sus la pena de talhar lo braye.-" that is " Monsignor the Abbot and his Councillors give you to know that all men must follow him wheresoever he goes, on pain of having their breeches cut off."* Hereupon the abbot and the rest rush out of the house, and parade the city, the former being saluted by all who meet him in his progress. This lasts till the eve of the Nativity, and during the whole time the abbot wears a costume suitable to the part he is playing. From other authors we learn that the excesses went far beyond what is here related by Ducange. According to such accounts, some of the characters were masked, or had their faces bedaubed with paint, either grotesquely or so hideously as to excite terror. In this state they danced into the choir, singing obscene songs, and the deacons and subdeacons took a pleasure in eating puddings and sausages upon the altar, under the nose of the officiating priest; they played too at cards and dice before his face, and placed fragments of old shoes in the holy water that he might be annoyed. Mass being over, they ran and jumpt, and danced about the church, stripping themselves naked, and performing every sort of indecency; and afterwards by way of varying their amusements paraded the city in carts, filled with filth, which they flung at the crowds about them, From time to time these savoury vehicles would stop, to give them an opportunity of exhibiting themselves in lascivious pantomime, accompanied by songs that were not a jot more decent. What they were can not be better indicated than by the fact that none but the most licentious of the laity could be found to join in them as actors, however much they might enjoy the show as lookers on; and it gives us * DUCANGE.-Kalendæ, p. 1664. I suspect that talhar lo brayeliterally, to cut off the breeches-is an idiomatic phrase, though I can offer nothing certain in regard to it. a curious insight into the policy of the priesthood that they could thus allow the worst of the rabble to play the part of fools in the costume of monks and nuns. * The Bishop of Fools, when elected, would seem to have had somewhat more of gravity, if not of discretion, in his office. Being elected, he was carried by the clerks, a bell preceding him to the episcopal mansion, where he was placed in a window with his face towards the city and bestowed his blessing upon the people. Afterwards he celebrated matins, high mass, and vespers, in the cathedral, presiding for three days over the whole in true pontifical fashion, even the usual costume being rigidly observed both by himself and his subordinates. The burlesque in this case was all the richer from its superior pretensions to gravity, though it is quite clear that they both equally belonged to the Feast of Fools, which from this would appear to have changed its form considerably according to the time and place in which it was enacted. * "Les uns étoient masquez, ou avec des visages barbouillés,qui faisoient peur, ou qui faisoient rire; les autres en habits de femmes ou de pantomimes, tels que sont les ministres du theatre. Ils dansoient dans le chœur en entrant, et chantoient des chansons obscenès. Les diàcres et les soudiacres prenoient plaisir à manger des boudins et des saucices sur l'autel, au nez du prêtre célébrant; ils jouoient à ses yeux aux cartes et au dez; ils mettoient dans l'encensoir quelques morceaux de vieilles savates pour lui faire respirer une mauvaise odeur. Apres la messe, chacun couroit, sautoit, et dansoit, par l'eglise avec tant d'impudence, que quelques uns n'avoient pas honte de se porter à toutes sortes d'indécences, et de se depouiller entierement; ensuite ils se faisoient trainer par les rues dans des tomberaux pleins d'ordures, où ils prenoient plaisir d'en jetter à la populace qui s'assembloit autour d'eux. Ils s'arrêtoient et faisoient de leurs corps des mouvemens et des postures lascives, qu'ils accompagnoient de paroles impudiques. Les plus libertins d'entre les séculiers se méloient parmi le clergé pour faire aussi quelques personnages de foux ens habits ecclesiastiques de moines et de religieuses." MEMOIRS POUR SERVIR A L'HISTOIRE DE LA FETE DES Foux, par M. Du Tilliot; p. 5, 4to. Geneve, 1741. EVE OF THE EPIPHANY-January 5th. It would have been strange if the vigil of so ceremonious a day as the Epiphany had been without its peculiar observances and superstitions, and they were probably numerous at one time, although so few fragments have been preserved to us. The two principal customs that we still find in connection with this festival belong, the first to Herefordshire, the second to Devonshire; and it is likely enough that a closer familiarity with the habits of the rural districts might discover many others. These have been dug out of that antiquarian mine, the Gentleman's Magazine, in which though it can not be denied there is much dross, there is also quite enough of stirling ore to repay the trouble of working it. "On the eve of Twelfth Day, at the approach of evening, the farmers, their friends, servants, &c. all assemble, and near six o'clock all walk together to a field where wheat is growing. The highest part of the ground is always chosen, where twelve small fires and one large one are lighted up. The attendants, headed by the master of the family, pledge the company in old cyder, which circulates freely on these occasions. A circle is formed round the large fire, when a general shout and hallooing takes place, which you hear answered from all the villages and fields near; as I have myself counted fifty or sixty fires burning at the same time, which are generally placed on some eminence. This being finished, the company all return to the house, where the good housewife and her maids are preparing a good supper, which on this occasion is very plentiful. A large cake is always provided with a hole in the middle. After supper the company all attend the bailiff (or head of the oxen) to the wain-house, where the following particulars are observed; the master at the head of his friends fills the cup (generally strong ale) and stands opposite the first or finest of the oxen; (fourteen of which I have often seen tied up in their stalls together ;) he then pledges him in a curious toast; the company then follow his example with all the other oxen, addressing each by their name. This being over, the large cake is produced with much ceremony, and put on the horn of the first ox, through the hole in the cake; he is then tickled to make him toss his head; if he throws the cake behind, it is the mistress' perquisite; if before, (in what is termed the boosy*) the bailiff claims this prize. This ended, the company all return to the house, the doors of which are in the meantime locked, and not opened till some joyous songs are sung. On entering, a scene of mirth and jollity commences, and reigns through the house till a late, or rather an early hour the next morning. Cards are introduced and the merry tale goes round."+ This in Herefordshire is called wassailing; and the fires, as I shall have occasion to show hereafter, are nothing else than the antient emblematic worship of the sun, the custom remaining long after the object of it has been very generally forgotten. In the same way the pledging of the animals in ale or cyder with strange toasts, and the emptying the cups to each other, are plainly enough borrowed from the libations of the ancients to their rural deities; and we find the same custom at one time prevailed among the Danes.‡ * Boosy,-derived from the Anglo-Saxon Bosg, Bosig, or Bosih,-properly speaking signifies a stall for cows or oxen; but in the northern counties, to which the use of the word is now confined, it is more generally applied to the upper part of the stall where the fodder lies. Such is its limited meaning in the text above, where it is spelt in a somewhat uncommon fashion; I have generally found it written and pronounced, boose. + GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE, for February, 1791, vol. lxi. p. 116. "Mox Niordi et Frejæ memoria poculis recolebatur, annua ut ipsis contingeret felicitas, frugumque et reliquæ annonæ uberrimus proventus." Olai Wormii MONUMENTA DANICA, lib. i. p. 28. The apple trees also come in for their share of honour, as might naturally be expected in a county where cyder was in so much request. In some parts of Devonshire it is the custom for the people to go after supper into the orchard, with a large milk-pail full of cyder having roasted apples pressed into it. Out of this each person in company takes what is called a clayen cup-i.e. an earthenware cup, full of liquor, and standing under each of the more fruitful apple trees, passing by those that are not good bearers, he addresses it in the following words: Health to thee, Good apple tree! Well to bear, pocket-fulls, hat-fulls, And then drinking up part of the contents, he throws the rest with the fragments of the roasted apple at the tree. At each cup the company set up a shout." In Devonshire a similar custom prevailed, of which the following account is given by another correspondent of the bland Sylvanus Urban,-" On the eve of the Epiphany, the farmer, attended by his workmen, with a large pitcher of cyder, goes to the orchard, and there encircling one of the best among the trees they drink the following toast three several times: Here's to thee, Old apple tree! Whence thou mayst bud, and whence thou mayst blow! Hats full, caps full! Bushel-bushel-sacks full ! And my pockets full too. After this they return to the house, where they find the * BRAND'S POPULAR ANTIQUITIES, vol. 1, p. 19. + Idem: for May, p. 403. |