ignorant and superstitious, in Scotland, are persuaded, that on the eve of All Saints, the invisible world has peculiar power; that witches and fairies and ghosts are all rambling abroad; and that there is no such night in the year for intercourse with spirits, or for obtaining insight into futurity.

We have already alluded to the custom amongst almost all nations, of employing fires and torches in their ceremonies. In some parts of Scotland, that of lighting fires is still followed on Hallowe'en, and is termed a Hallowe'en bleeze. These fires are used as means of divination, and are evident remains of Heathenism, apparently of Druidism. In the Orkneys, when the beasts are sick, the inhabitants sprinkle them with a factitious water, with which they also sprinkle their boats, when their fishing does not turn out prosperously: this they do especially on Hallowe'en, and, in addition, place a cross of tar upon them-to make them "luck."

At this time, too, was held, it was formerly believed by the vulgar, a Hallowmass Rade -the word Rade (A. S. rad, rade, equitatio, iter equestre), evidently referring to their riding, by virtue of their enchantment, to these assemblages.

All Saints Day, Hallowsday, Hallow mass, or Hallowtide (November 1st), the

festival observed in the Christian Church in commemoration of all the Saints, was formerly dedicated by superstition to the angel presiding over fruits, seeds, &c., and thence called in Saxon Lamas ubhal-the day of the apple fruit and being pronounced lamasool, it has been gradually corrupted to Lambswool. Lambswool is in Ireland a constant ingredient at the entertainments on All Saints Day, and is used to designate a compound, consisting of the pulp of roasted apples, mixed with sugar and nutmeg, the relic of the commemoration of the old Mas

ubhal.

All Souls Day (November 2d), is a festival observed in the Romish Church, when prayers are offered up for all departed souls. This ceremony corresponds with the Nexvoia and Neμeceio, or Neu, and the Feralia and Lemuria, or Remuria, of the Romans, in which they sacrificed in honour of the dead; offered up prayers and made oblations to them. The Feralia was celebrated on the 21st of February, but the Church of Rome translated it in her calendar to the first of November. It was originally designed to procure rest and peace to the souls of the departed.

The feeling, possessed by the Romans, that the manes of their departed friends came and hovered over their graves, and smiled upon the humble offerings made to them by the hand of affection, still exists, but more strongly in Catholic countries. The custom of bedecking the graves with garlands of flowers, was common with both the Greeks

and Romans, and is referred to every where in the poets.

Martinmas-the feast of St. Martin (November 11), was anciently a day of great festivity: it was the old quarter day, and as it occurred at a period when geese are in high season, the landlords were formerly in the habit of entertaining their tenants with geese, then only kept by opulent persons. In some parts of the continent of Europe, St. Martin's day is celebrated by a feast of goose, as that of St. Michael is in Great Britain. This custom is referred to in various proverbial distichs::

"Ligna vehit, mactatque boves, et lætus ad ignem
Ebra Martin festa November agit
Ad postem in Sylvam porcos compellit, et ipse
Pinguibus interea vescitur Anscribus."

The vulgar expression, "My eye and Betty Martin," seems to be a corruption of

"Mihi beate Martine"-an invocation to this saint.

droismess, or Andermess (November 30), the On St. Andrew's Day, Andyr's Day, Anday dedicated to St. Andrew, the Patron Saint of Scotland; singed sheep's heads (a favourite dish with the Scotch), are borne in the procession before the Scots in London on this day.(Forster, 674.)

The sixth of December is the festival of St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, in the fourth century, was a saint of the highest virtue, even from his earliest infancy. He has always been considered the patron of has been thus given by the Rev. W. Cole, scholars and of youth, the reason of which from a life of St. Nicholas, 3d edition. 4to., Naples, 1645. An Asiatic gentleman, sending his two sons to Athens for education, ordered them to wait on the bishop for his benediction. On arriving at Myra with their baggage, they took up their lodgings at an inn, proposing, as it was too late in the day, to defer their visit till the morrow; but, in effects to himself, killed the young gentlethe meantime, the innkeeper, to secure their men, cut them into pieces, salted them, and intended to sell them for pickled pork. St. Nicholas being favoured with a sight of these proceedings in a vision, went to the inn, and reproached the landlord for his crime, who, immediately confessing it, entreated the Saint to pray to heaven for his pardon. bishop, moved by his confession and contri

The

• In the Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. xxiii. p. 359, we are informed, that to Duddingston parish, little more than a mile, many of the opulent citizens County of Edinburgh, and distant from Edinburgh a resort in the summer months to feast upon one of the ancient homely dishes of Scotland, for which the sheep's heads, boiled or baked, so common in this place has been long celebrated. The use of singed

village, is supposed to have arisen from the practice of slaughtering the sheep fed on the neighbouring and leaving the head, &c. to be consumed in the hill for the market, removing the carcases to town, place.-(Forster, ibid.)

tion, besought forgiveness for him, and supplicated restoration of life to the children. Scarcely had he finished, when the pieces reunited, and the resuscitated youths threw themselves from the brine tub at the feet of the bishop: he raised them up, exhorted them to return thanks to God alone, gave them good advice for the regulation of their future conduct, bestowed his blessing upon them, and sent them to Athens, with great joy, to prosecute their studies.*-(Hone, p. 193.)

Hospinian remarks, that it was common, on the vigil of St. Nicholas, for parents to convey secretly various kinds of presents to their children, who were taught to believe that they owed them to the kindness of St. Nicholas and his train, who came in at the windows and distributed them. This custom, he says, originated in the legendary account of that Saint's having given portions to three daughters of a poor citizen, whose necessities had driven him to an intention of prostituting them, and this he effected by throwing a purse filled with money privately at night in at the father's bed-chamber window to enable him to portion them out honestly.

A singular ceremony connected with this day, was the election of the Boy Bishop. In many places, the scholars, on the feast of St. Nicholas, were in the habit of electing one of their number to play the Boy Bishop, and two others for his deacons. He was escorted to church, wearing his mitre, by the other boys, in solemn procession, where he presided at the worship, and afterwards he and his deacons went about singing from door to door, and collecting money: not begging, but demanding it as a subsidy. This seems to have been a very ancient practice. In 1274, the Council of Nice prohibited the choosing of the Boy Bishop, though so late as the time of Hospinian, who wrote in the 17th century, it was customary at schools, dedicated to Pope Gregory the Great, who was also a patron of scholars, for one of the boys to be the representative of Gregory on the occasion, and to act as bishop, with certain companions as his clergy. Anciently, too, on this day, the same ceremony was performed by the choir boys in cathedrals, whose office and authority continued from the Feast of St. Nicholas to that of the eve of Innocent's Day (December 28). At the cathedral of Sarum, it appears that the Boy Bishop held a kind of visitation, and maintained a corresponding state and prerogative, and he is supposed to have had power to dispose of prebends that fell vacant during his episcopacy. If he died within the month, he was

In old representations, the bishop is always depicted with the children rising from the tub-the common people, however, in Catholic countries, generally misunderstand these emblems. With them the boys in the tub being considered as sailors in a boat.

buried like other bishops, in his episcopal ornaments: his obsequies were solemnized with much pomp, and a monument was erected to his memory, with his episcopal effigy. About 150 years ago, a Boy Bishop's monument, in stone, was discovered in Salisbury cathedral. Not only, however, does this ceremony seem to have existed in cathedrals, but in almost every parish. A statute of the collegiate church of St. Mary Offery (London), in 1337, restrains one of them from going in procession beyond the limits of his own parish. On the seventh of December, 1229, the day following that of St. Nicholas, the Boy Bishop, in the chapel at Heton, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, said vespers before Edward I., then on his way to Scotland, who made him a considerable present, as well as the boys who sang with him. In the reign of Edward III. he received a present of nineteen shillings and sixpence, for singing before the king, in his private chamber, on Innocent's Day. Dean Colet, in the statutes of the school founded by him in 1512, at St. Paul's, expressly orders, that his scholars shall, every Childermass (Innocent's) Day," come to Paulis Churche and hear the Chylde-Byshop's sermon; and after be at the hygh masse, and each of them offer a penny to the Chylde-Bishop, and with them the maisters and surveyors of the scole." Warton affirms that the practice of electing a Boy Bishop subsisted in common graminar schools: for St. Nicholas, as the patron of scholars, has a double feast at Eton College, where, in the papal times, the scholars (to avoid interfering, as it would seem, with the Boy Bishop of the college on St. Nicholas's Day) elected their Boy Bishop on St. Hugh's Day, in the month of November. Brand, indeed, is of opinion that the anniversary montem at Eton is merely a corruption of the Boy Bishop and his companions; the scholars, by an edict of Henry 8th, being prevented from continuing that ceremony, gave a new face to their festivity, and began their present pastime at soldiers, and electing a captain. Even within the memory of persons alive when Brand wrote (1777), the montem was kept a little before Christmas, although now held on Whit Tuesday.

According to Scandinavian mythology, the supreme God Odin, or Woden, assumes the name of Nicker, Nikar, or Hnickar, when he acts as the destructive or evil principle; (hence our own term, Old Nick, as applied to the evil one). In this character he inhabits the lakes and rivers of Scandinavia, where he raises sudden storms and tempests, and leads mankind into destruction. In short, he is the northern Neptune, or some subordinate sea-god of noxious disposition. Nikar, with the Scandinavians, being an object of dread, propitiatory worship was offered to him; and hence it has been imagined, that the Scandinavian Nikar became, in the middle ages, St.

ignorant and superstitious, in Scotland, are persuaded, that on the eve of All Saints, the invisible world has peculiar power; that witches and fairies and ghosts are all rambling abroad; and that there is no such night in the year for intercourse with spirits, or for obtaining insight into futurity.

We have already alluded to the custom amongst almost all nations, of employing fires and torches in their ceremonies. In some parts of Scotland, that of lighting fires is still followed on Hallowe'en, and is termed a Hallowe'en bleeze. These fires are used as means of divination, and are evident remains of Heathenism, apparently of Druidism. In the Orkneys, when the beasts are sick, the inhabitants sprinkle them with a factitious water, with which they also sprinkle their boats, when their fishing does not turn out prosperously: this they do especially on Hallowe'en, and, in addition, place a cross of tar upon them-to make them "luck."

At this time, too, was held, it was formerly believed by the vulgar, a Hallowmass Rade —the word Rade (A. S. rad, rade, equitatio, iter equestre), evidently referring to their riding, by virtue of their enchantment, to these assemblages.

All Saints Day, Hallowsday, Hallow mass, or Hallowtide (November 1st), the

festival observed in the Christian Church in commemoration of all the Saints, was for

merly dedicated by superstition to the angel presiding over fruits, seeds, &c., and thence called in Saxon Lamas ubhal-the day of the

apple fruit and being pronounced lamasool, it has been gradually corrupted to Lambswool. Lambswool is in Ireland a constant ingredient at the entertainments on All Saints Day, and is used to designate a compound, consisting of the pulp of roasted apples, mixed with sugar and nutmeg, the relic of the commemoration of the old Mas

ubhal.

All Souls Day (November 2d), is a festival observed in the Romish Church, when prayers are offered up for all departed souls. This ceremony corresponds with the Nevoia and Neμeσsio, or Nemci, and the Feralia and Lemuria, or Remuria, of the Romans, in which they sacrificed in honour of the dead; offered up prayers and made oblations to them. The Feralia was celebrated on the 21st of February, but the Church of Rome translated it in her calendar to the first of November. It was originally designed to procure rest and peace to the souls of the departed.

The feeling, possessed by the Romans, that the manes of their departed friends came and hovered over their graves, and smiled upon the humble offerings made to them by the hand of affection, still exists, but more strongly in Catholic countries. The custom of bedecking the graves with garlands of flowers, was common with both the Greeks

and Romans, and is referred to every where in the poets.

Martinmas-the feast of St. Martin (November 11), was anciently a day of great festivity: it was the old quarter day, and as it occurred at a period when geese are in high season, the landlords were formerly in the habit of entertaining their tenants with geese, then only kept by opulent persons. In some parts of the continent of Europe, St. Martin's day is celebrated by a feast of goose, as that of St. Michael is in Great Britain. This custom is referred to in various proverbial distichs :

"Ligna vehit, mactatque boves, et lætus ad ignem
Ebria Matin festa November agit
Ad poster in Sylvan porcos compellit, et ipse
Pinguibus interea vescitur Anseribus."

66

The vulgar expression, My eye and Betty Martin," seems to be a corruption of

"Mihi beate Martine"-an invocation to this saint.

On St. Andrew's Day, Andyr's Day, Anday dedicated to St. Andrew, the Patron droismess, or Andermess (November 30), the Saint of Scotland; singed sheep's heads (a favourite dish with the Scotch), are borne in the procession before the Scots in London on this day.(Forster, 674.)

The sixth of December is the festival of St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, in the fourth century, was a saint of the highest virtue, even from his earliest infancy. He has always been considered the patron of has been thus given by the Rev. W. Cole, scholars and of youth, the reason of which

from a life of St. Nicholas, 3d edition. 4to., Naples, 1645. An Asiatic gentleman, sending his two sons to Athens for education, ordered them to wait on the bishop for his benediction. On arriving at Myra with their baggage, they took up their lodgings at an inn, proposing, as it was too late in the day, to defer their visit till the morrow; but, in effects to himself, killed the young gentlethe meantime, the innkeeper, to secure their men, cut them into pieces, salted them, and intended to sell them for pickled pork. St. Nicholas being favoured with a sight of these proceedings in a vision, went to the inn, and reproached the landlord for his crime, who, immediately confessing it, entreated the Saint to pray to heaven for his pardon. bishop, moved by his confession and contri.

The

* In the Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. xxiii. p. 359, we are informed, that to Duddingston parish, little more than a mile, many of the opulent citizens county of Edinburgh, and distant from Edinburgh a

resort in the summer months to feast upon one of the ancient homely dishes of Scotland, for which the sheep's heads, boiled or baked, so common in this place has been long celebrated. The use of singed village, is supposed to have arisen from the practice of slaughtering the sheep fed on the neighbouring and leaving the head, &c. to be consumed in the hill for the market, removing the carcases to town, place.-(Forster, ibid.)

Nicholas, the patron of sailors, whose aid is invoked in storms and tempests a supposition which receives countenance from the great devotion still felt by the Gothic nations towards St. Nicholas. To this Saint many churches on the sea-shore are dedicated, and many a prayer to St. Nicholas is still offered by the seamen passing by. To these churches, in many countries, the sailors resort, who have suffered shipwreck, to return thanks for their preservation, and to hang up votive tablets, representing the danger they have escaped, in gratitude to the Saint for the protection he vouchsafed them, and in fulfilment of the vows they made in the height of the storm. This custom, which is more especially in use in the Catholic world, is probably taken immediately from the Romans, who had it, amongst a number of superstitions, from the Greeks: for we are told, that Bion, the philosopher, was shown several of these votive pictures hung up in a temple of Neptune near the seaside. Horace refers to the custom

"Me tabula sacer

Votiva paries indicat uvida
Suspendisse potenti

Vestimenta maris Deo,"-Carm. 1. 6.

"While I, now safe on shore, Will consecrate the pictured storm, And all my grateful vows perform

To Neptune's saving power."-Francis.

St. Nicholas was also the patron of the Parish Clerks of London, a set of worthies at one time of much higher importance than they are at present, from uniting with their proper avocations, the performance of Mysteries. They were incorporated into a guild, or fellowship, by King Henry III., about 1240; and, for some reason unknown to us, acknowledged the patronage of St. Nicholas.

About St. Thomas's Day, (December 21st), the musical festivities of Christmas time usually begin in most Christian countries-especially that sort of nocturnal street music, commonly called waits, or wakes, which continue in many parts of England till Christmas. The pious songs of this period, usually termed Christmas Carols, are of very high antiquity. Bishop Taylor remarks, that the Gloria in excelsis, sung by the angels to the shepherds, at our Saviour's nativity, was the earliest. They have become, within the last century, much less common in England; but formerly, on Christmas Day, they took the place of psalms in all the churches, especially at afternoon service, the whole congregation joining; and, at the end, it was usual for the clerk to declare in a loud

Clerkenwell, history informs us, is so called, from the spring there situated, round which the Parish Clerks of London, in olden time, commonly performed sacred plays, or mysteries. This custom caused the spring to be denominated Clerk's Well, which became subsequently converted into Clerkenwell, now a populous parish in London.

voice his wishes for a merry Christmas and ́a happy New Year. Mr. Hone asserts, that, in Scotland, where no church feasts have been kept, since the days of John Knox, the custom of carolling is unknown; but in this he is not entirely accurate. The Carralles, it is true, were prohibited by Act of Parliament, as well as the Gysars (a term applied to those who disguised themselves about this period), but, until the present day in Perthshire, the last night of the year is called Carol-ewyn, because young people go from door to door singing carols, in return for which service, they receive small cakes baked for the occasion.

In Wales, the custom is still retained to a greater extent than in England; and, at a former period, the Welsh had carols adapted to most of the ecclesiastical festivals, and the four seasons of the year, but they are now limited to that of Christmas. On the European continent, the custom is almost universal.

CHAPTER VI.

CHRISTMAS.

THE ceremonies which take place in some countries, on the Vigil of the Nativity, in other words on Christmas Eve (December 24th), and which were formerly general, are, as Dr. Forster has remarked, of the most pleasing character, and serve to amuse in the dreary season of Mid-winter. The houses and churches bedecked with evergreens, and their beautiful berries-the merry carols sung about the villages-the waits, or night music, and the cheerful bells which commence their peal at midnight, are naturally calculated to elevate joyously the imagination-an effect not a little enhanced by the numerous early recollections of childhood, with which Christmas and its festivities are, in the minds of most, connected.

The vulgar have a great many ridiculous notions with regard to Christmas Eve; and, on this night, observe a number of superstitious ceremonies. It is extensively believed, "frae Maidenkirk to Johnny Groat's," that if we were to go into a cow-house at twelve o'clock at night, all the cattle would be found kneeling. Many also firmly be lieve that bees sing in their hives on Christmas Eve, to welcome the approaching day.

On this evening, women will not venture to leave any flax or yarn on their wheels, apprehending that the evil one would assuredly reel it for them before morning. Women, in a single state, assign another reason for this custom-their rocks would otherwise follow

+ Christmas Eve was by the Anglo-Saxons denominated Myd-wyntres maesse-daeg-Christmas itself being called Mid-winter, and Mid-wyntres maesse-daeg, as they gave the name of Midsummer to St. John's Day.