{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_70142/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_70142","id":"gutenberg_70142","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/70142","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: History - Religious","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Christmas -- Juvenile literature","Santa Claus -- Juvenile literature"],"text":"THE STORY OF SANTA KLAUS\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Merry Christmas to all!\n\nFrom Thomas Nast\u2019s \u201cChristmas Drawings for the Human Race.\u201d\n\nCopyright 1889 by Harper and Brothers.]\n\n\n\n\n  THE STORY OF SANTA KLAUS\n\n  TOLD FOR CHILDREN OF ALL\n  AGES FROM SIX TO SIXTY\n\n  BY\n  WILLIAM S. WALSH\n\n  AND ILLUSTRATED BY ARTISTS OF ALL AGES\n  FROM FRA ANGELICO TO HENRY HUTT\n\n  [Illustration]\n\n  NEW YORK\n  MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY\n  1909\n\n\n\n\n  Copyright, 1909, by\n  WILLIAM S. WALSH\n  NEW YORK\n\n  Published October, 1909\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n  CHAPTER                                              PAGE\n\n     I. WHO IS SANTA KLAUS                               13\n\n    II. STRANGE ADVENTURES OF THE SAINT\u2019S BODY           39\n\n   III. CHRIST-KINKLE AND CHRIST-KINDLEIN                50\n\n    IV. THE EVOLUTION OF CHRISTMAS                       58\n\n     V. SILENUS, SATURN, THOR                            69\n\n    VI. A TERRIBLE CHRISTMAS IN OLD FRANCE               80\n\n   VII. THE CHRISTMAS TREE IN LEGEND                     90\n\n  VIII. THE CHRISTMAS TREE IN HISTORY                    99\n\n    IX. THE CHRISTMAS TREE IN EUROPE                    109\n\n     X. THE CHRISTMAS TREE IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA       118\n\n    XI. THE STORY OF THE THREE KINGS                    124\n\n   XII. SOME TWELFTH NIGHT CUSTOMS                      151\n\n  XIII. ST. NICHOLAS IN ENGLAND                         158\n\n   XIV. FATHER CHRISTMAS AND HIS FAMILY                 165\n\n    XV. PANTOMIME IN THE PAST AND PRESENT               185\n\n   XVI. SAINT NICHOLAS IN EUROPE                        194\n\n  XVII. SAINT NICHOLAS IN AMERICA                       214\n\n\n\n\nLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\n                                                       PAGE\n\n  Merry Christmas to all!                    _Frontispiece_\n\n  St. Nicholas as the patron saint of children           15\n\n  The Consecration of St. Nicholas                       19\n\n  St. Nicholas and the three maidens                     23\n\n  St. Nicholas resuscitating the schoolboys              27\n\n  Bishop Nicholas                                        31\n\n  St. Nicholas of Bari                                   35\n\n  Heads of the Christ-child                              41\n\n  The Christ-child surrounded by angels                  47\n\n  \u201cSuffer little children to come unto me\u201d               51\n\n  Christ the giver                                       55\n\n  Christmas presents                                     59\n\n  Saturn, the God of Time                                63\n\n  Silenus and Fauns                                      71\n\n  Santa Claus and his young friends                      73\n\n  Carrying home the Christmas dinner                     77\n\n  The Feast of the Passover                              81\n\n  The Adoration of the Lamb                              87\n\n  Luther and the Christmas tree                         101\n\n  Christmas tree of the English royal family            111\n\n  On the way to Bethlehem                               125\n\n  The Three Kings visit Herod                           129\n\n  The Journey of the Three Kings                        133\n\n  The Arrival of the Three Kings                        137\n\n  The Adoration of the Magi (1)                         141\n\n  The Adoration of the Magi (2)                         145\n\n  The Adoration of the Three Kings                      149\n\n  The Child\u2019s Twelfth Night Dream                       153\n\n  Father Christmas                                      167\n\n  Father Christmas (another conception)                 171\n\n  The Old and the New Christmas                         175\n\n  Bringing in Old Christmas                             179\n\n  The Christmas Waits                                   183\n\n  Jongleurs announcing the birth of our Lord            187\n\n  Going to the Pantomime                                191\n\n  Mute admiration                                       195\n\n  Santa Klaus comes to grief on an automobile           199\n\n  \u201cNo, I don\u2019t believe in you any more\u201d                 203\n\n  Santa Klaus                                           207\n\n  Santa Klaus up in a balloon                           211\n\n  New Year\u2019s gifts in a French workingman\u2019s family      215\n\n  French children gazing up the chimney for gifts       219\n\n  Silenus and Bacchus                                   223\n\n  The bambino                                           225\n\n  Santa Klaus on New Year\u2019s eve                         227\n\n  The investigating committee                           229\n\n  St. Nicholas unveils                                  231\n\n\n\n\nTHE STORY OF SANTA KLAUS\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nWHO IS SANTA KLAUS?\n\n\nIf you go to England you will find many people there who have never\nheard of Santa Klaus. Only the other day a leading London paper\nconfessed that it could not understand why a magazine for children\nshould be called St. Nicholas.\n\nNow if you were asked the question which heads this chapter do you\nthink you could answer it so as to make an Englishman understand who\nSanta Klaus is? Could you also explain what connection Saint Nicholas\nhas with children?\n\nOf course you might glibly reply:\n\n\u201cSanta Klaus is the Dutch diminutive (or pet name) for Saint Nicholas,\nand Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of boys and girls.\u201d\n\nBut the Englishman might want to know more than this. Perhaps you\nyourself would be glad to know more. It is for the purpose of supplying\nyou with information that I have prepared this little book.\n\nLet us begin with the legends which concern this holy man and see what\nhelp they will give us. I say let us begin with the legends, because\nhistory itself tells us little or nothing about the saint beyond the\nfact that he was Bishop of a town called Myra in Asia Minor and that\nhe died about the year 342. Legend fills out these meagre details with\nmany a pretty story which throws a kindly light upon the character of\ngood Saint Nicholas.\n\nYou know what a legend is? It means a story which was not put into\nwriting by historians at the time when the thing is said to have\nhappened, but which has been handed down from father to son for\nhundreds and sometimes for thousands of years. It may or may not have\nhad some basis of truth at the beginning. But after passing from mouth\nto mouth in this fashion it is very likely to lose what truth it once\npossessed. Still, even if the facts are not given in just the manner in\nwhich they happened there is nearly always some useful moral wrapped\nup in the fiction that has grown around the facts. That is why wise\nand learned men are glad to collect these legends from the lips of the\npeasants and other simple minded folk who have learned them at their\nmothers\u2019 knee, and who believe that they are all true. These legends\nare called by the general name of folk-lore.\n\n[Illustration: St. Nicholas as the patron of children.\n\nItalian print.]\n\nTwo brothers of the name of Grimm once collected into a book the\nfolk-lore of their native country, Germany. This book is known to you\nas Grimm\u2019s Fairy Tales. Hans Christian Andersen also found among the\nlegends of Denmark some of the prettiest and most fanciful of his tales.\n\nNow stories concerning Saint Nicholas abound in almost every country\nof Europe, for almost every country except Great Britain is interested\nin his name and fame. He may, indeed, be called the busiest of all\nthe saints. In the first place legend makes him the patron saint of\nchildren all over the world, no matter of what sex or color or station\nin life. Ever childlike and humble, so we are told by a quaint old\nauthor, \u201che keepeth the name of a child, for he chose to keep the\nvirtues of meekness and simpleness. Thus he lived all his life in\nvirtues with this child\u2019s name, and therefore children do him worship\nbefore all other saints.\u201d\n\nOne might think that to be a patron of the world\u2019s children would keep\none saint pretty busy, even if it did not exhaust his energies. Not so\nwith Saint Nicholas. He occupies his spare moments as the protector\nof the weak against the strong, of the poor against the rich, of the\nservant and the slave against the master. Because he once calmed a\nstorm he is the patron of travellers and sailors and of many seaport\ntowns. Because he once converted a gang of robbers and made them\nrestore their booty to the men they had robbed he is still thought to\nretain a kindly interest in thieves.\n\nMoreover he is the patron of the largest of all European countries, the\nempire of Russia.\n\nNow we will make our promised examination of the legends which have\ngathered around this saint and given him a fame so widespread.\n\nSaint Nicholas is said to have been born in a town called Potara in\nAsia Minor. To the great wonder of his nurses he stood up in a tub\non the day of his birth with his hands clasped together and his eyes\nraised to heaven and gave thanks to God for having brought him into the\nworld. It is added that on Wednesday and Fridays, (both fast days in\nthe early Church) he would refuse to take milk until the going down of\nthe sun.\n\nHis parents died when he was very young. As they were wealthy they left\nhim well provided with the world\u2019s goods. But he would not accept them\nfor himself. Instead he used them for the good of the poor and of the\nChurch.\n\nWhen he was old enough he studied for the priesthood in the town of\nMyra and was ordained as soon as he had reached man\u2019s estate. He at\nonce set sail on a voyage to the Holy Land to visit the tomb of Jesus\nChrist in Jerusalem. On the way a dreadful storm arose. The winds\nhowled and whistled, the great waves shook the vessel from stem to\nstern.\n\n[Illustration: The consecration of St. Nicholas.\n\nOld print.]\n\nThe captain and the sailors who had been used to bad weather pretty\nmuch all their lives declared that this was the worst storm they had\never known. Indeed they had given up all hope when the young Nicholas\nbade them be of good cheer.\n\nHis prayers soon calmed the wind and the waves, so that the ship\nreached Alexandria safe and sound. There the saint landed and made the\ngreater part of the journey from Alexandria to Jerusalem on foot.\n\nReturning by sea, he wished to go straight back to Myra. The captain,\nhowever, would not obey his orders and tried to make the port of\nAlexandria. Then Saint Nicholas prayed again and another great storm\narose. And the captain was so frightened by this evidence of the\nsaint\u2019s powers that he gladly listened to his request and headed the\nship towards Myra.\n\nIn the year 325 Nicholas, then still a young man, was elected Bishop\nof Myra. On the day of his consecration to that office a woman brought\ninto the church a child which had fallen into the fire and been\nbadly burned. Nicholas made the sign of the cross over the child and\nstraightway restored it to health. That is the first of his miracles\nwhich showed the interest that he took in children.\n\nTwo other miracles which are still more famous are thought to\nforeshadow the fame he has won since his death as the patron of\nchildren and the bearer of gifts to them at the holy Christmas season.\n\nAmong the members of his flock (so runs the first story) there was a\ncertain nobleman who had three young daughters. From being rich he\nbecame poor,--so poor that he could not afford to support his daughters\nnor supply the dowry which would enable him to marry them off. For in\nthose days, as even now in many countries in Europe, young men expected\nthat a bride should bring with her a sum of money from her parents with\nwhich the young couple could start housekeeping. This is called the\ndowry.\n\nOver and over the thought came into the nobleman\u2019s mind to tell his\ndaughters that they must go away from home and seek their own living as\nservants or in even meaner ways. Shame and sorrow alone held him dumb.\nMeanwhile the maidens wept continually, not knowing what to do, and\nhaving no bread to eat. So their father grew more and more desperate.\n\nAt last the matter came to the ears of Saint Nicholas. That kindly\nsoul thought it a shame that such things should happen in a Christian\ncountry. So one night when the maidens were asleep and their father sat\nalone, watching and weeping, Saint Nicholas took a handful of gold and\ntying it up in a handkerchief, or as some say placing it in a purse,\nset out for the nobleman\u2019s house.\n\n[Illustration: St. Nicholas and the three maidens.\n\nFifteenth century painting.]\n\nHe considered how he might best bestow the money without making himself\nknown. While he stood hesitating the moon came up from behind a\ncloud, and showed him an open window. He threw the purse containing the\ngold in through the window and it fell at the feet of the father.\n\nGreatly rejoiced was the old gentleman when the money plumped down\nbeside him. Picking up the purse he gave thanks to God and presented it\nto his eldest daughter as her dowry. Thus she was enabled to marry the\nyoung man whom she loved.\n\nNot long afterwards Saint Nicholas collected together another purse\nof money and threw it into the nobleman\u2019s house just as he had done\nbefore. Thus a dowry was provided for the second daughter.\n\nAnd now the curiosity of the nobleman was excited. He greatly desired\nto know who it was that had come so generously to his aid. So he\ndetermined to watch. When the good saint came for a third time and made\nready to throw in the third purse, he was discovered, for the nobleman\nseized him by the skirt of his robe and flung himself at his feet,\ncrying:\n\n\u201cOh, Nicholas, servant of God, why seek to hide thyself?\u201d\n\nAnd he kissed the holy man\u2019s feet and hands. But Saint Nicholas made\nhim promise that he would tell no one what had occurred.\n\nThe second legend is much more wonderful. It tells how Saint Nicholas\nwas once travelling through his diocese at a time when the people had\nbeen driven to the verge of starvation. One night he put up at an\ninn kept by a very cruel and very wicked man, though nobody in the\nneighborhood yet suspected his guilt.\n\nThis monster, finding that the famine had made beef and mutton\nextremely scarce and greatly raised their price, had conceived the\nidea of filling his pantry with the fat juicy corpses of children whom\nhe kidnapped, killed and served up to his guests in all varieties of\nnicely cooked dishes and under all sorts of fancy names.\n\nNobody could guess how he alone of all the innkeepers in that\nneighborhood could maintain a table so well supplied with meats, boiled\nand roasted, and stews and hashes and nice tasty soups.\n\nBut no sooner had a dish of this human flesh been served up to the\nsaint than he discovered the horrible truth.\n\nLeaping to his feet he poured out his anger in bitter but righteous\nwords. Vainly the landlord fawned and cringed and protested that he was\ninnocent. Saint Nicholas simply walked over to the tub where the bodies\nof the children had been salted down. All he had to do was to make the\nsign of the cross over the tub, and lo! three little boys, who had been\nmissing for days, arose alive and well, and, coming out of the tub,\nknelt at the feet of the saint.\n\n[Illustration: St. Nicholas resuscitating the schoolboys.\n\nOld Neapolitan print.]\n\nAll the other guests of the inn were struck dumb at the miracle. The\nchildren were restored to their mother, who was a widow. As to the\nlandlord, he was taken out and stoned to death, as he richly deserved\nto be.\n\nAnother of St. Nicholas\u2019 miracles shows that he had a kind heart for\ngrown-ups as well as for the young folk. A revolt having broken out in\nPhrygia, Emperor Constantine sent a number of his tribunes to quell it.\nWhen they had reached Myra, the bishop invited them to his table so\nthat they would not quarter themselves on poorer citizens, who might be\nill able to afford their keep.\n\nA grand banquet was served up to them. As host and guests were\npreparing to sit down, news was brought into the hall that the prefect\nof the city had condemned three men to death, on a false accusation\nthat they were rebels. They had just been led to execution and the\nwhole city was in a ferment of excitement over this terrible act of\ninjustice.\n\nNicholas rose at once from the table. Followed by his guests he ran to\nthe place of execution. There he found the three men kneeling on the\nground, their eyes bound with bandages, and the executioner standing\nover them waving his bared sword in the air. Nicholas snatched the\nsword out of his hand. Then he ordered the men to be unbound. No one\ndared to disobey him. Even the prefect fell upon his knees and humbly\ncraved forgiveness, which was granted with some reluctance.\n\nMeanwhile the tribunes, looking on at the scene, were filled with\nwonder and admiration. They, too, cast themselves at the feet of the\nholy man and besought his blessing. Then, having feasted their fill on\nthe banquet that had been provided for them, the tribunes continued\ntheir journey to Phrygia.\n\nThey, too, it was decreed were to fall under the ban of a false\naccusation. During their absence from Constantinople, Constantine\u2019s\nmind had been poisoned against them by their enemies. Immediately on\ntheir return he cast them into prison. They were tried and condemned to\ndeath as traitors. From the dungeon into which they had been cast to\nawait the carrying out of this sentence they sent out a piteous prayer\nto St. Nicholas for assistance. Though he was hundreds of miles away,\nhe heard them.\n\nAnd that same night he appeared to Constantine in a dream, commanding\nhim to release these men and to declare them innocent,--threatening\nhim at the same time with the wrath of God if he refused. Constantine\ndid not refuse. He took the saint\u2019s word for their innocence, pardoned\nthem, and set them free. Next morning he despatched them to Myra to\nthank Saint Nicholas in person for their happy deliverance. As a thank\noffering they bore him a copy of the gospels, written in letters of\ngold, and bound in a cover embossed with pearls and precious stones.\n\n[Illustration: Bishop Nicholas.\n\nFrom old Italian print.]\n\nNor did the saint\u2019s miracles end with his life. Even after death he\nlistened from his high place in heaven to the prayers of the humblest\nand gladly hastened to their assistance when they asked for help in the\nright spirit and at the right time.\n\nHere are three legends which have been especially popular in literature\nand art.\n\nA Jew of Calabria, hearing of the wonderful miracles which had been\nperformed by Saint Nicholas, stole his image out of the parish church\nand bore it away to his home. There he placed it in his parlor.\nAnd when, next day, he had made ready to go out for the morning he\ncommended all his treasures to the care of the saint, impudently\nthreatening that his image would be soundly thrashed if he failed in\nhis trust. No sooner was the Jew\u2019s back turned, however, than robbers\nbroke into the house and carried off all its treasures. Great was the\nJew\u2019s wrath when he returned. Bitter were the reproaches he hurled at\nthe saint. Many and fierce were the whacks he bestowed upon the image.\n\nThat very night Saint Nicholas, all bruised and bleeding, appeared to\nthe robbers, and commanded them immediately to restore what they had\ntaken. Terrified at the vision they leaped to their feet, collected\nthe plunder, and brought it back to the Jew\u2019s house. The Jew was so\nastonished at the miracle that he was easily converted to Christianity\nand baptized.\n\nThere was a wealthy man who, though married, had no son to inherit his\nestate. This man vowed that if Saint Nicholas would provide him with\nan heir he would present a cup of gold to the saint\u2019s altar at Myra.\nSaint Nicholas heard the prayer and, through his intercession, God sent\nthe childless man a son. At once the father ordered the cup of gold to\nbe prepared. When it was finished, however, it seemed so beautiful in\nhis eyes that he decided to keep it for himself and offer the saint a\nmeaner one made of silver. When this, too, was finished, the merchant\nwith his son set out to make the presentation. On the journey he\nstopped by a river to quench his thirst. Taking out the golden cup he\nbade the son fetch him some water. In obeying the child fell into the\nriver and was drowned.\n\nWeeping bitter tears of repentance the merchant appeared in the church\nof Saint Nicholas and there made his offering of the silver cup. But\nthe cup would not stay where it was put. Once, twice, thrice, it fell\noff the altar.\n\nWhile all the people stared with astonishment, behold the drowned\nboy appeared before them,--standing on the steps of the altar with\nthe golden cup in his hand. Full of joy and gratitude, the father\noffered both the cups to the saint and bore his son home with\nthanksgivings to God and to His saint.\n\n[Illustration: St. Nicholas of Bari.\n\nOld Italian print.]\n\nA certain rich merchant, himself a Christian, dwelt on the borders of\na heathen country. He cultivated a special devotion to Saint Nicholas.\nOne day his only son was taken captive by some of the wicked neighbors\nacross the boundary line and sold into slavery. The lad finally became\nthe property of the pagan king, and served him as his cup-bearer.\n\nOne day, while filling the royal cup at dinner he suddenly remembered\nthat it was December 6, and the feast of Saint Nicholas. He burst into\ntears at the thought that his family were even then gathered around the\ndinner table in honor of their patron.\n\n\u201cWhy weepest thou?\u201d testily asked the king. \u201cSeest thou not that thy\ntears fall into my cup and spoil my wine?\u201d\n\nAnd the boy answered through his sobs:\n\n\u201cThis is the day when my parents and my kindred are met together in\ngreat joy to honor our good Saint Nicholas; and I, alas! am far away\nfrom them.\u201d\n\nThen the pagan blasphemer swore a good round oath and said:\n\n\u201cGreat as is thy Saint Nicholas, he cannot save thee from my hand!\u201d\n\nHardly were the words out of his mouth when a whirlwind shook the\npalace. A flash of lightning was followed by a loud peal of thunder\nand lo! Saint Nicholas himself stood in the midst of the affrighted\nfeasters. He caught the youth up by the hair of his head so suddenly\nthat he had no time to drop the royal cup, and whirled him through the\nair at a prodigious speed until, a few moments later, he landed him\nin his home. The family were gathered in the dining room when saint\nand boy made their appearance,--the father being even then engaged in\ndistributing the banquet to the poor, beseeching in return that they\nwould offer up their prayers in behalf of his captive son.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nSTRANGE ADVENTURES OF THE SAINT\u2019S BODY\n\n\nSt. Nicholas, as I have said, died in the year 342 and was buried with\ngreat honor in the cathedral at Myra.\n\nBeing the patron saint of such roving folk as sailors, merchants and\ntravellers it was only natural that his body should have lain in\nperpetual peril from thievish hands. The relics of saints were highly\nprized because it was held that they performed miracles on behalf of\nthe townsfolk and of the strangers who visited their shrines. Of course\nthe relics of so great and popular a saint as Nicholas were especially\ncoveted, and most so by the classes of whom he was the patron.\n\nIn those rude days it was believed that no saint was greatly troubled\nby the manner in which his body was procured. Even if it were stolen\nand reburied elsewhere by the robbers themselves the body worked\nmiracles in its new abode as cheerfully as it had done in the old one.\nMoreover it drew trade and custom to any city in which it was enshrined\nand so brought wealth to the people of the entire neighborhood.\n\nIn fact pilgrims from various parts of the world came in crowds to the\nshrine at Myra. As the fame of Saint Nicholas increased so did the\nvalue of his relics. At various times during the first six centuries\nafter his burial attempts were made to carry off his body by force or\nby fraud.\n\nNone of these attempts was successful until, in the year 1084, certain\nmerchants from the city of Bari, in southeastern Italy, landed at Myra\nto find that the entire countryside had been laid waste by an invasion\nof the Turks. All the men who could bear arms had gathered together and\nwere now gone in pursuit of the invaders. Three monks only had been\nleft behind to stand guard over the shrine of Saint Nicholas.\n\nIt was an easy task for the merchants of Bari to overpower these monks,\nbreak open the coffin which contained the body and bear it away with\nthem to their own city.\n\nHere it was received with great joy. A fine new church was built on\nthe site of an old one which had been dedicated to Saint Stephen and\nwhich was now torn down to make room for its successor. This was to\nserve as a shrine for the stolen body. The new church is still standing\nand though it is now old it is still magnificent. In a crypt or vault\nunder its high altar lies all that was mortal of the one-time Bishop\nof Myra. On the very day of the re-burial, so it is said, no less than\nthirty people who attended the ceremony were cured of their various\nailments.\n\n[Illustration: Heads of the Christ-child.\n\nSelected from Raphael\u2019s pictures.]\n\nSuch is the story that is generally accepted. But another story was and\nis told by the people of Venice. They, too, claim that they possess\nthe body of Saint Nicholas, and insist that it was taken from Myra by\nVenetian merchants in the year 1100, and reburied in Venice by the\ncitizens.\n\nThey do not accept the story told by the Bari merchants, but declare\nthat the latter carried off from another spot the body of another\nsaint, possibly of the same name, which they palmed off upon their\nfellow citizens as the body of the former Bishop of Myra.\n\nThe true body, they claim, is that which lies to-day, as it has lain\nfor centuries, in the church of St. Nicholas on the Lido. The Lido is a\nbank of sand which projects, promontory fashion, out of the Grand Canal\nin Venice into the Adriatic Sea.\n\nThe fame of a holy man so closely connected with two great trading\nports of the Middle Ages was sure to spread wider and wider among\nthe nations of Europe. And, indeed, we find that everywhere sailors\nacknowledged him as their special guide and protector and sang his\npraises wherever they landed.\n\nBoth at Bari and at Venice the churches dedicated in his honor stand\nclose to the mouth of the harbor. Venetian crews on their way out to\nsea would land at the Lido and proceed to the church of St. Nicholas,\nthere to ask for a blessing on their voyage. There also they would stop\non their home-coming to give thanks for a safe return. Sailors of Bari\nwould in the same way honor the shrine in which lay what they claimed\nwas the true body of Saint Nicholas.\n\nMany tales of miraculous escapes from shipwreck, due to the\nintercession of their patron, were related by seamen and travellers,\nnot only at home, but at the various ports where they stopped, so that\nthe name and fame of the good Saint Nicholas grew more resplendent\nevery year. Churches erected in his honor abound in the fishing\nvillages and harbors of Europe.\n\nIn England alone, before the Reformation, there were 376 churches which\nbore his name. The largest parish church in the entire land is that of\nSt. Nicholas at Yarmouth, which was built in the twelfth century and\nretains that name to the present day. Some of the other churches were\nrebaptized by the Protestants.\n\nThe churches dedicated to Saint Nicholas in Catholic countries are\nespecially dear to people who make their living out of the sea. Sailors\nand fishermen when ashore frequent them, and if they have just escaped\nfrom any of the perils of the deep they show gratitude to their patron\nby hanging up on the church walls what are known as votive pictures.\nThese are either prints of the saint or sketches, rudely drawn by local\nartists, which represent the danger that the sailors had run and the\nmanner in which they had escaped. Often a figure of Saint Nicholas\nappears in the darkened heavens to calm the fears of the imperilled\nmariners.\n\nIt is fishermen and sailors also who take the chief part in the great\nfestival in honor of Saint Nicholas that is celebrated at Bari on the\nfifth and sixth of December in every year.\n\nBari, it may be well to explain, is a very old and still a very\nimportant seaport on the eastern coast of southern Italy. It is\nsituated on a small peninsula projecting into the Adriatic. From very\nearly days the city has been the official seat of an archbishop and\nhence possesses a grand old cathedral.\n\nGrand, however, as is this cathedral, it is eclipsed both in beauty and\nin popular regard by the church of Saint Nicholas which I have already\nmentioned as containing the bones of the saint. These repose in a\nsepulchre, or huge tomb, that stands in a magnificent crypt some twenty\nfeet beneath the high altar. Water trickles out through the native\nrock which forms the tomb. It is collected by the priests on a sponge\nattached to a reed, is squeezed into bottles, and sold or given away\nunder the name of \u201cManna of Saint Nicholas\u201d as a cure for many ailments.\n\nOn the eve of Saint Nicholas\u2019 Day, that is on the day before it\n(December 5th) the city of Bari is overrun by hosts of pilgrims from\nthe neighboring cities, as well as others from the furthest corners\nof Italy and even from Mediterranean France and Spain and Adriatic\nAustria. All Catholic mariners whose ships happen to be lying in port\nat the time are sure to join the throng.\n\nThe pilgrims carry staffs decorated with olive, palm or pine branches.\nFrom each staff depends a water bottle, which is to be filled with\nthe manna of Saint Nicholas. Most of the pilgrims are barefoot. All\nare clad in the picturesque costumes in use in their native places on\nholiday occasions.\n\nOn entering the church the pilgrims may, if they choose, make a\ncomplete circuit of it, moving around on their knees with their\nforeheads pressed every now and then against the marble pavement. Often\na little child leads them by means of a string or handkerchief, one end\nbeing held in the mouth of the pilgrim.\n\nNext day, December 6th,--the actual feast of Saint Nicholas,--is\ncelebrated by a procession of the seafaring men of Bari. Rising at\ndaybreak they enter the church early in the morning. The priests, who\nhave assembled to greet them, take down from the altar a wooden image\nof Saint Nicholas, clad in the robes of a bishop. This is handed over\nto the care of the paraders for the rest of the day. The priests may\naccompany the image only as far as the outer gate of the church. The\nprocession, with the image in the hands of its leaders, files out into\nthe street and, followed by the populace, visits the cathedral and\nother sacred or public places. Then the leaders take Saint Nicholas\nout to sea in a boat. Hundreds of other boats accommodate their fellow\nparaders, as also such of the citizens as can afford the luxury, and\nfollow Saint Nicholas over the waves.\n\n[Illustration: The Christ-child surrounded by angels.\n\nPainting by Rubens.]\n\nThe shore meanwhile is lined with the bulk of the populace of Bari\nand the pilgrim visitors who eagerly await the return of the image at\nnight-fall. Bonfires are then burned, rockets are shot off, everybody\nwho possesses a candle or torch lights it and the people fall in line\nwith the paraders to restore the sacred image to its guardians at the\nchurch.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nCHRIST-KINKLE AND CHRIST-KINDLEIN\n\n\nI have now told you all that is known of the story of Saint Nicholas\nduring his lifetime and even after his death. I think you will agree\nthat we have not yet gone very far in identifying Santa Klaus, the\nmodern Saint Nicholas, with the historic saint who was once Bishop of\nMyra.\n\nIt is true that some learned men have thought to find in the legend of\nthe three maidens an answer to a couple of problems that bother the\ninquiring mind.\n\nFirst they explain that the three purses of gold, which, in pictures\nby the old Italian masters, figure as three golden balls, and which\nwere looked upon as the special symbol or sign of the charitable Saint\nNicholas, are the origin of those three gilt balls which swing over a\npawnbroker\u2019s shop in token of that well-spring of human kindness which\nhas earned for him the affectionate title of \u201cuncle.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: \u201cSuffer little children to come unto me.\u201d\n\nPainting by B. Plockhorst.]\n\nIf you have a fine sense of humor you will see that the last sentence\nis sarcasm. And if you have small love for clever explanations that\ndon\u2019t explain, you will reject this theory of the origin of the\npawnbroker\u2019s sign and prefer to believe that it sprang from the gilt\npills which adorned the shield of the great Medici family of Italy.\nMedici means doctors. Both the name and the shield were reminders that\nthe family earned their first fame as physicians many years before they\nbecame the greatest princes and money changers of Europe.\n\nBut the other theory, what of that? The other theory is more to the\npoint. It assumes that the Saint Nicholas who was Bishop of Myra is the\nSanta Klaus of modern Christmas, whom he pre-figured in the fact that\nhe appeared in the night-time and secretly made valuable presents to\nthe children of a certain household.\n\nHere is some appearance of truth. In the first place there can be no\ndoubt that Santa Klaus and Saint Nicholas are the same name. Indeed to\nthis day our Christmas saint is known either as Santa Klaus or Saint\nNicholas, Klaus in Dutch being \u201cshort and sweet\u201d for Nicholaus, and, as\nsuch, the same as our Nick for Nicholas.\n\nBut, after all, there seems to be little likeness in other respects\nbetween the saint of the legend and the modern patron of the Christmas\nseason. What connection is there between a single case of charity,\nperformed at no particular time, with the splendid and widespread\ngenerosity of Santa Klaus, who every Christmas eve loads himself\ndown with presents for the little ones he loves, and finds means to\ndistribute them all over the land in a single night?\n\nAs the answer is not apparent on the surface, let us turn to the other\nlegend. We shall have to confess however that the story of the three\nschoolboys miraculously restored to life after they had been cut up\nand salted down, helps us even less than does the story of the three\npurses. It is simply one of a whole group of stories wherein Saint\nNicholas appears as the friend and benefactor of children. In this\nrespect only does he resemble our Santa Klaus.\n\nIn all the characteristics which modern painters and story tellers, in\nAmerica, in Holland and in Germany, have bestowed upon the jolly saint\nof the Christmas season he differs entirely from the slender and even\nemaciated Nicholas, clad in the robes of a bishop, with a mitre on his\nhead and a crozier in his hand, whom the early painters were fond of\ndepicting.\n\nSo the legends of Saint Nicholas afford but a slight clew to the origin\nof Santa Klaus,--alike, indeed, in name but so unlike in all other\nrespects.\n\nLet us turn elsewhere. In Germany and to a certain extent in America\nthe name Christ-Kinkle or Kriss-Kingle is looked upon as another name\nfor Santa Klaus. But in fact history teaches us that is a far different\nBeing, though the two have been welded into one in the popular\nimagination.\n\n[Illustration: Christ the giver.\n\nPainting by Murillo.]\n\nA very small knowledge of German reveals the fact that Christ-Kinkle\nis simply a \u201ccorruption\u201d or mistaken pronunciation of the German word\nChrist-Kindlein which in English means Christ-child. Now the connection\nof the Christ-child with the gift-giving season is obvious enough. In\nthe first place He is the hero of Christmas day itself. Born a human\nchild He ever preserved a great love for young people.\n\n\u201cSuffer little children to come unto me,\u201d He said, \u201cfor of such is the\nkingdom of Heaven.\u201d\n\nThe old masters were fond of painting Him as a child among children. In\nnearly all the famous pictures which Raphael, the greatest of Italian\nartists, painted of the Holy Family or of the Madonna and Child, the\ninfant Jesus is accompanied by the infant Saint John as friend and\nplaymate.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nTHE EVOLUTION OF CHRISTMAS\n\n\nNow I must own that at first sight it is difficult to explain how\nthe Christ-child of the past--the Holy One whose birth is remembered\nand honored in that feast which we call Christmas, should gradually\nhave been changed into the white-haired, white-bearded, merry-hearted\nand kindly old pagan whom we sometimes call Christ-Kinkle but more\nfrequently Santa Klaus.\n\nYet at the very moment when we come face to face with this difficult\nproblem we have reached the explanation which seemed impossible when we\nstrove to understand the much less startling transformation of Saint\nNicholas, Bishop of Myra, into Santa Klaus, patron of the Christmas\nseason.\n\nWe remember that the Christmas festival of to-day is a gradual\nevolution from times that long antedated the Christian period. We\nremember that though it celebrates the mightiest event in the history\nof Christendom, it was overlaid upon heathen festivals, and many of its\nobservances are only adaptations of pagan to Christian ceremonial.\n\n[Illustration: Christmas presents.\n\nPainting by F. Defregger.]\n\nThis was no mere accident. It was a necessary measure at a time when\nthe new religion was forcing itself upon a deeply superstitious people.\nIn order to reconcile fresh converts to the new faith, and to make the\nbreaking of old ties as painless as possible, these relics of paganism\nwere retained under modified forms, in the same way that antique\ncolumns, transferred from pagan temples, became parts of the new\nchurches built by Christians in honor of their God and his saints.\n\nThus we find that when Pope Gregory sent Saint Augustine as a\nmissionary to convert Anglo-Saxon England he directed that so far as\npossible the saint should accommodate the new and strange Christian\nrites to the heathen ones with which the natives had been familiar\nfrom their birth. For example, he advised Saint Augustine to allow his\nconverts on certain festivals to eat and kill a great number of oxen to\nthe glory of God the Father, as formerly they had done this in honor of\nthe devil. All pagan gods, it should be explained, were looked upon as\ndevils by the early Christians.\n\nOn the very Christmas after his arrival in England Saint Augustine\nbaptized many thousands of converts and permitted their usual December\ncelebration under the new name and with the new meaning. He forbade\nonly the mingling together of Christians and pagans in the dances.\n\nFrom these early pagan-Christian ceremonies are derived many of the\nEnglish holiday customs that have survived to our day.\n\nNow get clearly into your head one very important fact. Although at\nthe time when Augustine visited England the date of Christmas had been\nfixed upon as December 25 there is no biblical reason why this should\nbe so. The gospels say nothing about the season of the year when Christ\nwas born. On the other hand they do tell us that shepherds were then\nguarding their flocks in the open air. Hence many of the early fathers\nof the Church considered it most likely that the Nativity took place\neither in the late summer or the early fall. The point was of no great\nmoment to them, as the early Church made more fuss over the death day\nof a great or holy person than over his birthday. The birthday is only\nthe day when man is born into mortality, the death day chronicles his\nbirth into immortality.\n\nThe important fact then which I have asked you to get clearly into your\nhead is that the fixing of the date as December 25th was a compromise\nwith paganism.\n\nFor countless centuries before the Christian era pagan Europe, through\nall its various tribes and peoples, had been accustomed to celebrate\nits chief festival at the time of the winter solstice, the turning\npoint when winter, having reached its apogee, has also reached the\npoint when it must begin to decline again towards spring.\n\n[Illustration: Saturn, the God of Time.\n\nPainting by Raphael.]\n\nThe last sentence requires further explanation. I shall try to put it\ninto words as simple as possible.\n\nYou must be aware of the fact that the shortest day in the year is\nDecember 21st. Therefore that is the day when winter reaches its height.\n\nIt was on or about December 21st that the ancient Greeks celebrated\nwhat are known to us as the Bacchanalia or festivities in honor of\nBacchus,[1] the god of wine. In these festivities the people gave\nthemselves up to songs, dances and other revels which frequently passed\nthe limits of decency and order.\n\nIn ancient Rome the Saturnalia, or festivals in honor of Saturn, the\ngod of time, began on December 17th and continued for seven days. These\nalso often ended in riot and disorder. Hence the words Bacchanalia and\nSaturnalia acquired an evil reputation in later times.\n\nWe are most interested in the festivals of the ancient Teutonic (or\nGerman) tribes because they are most closely linked with Christmas as\nwe ourselves celebrate it.\n\nThe pagan feast of the Twelve Nights was religiously kept by them from\nDecember 25th to January 6th, the latter day being known, as it is\nstill known to their descendants, as Twelfth Night. The Teutonic mind\npersonified the active forces of nature,--that is to say it pictured\nthem as living beings.\n\nThe conflicts between these forces were represented as battles between\ngods and giants.\n\nWinter, for example, was the Ice-giant,--cruel, boisterous, unruly,\nthe destroyer of life, the enemy alike of gods and men. Riding on his\nsteed, the all-stiffening North Wind, he built up for himself great\ncastles of ice. Darkness and death followed in his wake.\n\nBut the Sun-god and the South Wind, symbols of light and life, gave\nbattle to the Ice-giant. At last Thor, the god of the Thunderstorm,\nriding on the wings of the air, hurled his thunderbolt at the winter\ncastle, and demolished it. Then Freija, the goddess of fruits and\nflowers, resumed her former sway. All of which is only a poetical way\nof saying that after the Ice-giant had conquered in winter he was in\nhis turn overthrown by the Sun-god in spring.\n\nNow the twenty-first day of December, the depth of winter, marked the\nperiod when the Ice-giant was in the full flush of his triumph and also\nmarked the beginning of his overthrow. It was the turning point in the\nconflict of natural forces. The Sun-god having reached the goal of the\nwinter solstice, now wheeled around his fiery steeds and became the\nsure herald of the coming victory of light and life over darkness and\ndeath of spring over winter.\n\nA thousand indications point to the fact that Christmas has\nincorporated into itself all these festivals, Greek, Roman and German,\nand given them a new meaning. The wild revels of the Bacchanalia,\nthe Saturnalia and the Twelve Nights survive in a milder form in the\nmerriment and jollity which mark the season of Christmas to-day.\n\nChristmas gifts themselves remind us of the presents that were\nexchanged in Rome during the Saturnalia. In Rome, it might be added,\nthe presents usually took the form of wax tapers and dolls,--the latter\nbeing in their turn a survival of the human sacrifices once offered to\nSaturn.\n\nIt is a queer thought that in our Christmas presents we are preserving\nunder another form one of the most savage customs of our barbarian\nancestors!\n\nThe shouts of \u201cBona Saturnalia!\u201d which the Roman people exchanged among\nthemselves are the precursors of our \u201cMerry Christmas!\u201d The decorations\nand illuminations of our Christian churches recall the temples of\nSaturn, radiant with burning tapers and resplendent with garlands. The\nmasks and mummeries which still survive here and there, even in the\nAmerica of to-day, and which were especially prominent in the Middle\nAges, were prominent also in the Saturnalian revels.\n\nAnd a large number of the legends, superstitions and ceremonials which\nhave crystallized around the Christian festival in Europe and America\nare more or less distorted reminiscences of the legends, superstitions\nand ceremonials of the Twelve Nights of ancient Germany.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nSILENUS, SATURN, THOR\n\n\nAnd now you may be tempted to ask, \u201cWhat bearing has all this stuff\nabout the pagan festivals upon the question of the identity of our old\nfriend Santa Klaus?\u201d\n\nI am coming to that. In every one of these festivals the leading figure\nwas an old man, with a lot of white beard and white hair rimming his\nface.\n\nIn the Bacchanalia the representative god was not the young Bacchus,\nbut the aged, cheery and decidedly disreputable Silenus, the chief of\nthe Satyrs and the god of drunkards.\n\nIn the Saturnalia it was Saturn, a dignified and venerable old\ngentleman--the god of Time.\n\nIn the Germanic feasts it was Thor, a person of patriarchal aspect, and\na warrior to boot.\n\nNow, although the central figure of the Christian festival was the\nchild-god--the Christ-Kindlein--none the less the influence of long\npagan antecedents was too strong within the breast of the newly\nChristianized world to be readily dismissed. The tradition of hoary age\nas the true representative of the holiday period, a tradition, it will\nbe seen, in which all pagan nations agreed, still remained smouldering\nunder the ashes of the past. It burst into flame again when the past\nwas too far back to be looked upon with dislike or disquietude by the\nChurch. No longer did there seem to be any danger of a relapse into the\nreligious errors of that past.\n\nAt first the more dignified representative was chosen as more in\nkeeping with a solemn season. Saturn was preferred to Silenus, and was\nalmost unconsciously rebaptized as Saint Nicholas, the latter being the\ngreatest saint whose festival was celebrated in December and the one\nwho in other respects was most nearly in accord with the dim traditions\nof Saturn as the hero of the Saturnalia.\n\nIf you look at the pictures printed in this book you will see that in\nface and figure the Saint Nicholas of the early painters was not unlike\nthe ancient idea of Saturn.\n\nAnd it was many, many years before Saint Nicholas had ousted the\nChrist-child from the first place in the Christmas festivities. Indeed,\nas we shall see, he often accompanied his Master on His Christmas\nrounds. It may be added that he still does so in certain country places\nin Europe where the modern spirit has been least felt.\n\n[Illustration: Silenus and Fauns.\n\nPainting by Annibale Caracci.]\n\nIn course of time, as the idea of worldly merriment at the Christmas\nseason prevailed over that of prayer and thanksgiving, the name\nSaint Nicholas gradually merged into the affectionate diminutive of\nSanta Klaus. Under the new name the old saint lost all his austerity.\nHe became ruddier, jollier, more rubicund in aspect, while the\nChrist-Kindlein faded more and more into the background, until at last\nthe very name of the latter, under the slightly different form of\nKris-Kinkle, was transferred to his successor.\n\nAnd now compare the pictures of Santa Klaus which are scattered through\nthis book with that of Silenus. Is it not evident that the one is a\nrevival of the other, changed, indeed, in certain traits of character,\nsobered up, washed and purified, clad in warm garments that are more\nsuited to the wintry season which he has made his own, but still the\ngod of good fellows,--the representative of good health, good humor and\ngood cheer?\n\nExtremes meet once more. The most modern hero of the season of\nmerriment is a return to the most ancient. The Santa Klaus of to-day is\nthe Silenus of an unknown antiquity.\n\nLet us learn a little more about Silenus. He was the tutor of Bacchus\nand seems to have had so much respect for his pupil that his life\nafter the invention of wine was one long spree. It was a merry\nand good-natured spree, however. Silenus never became maudlin or\nquarrelsome in his cups. He was the most jovial of tipplers. His\noutlook upon life was as rosy as his nose. A cheery laugh beamed over\nhis large fat face, the light of humor twinkled in his beady eyes, his\nrotund stomach spoke of good cheer, his smile beamed assurance of an\nunruffled disposition.\n\nAmong all the brute creation he chose an ass, that caricature of the\nhorse, as his favorite charger. He always appeared with a troupe of\nlaughing fauns and satyrs around him, and his advent was everywhere the\nsignal for quips and cranks and wreath\u00e8d smiles.\n\nNow Saint Nicholas, also, in former times used to ride abroad on an\nass, and still continues to do so in certain portions of Europe. In\nfact, as already noted, all the genial traits of Silenus, save only\nthat of drunkenness, are reproduced in Santa Klaus,--the jolly pagan\nwho is to-day the personification of Christmas.\n\nBut though a modernized pagan god holds this important position in our\nfestival, everything that could be offensive in the old pagan way of\ncelebrating it has been abolished.\n\n[Illustration: Santa Claus and his young friends.\n\nFrom Thomas Nast\u2019s \u201cChristmas Drawings for the Human Race.\u201d\n\nCopyright 1899 by Harper and Brothers.]\n\nIt was not always so. The Church which so wisely sought to retain the\nold heathen forms, found it often very hard, and sometimes impossible,\nto subdue the heathen spirit. In spite of the protests of priests and\nthe anathemas of popes, in spite of the condemnation of all wise and\ngood men, Christians in the early days frequently reproduced all the\nworst follies and vices of the Bacchanalia and the Saturnalia.\nEven the clergy were for a period whirled into the vortex. A special\ncelebration, called the Feast of Fools, was instituted in their behalf\nwith a view, said the doctors of the Church, that \u201cthe folly which\nis natural to and born with us might exhale at least once a year.\u201d\nThe intention was excellent. But in practice the liberty so accorded\nspeedily degenerated into license.\n\nEarly in the history of the Church excesses were so great that a\ncouncil of bishops held at Auxerre was moved to inquire into the\nmatter. Gerson, the most noted theologian of the day, made an immense\nsensation by declaring that \u201cif all the devils in hell had put their\nheads together to devise a feast that should utterly scandalize\nChristianity, they could not have improved upon this one.\u201d\n\nIf even among the clergy heathen traditions survived so strenuously,\nwhat wonder that they survived among the laity? The wild revels,\nindeed, of the Christmas period in olden times almost stagger belief.\nNo amount of drunkenness, no blasphemy, no obscenity was frowned upon.\nLicense was carried to the utmost limits of licentiousness. Even in\nthe seventeenth century, when the revels had been slightly toned down,\nMaster William Prynne discovered in them those vestiges of paganism\nwhich are apparent enough to the historian of to-day.\n\n\u201cIf we compare,\u201d he says in his _Histrio-Mastix_, \u201cour Bacchanalian\nChristmas and New Year\u2019s tides with these Saturnalia and feasts of\nJanus, we shall find such near affinity between them, both in regard\nof time,--they being both in the end of December and the first of\nJanuary--and in their manner of solemnizing--both being spent in\nrevelling, epicurism, wantonness, idleness, dancing, drinking,\nstage-plays, masques and carnal pomp and jollity--that we must conclude\nthe one to be but the ape, or issue, of the other.\u201d\n\nThe very excesses of the Christmas period proved their own eventual\ncure. In England the Puritans revolted so bitterly that they for a\nperiod put an end to Christmas altogether. In Europe the revolution\nwas more gradual. But everywhere a change of manners and of morals has\npurified the festival over which Santa Klaus presides, and Santa Klaus\nhimself, even if we look upon him as a revival of the pagan Silenus, is\na Silenus freed from all the offensive features of paganism, a Silenus\nwho with his new baptismal name has taken on a new character.\n\n[Illustration: Carrying home the Christmas dinner.\n\nDrawing by John Leech.]\n\nIt must be remembered, however, that Santa Klaus does not rule all\nover the Christian world. There is even a wide difference between our\nSanta Klaus and the Saint Nicholas of Southern France and Germany. The\nlatter, grave, sedate, severe, preserves more of the Saturn than the\nSilenus type. He is Saturn christianized and dignified with episcopal\nrobes. He distributes gifts like our Santa Klaus, but in addition\nto gifts for good little boys and girls, he carries a birch-rod for\nbad ones. In the more primitive sections, such as certain parts of\nLorraine, the Tyrol, Bohemia and so on, he is attended by an evil\nspirit called Ruprecht who looks after bad boys and girls.\n\nIt is also frequently the custom on Christmas Day for a couple or more\nof maskers to dress themselves up as Saint Nicholas and Ruprecht,\nand other attendants, such as the Christ-child or St. Peter or who\nnot,--these additional characters varying with the locality. They go\nfrom house to house rewarding the good children and punishing the bad.\n\nMore of this, however, in a future chapter.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nA TERRIBLE CHRISTMAS IN OLD FRANCE\n\n\nForever memorable as an illustration of the manners of the French court\nin the fourteenth century stands a terrible accident that happened\nin Paris on the Christmas eve of 1393. All through the Christmas\nceremonies of the preceding week riot had run unchecked. The wildest\nspirits of the French court had been given a free rein. One mad prank\nhad followed another, until it might seem that imagination had been\nexhausted in the effort at inventing new follies.\n\nBut this would have been reckoning without Sir Hugonin de Guisay.\nSir Hugonin was known as the maddest of the mad. The reckless and\nthe ungodly loved and admired him as much as the sober and the godly\nhated and despised him. From his height as a nobleman of the French\ncourt he looked down with contempt on \u201cthe common people,\u201d--tradesmen,\nmechanics, laborers and servants. He found a cruel pleasure in\naccosting harmless folk of this sort in the public streets, pricking\nthem with his spurs, lashing them with his whip, and ordering them\nto creep on their hands and feet in the gutters.\n\n[Illustration: The Feast of the Passover.\n\nPainting by Diedrich Bouts.]\n\n\u201cBark, dog, bark!\u201d he would cry as he cracked his whip in the air.\n\nTo please him the victims had to bow-wow and growl like curs ere this\npolite and pleasant gentleman would allow them to rise from their\ndegraded position.\n\nOn this particular Christmas Eve Sir Hugonin had a proposal to make. He\nsuggested that, in order to continue the festivities, a mock marriage\nshould be celebrated between a gentleman and a lady of the court. The\nproposal was accepted with shouts of joy. A young couple were chosen to\nstand up before a pretended priest, and to go through the form of the\nwedding service.\n\nJust as the ceremony was nearing its end Sir Hugonin asked the king and\nfour of his courtiers,--madcaps all of them and all of them members of\nthe proudest families in France,--to withdraw with him for a moment.\nHe had a fresh proposal to make. It happened that at this time all\nParis had gone wild over the dancing bears brought into the capital by\nstrolling performers. Hugonin\u2019s plan was that he and the king, and the\nfour courtiers, should disguise themselves as dancing bears. A pot of\ntar and a quantity of tow were ready at hand to transform them into\nfair imitations of the bears in the players\u2019 booths. Then the five\ncourtiers were to be bound together with a silk rope. The king himself\nwould lead them into the hall.\n\n\u201cExcellent!\u201d cried the king and all the courtiers, save only Sir Evan\nde Foix.\n\nSir Evan seems to have been the one man of the party who had preserved\na glimmer of common sense. He pointed out that they were about to rush\ninto a room full of lights. Being all bound together, no one could say\nwhat disaster might not befall.\n\n\u201cSire,\u201d he pleaded, \u201cit is certain that if one of us catches fire,\nthe whole number, including your Majesty, will be as so many roast\nchestnuts.\u201d\n\nThen up spoke the reckless Sir Hugonin. \u201cWho is to set us on fire?\u201d he\nasked. \u201cWhere is there the traitor that would not be careful when the\nsafety of the king is at stake?\u201d\n\nSir Evan\u2019s fears could not be set at rest. But when he found that the\ncounsels of Sir Hugonin were bound to prevail he suggested that at\nleast all due precautions should be taken.\n\n\u201cLet His Majesty be prevailed upon at least to give orders that nobody\nbearing a torch shall approach us.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat shall be done at once,\u201d said Charles. Instantly sending for the\nchief officer in charge of the hall he gave instructions that all the\ntorchbearers should be collected together on one side of the room, and\nthat under no pretence should any of them approach a party of savage\nmen who were about to enter and perform a dance. These orders having\nbeen given the dancers entered.\n\nThey were greeted with a roar of laughter and cheers. The mimic bears\nfollowed their leader around the hall saluting the ladies as they\npassed them, and leaping and dancing for the amusement of the crowd.\n\n\u201cWho are they?\u201d cried the spectators, eager to penetrate the disguise.\n\nNow just at this moment it unfortunately happened that the Duke of\nOrleans made his appearance at the doors of the hall. He knew nothing\nof what had been going on behind the scenes. He was attended by six\ntorchbearers, who in obedience to orders, should not have been admitted\ninto the dance-hall. But the Duke of Orleans was the king\u2019s brother. It\nwas hard to dictate to the first prince of the blood. He could scarcely\nbe included in any general order. So he was allowed to pass in with his\ncompanions.\n\n\u201cWho are they?\u201d he exclaimed, taking up the cry that was ringing around\nthe hall. \u201cWell, we shall soon find out.\u201d\n\nSnatching a brand from one of his torchbearers he peered into the faces\nof the dancers, seeking to identify them. Coming at last to Sir Evan\nde Foix, he shouted out his name, and caught him by the arm. Sir Evan\ntried to shake himself free. But the Duke would not loosen his hold.\nJust then some one jostled his elbows and the torch he held in his\nhand was brought into sudden contact with the tarry tow that did duty\nas a bearskin. In one moment Sir Evan was blazing from head to foot. In\nanother moment the whole group of knights were aflame. Their frantic\nstruggles served only to draw them more closely together within the\nsilken rope that bound them.\n\nLuckily for the king he had detached himself from the group, having\nstopped on his rounds to talk to the Duchess de Berri. When first the\nalarm was given he would have rushed to help his companions, but the\nduchess, guessing it was the king under this disguise, threw her arms\naround him and forcibly detained him.\n\n\u201cSire,\u201d she said, \u201cdo you not see that your companions are burning to\ndeath, and that nothing could save you if you went near them in that\ndress?\u201d\n\nMeanwhile, one of the maskers had wrenched himself free from his\ncompanions. This was the young Lord of Nantouillet, famous for\nstrength, agility and presence of mind, possessed, moreover, of a\npowerful jaw and a splendid set of teeth. He bit through the silken\nrope that enmeshed him, wrenched it off, and then rushed through the\nhall and flung himself, like a blazing comet, through a window that\nopened into the yard below. Luckily he had remembered that underneath\nthe window stood a cistern full of water. Plunging headlong into this\nimpromptu bathtub he emerged, black, burnt and sizzling, but saved.\n\n[Illustration: The Adoration of the Lamb.\n\nPainting by Hubert and Jan Van Eyck.]\n\nAs for his companions, they were now whirling hither and thither\nthrough a horrified mob of spectators, who trampled over each other in\ntheir eagerness to escape contact with the blaze. Shrieking, praying,\ncursing, the doomed four fought with the flames and with one another.\nWomen fainted; men who had never faltered in the fiercest battle\nsickened at the frightful spectacle. Eager as they would have been to\nassist their friends, the men knew only too well that no human arm\ncould offer assistance.\n\nAll Paris had been aroused by the tumult and now crowded around the\npalace gates. At last the flames burned out. The four maskers lay, a\ncharred and writhing heap, upon the floor of the dance-hall. One was\na mere cinder. Another survived until daybreak. Still another died at\nnoon the next day. The fourth lived on through three days of agony.\nThis was Sir Hugonin himself.\n\nSmall pity did he get from the mechanics and tradesmen of Paris!\n\n\u201cBark, dog, bark!\u201d was the cry with which they greeted the charred\nand mangled corpse when it was borne through the streets to its final\nresting place in the cemetery.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nTHE CHRISTMAS TREE IN LEGEND\n\n\nWe have seen that most of the ceremonies that have attended or still\nattend the season of Christmas may be traced back to a period long\nbefore the birth of Christ.\n\nThe Christmas tree is no exception to this rule. It is pagan, not\nChristian in its origin, though it has been adapted to Christian uses.\nIt came down to us from the pagan Teutons and Scandinavians, and on the\nway it was Christianized in Germany and Holland, in Sweden, Norway and\nDenmark, long before it had been made holy in the same manner among the\nEnglish-speaking peoples.\n\nMyth and history have both busied themselves with guesses at its\norigin. Let us begin with myth.\n\nA very old legend makes Saint Winfred the inventor of the Christmas\ntree. Winfred (please note that this is the masculine form of which\nWinifred is the feminine) was one of the early missionaries to Norway\nwho helped to wean the ancient Scandinavians from their pagan beliefs\nand practices.\n\nHe found that their priests, the Druids, had taught them to worship\ntrees as if they were living gods. So he set himself the task of\nshowing to his Christian converts that the objects of their former\nworship were not gods but trees,--trees and nothing more. On Christmas\neve, therefore, he hewed down a mighty oak in presence of a great crowd\nof men, women and children.\n\nA miracle indeed followed. But it was a Christian miracle, and as such\nwas all the more convincing to these simple people that their old-time\nfaiths had been misplaced.\n\nThis is how the miracle is described by an ancient historian:\n\n\u201cAs the bright blade circled around Winfred\u2019s head, and the flakes of\nwood flew from the deepening gash in the body of the tree, a whirling\nwind passed over the forest. It gripped the oak from its foundations.\nBackward it fell like a tower, groaning as it split asunder in four\npieces. But just behind it and unharmed by the ruin, stood a young fir\ntree pointing a green spire towards the stars.\n\n\u201cWinfred let the axe drop and turned to speak to the people.\n\n\u201c\u2018This little tree, a young child of the forest, shall be your holy\ntree to-night. It is the wood of peace, for your houses are built of\nthe fir. It is a sign of endless life, for its leaves are ever green.\nSee how it points upward to heaven. Let this be called the tree of the\nChrist-child; gather about it, not in the wildwood, but in your own\nhomes; there it will shelter no deeds of blood, but loving gifts and\nrites of kindness.\u2019\u201d\n\nThere is another old legend that is told by the people around\nStrassburg, a famous old city on the Rhine. Half way between this city\nand the neighboring town of Drusenheim there are still to be seen the\nruins of an old castle. It probably dates back to the seventh century.\nIts chief feature is a massive gate. Deep sunk in the stone arch above\nthis gate, and as clearly and sharply defined as if it had been carved\nonly yesterday, is the impress of a small and delicate hand. And this\nis the story that is told to account for the presence of the hand.\n\nOne of the early lords of the castle was Count Otto von Gorgas, a\nhandsome and dashing youth, whose great delight was hunting big game.\nSo devoted, indeed, was he to the shooting of deer and the spearing of\nwild boars that love could find no entrance into his heart. In vain\ndid the fairest maidens in the land sigh for a soft speech or a tender\nglance from this wild huntsman. Mothers on both banks of the river\nRhine had abandoned in despair all hope of securing him as a match for\ntheir daughters, while the daughters themselves had spitefully given\nhim the name of Stony-heart, by which he had become generally known\nthroughout the country side.\n\nBut Count Otto only laughed at the anger of the ladies, and continued\nto kill with his own hand such large quantities of game that new\nservants would not come into his employ, unless he had first agreed to\ngive them venison or wild boar steaks not oftener than four days in the\nweek.\n\nOne Christmas Eve Count Otto ordered that a battue or monster hunt\nshould take place in the forest surrounding his castle. So exciting\nwas the sport that he was led deep into the thickets and at night-fall\nfound himself separated from all his friends and followers. He reined\nup beside a far-away spring, clear and deep, known to the country\npeople as the Fairy\u2019s Well. His hands being stained with the blood of\nthe wild animals he had slain, he dismounted from his horse to wash\nthem in the spring.\n\nThough the weather was cold and a white frost covered the dead leaves,\nCount Otto found to his surprise that the water of the well was warm\nand pleasant. A delightful feeling ran through his veins. Plunging\nhis arms deeper into the well, he fancied that he felt his right hand\ngrasped by another hand softer and smaller than his own, which gently\ndrew from his finger a gold ring that he was accustomed to wear.\n\nSure enough, when he pulled his hand out of the water the ring was gone!\n\nThough annoyed by his loss, the count decided that the ring had\naccidentally slipped from his finger. There was no opportunity for any\nfurther search that day, for the well was very deep and the sun had\nalready set.\n\nSo Otto remounted his horse and rode back to the castle, resolving\nthat in the morning he would have the Fairy\u2019s Well emptied out by his\nservants. Little doubt had he but that the ring would easily be found\nat the bottom.\n\nAs a rule Count Otto was a good sleeper. That night, however, he\ntried in vain to close his eyes. Lying restlessly awake he listened\nfeverishly to the hoarse baying of the watch-dog in the court-yard\nuntil near midnight. Suddenly he raised himself on his elbows. What was\nthat unusual noise he heard outside?\n\nHe strained his ears. Distinctly he again heard the creaking of the\ndrawbridge as it was being lowered. A few minutes later there followed\nsounds as of the pattering of many feet up the stone stairs and into\nthe chamber next to his own. Then a wild strain of music came floating\non the air, shooting a sweet mysterious thrill even into his \u201cstony\u201d\nheart.\n\nRising softly from his bed, Otto hastily dressed himself. A little bell\nsounded. His chamber door was suddenly flung open. He accepted what\nseemed like a wordless invitation. Crossing the threshold into the\nnext room, he found himself in the midst of an assemblage of rather\nsmall but very lovely looking strangers of both sexes, who laughed,\nchatted, danced and sang without seeming in the least to notice him.\n\nIn the middle of the room stood a splendid Christmas tree from which a\ngreat number of many-colored lamps shed a flood of light throughout the\napartment.\n\nNow this was the first Christmas tree that had ever been seen in those\nparts, or indeed by any mortal folk in any portion of the world. And it\nwas a Christmas tree of a sort that never again has been seen by any\nmortal folk in any portion of the world.\n\nFor surely never again has a Christmas tree borne such fruits. Instead\nof toys and candies the branches were hung with diamond stars and\ncrosses, pearl necklaces, aigrettes of rubies and sapphires, baldricks\nembroidered with Oriental pearls, and daggers mounted in gold and\nstudded with the rarest gems.\n\nLost in wonder at a scene he could not understand, the count gazed\nwithout the power of uttering a single word. There was a sudden\nmovement at the end of the hall. The company stopped dancing and\nfell back to make way for a newcomer. Then in the bright rays of the\nChristmas lights, a dazzling vision stood in front of Count Otto.\n\nIt was a princess of astonishing beauty. Though only a girl in size,\nshe was a woman in age. Though small, her body was exquisitely formed.\nThere she stood, magnificently dressed as for a ball. A diadem sparkled\namid her raven black locks, rich point lace only half veiled her snowy\nbosom, and her dress of rose-colored silk sat close to her slender\nfigure, falling in folds just so low as to reveal the neatest feet and\nankles in the world, while her sleeves were short enough to display\nbeautiful arms of dazzling whiteness.\n\nThe charming stranger showed no awkward timidity. On the contrary,\nafter a short pause she walked straight up to the count, caught him by\nboth hands, and said, in the sweetest of voices:\n\n\u201cDear Otto, I am come to return your call.\u201d\n\nAt the same time she raised her right hand to his lips. Forgetting all\nhis old coldness towards the female sex he gallantly kissed it without\nmaking any other reply. Indeed, he felt fascinated, spellbound. He\ngladly let the beautiful stranger draw him to a couch where she sat\nherself down besides him. Her lips met his and before he could think\nabout kissing them, he had done so.\n\n\u201cMy dear friend,\u201d whispered the lady into his ear, \u201cI am the fairy\nErnestine. I have brought you a Christmas present. That which you lost\nand hardly hoped to find again, see! I fetch it back to you.\u201d\n\nAnd, drawing from her bosom a little casket set with diamonds, she\nplaced it in the hands of the count. He eagerly opened it. Not entirely\nunexpectedly (for had not her words forewarned him?) he found within it\nthe ring that he had lost in the forest well.\n\nCarried away by a feeling as strange as it was irresistible, Count Otto\npressed the casket and then the lovely Ernestine to his breast.\n\n\u201cDelightful,\u201d murmured the maiden, who as you may see, was not so coy\nas are many maidens of the everyday world.\n\nIn brief the two had fallen in love with each other at first sight.\nBefore they parted for the night, Otto had won the fairy\u2019s consent to\nbecome his wife.\n\nOne thing only she demanded of him. He must never make use of the word\n\u201cdeath\u201d in her presence. Fairies are immortal; she did not wish to be\nreminded that she was bound to a mortal husband.\n\nIt was easy enough for him to make this promise, and no doubt he\nthought it would be easy to keep it. Next day Count Otto von Gorgas and\nErnestine, the Queen of the Fairies, were married with great pomp and\nceremony. They lived happily together for some years in the grand old\ncastle.\n\nOne day it chanced that the young couple were to assist at a great\ntourney in the neighborhood. The Lady Ernestine\u2019s horse stood in\nwaiting for her at the castle gate. Being greatly occupied in adjusting\na new headdress which her milliner had just brought home, she kept her\nhusband waiting until his patience was worn out.\n\n\u201cFair dame,\u201d he pettishly exclaimed when she at last appeared in the\ngreat hall where for half an hour he had been striding up and down in\nhis uncomfortable armor, \u201cyou are so long making ready, you would be a\ngood messenger to send for Death.\u201d\n\nScarcely had he uttered the fatal word than with a wild scream the lady\ndisappeared. She left no trace behind her, except the print of her\nlittle hand above the castle gate. Every Christmas eve, however, she\nreturns and flits about the ruins with loud lamentations, crying at\nintervals:\n\n\u201cDeath! Death! Death!\u201d\n\nAs to Count Otto he went the way of all flesh and was gathered to his\nfathers not long after he had lost his spouse. But every Christmas\nEve, while his life lasted, he would set up a lighted tree in the\nhall where he had first met the lady Ernestine,--in the vain hope of\nwooing her back to his arms. And this, it is said in Strasburg and its\nneighborhood, was the origin of the Christmas tree.[2]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nTHE CHRISTMAS TREE IN HISTORY\n\n\nThe stories I have just told you are pretty enough and may amuse an\nidle half hour. But we must now pass from the region of myth into that\nof history and science.\n\nMy sexagenarian readers will not need to be introduced to the science\ncalled comparative mythology. But for the sake of the six year olds\nit may be well to explain, as simply as I can in a few words, that\ncomparative mythology is a branch of human knowledge which compares the\nmyths and legends of one age and one people with the myths and legends\nof another age and another people, the object being to show how the\nlater myths descend from the earlier ones, or how all the myths go back\nto some parent germ in the far-away past.\n\nBy the aid, then, of the science of comparative mythology let us\nseek to study the historical growth of the idea that is now embodied\nin the Christmas tree. Here, indeed, we are in a whirl of problems.\nComparative mythology is one of the most interesting and also one of\nthe most difficult of sciences. In the present case it must take\naccount of the fact that we English-speaking peoples of the present\nday, and especially we Americans, are a hodge-podge mixture of many\nraces and many religions. Somewhere in our brains we preserve dim\nmemories of a thousand conflicting myths of the past which without\nknowing it we have inherited from our ancestors. In other parts of our\nbrain we retain the facts and fictions which have been told to us by\nour elders, or which we have learned from books.\n\nNow in all times and in all countries we find records of the worship,\nat some former period, of a tree as a divinity,--in other words as a\ngod.\n\nGreatest and most famous of all these sacred trees was a quite\nimaginary one which the Scandinavians called the ash-tree Yggdrasil.\nNobody had ever seen it, but everybody among these imaginative people\nbelieved in its existence.\n\nIt was supposed to be a tree so big that you could not possibly picture\nit to your fancy, which encompassed the entire universe of sun and moon\nand stars and earth. And it had three roots, one in heaven, one in hell\nand one on earth.\n\nThe serpent who gnaws the roots of Yggdrasil was of course a heathen\nidea. Yet you cannot help seeing in him some likeness to the serpent\nof Genesis who is held to be a symbol of Satan, or the devil. Like\nSatan he seeks the destruction of the universe. When the roots of\nYggdrasil are eaten through the tree will fall over and the end of all\nthings will have arrived.\n\n[Illustration: Luther and the Christmas tree.]\n\nNow among the Anglo-Saxons or early inhabitants of England, who were in\npart descended from the Scandinavians, Yggdrasil survived in the Yule\nlog, which they used to burn on Christmas Eve, as it is still burned in\nmany an English home to-day.\n\nAnd this is how the pagan tree was transformed into the Christian Yule\nlog:--\n\nThe missionaries to the Anglo-Saxons denounced the Yggdrasil\nsuperstition. They made their converts hack to pieces all carved\nfigures representing the idolatrous symbol, and then cast the pieces\ninto the flames as a token that the Christ-child had destroyed\nheathenism.\n\nAmong the Germans and the Norsemen, however, the sanctity of the\nYggdrasil myth could not be destroyed. It had to be transformed, and\ntransferred to Christian uses by identifying it with some Christian or\nJewish symbol like the tree of life in Genesis or the cross of Christ\nin the New Testament.\n\nCompare the great tree Yggdrasil and its three roots with the\ndescription which a certain writer of the early middle ages, called\nAlcima, gives of the Tree of Life.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s position,\u201d says Alcima, \u201cis such that the upper portion touches\nthe earth, the root reaches to hell, and the branches extend to all\nparts of the earth.\u201d\n\nEvidently Alcima had been influenced by Scandinavian legend as well as\nby biblical lore. Of course you will understand that he was speaking\nnot of the actual cross, but of the cross as a symbol of Christianity.\n\nLet us extend our researches a little further into the region of\ncomparative mythology.\n\nYou will find Adam and Eve commemorated in old calendars under date of\nDecember 24th. This is the eve of Christmas. The symbol of our first\nparents is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Christmas itself\nis the day of Christ, whose symbol is the tree of life or the cross. It\nis easy to see that when the minds of men were escaping from paganism\ninto Christianity the tree of the old mythology grew to be associated\nwith the birthday of Christ and thus with the cross. So the lights of\nthe Chanuckah Festival of the Hebrews were borrowed to adorn the sacred\ntree, and the seven-branched candlestick, as a figure of that tree, was\neven introduced into the churches.\n\nThe representation--so common among the early painters and especially\nthe painters of Italy--of the serpent squatting at the foot of the\ncross had of course its Christian meaning, but its adoption into\nChristian art was in great degree influenced by the fact that the\ncross had become popularly identified with the serpent tree of the old\npagan myth.\n\nScandinavia was not the only place that had its sacred tree. Egypt, for\ninstance, had one in the palm, which puts forth a shoot every month. A\nspray of this tree with twelve shoots on it was used in ancient Egypt\nat the time of the winter solstice as a symbol of the twelvemonth or\ncompleted year.\n\nFrom Egypt the custom reached Rome, where it was added to the other\nceremonies of the Saturnalia. But as palm trees do not grow in Italy\nother trees were used in its stead. A small fir tree, or the crest of a\nlarge one was found to be the most suitable, because it is shaped like\na cone or a pyramid. This was decorated with twelve burning tapers lit\nin honor of the god of Time. At the very tip of the pyramid blazed the\nrepresentation of a radiant sun placed there in honor of Apollo, the\nsun-god, to whom the three last days of December were dedicated. These\ndays were called the sigillaria, or seal-days, because presents were\nthen made of impressions stamped on wax.\n\nIn further honor of Apollo, who was a shepherd in his youth, images of\nsheep were shown pasturing under the tree. Apollo himself sometimes\ntook charge of the herd, or taught the shepherds the use of the musical\npipe. All these customs were skilfully adapted by the priests of the\nearly Church to Christian uses. Shepherd and sheep were retained as\nsymbols of Christ and his flock. As you know, our Lord is frequently\nalluded to as the good shepherd and is so represented in religious\npaintings. The sigillaria of the old Romans were also turned to a new\nuse, the wax being now stamped with figures of saints and other holy\npersons.\n\nA few pages back you were told that the day before Christmas is the\nday which our pious forefathers dedicated to Adam and Eve. Hence, you\nwill remember, figures of our first parents appeared at the foot of the\ntree, while a serpent entwined itself around the roots or the trunk.\nThis was the serpent of the Old Testament, but I have already explained\nhow it was also a Christian adaptation of the serpent of the great\nash-tree Yggdrasil.\n\nI may add, right here, that the serpent still makes its appearance at\nthe base of a Christmas tree in many parts of rural Germany where old\ncustoms still survived in their original purity.\n\nAnd now by grouping all these facts together we find that long before\nthe coming of Christ there was scattered all over the world an idea\nthat an illuminated tree was a symbol of holiness. Therefore it was\nonly natural that it came at last to be associated with the birthday of\nChrist and with the period of the winter solstice which the followers\nof Christ had rescued from pagan practices and pagan superstitions and\nadapted to the religion which He had founded.\n\nThis association was made all the more natural because the candles\nthat twinkle on the Christmas tree were anticipated in the candles\nlit by the Jews on their Chanuckah or Feast of Lights. Chanuckah is\nstill celebrated among them with all the old forms. It falls on the\ntwenty-fifth day of Kislev, or ninth month of the Jewish calendar,\nwhich roughly corresponds with our December or twelfth month.\n\nOn that day, in the year 165 before Christ, the temple in Jerusalem,\nwhich had been desecrated by a Roman army under Antiochus, had been\npurified and rededicated by Judas Maccabeus. Antiochus had put out the\nlights of the seven-branched candelabra that had been kept burning ever\nsince the temple had been finished. A jar of sacred oil, sealed with\nthe ring of the High Priest, was discovered untouched. There seemed\nto be only enough for one day but when it was poured into the lamp it\nlasted for a full week. This miracle happened just in the nick of time,\nfor it would have taken seven days to obtain a fresh supply of oil. It\nwas then decreed that the week beginning with the twenty-fifth day of\nKislev should be celebrated as a festival forever.\n\nAccordingly on that day in every year the Jews light a candle in every\nhome, on the next day, two, and so on, until the seventh and last day\nof the feast when seven candles twinkle in every home.\n\nNow if Christ was born on the twenty-fifth day of December he probably\ncame into the world at a time when every house in Bethlehem and\nJerusalem was ablaze with lights.\n\nIn this connection it may be added that one of the German names for\nChristmas is Weihnacht or Night of Dedication, as though it were\nsomehow associated in the popular mind with the Jewish Chanuckah.\nAnother curious fact which bears out the same theory is that the\nCatholics of the Greek Church call Christmas the Feast of Lights.\n\nWith another Jewish festival Christmas has a verbal link. This is the\nfeast of the Passover when a lamb is killed and eaten. Christ is often\nsymbolized as a lamb. Saint John the Baptist, you remember, greeted him\nas \u201cthe Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nTHE CHRISTMAS TREE IN EUROPE\n\n\nWe have now considered the far-off origins of the Christmas tree. We\nhave decided that it is an adaptation of the Yggdrasil and other sacred\ntrees of the pagan past to Christian and modern uses. Not yet, however,\nhave we bridged the chasm that divides the history of the old tree from\nthat of the new one.\n\nHow, where and by whom was the Christmas tree, as we now know it,\nbrought into the Christmas festivities and associated with the\nChrist-child and Saint Nicholas? I am sorry to say that it is\nimpossible to give positive answers to any of these questions.\n\nThere is, indeed, a very popular German tradition which makes Martin\nLuther the inventor of the modern Christmas tree. One bright Christmas\neve, it is said, as Luther was journeying home through a snow-covered\ncountry, he was more than ever struck by the wondrous spectacle of the\nstar-lit sky above him.\n\nIt is a very common saying, one which dates back to an old Greek\nphilosopher but which has been repeated by many other wise men of\nmodern times, that if a grown person who had all his life gone to\nbed with the setting sun and got up with the rising one, and who,\ntherefore, had never seen the moon or the stars, were suddenly to be\nawakened at midnight, he would be overwhelmed by the glorious mystery\nof the spectacle overhead. We who are accustomed to the sight from our\ncradles can hardly realize the shock of such a surprise. Because we\nhave seen the moon and stars ever since we could remember we forget how\nwonderful they are, and how beautiful is the scene they present. We\ntake them as a matter of course.\n\nNow Martin Luther was a poet as well as a preacher. One great\ndifference between a poet and an ordinary person of slower imagination\nis that he adds to the wisdom of manhood the freshness and simplicity\nof childhood. He retains the young heart with the mature brain. As\nCarlyle, a great modern writer, has said, he sees the world \u201crimmed\naround with wonder.\u201d Carlyle being, like Martin Luther, a poet, even\nthough he rarely put his thoughts into verse and rhyme, never lost\nthe sense of wonder and awe towards the manifestations of God in the\nuniverse.\n\nGod is everywhere, though we poor, purblind folk only now and then\ncatch glimpses of Him. If we could clear away the mists that have\ngathered round our eyes during our progress through the world we\nwould know that He is everywhere. It is the poet who keeps his eyes\nclearest for the Blessed Vision.\n\n[Illustration: Christmas tree of the English royal family.\n\nFrom the \u201cIllustrated London News,\u201d December, 1842.]\n\nLuther arrived at home, so the story continues, with brain and heart\nfull of the feelings and the thoughts that had been inspired in him\nby the firmament of shining stars. He tried to explain to his wife\nand children just what those thoughts and feelings were. Suddenly an\nidea struck him. Going into the garden he cut off a little fir tree,\ndragged it into the nursery, put some candles into its branches and\nlighted them. Ever after that, we are told, Luther fixed up a Christmas\ntree in his home for the instruction and entertainment of his wife and\nchildren. The custom was imitated by his neighbors and finally spread\nall over Germany.\n\nThis is a very pretty legend, but it is legend and not history. It\ndeserves no more credit than the story of St. Winfred which I have\nquoted from German folk-lore, or the fairy tale which, as I have said,\nstill lingers among the people in and around Strasburgh.\n\nAll that we know from real history is that a tree with lighted candles\nwas now and then used in the middle ages, and later, in connection with\nthe Christmas rejoicings.\n\nSuch a tree is known to have played its part in a Christmas pageant\ngiven at the court of Henry VIII. in England. The tree is described at\nsome length in the chronicles of the time, but it is evident from these\ndescriptions that it lacked the chief feature of the modern one. It was\nnot a bearer of presents.\n\nSo far as it is possible to gather from history, the Christmas tree,\nas we know it to-day, made its first appearance in Strassburgh. This\nis interesting in view of the fact that one of the earliest legends in\nexplanation of the custom finds its home in that city. More authentic\nwitness is afforded by an old manuscript still preserved in a library\nat Friedburg, Germany, which was written by a citizen of Strassburgh in\nthe year 1608. This manuscript speaks of a tree all alight with candles\nand bedecked with presents as being a regular feature of the Christmas\nfestivities of that time. Therefore we are sure that the Christmas\ntree had come into common use in this region by the beginning of the\nseventeenth century. Further than that there is no certainty.\n\nThe custom appears to have spread from Strassburgh to the neighboring\ncities along the Rhine and to have flourished in that limited district\nfor fully two hundred years.\n\nSuddenly, about the beginning of the nineteenth century, it made its\nappearance outside of the Rhenish towns in other nearby localities,\nuntil finally it had invaded the whole of Germany. Fifty years later it\nhad conquered nearly all Christendom.\n\nIn the year 1825 the English poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, visited\nGermany to spend the winter months in that country. One of his letters\nwritten in the following January speaks of the Christmas tree as\nsomething entirely unknown to his fellow countrymen.\n\n\u201cThere is a Christmas custom here,\u201d he says, \u201cwhich pleased and\ninterested me. The children make little presents to their parents and\nto each other and the parents to their children. For three or four\nmonths before Christmas the girls are all busy and the boys save up\ntheir pocket money to buy these presents. What the present is to be is\ncautiously kept secret; and the girls have a world of contrivances to\nconceal it--such as working when they are out on visits, and the others\nare not with them; getting up in the morning before daylight and so\nforth. Then, on the evening before Christmas day, one of the parlors is\nlighted up by the children, into which the parents must not go; a great\nyew-bough is fastened on the table at a little distance from the wall,\na multitude of little tapers are fixed in the bough, but not so as to\nburn it till they are nearly consumed, and colored paper, etc., hangs\nand flutters from the twigs.\n\n\u201cUnder this bough the children lay out, in great order, the presents\nthey mean for their parents, still concealing in their pockets what\nthey intend for each other. Then the parents are introduced and each\npresents his little gift; they then bring out the remainder, one by\none, from their pockets, and present them with kisses and embraces.\nWhere I witnessed this scene, there were eight or nine children, and\nthe oldest daughter and the mother wept aloud for joy and tenderness;\nand the tears ran down the face of the father, and he clasped all his\nchildren so tight to his breast, it seemed as if he did it to stifle\nthe sob that was rising within it. I was very much affected. The shadow\nof the bough and its appendages on the wall, and arching over on the\nceiling, made a pretty picture; and then the raptures of the very\nlittle ones, when at last the twigs and their needles began to take\nfire and snap--O! it was a delight to them!\n\n\u201cOn the next day (Christmas day) in the great parlor, the parents lay\nout on the table the presents for the children; a scene of more sober\njoy succeeds; as on this day, after an old custom, the mother says\nprivately to each of her daughters and the father to his sons, that\nwhich he has observed most praise-worthy and that which was most faulty\nin their conduct.\u201d\n\nContinuing, Coleridge tells us that formerly, and still in all the\nsmaller towns and villages throughout North Germany, these presents\nwere sent by all the parents to some young fellows, who, in high\nbuskins, a white robe, a mask, and an enormous flax wig personates\nKnecht Ruprecht, i. e. the servant Rupert.\n\n\u201cOn Christmas night he goes round to every house, and says that Jesus\nChrist, his Master, sent him thither. The parents and elder children\nreceive him with great pomp and reverence, while the little ones\nare most terribly frightened. He then inquires for the children,\nand according to the character which he hears from the parents, he\ngives them the intended presents, as if they came out of heaven from\nJesus Christ, or if they should have been bad children, he gives the\nparents a rod, and, in name of his Master, recommends them to use it\nfrequently. About seven or eight years old, the children are let into\nthe secret, and it is curious how faithfully they keep it.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nTHE CHRISTMAS TREE IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA\n\n\nColeridge\u2019s letter, as we have seen, was written in January 1826. In\nthe succeeding December the English people were to obtain a nearer view\nof the Christmas tree. A great German lady, the Princess Lieven, who\nhad taken up her residence for a season in London brought many German\ncustoms with her.\n\n\u201cOn Christmas,\u201d says Henry Greville, an amusing gossip whose diary was\npublished after his death, \u201cthe Princess Lieven got up a little f\u00eate\nsuch as is customary all over Germany. Three trees, in great pots,\nwere put upon a long table covered with pink linen. Each tree was\nilluminated with three circular tiers of colored wax candles,--blue,\ngreen, red and white. Before each tree was displayed a quantity of\ntoys, gloves, pocket-handkerchiefs, work boxes, books and various\narticles--presents made to the owner of the tree. It was very pretty.\nHere it was only for the children. In Germany the custom extends to\npersons of all ages.\u201d\n\nNot yet, however, did the custom pass over to England. The people who\nsaw the tree in the parlor of the Princess Lieven or who heard about\nit from those who had there seen it, made no attempt to copy it in\ntheir own homes. A dozen years were to pass before the tree took firm\nroots in English soil.\n\nIt was the marriage of Queen Victoria to a German prince--Albert of\nSaxe-Coburg--that brought about this result. The first child was a\ndaughter (named Victoria after her mother) who became Empress of\nGermany and the mother of the present Emperor William. The second child\nwas a son, who is now King Edward VII of England. When the Princess\nVictoria was about five years old Prince Albert set up a Christmas\ntree, German fashion, in the royal nursery at Windsor Castle.\n\nA writer in the _Cornhill Magazine_ places the date of the introduction\nof the Christmas tree into England as December 1841. He remembers,\nhe says, when his parents, \u201cwho had spent many winters in Germany,\nfirst introduced it, some forty-five years ago into England, what\nastonishment it created, what surprised delight it afforded.\u201d\n\nThis writer gives a little too much credit to his parents. No mere\nsubjects of the queen could have made other people follow so readily\nin their footsteps. The royal example, however, was sufficient. Once\na Christmas tree had been set up in Windsor Castle, you may be sure\nthat Christmas trees blazed and twinkled in every British household\nthat could afford one. It has remained ever since just what it is with\nus,--the centre of all the Christmas festivities.\n\nFrom the _London News_ for December, 1848, I have taken a picture which\nrepresents the Windsor Castle Christmas tree with the English royal\nfamily of that date grouped around it. It is interesting to note how\nthis English paper deals with the novelty recently brought over from\nGermany.\n\n  \u201cThe tree employed for this festive purpose,\u201d says the _News_, \u201cis a\n  young fir about eight feet high, and has six tiers of branches. On\n  each tier, or branch, are arranged a dozen wax tapers. Pendent from\n  the branches are elegant trays, baskets, _bonbonni\u00e8res_, and other\n  receptacles for sweetmeats, of the most varied and expensive kind;\n  and of all forms, colours, and degrees of beauty. Fancy cakes, gilt\n  gingerbread and eggs filled with sweetmeats, are also suspended by\n  variously-coloured ribbons from the branches. The tree, which stands\n  upon a table covered with white damask, is supported at the root\n  by piles of sweets of a larger kind, and by toys and dolls of all\n  descriptions, suited to the youthful fancy, and to the several ages\n  of the interesting scions of Royalty for whose gratification they are\n  displayed. The name of each recipient is affixed to the doll, bonbon,\n  or other present intended for it, so that no difference of opinion\n  in the choice of dainties may arise to disturb the equanimity of the\n  illustrious juveniles. On the summit of the tree stands the small\n  figure of an angel, with outstretched wings, holding in each hand a\n  wreath.\u201d\n\nThe tree, we are further told, was an object of much interest to all\nvisitors at Windsor Castle from Christmas Eve, when it was first set\nup, until Twelfth Night, when it was taken down. Other trees were\nplaced in other rooms of the castle. Prince Albert had his, which was\ndecorated and hung with presents by Queen Victoria, who in her turn\nreceived a tree furnished in the same manner by her consort.\n\nTwo trees also stood on the sideboard of the royal dining room and\npresented, we are told, \u201ca brilliant appearance when all the tapers are\nlighted up among the branches.\u201d\n\nIn America the Christmas tree had become a fixture long before its\nappearance in England. German emigrants to our shores had brought it\nover with them, just as in earlier times the Dutch settlers of New York\nhad brought over Santa Klaus. But it flourished in German settlements\nalone for many years before it was adopted by their neighbors, the\nnorthern descendants of the English Puritans and Pilgrims, or the\nsouthern descendants of the English Cavaliers.\n\nNew York, as the great landing place for emigrants and also as a city\nwhose Dutch beginnings had given it a leaning towards the Teutonic\nspirit, was the first spot in which the German Christmas tree made a\nnew home for itself. Gradually but surely the custom spread to citizens\nof other than German birth. Fathers of families got into the habit\nevery Christmas of going out into the forests surrounding New York to\ncut a young spruce or fir tree for the holiday times. Or if they were\nrich enough to employ men-servants, they sent out the footman or the\nbutler for this purpose.\n\nIt is said that a woodsman named Mark Carr, who was born among the\nfoothills of the Catskill Mountains in the early part of the nineteenth\ncentury, was the first to make a regular business of Christmas trees.\nHe had heard or read of the holiday festivities in the great city of\nNew York, where churches and private parlors were hung with holly and\nhemlock leaves, and a pine or a fir tree stood in the middle of the\nnursery, covered with presents for the children.\n\nIt occurred to him that the young fir trees growing on the\nmountain-sides all around his little country home might be made use\nof for these holiday purposes. He could run no great risks in making\ntrial of the idea. All he could lose was the time it took him to chop\nthe trees down and bring them into market and the cost of a few days\u2019\nliving in New York.\n\nIn December, 1851, he put his plan into practice. Early in the month he\nand his boys loaded a couple of great sleds with young trees cut down\nfrom the neighboring forests, and having hitched a yoke of oxen to each\nsled drove them through the deep snow to the Hudson River at Catskill,\nwhence the father started with them to the city.\n\nOne old-fashioned silver dollar secured the use of a strip of sidewalk\non the corner of Greenwich and Vesey streets. Here the hopeful\nmountaineer arranged his forest novelties for Christmas buyers. Nor\nhad he long to wait. Customers flocked to his corner. Starting with\nmoderate prices he soon raised them, as tree after tree left his hands,\nto sums that he would have deemed fabulous when he first dreamed of the\nexperiment.\n\nNext year he returned to the same place with a much larger stock, and\n\u201cfrom that time to this,\u201d says Hexamer, an old historian of New York,\n\u201cbusiness has continued to exist until now hundreds of thousands of\ntrees are yearly sold from Mark Carr\u2019s old corner.\u201d\n\nAt the present day, Christmas tree choppers usually begin work about\nthe first of November. Thus they avoid the early snow falls which are\nliable greatly to increase the difficulties of the business by melting\nand freezing again on the trees and making their branches too brittle.\n\nFirs and pines growing in open spaces are preferred to those in dense\nwoodlands because they are more stocky and symmetrical. As the trees\nare felled the woodsmen pile them up beside the forest roads, where\nthey will keep fresh and green for weeks or if necessary for months.\n\nThe balsam fir is the favorite for Christmas trees in the middle and\neastern states. Its leaves retain their color and elasticity longer\nthan those of the black spruce, of which large numbers are however\nshipped into markets further south.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nTHE STORY OF THE THREE KINGS\n\n\nIn the Latin countries, that is to say, in Italy and the southernmost\nedge of France, Switzerland and Austria, our good old friend Santa\nKlaus rarely acts as the bearer of gifts at the Christmas season. Even\nRussia, though she has adopted Saint Nicholas as her patron saint, and\ncelebrates his day in her own way, gives him no special place in the\nfestivities that attend the birthday of Christ.\n\nIndeed in all these countries it is not Christmas but the Epiphany, not\nDecember 25th but January 6th, which is the day on which presents are\nexchanged among friends and relations.\n\nEpiphany, best known among English-speaking peoples as Twelfth Day, is\nthe feast of the Three Kings, who figure in the New Testament story as\nthe Magi or Wise Men of the East. You will undoubtedly remember how\nthese Wise Men were warned of the birth of Christ by the appearance of\na strange star in the heavens, and how, by following its guidance they\narrived at the stable in Bethlehem where the Savior had been born.\n\n[Illustration: On the way to Bethlehem.\n\nPainting by J. Portaels.]\n\nThey brought with them gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh which they\npresented to the Holy Child.\n\nIt was in memory of the gift-bearing kings that Epiphany among the\nLatin and Russian peoples is celebrated as the season for exchanging\npresents.\n\nLittle is said in the New Testament about these wise men. Popular\nlegend has greatly filled out the Biblical story. It makes them three\nrich and powerful monarchs:--Caspar, King of Tarsus, the land of myrrh;\nMelchior, King of Arabia, where the land is ruddy with gold, and\nBalthasar, King of Saba, where frankincense flows from the trees.\n\nAccording to some authors these kings were of the race of Balaam, the\nOld Testament prophet, who had prepared the Gentiles for the coming of\nChrist into the world. He had foretold that a new star should appear in\nthat part of the sky under which lay the land of Judea, and had warned\nhis descendants that when they saw the star they should follow it and\nshould go to adore a great king who would be born somewhere in Judea\nand be Lord of the Universe.\n\nEven from the time of Balaam, it is added, sentinels had been posted\nupon a mountain towards the east, in order that as soon as the star\nrose into view they should give notice of it to the lords of the\ncountry, that the latter might go without delay to pay reverence to the\nnew king. This notice, as it happened, was not necessary in the case\nof Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. Being very wise and learned kings\nthey were under the special care of the Holy Spirit, who informed them\nin person of the appearance of the star.\n\nEach of them at once gathered together a retinue of servants, as well\nas troops of horses, camels and dromedaries, all of which were laden\nwith the choicest products of their respective countries. Then they\nstarted out in search of the new-born king. They looked up to the star\nas their guide, for it moved forward as they moved, and they well knew\nthat it had been sent to show them the way.\n\nWhere the three kings met is not told, but they arrived in Jerusalem\ntogether. As soon as they had entered the city gates the star which had\nguided them disappeared.\n\nNow this was in accordance with the will of God,--that on the failure\nof their starry guide the kings might make inquiries in the capital of\nJudea, and by these means publish abroad the birth of the Son of God.\nHence Herod and the Jews in general could have no excuse for ignoring\nthis great event, and \u201cthe care and diligence of the Magi would reprove\ntheir negligence and indifference, because having Christ so near\nthem, they did not seek Him, while these strangers came from distant\ncountries for this cause alone.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: The Three Kings visit Herod.\n\nPainting by Sebastian Conea.]\n\nAnd in fact the three kings, as they rode through the streets of\nJerusalem, asked of every one they met:\n\n\u201cWhere is He who is born King of the Jews? We have seen the star and\nhave lost it.\u201d\n\nNone could give them any information, for no one in Jerusalem had seen\nthe star.\n\nOne of the writers who tells this legend pauses to praise the \u201choly\nboldness\u201d with which the Magi published a new king in Jerusalem without\nhaving fear of Herod who might have been capable of putting them to\ndeath for this cause. This writer quotes with approval the words which\nSaint John Chrysostom later addressed in imagination to the kings.\n\n\u201cTell me, oh good kings, do you not know that whoever proclaims a new\nking in the life of a reigning king is liable to death, that you do\nthis thing, and thus place yourselves in manifest danger from Herod,\nwho may easily command you to be put to death?\u201d\n\nThe same writer quotes with similar approval Saint John\u2019s answer to his\nown question:--\n\n\u201cThe faith of these kings was so great and the love they bore to the\nnew-born King so fervent, that even before they had seen Him they were\nready to die for love of Him.\u201d[3]\n\nThe news of how three great kings, with a vast following of servants\nand beasts of burden had arrived in Jerusalem soon reached the ears of\nKing Herod. He was greatly troubled when he heard that they had come\nin quest of a new-born King of the Jews, well knowing that the kingdom\nof Judea did not belong to him by succession or by birth, but that he\nhad received it as a reward from the Romans, who had unjustly taken\npossession of it.\n\nThe first thing he did was to call together all the wise and learned\nmen of Jerusalem, and ask them what the prophets had said about the\ncoming of the Messiah, and the place where he would make his first\nappearance on earth.\n\nAnd when they answered that the babe would be born in Bethlehem he\nwas still more troubled. He at once sent out messengers to invite the\nkings to his palace, where he prepared a great banquet for them. After\nthey had feasted he advised them to continue their journey as far as\nthe little town of Bethlehem, where they might come upon the object of\ntheir quest.\n\n\u201cIf you find that the child of prophecy has been born there,\u201d he added,\n\u201chasten back and tell me the joyful news that I, too, may come and\nworship Him.\u201d\n\nThe kings promised to do as Herod bid them, little knowing the guile\nand deceit that festered in his wicked heart. Then they resumed their\njourney.\n\nNo sooner had they issued out of the gate of Jerusalem than the star\nonce more appeared in the sky, to their great joy. Following it, they\narrived at the house where, thirteen days before, Christ had been\nborn.\n\n[Illustration: The Journey of the Three Kings.\n\nPainting by Andrea del Sarto.]\n\nHere the star stood still, burning even more brightly than ever, as if\nto say,\n\n\u201cHere is He whom you seek; this is the palace of the new-born King;\nthis is the court of heaven, since here its King has His abode.\u201d\n\nStrange and complex must have been the emotions these wise men felt in\ntheir hearts when they saw what the star showed them--this chamber of\nthe King whom they sought, a place more suitable for beasts than for\nmen; since not for men but for beasts had it been prepared.\n\nWithin the stable the virgin mother was watching over the manger,\nwherein lay her Divine Son. Her quick ear caught the sound of footsteps\nand hoof-beats outside the door. In great alarm she lifted the Child\nout of the manger and encircled Him with her arms. This was the\nattitude in which the three kings, entering, found the mother and the\nChild.\n\nThe scales fell from their eyes at the sight. They now realized that\nit was in truth no human king who had been born into the world, but\nthe King of Heaven who had taken upon himself a human form. Throwing\nthemselves upon their knees, one by one they approached him, and\nworshipped him as God and the Savior of man.\n\nThen they presented Him with their gifts which had now acquired a new\nmeaning. Caspar\u2019s gold testified that the babe was a king, Melchior\u2019s\nfrankincense showed that he was God, and Balthasar\u2019s myrrh was a\nreminder that he was a man and doomed to suffer a painful death.\n\nFor gold was kept in kings\u2019 treasuries, frankincense was burnt in\ndivine worship, and myrrh was used in embalming the bodies of the dead.\n\nThe infant Jesus returned their offerings with gifts more precious\nstill. For gold He gave charity and spiritual riches, for incense,\nfaith, for myrrh, truth and meekness.\n\nThat night the kings were warned in a dream that they should not go\nback by way of Jerusalem because King Herod cherished evil designs\nagainst the child Jesus, but that they should return by other roads to\ntheir own kingdoms. They obeyed in all meekness and humility.\n\n\u201cFrom this arose the custom,\u201d says the quaint old author I have already\nquoted, \u201cwhich the church observes in processions, of leaving the\nchurch by one road and returning to it by another. By this it would be\nwell that all Christians should learn from the Magi not only to see\nChrist, but having found Him again, even though they had lost Him, to\nreturn by a different way from the other; because if at first they\nwalked in the ways of sin, they should return to it by the ways of\nholiness; and in this country they will arrive at the true country,\nwhich is heaven.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: The Arrival of the Three Kings.\n\nPainting by Bernardo Luini.]\n\nWhen Herod found that the three kings had returned home without\nfulfilling their promise to him he was greatly wroth. It was then that\nhe issued his edict commanding that all children under the age of\ntwo years should be put to death. He hoped that the Messiah would be\nslaughtered among the rest. But, as the New Testament tells us, the\nHoly Family received a special warning from heaven and fled into Egypt\nbefore the emissaries of wicked King Herod could reach them.\n\nAs to the three kings, when they had arrived, each at his own capital,\nthey cast aside their royal robes and abandoned their royal state.\nGiving all their goods to the poor they wandered about the earth\nannouncing that the Savior of man had been born in Bethlehem.\n\nSeven years after the death of Christ upon the cross the wise men were\nfound in India by Saint Thomas, once the doubting disciple, now become\nfirm in the faith, and an apostle to the East. Saint Thomas baptized\nthem in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, and they\ntoo became missionaries of the gospel. In the end they fell martyrs for\ntheir faith and their bodies were all buried together outside the walls\nof Jerusalem.\n\nThree hundred years passed away. Then Saint Helena, mother of the\nEmperor Constantine, made her famous pilgrimage to Palestine. Though\nshe was quite eighty years of age she was still full of life and\nvigor. All her time and energies she devoted to the discovery of early\nChristian remains. She is credited with the finding of the cross on\nwhich Christ suffered and the tomb in which He was buried.\n\nShe also identified the tomb of the Three Kings and carried their\nbodies away with her, on her return journey to Constantinople, to\nre-bury them in the church of Saint Sophia. Later the remains were\ntransferred to Milan and later still to Cologne. There they are still\nshown, in a side chapel of the great Cathedral, lying in a golden\nshrine--their grinning skulls girt with golden crowns, and their\nskeleton bodies clad in royal purple, bedecked with jewels of enormous\nvalue.\n\nThis is the story of the Three Kings as it is related all over Europe.\nIn the Latin countries and in Russia, an episode is added which is\nunknown in other lands.\n\nOn their way from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, so this added legend runs,\nthe three kings came across an old woman who was cleaning up her house.\n\n[Illustration: The Adoration of the Magi.\n\nPainting by Fra Angelico.]\n\nShe asked them whither they were going. And when they told her that\nthey were on their way to pay homage to the new-born King of the\nJews she prayed them to tarry until she had finished her task.\n\n\u201cFain would I go with you,\u201d she pleaded, \u201cand join in your homage.\u201d\n\n\u201cNay,\u201d replied the kings, \u201cwe have no time to wait. But leave your work\nand come with us.\u201d\n\nThe old woman refused to leave her work until it was all finished. Then\nit was too late. She strove, indeed, to follow the kings, but they were\nlost to sight.\n\nEver since that day she has been wandering about the earth seeking for\nthe child Jesus. And on the eve of the Epiphany she comes down the\nchimneys of the houses, leaving gifts for the little ones, as the kings\nleft gifts for the infant Jesus, and hoping against hope that she may\nfind Him whom she still seeks.\n\nIn Italy she is known to this day as the Befana (a corruption of\nEpiphania, the Italian for Epiphany) and in Russia as the Baboushka or\nlittle old woman.\n\nOn the eve of Epiphany, Italian children hang up their clothes, after\ncarefully emptying the pockets, around the huge fireplaces which are\ncommon both in palaces and in hovels. During the night the Befana\ncomes down the chimney, just like Santa Klaus on Christmas eve. If the\nchildren have been good, she stuffs their pockets full of candies and\nother presents, but if they have been bad all they get from her are\ncharcoal ashes or birchrods.\n\nIn Spain, however, it is not the Befana nor the Baboushka, but one of\nthe three kings, no less a person indeed than Balthazar, who is the\ngift bearer. On the eve of the Epiphany children leave their shoes and\nboots out in some convenient spot near the chimney, expecting Balthazar\nwill fill them during the night.\n\nFrom early times he has been represented as a blackamoor or negro.\nBut not from the earliest. In the pictures by Giotto and Fra Angelico\nrepresenting the Adoration of the Magi, Balthazar is shown as a white\nman. In a picture on the same subject by Bernardo Luini he appears with\nthe woolly hair, black face and thick lips of the negro.\n\nSomewhere between the time of Fra Angelico and Bernardo Luini,\nBalthazar changed his skin and became a colored gentleman.\n\nIn many Italian cities, it is the custom of shop-keepers to decorate\ntheir windows with puppets meant to represent the three kings.\nConspicuous among these grins the black face of Balthazar.\n\nThere is a poem by the famous Dean Trench which was probably suggested\nby Luini\u2019s picture. Here are some of the most striking lines. They will\nshow you how closely the poem follows the picture:\n\n[Illustration: The Adoration of the Magi.\n\nPainting by Veronese.]\n\n  From what region of the morn\n  Are ye come, thus travel-worn,\n  With those boxes pearl-embost,\n  Caskets rare, and gifts of cost?\n  While your swarth attendants wait\n  At the stable\u2019s outer gate,\n  And the camels lift their head\n  High above the lowly shed;\n  Or are seen, a long-drawn train,\n  Winding down into the plain,\n  From below the light-blue line\n  Of the hills in distance fine,\n  Dear for your own sake, whence are ye?\n  Dearer for the mystery\n  That is round you--on what skies\n  Gazing, saw you first arise,\n  Thro\u2019 the darkness, that clear star,\n  Which has marshall\u2019d you so far,\n  Even unto this strawy tent,\n  Dancing up the Orient?\n  Shall we name you Kings indeed,\n  Or is this our idle creed?\n  Kings of Seba, with the gold\n  And the incense long foretold?\n  Would the Gentile world by you\n  First-fruits pay of tribute due;\n  Or have Israel\u2019s scatter\u2019d race,\n  From their unknown hiding-place,\n  Sent to claim their part and right\n  In the Child new-born to-night?\n\nAn older poet than Trench, the seventeenth century George Wither, has\nwoven some pretty fancies about the story of the wise men as it is told\nby Saint Matthew in the New Testament.\n\n  That so thy blessed birth, oh Christ,\n    Might through the world be spread about,\n  Thy Starre appeared in the East,\n    Whereby the Gentiles found thee out;\n  And, off\u2019ring Thee Myrrh, Incense, Gold,\n  Thy threefold Office did unfold.\n\n  Sweet Jesus, let that Starre of Thine,\n    Thy Grace, which guides to find out Thee,\n  Within our hearts for ever shine,\n    That Thou of us found out maist bee:\n  And Thou shalt be our King, therefore,\n  Our Priest, and Prophet evermore.\n\n  Teares that from true repentance drop,\n    Instead of Myrrh, present will wee:\n  For Incense, we will offer up\n    Our Praiers and Praises unto Thee;\n  And bring for Gold each pious deed,\n  Which doth from saving faith proceed.\n\n  And as those Wise men never went\n    To visit Herod any more;\n  So, finding Thee, we will repent\n    Our courses follow\u2019d heretofore:\n  And that we homeward may retire,\n  Our way by Thee we will enquire.\n\n[Illustration: The Adoration of the Three Kings.\n\nFrom the painting by E. Burne Jones.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nSOME TWELFTH NIGHT CUSTOMS\n\n\nAs Twelfth Night, or Epiphany, is a day dedicated to the three Wise Men\nof the New Testament--the three kings of popular legend--it is only\nnatural that one or more kings should be everywhere prominent in the\ncelebration of the holiday.\n\nThe full trio are present in many places. Thus in Milan, Italy, three\nyoung men dress themselves up in royal robes on Epiphany morning and\nmounting horses as splendidly attired as themselves appear before\nthe city gates. They are admitted with loud cheers, and a procession\nis formed. Before the kings marches a man bearing a large gilt star;\nbehind them the citizens fall into line. At every street corner new\nbatches of citizens join the parade. They file through the streets\nto the cathedral. At its steps the kings dismount, and, with their\nfollowers, march up the aisle to the high altar where a figure of\nthe infant Christ lies in a manger. Every one who wishes may leave a\npresent in the manger. Then the procession disbands.\n\nIn Madrid a bit of practical joking is still indulged in on Epiphany\neve. The peasants from miles around flock into the city at that time.\nMany of them are very ignorant and very superstitious. The town folk\nthink it funny to gather together in small crowds all playing on noisy\nhorns and thumping discordant drums. The mobs parade up and down the\nstreets. Their great delight is to fall in with some simpleton who is\nnew to city ways. Such a man is easily made to believe that they are on\ntheir way to meet the three kings, who are expected to arrive at one of\nthe gates some time that night.\n\nThe mob urge the countryman to join them. If he consents they throw\nover his neck a mule collar with a string of bells attached to it. Then\na step ladder is thrust into his hands. To the jingling of his own\nbells the poor yokel is made to carry the ladder through the streets.\nAt every one of the gates of the city the mob halt and command their\nvictim to climb up the ladder and peer over the walls to see if the\nkings are anywhere in sight.\n\nSometimes when he reaches the top the poor wretch is allowed to fall,\nat the risk of a cracked head or a broken limb. If he escapes all\ndangers, he is led on from gate to gate until his patience or his faith\nis exhausted.\n\n[Illustration: The Child\u2019s Twelfth Night Dream.\n\nDrawing by John Leech.]\n\nIn England, as well as in France, a single king survives in the\nceremony of the Twelfth Cake. France, which was probably the\ninventor of this eatable, known there as the King\u2019s Cake, cherishes the\ncustom with especial gusto. So let us begin with the Galette du Roi.\n\nThe size of the cake is determined by the number of the guests for whom\nit is to be served. It is usually made of pastry and is baked in a\nround sheet like a pie. A broad bean was formerly baked into the cake,\nbut in our day a wee little china image is usually substituted for the\nbean. When ready the cake is cut into slices and the youngest child at\nthe table directs how these slices shall be distributed to the others.\nThere is great excitement as slice after slice is handed out and eaten.\n\nAt last some one\u2019s teeth come in contact with the image and he spits\nit out. \u201cHe,\u201d I say, on the supposition that it is a boy. If it is,\nindeed, a boy, he is called King of the Bean (le Roi Favette), and\nchooses a queen from among the girls. If it be a girl she becomes queen\nand chooses a boy as her consort.\n\nKing and queen are now closely watched by their companions. When either\nof them drinks the whole party has to cry out \u201cThe king drinks\u201d or \u201cthe\nqueen drinks,\u201d as the case may be. Any one who fails to join in the cry\nhas to pay a forfeit.\n\nIn England the custom varies in different localities as it has varied\nat different dates.\n\nWhat it was in London during the middle of the nineteenth century is\nbest described by Hone in his \u201cTable Book:\u201d\n\n\u201cFirst buy your cake,\u201d says this author. \u201cNext, look at your invitation\nlist, and count the number of ladies you expect, and afterwards the\nnumber of gentlemen.\n\n\u201cThen you write down on slips of paper the names of as many famous\ncharacters in history, male and female, as will cover the list of\nguests. Add to each slip some pleasant bit of verse.\n\n\u201cFold them up exactly of the same size, and number each on the back;\ntaking care to make the king No. 1 and the queen No. 2. Cause tea and\ncoffee to be handed to your visitors as they drop in. When all are\nassembled and tea is over, put as many ladies\u2019 characters in a reticule\nas there are ladies present; next put the gentlemen\u2019s characters in a\nhat. Then call on a gentleman to carry the reticule to the ladies as\nthey sit; from which each lady is to draw one ticket and to preserve\nit unopened. Select a lady to bear the hat to the gentlemen, for the\nsame purpose. There will be one ticket left in the reticule, and\nanother in the hat,--which the lady and gentleman who carried each is\nto interchange, as having fallen to each. Next arrange your visitors,\naccording to their numbers;--the king No. 1, the queen No. 2 and so on.\nThe king is then to recite the verse on his ticket; then the queen a\nverse on hers; and so the characters are to proceed in numerical order.\n\n\u201cThis done, let the cake and refreshments go round; and hey! for\nmerriment!\u201d\n\nIn earlier days, however, we know that the cake played a more\nimportant part in the festivities than Hone allows to it. In fact the\nEnglish here closely followed the French fashion which I have already\ndescribed, although in England the King\u2019s bean was supplemented by\na pea for the Queen. This much we may learn from a poem by Robert\nHerrick, who lived in the seventeenth century:\n\n      Now, now, the mirth comes\n      With the cake full of plums,\n  Where bean is the king of the sport here;\n      Beside 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\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nST. NICHOLAS IN ENGLAND\n\n\nSt. Nicholas is practically forgotten to-day in Protestant England. But\nin the merrie England of olden times, before the Catholic religion had\ngiven way to Protestantism, he was one of the most popular saints in\nthe calendar.\n\nThis is shown not only by the number of churches dedicated in his\nhonor, but also by the number of boys who received his name in baptism.\nNicholases were once as common among the Englishmen of the past as\nMaries were among English women. A curious fact may be brought up in\nevidence. In English catechisms, whose forms date from a very early\ntime, the question is put to the pupil:\n\n\u201cWhat is your name?\u201d\n\nAnd the answer is printed thus: \u201cN. or M.\u201d Of course the pupil is\nexpected to put his or her name in place of these initials. Now it is\nprobable that N stands for Nicholas and M for Mary, and the choice of\nthese initials was made not only because Nicholas was the patron of\nboys and Mary of girls, but because these were the commonest names in\nOld England.\n\nThe feast of St. Nicholas used to be celebrated by a ceremony known as\nthe election of a Boy-bishop. This custom existed to some extent on\nthe continent of Europe, but it nowhere flourished so vigorously as in\nEngland. It has been traced as far back as the thirteenth century.\n\nTo the choir boys and altar boys of English churches it was a\nparticularly exciting time.\n\nOn St. Nicholas\u2019 eve all the boys who sang in the choir or served at\nthe altar met at their parish church, or in the great cathedral, if\nthey belonged to a bishop\u2019s see, and elected one from among their\nnumber, who took the title of \u201cthe Boy-bishop.\u201d This title with its\ndignities he retained until December 28th, Holy Innocents\u2019 Day, so\ncalled because it is the anniversary of the slaughter of the children\nin Palestine by order of the wicked King Herod.\n\nThe Boy-bishop was dressed in the robes of a real bishop. On his head\nwas placed a mitre, in his right hand a crozier. Another boy was\nelected dean, while the rest were styled canons, all being dressed in\nthe robes of their office.\n\nDuring the three weeks from December 5 to December 28, the Boy-bishop\ncould perform all the duties of a real bishop, except that of saying\nmass. If a priest died during the period when he held office he could\nappoint another to take his place in the church left vacant. If he\nhimself died before Holy Innocents\u2019 Day he was given a bishop\u2019s grand\nfuneral in the cathedral.\n\n\u201cThere is a little tomb of this kind,\u201d says Miss Abbie Farwell Brown,\n\u201cnot half the size of a full-grown one, in a great cathedral that I\nknow. It is of white marble, grandly carved and decorated, and though\nit is worn and nicked by eight hundred years of change, one can plainly\nsee that it is a child\u2019s face among the long curls beneath the bishop\u2019s\nmitre. No one knows his name, nor aught about him, save that he must be\none of the Boy-bishops who died at Christmas time, or he would not be\nburied in the great cathedral tomb.\u201d[4]\n\nDoubtless Miss Brown has in mind the cathedral of Salisbury, England.\nIn the nave of that great minster there is just such a tomb, with just\nsuch a likeness carved upon it. The boy\u2019s foot rests on the figure of\na monster with a lion\u2019s head and a dragon\u2019s tail, in allusion to the\nwords of the psalmist \u201cThou shalt tread on the lion and the dragon.\u201d\n\nBut to continue. On December 6th the newly elected Boy-bishop with his\ndean and canons held a grand service in the church to which they were\nattached, the prayers being chanted in the boy\u2019s sweet childish voice.\nA great crowd always thronged the church to gaze on so rare a sight,\nand the offerings that they made were all for the Boy-bishop.\n\nAfter the services were over the bishop and his boy-assistants would\nform themselves into a procession and parade through the streets of the\ntown or the lanes of the countryside, asking some small money tributes\nfrom all they met and at every door where they knocked. This was known\nas the Bishop\u2019s Subsidy and though no one was likely to give a great\ndeal, yet as the procession was continued every day during the three\nweeks, the amount collected sometimes rolled up into quite a pretty sum.\n\nFaster and more furious grew the fun as the time of the bishop\u2019s rule\nneared its close. On the afternoon of December 27th little Nicholas\nand his companions sang vespers, while the real priests of the church\nacted as altar boys and choristers. Then the Boy-bishop gave a solemn\nbenediction to all present. Making the sign of the cross over the\nkneeling throngs, he dismissed them with the words:\n\n  Crucis signo vos consigno; vestra sit tuitio,\n  Quos nos emit et redemit suae carnis pretio.\n\nThese latin words being translated into English mean:\n\n\u201cI bestow upon you the sign of the cross, yours be it to learn what is\nsent for our redemption through the price of his flesh.\u201d\n\nNext day (the actual feast of the Holy Innocents), the Boy-bishop\npreached a sermon which usually was written for him by some famous\nprelate. On his dismissal of the congregation at the close of the\nsermon, the festival of the Boy-bishop was at an end.\n\nWhen Henry VIII became a Protestant and brought over a great many of\nhis subjects to the new faith one of his first acts was to abolish the\nBoy-bishop and his festival. Henry\u2019s daughter, Queen Mary, restored\nboth for the few years of her own reign, but Queen Elizabeth, her\nsister and successor, put an end to the mummery forever.\n\nWe catch our last glimpse of the Boy-bishop in the pages of a historian\ncalled William Strype, who informs us that on the fifth day of\nDecember, 1556, (Queen Mary being then still alive) \u201ca boy habited\nlike a bishop in pontificalibus, went abroad in most parts of London,\nsinging after the old fashion, and was received by many ignorant but\nwell disposed people into their houses, and had as much good cheer as\nwas ever wont to be had before, at least in many places.\u201d\n\nOld customs die hard. We have come across many instances of the truth\nof this saying in the course of our study of the Christmas festivals.\nJust as Christianity had to retain and remodel many old heathen\ncustoms, so Protestantism (often without meaning it) retained and\nremodeled many an old Catholic custom. Just as Silenus, and Saturn,\nsurvived in a measure as Santa Claus, so the Boy-bishop, in a measure,\nsurvived as the hero of a ceremony which flourished at the school of\nEton until nearly the middle of the nineteenth century.\n\nThis was known as Eton Montem. It was celebrated not in December but in\nJune, though tradition tells us that the original date was St. Nicholas\nDay and that the ceremony was instituted in the year 1440, the very\nyear when Eton was founded.\n\nLater it took place every third year on the Tuesday after Whitsunday\nor Pentecost, which usually falls in June. On that day a procession of\nall the scholars went from the school buildings to a hill known as Salt\nHill that rises just outside of the grounds. At their head marched the\ncaptain and his chaplain, the one being the head boy of the highest\nclass in school, the other the head boy of the second class. The\nchaplain was dressed in a suit of priestly black with a bushy wig upon\nhis head.\n\nTwo boys called \u201csalt bearers\u201d with \u201cscouts\u201d dressed like old-time\nfootmen ran beside the procession begging from all passersby and they\nscattered through the roads to beg at the doors of houses for miles\naround.\n\nThe money thus collected was put into a great bag, already sprinkled\nwith a small quantity of salt and at the end of the day this bag was\nhanded over to the captain. It was used to pay his expenses when he\nleft Eton for some one of the great universities. Not infrequently it\nmounted up to hundreds of dollars and sometimes even to a thousand or\nmore.\n\nUp to the middle of the eighteenth century it was customary for the\nchaplain to read prayers on Salt Hill. He was assisted by a clerk whom\nhe kicked down hill at their conclusion. The irreverence of this part\nof the ceremony shocked Queen Caroline and at her request it was ever\nafterwards omitted. In 1847 the entire ceremony was abolished by act of\nParliament, the last celebration having taken place on June 28th, 1844.\n\nAnd thus the last vestige of Saint Nicholas passed out of the\nceremonial life of England.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\nFATHER CHRISTMAS AND HIS FAMILY\n\n\nThe English, as I have said, have no Saint Nicholas, no Santa Klaus, no\nChris-kinkle to act as a distributor of gifts on Christmas eve. They\nhail as the patron of the season a vague allegorical being, usually\ncalled Father Christmas, though he has, sometimes, been known also as\nOld Christmas, Captain Christmas, and by other titles.\n\nHe appears only in picture, in poetry, and in dramatic pieces specially\ngot up for the holidays. In the latter he has played an important part\nfrom a very early period. The most famous of such pieces was a \u201cmasque\u201d\nwritten by Ben Jonson, Shakespeare\u2019s friend and rival, and produced at\nthe court of King James I in the year 1616. That, by the way, is the\nvery year of Shakespeare\u2019s death.\n\nChristmas festivities at that time were frowned down upon by many of\nthe more zealous Protestants--just then beginning to earn the name of\n\u201cPuritans\u201d--who fancied that these mummeries and rejoicings smacked\ntoo strongly of \u201cPapist\u201d or Roman Catholic tendencies. Indeed many\nfanatics had striven to abolish Christmas altogether, and had partly\nsucceeded in doing so, at least among the people who believed as they\ndid. But James I, though a foolish person in some respects, was a\nlearned man and a great lover of the traditions of the past.\n\nIt is in allusion to the Puritan attempt to suppress him altogether\nthat Ben Jonson\u2019s Father Christmas utters these words as he makes his\nentrance upon the stage:\n\n  \u201cWhy, gentlemen, do you know what you do? Ha! would you have kept\n  me out? CHRISTMAS!--Old Christmas--Christmas of London, and Captain\n  Christmas! Pray you let me be brought before my Lord Chamberlain;\n  I\u2019ll not be answered else. \u2018_\u2019Tis merry in hall, when beards wag\n  all._\u2019 I have seen the time you have wished for me, for a merry\n  Christmas, and now you have me, they would not let me in: _I must\n  come another time!_ A good jest--as if I could come more than once a\n  year. Why, I am no dangerous person, and so I told my friends of the\n  guard. I am old Gregory Christmas, still, and, though I come out of\n  the Pope\u2019s Head-alley, as good a Protestant as any in my parish.\u201d\n\nHe must have been a quaint looking figure, this same Father Christmas,\nfor we are told that his costume consisted of\n\n  \u201cround hose, long stockings, close doublet, high-crowned hat, with a\n  brooch, long, thin beard, truncheon, little ruffs, white shoes,\n  with his scarfs and garters tied cross, and his drum beaten before\n  him,\u201d\n\n[Illustration: Father Christmas.\n\nDrawn by Kenny Meadows.\n\nFrom the Illustrated London News, December, 1847.]\n\nAnd now, to the sound of the drum, in troop all his merry family--sons\nand daughters and nephews and nieces. Among them are the Lord of\nMisrule, who in old days directed the Christmas revels; Roast Beef,\n\u201cthat English Champion bold,\u201d who has saved many a sturdy Englishman\nfrom starvation; Plum Pudding, a blackamoor, with rich round face\nand rosemary cockade; and Minced Pie, and Baby Cake, and Mumming and\nWassail and Offering and Carol, and New Year\u2019s Gift, and others too\nnumerous to mention.\n\nMany members of this robust family will be recognized as contributors\nto the Christmas cheer of to-day. Others have disappeared forever.\n\nThe Lord of Misrule, for example, the \u201cGrand Captain of Mischief,\u201d as\nthe Puritans called him, no longer summons around him all the madcap\nyouths of town or village for a brief period of lawless revelry.\n\nIn Scotland this personage was known as the Abbot of Unreason, a\nname which clearly shows that he was a direct descendant from the\nchief performer in the medi\u00e6val Feast of Fools, and as such was a\ngreat-great-etc.-grandson of Silenus, the merrymaker in the Greek\nBacchanalia.\n\nKing James I of England was succeeded by his son Charles I. During\nthe reign of the latter unhappy monarch, the Puritan party in England\ngathered so much strength that, under the lead of Oliver Cromwell, they\nhurled Charles from his throne and cut off his head, sending his entire\nfamily into exile for a period of a dozen years. Father Christmas\nshared the exile of his royal patrons, or if he dared show his face in\nEngland at all, it was only here and there in remote country places\nor behind locked doors in the obscurer parts of the great cities.\nMeanwhile his absence was greatly deplored by that part of the English\npeople who had remained loyal to the crown. One of these put forward\na curious little book entitled \u201cAn Hue and Cry after Christmas.\u201d The\nfollowing paragraph shows the spirit in which the book was written:\n\n\u201cAny man or woman, that can give any knowledge, or tell any tidings of\nan old, old, very old grey-bearded gentleman, called Christmas, who was\nwont to be a very familiar guest and visit all sorts of people, both\npoor and rich, and used to appear in glittering gold, silk and silver,\nin the court, and in all shapes in the theatre in White Hall, and had\nringing, feasts and jollity in all places, both in the city and the\ncountry, for his coming--whoever can tell what is become of him, or\nwhere he may be found, let him bring him back again into England.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: Father Christmas, another conception.\n\nDrawing by Kenny Meadows.]\n\nWell, Father Christmas did come back to England in the train of Charles\nI\u2019s son, Charles II who shortly after Cromwell\u2019s death was restored to\nthe English throne by the wish of the majority of the English people.\n\nWhen he resumed the rule that had been wrested by the Puritans from his\nfather the old celebrations of Christmas were to some extent revived in\nthe royal and other mansions and at the theatres.\n\n\u201cTo some extent\u201d--that is too often a sad phrase!\n\nIt means, in this case, that pretty much all the life and spirit of the\nold ceremonies had departed so that no revival could restore them to\ntheir former vitality.\n\nThe changes wrought by the troublous times through which England had\npassed were fatal to the old-time splendors of the Christmas season.\nIn the country many of the great old estates had passed into new hands\nand the old ties between the lord of the manor and his tenants had\nbeen forever sundered. The rafters of the old baronial halls no longer\nrang with the merriment which had graced the meeting of master and\nservants on a holiday basis of equality. Friends and relatives who from\nchildhood had gathered together around the Yule log were now scattered\nor had been slain by the chances of war. Members of old country\nfamilies deprived by Cromwell of their estates and driven into exile,\nnow flocked to London to become hangers-on at the court of a \u201cMerry\nMonarch\u201d whose mirth was often bought at the expense of his subject\u2019s\nyears.\n\nThe Merry Monarch, himself (that was the name given to Charles II), was\na prodigal and a spendthrift, who found all sorts of new ways in which\nto squander the money raised by taxes from his subjects. He had little\nleft, therefore, to imitate the splendid pageants that distinguished\nthe courts of Queen Elizabeth and James I at the ancient holiday\nseasons.\n\nA famous song called \u201cThe Old and Young Courtier\u201d was written shortly\nafter Charles II had regained his throne. It sadly contrasts the good\nold times and the good old people with the bad new times and the bad\nnew people of the Restoration.\n\nThe old courtier is lovingly described as \u201ca worshipful old gentleman\nwho had a great estate,\u201d with a lovely old wife by his side, and a\ngreat band of servants around them. Then followed this verse:\n\n  With a good old fashion when Christmas was come,\n  To call in all his old neighbors with bagpipe and drum,\n  With good cheer enough to furnish every room,\n  And old liquor able to make a cat speak, and man dumb;\n          Like an old courtier of the queen\u2019s\n          And the queen\u2019s old courtier.\n\n[Illustration: The Old and the New Christmas.\n\nFrom London Punch, Dec. 24, 1881.]\n\nA contrast is drawn between this old courtier of the queen\u2019s and the\nyoung courtier of the king\u2019s, with all his new-fangled notions, and\nespecially\n\n  With a new fashion, when Christmas is drawing on,\n  On a new journey to London we must straight all begone\n  And leave none to keep house but our new porter John\n  Who relieves the poor with a thump in the back with a stone.\n          Like a young courtier of the king\u2019s\n          And the king\u2019s young courtier.\n\nFrom time to time, even in periods nearer to our own, complaints have\nbeen raised in England that the spirit of the old-time Christmas\nmerriment has departed forever, and that good old Father Christmas is\nonce more an exile from his own.\n\nA cartoon by Linley M. Sambourne published in the _London Punch_ for\nDecember 24, 1881, shows the Old-Fashioned Christmas holding a lively\nconversation with the New.\n\nThis prose bit is printed beneath the picture:\n\n  _Christmas_ (_New Style_). \u201cWE ARE THE MODERN CHRISTMAS CARDS--WE ARE!\n  WE ARE! WE ARE!\u201d\n\n  _Christmas_ (_Old Style_). \u201cYOU REPRESENT CHRISTMAS! POOH! WHAT DO YOU\n  MEAN BY COMING OUT LIKE THAT AT THIS TIME OF YEAR?\u201d\n\nThen follows this poem, which still further explains the meaning of the\npicture:\n\n  Says the Old-fashioned Christmas to the New-fangled Christmas,\n    \u201c\u2019Pon my word, my boy, I don\u2019t think much of you.\u201d\n  Says the New-fangled Christmas to the Old-fashioned Christmas,\n    \u201cWell, with tastes like yours, I don\u2019t suppose you do.\n  For, to celebrate a season, very fortunately brief,\n  At _your_ age too,--with an orgie of plum-pudding and roast beef,\n  Crowned with holly, in a dressing-gown! The thing\u2019s past all belief!\u201d\n    Says Old Christmas, with a nod, \u201cMy boy, that\u2019s true.\u201d\n\n  Says the New-fangled Christmas to the Old-fashioned Christmas,\n    \u201cFor tomfoolery like yours we have no zest.\u201d\n  Says the Old-fashioned Christmas to the New-fangled Christmas,\n    \u201cWhat now! _You_ to talk like that! Well, I am blest!\n  \u2018Tomfoolery\u2019? Why, what do you call all this here modern fad,--\n  Sending gimcrack cards by dozens, dauby, glaring, good, and bad,\n  Nymphs--and what not? Why, between you, you drive friends and Postmen mad.\u201d\n    Says Young Christmas, \u201cWhen it\u2019s over, they can rest.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: Bringing in Old Christmas.\n\nFrom the Illustrated London News.]\n\n  Says the Old-fashioned Christmas to the New-fangled Christmas,\n    \u201cWhere\u2019s the jollity of twenty years ago?\u201d\n  Says the New-fangled Christmas to the Old-fashioned Christmas,\n    \u201cHow on earth, now, do you think that _I_ should know?\n  For to-day, with Art and Culture\u2019s dainty trifles by the score,\n  We just manage to scrape through the time, confessing it\u2019s a bore;\n  But, by Jove, if _you_ came back again, \u2019twould soon be something more!\u201d\n    Says Old Christmas, \u201cWell, I really call that low.\u201d\n\n  Says the New-fangled Christmas to the Old-fashioned Christmas,\n    \u201cI don\u2019t see the day a bit, you know, like you.\u201d\n  Says the Old-fashioned Christmas to the New-fangled Christmas,\n    \u201cNever mind, my boy, there\u2019s something you can do.\n  Have your fads; but copy me, my boy. Go on as I\u2019ve begun.\n  Remember, when your table\u2019s spread, the thousands that have none.\n  So, get your cheque-book out, my boy. Show you\u2019re your father\u2019s son.\u201d\n    Says Young Christmas, \u201cWell, I don\u2019t mind if I do.\u201d\n\nAfter all, may it not be safe for us to decide that it is not the\nspirit but the fashion which alters, that the heart of Old Father\nChristmas still beats warm under the new garb wherein changing tastes\nhave clothed him? Surely, if we have dropped some of the revellings\nof the past, we have dropped also the abuses which gradually made\ndistasteful the horse play that attended those revelries.\n\nOn the whole the \u201cnew-fangled Christmas\u201d has many points that show an\nimprovement over the old-fashioned Christmas while in all essentials\nthe two remain one and the same.\n\nSome humble members of Father Christmas\u2019 family still surviving to\na small extent in London are the \u201cwaits\u201d or wandering musicians who\nplay dismal tunes under the windows of the well-to-do in the hopes of\nobtaining a few pennies.\n\nThese are direct descendants from the \u201cjongleurs\u201d or minstrels who in\nthe Middle Ages celebrated the birth of Christ on Christmas night with\nsong and dance.\n\n[Illustration: The Christmas Waits.\n\nDrawing by Kenny Meadows.\n\nFrom the Illustrated London News, December, 1848.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV\n\nPANTOMIME IN THE PAST AND PRESENT\n\n\nSome people still living (but they must be very aged people by now) may\nbe able to remember the pantomime which was one of the great features\nof the Christmas holidays in early nineteenth century England, and may\nbe looked upon as the legitimate successor of the ancient \u201cmasque.\u201d The\nword pantomime comes from two Greek words meaning \u201call mimicry.\u201d It is\na play in which the actors say never a word but perform their parts\nin dumb show, that is, by signs and gestures. Being almost unknown in\nAmerica this word of explanation may be necessary.\n\nEngland borrowed the pantomime from Italy, where it has survived from\nthe masked frolics of the Roman Saturnalia. Pantaloon, Harlequin and\nthe Fairy Columbine were the principal actors in all the Italian\npantomimes and all of them wore masks.\n\nA famous player named Rich, who was known on the stage as Lun, was the\nfirst to introduce pantomime into England. In the year 1717 he produced\na play of this sort called Harlequin Executed, in which he himself\nperformed the part of Harlequin. It is said that he \u201ccould describe to\nthe audience by his signs and gestures as intelligibly as others could\nexpress by words.\u201d[5]\n\nDavid Garrick, perhaps the greatest of all English actors, was a\nyounger contemporary of Rich and after his friend\u2019s death he celebrated\nthe silent but powerful language of Rich in these lines:\n\n  When Lun appeared, with matchless grace and ishm,\n  He gave the power of speech to every limb,\n  Though masked and mute, conveyed his quick intent,\n  And told in frolic gestures all he meant;\n  But now the motley coat and sword of wood\n  Require a tongue to make them understood.\n\nBy the last lines Garrick evidently means to say that spoken words had\nin his time been introduced into the so-called pantomime, because no\nactor remained who was capable of conveying his meaning by nod or wink\nor gesture in the old-time manner.\n\nBy the beginning of the nineteenth century, however, all and more of\nthe original glories of pantomime were brought back to the English\nstage by Joseph Grimaldi, an Italian by birth, but an Englishman by\nadoption. He was the greatest clown known to the history of English\ndrama.\n\n[Illustration: Jongleurs announcing the birth of our Lord.\n\nFrom a painting by A. F. Gorguet.]\n\nAfter his retirement, in 1828, pantomime still flourished for a number\nof years as the chief dramatic feature of the Christmas season.\n\nSt. Stephen\u2019s Day (December 26, the day after Christmas) was the day\nspecially set aside for the production of a pantomime, but in due\ntime those performances were extended all over the Christmas season.\nThey were the particular delight of the young folk, though older folk\nalso liked to attend them and live their youth over again in the joy\nreflected from the faces of the boys and girls in the audience.\n\nLeigh Hunt, a charming English writer who never lost his boy-heart\ntells us how much pleasure he found in watching the children at a\npantomime.\n\n\u201cI am more delighted,\u201d he says, \u201cin watching the vivacious workings\nof their ingenuous countenances at these Christmas shows than at the\nsights themselves.... Stretching half over the boxes at the theatre,\nadorned by maternal love, see their enraptured faces, now turned\nto the galleries, wondering at their height and at the number of\nregular-placed heads contained in them; now directed towards the green\ncloud which is so lingeringly kept between them and their promised\nbliss. The half-peeled orange laid aside when the play begins; their\nanxiety for that which they understand; their honest laughter which\nruns through the house like a merry peal of sweet bells; the fear of\nthe little girl lest they should discover the person hid behind the\nscreen; the exultation of the boy when the hero conquers. But, oh, the\nrapture when the pantomime commences! Ready to leap out of the box,\nthey joy in the mischief of the clown, laugh at the thwacks he gets for\nhis meddling, and feel no small portion of contempt for his ignorance\nin not knowing that hot water will scald and gunpowder explode; while,\nwith head aside to give fresh energy to the strokes, they ring their\nlittle palms against each other in testimony of exuberant delight.\u201d\n\nPantomime in the England of to-day has dwindled into a mere side\nshow for spectacular ballets, which are now all the fashion. Clown\nand Columbine are indeed, occasionally introduced into these ballets\nbut the clown is no longer a leading character and Columbine and her\ncompanions are selected more for their skill in dancing than in the art\nof gesture.\n\nVery rarely, indeed, is a comic mask introduced into a Christmas\npiece nowadays. Formerly, Harlequin and Columbine wore little black\nmasks that just covered the upper part of the face, while the rest of\nthe jolly crew of elves, ogres and buffoons were disguised in huge\nheadpieces arranged over their shoulders.\n\nAnd here comes in the point of the picture by Mr. Potter which I have\nreproduced from the Christmas number of an English weekly called\n_The Sporting Times_.\n\n[Illustration: Going to the Pantomime.\n\nDrawing by John Leech.\n\nFrom the Illustrated London News, December 24, 1853.]\n\nThe young woman of this picture is a \u201chigh-kicker\u201d who evidently has\nmade a hit with the audience at a modern Christmas ballet. When she\ngets behind the scenes among \u201cproperties\u201d left over from the ancient\ndays, she gives a frisky vent to her feelings by flashing her heels in\nthe faces of the grinning old masks.\n\nIn short, she represents pantomime in its most modern development, the\nballet, as contrasted with the grotesque humors of the past.\n\nYou may find food for both humor and pathos, in the idea which Mr.\nPotter has worked out in this pretty and ingenious manner.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI\n\nSAINT NICHOLAS IN EUROPE\n\n\nThere is no country in Europe where Saint Nicholas is more honored than\nin Holland. Even before his festival arrives--during all the first five\ndays of December--the shops in town and city put on their most festive\narray. All the people in shop and street assume a brisk and bustling\nair. Dutch men and Dutch women, usually silent and stolid, hail one\nanother with noisy greetings as they meet. Everybody, in short, has his\nbest foot foremost.\n\nAmsterdam, one of many cities which claim Saint Nicholas as their\npatron saint, is especially wideawake. During the first week of\nDecember the confectioners\u2019 shops are ablaze with all sorts of\nsplendors in cake and candy. Sugar rabbits, sugar cats and sugar\nmice disport themselves amid scenery of sugar and chocolate and wood\nshavings. The shavings (painted a vivid green), supply the foliage\nfor chocolate trees and candied fruits. In all shapes and sizes are\nfigures of men and women made out of crisp brown gingerbread, called\nSaint Nicholas cake, which is specially prepared for the holiday. These\nfigures are sometimes known as \u201csweethearts\u201d and it is a merry jest\nto send a girl figure to a boy and a boy figure to a girl. Nay the\nelders themselves are not forgotten if they are unmarried. It is good\nfun, we are told, to have a servant burst into a roomful of people and\nsay to the lady of the house:\n\n[Illustration: Mute admiration.\n\nBy Raymond Potter.]\n\n\u201cIf you please ma\u2019am, here is Miss Annie\u2019s sweetheart,\u201d and hand over\nto mamma a gingerbread man for her little girl.[6]\n\nOther jokes of the same kind are played with so-called \u201chearts,\u201d large\nand luscious pieces of march-pane moulded into the familiar shape\nsupposed to resemble the organ that is supposed to be the seat of\nhuman affection. These are exchanged among the young people much as\nvalentines, with us, are exchanged on February 14th.\n\n\u201cOf course,\u201d says the authority I have already quoted, a lady of\nHolland birth who speaks of what she herself has seen and experienced,\n\u201cmost girls like having such an innocent heart sent to them, and it is\nfunny to see the mysterious look with which one tells another:\n\n\u201c\u2018I had a large heart sent to me last night. I cannot possibly think\nwho sent it.\u2019\u201d\n\nHere and there in the streets you will see groups of boys and girls\nclustered around a linen-draper\u2019s shop. For it is the linen drapers who\nespecially love to display in their windows a life-like image of Saint\nNicholas, ruddy-faced, white-bearded, crowned with his mitre and clad\nin his bright red robe lined with soft white fur, bearing a crozier in\nhis hand, and mounted on a fiery white horse. Behind him stands his\nnegro servant Jan, or John.\n\nOn December 5th, the eve of the saint\u2019s feast, he is said to ride over\nthe roofs of the houses, dropping candies into the wide chimneys. And\nindeed, in houses where children believe this, their faith is rewarded\nby the fact that candies and other goodies do stream down into the\ngreat open hearths and are gathered in by eager little people who have\nbeen singing the saint\u2019s praises all through the evening.\n\nIn many households, moreover, the saint actually presents himself to\nthe eyes of his worshippers and admirers. A knock is heard at the door;\nit is opened, and amid the breathless silence of the children, Santa\nKlaus, in flesh and blood, and in all the glory of scarlet robe and\nbejewelled mitre, steps into the room. He is closely followed by his\nservant Jan, who bears a basket containing all sorts of presents for\nthe good children, and all sorts of unpleasant reminders for the bad\nones.\n\n[Illustration: Santa Claus comes to grief on an automobile.\n\nCopyright 1908 by Life Publishing Company.]\n\nBefore these things are distributed, Santa Klaus calls up the children\none by one. He praises the good ones for all the kind deeds they have\ndone during the past year, while gently reproving any faults which\nmay have mingled with their virtues. To the bad ones he is stern but\njust. He reminds them of their misdeeds, and tells them that he cannot\ngive them any presents until they improve. If they have been very, very\nbad, he hands a birch-rod over to their parents with the advice that it\nshould be used upon their little backs in the task of reformation.\n\nGreat is the wonder that Santa Klaus should know so much about the\nchildren in a whole neighborhood. He goes, or is supposed to go, from\nhouse to house in the course of the day, and everywhere he praises the\nvirtues or condemns the faults of the boys and girls arrayed to meet\nhim. Sometimes it is found, by comparing notes, that he was in two or\nmore houses at the same time.\n\nOf course, you who have had your eyes opened, guess that the part of\nSanta Klaus is taken by some older member of each family, who confines\nhis visits to his own circle of relatives. Except in very small\nvillages, there are many Santa Klauses, therefore, going the rounds on\nSaint Nicholas\u2019s day, each well acquainted in the houses he visits.\n\nIn Austria, also, and in many parts of Southern Germany, St. Nicholas\nEve is made memorable in every nursery by a visit from the saint. A\nwell grown boy with a quick and clever mind and some knowledge of\nchurch doctrine, is chosen to play the part of Santa Klaus. He is\nmasked in long white vestments. A silk scarf is wound around his neck,\na mitre crowns his head, a crozier is put in his hand. He is attended\nby two angels and a whole troop of devils.\n\nThe angels are dressed much like the choir boys you have seen in\nCatholic and Episcopalian churches, save that they also wear silken\nscarfs around their necks. Each carries a basket.\n\nThe devils blacken their faces, put horns upon their heads and decorate\ntheir faces with pig\u2019s snouts or any other grotesque device that may\nsuggest itself to their fancy. All are girt with chains, which they\nshake or rattle furiously.\n\nBoy-like, it is thought much better fun to play devil than angel, and\nany boy who can lay his hands upon a suitable costume is at liberty to\njoin the infernal train.\n\nLate in the afternoon of December 5th the Boy-bishop and his attendants\nbegin their round of visits. It is the season for young folks\u2019 parties,\nand all the children of the village who are not masquerading as bishop\nor angel or imp have gathered together in a few of the principal\nhouses. At each Saint Nicholas calls in its due turn.\n\nHe enters with the two angels, leaving the demons outside to indulge in\nany pranks they will.\n\n[Illustration: No, I don\u2019t believe in you any more, but you may leave\nthe things.\n\nDrawing by J. R. Shaver.\n\nCopyright 1908 by Life Publishing Co.]\n\nA great hush falls upon the assembled children as the Saint advances\ninto the room. One by one he calls them up to examine them. Simple\nquestions suited to their various ages are put to them by the bishop,\nafter which each has to repeat a hymn or a prayer. All this part of\nthe evening\u2019s business is carried on with the greatest seriousness and\ndecorum on the part of children and grown-ups alike.\n\nIf the child passes a satisfactory examination the angels present it\nwith nuts and apples--if not it has to stand aside. When the last of\nthe examinations is over, the devils are admitted into the room.\n\nThey are not allowed to come near the good children, but they may tease\nand frighten the naughty little boys and girls as much as they choose.\nThey delight in strange dances, and in all sorts of odd antics, such\nas smearing the girls\u2019 faces with lamp-black, or putting coal dust and\nashes down the backs of the boys.\n\nWhen Saint Nicholas has left, the children return to their own homes.\nBefore going to bed they hang up their stockings by the chimney or,\nmore likely, place their little boots and shoes close to the hearth,\nexpecting to find them filled with gifts in the morning.\n\nBoots and shoes indeed, came before stockings almost everywhere, the\nadvantages of clean stockings as receivers for candies and other\neatables being a comparatively new discovery. In Belgium to this day\nthe children give their shoes an extra fine polish on Christmas Eve,\nfill them with hay, oats, carrots, for Santa Klaus\u2019s white horse, and\nput them on the table, or set them in the fireplace. The room is then\ncarefully closed and the door is locked.\n\nIn the morning a strange thing is found to have happened! The furniture\nis all turned topsy-turvy, the fodder has been removed from the shoes\nand in its place the good little children find all sorts of nice things\nand the bad ones only rods of birch and bits of coal.\n\nBoots and shoes are also in use in many parts of France. But here,\nas a general rule, it is the good little Jesus (le bon petit Jesus)\nwho comes down the chimney to fill all this footgear with sweetmeats.\nFormerly this custom extended to Paris. A French journalist named\nCharton thus describes the sights that met his eye on Christmas eve in\nParis in the middle of the nineteenth century:\n\n[Illustration: Santa Claus: \u201cWhew! I suppose if I don\u2019t remember those\npoor boys in Wall Street they\u2019ll complain to Teddy.\u201d\n\nDrawing by C. J. Taylor.]\n\n\u201cLo! what a strange thing! Before all the mantelpieces of Paris are\nranged, with a wonderful symmetry, charming little shoes, pretty\nlittle _bottines_, miniature slippers, and, as the extremities of the\n_faubourgs_, poor little sabots! It will be asked, what all those tiny\nlittle boots and shoes are doing there? There are enough of them to\ncover the feet of all the inhabitants of the vast kingdom of Lilliput.\nWhat are they doing there? They are waiting for a beautiful little\nluminous hand to descend from heaven to fill them with preserved fruits\nand bonbons! In the olden time the presents intended for children were\nfastened to the two ends of the Yule Log. Later an attempt was made to\nintroduce into France the Christmas tree, which, in a large portion\nof Europe, has superseded the Yule Log. But it is most usual to keep\nto the simple custom of filling the little shoes with bonbons, which\nmore than one mother of the laboring classes has had the foresight\nto reserve for that purpose. We will not venture to say that, whilst\nthe good mother or the elder sister is stealthily approaching the\nhearth and stooping down, one of the little sleepers, kept awake with\nexpectation, does not open his eyelids slily, and say to himself: \u2018Ah!\nI was sure it was not the little Jesus!\u2019 But the prudent child will\ntake care not to confess that he has discovered the mystery; he has\ntoo much interest in being cheated next Christmas day; and in a few\nhours the room will ring with his cries of false surprise but real\ngratification.\u201d\n\nOnly candies and sweetmeats, you will see, were brought down through\nthe chimney by the Christ-child on Christmas eve. The favorite time for\ngift-making from parent to child, from child to parent, from friend to\nfriend, was on New Year\u2019s Day. Hence that holiday is known as \u201cLe Jour\ndes \u00c9trennes\u201d (the day of presents), \u201c\u00e9trennes\u201d being a corruption of\nthe Latin word \u201cstrenae,\u201d the gifts exchanged during the Saturnalia,\nabout which I have written in the fourth chapter of this book.\n\nThough Saint Nicholas is honored as the patron of children in nearly\nall the Catholic countries of continental Europe, he is rarely\nassociated in any way with Christmas. That day is there held sacred to\nthe Christ-child alone. In a very few localities Saint Nicholas may\nappear on his own day to find out what good little boys and girls would\nlike to have on Christmas, or, sometimes, at New Year\u2019s, but it is\ngenerally the little Jesus who is the actual gift bringer.\n\nIn the Catholic portions of Austria and Germany all of the windows are\nlit up on the night of December 24 so as to enable Him to pick His way\nfrom house to house. Here you may again recognize a lingering memory of\nthe Pagan and Jewish festivals wherein lighted torches, or lamps, or\ncandles form a chief feature.\n\n[Illustration: Santa Claus up in a balloon.\n\nCopyright 1908 by Life Publishing Co.]\n\nAnd, indeed, one may point out right here that the Christ-child\nsupplies another link with the old pagan Silenus. The latter, as I have\ntold you, was, among other things, the guardian and tutor of the infant\nBacchus. Whenever picture or statue represented him in this capacity\nall his evil traits were dropped. He became a very different being\nfrom the graceless reveller of the Bacchanalian feasts. He was now\npainted or carved as an old man, grave and sober, clean-cut in limbs\nand features, holding little Bacchus in his arms or on his shoulders.\nPossibly this figure may have suggested the medi\u00e6val legend of Saint\nChristopher, who, it is fabled, bore the Christ-child on his shoulders\nacross a river in Germany.\n\nIn Italy almost every church has an altar dedicated to the Christ-child\nand decorated with a wooden or waxen effigy known as \u201cIl Bambino,\u201d or\n\u201cthe babe.\u201d On Christmas day this Bambino is specially honored by being\ndressed up in his finest clothes and placed in a mimic cradle, called\na presepio. All good Catholics flock to do the image honor during the\ntwelve days from Christmas to Epiphany.\n\nThe most famous Bambino in Italy is that in the Franciscan church of\nAra C\u0153li at Rome, which is believed to heal the sick and perform other\nmiracles. On Christmas day a curious ceremony is performed in his honor\nwhich makes our thoughts travel back to the Boy-bishop of old England\nand elsewhere. Opposite the presepio in which the little waxen figure\nreposes is built a palco, or platform, and on this platform a number of\nbaby orators follow one another with little speeches, written by their\nelders, that dwell upon the birth of our Lord and the incidents of His\nchildhood.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII\n\nSAINT NICHOLAS IN AMERICA.\n\n\nJust as the Christmas tree was brought over to this country by early\nGerman immigrants so Saint Nicholas, or Santa Klaus, came here in the\ntrain of the Dutch settlers of New York. He established himself first\nin the little island of Manhattan and then gradually spread all over\nthe country, being greatly assisted by the fact that he was no stranger\nto the German settlers everywhere. But his Dutch origin is shown by the\nvery name Santa Klaus, which is common alike to Holland and America,\nthough it is elsewhere unknown.\n\nAt first he was honored on his own day with the same observances that\nmarked the festival in the Fatherland.\n\nBefore the beginning of the nineteenth century, however, St. Nicholas\u2019s\nday had been all but forgotten in New Amsterdam (the Dutch name for New\nYork) and we find that New Year\u2019s eve was the occasion when he made\nhis rounds as a gift bearer to the children. Later he transferred his\nactivities to Christmas.\n\n[Illustration: New Year\u2019s gifts in a French workingman\u2019s family.\n\nDrawing by Gavarni.]\n\nI reproduce from an old New York magazine, dated January, 1844, a\nprint which shows Santa Klaus on the point of remounting a chimney\nafter filling the stockings of the children of the household. The text\nexpressly says that the time is New Year\u2019s eve.\n\nTo go further back, we know that even in the eighteenth century, when\nNew York was still to a great extent Dutch in blood and in feeling, the\nlittle children of the Knickerbockers would gather expectant around\nthe great hearth in the parlor on the eve of New Year and not on the\neve of Saint Nicholas\u2019s feast. It was to Saint Nicholas, however, that\nthey addressed the childish hymns and songs which their forefathers had\nbrought over from Holland.\n\nHere are two specimen verses:\n\n  Santa Klaus, good holy man!\n  Go your way from Amsterdam;\n  From Amsterdam to Spain,\n  From Spain to Orange,\n  And bring us little children toys.\n\n  Saint Nicholas, my dear good friend,\n  To praise you ever is my end.\n  If you will presents to me give\n  I\u2019ll serve you till I cease to live.\n\nIt was about the middle of the nineteenth century that the funny men\nof America took the Saint under their special patronage. In Holland\nhe had been austere and dignified, as became a bishop and a saint. In\nAmerica he developed into the fat, jolly, pot-bellied old roysterer\nwhom we all know and love and who reminds us at so many points of the\nfun loving Silenus of Pagan times.\n\nUndoubtedly it was the American Clement C. Moore who immortalized the\nfigure and decided the model which all succeeding poets and artists\nhave ever followed. This is how Santa Klaus is described in Mr. Moore\u2019s\nvery popular poem entitled \u201cA Visit from Santa Klaus\u201d:\n\n  He was dressed all in fur from his head to his foot,\n  And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;\n  A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,\n  And he looked like a pedlar just opening his pack,\n  His eyes how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!\n  His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry.\n  His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,\n  And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow.\n  The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,\n  And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath,\n  He had a broad face and a little round belly\n  That shook, when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly,\n  He was chubby and plump--a right jolly old elf--\n  And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself.\n\nYear by year the funny men of the pencil and the pen do their best\nto add to his eccentricities yet always they retain a measure of\nrespect for the dear old gentleman.\n\n[Illustration: French children gazing up the chimney for gifts.\n\nOld French print.]\n\nOne comic artist sends him to Wall Street among the brokers and the\nbankers, yet he preserves his dignity even among those shrewd and\nclever men, and is ready to teach them more than they can hope to teach\nhim.\n\nOther artists make him turn to account the latest inventions of our\ninventors and scientists. Even if one picture does show him coming\nto grief on an automobile, another catches him in the very act of\nutilizing a flying machine.\n\nAgain we are shown another side of the matter. We are brought face to\nface with the unbelief of the child who is ripening into boyhood or\ngirlhood.\n\nAt six years old or sometimes later doubts begin to visit the youthful\nmind. These doubts are carried very far by the little girl--a juvenile\nSaint Thomas in pantalettes--who in Mr. J. R. Shaver\u2019s picture, meets\nSanta Klaus face to face, yet tells him to his face that she doesn\u2019t\nbelieve in him.\n\nAt this period in their lives young folks of both sexes will sympathize\nwith the spirit of inquiry that summons Saint Nicholas, as in Mr.\nO\u2019Malley\u2019s cartoon, to answer before a judge and jury of their own age\nthe question as to whether he has any real existence.\n\nAnd now turn to the last picture of all, that which Mr. Henry Hutt has\nkindly lent me for reproduction in this little book, and if you insist\non an answer which will rob you of the bliss of ignorance, perhaps you\nwill find it there!\n\n\nTHE END\n\n[Illustration: Silenus and Bacchus.\n\nRoman statue of the fourth century.]\n\n\n[Illustration: The bambino.\n\nIn the church of Ara C\u0153li, Rome.]\n\n\n[Illustration: Santa Klaus on New Year\u2019s eve.\n\nFrom an early American print.]\n\n\n[Illustration: The investigating committee--Santa Claus to the Bar. Is\nhe a real person?\n\nBy Power O\u2019Malley.\n\nCopyright 1908 by Life Publishing Co.]\n\n\n[Illustration: St. Nicholas unveils.\n\nBy Henry Hutt.\n\nCourtesy of the artist.]\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n\n[1] Bacchus is the Latin name for this God. The Greek name was\nDionysos. This festival therefore is more properly the Dionysiac feast,\nbut the habit of calling Greek Gods by their Roman names is so general\namong us that it is as well to stick to Bacchus and Bacchanalia.\n\n[2] London Illustrated News, December 25, 1858. Schulzer: Legends of\nthe Rhine.\n\n[3] \u201cIl Libro D\u2019oro. Translated by Mrs. Frances Alexander,\u201d Boston.\nLittle Brown & Co. 1905.\n\n[4] Lippincott\u2019s Magazine.\n\n[5] D\u2019Israeli\u2019s \u201cCuriosities of Literature.\u201d\n\n[6] Annie C. Kuiper in \u201cSt. Nicholas\u201d Magazine, January, 1897.\n\n\n\n\nTRANSCRIBER\u2019S NOTES:\n\n\nItalicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.\n\nObvious typographical errors have been corrected.\n\nInconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.\n\nArchaic or variant spelling has been retained.\n\nIncorrect entries in the List of Illustrations have been corrected.\n\nThe cover image for this eBook was created by the transcriber and is entered into the public domain.","title":"The story of Santa Klaus : $b Told for children of all ages from six to sixty","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":29395}