\"Boy Bishop,\" a choir-boy chosen by the lads themselves, who was vested\nin cope and mitre, held a pastoral staff, and gave the benediction. Other\nboys too usurped the dignities of their elders, and were attired as dean,\narchdeacons, and canons. Offices for the festival, in which the Boy\nBishop figures largely, are to be found in English, French, and German\nservice-books, the best known in this country being those in the Sarum\nProcessional and Breviary. In England these ceremonies were far more\npopular and lasting than the Feast of Fools, and, unlike it, they were\nrecognized and approved by authority, probably because boys were more\namenable to discipline than men, and objectionable features could be\npruned away with comparative ease. The festivities must have formed a\ndelightful break in the year of the mediaeval schoolboy, for whom\nholidays, as distinguished from holy-days for church-going, scarcely\nexisted. The feast, as we shall see, was by no means confined within the\nchurch walls; there was plenty of merrymaking and money-making outside.\n\nMinute details have been preserved of the Boy Bishop customs at St.\nPaul's Cathedral in the thirteenth century. It had apparently been usual\nfor the \"bishop\" to make the cathedral dignitaries act as taper- and\nincense-bearers, thus reversing matters so that the great performed the\nfunctions of the lowly. In 1263 this was forbidden, and only clerks of\nlower rank might be chosen for these offices. But the \"bishop\" had the\nright to demand |307| after Compline on the Eve of the Innocents a\nsupper for himself and his train from the Dean or one of his canons. The\nnumber of his following must, however, be limited; if he went to the\nDean's he might take with him a train of fifteen: two chaplains, two\ntaper-bearers, five clerks, two vergers, and four residentiary canons; if\nto a lesser dignitary his attendants were to be fewer.\n\nOn Innocents' Day he was given a dinner, after which came a cavalcade\nthrough the city, that the \"bishop\" might bless the people. He had also\nto preach a sermon--no doubt written for him.\n\nExamples of such discourses are still extant,{22} and are not without\nquaint touches. For instance the bidding prayer before one of them\nalludes to \"the ryghte reverende fader and worshypfull lorde my broder\nBysshopp of London, your dyoceasan,\" and \"my worshypfull broder [the]\nDeane of this cathedrall chirche,\"{23} while in another the preacher\nremarks, speaking of the choristers and children of the song-school, \"Yt\nis not so long sens I was one of them myself.\"{24}\n\nIn some places it appears, though this is by no means certain, that the\nboy actually sang Mass. The \"bishop's\" office was a very desirable one\nnot merely because of the feasting, but because he had usually the right\nto levy contributions on the faithful, and the amounts collected were\noften very large. At York, for instance, in 1396 the \"bishop\" pocketed\nabout L77, all expenses paid.\n\nThe general parallelism of the Boy Bishop customs and the Feast of Fools\nis obvious, and no doubt they had much the same folk-origin. One point,\nalready mentioned, should specially be noticed: the election of the Boy\nBishop generally took place on December 5, the Eve of St. Nicholas,\npatron of children; he was often called \"Nicholas bishop\"; and sometimes,\nas at Eton and Mayence, he exercised episcopal functions at divine\nservice on the eve and the feast itself. It is possible, as Mr. Chambers\nsuggests, that St. Nicholas's Day was an older date for the boys'\nfestival than Holy Innocents', and that from the connection with St.\nNicholas, the bishop saint _par excellence_ (he was said to have been\nconsecrated by divine command when still a mere layman), sprang |308|\nthe custom of giving the title \"bishop\" to the \"lord\" first of the boys'\nfeast and later of the Feast of Fools.\n\nIn the late Middle Ages the Boy Bishop was found not merely in cathedral,\nmonastic, and collegiate churches but in many parish churches throughout\nEngland and Scotland. Various inventories of the vestments and ornaments\nprovided for him still exist. With the beginnings of the Reformation came\nhis suppression: a proclamation of Henry VIII., dated July 22, 1541,\ncommands \"that from henceforth all suche superstitions be loste and\nclyerlye extinguisshed throughowte all this his realmes and dominions,\nforasmoche as the same doo resemble rather the unlawfull superstition of\ngentilitie [paganism], than the pure and sincere religion of\nChriste.\"{25} In Mary's reign the Boy Bishop reappeared, along with\nother \"Popish\" usages, but after Elizabeth's accession he naturally fell\ninto oblivion. A few traces of him lingered in the seventeenth century.\n\"The Schoole-boies in the west,\" says Aubrey, \"still religiously observe\nSt. Nicholas day (Decemb. 6th), he was the Patron of the Schoole-boies.\nAt Curry-Yeovill in Somersetshire, where there is a Howschole (or schole)\nin the Church, they have annually at that time a Barrell of good Ale\nbrought into the church; and that night they have the priviledge to\nbreake open their Masters Cellar-dore.\"{26}\n\nIn France he seems to have gradually vanished, as, after the Reformation,\nthe Catholic Church grew more and more \"respectable,\" but traces of him\nare to be found in the eighteenth century at Lyons and Rheims; and at\nSens, even in the nineteenth, the choir-boys used to play at being\nbishops on Innocents' Day and call their \"archbishop\" _ane_--a memory\nthis of the old _asinaria festa_.{27} In Denmark a vague trace of him\nwas retained in the nineteenth century in a children's game. A boy was\ndressed up in a white shirt, and seated on a chair, and the children sang\na verse beginning, \"Here we consecrate a Yule-bishop,\" and offered him\nnuts and apples.{28}\n\n|309| |310| |311|\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\nST. STEPHEN'S, ST. JOHN'S, AND HOLY INNOCENTS' DAYS\n\n\n    Horse Customs of St. Stephen's Day--The Swedish St. Stephen--St.\n    John's Wine--Childermas and its Beatings.\n\nThe three saints' days immediately following Christmas--St. Stephen's\n(December 26), St. John the Evangelist's (December 27), and the Holy\nInnocents' (December 28)--have still various folk-customs associated with\nthem, in some cases purely secular, in others hallowed by the Church.\n\n\nST. STEPHEN'S DAY.\n\nIn Tyrolese churches early in the morning of St. Stephen's Day there\ntakes place a consecration of water and of salt brought by the people.\nThe water is used by the peasants to sprinkle food, barns, and fields in\norder to avert the influence of witches and evil spirits, and bread\nsoaked in it is given to the cattle when they are driven out to pasture\non Whit Monday. The salt, too, is given to the beasts, and the peasants\nthemselves partake of it before any important journey like a pilgrimage.\nMoreover when a storm is threatening some is thrown into the fire as a\nprotection against hail.{1}\n\nThe most striking thing about St. Stephen's Day, however, is its\nconnection with horses. St. Stephen is their patron; in England in former\ntimes they were bled on his festival in the belief that it would benefit\nthem,{2} and the custom is still continued in some parts of Austria.{3}\nIn Tyrol it is the custom not only to |312| bleed horses on St.\nStephen's Day, but also to give them consecrated salt and bread or oats\nand barley.{4}\n\nIn some of the Carinthian valleys where horse-breeding is specially\ncarried on, the young men ride into the village on their unsaddled\nsteeds, and a race is run four or five times round the church, while the\npriest blesses the animals, sprinkling them with holy water and\nexorcizing them.{5}\n\nSimilar customs are or were found in various parts of Germany. In Munich,\nformerly, during the services on St. Stephen's Day more than two hundred\nmen on horseback used to ride three times round the interior of a church.\nThe horses were decorated with many-coloured ribbons, and the practice\nwas not abolished till 1876.{6} At Backnang in Swabia horses were ridden\nout, as fast as possible, to protect them from the influence of witches,\nand in the Hohenlohe region men-servants were permitted by their masters\nto ride in companies to neighbouring places, where much drinking went\non.{7} In Holstein the lads on Stephen's Eve used to visit their\nneighbours in a company, groom the horses, and ride about in the\nfarmyards, making a great noise until the people woke up and treated them\nto beer and spirits.{8} At the village of Wallsbuell near Flensburg the\npeasant youths in the early morning held a race, and the winner was\ncalled Steffen and entertained at the inn. At Vioel near Bredstadt the\nchild who got up last on December 26 received the name of Steffen and had\nto ride to a neighbour's house on a hay-fork. In other German districts\nthe festival was called \"the great horse-day,\" consecrated food was given\nto the animals, they were driven round and round the fields until they\nsweated violently, and at last were ridden to the blacksmith's and bled,\nto keep them healthy through the year. The blood was preserved as a\nremedy for various illnesses.{9}\n\nIt is, however, in Sweden that the \"horsy\" aspect of the festival is most\nobvious.{10} Formerly there was a custom, at one o'clock on St.\nStephen's morning, for horses to be ridden to water that flowed\nnorthward; they would then drink \"the cream of the water\" and flourish\nduring the year. There was a violent race to the water, and the servant\nwho got there first was rewarded by a drink of something stronger. Again,\nearly that morning one |313| peasant would clean out another's stable,\noften at some distance from his home, feed, water, and rub down the\nhorses, and then be entertained to breakfast. In olden times after\nservice on St. Stephen's Day there was a race home on horseback, and it\nwas supposed that he who arrived first would be the first to get his\nharvest in. But the most remarkable custom is the early morning jaunt of\nthe so-called \"Stephen's men,\" companies of peasant youths, who long\nbefore daybreak ride in a kind of race from village to village and awaken\nthe inhabitants with a folk-song called _Staffansvisa_, expecting to be\ntreated to ale or spirits in return.\n\nThe cavalcade is supposed to represent St. Stephen and his followers, yet\nthe saint is not, as might be expected, the first martyr of the New\nTestament, but a dauntless missionary who, according to old legends, was\none of the first preachers of the Gospel in Sweden, and was murdered by\nthe heathen in a dark forest. A special trait, his love of horses,\nconnects him with the customs just described. He had, the legends tell,\nfive steeds: two red, two white, one dappled; when one was weary he\nmounted another, making every week a great round to preach the Word.\nAfter his death his body was fastened to the back of an unbroken colt,\nwhich halted not till it came near Norrala, his home. There he was\nburied, and a church built over his grave became a place of pilgrimage to\nwhich sick animals, especially horses, were brought for healing.\n\nMannhardt and Feilberg hold that this Swedish St. Stephen is not a\nhistorical personage but a mythical figure, like many other saints, and\nthat his legend, so bound up with horses, was an attempt to account for\nthe folk-customs practised on the day dedicated to St. Stephen the first\nmartyr. It is interesting to note that legendary tradition has played\nabout a good deal with the New Testament Stephen; for instance an old\nEnglish carol makes him a servant in King Herod's hall at the time of\nChrist's birth:--\n\n   \"Stephen out of kitchen came,\n        With boares head on hand,\n     He saw a star was fair and bright\n        Over Bethlehem stand.\"\n\n|314| Thereupon he forsook King Herod for the Child Jesus, and was\nstoned to death.{11}\n\nTo return, however, to the horse customs of the day after Christmas, it\nis pretty plain that they are of non-Christian origin. Mannhardt has\nsuggested that the race which is their most prominent feature once formed\nthe prelude to a ceremony of lustration of houses and fields with a\nsacred tree. Somewhat similar \"ridings\" are found in various parts of\nEurope in spring, and are connected with a procession that appears to be\nan ecclesiastical adaptation of a pre-Christian lustration-rite.{12} The\ngreat name of Mannhardt lends weight to this theory, but it seems a\nsomewhat roundabout way of accounting for the facts. Perhaps an\nexplanation of the \"horsiness\" of the day might be sought in some\npre-Christian sacrifice of steeds.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWe have already noted that St. Stephen's Day is often the date for the\n\"hunting of the wren\" in the British Isles; it was also in England\ngenerally devoted to hunting and shooting, it being held that the game\nlaws were not in force on that day.{13} This may be only an instance of\nChristmas licence, but it is just possible that there is here a survival\nof some tradition of sacrificial slaughter.\n\n\nST. JOHN'S DAY.\n\nAn ecclesiastical adaptation of a pagan practice may be seen in the\n_Johannissegen_ customary on St. John's Day in many parts of Catholic\nGermany and Austria. A quantity of wine is brought to church to be\nblessed by the priest after Mass, and is taken away by the people to be\ndrunk at home. There are many popular beliefs about the magical powers of\nthis wine, beliefs which can be traced back through at least four\ncenturies. In Tyrol and Bavaria it is supposed to protect its drinker\nfrom being struck by lightning, in the Rhenish Palatinate it is drunk in\norder that the other wine a man possesses may be kept from injury, or\nthat next year's harvest may be good. In Nassau, Carinthia, and other\nregions some is poured into the wine-casks to preserve the precious drink\nfrom harm, while in Bavaria some is kept for use as medicine in sickness.\n|315| In Syria St. John's wine is said to keep the body sound and\nhealthy, and on his day even babes in the cradle are made to join in the\nfamily drinking.{14}\n\nIt appears that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries there was a\ngreat drinking on St. John's Day of ordinary, as well as consecrated,\nwine, often to excess, and scholars of that time seriously believed that\n_Weihnacht_, the German name for Christmas, should properly be spelt\n_Weinnacht_.{15} The _Johannissegen_, or _Johannisminne_ as it was\nsometimes called, seems, all things considered, to be a survival of an\nold wine sacrifice like the _Martinsminne_. That it does not owe its\norigin to the legend about the cup of poison drunk by St. John is shown\nby the fact that a similar custom was in old times practised in Germany\nand Sweden on St. Stephen's Day.{16}\n\n\nHOLY INNOCENTS' DAY.\n\nHoly Innocents' Day or Childermas, whether or not because of Herod's\nmassacre, was formerly peculiarly unlucky; it was a day upon which no\none, if he could possibly avoid it, should begin any piece of work. It is\nsaid of that superstitious monarch, Louis XI. of France, that he would\nnever do any business on that day, and of our own Edward IV. that his\ncoronation was postponed, because the date originally fixed was\nChildermas. In Cornwall no housewife would scour or scrub on Childermas,\nand in Northamptonshire it was considered very unlucky to begin any\nundertaking or even to do washing throughout the year on the day of the\nweek on which the feast fell. Childermas was there called Dyzemas and a\nsaying ran: \"What is begun on Dyzemas Day will never be finished.\" In\nIreland it was called \"the cross day of the year,\" and it was said that\nanything then begun must have an unlucky ending.{17}\n\nIn folk-ritual the day is remarkable for its association with whipping\ncustoms. The seventeenth-century writer Gregorie mentions a custom of\nwhipping up children on Innocents' Day in the morning, and explains its\npurpose as being that the memory of Herod's \"murther might stick the\ncloser; and, in a moderate proportion, to act over the crueltie again in\nkind.\"{18}\n\n|316| This explanation will hardly hold water; the many and various\nexamples of the practice of whipping at Christmas collected by\nMannhardt{19} show that it is not confined either to Innocents' Day or\nto children. Moreover it is often regarded not as a cruel infliction, but\nas a service for which return must be made in good things to eat.\n\nIn central and southern Germany the custom is called \"peppering\"\n(_pfeffern_) and also by other names. In the Orlagau the girls on St.\nStephen's, and the boys on St. John's Day beat their parents and\ngodparents with green fir-branches, while the menservants beat their\nmasters with rosemary sticks, saying:\n\n   \"Fresh green! Long life!\n     Give me a bright _thaler_ [or nuts, &c.].\"\n\nThey are entertained with plum-loaf or gingerbreads and brandy. In the\nSaxon Erzgebirge the young fellows whip the women and girls on St.\nStephen's Day, if possible while they are still in bed, with birch-rods,\nsinging the while:\n\n   \"Fresh green, fair and fine,\n     Gingerbread and brandy-wine\";\n\nand on St. John's Day the women pay the men back. At several places in\nthe Thuringian Forest children on Innocents' Day beat passers-by with\nbirch-boughs, and get in return apples, nuts, and other dainties. Various\nother German examples of the same class of practice are given by\nMannhardt.{20}\n\nIn France children who let themselves be caught in bed on the morning of\nHoly Innocents' came in for a whipping from their parents; while in one\nprovince, Normandy, the early risers among the young people themselves\ngave the sluggards a beating. The practice even gave birth to a\nverb--_innocenter_.{21}\n\nThere can be little doubt that the Innocents' Day beating is a survival\nof a pre-Christian custom. Similar ritual scourging is found in many\ncountries at various seasons of the year, and is by no means confined to\nEurope.{22} As now practised, it has |317| often a harsh appearance,\nor has become a kind of teasing, as when in Bohemia at Easter young men\nwhip girls until they give them something. Its original purpose, however,\nas we have seen in connection with St. Martin's rod, seems to have been\naltogether kindly. The whipping was not meant as a punishment or\nexpiation or to harden people to pain, but either to expel harmful\ninfluences and drive out evil spirits or to convey by contact the virtues\nof some sacred tree.\n\n|318| |319| |320| |321|\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV\n\nNEW YEAR'S DAY\n\n\n    Principle of New Year Customs--The New Year in France, Germany, the\n    United States, and Eastern Europe--\"First-footing\" in Great\n    Britain--Scottish New Year Practices--Highland Fumigation and\n    \"Breast-strip\" Customs--Hogmanay and Aguillanneuf--New Year\n    Processions in Macedonia, Roumania, Greece, and Rome--Methods of\n    Augury--Sundry New Year Charms.\n\nComing to January 1, the modern and the Roman New Year's Day, we shall\nfind that most of its customs have been anticipated at earlier festivals;\nthe Roman Kalends practices have often been shifted to Christmas, while\nold Celtic and Teutonic New Year practices have frequently been\ntransferred to the Roman date.[113]\n\nThe observances of New Year's Day mainly rest, as was said in Chapter\nVI., on the principle that \"a good beginning makes a good ending,\" that\nas the first day is so will the rest be. If you would have plenty to eat\nduring the year, dine lavishly on New Year's Day, if you would be rich\nsee that your pockets are not empty at this critical season, if you would\nbe lucky avoid like poison at this of all times everything of ill omen.\n\n\"On the Borders,\" says Mr. W. Henderson, \"care is taken that no one\nenters a house empty-handed on New Year's Day. A visitor must bring in\nhis hand some eatable; he will be doubly welcome if he carries in a hot\nstoup or 'plotie.' Everybody |322| should wear a new dress on New\nYear's Day, and if its pockets contain money of every description they\nwill be certain not to be empty throughout the year.\"{2}\n\nThe laying of stress on what happens on New Year's Day is by no means\npeculiarly European. Hindus, for instance, as Mr. Edgar Thurston tells\nus, \"are very particular about catching sight of some auspicious object\non the morning of New Year's Day, as the effects of omens seen on that\noccasion are believed to last throughout the year.\" It is thought that a\nman's whole prosperity depends upon the things that he then happens to\nfix his eyes upon.{3}\n\nCharms, omens, and good wishes are naturally the most prominent customs\nof January 1 and its Eve. The New Year in England can hardly be called a\npopular festival; there is no public holiday and the occasion is more\nassociated with penitential Watch Night services and good resolutions\nthan with rejoicing. But let the reader, if he be in London, pay a visit\nto Soho at this time, and he will get some idea of what the New Year\nmeans to the foreigner. The little restaurants are decorated with gay\nfestoons of all colours and thronged with merrymakers, the shop-windows\nare crowded with all manner of _recherche_ delicacies; it is the gala\nseason of the year.\n\nIn France January 1 is a far more festal day than Christmas; it is then\nthat presents are given, family gatherings held, and calls paid. In the\nmorning children find their stockings filled with gifts, and then rush\noff to offer good wishes to their parents. In the afternoon the younger\npeople call upon their older relations, and in the evening all meet for\ndinner at the home of the head of the family.{4}\n\nIn Germany the New Year is a time of great importance. Cards are far more\nnumerous than at Christmas, and \"New Year boxes\" are given to the\ntradespeople, while on the Eve (_Sylvesterabend_) there are dances or\nparties, the custom of forecasting the future by lead-pouring is\npractised, and at the stroke of midnight there is a general cry of\n\"Prosit Neu Jahr!\", a drinking of healths, and a shaking of hands.{5}\n\nNew Year wishes and \"compliments of the season\" are |323| familiar to\nus all, but in England we have not that custom of paying formal calls\nwhich in France is so characteristic of January 1, when not only\nrelations and personal friends, but people whose connection is purely\nofficial are expected to visit one another. In devout Brittany the wish\nexchanged takes a beautiful religious form--\"I wish you a good year and\nParadise at the end of your days.\"{6}\n\nNew Year calling is by no means confined to France. In the United States\nit is one of the few traces left by the early Dutch settlers on American\nmanners. The custom is now rapidly falling into disuse,{7} but in New\nYork up to the middle of the nineteenth century \"New Year's Day was\ndevoted to the universal interchange of visits. Every door was thrown\nwide open. It was a breach of etiquette to omit any acquaintance in these\nannual calls, when old friendships were renewed and family differences\namicably settled. A hearty welcome was extended even to strangers of\npresentable appearance.\" At that time the day was marked by tremendous\neating and drinking, and its visiting customs sometimes developed into\nwild riot. Young men in barouches would rattle from one house to another\nall day long. \"The ceremony of calling was a burlesque. There was a noisy\nand hilarious greeting, a glass of wine was swallowed hurriedly,\neverybody shook hands all round, and the callers dashed out and rushed\ninto the carriage and were driven rapidly to the next house.\"{8}\n\nThe New Year calling to offer good wishes resembles in some respects the\nwidespread custom of \"first-footing,\" based on the belief that the\ncharacter of the first visitor on New Year's Day affects the welfare of\nthe household during the year. We have already met with a \"first-foot\" in\nthe _polaznik_ of the southern Slavs on Christmas Day. It is to be borne\nin mind that for them, or at all events for the Crivoscian highlanders\nwhose customs are described by Sir Arthur Evans, Christmas is essentially\nthe festival of the New Year: New Year's Day is not spoken of at all, its\nname and ceremonies being completely absorbed by the feasts of \"Great\"\nand \"Little\" Christmas.{9}\n\nThe \"first-foot\" superstition is found in countries as far apart as\n|324| Scotland and Macedonia. Let us begin with some English examples of\nit. In Shropshire the most important principle is that if luck is to rest\non a house the \"first-foot\" must not be a woman. To provide against such\nan unlucky accident as that a woman should call first, people often\nengage a friendly man or boy to pay them an early visit. It is\nparticularly interesting to find a Shropshire parallel to the\n_polaznik's_ action in going straight to the hearth and striking sparks\nfrom the Christmas log,[114] when Miss Burne tells us that one old man\nwho used to \"let the New Year in\" \"always entered without knocking or\nspeaking, and silently stirred the fire before he offered any greeting to\nthe family.\"{10}\n\nIn the villages of the Teme valley, Worcestershire and Herefordshire, \"in\nthe old climbing-boy days, chimneys used to be swept on New Year's\nmorning, that one of the right sex should be the first to enter; and the\nyoung urchins of the neighbourhood went the round of the houses before\ndaylight singing songs, when one of their number would be admitted into\nthe kitchen 'for good luck all the year.'\" In 1875 this custom was still\npractised; and at some of the farmhouses, if washing-day chanced to fall\non the first day of the year, it was either put off, or to make sure,\nbefore the women could come, the waggoner's lad was called up early that\nhe might be let out and let in again.{11}\n\nThe idea of the unluckiness of a woman's being the \"first-foot\" is\nextraordinarily widespread; the present writer has met with it in an\nordinary London restaurant, where great stress was laid upon a man's\nopening the place on New Year's morning before the waitresses arrived. A\nsimilar belief is found even in far-away China: it is there unlucky on\nNew Year's Day to meet a woman on first going out.{12} Can the belief be\nconnected with such ideas about dangerous influences proceeding from\nwomen as have been described by Dr. Frazer in Vol. III. of \"The Golden\nBough,\"{13} or does it rest merely on a view of woman as the inferior\nsex? The unluckiness of first meeting a woman is, we may note, not\nconfined to, but merely intensified on New Year's Day; in Shropshire{14}\nand in Germany{15} it belongs to any ordinary day.\n\n|325| As to the general attitude towards woman suggested by these\nsuperstitions I may quote a striking passage from Miss Jane Harrison's\n\"Themis.\" \"Woman to primitive man is a thing at once weak and magical, to\nbe oppressed, yet feared. She is charged with powers of child-bearing\ndenied to man, powers only half understood, forces of attraction, but\nalso of danger and repulsion, forces that all over the world seem to fill\nhim with dim terror. The attitude of man to woman, and, though perhaps in\na less degree, of woman to man, is still to-day essentially\nmagical.\"{16}\n\n\"First-foot\" superstitions flourish in the north of England and in\nScotland. In the northern counties a man is often specially retained as\n\"first-foot\" or \"lucky bird\"; in some parts he must be a bachelor, and he\nis often expected to bring a present with him--a shovelful of coals, or\nsome eatable, or whisky.{17} In the East Riding of Yorkshire a boy\ncalled the \"lucky bird\" used to come at dawn on Christmas morning as well\nas on New Year's Day, and bring a sprig of evergreens{18}--an offering\nby now thoroughly familiar to us. In Scotland, especially in Edinburgh,\nit is customary for domestic servants to invite their sweethearts to be\ntheir \"first-foots.\" The old Scotch families who preserve ancient customs\nencourage their servants to \"first-foot\" them, and grandparents like\ntheir grandchildren to perform for them the same service.{19} In\nAberdeenshire it is considered most important that the \"first-foot\"\nshould not come empty-handed. Formerly he carried spiced ale; now he\nbrings a whisky-bottle. Shortbread, oat-cakes, \"sweeties,\" or sowens,\nwere also sometimes brought by the \"first-foot,\" and occasionally the\nsowens were sprinkled on the doors and windows of the houses visited--a\ncustom strongly suggesting a sacramental significance of some sort.{20}\n\nBefore we leave the subject of British \"first-footing\" we may notice one\nor two things that have possibly a racial significance. Not only must the\n\"first-foot\" be a man or boy, he is often required to be dark-haired; it\nis unlucky for a fair- or red-haired person to \"let in\" the New\nYear.{21} It has been suggested by Sir John Rhys that this idea rested\nin the first instance upon |326| racial antipathy--the natural\nantagonism of an indigenous dark-haired people to a race of blonde\ninvaders.{22} Another curious requirement--in the Isle of Man and\nNorthumberland--is that the \"first-foot\" shall not be flat-footed: he\nshould be a person with a high-arched instep, a foot that \"water runs\nunder.\" Sir John Rhys is inclined to connect this also with some racial\ncontrast. He remarks, by way of illustration, that English shoes do not\nas a rule fit Welsh feet, being made too low in the instep.{23}\n\nSome reference has already been made to Scottish New Year customs. In\nScotland, the most Protestant region of Europe, the country in which\nPuritanism abolished altogether the celebration of Christmas, New Year's\nDay is a great occasion, and is marked by various interesting usages, its\nimportance being no doubt largely due to the fact that it has not to\ncompete with the Church feast of the Nativity. Nowadays, indeed, the\nexample of Anglicanism is affecting the country to a considerable extent,\nand Christmas Day is becoming observed in the churches. The New Year,\nhowever, is still the national holiday, and January 1 a great day for\nvisiting and feasting, the chief, in fact, of all festivals.{24} New\nYear's Day and its Eve are often called the \"Daft Days\"; cakes and pastry\nof all kinds are eaten, healths are drunk, and calls are paid.{25}\n\nIn Edinburgh there are striking scenes on New Year's Eve. \"Towards\nevening,\" writes an observer, \"the thoroughfares become thronged with the\nyouth of the city.... As the midnight hour approaches, drinking of\nhealths becomes frequent, and some are already intoxicated.... The eyes\nof the immense crowd are ever being turned towards the lighted clock-face\nof 'Auld and Faithful'' Tron [Church], the hour approaches, the hands\nseem to stand still, but in one second more the hurrahing, the cheering,\nthe hand-shaking, the health-drinking, is all kept up as long as the\nclock continues to ring out the much-longed-for midnight hour.... The\ncrowds slowly disperse, the much-intoxicated and helpless ones being\nhustled about a good deal, the police urging them on out of harm's way.\nThe first-footers are off and away, flying in every direction through the\ncity, singing, cheering, and shaking hands with all and sundry.\"{26}\n\n|327| One need hardly allude to the gathering of London Scots around\nSt. Paul's to hear the midnight chime and welcome the New Year with the\nstrains of \"Auld Lang Syne,\" except to say that times have changed and\nScotsmen are now lost in the swelling multitude of roysterers of all\nnationalities.\n\nDrinking is and was a great feature of the Scottish New Year's Eve. \"On\nthe approach of twelve o'clock, a _hot pint_ was prepared--that is, a\nkettle or flagon full of warm, spiced, and sweetened ale, with an\ninfusion of spirits. When the clock had struck the knell of the departed\nyear, each member of the family drank of this mixture 'A good health and\na happy New Year and many of them' to all the rest, with a general\nhand-shaking.\" The elders of the family would then sally out to visit\ntheir neighbours, and exchange greetings.{27}\n\nAt Biggar in Lanarkshire it was customary to \"burn out the old year\" with\nbonfires, while at Burghead in Morayshire a tar-barrel called the\n\"Clavie\" was set on fire and carried about the village and the fishing\nboats. Its embers were scrambled for by the people and carefully kept as\ncharms against witchcraft.{28} These fire-customs may be compared with\nthose on Hallowe'en, which, as we have seen, is probably an old New\nYear's Eve.\n\nStewart in his \"Popular Superstitions of the Highlands of Scotland\" tells\nhow on the last night of the year the Strathdown Highlanders used to\nbring home great loads of juniper, which on New Year's Day was kindled in\nthe different rooms, all apertures being closed so that the smoke might\nproduce a thorough fumigation. Not only human beings had to stand this,\nbut horses and other animals were treated in the same way to preserve\nthem from harm throughout the year. Moreover, first thing on New Year's\nmorning, everybody, while still in bed, was asperged with a large\nbrush.{29} There is a great resemblance here to the Catholic use of\nincense and holy water in southern Germany and Austria on the\n_Rauchnaechte_ (see also Chapter VIII.). In Tyrol these nights are\nChristmas, New Year's, and Epiphany Eves. When night falls the Tyrolese\npeasant goes with all his household through each room and outhouse, his\nwife bearing the holy water vessel and the censer. Every corner of the\nbuildings, every animal, |328| every human being is purified with the\nsacred smoke and the holy sprinkling, and even the Christmas pie must be\nhallowed in this way. In Orthodox Greek countries something of the same\nkind takes place, as we shall see, at the Epiphany. To drive away evil\nspirits is no doubt the object of all these rites.{30}\n\nThe most interesting of Scottish New Year customs, considered as\nreligious survivals, is a practice found in the Highlands on New Year's\nEve, and evidently of sacrificial origin. It has been described by\nseveral writers, and has various forms. According to one account the hide\nof the mart or winter cow was wrapped round the head of one of a company\nof men, who all made off belabouring the hide with switches. The\ndisorderly procession went three times _deiseal_ (according to the course\nof the sun) round each house in the village, striking the walls and\nshouting on coming to a door a rhyme demanding admission. On entering,\neach member of the party was offered refreshments, and their leader gave\nto the goodman of the house the \"breast-stripe\" of a sheep, deer, or\ngoat, wrapped round the point of a shinty stick.{31}\n\nWe have here another survival of that oft-noted custom of skin-wearing,\nwhich, as has been seen, originated apparently in a desire for contact\nwith the sanctity of the sacrificed victim. Further, the \"breast-stripe\"\ngiven to the goodman of each house is evidently meant to convey the\nhallowed influences to each family. It is an oval strip, and no knife may\nbe used in removing it from the flesh. The head of the house sets fire to\nit, and it is given to each person in turn to smell. The inhaling of its\nfumes is a talisman against fairies, witches, and demons. In the island\nof South Uist, according to a quite recent account, each person seizes\nhold of it as it burns, making the sign of the cross, if he be a\nCatholic, in the name of the Trinity, and it is put thrice sun-wise about\nthe heads of those present. If it should be extinguished it is a bad omen\nfor the New Year.{32}\n\nThe writer of the last account speaks of the \"breast-strip\" as the\n\"Hogmanay,\" and it is just possible that the well-known Hogmanay\nprocessions of children on New Year's Eve (in Scotland and elsewhere) may\nhave some connection with the ritual above described. It is customary for\nthe poorer children to |329| swaddle themselves in a great sheet,\ndoubled up in front so as to form a vast pocket, and then go along the\nstreets in little bands, calling out \"Hogmanay\" at the doors of the\nwealthier classes, and expecting a dole of oaten bread. Each child gets a\nquadrant of oat-cake (sometimes with cheese), and this is called the\n\"Hogmanay.\" Here is one of the rhymes they sing:--\n\n   \"Get up, goodwife, and shake your feathers,\n    And dinna think that we are beggars;\n    For we are bairns come out to play,\n    Get up and gie's our hogmanay!\"{33}\n\nThe word _Hogmanay_--it is found in various forms in the northern English\ncounties as well as in Scotland--has been a puzzle to etymologists. It is\nused both for the last day of the year and for the gift of the oaten cake\nor the like; and, as we have seen, it is shouted by the children in their\nquest. Exactly corresponding to it in sense and use is the French word\n_aguillanneuf_, from which it appears to be derived. Although the\nphonetic difference between this and the Scottish word is great, the\nNorman form _hoguinane_ is much closer. There is, moreover, a Spanish\nword _aguinaldo_ (formerly _aguilando_) = Christmas-box. The popular\nexplanation of the French term as _au-guy-l'an-neuf_ (to the mistletoe\nthe New Year) is now rejected by scholars, and it seems likely that the\nword is a corruption of the Latin _Kalendae_.{34}\n\nA few instances of _aguillanneuf_ customs may be given. Here are\nspecimens of rhymes sung by the New Year _queteurs_:--\n\n   \"Si vous veniez a la depense,\n    A la depense de chez nous,\n    Vous mangeriez de bons choux,\n    On vous servirait du rost.\n            Hoguinano.\n\n    Donnez-moi mes hoguignettes\n    Dans un panier que voicy.\n    Je l'achetai samedy\n    D'un bon homme de dehors;\n    Mais il est encore a payer.\n            Hoguinano.\"{35}\n\n|330| Formerly at Matignon and Ploubalay in Brittany on Christmas Eve\nthe boys used to get together, carry big sticks and wallets, and knock at\nfarmhouse doors. When the inmates called out, \"Who's there?\" they would\nanswer, \"The _hoguihanneu_,\" and after singing something they were given\na piece of lard. This was put on a pointed stick carried by one of the\nboys, and was kept for a feast called the _bouriho_.{36} Elsewhere in\nBrittany poor children went round crying \"_au guyane_,\" and were given\npieces of lard or salt beef, which they stuck on a long spit.{37} In\nGuernsey the children's quest at the New Year was called _oguinane_. They\nchanted the following rhyme:--\n\n   \"Oguinani! Oguinano!\n     Ouvre ta pouque, et pis la recclios.\"[115]{38}\n\nSimilar processions are common in eastern Europe at the New Year. In some\nparts of Macedonia on New Year's Eve men or boys go about making a noise\nwith bells. In other districts, early on New Year's morning, lads run\nabout with sticks or clubs, knock people up, cry out good wishes, and\nexpect to be rewarded with something to eat. Elsewhere again they carry\ngreen olive- or cornel-boughs, and touch with them everyone they\nmeet.{39} We have already considered various similar customs, the noise\nand knocking being apparently intended to drive away evil spirits, and\nthe green boughs to bring folks into contact with the spirit of growth\ntherein immanent.\n\nIn Roumania on New Year's Eve there is a custom known as the \"little\nplough.\" Boys and men go about after dark from house to house, with long\ngreetings, ringing of bells, and cracking of whips. On New Year's morning\nRoumanians throw handfuls of corn at one another with some appropriate\ngreeting, such as:--\n\n   \"May you live,\n    May you flourish\n    Like apple-trees, |331|\n    Like pear-trees\n    In springtime,\n    Like wealthy autumn,\n    Of all things plentiful.\"\n\nGenerally this greeting is from the young to the old or from the poor to\nthe rich, and a present in return is expected.{40}\n\nIn Athens models of war-ships are carried round by waits, who make a\ncollection of money in them. \"St. Basil's ships\" they are called, and\nthey are supposed to represent the vessel on which St. Basil, whose feast\nis kept on January 1, sailed from Caesarea.{41} It is probable that this\nis but a Christian gloss on a pagan custom. Possibly there may be here a\nsurvival of an old Greek practice of bearing a ship in procession in\nhonour of Dionysus,{42} but it is to be noted that similar observances\nare found at various seasons in countries like Germany and Belgium where\nno Greek influence can be traced. The custom is widespread, and it has\nbeen suggested by Mannhardt that it was originally intended either to\npromote the success of navigation or to carry evil spirits out to\nsea.{43}\n\nIt is interesting, lastly, to read a mediaeval account of a New Year\n_quete_ in Rome. \"The following,\" says the writer, \"are common Roman\nsports at the Kalends of January. On the Eve of the Kalends at a late\nhour boys arise and carry a shield. One of them wears a mask; they\nwhistle and beat a drum, they go round to the houses, they surround the\nshield, the drum sounds, and the masked figure whistles. This playing\nended, they receive a present from the master of the house, whatever he\nthinks fit to give. So they do at every house. On that day they eat all\nkinds of vegetables. And in the morning two of the boys arise, take\nolive-branches and salt, enter into the houses, and salute the master\nwith the words, 'Joy and gladness be in the house, so many sons, so many\nlittle pigs, so many lambs,' and they wish him all good things. And\nbefore the sun rises they eat either a piece of honeycomb or something\nsweet, that the whole year may pass sweetly, without strife and great\ntrouble.\"{44}\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nVarious methods of peering into the future, more or less like |332|\nthose described at earlier festivals, are practised at the New Year.\nEspecially popular at German New Year's Eve parties is the custom of\n_bleigiessen_. \"This ceremony consists of boiling specially prepared\npieces of lead in a spoon over a candle; each guest takes his spoonful\nand throws it quickly into the basin of water which is held ready.\nAccording to the form which the lead takes so will his future be in the\ncoming year ... ships (which indicate a journey), or hearts (which have,\nof course, only one meaning), or some other equally significant shape is\nusually discerned.\"{45}\n\nIn Macedonia St. Basil's Eve (December 31) is a common time for\ndivination: a favourite method is to lay on the hot cinders a pair of\nwild-olive-leaves to represent a youth and a maid. If the leaves crumple\nup and draw near each other, it is concluded that the young people love\none another dearly, but if they recoil apart the opposite is the case. If\nthey flare up and burn, it is a sign of excessive passion.{46}\n\nIn Lithuania on New Year's Eve nine sorts of things--money, cradle,\nbread, ring, death's head, old man, old woman, ladder, and key--are baked\nof dough, and laid under nine plates, and every one has three grabs at\nthem. What he gets will fall to his lot during the year.{47}\n\nLastly, in Brittany it is supposed that the wind which prevails on the\nfirst twelve days of the year will blow during each of the twelve months,\nthe first day corresponding to January, the second to February, and so\non.{48} Similar ideas of the prophetic character of Christmastide\nweather are common in our own and other countries.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nPractically all the customs discussed in this chapter have been of the\nnature of charms; one or two more, practised on New Year's Day or Eve,\nmay be mentioned in conclusion.\n\nThere are curious superstitions about New Year water. At Bromyard in\nHerefordshire it was the custom, at midnight on New Year's Eve, to rush\nto the nearest spring to snatch the \"cream of the well\"--the first\npitcherful of water--and with it the prospect of the best luck.{49} A\nHighland practice was to send |333| some one on the last night of the\nyear to draw a pitcherful of water in silence, and without the vessel\ntouching the ground. The water was drunk on New Year's morning as a charm\nagainst witchcraft and the evil eye.{50} A similar belief about the\nluckiness of \"new water\" exists at Canzano Peligno in the Abruzzi. \"On\nNew Year's Eve, the fountain is decked with leaves and bits of coloured\nstuff, and fires are kindled round it. As soon as it is light, the girls\ncome as usual with their copper pots on their head; but the youths are on\nthis morning guardians of the well, and sell the 'new water' for nuts and\nfruits--and other sweet things.\"{51}\n\nIn some of the Aegean islands when the family return from church on New\nYear's Day, the father picks up a stone and leaves it in the yard, with\nthe wish that the New Year may bring with it \"as much gold as is the\nweight of the stone.\"{52} Finally, in Little Russia \"corn sheaves are\npiled upon a table, and in the midst of them is set a large pie. The\nfather of the family takes his seat behind them, and asks his children if\nthey can see him. 'We cannot see you,' they reply. On which he proceeds\nto express what seems to be a hope that the corn will grow so high in his\nfields that he may be invisible to his children when he walks there at\nharvest-time.\"{53}\n\nWith a curious and beautiful old carol from South Wales I must bring this\nchapter to a close. It was formerly sung before dawn on New Year's Day by\npoor children who carried about a jug of water drawn that morning from\nthe well. With a sprig of box or other evergreen they would sprinkle\nthose they met, wishing them the compliments of the season. To pay their\nrespects to those not abroad at so early an hour, they would serenade\nthem with the following lines, which, while connected with the \"new\nwater\" tradition, contain much that is of doubtful interpretation, and\nare a fascinating puzzle for folk-lorists:--\n\n   \"Here we bring new water\n      From the well so clear,\n    For to worship God with,\n      This happy New Year. |334|\n    Sing levy-dew, sing levy-dew,\n      The water and the wine;\n    The seven bright gold wires\n      And the bugles they do shine.\n\n    Sing reign of Fair Maid,\n      With gold upon her toe,--\n    Open you the West Door,\n      And turn the Old Year go:\n    Sing reign of Fair Maid,\n      With gold upon her chin,--\n    Open you the East Door,\n      And let the New Year in.\"{54}\n\n|335| |336| |337|\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI\n\nEPIPHANY TO CANDLEMAS\n\n\n    The Twelfth Cake and the \"King of the Bean\"--French Twelfth Night\n    Customs--St. Basil's Cake in Macedonia--Epiphany and the Expulsion of\n    Evils--The Befana in Italy--The Magi as Present-bringers--Greek\n    Epiphany Customs--Wassailing Fruit-trees--Herefordshire and Irish\n    Twelfth Night Practices--The \"Haxey Hood\" and Christmas Football--St.\n    Knut's Day in Sweden--Rock Day--Plough Monday--Candlemas, its\n    Ecclesiastical and Folk Ceremonies--Farewells to Christmas.\n\n[Illustration: THE EPIPHANY IN FLORENCE.]\n\n\nTHE EPIPHANY.\n\nThough the Epiphany has ceased to be a popular festival in England, it\nwas once a very high day indeed, and in many parts of Europe it is still\nattended by folk-customs of great interest.[116] For the peasant of\nTyrol, indeed, it is New Year's Day, the first of January being kept only\nby the townsfolk and modernized people.{1}\n\nTo Englishmen perhaps the best known feature of the secular festival is\nthe Twelfth Cake. Some words of Leigh Hunt's will show what an important\nplace this held in the mid-nineteenth century:--\n\n    \"Christmas goes out in fine style,--with Twelfth Night. It is a\n    finish worthy of the time. Christmas Day was the morning of the\n    season; New Year's Day the middle of it, or noon; Twelfth Night is\n    the night, brilliant with innumerable planets of Twelfth-cakes. The\n    whole island keeps court; nay, all Christendom. All the world are\n    |338| kings and queens. Everybody is somebody else, and learns at\n    once to laugh at, and to tolerate, characters different from his own,\n    by enacting them. Cakes, characters, forfeits, lights, theatres,\n    merry rooms, little holiday-faces, and, last not least, the painted\n    sugar on the cakes, so bad to eat but so fine to look at, useful\n    because it is perfectly useless except for a sight and a moral--all\n    conspire to throw a giddy splendour over the last night of the\n    season, and to send it to bed in pomp and colours, like a\n    Prince.\"{2}\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFor seventeenth-century banqueting customs and the connection of the cake\nwith the \"King of the Bean\" Herrick may be quoted:--\n\n     \"Now, now the mirth comes\n      With the cake full of plums,\n    Where bean's the king of the sport here;\n      Besides we must know,\n      The pea also\n    Must revel as queen in the court here.\n\n      Begin then to choose\n      This night as ye use,\n    Who shall for the present delight here\n      Be a king by the lot,\n      And who shall not\n    Be Twelfth-day queen for the night here\n\n      Which known, let us make\n      Joy-sops with the cake;\n    And let not a man then be seen here,\n      Who unurg'd will not drink,\n      To the base from the brink,\n    A health to the king and the queen here.\"{3}\n\nThere are many English references to the custom of electing a Twelfth Day\nmonarch by means of a bean or pea, and this \"king\" is mentioned in royal\naccounts as early as the reign of Edward II.{4} He appears, however, to\nhave been even more popular in France than in England.\n\n|339| The method of choosing the Epiphany king is thus described by the\nsixteenth-century writer, Etienne Pasquier:--\n\n    \"When the cake has been cut into as many portions as there are\n    guests, a small child is put under the table, and is interrogated by\n    the master under the name of Phebe [Phoebus], as if he were a child\n    who in the innocence of his age represented a kind of Apollo's\n    oracle. To this questioning the child answers with a Latin word:\n    _Domine_. Thereupon the master calls on him to say to whom he shall\n    give the piece of cake which he has in his hand: the child names\n    whoever comes into his head, without respect of persons, until the\n    portion where the bean is given out. He who gets it is reckoned king\n    of the company, although he may be a person of the least importance.\n    This done, everyone eats, drinks, and dances heartily.\"{5}\n\nIn Berry at the end of the festive repast a cake is brought before the\nhead of the household, and divided into as many portions as there are\nguests, plus one. The youngest member of the family distributes them. The\nportion remaining is called _la part du bon Dieu_ and is given to the\nfirst person who asks for it. A band of children generally come to claim\nit, with a leader who sings a little song.{6} There was formerly a\ncustom of dressing up a king in full robes. He had a fool to amuse him\nduring the feast, and shots were fired when he drank.{7}\n\nHere is a nineteenth-century account from Lorraine:--\n\n    \"On the Vigil of the Epiphany all the family and the guests assemble\n    round the table, which is illuminated by a lamp hanging above its\n    centre. Lots are cast for the king of the feast, and if the head of\n    anyone present casts no shadow on the wall it is a sign that he will\n    die during the year. Then the king chooses freely his queen: they\n    have the place of honour, and each time they raise their glasses to\n    their mouths cries of 'The king drinks, the queen drinks!' burst\n    forth on all sides.... The next day an enormous cake, divided into\n    equal portions, is distributed to the company by the youngest boy.\n    The first portion is always for _le bon Dieu_, the second for the\n    Blessed Virgin (these two portions are always given to the first poor\n    person who presents himself); then come those of relations, servants,\n    and visitors. He who finds a bean in his portion is proclaimed king;\n    if it is a lady she chooses her |340| king, and he invites the\n    company to a banquet on the Sunday following, at which black kings\n    are made by rubbing the face with a burnt cork.\"{8}\n\nThe use of the _gateau des Rois_ goes pretty far back. At the monastery\nof Mont-St.-Michel in the thirteenth century the Epiphany king was chosen\nfrom among the monks by means of a number of cakes in one of which a bean\nwas placed. At Matins, High Mass, and Vespers he sat upon a special\nthrone.{9}\n\nIt may be added that there is a quaint old story of a curate \"who having\ntaken his preparations over evening, when all men cry (as the manner is)\n_the king drinketh_, chanting his Masse the next morning, fell asleep in\nhis Memento: and, when he awoke, added with a loud voice, _The king\ndrinketh_.\"{10}\n\nOne more French \"king\" custom may be mentioned, though it relates to\nChristmas Day, not Epiphany. At Salers in the centre of France there were\nformerly a king and queen whose function was to preside over the\nfestival, sit in a place of honour in church, and go first in the\nprocession. The kingship was not elective, but was sold by auction at the\nchurch door, and it is said to have been so much coveted that worthy\ncitizens would sell their heritage in order to purchase it.{11}\n\nIt may be remarked that Epiphany kings and cakes similar to the French\ncan be traced in Holland and Germany,{12} and that the \"King of the\nBean\" is known in modern Italy, though there he may be an importation\nfrom the north.{13}\n\nHow is this merry monarch to be accounted for? His resemblance to the\nking of the _Saturnalia_, who presided over the fun of the feast in the\ndays of imperial Rome, is certainly striking, but it is impossible to say\nwhether he derives directly from that personage. No doubt his association\nwith the feast of the Three Kings has helped to maintain his rule. As for\nthe bean, it appears to have been a sacred vegetable in ancient times.\nThere is a story about the philosopher Pythagoras, how, when flying\nbefore a host of rebels, he came upon a field of beans and refused to\npass through it for fear of crushing the plants, thus enabling his\npursuers to overtake him. Moreover, the _flamen dialis_ in Rome was\nforbidden to eat or even name the vegetable, and the |341| name of the\nFabii, a Roman _gens_, suggests a totem tribe of the bean.{14}\n\nIn eastern Europe, though I know of no election of a king, there are New\nYear customs with cakes, closely resembling some of the French practices\ndescribed a page or two back. \"St. Basil's Cake\" on New Year's Eve in\nMacedonia is a kind of shortbread with a silver coin and a cross of green\ntwigs in it. When all are seated round the table the father and mother\ntake the cake, \"and break it into two pieces, which are again subdivided\nby the head of the family into shares. The first portion is destined for\nSt. Basil, the Holy Virgin, or the patron saint whose icon is in the\nhouse. The second stands for the house itself. The third for the cattle\nand domestic animals belonging thereto. The fourth for the inanimate\nproperty, and the rest for each member of the household according to age.\nEach portion is successively dipped in a cup of wine.\" He who finds the\ncross or the coin in his share of the cake will prosper during the year.\nThe money is considered sacred and is used to buy a votive taper.{15}\n\nIn Macedonia when the New Year's supper is over, the table, with the\nremnants of the feast upon it, is removed to a corner of the room in\norder that St. Basil may come and partake of the food.{16} He appears to\nhave been substituted by the Church for the spirits of the departed, for\nwhom, as we have seen, food is left in the West on All Souls' and\nChristmas Eves. Probably the Macedonian practice of setting aside a\nportion of the cake for a saint, and the pieces cut in France for _le bon\nDieu_ and the Virgin or the three Magi, have a like origin. One may\ncompare them with the Serbian breaking of the _kolatch_ cake in honour of\nChrist \"the Patron Namegiver.\" Is it irrelevant, also, to mention here\nthe Greek Church custom, at the preparation of the elements for the\nEucharist, of breaking portions of the bread in memory of the Virgin and\nother saints?\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn many countries the Epiphany is a special time for the expulsion of\nevils. At Brunnen in Switzerland boys go about in procession on Twelfth\nNight, with torches and lanterns, and make a great noise with horns,\nbells, whips, &c., in order to |342| frighten away two wood-spirits. In\nLabruguiere in southern France on the Eve of Twelfth Day the inhabitants\nrush through the streets, making discordant noises and a huge uproar,\nwith the object of scaring away ghosts and devils.{17}\n\nIn parts of the eastern Alps there takes place what is called\n_Berchtenlaufen_. Lads, formerly to the number of two or three hundred,\nrush about in the strangest masks, with cowbells, whips, and all sorts of\nweapons, and shout wildly.{18} In Nuremberg up to the year 1616 on\n_Bergnacht_ or Epiphany Eve boys and girls used to run about the streets\nand knock loudly at the doors.{19} Such knocking, as we have seen, may\nwell have been intended to drive away spirits from the houses.\n\nAt Eschenloh near Partenkirchen in Upper Bavaria three women used to\n_berchten_ on that evening. They all had linen bags over their heads,\nwith holes for the mouth and eyes. One carried a chain, another a rake,\nand the third a broom. Going round to the houses, they knocked on the\ndoor with the chain, scraped the ground with the rake, and made a noise\nof sweeping with the broom.{20} The suggestion of a clearing away of\nevils is here very strong.\n\nIn connection with the _Kallikantzaroi_ mention has already been made of\nthe purification of houses with holy water, performed by Greek priests on\nthe Epiphany. In Roumania, where a similar sprinkling is performed, a\ncurious piece of imitative magic is added--the priest is invited to sit\nupon the bed, in order that the brooding hen may sit upon her eggs.\nMoreover there should be maize grains under the mattress; then the hen\nwill lay eggs in abundance.{21}\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWe noted in an earlier chapter the name _Berchtentag_ applied in southern\nGermany and in Austria to the Epiphany, and we saw also how the\nmysterious Frau Berchta was specially connected with the day. On the\nEpiphany and its Eve in the Moellthal in Carinthia a female figure, \"the\nBerchtel,\" goes the round of the houses. She is generally dressed in a\nhide, wears a hideous wooden mask, and hops wildly about, inquiring as to\nthe behaviour of children, and demanding gifts.{22}\n\n|343| Something of the terrible, as well as the beneficent, belongs to\nthe \"Befana,\" the Epiphany visitor who to Italian children is the great\ngift-bringer of the year, the Santa Klaus of the South. \"Delightful,\" say\nCountess Martinengo, \"as are the treasures she puts in their shoes when\nsatisfied with their behaviour, she is credited with an unpleasantly\nsharp eye for youthful transgressions.\"{23} Mothers will sometimes warn\ntheir children that if they are naughty the Befana will fetch and eat\nthem. To Italian youngsters she is a very real being, and her coming on\nEpiphany Eve is looked forward to with the greatest anxiety. Though she\nputs playthings and sweets in the stockings of good children, she has\nnothing but a birch and coal for those who misbehave themselves.{24}\n\nFormerly at Florence images of the Befana were put up in the windows of\nhouses, and there were processions through the streets, guys being borne\nabout, with a great blowing of trumpets.{25} Toy trumpets are still the\ndelight of little boys at the Epiphany in Italy.\n\nThe Befana's name is obviously derived from _Epiphania_. In Naples the\nlittle old woman who fills children's stockings is called \"Pasqua\nEpiphania,\"[117] the northern contraction not having been acclimatized\nthere.{26}\n\nIn Spain as well as Italy the Epiphany is associated with presents for\nchildren, but the gift-bringers for little Spaniards are the Three Holy\nKings themselves. There is an old Spanish tradition that the Magi go\nevery year to Bethlehem to adore the infant Jesus, and on their way visit\nchildren, leaving sweets and toys for them if they have behaved well. On\nEpiphany Eve the youngsters go early to bed, put out their shoes on the\nwindow-sill or balcony to be filled with presents by the Wise Men, and\nprovide a little straw for their horses.{27}\n\nIt is, or was, a custom in Madrid to look out for the Kings on Epiphany\nEve. Companies of men go out with bells and pots and pans, and make a\ngreat noise. There is loud shouting, and torches cast a fantastic light\nupon the scene. One of the men carries a large ladder, and mounts it to\nsee if the Kings are |344| coming. Here, perhaps, some devil-scaring\nrite, resembling those described above, has been half-Christianized.{28}\n\nIn Provence, too, there was a custom of going to meet the Magi. In a\ncharming chapter of his Memoirs Mistral tells us how on Epiphany Eve all\nthe children of his countryside used to go out to meet the Kings, bearing\ncakes for the Magi, dried figs for their pages, and handfuls of hay for\ntheir horses. In the glory and colour of the sunset young Mistral thought\nhe saw the splendid train; but soon the gorgeous vision died away, and\nthe children stood gaping alone on the darkening highway--the Kings had\npassed behind the mountain. After supper the little ones hurried to\nchurch, and there in the Chapel of the Nativity beheld the Kings in\nadoration before the Crib.{29}\n\nAt Trest not only did the young people carry baskets or dried fruit, but\nthere were three men dressed as Magi to receive the offerings and accept\ncompliments addressed to them by an orator. In return they presented him\nwith a purse full of counters, upon which he rushed off with the treasure\nand was pursued by the others in a sort of dance.{30} Here again the\nMagi are evidently mixed up with something that has no relation to\nChristianity.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWe noted in Chapter IV. the elaborate ceremonies connected in Greece with\nthe Blessing of the Waters at the Epiphany, and the custom of diving for\na cross. It would seem, as was pointed out, that the latter is an\necclesiastically sanctioned form of a folk-ceremony. This is found in a\npurer state in Macedonia, where, after Matins on the Epiphany, it is the\ncustom to thrust some one into water, be it sea or river, pond or well.\nOn emerging he has to sprinkle the bystanders.{31} The rite may be\ncompared with the drenchings of human beings in order to produce rain\ndescribed by Dr. Frazer in \"The Magic Art.\"{32}\n\nAnother Greek custom combines the purifying powers of Epiphany water with\nthe fertilizing influences of the Christmas log--round Mount Olympos\nashes are taken from the hearth where a cedar log has been burning since\nChristmas, and are baptized in the blessed water of the river. They are\nthen borne |345| to the vineyards, and thrown at their four corners,\nand also at the foot of apple- and fig-trees.{33}\n\nThis may remind us that in England fruit-trees used to come in for\nspecial treatment on the Vigil of the Epiphany. In Devonshire the farmer\nand his men would go to the orchard with a large jug of cider, and drink\nthe following toast at the foot of one of the best-bearing apple-trees,\nfiring guns in conclusion:--\n\n           \"Here's to thee, old apple-tree,\n    Whence thou may'st bud, and whence thou may'st blow!\n    And whence thou may'st bear apples enow!\n            Hats full! caps full!\n            Bushel!--bushel--sacks full,\n            And my pockets full too! Huzza!\"{34}\n\nIn seventeenth-century Somersetshire, according to Aubrey, a piece of\ntoast was put upon the roots.{35} According to another account each\nperson in the company used to take a cupful of cider, with roasted apples\npressed into it, drink part of the contents, and throw the rest at the\ntree.{36} The custom is described by Herrick as a Christmas Eve\nceremony:--\n\n   \"Wassail the trees, that they may bear\n    You many a plum and many a pear;\n    For more or less fruits they will bring,\n    As you do give them wassailing.\"{37}\n\nIn Sussex the wassailing (or \"worsling\") of fruit-trees took place on\nChristmas Eve, and was accompanied by a trumpeter blowing on a cow's\nhorn.{38}\n\nThe wassailing of the trees may be regarded as either originally an\noffering to their spirits or--and this seems more probable--as a\nsacramental act intended to bring fertilizing influences to bear upon\nthem. Customs of a similar character are found in Continental countries\nduring the Christmas season. In Tyrol, for instance, when the Christmas\npies are a-making on St. Thomas's Eve, the maids are told to go\nout-of-doors and put their arms, sticky with paste, round the\nfruit-trees, in order that they |346| may bear well next year.{39} The\nuses of the ashes of the Christmas log have already been noticed.\n\nSometimes, as in the Thurgau, Mecklenburg, Oldenburg, and Tyrol, the\ntrees are beaten to make them bear. On New Year's Eve at Hildesheim\npeople dance and sing around them,{40} while the Tyrolese peasant on\nChristmas Eve will go out to his trees, and, knocking with bent fingers\nupon them, will bid them wake up and bear.{41} There is a Slavonic\ncustom, on the same night, of threatening apple-trees with a hatchet if\nthey do not produce fruit during the year.{42}\n\nAnother remarkable agricultural rite was practised on Epiphany Eve in\nHerefordshire and Gloucestershire. The farmer and his servants would meet\nin a field sown with wheat, and there light thirteen fires, with one\nlarger than the rest. Round this a circle was formed by the company, and\nall would drink a glass of cider to the success of the harvest.[118] This\ndone, they returned to the farm, to feast--in Gloucestershire--on cakes\nmade with caraways, and soaked in cider. The Herefordshire accounts give\nparticulars of a further ceremony. A large cake was provided, with a hole\nin the middle, and after supper everyone went to the wain-house. The\nmaster filled a cup with strong ale, and standing opposite the finest ox,\npledged him in a curious toast; the company followed his example with the\nother oxen, addressing each by name. Afterwards the large cake was put on\nthe horn of the first ox.{43}\n\nIt is extremely remarkable, and can scarcely be a mere coincidence, that\nfar away among the southern Slavs, as we saw in Chapter XII., a Christmas\ncake with a hole in its centre is likewise put upon the horn of the chief\nox. The wassailing of the animals is found there also. On Christmas Day,\nSir Arthur |347| Evans relates, the house-mother \"entered the stall set\napart for the goats, and having first sprinkled them with corn, took the\nwine-cup in her hand and said, 'Good morning, little mother! The Peace of\nGod be on thee! Christ is born; of a truth He is born. May'st thou be\nhealthy. I drink to thee in wine; I give thee a pomegranate; may'st thou\nmeet with all good luck!' She then lifted the cup to her lips, took a\nsup, tossed the pomegranate among the herd, and throwing her arms round\nthe she-goat, whose health she had already drunk, gave it the 'Peace of\nGod'--kissed it, that is, over and over again.\" The same ceremony was\nthen performed for the benefit of the sheep and cows, and all the animals\nwere beaten with a leafy olive-branch.{44}\n\nAs for the fires, an Irish custom to some extent supplies a parallel. On\nEpiphany Eve a sieve of oats was set up, \"and in it a dozen of candles\nset round, and in the centre one larger, all lighted.\" This was said to\nbe in memory of the Saviour and His apostles, lights of the world.{45}\nHere is an account of a similar custom practised in Co. Leitrim:--\n\n    \"A piece of board is covered with cow-dung, and twelve rushlights are\n    stuck therein. These are sprinkled with ash at the top, to make them\n    light easily, and then set alight, each being named by some one\n    present, and as each dies so will the life of its owner. A ball is\n    then made of the dung, and it is placed over the door of the cowhouse\n    for an increase of cattle. Sometimes mud is used, and the ball placed\n    over the door of the dwelling-house.\"{46}\n\nThere remains to be considered under Epiphany usages an ancient and very\nremarkable game played annually on January 6 at Haxey in Lincolnshire. It\nis known traditionally as \"Haxey Hood,\" and its centre is a struggle\nbetween the men of two villages for the possession of a roll of sacking\nor leather called the \"hood.\" Over it preside the \"boggans\" or \"bullocks\"\nof Plough Monday (see p. 352), headed by a figure known as \"My Lord,\" who\nis attended by a fool. The proceedings are opened on the village green by\na mysterious speech from the fool:--\n\n\"Now, good folks, this is Haxa' Hood. We've killed two |348| bullocks\nand a half, but the other half we had to leave running about field: we\ncan fetch it if it's wanted. Remember it's--\n\n   'Hoose agin hoose, toon agin toon,\n    And if you meet a man knock him doon.'\"\n\nThen, in an open field, the hoods--there are six of them, one apparently\nfor each of the chief hamlets round--are thrown up and struggled for.\n\"The object is to carry them off the field away from the boggans. If any\nof these can get hold of them, or even touch them, they have to be given\nup, and carried back to My Lord. For every one carried off the field the\nboggans forfeit half-a-crown, which is spent in beer, doubtless by the\nmen of the particular hamlet who have carried off the hood.\" The great\nevent of the day is the struggle for the last hood--made of\nleather--between the men of Haxey and the men of Westwoodside--\"that is\nto say really between the customers of the public-houses there--each\nparty trying to get it to his favourite 'house.' The publican at the\nsuccessful house stands beer.\"{47}\n\nMr. Chambers regards the fool's strange speech as preserving the\ntradition that the hood is the half of a bullock--the head of a\nsacrificial victim, and he explains both the Haxey game and also the\nfamiliar games of hockey and football as originating in a struggle\nbetween the people of two villages to get such a head, with all its\nfertilizing properties, over their own boundary.{48} At Hornchurch in\nEssex, if we may trust a note given by Hone, an actual boar's head was\nwrestled for on Christmas Day, and afterwards feasted upon at one of the\npublic-houses by the victor and his friends.{49}\n\nOne more feature of the Haxey celebration must be mentioned (it points\napparently to a human sacrifice): the fool, the morning after the game,\nused to be \"smoked\" over a straw fire. \"He was suspended above the fire\nand swung backwards and forwards over it until almost suffocated; then\nallowed to drop into the smouldering straw, which was well wetted, and to\nscramble out as he could.\"{50}\n\nReturning to the subject of football, I may here condense an |349|\naccount of a Welsh Christmas custom quoted by Sir Laurence Gomme, in his\nbook \"The Village Community,\" from the _Oswestry Observer_ of March 2,\n1887:--\"In South Cardiganshire it seems that about eighty years ago the\npopulation, rich and poor, male and female, of opposing parishes, turned\nout on Christmas Day and indulged in the game of football with such\nvigour that it became little short of a serious fight.\" Both in north and\nsouth Wales the custom was found. At one place, Llanwenog near Lampeter,\nthere was a struggle between two parties with different traditions of\nrace. The Bros, supposed to be descendants from Irish people, occupied\nthe high ground of the parish; the Blaenaus, presumably pure-bred\nBrythons, occupied the lowlands. After morning service on Christmas Day,\n\"the whole of the Bros and Blaenaus, rich and poor, male and female,\nassembled on the turnpike road which divided the highlands from the\nlowlands.\" The ball was thrown high in the air, \"and when it fell Bros\nand Blaenaus scrambled for its possession.... If the Bros, by hook or by\ncrook, could succeed in taking the ball up the mountain to their hamlet\nof Rhyddlan they won the day, while the Blaenaus were successful if they\ngot the ball to their end of the parish at New Court.\" Many severe kicks\nwere given, and the whole thing was taken so keenly \"that a Bro or a\nBlaenau would as soon lose a cow from his cowhouse as the football from\nhis portion of the parish.\" There is plainly more than a mere pastime\nhere; the thing appears to have been originally a struggle between two\nclans.{51}\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAnciently the Carnival, with its merrymaking before the austerities of\nLent, was held to begin at the Epiphany. This was the case in Tyrol even\nin the nineteenth century.{52} As a rule, however, the Carnival in Roman\nCatholic countries is restricted to the last three days before Ash\nWednesday. The pagan origin of its mummeries and licence is evident, but\nit is a spring rather than a winter festival, and hardly calls for\ntreatment here.\n\nThe Epiphany is in many places the end of Christmas. In Calvados,\nNormandy, it is marked by bonfires; red flames mount |350| skywards,\nand the peasants join hands, dance, and leap through blinding smoke and\ncinders, shouting these rude lines:--\n\n   \"Adieu les Rois\n    Jusqu'a douze mois,\n    Douze mois passes\n    Les bougelees.\"{53}\n\nAnother French Epiphany _chanson_, translated by the Rev. R. L. Gales, is\na charming farewell to Christmas:--\n\n   \"Noel is leaving us,\n    Sad 'tis to tell,\n    But he will come again,\n    Adieu, Noel.\n\n    His wife and his children\n    Weep as they go:\n    On a grey horse\n    They ride thro' the snow.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n    The Kings ride away\n    In the snow and the rain,\n    After twelve months\n    We shall see them again.\"{54}\n\n\nPOST-EPIPHANY FESTIVALS.\n\nThough with Twelfth Day the high festival of Christmas generally ends,\nlater dates have sometimes been assigned as the close of the season. At\nthe old English court, for instance, the merrymaking was sometimes\ncarried on until Candlemas, while in some English country places it was\ncustomary, even in the late nineteenth century, to leave Christmas\ndecorations up, in houses and churches, till that day.{55} The whole\ntime between Christmas and the Presentation in the Temple was thus\ntreated as sacred to the Babyhood of Christ; the withered evergreens\nwould keep alive memories of Christmas joys, even, sometimes, after\nSeptuagesima had struck the note of penitence.\n\nBefore we pass on to a short notice of Candlemas, we may |351| glance\nat a few last sparks, so to speak, of the Christmas blaze, and then at\nthe English festivals which marked the resumption of work after the\nholidays.\n\nIn Sweden Yule is considered to close with the Octave of the Epiphany,\nJanuary 13, \"St. Knut's Day,\" the twentieth after Christmas.\n\n   \"Twentieth day Knut\n    Driveth Yule out\"\n\nsing the old folks as the young people dance in a ring round the festive\nYule board, which is afterwards robbed of the viands that remain on it,\nincluding the Yule boar. On this day a sort of mimic fight used to take\nplace, the master and servants of the house pretending to drive away the\nguests with axe, broom, knife, spoon, and other implements.{56} The\nname, \"St. Knut's Day,\" is apparently due to the fact that in the laws of\nCanute the Great (1017-36) it is commanded that there is to be no fasting\nfrom Christmas to the Octave of the Epiphany.{57}\n\nIn England the day after the Epiphany was called St. Distaff's or Rock\nDay (the word Rock is evidently the same as the German _Rocken_ =\ndistaff). It was the day when the women resumed their spinning after the\nrest and gaiety of Christmas. From a poem of Herrick's it appears that\nthe men in jest tried to burn the women's flax, and the women in return\npoured water on the men:--\n\n   \"Partly work, and partly play\n    You must on St. Distaff's day:\n    From the plough soon free your team,\n    Then come home and fother them;\n    If the maids a-spinning go,\n    Burn the flax and fire the tow.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n    Bring in pails of water then,\n    Let the maids bewash the men;\n    Give St. Distaff all the right,\n    Then bid Christmas sport good night;\n    And next morrow, every one\n    To his own vocation.\"{58}\n\n|352| A more notable occasion was Plough Monday, the first after\nTwelfth Day. Men's labour then began again after the holidays.{59} We\nhave already seen that it is sometimes associated with the mummers'\nplays. Often, however, its ritual is not developed into actual drama, and\nthe following account from Derbyshire gives a fairly typical description\nof its customs:--\n\n    \"On Plough Monday the 'Plough bullocks' are occasionally seen; they\n    consist of a number of young men from various farmhouses, who are\n    dressed up in ribbons.... These young men yoke themselves to a\n    plough, which they draw about, preceded by a band of music, from\n    house to house, collecting money. They are accompanied by the Fool\n    and Bessy; the fool being dressed in the skin of a calf, with the\n    tail hanging down behind, and Bessy generally a young man in female\n    attire. The fool carries an inflated bladder tied to the end of a\n    long stick, by way of whip, which he does not fail to apply pretty\n    soundly to the heads and shoulders of his team. When anything is\n    given a cry of 'Largess!' is raised, and a dance performed round the\n    plough. If a refusal to their application for money is made they not\n    unfrequently plough up the pathway, door-stone, or any other portion\n    of the premises they happen to be near.\"{60}\n\nBy Plough Monday we have passed, it seems probable, from New Year\nfestivals to one that originally celebrated the beginning of spring. Such\na feast, apparently, was kept in mid-February when ploughing began at\nthat season; later the advance of agriculture made it possible to shift\nit forward to early January.{61}\n\n\nCANDLEMAS.\n\nNearer to the original date of the spring feast is Candlemas, February 2;\nthough connected with Christmas by its ecclesiastical meaning, it is\nsomething of a vernal festival.{62}\n\nThe feast of the Purification of the Virgin or Presentation of Christ in\nthe Temple was probably instituted by Pope Liberius at Rome in the fourth\ncentury. The ceremonial to which it owes its popular name, Candlemas, is\nthe blessing of candles in church and the procession of the faithful,\ncarrying them lighted in their hands. During the blessing the \"Nunc\ndimittis\" is chanted, |353| with the antiphon \"Lumen ad revelationem\ngentium et gloriam plebis tuae Israel,\" the ceremony being thus brought\ninto connection with the \"light to lighten the Gentiles\" hymned by\nSymeon. Usener has however shown reason for thinking that the Candlemas\nprocession was not of spontaneous Christian growth, but was inspired by a\ndesire to Christianize a Roman rite, the _Amburbale_, which took place at\nthe same season and consisted of a procession round the city with lighted\ncandles.{63}\n\nThe Candlemas customs of the sixteenth century are thus described by\nNaogeorgus:\n\n   \"Then numbers great of Tapers large, both men and women beare\n    To Church, being halowed there with pomp, and dreadful words to heare.\n    This done, eche man his Candell lightes, where chiefest seemeth hee,\n    Whose taper greatest may be seene, and fortunate to bee,\n    Whose Candell burneth cleare and brighte; a wondrous force and might\n    Doth in these Candells lie, which if at any time they light,\n    They sure beleve that neyther storme or tempest dare abide,\n    Nor thunder in the skies be heard, nor any devils spide,\n    Nor fearefull sprites that walke by night, nor hurts of frost or\n          haile.\"{64}\n\nStill, in many Roman Catholic regions, the candles blessed in church at\nthe Purification are believed to have marvellous powers. In Brittany,\nFranche-Comte, and elsewhere, they are preserved and lighted in time of\nstorm or sickness.{65} In Tyrol they are lighted on important family\noccasions such as christenings and funerals, as well as on the approach\nof a storm{66}; in Sicily in time of earthquake or when somebody is\ndying.{67}\n\nIn England some use of candles on this festival continued long after the\nReformation. In 1628 the Bishop of Durham gave serious offence by\nsticking up wax candles in his cathedral at the Purification; \"the number\nof all the candles burnt that evening was two hundred and twenty, besides\nsixteen torches; sixty of |354| those burning tapers and torches\nstanding upon and near the high Altar.\"{68} Ripon Cathedral, as late as\nthe eighteenth century, was brilliantly illuminated with candles on the\nSunday before the festival.{69} And, to come to domestic customs, at\nLyme Regis in Dorsetshire the person who bought the wood-ashes of a\nfamily used to send a present of a large candle at Candlemas. It was\nlighted at night, and round it there was festive drinking until its going\nout gave the signal for retirement to rest.{70}\n\nThere are other British Candlemas customs connected with fire. In the\nwestern isles of Scotland, says an early eighteenth-century writer, \"as\nCandlemas Day comes round, the mistress and servants of each family\ntaking a sheaf of oats, dress it up in woman's apparel, and after putting\nit in a large basket, beside which a wooden club is placed, they cry\nthree times, 'Briid is come! Briid is welcome!' This they do just before\ngoing to bed, and as soon as they rise in the morning, they look among\nthe ashes, expecting to see the impression of Briid's club there, which\nif they do, they reckon it a true presage of a good crop and prosperous\nyear, and the contrary they take as an ill-omen.\"{71} Sir Laurence Gomme\nregards this as an illustration of belief in a house-spirit whose\nresidence is the hearth and whose element is the ever-burning sacred\nflame. He also considers the Lyme Regis custom mentioned above to be a\nmodernized relic of the sacred hearth-fire.{72}\n\nAgain, the feast of the Purification was the time to kindle a \"brand\"\npreserved from the Christmas log. Herrick's Candlemas lines may be\nrecalled:--\n\n   \"Kindle the Christmas brand, and then\n      Till sunne-set let it burne;\n    Which quencht, then lay it up agen,\n      Till Christmas next returne.\n\n    Part must be kept wherewith to teend\n      The Christmas Log next yeare;\n    And where 'tis safely kept, the Fiend\n      Can do no mischiefe there.\"{73}\n\n|355| Candlemas Eve was the moment for the last farewells to Christmas;\nHerrick sings:--\n\n   \"End now the White Loafe and the Pye,\n     And let all sports with Christmas dye,\"\n\nand\n\n   \"Down with the Rosemary and Bayes,\n       Down with the Misleto;\n     Instead of Holly, now up-raise\n       The greener Box for show.\n\n     The Holly hitherto did sway;\n       Let Box now domineere\n     Until the dancing Easter Day,\n       Or Easter's Eve appeare.\"{74}\n\nAn old Shropshire servant, Miss Burne tells us, was wont, when she took\ndown the holly and ivy on Candlemas Eve, to put snow-drops in their\nplace.{75} We may see in this replacing of the winter evergreens by the\ndelicate white flowers a hint that by Candlemas the worst of the winter\nis over and gone; Earth has begun to deck herself with blossoms, and\nspring, however feebly, has begun. With Candlemas we, like the older\nEnglish countryfolk, may take our leave of Christmas.\n\n|356| |357|\n\n\n\n\nCONCLUSION\n\n\nThe reader who has had patience to persevere will by now have gained some\nidea of the manner in which Christmas is, and has been, kept throughout\nEurope. We have traced the evolution of the festival, seen it take its\nrise soon after the victory of the Catholic doctrine of Christ's person\nat Nicea, and spread from Rome to every quarter of the Empire, not as a\nfolk-festival but as an ecclesiastical holy-day. We have seen the Church\ncondemn with horror the relics of pagan feasts which clung round the same\nseason of the year; then, as time went on, we have found the two\nelements, pagan and Christian, mingling in some degree, the pagan losing\nmost of its serious meaning, and continuing mainly as ritual performed\nfor the sake of use and wont or as a jovial tradition, the Christian\nbecoming humanized, the skeleton of dogma clothed with warm flesh and\nblood.\n\nWe have considered, as represented in poetry and liturgy, the strictly\necclesiastical festival, the commemoration of the Nativity as the\nbeginning of man's redemption. We have seen how in the carols, the cult\nof the _presepio_, and the religious drama, the Birth of the King of\nGlory in the stable at midwinter has presented itself in concrete form to\nthe popular mind, calling up a host of human emotions, a crowd of quaint\nand beautiful fancies. Lastly we have noted the survival, in the most\nvaried degrees of transformation, of things which are alien to\nChristianity and in some cases seem to go back to very primitive stages\nof thought and feeling. An antique reverence for the plant-world may lie,\nas we have seen, beneath the familiar institution of the Christmas-tree,\nsome sort of animal-worship may be at the bottom of the |358|\nbeast-masks common at winter festivals, survivals of sacrifice may linger\nin Christmas feasting, and in the family gatherings round the hearth may\nbe preserved a dim memory of ancient domestic rites.\n\nChristmas, indeed, regarded in all its aspects, is a microcosm of\nEuropean religion. It reflects almost every phase of thought and feeling\nfrom crude magic and superstition to the speculative mysticism of\nEckhart, from mere delight in physical indulgence to the exquisite\nspirituality and tenderness of St. Francis. Ascetic and _bon-vivant_,\nmystic and materialist, learned and simple, noble and peasant, all have\nfound something in it of which to lay hold. It is a river into which have\nflowed tributaries from every side, from Oriental religion, from Greek\nand Roman civilization, from Celtic, Teutonic, Slav, and probably\npre-Aryan, society, mingling their waters so that it is often hard to\ndiscover the far-away springs.\n\nWe have seen how the Reformation broke up the great mediaeval synthesis\nof paganism and Christianity, how the extremer forms of Protestantism\naimed at completely destroying Christmas, and how the general tendency of\nmodern civilization, with its scientific spirit, its popular education,\nits railways, its concentration of the people in great cities, has been\nto root out traditional beliefs and customs both Christian and pagan, so\nthat if we would seek for relics of the old things we must go to the\nregions of Europe that are least industrially and intellectually\n\"advanced.\" Yet amongst the most sceptical and \"enlightened\" of moderns\nthere is generally a large residuum of tradition. \"Emotionally,\" it has\nbeen said, \"we are hundreds of thousands of years old; rationally we are\nembryos\"{1}; and many people who deem themselves \"emancipated\" are\nwilling for once in the year to plunge into the stream of tradition,\nmerge themselves in inherited social custom, and give way to sentiments\nand impressions which in their more reflective moments they spurn. Most\nmen are ready at Christmas to put themselves into an instinctive rather\nthan a rational attitude, to drink of the springs of wonder, and return\nin some degree to earlier, less intellectual stages of human\ndevelopment--to become in fact children again.\n\n|359| Many elements enter into the modern Christmas. There is the\ndelight of its warmth and brightness and comfort against the bleak\nmidwinter. A peculiar charm of the northern Christmas lies in the thought\nof the cold barred out, the home made a warm, gay place in contrast with\nthe cheerless world outside. There is the physical pleasure of \"good\ncheer,\" of plentiful eating and drinking, joined to, and partly resulting\nin, a sense of goodwill and expansive kindliness towards the world at\nlarge, a temporary feeling of the brotherhood of man, a desire that the\npoor may for once in the year \"have a good time.\" Here perhaps we may\ntrace the influence of the _Saturnalia_, with its dreams of the age of\ngold, its exaltation of them of low degree. Mixed with a little\nsentimental Christianity this is the Christmas of Dickens--the Christmas\nwhich he largely helped to perpetuate in England.\n\nEach nation, naturally, has fashioned its own Christmas. The English have\nmade it a season of solid material comfort, of good-fellowship and\n\"charity,\" with a slight flavour of soothing religion. The modern French,\nsceptical and pagan, make little of Christmas, and concentrate upon the\nsecular celebration of the _jour de l'an_. For the Scandinavians\nChristmas is above all a time of sport, recreation, good living, and\nsocial gaiety in the midst of a season when little outdoor work can be\ndone and night almost swallows up day. The Germans, sentimental and\nchildlike, have produced a Christmas that is a very Paradise for children\nand at which the old delight to play at being young again around the\nTree. For the Italians Christmas is centred upon the cult of the\n_Bambino_, so fitted to their dramatic instincts, their love of display,\ntheir strong parental affection. (How much of the sentiment that\nsurrounds the _presepio_ is, though religiously heightened, akin to the\ndelight of a child in its doll!) If the Germans may be called the good,\nindustrious, sentimental children of Europe, making the most of simple\nthings, the Italians are the lively, passionate, impulsive children,\nloving gay clothes and finery; and the contrast shows in their keeping of\nChristmas.\n\nThe modern Christmas is above all things a children's feast, and the\nelders who join in it put themselves upon their children's |360| level.\nWe have noted how ritual acts, once performed with serious purpose, tend\nto become games for youngsters, and have seen many an example of this\nprocess in the sports and mummeries kept up by the elder folk for the\nbenefit of the children. We have seen too how the radiant figure of the\nChrist Child has become a gift-bringer for the little ones. At no time in\nthe world's history has so much been made of children as to-day, and\nbecause Christmas is their feast its lustre continues unabated in an age\nupon which dogmatic Christianity has largely lost its hold, which laughs\nat the pagan superstitions of its forefathers. Christmas is the feast of\nbeginnings, of instinctive, happy childhood; the Christian idea of the\nImmortal Babe renewing weary, stained humanity, blends with the thought\nof the New Year, with its hope and promise, laid in the cradle of Time.\n\n|361| |362| |363|\n\n\n\n\nNOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY\n\n\nCHAPTER I.--INTRODUCTION\n\n1.  #G. K. Chesterton# in #\"The Daily News,\"# Dec. 26, 1903.\n\n2.  _Ibid._ Dec. 23, 1911.\n\n3.  Cf. #J. E. Harrison, \"Themis: a Study of the Social Origins of Greek\n    Religion\"# (Cambridge, 1912), 139, 184.\n\n4.  Or plural _Weihnachten_. The name _Weihnachten_ was applied in five\n    different ways in mediaeval Germany: (1) to Dec. 25, (2) to Dec.\n    25-8, (3) to the whole Christmas week, (4) to Dec. 25 to Jan. 6, (5)\n    to the whole time from Christmas to the Octave of the Epiphany. #G.\n    Bilfinger, \"Das germanische Julfest\"# (Stuttgart, 1901), 39.\n\n5.  #A. Tille, \"Die Geschichte der deutschen Weihnacht\"# (Leipsic, 1893),\n    22. [Referred to as \"D. W.\"]\n\n6.  #H. Usener, \"Das Weihnachtsfest\"# (Kap. i., bis. iii. 2nd Edition,\n    Bonn, 1911), 273 f.\n\n7.  #L. Duchesne, \"Christian Worship: its Origin and Evolution\"# (Eng.\n    Trans., Revised Edition, London, 1912), 257 f.\n\n8.  #J. Hastings, \"Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics\"# (Edinburgh,\n    1910), iii. 601 f.\n\n9.  #E. K. Chambers, \"The Mediaeval Stage\"# (Oxford, 1903), i. 244.\n    [Referred to as \"M. S.\"]\n\n10. #A. Tille, \"Yule and Christmas: their Place in the Germanic Year\"#\n    (London, 1899), 122. [Referred to as \"Y. & C.\"]\n\n11. _Ibid._ 164.\n\n12. Tille, \"D. W.,\" 21.\n\n13. Tille, \"Y. & C.,\" 203.\n\n14. #K. Lake# in Hastings's \"Encyclopaedia\" and in #\"The Guardian,\"# Dec.\n    29, 1911; #F. C. Conybeare#, Preface to #\"The Key of Truth, a Manual\n    of the Paulician Church of Armenia\"# (Oxford, 1898), clii. f.;\n    Usener, 18 f.\n\n15. Usener, 27 f.\n\n16. _Ibid._ 31; #J. E. Harrison, \"Prolegomena to the Study of Greek\n    Religion\"# (Cambridge, 1903), 550.\n\n17. Harrison, \"Prolegomena,\" 402 f., 524 f., 550. |364|\n\n18. #Lake#, and #G. Rietschel, \"Weihnachten in Kirche, Kunst and\n    Volksleben\"# (Bielefeld and Leipsic, 1902), 10.\n\n19. Conybeare, lxxviii.\n\n20. #A. Lupi, \"Dissertazioni, lettere ed altre operette\"# (Faenza, 1785),\n    i. 219 f., mentioned in article \"Nativity\" in #T. K. Cheyne's\n    \"Encyclopaedia Biblica\"# (London, 1902), iii. 3346.\n\n21. Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 234.\n\n22. _Ibid._ i. 235; #F. Cumont, \"The Monuments of Mithra\"# (Eng. Trans.,\n    London, 1903), 190.\n\n23. #G. Negri, \"Julian the Apostate\"# (Eng. Trans., London, 1905),\n    i. 240 f.\n\n24. Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 235.\n\n25. Duchesne, \"Christian Worship,\" 265.\n\n26. Tille, \"Y. & C.,\" 146.\n\n\nPART I.--THE CHRISTIAN FEAST\n\n\nCHAPTER II.--CHRISTMAS POETRY (I)\n\n1.  See especially for Latin, German, and English hymnody #J. Julian, \"A\n    Dictionary of Hymnology\"# (New Edition, London, 1907), and the\n    #Historical Edition of \"Hymns Ancient and Modern\"# (London, 1909).\n\n2.  #H. C. Beeching, \"A Book of Christmas Verse\"# (London, 1895), 3.\n\n3.  Beeching, 8.\n\n4.  #A. Gastoue, \"Noel\"# (Paris, 1907), 38.\n\n5.  #R. W. Church, \"St. Anselm\"# (London, 1870), 6.\n\n6.  _Ibid._ 3 f.\n\n7.  #W. R. W. Stephens, \"The English Church from the Norman Conquest to\n    the Accession of Edward I.\"# (London, 1901), 309.\n\n8.  #W. Sandys, \"Christmastide: its History, Festivities, and Carols\"#\n    (London, n.d.), 216; #E. Rickert, \"Ancient English Carols.\n    MCCCC-MDCC\"# (London, 1910), 133.\n\n9.  For the Franciscan influence on poetry and art see: #Vernon Lee,\n    \"Renaissance Fancies and Studies\"# (London, 1895); #H. Thode, \"Franz\n    von Assisi und die Anfaenge der Kunst der Renaissance in Italien\"#\n    (Berlin, 1885); #A. Macdonell, \"Sons of Francis\"# (London, 1902); #J.\n    A. Symonds, \"The Renaissance in Italy. Italian Literature,\"# Part I.\n    (New Edition, London, 1898).\n\n10. #Thomas of Celano, \"Lives of St. Francis\"# (Eng. Trans. by A. G.\n    Ferrers Howell, London, 1908), 84.\n\n11. #P. Robinson, \"Writings of St. Francis\"# (London, 1906), 175.\n\n12. #\"Le poesie spirituali del B. Jacopone da Todi,\"# con annotationi di\n    Fra Francesco Tresatti (Venice, 1617), 266.\n\n13. _Ibid._ 275.\n\n14. _Ibid._ 867.\n\n15. #\"Stabat Mater speciosa,\"# trans. and ed. by J. M. Neale (London,\n    1866). |365|\n\n16. For German Christmas poetry see, besides Julian: #Hoffmann von\n    Fallersleben, \"Geschichte des deutschen Kirchenliedes bis auf Luthers\n    Zeit\"# (2nd Edition, Hanover, 1854); #P. Wackernagel, \"Das deutsche\n    Kirchenlied\"# (Leipsic, 1867); and #C. Winkworth, \"Christian Singers\n    of Germany\"# (London, n.d.).\n\n17. #R. M. Jones, \"Studies in Mystical Religion\"# (London, 1909), 235,\n    237.\n\n18. #\"Meister Eckharts Schriften und Predigten,\"# edited by H. Buttner\n    (Leipsic, 1903), i. 44.\n\n19. Translation by C. Winkworth, \"Christian Singers,\" 84. German text in\n    Wackernagel, ii. 302 f.\n\n20. #\"Deutsches Weihnachtsbuch\"# (Hamburg-Grossborstel, 1907), 125.\n\n21. #\"A Compendious Book of Godly and Spiritual Songs,\"# reprinted from\n    the Edition of 1567 by A. F. Mitchell (Edinburgh and London, 1897),\n    53. This translation is abridged and Protestantized. The mediaeval\n    German text, which is partly addressed to the Virgin, is given in\n    #Hoffmann von Fallersleben, \"In Dulci Jubilo\"# (Hanover, 1854), 46.\n    For the music see #G. R. Woodward, \"The Cowley Carol Book\"# (New\n    Edition, London, 1909), 20 f. [a work peculiarly rich in old German\n    airs].\n\n22. #K. Weinhold, \"Weihnacht-Spiele und Lieder aus Sueddeutschland und\n    Schlesien\"# (2nd Edition, Vienna, 1875), 385.\n\n23. _Ibid._ 396. [For help in the translation of German dialect I am\n    indebted to Dr. M. A. Muegge.]\n\n24. _Ibid._ 400.\n\n25. _Ibid._ 417.\n\n26. E. K. Chambers, essay on \"Some Aspects of Mediaeval Lyric\" in #\"Early\n    English Lyrics,\"# chosen by #E. K. Chambers and F. Sidgwick# (London,\n    1907), 290. [Twenty-five of Awdlay's carols were printed by Messrs.\n    #Chambers and Sidgwick# in #\"The Modern Language Review\"#\n    (Cambridge), Oct., 1910, and Jan., 1911.]\n\n27. _Ibid._ 293.\n\n28. Quoted by #J. J. Jusserand, \"A Literary History of the English\n    People\"# (2nd Edition, London, 1907), i. 218.\n\n29. Rickert, 6; Beeching, 13.\n\n30. No. lv. in Chambers and Sidgwick, \"Early English Lyrics.\"\n\n31. No. lix., _ibid._\n\n32. No. lxi., _ibid._\n\n33. No. lxx., _ibid._\n\n34. No. lxvii., _ibid._\n\n35. No. lxiii., _ibid._\n\n36. Rickert, 67.\n\n\nCHAPTER III.--CHRISTMAS POETRY (II)\n\n1.  #Noel Herve, \"Les Noels francais\"# (Niort, 1905), Gastoue, 57 f.; #G.\n    Gregory Smith, \"The Transition Period\"# (Edinburgh and London, 1900),\n    217.\n\n2.  Gregory Smith, 217.\n\n3.  #H. Lemeignen, \"Vieux Noels composes en l'honneur de la Naissance de\n    Notre-Seigneur Jesus-Christ\"# (Nantes, 1876), iii. 2 f.\n\n4.  _Ibid._ i. 10, 11.\n\n5.  _Ibid._ ii. 93, 95.\n\n6.  Herve, 46.\n\n7.  Lemeignen, i. 55. |366|\n\n8.  Lemeignen, i. 29.\n\n9.  #\"Les Vieux Noels,\"# in #\"Nouvelle Bibliotheque Populaire\"#\n    (published by Henri Gautier, 55 Quai des Grands Augustins, Paris).\n\n10. Lemeignen, i. 93.\n\n11. #H. J. L. J. Masse, \"A Book Of Old Carols\"# (London, 1910), i. 21.\n\n12. Herve, 86.\n\n13. Lemeignen, i. 71.\n\n14. \"Hymns Ancient and Modern\" (Historical Edition), 79. Translation is\n    No. 58 in Ordinary Edition.\n\n15. Herve, 132.\n\n16. A great number of these _villancicos_ and _romances_ may be found in\n    #Justo de Sancha, \"Romancero y Cancionero Sagrados\"# (Madrid,\n    1855, vol. 35 of Rivadeneyra's Library of Spanish Authors), and there\n    are some good examples in #J. N. Boehl de Faber, \"Rimas Antiguas\n    Castellanas\"# (Hamburg, 1823).\n\n17. Boehl de Faber, ii. 36.\n\n18. #F. Caballero, \"Elia y La Noche de Navidad\"# (Leipsic, 1864), 210.\n\n19. #A. de Gubernatis, \"Storia Comparata degli Usi Natalizi\"# (Milan,\n    1878), 90.\n\n20. These three verses are taken from #Countess Martinengo-Cesaresco's#\n    charming translation of the poem, in her #\"Essays in the Study of\n    Folk-Songs\"# (London, 1886), 304 f.\n\n21. Martinengo, \"Folk-Songs,\" 302 f.\n\n22. Latin text in Tille, \"D. W.,\" 311; Italian game in De Gubernatis, 93.\n\n23. Herve, 115 f.\n\n24. #W. Hone, \"The Ancient Mysteries Described\"# (London, 1823), 103.\n\n25. _Ibid._ 103.\n\n26. See Note 11.\n\n27. #D. Hyde, \"Religious Songs of Connacht\"# (London, 1906), ii. 225 f.\n\n28. #\"The Vineyard\"# (London), Dec., 1910, 144.\n\n29. \"Deutsches Weihnachtsbuch,\" 120 f.\n\n30. \"A Compendious Book of Godly and Spiritual Songs,\" 49 f. (spelling\n    here modernized); Rickert, 82 f.\n\n31. \"Deutsches Weihnachtsbuch,\" 123, and most German Protestant\n    hymnbooks.\n\n32. Translation by Miles Coverdale, in Rickert, 192 f.\n\n33. No. 5 in #Paulus Gerhardt, \"Geistliche Lieder,\"# ed. by P.\n    Wackernagel and W. Tuempel (9th Edition, Guetersloh, 1907).\n\n34. Translation by #C. Winkworth# in #\"Lyra Germanica\"# (New Edition,\n    London, 1869), ii. 13 f.\n\n35. \"Deutsches Weihnachtsbuch,\" 128 f.\n\n36. Translation (last verse altered) in #\"The British Herald\"# (London),\n    Sept., 1866, 329.\n\n37. #\"Christmas Carols New and Old,\"# the words edited by #H. R.\n    Bramley#, the music edited by #Sir John Stainer# (London, n.d.).\n\n38. Beeching, 27 f.\n\n39. _Ibid._ 67.\n\n40. _Ibid._ 49.\n\n41. _Ibid._ 76.\n\n42. _Ibid._ 48.\n\n43. _Ibid._ 45.\n\n44. _Ibid._ 42 f. |367|\n\n45. Beeching, 85 f.\n\n46. #Selwyn Image, \"Poems and Carols\"# (London, 1894), 25.\n\n47. #G. K. Chesterton# in #\"The Commonwealth\"# (London), Dec., 1902, 353.\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.--CHRISTMAS IN LITURGY AND POPULAR DEVOTION\n\n1.  Translation, \"Creator of the starry height,\" in \"Hymns A. and M.\"\n    (Ordinary Edition), No. 45.\n\n2.  #J. Dowden, \"The Church Year and Kalendar\"# (Cambridge, 1910), 76 f.\n\n3.  #\"Rational ou Manuel des divins Offices de Guillaume Durand, Eveque\n    de Mende au treizieme siecle,\"# traduit par #M. C. Barthelemy#\n    (Paris, 1854), iii. 155 f.\n\n4.  See translation of the Great O's in \"The English Hymnal,\" No. 734.\n\n5.  Barthelemy, iii. 220 f.\n\n6.  #D. Rock, \"The Church of Our Fathers\"# (London, 1853), vol. iii. pt.\n    ii. 214.\n\n7.  #J. K. Huysmans, \"L'Oblat\"# (Paris, 1903), 194.\n\n8.  Gastoue, 44 f.\n\n9.  #E. G. C. F. Atchley, \"Ordo Romanus Primus\"# (London, 1905), 71.\n\n10. #\"The Pilgrimage of S. Silvia of Aquitaine\"# (Eng. Trans. by J. H.\n    Bernard, London, 1891), 50 f.\n\n11. #S. D. Ferriman# in #\"The Daily News,\"# Dec. 25, 1911.\n\n12. #G. Bonaccorsi, \"Il Natale: appunti d'esegesi e di storia\"# (Rome,\n    1903), 73.\n\n13. Gastoue, 41 f.\n\n14. Bonaccorsi, 75.\n\n15. #H. Malleson and M. A. R. Tuker, \"Handbook to Christian and\n    Ecclesiastical Rome\"# (London, 1897), pt. ii. 211.\n\n16. #Th. Bentzon, \"Christmas In France\"# in #\"The Century Magazine\"# (New\n    York), Dec., 1901, 170 f.\n\n17. #L. von Hoermann, \"Tiroler Volksleben\"# (Stuttgart, 1909), 232.\n\n18. #M. J. Quin, \"A Visit to Spain\"# (2nd Edition, London, 1824), 126 f.\n\n19. #\"Madrid in 1835,\"# by a #Resident Officer# (London, 1836), i. 395 f.\n\n20. #W. S. Walsh, \"Curiosities of Popular Customs\"# (London, 1898), 237.\n\n21. #G. Pitre, \"Spettacoli e feste popolari siciliane\"# (Palermo, 1880),\n    444.\n\n22. Tille, \"D. W.,\" 70 f.\n\n23. #F. H. Woods, \"Sweden and Norway\"# (London, 1882), 209; #L. Lloyd,\n    \"Peasant Life in Sweden\"# (London, 1870), 201 f.\n\n24. #J. E. Vaux, \"Church Folklore\"# (London, 1894), 222 f.\n\n25. #M. Trevelyan, \"Folk-Lore and Folk-Stories of Wales\"# (London, 1909),\n    28.\n\n26. Vaux, 262 f.\n\n27. #R. F. Littledale, \"Offices from the Service-Books of the Holy\n    Eastern Church\"# (London, 1863), 174 f.\n\n28. #[Sir] A. J. Evans, \"Christmas and Ancestor Worship in the Black\n    Mountain,\"# in #\"Macmillan's Magazine\"# (London), vol. xliii., 1881,\n    228.\n\n29. Duchesne, 273.\n\n30. Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 245.\n\n31. #\"The Roman Breviary,\"# translated by #John, Marquess of Bute# (New\n    Edition Edinburgh and London, 1908), 186.\n\n32. See announcement in #\"The Roman Mail\"# in Jan., 1912. |368|\n\n33. #Mary Hamilton, \"Greek Saints and their Festivals\"# (London, 1910),\n    113 f.\n\n34. #H. Holloway, \"An Eastern Epiphany Service\"# in #\"Pax\"# (the Magazine\n    of the Caldey Island Benedictines), Dec., 1910.\n\n35. Hamilton, 119 f.\n\n36. Holloway, as above.\n\n37. #F. H. E. Palmer, \"Russian Life in Town and Country\"# (London, 1901),\n    176 f.\n\n38. Thomas of Celano, trans. by Howell, 82 f.\n\n39. #Countess Martinengo-Cesaresco, \"Puer Parvulus\"# in #\"The Outdoor\n    Life in the Greek and Roman Poets\"# (London, 1911), 248.\n\n40. Chambers, \"M. S.,\" ii. 41.\n\n41. Bonaccorsi, 85; Usener, 298.\n\n42. Usener, 290.\n\n43. _Ibid._ 295, 299.\n\n44. Rietschel, 55.\n\n45. _Ibid._ 56 f.\n\n46. _Ibid._ 60.\n\n47. _Ibid._ 69 f.; Tille, \"D. W.,\" 59 f.\n\n48. Music from #Trier \"Gesangbuch\"# (1911), No. 18, where a very much\n    weakened text is given. Text from Weinhold, 114. Another form of the\n    air is given in \"The Cowley Carol Book,\" No. 36.\n\n49. Text and music in Masse, i. 6.\n\n50. Tille, \"D. W.,\" 60.\n\n51. _Ibid._ 61 f.\n\n52. _Ibid._ 63.\n\n53. #Thomas Naogeorgus, \"The Popish Kingdome,\"# Englyshed by Barnabe\n    Googe, 1570 (ed. by R. C. Hope, London, 1880), 45.\n\n54. Tille, \"D. W.,\" 68.\n\n55. _Ibid._ 68.\n\n56. Hoermann, \"Tiroler Volksleben,\" 235.\n\n57. _Ibid._ 235.\n\n58. Tille, \"D. W.,\" 64.\n\n59. Rietschel, 75.\n\n60. Martinengo, \"Outdoor Life,\" 249.\n\n61. #Lady Morgan, \"Italy\"# (New Edition, London, 1821), iii. 72.\n\n62. #Matilde Serao, \"La Madonna e i Santi\"# (Naples, 1902), 223 f.\n\n63. #L. Caico, \"Sicilian Ways and Days\"# (London, 1910), 192 f.\n\n64. Information kindly given to the author by Mrs. C. G. Crump.\n\n65. Information derived by the author from a resident in Messina.\n\n66. Serao, _see_ Note 62.\n\n67. #W. H. D. Rouse, \"Religious Tableaux in Italian Churches,\"# in\n    #\"Folk-Lore\"# (London), vol. v., 1894, 6 f.\n\n68. Morgan, iii. 76 f.\n\n69. Bonaccorsi, 45 f.\n\n70. #A. J. C. Hare, \"Walks in Rome\"# (11th Edition, London, 1883), 157.\n\n71. Martinengo, \"Outdoor Life,\" 253; Bonaccorsi, 110 f.; #R. Ellis\n    Roberts, \"A Roman Pilgrimage\"# (London, 1911), 185 f.\n\n72. #H. J. Rose, \"Untrodden Spain\"# (London, 1875), 276.\n\n73. See Note 18 to Chapter III. |369|\n\n74. #T. F. Thiselton Dyer, \"British Popular Customs\"# (London, 1876),\n    464.\n\n75. Vaux, 216.\n\n76. Dyer, 464.\n\n77. Cf. Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 120.\n\n\nCHAPTER V.--CHRISTMAS DRAMA\n\n1.  This account of the mediaeval Christmas drama owes much to Chambers,\n    \"The Mediaeval Stage,\" especially chaps. xviii. to xx., and to #W.\n    Creizenach, \"Geschichte des neueren Dramas\"# (Halle a/S.,\n    1893), vol. i., bks. ii.-iv. See also: #Karl Pearson#, essay on #\"The\n    German Passion Play\"# in #\"The Chances of Death, and other Studies in\n    Evolution\"# (London, 1897), ii. 246 f.; #E. Du Meril, \"Origines\n    latines du theatre moderne\"# (Paris, 1849); #L. Petit de Julleville,\n    \"Histoire du theatre en France au moyen age. I. Les Mysteres\"#\n    (Paris, 1880); and other works cited later.\n\n2.  Chambers, \"M. S.,\" ii. 8 f.\n\n3.  _Ibid._ ii. 11.\n\n4.  Du Meril, 147.\n\n5.  Chambers, \"M. S.,\" ii. 52.\n\n6.  Text in Du Meril, 153 f.\n\n7.  Chambers, \"M. S.,\" ii. 44.\n\n8.  _Ibid._ ii. 52 f.\n\n9.  On the English plays see: Chambers, \"M. S.,\" chaps. xx. and xxi.; #A.\n    W. Ward, \"A History of English Dramatic Literature\"# (London,\n    1875), vol. i. chap. i.; Creizenach, vol. i.; #K. L. Bates, \"The\n    English Religious Drama\"# (London, 1893).\n\n10. Chambers, \"M. S.,\" ii. 129, 131, 139.\n\n11. #\"Ludus Coventriae,\"# ed. by J. O. Halliwell (London, 1841), 146 f.\n\n12. #\"York Plays,\"# ed. by L. Toulmin Smith (Oxford, 1885), 114 f.\n\n13. #\"The Chester Plays,\"# ed. by T. Wright (London, 1843), 137.\n\n14. _Ibid._ 138.\n\n15. _Ibid._ 143.\n\n16. #\"The Towneley Plays,\"# ed. by George England, with Introduction by\n    A. W. Pollard (London, 1897). The first Shepherds' Play is on p.\n    100 f., the second on p. 116 f.\n\n17. Text from Chambers and Sidgwick, \"Early English Lyrics,\" 124 f.\n\n18. Text in #T. Sharp, \"A Dissertation on the Pageants or Dramatic\n    Mysteries anciently performed at Coventry\"# (Coventry, 1825).\n\n19. Petit de Julleville, ii. 36 f and 431 f.\n\n20. _Ibid._ ii. 620 f.; #\"Les marguerites de la Marguerite des\n    princesses,\"# ed. from the edition of 1547 by F. Frank (Paris, 1873),\n    ii. 1 f.\n\n21. Petit de Julleville, i. 441.\n\n22. _Ibid._ i. 455. Text in Lemeignen, ii. 1 f.\n\n23. Petit de Julleville, i. 79 f.\n\n24. #P. Sebillot, \"Coutumes populaires de la Haute-Bretagne\"# (Paris,\n    1886), 177.\n\n25. Martinengo, \"Folk-Songs,\" xxxiii. f. In her essay, \"Puer Parvulus,\"\n    in \"The Outdoor Life,\" 260 f., the Countess gives a charming\n    description of a somewhat similar Piedmontese play.\n\n26. Barthelemy, iii. 411 f. |370|\n\n27. Rietschel, 88 f.; #O. von Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, \"Das festliche\n    Jahr\"# (2nd Edition, Leipsic, 1898), 439 f.\n\n28. Rietschel, 92 f.\n\n29. An interesting book on popular Christmas plays is #F. Vogt, \"Die\n    schlesischen Weihnachtspiele\"# (Leipsic, 1901).\n\n30. Weinhold, 94.\n\n31. _Ibid._ 95 f.\n\n32. _Ibid._ 100 f.\n\n33. _Ibid._ 96 f.\n\n34. See Chambers, \"M. S.,\" ii. 91 f.; Symonds, \"Renaissance,\" iv. 242,\n    272 f.; #A. d'Ancona, \"Origini del Teatro italiano\"# (Florence,\n    1877), i. 87 f.\n\n35. D'Ancona, \"Origini,\" i. 126 f.\n\n36. #A. d'Ancona, \"Sacre Rappresentazioni dei secoli xiv, xv e xvi\"#\n    (Florence, 1872), i. 191 f.\n\n37. _Ibid._ i. 192.\n\n38. Latin original quoted by D'Ancona, \"Origini,\" i. 91, and Chambers,\n    \"M. S.,\" ii. 93.\n\n39. Creizenach, i. 347.\n\n40. #J. Fitzmaurice-Kelly, \"A History of Spanish Literature\"# (London,\n    1898), 113.\n\n41. #Juan del Encina, \"Teatro Completo\"# (Madrid, 1893), 3 f., 137 f.\n\n42. See #G. Ticknor, \"History of Spanish Literature\"# (6th American\n    Edition, Boston, 1888), ii. 283 f.\n\n43. _Ibid._ ii. 208.\n\n44. #\"Archivio per lo studio delle tradizioni popolari\"# (Palermo and\n    Turin), vol. xxi., 1902, 381.\n\n45. Pitre, 448.\n\n46. Fernan Caballero, \"Elia y La Noche de Navidad,\" 222 f.\n\n47. Lloyd, 213 f.\n\n48. #H. F. Feilberg, \"Jul\"# (Copenhagen, 1904), ii. 242 f.\n\n49. #E. Cortet, \"Essai sur les fetes religieuses\"# (Paris, 1867), 38.\n\n50. Sebillot, 215.\n\n51. Feilberg, ii. 250; Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 31 f.; #T. Stratilesco,\n    \"From Carpathian to Pindus: Pictures of Roumanian Country Life\"#\n    (London, 1906), 195 f.; #E. van Norman, \"Poland: the Knight among\n    Nations\"# (London and New York, 3rd Edition, n.d.), 302; #S. Graham,\n    \"A Vagabond in the Caucasus. With some Notes of his Experiences among\n    the Russians\"# (London, 1910), 28.\n\n52. Translation in #Karl Hase, \"Miracle Plays and Sacred Dramas\"# (Eng.\n    Trans., London, 1880), 9; German text in Weinhold, 132.\n\n53. Hoermann, \"Tiroler Volksleben,\" 247 f.\n\n54. Graham, 28.\n\n55. Stratilesco, 195 f.\n\n56. _Ibid._ 355 f.\n\n57. Van Norman, 302.\n\n58. Cortet, 42.\n\n59. Barthelemy, iii. 411 f.\n\n60. #Madame Calderon de la Barca, \"Life in Mexico\"# (London, 1843),\n    237 f.\n\n\nPOSTSCRIPT\n\n1.  #E. Underhill, \"Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of\n    Man's Spiritual Consciousness\"# (London, 1911), 305. |371|\n\n\nPART II.--PAGAN SURVIVALS\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.--PRE-CHRISTIAN WINTER FESTIVALS\n\n1.  #Karl Pearson#, essay on #\"Woman as Witch\"# in #\"The Chances of Death\n    and other Studies in Evolution\"# (London, 1897), ii. 16.\n\n2.  Cf. #J. G. Frazer, \"The Dying God\"# (London, 1911), 269.\n\n3.  #J. A. MacCulloch, \"The Religion of the Ancient Celts\"# (Edinburgh,\n    1911), 278.\n\n4.  Frazer, \"Dying God,\" 266.\n\n5.  #E. Anwyl, \"Celtic Religion in Pre-Christian Times\"# (London, 1906),\n    1 f.\n\n6.  _Ibid._ 20; cf. #E. K. Chambers, \"The Mediaeval Stage\"# (Oxford,\n    1903), i. 100 f. [Referred to as \"M. S.\"]\n\n7.  #W. Robertson Smith, \"Lectures on the Religion of the Semites\"# (New\n    Edition, London, 1894), 16.\n\n8.  Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 236; #W. W. Fowler, \"The Roman Festivals of the\n    Period of the Republic\"# (London, 1899), 272.\n\n9.  #\"The Works of Lucian of Samosata\"# (Eng. Trans. by H. W. and F. G.\n    Fowler, Oxford, 1905), iv. 108 f.\n\n10. #John Brand, \"Observations on Popular Antiquities\"# (New Edition,\n    with the Additions of Sir Henry Ellis, London, Chatto & Windus,\n    1900), 283.\n\n11. \"Works of Lucian,\" iv. 114 f.\n\n12. _Ibid._ iv. 109.\n\n13. #J. G. Frazer, \"The Golden Bough\"# (2nd Edition, London, 1900), iii.\n    138 f., and #\"The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kingship\"# (London,\n    1911), ii. 310 f.\n\n14. #W. W. Fowler, \"The Religious Experience of the Roman People\"#\n    (London, 1911), 107, 112.\n\n15. Fowler, \"Roman Festivals,\" 268, and \"Religious Experience,\" 107; #C.\n    Bailey, \"The Religion of Ancient Rome\"# (London, 1907), 70.\n\n16. Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 237 f.; Fowler, \"Roman Festivals,\" 278.\n\n17. Quoted from #\"Libanii Opera,\"# ed. by Reiske, i. 256 f., by #G.\n    Bilfinger, \"Das germanische Julfest\"# (vol. ii. of \"Untersuchungen\n    ueber die Zeitrechnung der alten Germanen,\" Stuttgart, 1901), 41 f.\n\n18. \"Libanii Opera,\" iv. 1053 f., quoted by Bilfinger, 43 f.\n\n19. Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 237 f., 258.\n\n20. #A. Tille, \"Yule and Christmas\"# (London, 1899), 96. [Referred to as\n    \"Y. & C.\"]\n\n21. #J. C. Lawson, \"Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion\"#\n    (Cambridge, 1910), 221 f. Cf. #M. Hamilton, \"Greek Saints and their\n    Festivals\"# (London, 1910), 98.\n\n22. Chambers, \"M. S.,\" ii. 290 f.\n\n23. Latin text in Chambers, \"M. S.,\" ii. 297 f.\n\n24. _Ibid._ i. 245.\n\n25. Tille, \"Y. & C.,\" 88 f.; Chambers, \"M. S.,\" ii. 303 f. |372|\n\n26. Tille, \"Y. & C.,\" throughout; Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 288 f.;\n    #Chantepie de la Saussaye, \"The Religion of the Ancient Teutons\"#\n    (Boston, 1902), 382. Cf. #O. Schrader#, in #Hastings's \"Encyclopaedia\n    of Religion and Ethics\"# (Edinburgh, 1909), ii. 47 f.\n\n27. MacCulloch, \"Religion of the Ancient Celts,\" 258 f. Cf. Chambers, \"M.\n    S.,\" i. 228, 234.\n\n28. Tille, \"Y. & C.,\" 203.\n\n29. #[Sir] A. J. Evans, \"Christmas and Ancestor Worship in the Black\n    Mountain,\"# in #\"Macmillan's Magazine\"# (London), vol. xliii., 1881,\n    363.\n\n30. Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 247.\n\n31. Tille, \"Y. & C.,\" 64.\n\n32. Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 232.\n\n33. _Ibid._ i. 130; W. Robertson Smith, 213 f.\n\n34. Frazer, \"Dying God,\" 129 f.\n\n35. See #N. W. Thomas# in #\"Folk-Lore\"# (London), vol. xi., 1900, 227 f.\n\n36. Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 132 f.\n\n37. W. Robertson Smith, 437 f.\n\n38. #J. E. Harrison, \"Themis: A Study of the Social Origins of Greek\n    Religion\"# (Cambridge, 1912), 67. Cf. #E. F. Ames, \"The Psychology of\n    Religious Experience\"# (London and Boston, 1910), 95 f.\n\n39. Harrison, \"Themis,\" 137.\n\n40. _Ibid._ 110.\n\n41. #S. Reinach, \"Cultes, mythes, et religions\"# (Paris, 1905), i. 93.\n    For the theory that totems were originally food-objects, see Ames,\n    118 f.\n\n42. Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 133.\n\n43. _Ibid._ i. 105 f., 144.\n\n44. Harrison, \"Themis,\" 507.\n\n45. W. Robertson Smith, 255.\n\n46. #Bede, \"Historia Ecclesiastica,\"# lib. i. cap. 30. Latin text in\n    Bede's Works, edited by J. A. Giles (London, 1843), vol. ii. p. 142.\n\n47. Frazer, \"Golden Bough,\" iii. 143.\n\n48. #Jerome, \"Comm. in Isaiam,\"# lxv. 11. Latin text in Chambers, \"M. S.,\"\n    ii. 294.\n\n49. Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 266.\n\n50. Latin text in Chambers, \"M. S.,\" ii. 306.\n\n51. #Bede, \"De Temporum Ratione,\"# cap. 15, quoted by Chambers, i. 231.\n    See also Tille, \"Y. & C.,\" 152 f., and Bilfinger, 131, for other\n    views.\n\n52. Frazer, \"Golden Bough,\" iii. 70 f.\n\n53. See Frazer, \"Magic Art,\" i. 52.\n\n54. Cf. Frazer, \"Golden Bough,\" iii. 300 f.\n\n55. Latin text in #H. Usener, \"Religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen,\"#\n    part ii. (Bonn, 1889), 43 f. See also #A. Tille, \"Die Geschichte der\n    deutschen Weihnacht\"# (Leipsic, 1893), 44 f. [Referred to as \"D. W.\"]\n\n56. #Philip Stubbs, \"Anatomie Of Abuses\"# (Reprint of 3rd Edition of\n    1585, edited by W. B. Turnbull, London, 1836), 205.\n\n57. Quoted by #J. Ashton, \"A righte Merrie Christmasse!!\"#\n    (London, n.d.), 26 f.\n\n58. _Ibid._ 27 f. |373|\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.--ALL HALLOW TIDE TO MARTINMAS\n\n1.  #R. Chambers, \"The Book Of Days\"# (London, n.d.), ii. 538 [referred\n    to as \"B. D.\"]; #T. F. Thiselton Dyer, \"British Popular Customs\"#\n    (London, 1876), 396 f.\n\n2.  #[Sir] J. Rhys, \"Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as\n    illustrated by Celtic Heathendom\"# (London, 1888), 514, #\"Celtic\n    Folklore: Welsh and Manx\"# (Oxford, 1901), i. 321.\n\n3.  Tille, \"Y. & C.,\" 57 f.\n\n4.  Rhys, \"Celtic Folklore,\" i. 315 f.\n\n5.  #J. Dowden, \"The Church Year and Kalendar\"# (Cambridge, 1910), 23 f.\n\n6.  Cf. #J. G. Frazer, \"Adonis, Attis, Osiris\"# (2nd Edition, London,\n    1907), 315 f.\n\n7.  #E. B. Tylor, \"Primitive Culture\"# (3rd Edition, London, 1891),\n    ii. 38.\n\n8.  Frazer, \"Adonis,\" 310.\n\n9.  _Ibid._ 312 f.\n\n10. #P. Sebillot, \"Coutumes populaires de la Haute-Bretagne\"# (Paris,\n    1886), 206.\n\n11. #L. von Hoermann, \"Tiroler Volksleben\"# (Stuttgart, 1909), 193.\n\n12. Frazer, \"Adonis,\" 315.\n\n13. #G. Pitre, \"Spettacoli e feste popolari siciliane\"# (Palermo, 1880),\n    393 f. Cf. #H. F. Feilberg, \"Jul\"# (Copenhagen, 1904), i. 67.\n\n14. #\"Notes and Queries\"# (London), 3rd Series, vol. i. 446; Dyer, 408.\n\n15. Frazer, \"Adonis,\" 250.\n\n16. Dyer, 405 f.\n\n17. _Notes and Queries_, 1st Series, vol. iv. 381; Dyer, 407.\n\n18. #C. S. Burne and G. F. Jackson, \"Shropshire Folk-Lore\"# (London,\n    1883), 383.\n\n19. _Ibid._ 381 f.\n\n20. Quoted by Dyer, 410.\n\n21. #O. von Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, \"Das festliche Jahr der germanischen\n    Voelker\"# (2nd Edition, Leipsic, 1898), 390.\n\n22. #\"Archivio per lo studio delle tradizioni popolari\"#\n    (Palermo), vol. viii. 574.\n\n23. Hoermann, \"Tiroler Volksleben,\" 189 f.\n\n24. Frazer, \"Adonis,\" 303 f.\n\n25. _Ibid._ 306 f.\n\n26. Evans, 363 f.\n\n27. Dyer, 394.\n\n28. _Ibid._ 398.\n\n29. _Ibid._ 394. Cf. Chambers, \"B. D.,\" ii. 519 f.\n\n30. Dyer, 395.\n\n31. _Ibid._ 399.\n\n32. _Ibid._ 397 f.\n\n33. #S. O. Addy, \"Household Tales, with other Traditional Remains.\n    Collected in the Counties of Lincoln, Derby, and Nottingham\"# (London\n    and Sheffield, 1895), 82.\n\n34. _Ibid._ 85.\n\n35. #W. Henderson, \"Folk Lore of the Northern Counties of England and the\n    Borders\"# (2nd Edition, London, 1879), 101.\n\n36. Dyer, 399.\n\n37. _Ibid._ 403. |374|\n\n38. Rhys, \"Celtic Folklore,\" i. 321, \"Celtic Heathendom,\" 514.\n\n39. Rhys, \"Celtic Folklore,\" i. 328.\n\n40. MacCulloch, \"Religion of the Ancient Celts,\" 259, 261.\n\n41. Rhys, \"Celtic Heathendom,\" 515.\n\n42. _Ibid._ 515.\n\n43. _Ibid._ 515, \"Celtic Folklore,\" i. 225.\n\n44. MacCulloch, \"Religion of the Ancient Celts,\" 262.\n\n45. Brand, 211.\n\n46. Dyer, 402.\n\n47. _Ibid._ 394 f.\n\n48. Frazer, \"Golden Bough,\" iii. 299 f.\n\n49. Burne and Jackson, 389.\n\n50. Dyer, 409.\n\n51. #J. Grimm, \"Teutonic Mythology\"# (Eng. Trans. by J. S. Stallybrass,\n    London, 1880-8), i. 47.\n\n52. #K. Weinhold, \"Weihnacht-Spiele und Lieder aus Sueddeutschland und\n    Schlesien\"# (Vienna, 1875), 6.\n\n53. #U. Jahn, \"Die deutschen Opfergebraeuche bei Ackerbau und Viehzucht\"#\n    (Breslau, 1884), 262.\n\n54. _Ibid._ 262.\n\n55. Weinhold, 6.\n\n56. Dyer, 472.\n\n57. _Notes and Queries_, 1st Series, vol. i. 173; Dyer, 486.\n\n58. Weinhold, 7.\n\n59. _Ibid._ 10.\n\n60. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 449.\n\n61. Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 166.\n\n62. Dyer, 480.\n\n63. Feilberg, ii. 228 f.\n\n64. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 393.\n\n65. #Tacitus, \"Annales,\"# lib. i. cap. 50, quoted by Tille, \"Y. & C.,\"\n    25.\n\n66. Tille, \"Y. & C.,\" 26.\n\n67. _Ibid._ 52.\n\n68. _Ibid._ 27.\n\n69. Brand, 216 f.\n\n70. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 401 f. For German Martinmas feasting, see also\n    Jahn, 229 f.\n\n71. Grimm, iv. 1838, for Danish custom; Jahn, 235 f., for German.\n\n72. #\"The Folk-Lore Record\"# (London), vol. iv., 1881, 107; Dyer, 420.\n\n73. MacCulloch, \"Religion of the Ancient Celts,\" 260.\n\n74. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 403.\n\n75. Jahn, 246 f.\n\n76. _Ibid._ 246; Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 403.\n\n77. Tille, \"Y. & C.,\" 34 f.\n\n78. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 404; Jahn, 250.\n\n79. Jahn, 247.\n\n80. Angela Nardo-Cibele in _Archivio trad. pop._, vol. v. 238 f., for\n    Venetia; Pitre, 411 f., for Sicily.\n\n81. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 405. |375|\n\n82. Jahn, 240.\n\n83. _Ibid._ 241 f.\n\n84. _Ibid._ 241.\n\n85. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 404.\n\n86. Weinhold, 7.\n\n87. Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 268; Weinhold, 7; Tille, \"D. W.,\" 25.\n\n88. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, illustration facing p. 406.\n\n89. _Ibid._ 405.\n\n90. _Ibid._ 404.\n\n91. _Ibid._ 410; Tille, \"D. W.,\" 26 f.; #W. Mannhardt, \"Der Baumkultus\n    der Germanen und ihrer Nachbarstaemme\"# (Berlin, 1875. Vol. i. of\n    \"Wald- und Feldkulte\"), 273.\n\n92. Cf. Mannhardt, \"Baumkultus,\" 303, and Reinach, i. 180.\n\n93. _Archivio trad. pop._, vol. v. 238 f., 358 f.\n\n94. Mannhardt, \"Baumkultus,\" 274.\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.--ST. CLEMENT TO ST. THOMAS\n\n1.  Dyer, 423.\n\n2.  _Notes and Queries_, 1st Series, vol. viii. 618; Dyer, 425.\n\n3.  Brand, 222 f.\n\n4.  Henderson, \"Folk Lore of the Northern Counties,\" 97.\n\n5.  _Notes and Queries_, 3rd Series, vol. iv. 492; Dyer, 423.\n\n6.  Dyer, 425.\n\n7.  Brand, 222.\n\n8.  _Ibid._ 223.\n\n9.  _Notes and Queries_, 2nd Series, vol. v. 47; Dyer, 427.\n\n10. Dyer, 426 f.\n\n11. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 415.\n\n12. #J. N. Raphael# in #\"The Daily Express,\"# Nov. 28, 1911.\n\n13. Dyer, 430.\n\n14. _Ibid._ 429.\n\n15. Tille, \"D. W.,\" 148.\n\n16. #B. Thorpe, \"Northern Mythology\"# (London, 1852), iii. 143.\n\n17. _Ibid._ iii. 144.\n\n18. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 416 f. Cf. Grimm, iv. 1800.\n\n19. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 417. Cf. Thorpe, iii. 145.\n\n20. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 418.\n\n21. Thorpe, iii. 145.\n\n22. #F. S. Krauss, \"Sitte und Brauch der Suedslaven\"# (Vienna, 1885), 179.\n\n23. #T. Stratilesco, \"From Carpathian to Pindus: Pictures of Roumanian\n    Country Life\"# (London, 1906), 189.\n\n24. _Ibid._ 188 f.\n\n25. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 416.\n\n26. _Ibid._ 420 f.\n\n27. _Ibid._ 425. |376|\n\n28. #Thomas Naogeorgus, \"The Popish Kingdome,\"# Englyshed by Barnabe\n    Googe, 1570 (ed. by R. C. Hope, London, 1880), 44.\n\n29. #G. F. Abbott, \"Macedonian Folklore\"# (Cambridge, 1903), 76.\n\n30. #P. M. Hough, \"Dutch Life in Town and Country\"# (London, 1901), 96.\n\n31. Cf. Frazer, \"Golden Bough,\" iii. 90, and also the Epiphany\n    noise-makings described in the present volume.\n\n32. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 426.\n\n33. Hoermann, \"Tiroler Volksleben,\" 218 f.\n\n34. Tille, \"D. W.,\" 30.\n\n35. Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 370.\n\n36. Hamilton, 30. Cf. article on St. Nicholas by Professor Anichkof in\n    _Folk-Lore_, vol. v., 1894, 108 f.\n\n37. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 428 f.\n\n38. Tille, \"D. W.,\" 35 f.; Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 430.\n\n39. Hoermann, \"Tiroler Volksleben,\" 209 f.\n\n40. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 430.\n\n41. Weinhold, 9.\n\n42. Mannhardt, \"Baumkultus,\" 326.\n\n43. Weinhold, 9.\n\n44. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 431 f.\n\n45. Hoermann, \"Tiroler Volksleben,\" 212 f.\n\n46. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 433.\n\n47. _Ibid._ 433.\n\n48. Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 369.\n\n49. #W. S. Walsh, \"Curiosities of Popular Customs\"# (London, 1898),\n    753 f. Cf. Chambers, \"B. D.,\" ii. 664.\n\n50. Feilberg, i. 165, 170.\n\n51. _Ibid._ i. 169 f.\n\n52. _Ibid._ i. 171.\n\n53. #L. Caico, \"Sicilian Ways and Days\"# (London, 1910), 188 f.\n\n54. Feilberg, i. 168.\n\n55. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 434.\n\n56. _Ibid._ 434 f.\n\n57. Grimm, iv. 1867.\n\n58. Feilberg, i. 108 f.\n\n59. _Ibid._ i. 111.\n\n60. N. W. Thomas in _Folk-Lore_, vol. xi., 1900, 252.\n\n61. Ashton, 52.\n\n62. Dyer, 72 f.\n\n63. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 436 f.\n\n64. _Ibid._ 437.\n\n65. _Ibid._ 438.\n\n66. _Ibid._ 439.\n\n67. Dyer, 439.\n\n68. _Ibid._ 438 f.; Chambers, \"B. D.,\" ii. 724.\n\n69. Abbott, 81.\n\n70. _Notes and Queries_, 2nd Series, vol. v. 35; Dyer, 439. |377|\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.--CHRISTMAS EVE AND THE TWELVE DAYS\n\n1.  Tille, \"D. W.,\" 32 f.\n\n2.  Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 446.\n\n3.  _Ibid._ 448.\n\n4.  _Ibid._ 449.\n\n5.  _Ibid._ 448; Weinhold, 8 f.\n\n6.  Evans, 229.\n\n7.  Weinhold, 8.\n\n8.  Tille, \"Y. & C.,\" 116.\n\n9.  Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 444 f.\n\n10. _Ibid._ 442 f.\n\n11. _Ibid._ 444.\n\n12. #W. R. S. Ralston, \"Songs of the Russian People\"# (1st Edition,\n    London, 1872), 186 f.\n\n13. Sebillot, 216.\n\n14. Walsh, 232.\n\n15. Burne and Jackson, 406; Henderson, \"Folk Lore of the Northern\n    Counties,\" 311; #Sir Edgar MacCulloch, \"Guernsey Folk Lore\"# (London,\n    1903), 34; Thorpe, ii. 272.\n\n16. Walsh, 232.\n\n17. Henderson, \"Folk Lore of the Northern Counties,\" 311.\n\n18. MacCulloch, \"Guernsey Folk Lore,\" 34 f. Cf. for Germany, Grimm,\n    iv. 1779, 1809.\n\n19. Grimm, iv. 1840.\n\n20. Ralston, 201.\n\n21. #A. Le Braz, \"La Legende de la Mort chez les Bretons armoricains\"#\n    (Paris, 1902), i. 114 f.\n\n22. Thorpe, ii. 89.\n\n23. Lloyd, 171.\n\n24. Feilberg, ii. 7 f.\n\n25. _Ibid._ ii. 14.\n\n26. Bilfinger, 52.\n\n27. Feilberg, ii. 3 f.\n\n28. _Ibid._ ii. 20 f.\n\n29. #A. F. M. Ferryman, \"In the Northman's Land\"# (London, 1896), 112.\n\n30. Feilberg, ii. 64.\n\n31. Grimm, iv. 1781, 1783, 1793, 1818.\n\n32. Krauss, 181.\n\n33. Accounts of the carols used in Little Russia are given by Mr.\n    Ralston, 186 f., while those sung by the Roumanians are described by\n    Mlle. Stratilesco, 192 f., and those customary in Dalmatia by Sir A.\n    J. Evans, 224 f.\n\n34. Ralston, 193.\n\n35. Stratilesco, 192.\n\n36. Ralston, 197.\n\n37. Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 244.\n\n38. #Shakespeare, \"Hamlet,\" Act I. Sc. 1.#\n\n39. Bilfinger, 37 f.\n\n40. Henderson, \"Folk Lore of the Northern Counties,\" 132. |378|\n\n41. Tylor, i. 362.\n\n42. #W. Golther, \"Handbuch der germanischen Mythologie\"# (Leipsic, 1895),\n    283 f.\n\n43. Tille, \"D. W.,\" 173.\n\n44. Henderson, \"Folk Lore of the Northern Counties,\" 132.\n\n45. MacCulloch, \"Guernsey Folk Lore,\" 33 f.\n\n46. Burne and Jackson, 396 f., 403.\n\n47. #R. T. Hampson, \"Medii Aevi Kalendarium\"# (London, 1841), i. 90.\n\n48. Grimm, iv. 1836; Thorpe, ii. 272.\n\n49. Burne and Jackson, 405.\n\n50. _Ibid._ 405; MacCulloch, \"Religion of the Ancient Celts,\" 166.\n\n51. #E. H. Meyer, \"Mythologie der Germanen\"# (Strassburg, 1903), 424;\n    Golther, 491; Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 22 f.\n\n52. Golther, 493.\n\n53. Meyer, 425 f.\n\n54. _Ibid._ 425 f.\n\n55. Grimm, iii. 925 f.\n\n56. _Ibid._ i. 268, 275 f.\n\n57. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 22.\n\n58. Grimm, i. 275; Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 23.\n\n59. _Ibid._ 23.\n\n60. Meyer, 425; Grimm, i. 281.\n\n61. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 21.\n\n62. Golther, 493.\n\n63. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 24.\n\n64. Grimm, i. 274.\n\n65. Meyer, 428.\n\n66. #R. H. Busk, \"The Valleys of Tirol\"# (London, 1874), 116.\n\n67. _Ibid._ 118.\n\n68. _Ibid._ 417.\n\n69. The details given about the _Kallikantzaroi_ are taken, unless\n    otherwise stated, from Lawson, 190 f.\n\n70. Abbott, 74.\n\n71. Hamilton, 108 f.\n\n72. _Ibid._ 109.\n\n73. Abbott, 218.\n\n74. _Ibid._ 73 f.\n\n75. Meyer, 85 f.\n\n76. #G. Henderson, \"Survivals of Belief among the Celts\"# (Glasgow, 1911),\n    178.\n\n77. _Ibid._ 177.\n\n78. #F. H. E. Palmer, \"Russian Life In Town and Country\"# (London, 1901),\n    178.\n\n\nCHAPTER X.--THE YULE LOG\n\n1.  Evans, 221 f.; Mannhardt, \"Baumkultus,\" 224 f. Cf. the account of the\n    Servian Christmas in #Chedo Mijatovitch, \"Servia and the Servians\"#\n    (London, 1908), 98 f.\n\n2.  Same sources. |379|\n\n3.  Mannhardt, \"Baumkultus,\" 236.\n\n4.  Frazer, \"Magic Art,\" ii. 208.\n\n5.  _Ibid._ ii. 232.\n\n6.  Evans, 219, 295, and 357.\n\n7.  _Ibid._ 222.\n\n8.  Mannhardt, \"Baumkultus,\" 237.\n\n9.  Cf. Frazer, \"Magic Art,\" ii. 233.\n\n10. _Ibid._ ii. 365 f.\n\n11. Mannhardt, \"Baumkultus,\" 226 f.\n\n12. #\"Memoirs of Mistral\"# (Eng. Trans. by C. E. Maud, London, 1907),\n    29 f.\n\n13. Mannhardt, \"Baumkultus,\" 226 f.\n\n14. Sebillot, 218.\n\n15. #A. de Gubernatis, \"Storia Comparata degli Usi Natalizi\"# (Milan,\n    1878), 112.\n\n16. C. Casati in _Archivio trad. pop._, vol. vi. 168 f.\n\n17. Jahn, 253.\n\n18. _Ibid._ 254.\n\n19. _Ibid._ 257.\n\n20. Brand, 245; Dyer, 466.\n\n21. #[Sir] G. L. Gomme, \"Folk Lore Relics of Early Village Life\"# (London\n    1883), 99.\n\n22. Ashton, 111.\n\n23. Burne and Jackson, 402.\n\n24. _Ibid._ 398 f.\n\n25. _Notes and Queries_, 1st Series, vol. iv. 309; Dyer, 446 f.\n\n26. #\"The Gentleman's Magazine,\"# 1790, 719.\n\n27. Hampson, i. 109.\n\n28. Feilberg, i. 118 f.\n\n29. _Ibid._ i. 146.\n\n30. _Ibid._ ii. 66 f.\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.--THE CHRISTMAS-TREE, DECORATIONS, AND GIFTS\n\n1.  #I. A. R. Wylie, \"My German Year\"# (London, 1910), 68.\n\n2.  #Mrs. A. Sidgwick, \"Home Life in Germany\"# (London, 1908), 176.\n\n3.  Tille, \"D. W.,\" 258. For the history and associations of the\n    Christmas-tree see also #E. M. Kronfeld, \"Der Weihnachtsbaum\"#\n    (Oldenburg, 1906).\n\n4.  Tille, \"D. W.,\" 259.\n\n5.  _Ibid._ 261.\n\n6.  _Ibid._ 261 f.\n\n7.  #G. Rietschel, \"Weihnachten in Kirche, Kunst und Volksleben\"#\n    (Bielefeld and Leipsic, 1902), 153.\n\n8.  _Ibid._, 153.\n\n9.  Tille, \"D. W.,\" 270.\n\n10. Rietschel, 151.\n\n11. _Ibid._ 151.\n\n12. Tille, \"D. W.,\" 267. |380|\n\n13. Dyer, 442; E. M. Leather, #\"The Folk-Lore of Herefordshire\"# (London,\n    1912), 90.\n\n14. Rietschel, 154.\n\n15. Ashton, 189.\n\n16. _Ibid._ 190.\n\n17. Tille, \"D. W.,\" 271.\n\n18. _Ibid._ 272.\n\n19. _Ibid._ 277; Rietschel, 254.\n\n20. Information supplied by the Rev. E. W. Lummis, who a few years ago\n    was a pastor in the Muensterthal.\n\n21. #L. Macdonald# in #\"The Pall Mall Gazette\"# (London), Dec. 28, 1911.\n\n22. Tille, \"Y. & C.,\" 174.\n\n23. _Ibid._ 175 f.\n\n24. Rietschel, 141.\n\n25. Tille, \"Y. & C.,\" 175.\n\n26. _Ibid._ 172 f.; Chambers, \"B. D.,\" ii. 759.\n\n27. Latin text in Chambers, \"M. S.,\" ii. 290.\n\n28. Mannhardt, \"Baumkultus,\" 244.\n\n29. Frazer, \"Magic Art,\" ii. 65.\n\n30. Mannhardt, \"Baumkultus,\" 244.\n\n31. _Ibid._ 241; Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 18.\n\n32. Lloyd, 168.\n\n33. Dyer, 35.\n\n34. #W. F. Dawson, \"Christmas: its Origin and Associations\"# (London,\n    1902), 325.\n\n35. Harrison, \"Themis,\" 321.\n\n36. Frazer, \"Magic Art,\" ii. 55 f.\n\n37. Frazer, \"Magic Art,\" ii. 48.\n\n38. Mannhardt, \"Baumkultus,\" 242 f.\n\n39. Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 251.\n\n40. Latin text, _ibid._ ii. 300.\n\n41. #J. Stow, \"A Survay of London,\"# edited by Henry Morley (London,\n    1893), 123.\n\n42. Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 251.\n\n43. Grimm, iii. 1206; Frazer, \"Golden Bough,\" iii. 327; MacCulloch,\n    \"Religion of the Ancient Celts,\" 162, 205.\n\n44. MacCulloch, \"Religion of the Ancient Celts,\" 162 f.\n\n45. Grimm, iii. 1206.\n\n46. Burne and Jackson, 246; #Laisnel de la Salle, \"Croyances et legendes\n    du centre de la France\"# (Paris, 1875), i. 58.\n\n47. Frazer, \"Golden Bough,\" iii. 451 f.\n\n48. #Washington Irving, \"The Sketch-Book\"# (Revised Edition, New York,\n    1860), 245.\n\n49. _Notes and Queries_, 5th Series, vol. viii. 481.\n\n50. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 472.\n\n51. Henderson, \"Folk Lore of the Northern Counties,\" 100.\n\n52. Burne and Jackson, 245.\n\n53. Henderson, \"Folk Lore of the Northern Counties,\" 226.\n\n54. #E. K. Chambers and F. Sidgwick, \"Early English Lyrics\"# (London,\n    1907), 293; #E. Rickert, \"Ancient English Carols\"# (London, 1910),\n    262. |381|\n\n55. Rickert, 262.\n\n56. Burne and Jackson, 245 f., 397, 411.\n\n57. Lloyd, 169.\n\n58. Van Norman, 300.\n\n59. Evans, 222.\n\n60. Van Norman, 300 f.\n\n61. Frazer, \"Golden Bough,\" ii. 286 f.\n\n62. Grimm, iv. 1831.\n\n63. Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 238. Cf. Tille, \"Y. & C.,\" 104.\n\n64. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 420.\n\n65. Tille, \"D. W.,\" 195.\n\n66. _Ibid._ 197.\n\n67. Bilfinger, 48.\n\n68. #Th. Bentzon, \"Christmas in France\"# in #\"The Century Magazine\"# (New\n    York), Dec., 1901, 173.\n\n69. Feilberg, ii. 179 f.\n\n70. Pitre, 167, 404.\n\n71. Feilberg, i. 196; Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 453 f.; Wylie, 77 f.\n\n72. Lloyd, 172.\n\n73. #W. Sandys, \"Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern\"# (London, 1833),\n    xcv.\n\n74. Walsh, 240 f.; Ashton, 194 f.\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.--CHRISTMAS FEASTING AND SACRIFICIAL SURVIVALS\n\n1.  Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 257.\n\n2.  Rickert, 259.\n\n3.  #W. Sandys, \"Christmastide: its History, Festivities, and Carols\"#\n    (London, n.d.), 112.\n\n4.  Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 133.\n\n5.  #J. A. H. Murray, \"A New English Dictionary\"# (Oxford, 1888, &c.)\n    iv. (1) 577.\n\n6.  Addy, 103.\n\n7.  Dawson, 254.\n\n8.  Addy, 104.\n\n9.  Burne and Jackson, 407.\n\n10. Brand, 283.\n\n11. Cf. _Folk-Lore_, vol. xi., 1900, 260.\n\n12. Addy, 103.\n\n13. Cf. carols in Brand, 3, and Rickert, 243 f.\n\n14. Brand, 3.\n\n15. Dyer, 464.\n\n16. Feilberg, i. 119, 184; Lloyd, 173.\n\n17. Jahn, 265.\n\n18. Stratilesco, 190.\n\n19. Ralston, 193, 203.\n\n20. Mijatovich, 98.\n\n21. Jahn, 261.\n\n22. Rietschel, 106. Cf. Weinhold, 25, and Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 463.\n\n23. Sebillot, 217. |382|\n\n24. Laisnel, i. 7 f.\n\n25. _Ibid._ i. 12 f.\n\n26. _Ibid._ i. 11.\n\n27. #E. Cortet, \"Essai sur les Fetes religieuses\"# (Paris, 1867), 265.\n\n28. Frazer, \"Golden Bough,\" ii. 286 f.\n\n29. #M. Hoefler, \"Weihnachtsgebaecke. Eine vergleichende Studie der\n    germanischen Gebildbrote zur Weihnachtszeit\"# in #\"Zeitschrift fuer\n    oesterreichische Volkskunde,\"# Jahrg. 11, Supplement-Heft 3 (Vienna,\n    1905).\n\n30. Jahn, 280 f.\n\n31. Burne and Jackson, 406 f.\n\n32. #\"The Mirror of Perfection,\"# trans. by Sebastian Evans (London,\n    1898), 206.\n\n33. Mannhardt, \"Baumkultus,\" 233 f.\n\n34. Lloyd, 170 f.\n\n35. Jahn, 276.\n\n36. _Ibid._ 276.\n\n37. Lloyd, 168.\n\n38. Evans, 231 f.; for the ox-custom, see Evans, 233.\n\n39. Abbott, 76.\n\n40. Hoermann, \"Tiroler Volksleben,\" 244 f., 238, 245.\n\n41. Dawson, 339.\n\n42. #S. Graham, \"A Vagabond in the Caucasus. With some Notes of his\n    Experiences among the Russians\"# (London, 1910), 25 f.\n\n43. Stratilesco, 190.\n\n44. Van Norman, 299 f.\n\n45. Jahn, 267.\n\n46. Frazer, \"Golden Bough,\" ii. 442 f., where other examples, British and\n    Continental, of the wren-hunt are given. Cf. Dyer, 494 f.\n\n47. _Folk-Lore_, vol. xviii., 1907, 439 f.\n\n48. MacCulloch, \"Religion of the Ancient Celts,\" 221.\n\n49. See Frazer, \"Golden Bough,\" ii. 380, 441, for examples of similar\n    practices with sacred animals.\n\n50. _Folk-Lore_, vol. xi., 1900, 259.\n\n51. Brand, 272.\n\n52. _Folk-Lore_, vol. xi., 1900, 262.\n\n53. Lloyd, 181 f.\n\n54. _Ibid._ 181.\n\n55. Thorpe, ii. 49 f.\n\n56. Ralston, 200.\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.--MASKING, THE MUMMERS' PLAY, THE FEAST OF FOOLS, AND THE\n                 BOY BISHOP\n\n1.  Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 390 f.\n\n2.  #The Works Of Ben Jonson#, ed. by Barry Cornwall (London, 1838), 600.\n\n3.  #Shakespeare, \"Henry VIII.,\"# Act I. Sc. IV.\n\n4.  Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 403 f.\n\n5.  _Ibid._ i. 227, 402.\n\n6.  _Ibid._ i. 402. Cf. Burne and Jackson, 410.\n\n7.  For a bibliography of texts of the mummers' plays see Chambers,\n    \"M. S.,\" i. 205 f. |383|\n\n8.  This account of the plays and dances is based upon Chambers, \"M. S.,\"\n    i. 182 f. (chapters ix. and x.).\n\n9.  #Tacitus, \"Germania,\"# cap. xxiv. (Eng. Trans. by W. Hamilton Fyfe,\n    Oxford, 1908).\n\n10. Cf. Harrison, \"Themis,\" 43 f.\n\n11. Professor Gilbert Murray in \"Themis,\" 341 f.\n\n12. Harrison, \"Themis,\" 232.\n\n13. Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 226.\n\n14. Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 192, 213 f.\n\n15. _Ibid._ i. 220 f.\n\n16. Lawson, 223 f.\n\n17. _Notes and Queries_, 5th Series, vol. x. 482.\n\n18. This account of the Feast of Fools and the Boy Bishop is mainly\n    derived from Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 274-371, and from #Mr. A. F.\n    Leach's# article, #\"The Schoolboys' Feast,\"# in #\"The Fortnightly\n    Review\"# (London), vol. lix., 1896, 128 f.\n\n19. Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 294.\n\n20. Full text in Chambers, \"M. S.,\" ii. 280 f.\n\n21. Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 372 f.\n\n22. #\"Two Sermons preached by the Boy Bishop at St. Paul's,\"# ed. by J.\n    G. Nichols, with an Introduction by E. F. Rimbault (London, printed\n    for the Camden Society, 1875).\n\n23. _Ibid._ 3.\n\n24. Quoted by #F. J. Snell, \"The Customs Of Old England\"# (London, 1911),\n    44.\n\n25. Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 366.\n\n26. #J. Aubrey, \"Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme\"# (1686-7), ed. by\n    J. Britten (London, 1881), 40 f.\n\n27. Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 350.\n\n28. Feilberg, ii. 254.\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.--ST. STEPHEN'S, ST. JOHN'S, AND HOLY INNOCENTS' DAYS\n\n1.  Hoermann, \"Tiroler Volksleben,\" 237 f.\n\n2.  Dyer, 492.\n\n3.  #L. von Hoermann, \"Das Tiroler Bauernjahr\"# (Innsbruck, 1899), 204.\n\n4.  _Ibid._ 204.\n\n5.  _Ibid._ 204 f.\n\n6.  Feilberg, i. 212.\n\n7.  Mannhardt, \"Baumkultus,\" 402.\n\n8.  Feilberg, i. 211.\n\n9.  Mannhardt, \"Baumkultus,\" 402 f.\n\n10. _Ibid._ 402 f.; Feilberg, i. 204 f.; Lloyd, 203 f.\n\n11. #H. C. Beeching, \"A Book of Christmas Verse\"# (London, 1895), 21 f.\n\n12. Mannhardt, \"Baumkultus,\" 406.\n\n13. Henderson, \"Folk Lore of the Northern Counties,\" 67.\n\n14. Jahn, 269 f.\n\n15. _Ibid._ 270 f.\n\n16. _Ibid._ 273. |384|\n\n17. Dyer, 497 f.\n\n18. _Ibid._ 498; Brand, 290.\n\n19. Mannhardt, \"Baumkultus,\" 264 f.\n\n20. _Ibid._ 265 f.\n\n21. _Ibid._ 268.\n\n22. Frazer, \"Golden Bough,\" iii. 129 f.\n\n\nCHAPTER XV.--NEW YEAR'S DAY\n\n1.  Rhys, \"Celtic Folklore,\" i. 320 f.\n\n2.  Henderson, \"Folk Lore of the Northern Counties,\" 72.\n\n3.  #E. Thurston, \"Omens and Superstitions of Southern India\"# (London,\n    1912), 17 f.\n\n4.  Walsh, 742.\n\n5.  Wylie, 81.\n\n6.  Sebillot, 176.\n\n7.  #A. Maurice Low, \"The American People\"# (London, 1911), ii. 6.\n\n8.  Walsh, 739 f.\n\n9.  Evans, 229.\n\n10. Burne and Jackson, 315 f.\n\n11. _Notes and Queries_, 5th Series, vol. iii. 6.\n\n12. Information given by the Rev. E. J. Hardy, formerly Chaplain to the\n    Forces at Hongkong.\n\n13. Frazer, \"Golden Bough,\" iii. 204 f.\n\n14. Burne and Jackson, 265.\n\n15. Grimm, iv. 1784.\n\n16. Harrison, \"Themis,\" 36.\n\n17. Henderson, \"Folk Lore of the Northern Counties,\" 72 f.\n\n18. Addy, 205.\n\n19. G. Hastie in _Folk-Lore_, vol. iv., 1893, 309 f.\n\n20. J. E. Crombie in same volume, 316 f.\n\n21. Addy, 106; Burne and Jackson, 314; Rhys, \"Celtic Folklore,\" i. 337.\n\n22. Rhys, \"Celtic Folklore,\" i. 339.\n\n23. _Ibid._ 339 f.; W. Henderson, 74. Cf. _Folk-Lore_, vol. iii., 1892,\n    253 f.; vol. iv., 1893, 309 f.\n\n24. Hastie (see Note 19), 311.\n\n25. Walsh, 738.\n\n26. Hastie, 312.\n\n27. Chambers, \"B. D.,\" i. 28.\n\n28. _Ibid._ ii. 789 f.; _Notes and Queries_, 2nd Series, vol. ix., 322;\n    Dyer, 506.\n\n29. Ashton, 228.\n\n30. Hoermann, \"Tiroler Volksleben,\" 230 f.\n\n31. #J. G. Campbell, \"Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and\n    Islands of Scotland\"# (Glasgow, 1902), 232. Cf. the account given by\n    Dr. Johnson, in Brand, 278.\n\n32. Henderson, \"Survivals of Belief among the Celts,\" 263 f.\n\n33. #R. Chambers, \"Popular Rhymes of Scotland\"# (Edinburgh, 1847), 296,\n    and \"B. D.,\" ii. 788. |385|\n\n34. \"New English Dictionary,\" v. (1) 327.\n\n35. Cortet, 18.\n\n36. Sebillot, 213.\n\n37. _Ibid._ 213.\n\n38. MacCulloch, \"Guernsey Folk Lore,\" 37.\n\n39. Abbott, 80 f.\n\n40. Stratilesco, 197 f.\n\n41. Hamilton, 103.\n\n42. _Ibid._ 104.\n\n43. Mannhardt, \"Baumkultus,\" 593 f.\n\n44. Latin text from Ducange in Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 254.\n\n45. Wylie, 81.\n\n46. Abbott, 78.\n\n47. Grimm, iv. 1847.\n\n48. Sebillot, 171.\n\n49. Dyer, 7.\n\n50. Ashton, 228.\n\n51. #A. Macdonell, \"In the Abruzzi\"# (London, 1908), 102.\n\n52. Abbott, 77.\n\n53. Ralston, 205.\n\n54. #\"The Athenaeum\"# (London), Feb. 5, 1848; _Notes and Queries_, 1st\n    Series, vol. v., 5.\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI.--EPIPHANY TO CANDLEMAS\n\n1.  Hoermann, \"Tiroler Volksleben,\" 240 f.\n\n2.  #Leigh Hunt, \"The Seer; or, Common-Places Refreshed\"# (London, 1850),\n    part ii. 31.\n\n3.  Beeching, 148 f.\n\n4.  Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 261.\n\n5.  #E. Pasquier, \"Les Recherches de la France\"# (Paris, 1621), livre\n    iv., chap. ix. p. 375.\n\n6.  Cortet, 33.\n\n7.  _Ibid._ 34.\n\n8.  _Ibid._ 43.\n\n9.  #E. Du Meril, \"Origines latines du theatre moderne\"# (Paris, 1849),\n    26 f.\n\n10. Brand, 13.\n\n11. #A. de Nore, \"Coutumes, mythes et traditions des provinces de\n    France\"# (Paris, 1846), 173.\n\n12. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 29 f.; Brand, 13.\n\n13. #Matilde Serao, \"La Madonna e i Santi\"# (Naples, 1902), 128.\n\n14. Reinach, i. 45 f.\n\n15. Abbott, 77.\n\n16. _Ibid._ 78.\n\n17. Frazer, \"Golden Bough,\" iii. 93.\n\n18. Hoermann, \"Tiroler Volksleben,\" 246; Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 21.\n\n19. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 21.\n\n20. _Ibid._ 21 f. |386|\n\n21. Stratilesco, 198.\n\n22. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, 21.\n\n23. #Countess Martinengo-Cesaresco, \"Essays in the Study of Folk-Songs\"#\n    (London, 1886), 334.\n\n24. #D. N. Lees, \"Tuscan Feasts and Tuscan Friends\"# (London, 1907), 87.\n\n25. _Ibid._ 83.\n\n26. Serao, 127 f.\n\n27. #E. de Olavarria y Huarte, \"El Folk-Lore de Madrid,\"# 90. [Vol. ii.\n    of \"Biblioteca de las Tradiciones Populares Espanolas\" (Seville,\n    1884).]\n\n28. _Ibid._ 92.\n\n29. \"Memoirs of Mistral,\" 32 f.\n\n30. Nore, 17.\n\n31. Abbott, 87.\n\n32. Frazer, \"Magic Art,\" i. 275 f.\n\n33. Hamilton, 118.\n\n34. Brand, 16; Chambers, \"B. D.,\" i. 56; Dyer, 21.\n\n35. Aubrey, 40.\n\n36. Brand, 16.\n\n37. Beeching, 147.\n\n38. Ashton, 87 f.\n\n39. Hoermann, \"Tiroler Volksleben,\" 225.\n\n40. Tille, \"D. W.,\" 254.\n\n41. Hoermann, \"Tiroler Volksleben,\" 230.\n\n42. #W. S. Lach-Szyrma# in #\"The Folk-Lore Record\"# (London), vol. iv.,\n    1881, 53.\n\n43. Brand, 17; Chambers, \"B. D.,\" i. 55 f.; Dyer, 22 f. Several accounts\n    have been collected by Mrs. Leather, \"Folk-Lore of Herefordshire,\"\n    93 f.\n\n44. Evans, 228.\n\n45. Dyer, 24.\n\n46. _Folk-Lore_, vol. v., 1894, 192.\n\n47. _Ibid._ vol. vii., 1896, 340 f.\n\n48. Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 149 f.\n\n49. W. Hone, \"Every Day Book\" (London, 1838), ii. 1649.\n\n50. _Folk-Lore_, vol. vii., 1896, 342.\n\n51. #[Sir] G. L. Gomme, \"The Village Community\"# (London, 1890), 242 f.\n\n52. Busk, 99.\n\n53. Dawson, 320.\n\n54. #\"The Nation\"# (London), Dec. 10, 1910.\n\n55. Burne and Jackson, 411.\n\n56. Lloyd, 217.\n\n57. Bilfinger, 24.\n\n58. Brand, 18 f.\n\n59. Dyer, 37.\n\n60. Quoted from #\"Journal of the Archaeological Association,\"# vol. vii.,\n    1852, 202, by Dyer, 39.\n\n61. Chambers, \"M. S.,\" i. 113.\n\n62. _Ibid._ i. 114.\n\n63. Usener, 310 f.\n\n64. Naogeorgus, 48.\n\n65. Sebillot, 179 f. |387|\n\n66. Hoermann, \"Tiroler Volksleben,\" 7.\n\n67. Usener, 321.\n\n68. Brand, 25. Cf. #G. W. Kitchin, \"Seven Sages Of Durham\"# (London,\n    1911), 113.\n\n69. _The Gentleman's Magazine_, 1790, 719.\n\n70. Dyer, 55 f.\n\n71. Quoted by Dyer, 57, from #Martin's \"Description of the Western Isles\n    of Scotland\"# (1703), 119.\n\n72. Gomme, \"Folk-Lore Relics,\" 95.\n\n73. Brand, 26.\n\n74. _Ibid._ 26.\n\n75. Burne and Jackson, 411.\n\n\nCONCLUSION\n\n1.  E. Clodd in Presidential Address to the Folk-Lore Society, 1894. See\n    _Folk-Lore_, vol. vi., 1895, 77.\n\n|388| |389| |390| |391|\n\n\n\n\nINDEX\n\n\nAbbots Bromley, horn-dance at, 201\n\nAbruzzi, All Souls' Eve in, 192;\n    \"new water\" in, 333\n\n\"Adam,\" drama, 127-8\n\nAdam and Eve, their Day, 271\n\nAdam of St. Victor, 33-4\n\n\"Adeste, fideles,\" 63-4\n\nAdvent, 90-2;\n    \"Advent images,\" 118;\n    _Kloepfelnaechte_, 216-8\n\nAlexandria, pagan rites at, 20\n\nAll Saints' Day, and the cult of the dead, 173, 189-90\n\nAll Souls' Day, and the cult of the dead, 173, 181, 189-95\n\nAlsace, Christkind in, 230;\n    New Year's \"May\" in, 269-70\n\nAlsso of Brevnov, 183\n\nAmbrose, St., 31-2\n\n_Amburbale_, 353\n\nAmiens, Feast of Fools at, 305\n\nAnatolius, St., hymn of, 100\n\nAncestor-worship, 181, 253-4, 290, 341\n\nAndrew, St., his Day, 173, 213-6, 277\n\nAnimals, carol of, 69;\n    ox and ass at the Nativity, 155;\n    cult of, 174-8;\n    masks of, 175-6, 199-202;\n    on Christmas Eve, 233-4;\n    specially fed at Christmas, 289;\n    wassailing, 346-7\n\nAnsbach, Martinmas in, 206\n\nAntwerp, soul-cakes at, 194;\n    St. Martin at, 206-7;\n    St. Thomas's Day at, 224\n\nApples, customs with, 195-6, 207, 278\n\nAra Coeli, Rome, 115-6\n\nArdennes, St. Thomas's Day in, 224\n\nArmenian Church, Epiphany in, 22\n\nArtemis and St. Nicholas, 218\n\nAryan and pre-Aryan customs, 163-4\n\nAschenklas, 219, 231\n\nAshes, superstition about, 258\n\nAss, Prose of the, 304-5\n\nAthens, New Year in, 331\n\nAubrey, J., 308\n\nAugury, 182, 195-8, 214-5, 225, 237, 321-33\n\nAugustine, St. (of Canterbury), 21, 179\n\nAurelian, 23\n\nAustria, Christmas poetry in, 45-46;\n    Christmas drama in, 143-6;\n    soul-cakes in, 194;\n    St. Nicholas in, 218-20;\n    St. Lucia's Eve in, 223;\n    St. Thomas's Eve in, 225;\n    Frau Perchta, etc., in, 241-4, 342;\n    Sylvester in, 274.\n    _See also_ Bohemia, Carinthia, Styria, Tyrol\n\nAwdlay, John, 47-8\n\n\nBach, J. S., 73-4\n\nBaden, All Souls' Eve in, 192\n\nBalder, 273\n\nBaptism of Christ, celebrated at Epiphany, 20-2, 101-4\n\nBarbara, St., her festival, 268\n\nBari, festival of St. Nicholas at, 221\n\nBarring out the master, 224\n\nBartel, 219\n\nBasil, St., his festival, 331\n\nBasilidians, 21\n\nBasle, Council of, 305\n\nBavaria, St. Martin's rod in, 207;\n    Christmas-trees in, 266-7;\n    sacrificial feast in, 286;\n    St. John's wine in, 314\n\nBeauvais, Feast of the Ass at, 305\n\nBede, Venerable, 181, 203 |392|\n\nBees on Christmas Eve, 234\n\nBefana, 244, 278, 343\n\nBelethus, Johannes, 302\n\nBelgium, All Souls' Eve in, 192, 194;\n    St. Hubert's Day in, 202;\n    Martinmas in, 204-7;\n    St. Catherine's Day in, 213;\n    St. Nicholas in, 219;\n    St. Thomas's Day in, 224\n\nBentzon, Madame Th., 96-7\n\nBerchta. _See_ Perchta\n\nBerlin, pyramids in, 266;\n    biscuits in, 288\n\nBernard, St., of Clairvaux, 33\n\nBerry, cake customs in, 287, 339\n\nBethlehem, Christmas at, 94-5, 107\n\nBiggar, bonfires at, 327\n\nBilfinger, Dr. G., 172\n\nBirds fed at Christmas, 289\n\nBlindman's buff, 293\n\nBoar's head, 284, 348\n\nBohemia, the \"star\" in, 152;\n    fifteenth-century Christmas customs in, 183;\n    St. Andrew's Eve in, 215-6;\n    St. Thomas's Eve in, 224-5\n\nBoniface, St., 171\n\nBoy Bishop, 212-3, 306-8;\n    connection with St. Nicholas, 220-1, 307-8\n\n\"Breast-strip\" rites, 328\n\nBreviary, the Roman, 90\n\nBriid, 354\n\nBrimo, 21\n\nBrittany, Herod play in, 141;\n    Magi actors in, 151;\n    All Souls' Eve in, 191-2;\n    Christmas Eve superstitions in, 233-5, 236;\n    Christmas log in, 256;\n    New Year in, 323;\n    _aguillanneuf_ in, 330;\n    weather superstition in, 332\n\nBrixen, cradle-rocking at, 111\n\nBrixlegg, Christmas play at, 143 f.\n\nBromfield, Cumberland, barring out the master at, 224\n\nBrough, Westmoreland, Twelfth Night tree at, 270\n\nBrunnen, Epiphany at, 341\n\nBudelfrau, 220\n\nBurchardus of Worms, 181\n\nBurford, Christmas holly at, 275\n\nBurghead, \"Clavie\" at, 327\n\nBurns, Robert, 197\n\n\"Bush, burning the,\" 346\n\nBuzebergt, 220\n\nByrom, John, 84\n\n\nCaballero, Fernan, 66-7, 117, 151\n\nCaesarius of Arles, 170-1, 181\n\nCakes, \"feasten,\" 177;\n    soul, 192-4;\n    St. Hubert's, 202;\n    Martin's horns, 204;\n    Christmas, 287-8, 289-90;\n    Twelfth Night, 337-40, 346;\n    St. Basil's, 341\n\nCalabrian minstrels, 112\n\nCalamy, 185\n\nCaligula, 168\n\nCallander, Hallowe'en at, 198\n\nCambridge, St. Clement's Day at, 212\n\nCanada, Christmas Eve superstition in, 234\n\nCandlemas, 350, 352-5\n\nCandles, on St. Lucia's Day, 212-2;\n    Yule, 258-60\n\nCards, Christmas, 279\n\nCarinthia, St. Stephen's Day in, 312\n\nCarnival, 300, 349\n\nCarols, meaning of the word, 47-8;\n    English sacred, 47-51, 76-8, 84-5;\n    Welsh, 69;\n    Irish, 69-70;\n    Highland, 70\n\nCatholicism and Christmas, 27, 186\n\nCeltic New Year, 172, 189, 195, 203-4, 321\n\nCentaurs, 247\n\nCereal sacraments, 177-8.\n    _See also_ Cakes\n\nChambers, Mr. E. K., 5, 125, 299-300, 302-7, 348\n\nCharlemagne, coronation of, 96\n\nCharms, New Year, 182, 195-8, 321-34\n\nCheshire, Old Hob in, 199;\n    poultry specially fed at Christmas, 289\n\nChester plays, 128, 133-4\n\nChesterton, Mr. G. K., 85-6\n\nChildermas, 315\n\nChildren's festivals, 205-7, 218-20, 223-4, 359-60\n\nChina, New Year in, 324\n\nChios, Christmas _rhamna_ in, 270\n\nChristkind as gift-bringer, 205, 230, 277-8\n\nChristmas, pagan and Christian elements in, 18-28, 161-86, 357-60;\n    names of, 20-5;\n    establishment of, 20-2; |393|\n    its connection with earlier festivals, 20-8;\n    becomes humanized, 25-7, 34-8;\n    in poetry, 31-86;\n    liturgical aspects of, 89-101;\n    in popular devotion, 104-18;\n    in drama, 121-54;\n    its human appeal, 155-7, 357-60;\n    attracts customs from other festivals, 173, 226, 277-8, 284;\n    decorations, 178, 272-6;\n    feasting, 178-80, 283-91;\n    presents, 276-9;\n    masking customs, 297-308;\n    log, _see_ Yule Log\n\nChristmas Eve, 229-38;\n    superstitions about the supernatural, 233-7;\n    log customs, 251-8;\n    fish supper on, 286-7\n\nChristmas-tree, 168, 178, 263-72;\n    its origin, 267-72\n\nChristpuppe, 231\n\nChrysostom, 269\n\nChurch, Dean, 34\n\nCircumcision, Feast of, 101, 302.\n    _See also_ New Year's Day\n\nClement, St., his Day, 211-2\n\nCleobury Mortimer, curfew at, 258\n\nClermont, shepherd play at, 141\n\nCoffin, Charles, 64\n\nCommunion, sacrificial, 174-8\n\n\"Comte d'Alsinoys,\" 56, 58-9\n\nCornwall, Hallowe'en custom in, 196;\n    blackbird pie in, 293;\n    Childermas in, 315\n\nCoventry plays, 128, 130-1, 138\n\nCradle-rocking, 108-11\n\nCrashaw, 79-81\n\nCrib, Christmas, 105-8, 113-8;\n    possible survivals in England, 118, 274\n\nCrimmitschau, 112\n\nCrivoscian customs, 231, 253-4, 276, 346-7\n\nCroatia, St. Andrew's Eve in, 215;\n    Christmas log customs in, 251\n\n_Cronia_, 166\n\n\nDalmatia, Yule log customs in, 252\n\nDancing, 47-8, 293-4, 298-300, 302\n\nDaniel, Jean, 56, 58\n\nDannhauer, J. K., 265\n\nDasius, St., 167\n\nDead, feasts of the, 173, 180-1, 189-95, 235-6, 240, 253-4, 341\n\nDecorations, evergreen, 168, 178, 350, 355\n\nDenisot, Nicholas, 56, 58-9\n\nDenmark, \"star-singing\" in, 151;\n    animal masks in, 202;\n    Martinmas goose in, 203;\n    St. Lucia's Eve in, 223;\n    St. Thomas's Day in, 223-4;\n    Christmas Eve superstitions in, 235-6;\n    Yule candles in, 259-60;\n    Christmas-tree in, 267;\n    pig's head eaten in, 286;\n    Yule-bishop in, 308\n\nDerbyshire, \"kissing-bunch\" in, 274;\n    Plough Monday in, 352\n\nDevil, and beast masks, 202;\n    and flax, 240\n\nDevon, \"Yeth hounds\" in, 240;\n    \"ashton faggot\" in, 258;\n    wassailing fruit-trees in, 345\n\nDew, Christmas, 288-9\n\nDickens, Charles, 359\n\nDinan, Herod play at, 141\n\nDionysus, as child-god, 21;\n    winter festivals of, 169, 331\n\nDorstone, Hallowe'en at, 197\n\nDrama, Christmas, in Latin, 121-7;\n    in English, 128-38;\n    in French, 128, 138-43;\n    in Spanish, 128, 148-50;\n    in German, 143-6;\n    in Italian, 147-8, 150;\n    survivals of, 150-4;\n    St. Nicholas plays, 220, 232;\n    pagan folk-drama, 298-302\n\nDrinking customs, 36, 204, 285-6, 314-5, 327\n\nDruids and mistletoe, 273\n\nDuchesne, Monsignor, 20, 24\n\nDurham, Candlemas at, 353-4\n\nDuesseldorf, Martinmas at, 206\n\nDyzemas, 315\n\n\nEckhart, 42-3, 157\n\nEdinburgh, New Year in, 325-6\n\n_Eiresione_, 270\n\nEncina, Juan del, 149\n\nEngland, Christmas poetry in, 47-51, 76-86;\n    Midnight Mass in, 99;\n    possible survivals of the Christmas crib in, 118, 274;\n    the Nativity in the miracle cycles, 128-38;\n    \"souling\" in, 192-4;\n    Hallowe'en in, 195-8;\n    Guy Fawkes Day in, 198-9;\n    animal masks in, 199-201; |394|\n    Martinmas in, 203;\n    St. Clement's Day in, 211-2;\n    St. Catherine's Day in, 212-3;\n    St. Andrew's Day in, 213-4;\n    St. Thomas's Day in, 225-6;\n    Christmas Eve superstitions in, 234;\n    Yule log in, 257-8;\n    Yule candle in, 259;\n    pyramids and Christmas-trees in, 266-7, 270;\n    the Holy Thorn in, 268-9;\n    evergreen decorations in, 272-6;\n    Christmas boxes in, 279;\n    Christmas fare in, 283-6;\n    sacrificial survivals and Christmas games in, 292-3;\n    mummers and sword-dancers in, 297-301;\n    Feast of Fools in, 305;\n    Boy Bishop in, 220, 306-8;\n    St. Stephen's Day in, 292, 311-4;\n    Holy Innocents' Day in, 315;\n    New Year's Day in, 321-9, 332;\n    Epiphany customs in, 337-8, 345-8;\n    Candlemas in, 350, 353-5;\n    Rock Day in, 351;\n    Plough Monday in, 352\n\nEphraem Syrus, 31, 239\n\nEpiphanius, 21\n\nEpiphany, early history of the festival, 20-2;\n    in the Roman Church, 101-2;\n    in the Greek Church, 102-4;\n    Blessing of the Waters at, 102-4, 244, 246, 344;\n    Italian religious ceremonies at, 116-7;\n    in drama, 125-8;\n    old German name for, 243;\n    folk customs on, 293;\n    Twelfth Night cakes and kings, 337-41;\n    expulsion of evils, 341-2;\n    the Befana and the Magi, 343-4;\n    wassailing, 345-7;\n    \"Haxey Hood,\" 347-8;\n    farewells to Christmas, 349-50\n\nErzgebirge, Christmas plays in, 144, 232;\n    St. John's tree in, 269;\n    _pfeffern_ in, 316\n\nEschenloh, _berchten_ at, 342\n\nEsthonians, All Souls' Day among, 191\n\nEthelred, laws of, 21\n\nEtzendorf, St. Martin's rod at, 207-8\n\nEvans, Sir Arthur, 253-4\n\nEves, importance of for festival customs, 196\n\nExpulsion rites, 104, 181-2, 217, 327-8, 341-2, 344\n\n\nFabriano, Gentile da, 148\n\nFare, Christmas, 283-91\n\nFeasting, connected with sacrifice, 178-9, 284;\n    at Martinmas, 202-4;\n    at Christmas, 283-91;\n    at New Year, 321-3;\n    at Epiphany, 337-41\n\n_Feien_, 231\n\nFeilberg, Dr. H. F., 6, 236, 313-4\n\nFestivals, origin and purpose of, 17-8;\n    relation of pagan and Christian, 19-27, 169-74\n\nFire, not given out at Christmas or New Year, 170-1, 257-8;\n    bonfires, 182, 198-9, 204-5, 327, 346-50;\n    new fire lit, 198;\n    Christmas log and ancestor-worship, 251-4;\n    the Yule log and candle in western Europe, 254-60;\n    Candlemas fires and lights, 352-4\n\n\"First-foots,\" 208, 252, 323-6\n\nFish eaten on Christmas Eve, 287\n\nFlagellants, 146\n\nFlamma, Galvano, 147-8\n\nFletcher, Giles, 82-3\n\nFlorence, Nativity plays at, 147;\n    Befana at, 343\n\nFools, Feast of, 180, 302-6\n\nFootball, 349\n\nFowler, Dr. W. Warde, 167\n\nFrance, Christmas poetry in, 55-65;\n    Midnight Mass in, 96-8;\n    Christmas drama in, 124-7, 138-43;\n    All Souls' Eve in, 191-2;\n    Christmas Eve superstitions in, 234-5;\n    Christmas log in, 254-6;\n    Christmas-tree in, 267;\n    Harvest May in, 271;\n    presents brought by _le petit Jesus_, 278;\n    Christmas cakes in, 287-8;\n    Feast of Fools in, 302-6;\n    Boy Bishop in, 308;\n    Innocents' Day in, 316;\n    New Year in, 322-3;\n    _aguillanneuf_ in, 329-30;\n    Epiphany in, 339-42, 344, 349-50;\n    Candlemas candles in, 353\n\nFrancis, St. (of Assisi), and Christmas, 36-8, 105-6, 157, 289\n\nFrazer, Dr. J. G., 6, 167, 180, 182, 199, 276, 288, 324\n\nFrick, Frau, 241\n\nFrigg, 241\n\nFriuli, All Souls' Day in, 194\n\nFrumenty, 285\n\n\nGames, Christmas, 293-4 |395|\n\nGaude, Frau, 241-2\n\nGautier, Theophile, 64\n\nGay, 196\n\nGeese-dancers, 299\n\nGenealogy, chanting of the, 93\n\nGeorge, St., in mummers' plays, 299-301\n\nGerhardt, Paul, 73-4\n\nGermanicus, 202\n\nGermany, Christmas established in, 21;\n    Christmas poetry in Catholic, 42-7;\n    Protestant hymns in, 70-6;\n    Christmas services in, 98-9;\n    the crib and _Kindelwiegen_ in, 107-12;\n    Christmas drama in, 143-6;\n    \"star-singing\" in, 152;\n    Roman customs in, 171;\n    pre-Christian New Year in, 171-4;\n    soul-cakes in, 194;\n    the _Schimmel_ and other animal masks in, 199-201;\n    Martinmas customs in, 202-8;\n    St. Andrew's Eve in, 214-6;\n    St. Nicholas in, 218-9, 229-32;\n    St. Thomas's Eve in, 225;\n    Christmas Eve in, 229, 237;\n    Twelve Days superstitions in, 240-3;\n    Frau Berchta, etc., in, 241-3;\n    werewolves in, 246;\n    Christmas log in, 256;\n    Christmas-tree in, 263-7, 359;\n    Harvest May in, 271;\n    Christmas presents in, 277-9;\n    Christmas fare in, 286-9;\n    sacrificial relics in, 292;\n    St. Stephen's Day in, 312, 315-6;\n    St. John's Day in, 314-6;\n    Holy Innocents' Day in, 316;\n    New Year in, 322, 332\n\nGilmorton, \"Christmas Vase\" at, 118\n\nGlastonbury thorns, 268-9\n\n\"Gloria in excelsis,\" 91, 94\n\nGoethe, 266\n\n_Goliards_, 49, 128\n\nGomme, Sir Laurence, 257-8, 354\n\nGoose, Martinmas, 203;\n    Christmas, 284\n\nGozzoli, Benozzo, 148\n\nGrampus, 219\n\nGreece, Epiphany ceremonies in, 102-3, 244-5, 344;\n    winter festivals of Dionysus in, 169, 245;\n    _Kallikantzaroi_ in, 244-7, 257;\n    Christmas log in, 257, 344;\n    _rhamna_ in Chios, 270;\n    \"Christ's Loaves\" in, 290;\n    folk-plays in, 300-1;\n    New Year in, 331, 333\n\nGreek Church, Epiphany in, 22, 102-4;\n    Christmas in, 22, 99-101;\n    Advent in, 90\n\nGregorie, 315\n\nGregory III., 107\n\nGregory the Great, letter to Mellitus, 179, 203\n\nGuernsey, Christmas superstitions in, 234, 240;\n    _oguinane_ in, 330\n\nGuisers, 297-8\n\nGuy Fawkes Day, 182, 198-9\n\n\n_Habergaiss_, 201\n\n_Habersack_, 201\n\nHakon the Good, 21, 172\n\nHallowe'en, 182, 195-8\n\nHampstead, Guy Fawkes Day at, 199\n\nHans Trapp, 230\n\nHardy, Mr. Thomas, 48, 234\n\nHarke, Frau, 241\n\nHarrison, Miss Jane, 21, 176-7, 325\n\n\"Haxey Hood,\" 347-8\n\nHerbert, George, 81\n\nHerefordshire, Hallowe'en in, 197;\n    pyramids in, 266;\n    Holy Thorn in, 269;\n    New Year water in, 332;\n    Epiphany and New Year ceremonies in, 346\n\nHerod plays, 126-7, 129, 141, 153\n\nHerrick, 81-2, 257, 338, 345, 354-5\n\nHertfordshire, pyramids in, 266\n\nHindu New Year, 322\n\nHoefler, Dr., 288\n\nHogmanay, 328-30\n\nHolda, Frau, 241-2\n\nHolland, the \"star\" in, 152;\n    Martinmas in, 204-5;\n    _Rommelpot_ in, 217;\n    St. Nicholas in, 219;\n    St. Thomas's Day in, 225\n\nHolly, 272, 275-6\n\nHoly Innocents' Day, 127, 302, 306-8, 315-7\n\nHorn-cakes, 202, 204\n\nHornchurch, boar's head at, 348\n\nHorn-dance, 201\n\nHorse, as a sacrificial animal, 200;\n    hobby-horse, hodening, and the _Schimmel_, 199-201;\n    customs on St. Stephen's Day, 311-4 |396|\n\nHowison, 234\n\nHubert, St., his Day, 202\n\nHunt, Leigh, 337-8\n\nHuysmans, J. K., 93\n\nHymns, Latin, 31-4, 42\n\n\nIceland, \"Yule host\" in, 240\n\nImage, Prof. Selwyn, 85\n\n\"In dulci jubilo,\" 44-5\n\nIncense used for purification, 183, 225, 244-5, 327-8\n\nIreland, Christmas carols in, 69-70;\n    All Souls' Eve in, 192;\n    Hallowe'en customs in, 197-8;\n    Martinmas slaughter in, 203-4;\n    \"hunting of the wren\" in, 292;\n    Holy Innocents' Day in, 315;\n    Epiphany in, 350\n\nItaly, Christmas poetry in, 36-42, 67;\n    _presepio_ in, 105-7, 112-6, 359;\n    Christmas drama in, 146-8, 152;\n    All Souls' in, 192, 194;\n    Martinmas in, 204;\n    Christmas log in, 256;\n    Santa Lucia in, 278;\n    Christmas fare in, 287, 289-91;\n    Epiphany in, 343\n\nIvy, 272, 275-6\n\n\nJacopone da Todi, 36, 39-42, 146\n\nJames, St., Gospel of, 124\n\nJerome, St., 181\n\nJerusalem, Christmas at, 22, 94-5\n\nJohn, St., Evangelist, his Day, 302, 314-5\n\nJohnson, Lionel, 85\n\nJohnson, Richard, 301\n\nJonson, Ben, 298\n\n_Julebuk_, 202\n\nJulian the Apostate, 23\n\n_Julklapp_, 278-9\n\n\nKalends of January, the Roman festival, 24, 165, 167-71, 200, 269;\n    made a fast, 101, 170-1.\n    _See also_ New Year's Day\n\n_Kallikantzaroi_, 244-7\n\n_Kindelwiegen_, 108-11\n\nKing of the Bean, 180, 338-41\n\n\"Kissing-bunch,\" 274\n\nKissling, K. G., 266\n\n_Klapperbock_, 201\n\nKlaubauf, 219\n\n_Kloepfelnaechte_, 216-7\n\nKnecht Ruprecht, 220, 231-2\n\nKore, 21\n\nKrampus, 219\n\n\nLabruguiere, Epiphany in, 342\n\nLake, Prof. K., 20, 24\n\nLa Monnoye, 62-3\n\nLancashire, Hallowe'en in, 198\n\nLatin Christmas poetry, 31-4, 42, 63-4, 68-9\n\nLawson, Mr. J. C., 247, 301\n\nLead-pouring, 215, 237, 332\n\nLeather, Mrs., 269, 346\n\nLe Moigne, Lucas, 56-8\n\nLibanius, 168-9, 269\n\nLiberius, Pope, 107, 352-3\n\nLima, Christmas Eve at, 98\n\nLithuania, feast of the dead in, 195;\n    New Year's Eve in, 332\n\nLog customs. _See_ Yule log\n\nLombardy, Christmas log in, 256\n\nLondon, Greek Epiphany ceremonies in, 103;\n    Italian Christmas in, 116-7, 291;\n    Christmas in, under Puritans, 185;\n    German Christmas in, 265;\n    Boy Bishop in, 306-7;\n    New Year in, 322, 327\n\nLord Mayor's day, 202\n\nLord of Misrule, 298\n\nLorraine, cake customs in, 287, 339-40\n\nLucia, St., her festival, 221-3, 268\n\nLucian, 166-7\n\nLudlow, Guy Fawkes Day at, 199\n\nLullabies, 51, 67-9, 83-4, 109-10\n\nLuther, Martin, 70-3, 265\n\nLyme Regis, Candlemas at, 354\n\n\nMacedonia, Christmas Eve in, 217;\n    New Year's Eve in, 226, 330, 332;\n    _Kallikantzaroi_ in, 245;\n    folk-play in, 300;\n    Epiphany in, 344\n\nMacee, Claude, 141\n\nMadrid, 97-8, 153, 343\n\nMagi in drama, 125-6, 128-9, 151-3;\n    as present-bringers, 343\n\nMagic, 163\n\nMan, Isle of, carol-singing in, 99;\n    _Hollantide_ in, 189, 198, 321; |397|\n    _Fynnodderee_ in, 246;\n    \"hunting of the wren\" in, 292-3\n\n_Mana_, 176-7\n\nMannhardt, W., 252-3, 313-4\n\nMarguerite of Navarre, 141\n\nMarseilles, \"pastorals\" at, 141\n\nMartin of Braga, 272\n\nMartin I., Pope, 203\n\nMartinengo-Cesaresco, Countess, 106, 112, 142\n\nMartinmas, an old winter festival, 173, 182, 200, 202-3;\n    its feasting customs, 202-4;\n    its bonfires, 204-5;\n    St. Martin as gift-bringer, and his relation to St. Nicholas, 205-8,\n      218-9, 277-8\n\nMasking customs, 169-71, 175-6, 199-202, 206, 219, 230-2, 245, 297-302,\n    304-305, 352\n\nMass, Midnight, 94-9;\n    the three Christmas Masses, 94-6\n\nMechlin, Martinmas at, 206\n\nMellitus, Abbot, 179\n\nMexico, Christmas drama in, 154\n\nMichaelmas, 173\n\nMilan, Epiphany play at, 147-8\n\nMilton, 82\n\nMince-pies, 284\n\nMinnesingers, 36\n\n\"Misterio de los Reyes Magos,\" 128\n\nMistletoe, 272-4, 276\n\nMistral, Frederic, 255\n\nMithra, 23\n\n_Modranicht_, 181\n\nMonasticism and Christmas, 34-5\n\nMont-St.-Michel, Epiphany king at, 340\n\nMontenegro, Christmas log customs in, 252\n\nMorgan, Lady, 114-5\n\nMorris, William, 85\n\nMorris-dancers, 299-301\n\nMouthe, \"De fructu\" at, 288\n\nMummers' plays, 297-302\n\nMunich, Bavarian National Museum at, 107-8;\n    Christmas-tree at, 267;\n    St. Stephen's Day at, 312\n\nMurillo, 65\n\nMythology, in relation to ritual, 164-5, 176\n\n\nNaogeorgus, 111, 217, 353\n\nNaples, _zampognari_ at, 112;\n    _presepio_ at, 113-4;\n    Christmas plays at, 150;\n    Epiphany at, 343\n\n_Natalis Invicti_, 23-4, 165\n\nNew Year's Day, in Roman Empire, 24, 167-71, 276-7;\n    opposed in character to Christmas, 25-6;\n    Teutonic and Celtic, 25, 171-3, 189, 202-4;\n    Slav, 173;\n    January 1 made a fast, 101, 170-1;\n    customs attracted to January 1, 173, 189, 200, 321;\n    fire not given out, 170-1, 257-8;\n    charms, omens, and other customs, 182, 321-34;\n    presents, 168-71, 276-7;\n    mistletoe connected with, 276\n\nNicea, Council of, 22\n\nNicholas, St., his Day related to Martinmas, 173, 207-8, 277-8;\n    as patron of boys, 218, 220,\n    of sailors, 218, 221;\n    his festival, 218-21;\n    on Christmas Eve, 229-32\n\n_Noel_, origin of the name, 22;\n    the French carol, 55-65\n\nNormandy, \"star-singing\" in, 151;\n    Innocents' Day in, 316;\n    Epiphany in, 349-50\n\nNorthamptonshire, St. Catherine's and St. Andrew's Days in, 213-4;\n    Dyzemas in, 315\n\nNorthumberland, holly in, 275\n\nNorway, Christmas established in, 21;\n    \"star-singing\" in, 151;\n    pre-Christian Yule festival in, 172;\n    animal masks in, 202;\n    Christmas Eve superstitions in, 235-6;\n    Yule candles in, 259-60\n\nNotker, 32\n\nNottinghamshire, Hallowe'en customs in, 196;\n    Christmas cake and wassail-bowl in, 285\n\nNuremberg, Epiphany at, 342\n\nNuts, customs with, 195-6, 207\n\n\n\"O's,\" Great, 92\n\nOak as a sacred tree, 254\n\nOberufer, Christmas play at, 143, 272\n\nOcana, F. de, 65-6\n\nOesel, \"Yule Boar\" in, 288\n\nOld Hob, 199-200 |398|\n\nOtfrid of Weissenburg, 42\n\nOxford, boars head at, 284\n\n\nPalmer, Mr. F. H. E., 104\n\n_Parcae_, 181\n\nParis, Christmas in, 98;\n    All Souls' Eve in, 191;\n    St. Catherine's Day in, 213;\n    Christmas-tree in, 267;\n    New Year in, 277;\n    Feast of Fools in, 302-3\n\nPaschal, Francoise, 61-2\n\nPasquier, Etienne, 339\n\nPearson, Dr. Karl, 161-2\n\nPellegrin, Abbe, 63\n\nPelzmaerte, 206-8, 217\n\nPerchta, 181, 241-4, 342\n\nPerun, 254\n\nPeterborough, St. Catherine's Day at, 213\n\nPhilocalian Calendar, 20\n\n_Pifferari_, 112\n\nPillersee, Advent mummeries at, 218\n\nPliny, 273\n\nPlough Monday, 300\n\nPlum-pudding, 284-5\n\n_Plygain_, 99\n\nPoland, the \"star\" in, 152;\n    puppet-shows in, 153;\n    werewolves in, 246;\n    Christmas straw in, 276;\n    Christmas wafers in, 291\n\n_Polaznik_, 231, 252, 323-4\n\nPresents, at the Roman Kalends, 168-71, 276-7;\n    on All Souls' Eve, 192;\n    at Martinmas, 205-8;\n    on St. Nicholas's Day, 218-20;\n    at Christmas, 183, 230, 277-9;\n    at New Year and other seasons, 277-8;\n    at Epiphany, 343\n\n_Presepio._ _See_ Crib\n\n\"Prophetae,\" 127\n\nProtestantism, effects of, on Christmas, 27, 70-8, 111, 138, 141, 185-6,\n    229-30\n\nProvence, remains of Christmas drama in, 141, 154;\n    Christmas log in, 255;\n    Magi in, 344\n\nPrudentius, 32\n\nPuppet-plays, 153 f.\n\nPurification, feast of the. _See_ Candlemas\n\nPuritans, their attitude towards Christmas, 77, 180, 184-5, 298\n\nPyramids, 266\n\n\nQuainton, blossoming thorn at, 268\n\n\n\"Raging host,\" 240, 242\n\nRagusa, Christmas log customs at, 252\n\nRamsgate, hodening at, 200-1\n\n_Rauchnaechte_, 225, 327-8\n\nRhys, Sir John, 189, 321, 325-6\n\nRipon, St. Clement's Day at, 212;\n    Yule candles at, 259;\n    Candlemas at, 354\n\nRisano, Christmas log customs at, 252\n\nRolle, Richard, 48\n\nRome, Christmas established in, 20-1;\n    pagan winter festivals in, 23-4, 165-71;\n    Christmas services and customs in, 95-6, 112-6, 289-90;\n    mediaeval New Year _quete_ in, 331\n\nRossetti, Christina, 85\n\nRouen, religious plays at, 124-5, 138-40\n\nRoumania, the \"star\" in, 152;\n    Christmas drama in, 153;\n    St. Andrew's Eve in, 215-6;\n    Christmas songs in, 238;\n    Christmas fare in, 287, 291;\n    New Year in, 330-1;\n    Epiphany in, 342\n\nRussia, Epiphany ceremonies in, 104, 246;\n    the \"star\" in, 152;\n    Christmas Eve in, 232-3, 237;\n    fire superstitions in, 253;\n    Christmas fare in, 287, 291;\n    Christmas games in, 294;\n    mummers in, 302;\n    New Year in, 333\n\n\nSaboly, 62\n\nSacrifice, theories of, 174-8;\n    connected with festivals, 178-9;\n    survivals of, 199, 283-7, 292-4, 328, 347-9\n\nSalers, Christmas king at, 340\n\n_Samhain_, 172, 204\n\nSant' Andrea della Valle, Rome, 102\n\nSanta Klaus, 220\n\nSanta Maria Maggiore, Rome, 95-6, 107, 114-5\n\n_Saturnalia_, 24, 113, 165-7, 180, 359\n\nSchiller, 266\n\n_Schimmel_ and _Schimmelreiter_, 199-200, 206, 231\n\nSchoolboys' festival, 223-4.\n    _See also_ Boy Bishop\n\nScotland, Christmas carols in, 70;\n    Hallowe'en customs in, 197-8;\n    sowens eaten in, 285;\n    \"first-foot\" in, 325-6;\n    other New Year customs in, 326-9, 332-3;\n    Candlemas in, 354 |399|\n\nSedulius, Coelius, 32\n\nSequences, 32-3\n\nSerao, Matilde, 113\n\nSerbs, Christmas customs of, 251-4, 341\n\nShakespeare, 239, 298\n\nShepherds in Christmas drama, 123-4, 132-7, 139-43\n\nShropshire, soul-cakes in, 192-3;\n    Guy Fawkes Day at Ludlow, 199;\n    Twelve Days superstitions in, 240-1, 258;\n    Christmas Brand in, 258;\n    Christmas decorations in, 275-6, 355;\n    \"wigs\" in, 285;\n    cattle specially fed at Christmas, 289;\n    morris-dancers in, 299;\n    New Year in, 324;\n    Candlemas in, 355\n\nSicily, Midnight Mass in, 98;\n    Christmas _novena_ in, 112-3;\n    Christmas procession at Messina, 113;\n    Christmas plays in, 150;\n    All Souls' Eve in, 192;\n    Martinmas in, 204;\n    St. Lucia's Eve in, 222;\n    presents in, 278;\n    Candlemas candles in, 353\n\nSidgwick, Mr. F., 6, 77-8\n\nSidgwick, Mrs. Alfred, 264\n\nSilesia, _Schimmel_ in, 200;\n    Martinmas in, 206;\n    Christmas Eve in, 232;\n    animals specially fed at Christmas, 289\n\nSlav New Year, 172-3;\n    Christmas songs and customs, 237-8, 251-4, 290, 341.\n    _See also_ Bohemia, Crivoscia, Poland, Russia\n\nSmith, W. Robertson, 164-5, 175-6, 178-9\n\nSomersetshire wassailing, 345\n\nSoul cakes, 192-4\n\nSouth America, Christmas in, 98\n\nSouthwell, 79-80\n\nSowens eaten, 285, 325\n\nSpain, Christmas poetry in, 65-7;\n    Midnight Mass in, 97-8, 117;\n    the crib in, 117;\n    Christmas drama in, 128, 148-51, 153;\n    _turron_ in, 291;\n    Epiphany in, 343-4\n\nSpervogel, 42\n\nSpinning, during Twelve Days, 240-3\n\nStaffordshire, St. Clement's Day in, 211-2\n\n\"Star-singing,\" 151-2\n\n\"Stella,\" 125-7, 129\n\nStephen, St., his festival, 292, 302, 311-6\n\nStephens, Dean, 35\n\nStow's \"Survay,\" 272\n\nStrasburg, early Christmas-trees at, 265-6\n\n_Strenae_, 168, 277-8\n\nStubbes, Philip, 184, 298\n\nStyles, Old and New, 268-9\n\nStyria, _Habergaiss_ in, 201;\n    Perchta in, 243;\n    St. John's wine in, 315\n\nSun, the, December 25 as festival of, 23;\n    Yule not connected with, 171-2;\n    sun-charms, 182, 198, 252, 254\n\nSuso, 44\n\nSussex, squirrel-hunting in, 214;\n    tipteerers in, 298;\n    wassailing fruit-trees in, 345\n\nSwabia, Pelzmaerte in, 206-7, 217\n\nSweden, Christmas service in, 99;\n    \"star-singing\" in, 151;\n    animal masks in, 202;\n    St. Lucia's Day in, 221-4;\n    Christmas Eve superstitions in, 235-6;\n    Yule log in, 257;\n    Yule candles in, 259-60;\n    Christmas-trees in, 267, 270;\n    Yule straw in, 276;\n    Christmas presents in, 278-9;\n    pig's head eaten in, 286;\n    dances in, 293-4;\n    St. Stephen's Day in, 312-3, 315;\n    \"St. Knut's Day\" in, 351\n\nSwinburne, 84-5\n\nSwine as sacrificial animal, 284, 286\n\nSwitzerland, St. Nicholas in, 218-9;\n    Christmas-tree in, 267;\n    birds fed at Christmas, 289\n\nSword-dance, 294, 299-301\n\n_Sylvesterabend_, 274, 322\n\n\nTacitus, 200, 299\n\nTate, Nahum, 84\n\nTauler, 43\n\nTeme valley, \"first-footing\" in, 324\n\nTenby, _Plygain_ at, 99;\n    St. Clement's Day at, 212\n\nTersteegen, Gerhard, 75-6\n\nTertullian, 269\n\nTeutonic New Year, 171-3, 189, 202-4\n\nThomas of Celano, 38\n\nThomas, Mr. N. W., 293\n\nThomas, St., his festival, 223-6\n\n\"Thomassin',\" 226\n\nThurston, Mr. Edgar, 322\n\nTieck, 266 |400|\n\nTille, Dr. A., 5, 110, 169, 172-3, 231-2, 268\n\nTipteerers, 298\n\nTolstoy's \"War and Peace,\" 302\n\nTomte Gubbe, 236\n\nTonquin, feast of the dead in, 195\n\nTotemism, 175-8\n\nTours, Council of, 21, 101, 239\n\nTowneley plays, 128, 134-7\n\nTrees, sacred, 177-8, 254, 269-71;\n    flowering at Christmas, 268-9;\n    Christian symbols, 271-2\n\nTrest, Epiphany at, 344\n\nTrolls on Christmas Eve, 235-6\n\nTroppau, Christmas Eve at, 232\n\nTroubadours, 36\n\nTuebingen, cradle-rocking at, 111\n\nTuscany, Christmas log in, 256\n\nTutilo of St. Gall, 123\n\nTwelfth Night. _See_ Epiphany\n\nTwelve Days, declared a festal tide, 21, 239;\n    variously reckoned, 239;\n    supernatural visitors on, 239-47\n\nTylor, Dr. E. B., 191\n\nTynan, Katharine, 85\n\nTyrol, Midnight Mass in, 97;\n    the crib in, 107-8;\n    cradle-rocking in, 111;\n    Christmas drama in, 143;\n    \"star-singing\" in, 152;\n    All Souls in, 191-2, 194;\n    _Kloepfelnaechte_ in, 218;\n    St. Nicholas in, 220;\n    St. Lucia in, 223;\n    Christmas Eve in, 236, 346;\n    Berchta in, 243-4;\n    customs with fruit-trees in, 268;\n    Christmas pie in, 290, 345-6;\n    St. Stephen's Day in, 311-2;\n    St. John's Day in, 314;\n    Epiphany in, 337;\n    Carnival in, 349;\n    Purification candles in, 353\n\n\nUbeda, J. L. de, 65\n\nUist, South, \"breast-strip\" in, 328\n\nUnited States, Santa Klaus in, 220;\n    New Year in, 323\n\nUsedom, 201\n\nUsener, H., 20, 107\n\n\nValdivielso, J. de, 65\n\nVampires, 215-6, 245-6\n\nVaughan, Henry, 81\n\nVega, Lope de, 149-50\n\nVegetation-cults, 177-8\n\nVenetia, Martinmas in, 204, 207\n\nVessel-cup, 118\n\nVillazopeque, 148-9\n\nVosges mountains, All Souls' Eve in, 191\n\n\nWales, Christmas carols in, 69;\n    _Plygain_ in, 99;\n    soul-cakes in, 193-4;\n    Hallowe'en in, 189, 196-8;\n    the \"Mari Llwyd\" in, 201;\n    \"new water\" carol in, 333-4;\n    Christmas football in, 349\n\nWarnsdorf, St. Nicholas play at, 220\n\nWassail-bowl, 193, 285-6\n\nWater, New Year, 332-4\n\nWatts, Isaac, 83-4\n\nWeather, ideas about, 203, 332\n\n_Weihnacht_, origin of the name, 20\n\nWerewolves, 246\n\nWesley, Charles, 84\n\nWestermarck, Dr. E., 176\n\nWestphalia, St. Thomas's Day in, 225\n\nWhipping customs, 207-8, 315-7, 330\n\n\"Wild hunt,\" 239-40\n\nWine, Martinmas, 204;\n    St. John's and St. Stephen's, 314-5\n\n\"Wish hounds,\" 240\n\nWither, George, 83\n\nWoden, 200, 206, 208, 231, 240\n\nWomen, their clothes worn by men at folk-festivals, 178, 301, 304;\n    unlucky at New Year, 324-5\n\nWoolwich, St. Clement's and St. Catherine's Days at, 212\n\nWorcestershire. St. Clement's Day in, 212;\n    New Year in, 324\n\nWormesley, Holy Thorn at, 269\n\nWren, hunting of, 292-3\n\nWylie, Miss I. A. R., 263\n\n\n\"Yeth hounds,\" 240\n\nYork Minster, mistletoe at, 273;\n    Boy Bishop at, 307\n\nYork plays, 128, 131-3\n\nYorkshire, possible survival of the crib in, 118;\n    frumenty, ale posset, and Yule cakes in, 285;\n    \"lucky bird\" in, 325\n\nYpres, St. Martin at, 206\n\nYule, origin of the name, 25, 171-2\n\n\"Yule Boar,\" 288\n\nYule log, 180, 245, 251-8, 344, 354\n\n\nZacharias, Pope, 171\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES\n\n[1]   For an explanation of the small numerals in the text see Preface.\n\n      [Transcriber's Note: In this edition the numerals are enclosed in\n      {curly brackets}, so they will not be confused with footnotes.]\n\n[2]   \"Christianity,\" as here used, will stand for the system of\n      orthodoxy which had been fixed in its main outlines when the\n      festival of Christmas took its rise. The relation of the orthodox\n      creed to historical fact need not concern us here, nor need we for\n      the purposes of this study attempt to distinguish between the\n      Christianity of Jesus and ecclesiastical accretions around his\n      teaching.\n\n[3]   Whether the Nativity had previously been celebrated at Rome on\n      January 6 is a matter of controversy; the affirmative view was\n      maintained by Usener in his monograph on Christmas,{6} the\n      negative by Monsignor Duchesne.{7} A very minute, cautious, and\n      balanced study of both arguments is to be found in Professor\n      Kirsopp Lake's article on Christmas in Hastings's \"Encyclopaedia of\n      Religion and Ethics,\"{8} and a short article was contributed by\n      the same writer to _The Guardian_, December 29, 1911. Professor\n      Lake, on the whole, inclines to Usener's view. The early history of\n      the festival is also treated by Father Cyril Martindale in \"The\n      Catholic Encyclopaedia\" (article \"Christmas\").\n\n[4]   Usener says 354, Duchesne 336.\n\n[5]   The eastern father, Epiphanius (fourth century), gives a strange\n      account of a heathen, or perhaps in reality a Gnostic, rite held at\n      Alexandria on the night of January 5-6. In the temple of Kore--the\n      Maiden--he tells us, worshippers spent the night in singing and\n      flute-playing, and at cock-crow brought up from a subterranean\n      sanctuary a wooden image seated naked on a litter. It had the sign\n      of the cross upon it in gold in five places--the forehead, the\n      hands, and the knees. This image was carried seven times round the\n      central hall of the temple with flute-playing, drumming, and hymns,\n      and then taken back to the underground chamber. In explanation of\n      these strange actions it was said: \"To-day, at this hour, hath Kore\n      (the Maiden) borne the AEon.\"{15} Can there be a connection between\n      this festival and the Eleusinian mysteries? In the latter there was\n      a nocturnal celebration with many lights burning, and the cry went\n      forth, \"Holy Brimo (the Maiden) hath borne a sacred child,\n      Brimos.\"{16} The details given by Miss Harrison in her\n      \"Prolegomena\" of the worship of the child Dionysus{17} are of\n      extraordinary interest, and a minute comparison of this cult with\n      that of the Christ Child might lead to remarkable results.\n\n[6]   Mithraism resembled Christianity in its monotheistic tendencies,\n      its sacraments, its comparatively high morality, its doctrine of an\n      Intercessor and Redeemer, and its vivid belief in a future life and\n      judgment to come. Moreover Sunday was its holy-day dedicated to the\n      Sun.\n\n[7]   This is the explanation adopted by most scholars (cf. Chambers, \"M.\n      S.,\" i., 241-2). Duchesne suggests as an explanation of the choice\n      of December 25 the fact that a tradition fixed the Passion of\n      Christ on March 25. The same date, he thinks, would have been\n      assigned to His Conception in order to make the years of His life\n      complete, and the Birth would come naturally nine months after the\n      Conception. He, however, \"would not venture to say, in regard to\n      the 25th of December, that the coincidence of the _Sol novus_\n      exercised no direct or indirect influence on the ecclesiastical\n      decision arrived at in regard to the matter.\"{25} Professor Lake\n      also, in his article in Hastings's \"Encyclopaedia,\" seeks to account\n      for the selection of December 25 without any deliberate competition\n      with the _Natalis Invicti_. He points out that the Birth of Christ\n      was fixed at the vernal equinox by certain early chronologists, on\n      the strength of an elaborate and fantastic calculation based on\n      Scriptural data, and connecting the Incarnation with the Creation,\n      and that when the Incarnation came to be viewed as beginning at the\n      Conception instead of the Birth, the latter would naturally be\n      placed nine months later.\n\n[8]   Cf. chap. xviii. of Dr. Yrjoe Hirn's \"The Sacred Shrine\" (London,\n      1912). Dr. Hirn finds a solitary anticipation of the Franciscan\n      treatment of the Nativity in the Christmas hymns of the\n      fourth-century eastern poet, Ephraem Syrus.\n\n[9]   No. 55 in \"Hymns Ancient and Modern\" (Ordinary Edition).\n\n[10]  No. 56 in \"Hymns Ancient and Modern\" (Ordinary Edition).\n\n[11]\n\n         \"Come rejoicing,\n          Faithful men, with rapture singing\n              Alleluya!\n          Monarch's Monarch,\n          From a holy maiden springing,\n              Mighty wonder!\n\n          Angel of the Counsel here,\n          Sun from star, he doth appear,\n              Born of maiden:\n          He a sun who knows no night,\n          She a star whose paler light\n              Fadeth never.\"\n\n      (Translation in \"The English Hymnal,\" No. 22.)\n\n[12]\n\n         \"Lords, by Christmas and the host\n          Of this mansion hear my toast--\n                  Drink it well--\n          Each must drain his cup of wine,\n          And I the first will toss off mine:\n                Thus I advise.\n          Here then I bid you all _Wassail_,\n          Cursed be he who will not say, _Drinkhail!_\"\n\n      (Translation by F. Douce.)\n\n[13]  It is difficult to be sure of the authenticity of the verse\n      attributed to Jacopone. Many of the poems in Tresatti's edition,\n      from which the quotations in the text are taken, may be the work of\n      his followers.\n\n[14]\n\n         \"Come and look upon her child\n          Nestling in the hay!\n          See his fair arms opened wide,\n          On her lap to play!\n          And she tucks him by her side,\n          Cloaks him as she may!\n          Gives her paps unto his mouth,\n          Where his lips are laid.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n          She with left hand cradling\n          Rocked and hushed her boy,\n          And with holy lullabies\n          Quieted her toy....\n          Little angels all around\n          Danced, and carols flung;\n          Making verselets sweet and true,\n          Still of love they sung.\"\n\n      (Translation by John Addington Symonds in \"The Renaissance in\n      Italy. Italian Literature\" [1898 Edn.], Part I., 468.)\n\n[15]  \"In the worthy stable of the sweet baby the angels are singing\n      round the little one; they sing and cry out, the beloved angels,\n      quite reverent, timid and shy round the little baby Prince of the\n      Elect who lies naked among the prickly hay.... The Divine Verb,\n      which is highest knowledge, this day seems as if He knew nothing of\n      anything. Look at Him on the hay, crying and kicking as if He were\n      not at all a divine man.\"\n\n      (Translation by Vernon Lee in \"Renaissance Fancies and Studies,\" 34.)\n\n[16]\n\n         \"Sweep hearth and floor;\n          Be all your vessel's store\n          Shining and clean.\n          Then bring the little guest\n          And give Him of your best\n          Of meat and drink. Yet more\n          Ye owe than meat.\n          One gift at your King's feet\n          Lay now. I mean\n          A heart full to the brim\n          Of love, and all for Him,\n          And from all envy clean.\"\n\n      (Translation by Miss Anne Macdonell, in \"Sons of Francis,\" 372.)\n\n[17]\n\n         \"Full of beauty stood the Mother,\n          By the Manger, blest o'er other,\n            Where her little One she lays.\n          For her inmost soul's elation,\n          In its fervid jubilation,\n            Thrills with ecstasy of praise.\"\n\n      (Translation by J. M. Neale.)\n\n[18]\n\n         \"A spotless Rose is blowing,\n            Sprung from a tender root,\n          Of ancient seers' foreshowing,\n            Of Jesse promised fruit;\n          Its fairest bud unfolds to light\n            Amid the cold, cold winter,\n          And in the dark midnight.\n\n          The Rose which I am singing,\n            Whereof Isaiah said,\n          Is from its sweet root springing\n            In Mary, purest Maid;\n          For through our God's great love and might\n            The Blessed Babe she bare us\n          In a cold, cold winter's night.\"\n\n      (Translation by C. Winkworth, \"Christian Singers,\" 85.)\n\n[19]  The tune is often used in England for Neale's carol, \"Good\n      Christian men, rejoice.\"\n\n[20]  \"When Jesus Christ was born, then was it cold; in a little crib He\n      was laid. There stood an ass and an ox which breathed over the Holy\n      Child quite openly. He who has a pure heart need have no care.\"\n\n[21]  \"Dearest mother, take care of the Child; it is freezing hard, wrap\n      Him up quickly. And you, old father, tuck the little one up, or the\n      cold and the wind will give Him no rest. Now we must take our\n      leave, O divine Child, remember us, pardon our sins. We are\n      heartily glad that Thou art come; no one else could have helped\n      us.\"\n\n[22]  \"The Child is laid in the crib, so hearty and so rare! My little\n      Hans would be nothing by His side, were he finer than he is.\n      Coal-black as cherries are His eyes, the rest of Him is white as\n      chalk. His pretty hands are right tender and delicate, I touched\n      Him carefully. Then He gave me a smile and a deep sigh too. If you\n      were mine, thought I, you'd grow a merry boy. At home in the\n      kitchen I'd comfortably house you; out here in the stable the cold\n      wind comes in at every corner.\"\n\n[23]  Richard Rolle, poet, mystic, and wandering preacher, in many ways\n      reminds us of Jacopone da Todi. Though he has left no Christmas\n      verses, some lovely words of his show how deeply he felt the wonder\n      and pathos of Bethlehem: \"Jhesu es thy name. A! A! that wondryrfull\n      name! A! that delittabyll name! This es the name that es above all\n      names.... I yede [went] abowte be Covaytyse of riches and I fand\n      noghte Jhesu. I satt in companyes of Worldly myrthe and I fand\n      noghte Jhesu.... Therefore I turnede by anothire waye, and I rane\n      a-bowte be Poverte, and I fande Jhesu pure borne in the worlde,\n      laid in a crybe and lappid in clathis.\"{28}\n\n[24]  \"When midnight sounded I leapt from my bed to the floor, and I saw\n      a beautiful angel who sang a thousand times sweeter than a\n      nightingale. The watch-dogs of the neighbourhood all came up. Never\n      had they seen such a sight, and they suddenly began to bark. The\n      shepherds under the straw were sleeping like logs: when they heard\n      the sound of the barking they thought it was the wolves. They were\n      reasonable folk; they came without waiting to be asked. They found\n      in a little stable the Light, even the Truth.\"\n\n[25]  \"Within a poor manger and covered with hay lies Jesus of Nazareth.\n      In the hay lies stretched the Eternal Son of God; to deliver from\n      hell man whom He had created, and to kill sin, our Jesus of\n      Nazareth is content with the hay. He rests between two animals who\n      warm Him from the cold, He who remedies our ills with His great\n      power; His kingdom and seigniory are the world and the calm heaven,\n      and now He sleeps in the hay. He counts it good to bear the cold\n      and fare thus, having no robe to protect or cover Him, and to give\n      us life He suffered cold in the hay, our Jesus of Nazareth.\"\n\n[26]  \"In a porch, full of cobwebs, between the mule and the ox, the\n      Saviour of souls is born.... In the porch at Bethlehem are star,\n      sun, and moon: the Virgin and St. Joseph and the Child who lies in\n      the cradle. In Bethlehem they touch fire, from the porch the flame\n      issues; it is a star of heaven which has fallen into the straw.\n      I am a poor gipsy who come hither from Egypt, and bring to God's\n      Child a cock. I am a poor Galician who come from Galicia, and bring\n      to God's Child linen for a shift. To the new-born Child all bring a\n      gift; I am little and have nothing; I bring him my heart.\"\n\n[27]\n\n         \"Sleep, oh sleep, dear Baby mine,\n          King Divine;\n          Sleep, my Child, in sleep recline;\n          Lullaby, mine Infant fair,\n                 Heaven's King,\n                 All glittering,\n          Full of grace as lilies rare.\n\n          Close thine eyelids, O my treasure,\n                 Loved past measure,\n          Of my soul, the Lord, the pleasure;\n          Lullaby, O regal Child,\n                 On the hay\n                 My joy I lay;\n          Love celestial, meek and mild.\n\n          Why dost weep, my Babe? alas!\n                 Cold winds that pass\n          Vex, or is't the little ass?\n          Lullaby, O Paradise;\n                 Of my heart\n                 Thou Saviour art;\n          On thy face I press a kiss.\"{20}\n\n      (Translation by Countess Martinengo-Cesaresco.)\n\n[28]  A Bas-Quercy bird-carol of this kind is printed by Mr. H. J. L. J.\n      Masse in his delightful \"Book of Old Carols,\"{26} a collection of\n      the words and music of Christmas songs in many languages--English,\n      Latin, German, Flemish, Basque, Swedish, Catalan, Provencal, and\n      French of various periods and dialects.\n\n[29]\n\n         \"I come from heaven to tell\n          The best nowells that ever befell;\n          To you thir tidings true I bring,\n          And I will of them say and sing.\n\n          This day to you is born ane child,\n          Of Mary meek and virgin mild,\n          That blessed bairn, benign and kind,\n          Sall you rejoice, baith heart and mind.\n\n          My soul and life, stand up and see\n          What lies in ane crib of tree [wood].\n          What Babe is that, so gude and fair?\n          It is Christ, Goddis Son and Heir.\n\n          O God! that made all creature,\n          How art Thou now become so puir,\n          That on the hay and stray will lie,\n          Among the asses, oxen, and kye?\n\n          O, my dear heart, young Jesus sweet,\n          Prepare Thy cradle in my spreit,\n          And I sall rock Thee in my heart,\n          And never mair from Thee depart\n\n          But I sall praise Thee ever moir,\n          With sangis sweet unto Thy gloir;\n          The knees of my heart sall I bow,\n          And sing that richt Balulalow.\"{30}\n\n[30]\n\n         \"Now blessed be Thou, Christ Jesu,\n          Thou art man born, this is true;\n          The angels made a merry noise,\n          Yet have we more cause to rejoice,\n                  _Kirieleyson_.\n\n          The blessed Son of God only,\n          In a crib full poor did lie,\n          With our poor flesh and our poor blood,\n          Was clothed that everlasting Good.\n                  _Kirieleyson._\n\n          He that made heaven and earth of nought,\n          In our flesh hath our health brought,\n          For our sake made He Himself full small,\n          That reigneth Lord and King over all.\n                  _Kirieleyson._\"{32}\n\n[31]\n\n         \"All my heart this night rejoices,\n                  As I hear,\n                  Far and near,\n          Sweetest angel voices;\n          'Christ is born,' their choirs are singing,\n                  Till the air\n                  Everywhere\n          Now with joy is ringing.\n\n          Hark! a voice from yonder manger,\n                  Soft and sweet,\n                  Doth entreat,\n          'Flee from woe and danger;\n          Brethren, come, from all doth grieve you\n                  You are freed,\n                  All you need\n          I will surely give you.'\n\n          Blessed Saviour, let me find Thee!\n                  Keep Thou me\n                  Close to Thee,\n          Call me not behind Thee!\n          Life of life, my heart Thou stillest,\n                  Calm I rest\n                  On Thy breast,\n          All this void Thou fillest.\"{34}\n\n[32]\n\n         \"Triumph, ye heavens! rejoice ye with high adoration!\n          Sing to the Lord, to the Saviour, in glad exultation!\n                 Angels, give ear!\n                 God unto man hath drawn near,\n                 Bringing to lost ones salvation.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n          King of the Glory! what grace in Thy humiliation!\n          Thou wert a child! who of old wert the Lord of creation.\n                 Thee will I own,\n                 Thee would I follow, alone,\n                 Heir of Thy wondrous salvation.\n\n          Faithful Immanuel! let me Thy glories be telling,\n          Come, O my Saviour, be born, in mine inmost heart dwelling,\n                 In me abide.\n                 Make me with Thee unified,\n                 Where the life-fountain is welling.\"{36}\n\n[33]  A few of the best traditional pieces have been published by Mr. F.\n      Sidgwick in one of his charming \"Watergate Booklets\" under the\n      title of \"Popular Carols.\" The two next quotations are from this\n      source.\n\n[34]  Browning's great poem, \"Christmas Eve,\" is philosophical rather\n      than devotional, and hardly comes within the scope of this chapter.\n\n[35]  The first mention of a season corresponding to Advent is at the\n      Council of Tours, about 567, when a fast for monks in December is\n      vaguely indicated. At the Council of Macon (581) it is enjoined\n      that from Martinmas the second, fourth, and sixth days of the week\n      should be fasting days; and at the close of the sixth century Rome,\n      under Gregory the Great, adopted the rule of the four Sundays in\n      Advent. In the next century it became prevalent in the West. In the\n      Greek Church, forty days of fasting are observed before Christmas;\n      this custom appears to have been established in the thirteenth\n      century. In the Roman Church the practice as to fasting varies: in\n      the British Isles Wednesday and Friday are observed, but in some\n      countries no distinction is made between Advent and ordinary weeks\n      of the year.{2}\n\n[36]  Anthony Beck, Bishop of Durham, bequeathed to his cathedral a\n      Christmas candlestick of silver-gilt, on the base of which was an\n      image of St. Mary with her Son lying in the crib.\n\n[37]  \"Joseph, dear nephew mine, help me to rock the Child.\" \"Gladly,\n      dear aunt, will I help thee to rock thy Child.\" (Note the curious\n      words of relationship; Joseph and Mary were both of the seed of\n      David.)\n\n[38]  \"Let us rock the Child and bow our hearts before the crib! Let us\n      delight our spirits and bless the Child: sweet little Jesu! sweet\n      little Jesu!... Let us greet His little hands and feet, His little\n      heart of fire, and reverence Him humbly as our Lord and God! Sweet\n      little Jesu! sweet little Jesu!\"\n\n[39]  Turning for a moment from Sicilian domestic celebrations to a\n      public and communal action, I may mention a strange ceremony that\n      takes place at Messina in the dead of night; at two o'clock on\n      Christmas morning a naked _Bambino_ is carried in procession from\n      the church of Santa Lucia to the cathedral and back.{65}\n\n[40]  Or on the Sunday following the Octave, if the Octave itself is a\n      week-day.\n\n[41]  Tempting as it is to connect these dolls with the crib, it is\n      possible that their origin should be sought rather in\n      anthropomorphic representations of the spirits of vegetation, and\n      that they are of the same nature as the images carried about with\n      garlands in May and at other seasons.{77}\n\n[42]  Though no texts are extant of religious plays in English acted at\n      Christmastide, there are occasional records of such\n      performances:--at Tintinhull for instance in 1451 and at Dublin in\n      1528, while at Aberdeen a processional \"Nativity\" was performed at\n      Candlemas. And the \"Stella,\" whether in English or Latin it is\n      uncertain, is found at various places between 1462 and 1579.{10}\n\n[43]  Lodging.\n\n[44]  Once.\n\n[45]  Scarcely.\n\n[46]  Horses. Hous of haras = stable.\n\n[47]  Dwell.\n\n[48]  Darkness.\n\n[49]  Being.\n\n[50]  Wonderful.\n\n[51]  Worship.\n\n[52]  Shedder.\n\n[53]  Wrap.\n\n[54]  Crippled.\n\n[55]  Overreached.\n\n[56]  Deprive of.\n\n[57]  Curse.\n\n[58]  Strong in lordliness.\n\n[59]  Wizard.\n\n[60]  Shame.\n\n[61]  Noble being.\n\n[62]  Cursed.\n\n[63]  Warlock.\n\n[64]  Sorrow.\n\n[65]  Grows merry.\n\n[66]  Promise.\n\n[67]  Noble.\n\n[68]  Child.\n\n[69]  Baby.\n\n[70]  Head.\n\n[71]  Face.\n\n[72]  Hand.\n\n[73]  Besides the Nativity plays in the four great cycles there exists a\n      \"Shearmen and Tailors' Play\" which undoubtedly belongs to Coventry,\n      unlike the \"Ludus Coventriae,\" whose connection with that town is,\n      to say the least, highly doubtful. It opens with a prologue by the\n      prophet Isaiah, and in a small space presents the events connected\n      with the Incarnation from the Annunciation to the Murder of the\n      Innocents. The Nativity and shepherd scenes have less character and\n      interest than those in the great cycles, and need not be dealt with\n      here.{18}\n\n[74]\n\n         \"_Riepl._  What a noise there is. Everything seems so strange\n                      to me!\n          _Joergl._  Have the heavens fallen to-day; are the angels flying\n                      over our field?\n          _R._  They are leaping\n          _J._  Down from above.\n          _R._  I couldn't do the thing; 'twould break my neck and legs.\"\n\n[75]\n\n         \"_J._  My child, canst find no lodging? Must Thou bear such\n                  frost and cold?\n          _R._  Thou liest in cold swaddling-clothes! Come, put a\n                  garment about Him!\n          _J._  Cover His feet up; wrap Him up delicately!\"\n\n[76]  \"Three eggs and some butter we bring, too; deign to accept it! A\n      fowl to make some broth if Thy mother can cook it--put some\n      dripping in, and 'twill be good. Because we've nothing else--we are\n      but poor shepherds--accept our goodwill.\"\n\n[77]\n\n         \"_J._  The best of health to thee ever, my little dear; when\n                  thou wantest anything, come to me.\n          _J._  God keep thee ever!\n          _R._  Grow up fine and tall soon!\n          _J._  I'll take thee into service when thou'rt big enough.\"\n\n[78]  Jacopone da Todi, whose Christmas songs we have already considered,\n      was probably connected with the movement.\n\n[79]  An interesting and pathetic Christmas example is given by Signor\n      D'Ancona in his \"Origini del Teatro in Italia.\"{35}\n\n[80]  Though the ox and ass are not mentioned by St. Luke, it is an easy\n      transition to them from the idea of the manger. Early Christian\n      writers found a Scriptural sanction for them in two passages in the\n      prophets: Isaiah i. 3, \"The ox knoweth his owner and the ass his\n      master's crib,\" and Habakkuk iii. 2 (a mistranslation), \"In the\n      midst of two beasts shall Thou be known.\"\n\n[81]  With this may be compared the fair still held in Rome in the Piazza\n      Navona just before Christmas, at which booths are hung with little\n      clay figures for use in _presepi_ (see p. 113). One cannot help\n      being reminded too, though probably there is no direct connection,\n      of the biscuits in human shapes to be seen in German markets and\n      shops at Christmas, and of the paste images which English bakers\n      used to make at this season.{10}\n\n[82]  Among the Scandinavians, who were late in their conversion, a\n      pre-Christian Yule feast seems to have been held in the ninth\n      century, but it appears to have taken place not in December but\n      about the middle of January, and to have been transferred to\n      December 25 by the Christian king Hakon the Good of Norway\n      (940-63).{28}\n\n[83]  It is only right to mention here Professor G. Bilfinger's monograph\n      \"Das germanische Julfest\" (Stuttgart, 1901), where it is maintained\n      that the only festivals from which the Christmas customs of the\n      Teutonic peoples have sprung are the January Kalends of the Roman\n      Empire and the Christian feast of the Nativity. Bilfinger holds\n      that there is no evidence either of a November beginning-of-winter\n      festival or of an ancient Teutonic midwinter feast. Bilfinger's is\n      the most systematic of existing treatises on Christmas origins, but\n      the considerations brought forward in Tille's \"Yule and Christmas\"\n      in favour of the November festival are not lightly to be set aside,\n      and while recognizing that its celebration must be regarded rather\n      as a probable hypothesis than an established fact, I shall here\n      follow in general the suggestions of Tille and try to show the\n      contributions of this northern New Year feast to Christmas customs.\n\n[84]  Accounts of such maskings are to be found in innumerable books of\n      travel. In _Folk-Lore_, June 30, 1911, Professor Edward Westermarck\n      gives a particularly full and interesting description of Moroccan\n      customs of this sort. He describes at length various masquerades in\n      the skins and heads of beasts, accompanied often by the dressing-up\n      of men as women and by gross obscenities.\n\n[85]  Another suggested explanation connects the change of clothes with\n      rites of initiation at the passage from boyhood to manhood.\n      \"Manhood, among primitive peoples, seems to be envisaged as ceasing\n      to be a woman.... Man is born of woman, reared of woman. When he\n      passes to manhood, he ceases to be a woman-thing, and begins to\n      exercise functions other and alien. That moment is one naturally of\n      extreme peril; he at once emphasizes it and disguises it. He wears\n      woman's clothes.\" From initiation rites, according to this theory,\n      the custom spread to other occasions when it was desirable to\n      \"change the luck.\"\n\n[86]  According to Sir John Rhys, in the Isle of Man _Hollantide_\n      (November 1, Old Style, therefore November 12) is still to-day the\n      beginning of a new year. But the ordinary calendar is gaining\n      ground, and some of the associations of the old New Year's Day are\n      being transferred to January 1, the Roman date. \"In Wales this must\n      have been decidedly helped by the influence of Roman rule and Roman\n      ideas; but even there the adjuncts of the Winter Calends have never\n      been wholly transferred to the Calends of January.\"{4}\n\n[87]  In Burne and Jackson's \"Shropshire Folk-Lore\" (p. 305 f.) there are\n      details about cakes and other doles given to the poor at funerals.\n      These probably had the same origin as the November \"soul-cakes.\"\n\n[88]  Cf. pp. 191-2 and 235-6 of this volume.\n\n[89]  The prominence of \"Eves\" in festival customs is a point specially\n      to be noticed; it is often to them rather than to the actual feast\n      days that old practices cling. This is perhaps connected with the\n      ancient Celtic and Teutonic habit of reckoning by nights instead of\n      days--a trace of this is left in our word \"fortnight\"--but it must\n      be remembered that the Church encouraged the same tendency by her\n      solemn services on the Eves of festivals, and that the Jewish\n      Sabbath begins on Friday evening.\n\n[90]  Attempts are being made to suppress the November carnival at\n      Hampstead, and perhaps the 1911 celebration may prove to have been\n      the last.\n\n[91]  \"Raise the glass at Martinmas, drink wine all through the year.\"\n\n[92]  It is interesting to note that in the Italian province of Venetia,\n      as well as in more northerly regions, Martinmas is especially a\n      children's feast. In the sweetshops are sold little sugar images of\n      the saint on horseback with a long sword, and in Venice itself\n      children go about singing, playing on tambourines, and begging for\n      money.{93}\n\n[93]  \"At St. Andrew's Mass winter is certain.\"\n\n[94]  This custom may be compared with the Scotch eating of sowans in bed\n      on Christmas morning (see Chapter XII.).\n\n[95]  In a legend of the saint she is said to have plucked out her own\n      eyes when their beauty caused a prince to seek to ravish her away\n      from her convent.{54}\n\n[96]  The bath-house in the old-fashioned Swedish farm is a separate\n      building to which everyone repairs on Christmas Eve, but which is,\n      or was, seldom used except on this one night of the year.{23}\n\n[97]  Sometimes Christmas is reckoned as one of the Twelve Days,\n      sometimes not. In the former case, of course, the Epiphany is the\n      thirteenth day. In England we call the Epiphany Twelfth Day, in\n      Germany it is generally called Thirteenth; in Belgium and Holland\n      it is Thirteenth; in Sweden it varies, but is usually Thirteenth.\n      Sometimes then the Twelve Days are spoken of, sometimes the\n      Thirteen. \"The Twelve Nights,\" in accordance with the old Teutonic\n      mode of reckoning by nights, is a natural and correct term.{39}\n\n[98]  Those who wish to pursue further the study of the _Kallikantzaroi_\n      should read the elaborate and fascinating, if not altogether\n      convincing, theories of Mr. J. C. Lawson in his \"Modern Greek\n      Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion.\" He distinguishes two classes\n      of _Kallikantzaroi_, one of which he identifies with ordinary\n      werewolves, while the other is the type of hairy, clawed demons\n      above described. He sets forth a most ingenious hypothesis\n      connecting them with the Centaurs.\n\n[99]  It is to be borne in mind that the oak was a sacred tree among the\n      heathen Slavs; it was connected with the thunder-god Perun, the\n      counterpart of Jupiter, and a fire of oak burned night and day in\n      his honour. The neighbours of the Slavs, the Lithuanians, had the\n      same god, whom they called Perkunas; they too kept up a perpetual\n      oak-fire in his honour, and in time of drought they used to pour\n      beer on the flames, praying to Perkunas to send showers.{10} The\n      libations of wine on the Yule log may conceivably have had a\n      similar purpose.\n\n[100] Kindling.\n\n[101] The custom referred to in the last sentence may be compared with\n      the Danish St. Thomas's Day practice (see Chapter VIII.).\n\n[102] At Wormesley in Herefordshire there is a Holy Thorn which is still\n      believed to blossom exactly at twelve o'clock on Twelfth Night.\n      \"The blossoms are thought to open at midnight, and drop off about\n      an hour afterwards. A piece of thorn gathered at this hour brings\n      luck, if kept for the rest of the year.\" As recently as 1908 about\n      forty people went to see the thorn blossom at this time (see E. M.\n      Leather, \"The Folk-Lore of Herefordshire\" [London, 1912], 17).\n\n[103] Compare the struggle for the \"Haxey hood,\" described in Chapter\n      XVI., p. 347.\n\n[104] This may be compared with the ancient Greek _Eiresione_, \"a\n      portable May-pole, a branch hung about with wool, acorns, figs,\n      cakes, fruits of all sorts and sometimes wine-jars.\"{35}\n\n[105] It by no means necessarily follows, of course, that they were\n      exclusively Roman in origin.\n\n[106] In Welsh it has also the name of \"the tree of pure gold,\" a rather\n      surprising title for a plant with green leaves and white berries.\n      Dr. Frazer has sought to explain this name by the theory that in a\n      roundabout way the sun's golden fire was believed to be an\n      emanation from the mistletoe, in which the life of the oak, whence\n      fire was kindled, was held to reside.{47}\n\n[107] In the neighbourhood of Reichenberg children hang up their\n      stockings at the windows on St. Andrew's Eve, and in the morning\n      find them filled with apples and nuts{64}--a parallel to Martinmas\n      and St. Nicholas customs, at a date intermediate between the two\n      festivals.\n\n[108] \"He has more to do than the ovens in England at Christmas.\"\n\n[109] The following quotation from an ancient account book is tersely\n      suggestive of the English Christmas:--\n\n                                         s.  d.\n          \"Item payd to the preacher     vi  ii\n           Item payd to the minstrell   xii   o\n           Item payd to the coke         xv   o\"\n\n[110] In County Louth, Ireland, boys used to carry about a thorn-bush\n      decked with streamers of coloured paper and with a wren tied to one\n      of the branches.{47}\n\n[111] Dancing is, as everyone knows, a common and indeed a central\n      feature of primitive festivals; and such dancing is wont to take a\n      dramatic form, to be mimetic, whether re-enacting some past event\n      or _pre_-doing something with magical intent to produce it.{10}\n      The Greek tragedy itself probably sprang from a primitive dance of\n      a dramatic and magical character, centred in a death and\n      re-birth.{11}\n\n[112] In Thessaly and Macedonia at Carnival time folk-plays of a somewhat\n      similar character are performed, including a quarrel, a death, and\n      a miraculous restoration to life--evidently originating in magical\n      ritual intended to promote the fertility of vegetation.{12}\n      Parallels can be found in the Carnival customs of other countries.\n\n[113] A remarkably clear instance of the transference of customs from\n      Hollantide Eve (Hallowe'en) to the modern New Year is given by Sir\n      John Rhys. Certain methods of prognostication described by him are\n      practised by some people in the Isle of Man on the one day and by\n      some on the other, and the Roman date is gaining ground.{1}\n\n[114] See p. 252.\n\n[115] \"Ope thy purse, and shut it then.\"\n\n[116] It is probable that some customs practised at the Epiphany belong\n      in reality to Christmas Day, Old Style.\n\n[117] _Pasqua_ is there used for great festivals in general, not only for\n      Easter.\n\n[118] The custom of \"burning the bush,\" still surviving here and there in\n      Herefordshire, shows a certain resemblance to this. The \"bush,\" a\n      globe made of hawthorn, hangs throughout the year in the farmhouse\n      kitchen, with the mistletoe. Early on New Year's Day it \"is carried\n      to the earliest sown wheat field, where a large fire is lighted, of\n      straw and bushes, in which it is burnt. While it is burning, a new\n      one is made; in making it, the ends of the branches are scorched in\n      the fire.\" Burning straw is carried over twelve ridges of the\n      field, and then follow cider-drinking and cheering. (See Leather,\n      \"Folk-Lore of Herefordshire,\" 91 f.)","title":"Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":117569}