________________
NOVEMBER, 1895.)
SPIRIT BASIS OF BELIEF AND CUSTOM.
323
This horn the priest, nt the end of the harvest, used to fill every year with new wino. He examined the horn when the next year's crop was harvested. If the liquor in the horn had sunk, the priest foretold a bad harvest; if the horn was still full, the harvest would be good. At the harvest festival the priest poured out the old wine at the foot of the image': filled the horn afresh, presented the horn to the god, and then himself drank it. After drinking, Le addressed the crowd in the name of the god. The people kept orgy during the rest of the day to please the god. On St. Peter's Day (June 29th), in Yorkshire, fishing boats are dressed with flags and streamers, their masts are painted, and their bows sprinkled with good liquor.93 That to the Greek liquor was a guardian or fiend-scarer is shewn by the Tap-barrel Day in February March, wben the wine of the last vintage was tasted, being the day of the guardian or Good Daimon. And, again, in the Bacchic Mysteries, when a consecrated cup, handed round after supper, was received with shouting as the cap of the Agathodaiinon or Good Spirit.” That the object of drinking is to scare or to house spirits and so drive away disease is shewn by the offerer's speech at the Roman Meditrinalia or New-wine Festival :-"I, old, drink new wine ; with new wine my old ailment I cure.'96 It is also shewn by the Saxon name "wassail," that is, Wax-health, and also by the Romans calling a drink salus or health, as in Plautus "I drinks health to you with full jaws." In Dorsetshire, the Saxons had a god Hail or Health, to whom, in some parts, they drank out of a cup ritually composed, decked, and filled with country liquor.97 At Horbury in Yorkshire (1874),, on the second week in February, a gill of ale is served to any rate-payer who asks for it, the amount being charged to the town. These drinks are called Candlemas Gills. That drinking was the leading festal rite is shewn by the enrly English use of the word " Ale" as festival, as in Bridal, that is, the bride's ale, or festival. Of the English practice of pouring liquor on the sea to secure good weather, Spenser writes :
" The mariner on catching sight of home,
His cheerful whistle merrily doth sound,
And Nereus crowns with cops his mates him pledge around."100 The first month after marriage is the honeymoon, because the people of worth Europe used to drink honey liquor or mead for a month after their chief's marriage. In Avondale, in Sterlingshire, during the eighteenth century, great drinking services were held at funerals These religious funeral drinks continne in the practice of offering cake and wine to mourners at funeral. The burial service in Scotland is an amplification of the blessing of the cake and wine, which, in former times, was the only religious rite the minister was allowed to perform at funerals.2 In Devonshire (1791), on the Eve of the Epiphany (5th Jannary), the farmer, attended by his workmen, with a large pitcher of cyder, goes to the orcliard, and there encircling one of the best trees, thrice drinks this tonst :
" Hore's to the old apple tree, Whence thou mayoat bud and whence thou mayest blow, And whence thou mayest boar aples enow, Jlats full, Capafull,
Busbel Busbel sacks full, and is prekete full too, Hazza." When thoy go back to the house, the meu find the doors bolted by the womeu, who, whether in wet or dry, let no one in till he bas guessed what is on the spit. When the right thing is guessed the doors are thrown open and the guesser gets the prize. If they neglect this custom, the trees bear no apples. On the same day (January 6th), in Pauntley, in Gloucester, # Non aud Powell's Sazo.Crammaticus (A. D. 1150-1200), pp. 343-393. Bassett's Sea Legends, p. 414.
N Brown's Great Dionysiak Myth, Vol. 1. p. 239. 95 Op. cit. Vol. I. p. 233.
95 Smith's Greek arul Roman Antiquitier, Vol. II. p. 155. Sve notes on Drayton's Polyolbion, Song IV. 98 Notes and Queries, 5tl. Series, Vol. I. p. 608. n Skoat's riers the Ploughman, p. 184.
104 Spenser's Faery Queen, Vol. I. p. 331. 1 Gentleman's Magazine Library," Manners and Custome," p. 30. 1 Guthrie'. Owl Scottish Customs, p. 28. Gentleman'. Majarine Library," Popular Superstition," p. 19.
