it is now confined almost wholly to children. In London, Parish Boys and Children at School still carry about their samples of writing, and ask for their Christmas Box; and the Bellman, Watchmen, Waits, Bell-ringers, Postmen, &c. all over the country, repeat their annual calls on the liberality of their patrons. Of the antiquity of such gifts, we have already spoken, in an early number of this Review; we shall therefore merely quote on this subject a few of the remarks of Dr. Jamieson.

"The Romans, at this season, were wont to send presents of sweetmeats, such as dried figs, honey, &c., to which they gave the name of Strenæ. This was meant as a good omen; and by this substantial emblem, they also expressed their wishes, that their friends might enjoy the sweets of the year on which they entered: Rosin. Antiq. p. 29. 250. The custom which prevails in Scotland of presenting what the vulgar call a sweetie-skon, or a loaf enriched with raisins, currants, and spiceries, has an evident analogy to this. In some of the northern counties of Scotland, the vulgar would reckon it a bad omen to enter a neighbour's house on New Year's day empty handed. It is common to carry some trifling present; as a bit of bread, a little meal, or a piece of money. Those gifts were also called by the Romans Saturnalitia. Rosin. p. 294. Saturnalia, says Tertullian, strenæ captandæ, et septimontium, et brumæ, et caræ cognationis honoraria exigenda omnia, &c. De Idololatria, c. 10. V. also his work, De Fuga in Persecutione, c. 13. Tertullian severely reprehends the Christians for their compli ance with the heathen, in paying some respect to these customs. "By us," he says, "who are strangers to Sabbaths, and new moons, once acceptable to God, the Saturnalia and the feasts of January, and Brumalia and Matronalia are frequented; gifts are sent hither and thither, there is the noise of the Strena and of games and of feasting. O! better faith of the nations in their own religion which adopts no solemnity of the Christians." De Idololatria, c. 14. We accordingly find that the Strena were prohibited by the Christian Church. V. Rosin. Antiq. p. 29. The Strenæ are traced as far back as to King Tatius, who, at this season, used to receive branches of a happy or fortunate tree from the grove of Strenia, as favourable omens with respect to the New Year. 2. Symmach. ap. Rosin. p. 28. It appears that in consequence of the establishment of the monarchy under Augustus, all orders of people were expected to present New Year's gifts to the Emperor themselves. Sueton. in August. c. 57. During the reign of this prince, these were given at the Capitol. But Caligula was so lost to a sense of shame, as to publish an edict expressly requiring such gifts; and to stand in the porch of the palace, on the Calends of January, in order to receive those which people of all descriptions brought to him; Sueton. in Calig. c. 42. Even Augustus pretended to have a nocturnal vision, requiring that the people should annually, on a certain day, present money to him, which he received with a hollow-hand, cavam manum asses porrigentibus præbens; Id. in August. c. 91. It was reckoned a handsome enough way of receiving gifts, when the bosom fold of the cloak was expanded. But when they were received utraque manu cavata, as it would be expressed in Scotland, in goupins, it was accounted a species of depredation. Hence rapine was proverbially expressed in this manner. V. Ammian. Marcellin. lib. 16. Rosin. Antiq. p. 29. The Strena were considered of such importance, that a particular deity was supposed to preside over them, called Dea Strenia: Rosin. p. 28. This might be the principal reason why they were condemned by Christians in early times. To have any concern with them, might be reckoned a symbolizing in some sort with idolatry."-Etymological Dictionary, Art. Yule.

The Saturnalia amongst the Romans, at length, lasted seven days; the Sigillaria, (feasts also in honour of Saturn, and formerly celebrated after the Saturnalia, at which little statues of silver were offered to the God,) being included. During this sea

son of festivity and dissipation, all public business was suspended: the senate and courts of justice were shut up and all schools had a vacation-circumstances strikingly resembling our Christmas holidays. Master and servant sate at one table. Every thing serious was laid aside, and people of all ranks gave themselves up to jollity, (which word, indeed, as well as the French joli, Wachter considers to come from jol, yule.)

Candles of a particular kind are in some places made for this season for the candle that is lighted on Christmas Day, must be so large as to burn from the time of its being lighted till the day be done, otherwise it would be a bad omen to the family for the subsequent year. There is no reason to doubt that this custom has been transmitted from the times of heathenism. In the Roman Saturnalia, lights were used in the worship of their Deity, and hence originated the custom of making presents of this kind. The poor were wont to present the rich with wax tapers, and Yule candles are still, in the north of Scotland, given as presents by merchants to their stated customers. By many who rigidly observe the superstitions of this season, the Yule candle is allowed to burn out of itself, by others it is extinguished, and the remnant kept for luck.

There are other miscellaneous superstitions, in relation to this period, of which we shall relate but two or three. In the morning, one individual rises before the rest of the family, and prepares food for them, which must be eaten in bed. This frequently consists of cakes baked with eggs, called Care cakes. A Bannock, or cake, is baked for all in the house, and if any one of these should break in the toasting, the person for whom it is baked will not, it is supposed, see another Christmas: a part of this custom is evidently of Catholic origin-being the remnant of that of baking cakes in honour of the delivery of the Virgin Mary.

Women seem, in some places, to have a peculiar aversion to spinning on this day-a superstition which savours strongly of Paganism. Ovid affirms that Bacchus punished Alcithoe and her sisters for presuming to spin during his festival. There is a singular passage in Jhone Hamilton's Facile Traictise, quoted by Jamieson, which, whilst it affords a proof of the traditionary antipathy to spinning on Yule Day, also shows how jealous the Scotch Reformers were against the observance of all festival days. After declaring the opposition of the Caluinian sect to all halydayes except Sonday, he says

"The ministers of Scotland-in contempt of the vther halie dayes obseruit be England,- -cause thair wyfis and seruants spin in oppin sicht of the people upon Yeul day; and thair affectionat auditeurs constraines thair tennants to yok thair pleuchs on Yeul day in contempt of Christ's Natiuitie, whilk our Lord hes not left vnpunisit: for thair oxin ran wod and brak thair nekis, and leamit sum pleugh men, as is notoriously knawin in sindrie partes of Scotland."

The Christmas Log, or Yule or Full Clog, is another superstition of the period: this is a large block, or log of wood, laid on the fire on Christmas Eve, and, if possible, kept burning all the following day, or longer. A portion of the old clog of the preceding year, is sometimes saved to light up the new block at the next Christmas, and to preserve the family from harm, in the meanwhile during the time, too, that this log lasts, the servants in farm houses are entitled, by custom, to ale at their meals.

:

Of the various sports, games, and pastimes, of this season of hilarity, such as the Lord or Abbot of Misrule, or Abbot of Unressoun-Hot Cockles-Hunt the Slipper-Guisers, or Gysars -He can do little that can't do this, &c. it might be entertaining to give some etymology, but our already overstrained limits will not admit of this. It has ever been a great period for gaming in most countries-even the ancient Romans, by whom games of chance were prohibited, provided an exception for the month of December.

For some unexplained cause, St. Stephen's Day, (December 26,) was a great period with our ancestors for bleeding their horses a practice followed by people of all ranks, and recommended by Tusser in his Husbandry. The custom is thus referred to by Barnaby Googe.

"Then followeth Saint Stephen's day, whereon doth every man
His Horses jaunt and course abrode, as swiftly as he can,

Until they doe extreemely sweate, and then they let them blood,
For this being done upon this day, they say doth do them good,

And keepes them from all maladies and sicknesse through the yeare,
As if that Stephen any time tooke charge of Horses here."

According to Mr. Dance, this is a very ancient practice, and was introduced into Britain by the Danes. Mr. Nicholls has also quoted money paid "for letting oure horses blede on Christmasse weke."

The Holy Innocents, or Childermass Day, (December 28,) commemorates the slaughter of the Jewish children by Herod, and it is recorded by Macrobius, (Saturnal. cap. iv.) that the savage order was so promptly executed, that one of the sons of the tyrant, then at nurse, fell a sacrifice with the other children.*

"It hath," saith the learned Gregorie, "been a custom, and yet is elsewhere, to whip up the children upon Innocents' Day morning, that the memorie of this murther might stick the closer; and, in a moderate proportion, to act over the cruelty again in kind." A custom referred to by Hospinian-"hujus lanienæ truculentissimæ ut pueri Christianorum recordentur et simul dis

* Macrobius relates, as one of the jokes of Augustus, that when he heard of this circumstance, he exclaimed, Melius est Herodis porcum esse quam

filium."

cant odium, persecutionem, crucem, exilium, egestatemque statim cum nato Christo incipiere, virgis cædi solent in aurora hujus Diei adhuc in lectulis jacentes à parentibus suis." This was formerly a day of unlucky omen, and an apprehension is still entertained by the superstitious, that no undertaking can prosper which is begun on that day of the week on which Childermass last fell.

Lastly-New Year's Eve-or as it is termed by the vulgar in Scotland, and in the north of England, Hogmanay, or Hogmenay.* This term is also transferred to the entertainment given to a visiter on this day, or to a gift conferred on those who apply for it, according to ancient custom.

"The cotter weanies, glad an' gay

Wi pocks out oure their shouther,
Sing at the doors for Hogmanay."

Dr. Jamieson has given us an interesting extract regarding this ceremony, from a fugitive piece in the Caledonian Mercury for

1792.

"The cry of Hogmanay Trololay, is of usage immemorial in this country. It is well known that the ancient Druids went into the woods with great solemnity on the last night of the year, where they cut the misletoe of the oak with a golden bill, and brought it into the towns, and country houses of the great, next morning, when it was distributed among the people, who wore it as an amulet to preserve them from all harms, and particularly from the danger of battle. When Christianity was introduced among the barbarous Celta and Gauls, it is probable that the clergy, when they could not completely abolish the Pagan rites, would endeavour to give them a Christian turn. We have abundant instances of this in the ceremonies of the Romish Church. Accordingly this seems to have been done in the present instance, for about the middle of the 16th century, many complaints were made to the Gallic Synods, of great excesses which were committed on the last night of the year, and on the first of January, during the Fête de Fous, by companies of both sexes, dressed in fantastic habits, who ran about with their Christmas Boxes, called Tire Lire, begging for the Lady in the Straw, both money and wassels. These beggars were called Bachelettes, Guisards; and their chief Rollet Follet. They came into the churches, during the services of the vigils, and disturbed the devotions by their cries of Au gui menez, Rollet Follet, Au gui menez, tiri liri, mainte du blanc et point du bis. Thiers, Hist. des Fêtes et des Jeux. At last, in 1598, at the representation of the Bishop of Augres, a stop was put to their coming into the churches: but they became more licentious, running about the country, and frightening the people in their houses, so that the legislature was obliged to put a final stop to the Fête de Fous in 1668. The resemblance of the above cry, to our Hogmenay, Trololay, Give us your white bread and none of your grey; and the name Guisards, given to our Bacchanals, are remarkable circumstances; and our former connexions with France, render it not improbable that these festivities were taken from thence, and this seems to be confirmed by our name of Duft Days, which is nearly a translation of Fêtes de Fous. It deserves also to be noticed, that the Bishop of Augres says, that the cry, Au gui menez, Rollet Follet, was derived from the ancient Druids, who went out to cut the Gui or mistletoe, shooting and hollaing all the way, and on bringing it from

* In Northumberland, the month of December is called Hogmana, which Lambe derives from the Greek aya -the holy moon, but this is doubtful. Others maintain it to be merely a corruption from the French "homme est né”— man is born-in allusion to the Nativity!

the woods, the cry of old was, Au Gui l'an neuf, le Roi vient. Now although we must not suppose that the Druids spoke French, we may easily allow that cry to have been changed with the language, whilst the custom was continued. If the word Gui should be Celtic or Scandinavian, it would add force to the above conjecture. Perhaps, too, the word Rollet is a corruption of the ancient Norman invocation of their hero Rollo."-Etymological Dictionary, Art. Hogmanay.

In confirmation of this, it may be remarked, that, in many parts of France, it is customary for young people, on the last day of December, to go about the towns and villages, singing and begging money, as a kind of New-Year's gift, and crying out "Au Guy! L'an neuf! To the misletoe! the New-Year is at hand! and, lastly, in England, it is still a common custom amongst the vulgar, to hang up a branch of misletoe on Christmas day, under which the young men salute their sweethearts. This is evidently a relic of Druidism, as well as the custom already referred to, of adorning the churches with it; and both may be viewed as a traditionary vestige of its consecration, in the worship of the ancient Britons.

The above catalogue has extended to so unexpected a length, as to leave us but little space for comment. One circumstance must have struck every one, in its perusal-the intimate connexion between the customs of nations remote from each other, and indicative of their common origin. In tracing nations to their particular sources, the chief reliance has generally been placed upon etymology; but a close investigation of customs is of no less importance: in every such historical investigation, indeed, they ought to go hand in hand. We have seen that most of our rites and superstitions are of Gothic origin: whilst others are as clearly Druidical, or Celtic; and both resemble those of the East, and especially of Persia. This is readily accounted for. Both Celts and Goths were originally Oriental. The Celts, having emigrated at a much earlier period than the Goths, had probably fewer ceremonies; hence the paucity amongst us, of Celtic superstitions.

The Religion of the Nomadic Goths, was also, at first, we have but little doubt, comparatively simple: the great change in that of the Scandinavians, being wrought by the arrival of Odin, who introduced amongst them the splendid mythology of the East, and subsequently received his own apotheosis. Other observances have reached us, through a Grecian or Roman chan

*The word Gui seems to us to be of Celtic origin. The Misletoe was a sacred plant with the Druids, and hence, we have no doubt, was considered the plant par excellence. In all the dialects of the Celtic, the word Gui, in some form or other, signifies Trees. In the Celtic, Guez signifies trees-Guezecq and Guezennecq-a place abounding in trees. In the Armoric, or Bas Breton-Guezen is a treegues-trees-Guezennic-shrubs-whilst in the Welsh-Guid is a tree, and Guidhele bushes, brambles, &c. from which the misletoe was termed Gui, as Parson derived from Persona-the Person.