article, say for instance, garden stuff.  This was done that they might bring, or, at least, not cause bad luck to the household.  Masters or parents gave gifts to their servants and children, and owners of cattle gave their beasts, with their own hand their first food on Yule morning.  After mass in church, a table was spread in the house with meat and drink, and all who entered were invited to partake.  On this day neighbours and relations visited each other, bearing with them meat and drink warmed with condiments, and as they drank they expressed mutual wishes for each other’s welfare.  If not a Christian day, it was at least a day of good will to men.  In the evening, the great family feast was held.  In the more northern parts, where the Scandinavian national element was principally settled, a boar’s head was the correct dish at this feast, and, by the better class, was always provided; but the common people were content with venison, beef, and poultry, beginning their feast with a dish of plum porridge.  A large candle, prepared for the occasion, was lighted at the commencement, and it was intended to keep in light till twelve p.m., and if it went out before it was regarded as a bad omen for the next year; and what of it was left unconsumed at twelve o’clock was carefully laid past, to be used at the dead wake of the heads of the family.

Now, let us compare with this the practices current at Hogmanay (31st December), and New Year’s Day, about the commencement of this century.  In doing so, I will pass over without notice many superstitious observances which, though curious and interesting, belong rather to the general fund of superstitious belief than to the special festival at New Year, and confine myself to those which were peculiar to the time.  In my grandfather’s house, between sixty and seventy years ago, on the 31st December (Hogmanay), all household work was stopped, rock emptied, yarn reeled and hanked, and wheel and reel put into an outhouse.  The house itself was white-washed and cleaned.  A block of wood or large piece of coal was put on the fire about ten p.m., so that it would be burning briskly before the household retired to bed.  The last thing done by those who possessed a cow or horse was to visit the byre or stable, and I have been told that it was the practice with some, twenty years before my recollection, to say the Lord’s Prayer during this visit.  After rising on New Year’s Day, the first care of those who possessed cattle was to visit the byre or stable, and with their own hands give the animals a feed.  Burns followed this habit, and refers to it in one of his poems:—­

   “A gude New Year I wish thee, Maggy,
    Hae, there’s a rip to thy auld baggie.”