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were forbidden by the proclamation of July 22nd, 1540. A curious Latin play or mystery on the Slaughter of the Innocents, and the flight into Egypt of Joseph and Mary, with the Infant Jesus, is termed Interfectio Puerorum, and strangely exhibits the primitive mediæval literalism in dealing with these subjects, in common with those English productions, with which readers are more familiar. Bourne tells us, chap. xviii. that "according to the monks it was very unlucky to begin any work on Childermas Day and whatsoever day that falls on, whether on the Monday, Tuesday, or any other, nothing must be begun on that day through the year." Gregory observes that "It hath been a custom, and yet is_elsewhere, to whip the children upon Innocents Day morning, that the memory of Herod's murder of the Innocents might stick the closer, and in a moderate proportion to act over the crueltie again in kinde." Gregorii Posthuma, 1649. See Cotgarve's "Dict." and the "Dictionn.

de Furetiere."

Strype, under 1582, mentions a riot in Finsbury, about Christmas holidays, "by some loose young men of the Inns of Chancery, one of whom, named Light, was especially indicted for singing in the church, upon Childermas Day, Fallantida dilli, &c.-an idle loose song then used." In "Sir John Oldcastle," 1600, act ii. sc. 2, Murley objects to the rendezvous of the Wickliffites on a Friday: "Friday, quoth'a, a dismal day; Childermas Day this year was Friday." Melton, in his Astrologaster," 1620, p. 45, informs us it was formerly an article in the creed of popular superstition, that it was not lucky to put on a new suit, pare one's nails, or begin any thing on a Childermas Day.

Dufresne, in a note to Clement Marot's cxxxvth Epigram, observes, that on Innocents' Day there used to be a custom of slapping on the hinder parts any young folks who were surprised in bed on that morning, and occasionally it proceeded further. But this practice had even then fallen into disuse. The following is the passage in Dufresne :-"Innocentes. Allusion a un usage pratiqué lors en France, où les jeunes personnes qu'on pouvoit surprendre au lit le jour des Innocens, recevoient sur le derrière quelques claques, & quelque fois un peu plus, quand les sujet en valoient la peine. Cela ne se pratique plus aujourd'hui: nous sommes bien plus sages & plus reservés que nos pères." Douce cites a passage from Le Voyageur à Paris, to show that an odd species of burlesque was performed on this festival by some of the religious orders. Naogeorgus, in his Fourth Book, devotes

some space to this festival. See BoyBishop.

Children. In John Bale's "Comedye concernynge thre Lawes of Nature, Moses, and Christ," 1538, Idolatry says:

"Yea, but now ych am a she
And a good mydwyfe perdé,

Yonge chyldren can I charme,
With whysperynges and whysshynges,
With crossynges and with kyssynges,
With blasynges and with blessynges,

That spretes do them no harme." In Scotland (Edinburgh) a piece of silver, an egg, and some bread presented to a child on entering a house for the first time, are supposed to bring luck. Hutchinson tells us that children in Northumberland, when first sent abroad in the arms of the nurse to visit a neighbour, are presented with an egg, salt, and fine bread. Northumberland, ii., 4 and 13. He observes that "the egg was a sacred emblem, and seems a gift well adapted to infancy.' Comp. Cakes and Salt. Herrick names a crust of holy bread laid under the head of a sleeping child as a charm against hags, and a knife placed near the child's heart with the point upward as a charm against peril in general. Among superstitions relating to children, the following is cited by Bourne from Bingham, St. Austin: "If when two friends are talking together, a stone, or a dog, or a child, happens to come between them, they tread the stone to pieces, as the divider of their friendship, and this is tolerable in comparison of beating an innocent child that comes between them. But it is more pleasant that sometimes the child's quarrel is revenged by the dogs: for many times they are so superstitious as to dare to beat the dog that comes between them, who turning again upon him that smites him, sends him from seeking a vain remedy, to seek a real physician indeed."

on

Antiq. Vulg. ch. xii. Lupton says: a piece of a child's navell string, born in a ring, is good against the falling collick." sickness, the pains in the head, and the

66

Notable Things, ed. 1660, p. 92. the country of the Lesgins, one of the There is a singular custom prevailing in seventeen Tartarian nations. 'Whencarried round from village to village, ever the Usmei, or chief, has a son, he is and alternately suckled by every woman who has a child at her breast, till he is weaned. This custom by establishing a kind of brotherhood between the prince and his subjects, singularly endears them to each other." European Magazine, June, 1801, p. 408. See, for a singular notion about children's bread and butter, Petri Molinæi "Vates," p. 154. Compare Bede's Well, Caul, Child-Birth, and Lying-In.

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Children's Games. The essayist planets; and by the lines which are there in the "Gentleman's Magazine" for Feb- to be seen, judges of the complection, conruary, 1738, says, that before the troubles, dition and fortune of the person; imagincross-purposes was the game played at ing the harmonious disposition of the lines by children of all parties. Upon the death to be, as it were, certain cælestial characof Charles I. the ridicule of the times ters stamped upon us by God and Nature, turned against monarchy; which during and which, as Job saith, God imprinted or the Commonwealth was burlesqued by put in the hands of men, that so every one every child in Great Britain, who might know his works; though it be plain, set himself up in mock majesty, that the divine author doth not there treat and played at Questions and Com- of vain chiromancy, but of the liberty of mands; as for instance, King I am, the will." He gives a great catalogue of says one boy; another answers, I am names of such authors as have written on your man; then his Majesty demands, this science falsely so called, but observes what service he will do him; to which the that "none of them have been able to obsequious courtier replies, the best and make any farther progress than conjecture worst, and all I can. During all Oliver's and observation of experience. Now that time, the chief diversion was, the Parson there is no certainty in these conjectures hath Lost his Fudling Cap: which needs and observations, is manifest from thence, no explanation. At the Restoration suc- upon the will; and about which the masceeded Love-Games, as I love my love with ters thereof of equal learning and authoan A: a flower and a lady; and I am a rity do very much differ." Vanity of lusty wooer-changed in the latter end of Sciences, p. 101. Ferrand tells us that this reign, as well as all King James IId.'s, "this art of chiromancy hath been so to I am come to torment you.' At the strangely infected with superstitions, deRevolution, when all people recovered ceit, cheating, and (if I durst say so) with their liberty, the children played promis-magic also, that the canonists, and of late cuously at what game they liked best-the years Pope Sixtus Quintus, have been most favourite one, however, was Puss in constrained utterly to condemn it. So the Corner. Every body knows that in that now no man professes publickly this this play, four boys or girls post them- cheating art, but theeves, rogues, and begselves at the four corners of a room, and a garly rascals; which are now every where fifth in the middle, who keeps himself upon knowne by the name of Bohemians, Egypthe watch to slip into one of the corner tians, and Caramaras." Erotomania, places, whilst the present possessors are 1640, p. 173. The lines in the palm of the endeavouring to supplant one another. hand, according to Indagine, are distinThis was intended to ridicule the scram- guished by formal names, such as the table bling for places too much in fashion line or line of fortune, the line of life or amongst the children of England, both of the heart, the middle natural line, the spiritual and temporal." line of the liver or stomach, &c., &c., &c., the triangle, the quadrangle. The thumb too, and fingers have their "Hills" given them, from the tops of which these manual diviners pretend that they had a prospect of futurity. The reader will smile at the name and not very delicate etymon of it, given in this work to the little finger. It is called the ear finger, because it is commonly used to make clean the ears. Palmistry and Physiognomy, trans. by F. Withers, 1656. Newton inquires whether the "governors of the commonwealth "" "have suffered palmesters, fortune-tellers, stage-players, sawce-boxes, enterluders, puppit-players, loyterers, vagabonds, landleapers, and such like cozening makeshifts to practice their cogging tricks and rogish trades, within the circuite of their authoritie, and to deceive the simple people with their vile forgerie and palterie." Tryall of a Man's Own Selfe, 1602, p. 45. Mason ridicules the vanity and frivolity of palmistry, "where Men's fortunes are tolde by looking on the palmes of the hands." Anatomie of Sorcerie, 1612, p. 90. Gaule exposes the folly of palmistry which tells us, "that

Chin, The. He was, says Forby, in his "Vocabulary of East Anglia, 1830," "a sort of imp which inhabits the chimneys of nurseries, and is sometimes called down to take away naughty children."

Chincough. There is a belief in Cheshire that, if a toad is held for a moment within the mouth of the patient, it is apt to catch the disease, and so cure the person suffering from it. A correspondent of "Notes and Queries" speaks of a case, in which such a phenomenon actually occurred; but the experiment is one which would not be very willingly tried. Roasted mice were formerly held in Norfolk a sure remedy for this complaint; nor is it certain that the belief is extinct even now. A poor woman's son once found himself greatly relieved after eating three roast mice! A superstition still remains in Devonshire and Cornwall, that any person who rides on a pye-balled horse can cure the chin-cough.

Chiromancy.-Agrippa, speaking of chiromancy, says that, it "fancies seven mountains in the palm of a man's hand, according to the number of the seven

the lines spreading at the bottom joynt of the thumb, signe contentions; the line above the middle of the thumbe, if it meet round about, portends a hanging destiny; many lines transverse upon the last joynt of the fore-finger, note riches by heirdome; and right lines there, are a note of a jovial nature; lines in the points of the middle finger (like a gridiron) note a melancholy wit, and unhappy: if the signe on the little finger be conspicuous, they note a good witt and eloquent, but the contrary, if obscure. Equal lines upon the first joynt of the ring-finger, are marks of an happy wit." Mag-Astromancer posed, p. 188. "To strike another's palm, says Bulwer, in his Chirologia, 1644, pp 93, 105, "is the habit of expression of those who plight their troth, buy, sell, covenant, &c. He that would see the vigour of this gesture in puris naturalibus must repair to the horsecirque or sheep-pens in Smithfield, where those crafty Olympique merchants will take you for no Chapman, unless you strike them with good lucke and smite them earnest in the palme.'

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for the christening of a prince or princess. of England was established (or confirmed) in the reign of Henry VII.: "ffor the cristynynge off the prince or a princese, the chirche or the chapelle dore where the cristynynge shalbe, the dore must be hangid roof and sides all wt clothe of golde and carpets well vndyre the feet; then the font must be set on hight, yt the pepill may see the cristenynge, and presse not to ny; and the font must be hangid withe a riche sele, and overlaid about wt carpets on the greces (steps) and oyr places; and the font must be hangid all about wt clothe of gold, and laid wtin withe small lyn clothe; and the chirche must be hangid all about the sides wt arras; and the highe aucter muste be araid in the recheste wise, well carpetted afor the aucter; then in the side of the chirche be sides the font must be hangid a travers, and a feyre of coles well brynt or they come there, withe fumidory cast y'in for the eyre, and a faire chauffure wt water basyn of silver; Also yt muste be ordined that the gossepes be neghe loggid againste the Quenes delyverans; and when God sendithe tym that the prince be borne, then the gossapes to be redy to go wt the childe to the chirche, and a duches to bere the cusyne afore it on her shulder on a kerchef of small reynes: and if it be a prince, an erle to bere his trayne; and it be a princes, a countesse to bere the trayne; and then yr must be born afore it to the chirche ij cc torches, xxiiij of them about the child, and the oy dele borne wt yomen afore it; and when yey com to the chirche, the torches walles as they may: Then must the sarto stand alle about the fonte, as ny the giant of the pantry be redy at the chirche dore wt a towelle about his neke, wt a faire salt sellere of gold in his hand, wt salt yrin; then the sergiant of the ewery to be there wt basyn and ewere for the go-s sepes to wesche wt; and the sergiant of the and wine, that when the prince is crisspicery and 2 butlers to be yr redy wt spice tenyde, the gossepes and oyr estats may crystyn the child: and when yo childe is take spice and wyne, and a bischope to and then to be born vp the highe auctere; baptizede, all the torches to be lightide, and there to be confermyde; and then spice and wyne to be takyne, and the void to be hade; and there the yefts to be gevyne and the yefts takene, to erles, barrons, and baronetts [banChrist-Church, Oxford. Every nerets]; and they have to bere them evening, at five minutes past nine, the afore the child to the Quenes chamgreat bell Tom rings 101 times in comme- bre dore. And if it be a Prinmoration of the number of scholars, for cese, then the wefts to be borne of which the foundation was at first erected. ladys, and they to bere yem to the Quene." Christ-Cross-row. The alphabet, Antiq. Repert, 1807, i., 305. A curious refrom the practice of writing it in the presentation of the procession at the form of a cross on the horn-book or battle-christening of Prince Arthur, eldest son of dore. Henry VII., here referred to, is given from a drawing in outline there. Grindal, writ

Chrisome. In Strype, it is said to be enjoined that, "to avoid contention, let the curate have the value of the chrisome, not under the value of 4d. and above as they can agree, and as the state of the parents may require." It is well known that "Chrisome (says Blount) signifies properly the white cloth, which is set by the minister of baptism upon the head of a child newly anointed with chrism (a kind of hallowed ointment used by Roman Catholics in the Sacrament of Baptism and for certain other unctions, composed of oyl and balm) after his baptism. Now it is vulgarly taken for the white cloth put about upon a child newly christened, in token of his baptism; wherewith the women used to shroud the child, if dying within the month; otherwise it is usually brought to church at the day of purificaGlossographia in v. In Shipman's "Gossips," 1666, we read:

tion."

or

"Since friends are scarce, and neigh

bours many,

Who will lend mouths, but not a penny,
I (if you grant not a supply)

Must e'en provide a chrisome pye."
In Henry V., ii., 3, Shakespear makes Fal-
staff go away, an' it had been any

Chrisom child."

Christening. The following order

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ing from London to Henry Bullinger, Feb. 8, 1567, says: 'Her (Mary's) eldest son was baptized in December last, after the popish manner by some mitred pseudobishop; but two only could be found out of the whole nobility of that kingdom, who thought proper to be present at the christening. The rest only accompanied the infant, both in going and returning, as far as the door of the chapel." Zürich Letters, Parker Soc. 1st Series, 182. It appears to have been anciently the custom at christening entertainments, for the guests not only to eat as much as they pleased, but also for the ladies, at least, to carry away as much as they liked in their pockets. In Strype's Stow accounts are given of two great christenings, in 1561 and 1562. After the first was a splendid banquet at home"; and the other, we read, 66 was concluded with a great banquet, consisting of wafers and hypocras, French, Gascoign, and Rhenish wines, with great plenty, and all their servants had a banquet in the hall with divers dishes." Wafers and hippocras wine were the customary refreshment served up after the return from a christening, as appears from the case of Alderman White's child in 1559, when the Marquis of Winchester, Lord Treasurer, stood as one of the sponsors. The same entertainment was also very usual (with other dainties) at weddings about the same period. Compare Wafers. In Brathwaite's "Whimzies," 1631, speaking of a yealous (jealous) neighbour, the author says: "Store of bisket, wafers, and careawayes, hee bestowes at his childs christning, yet are his cares nothing lessned; he is perswaded that he may eate his part of this babe, and never breake his fast." At the christening entertainments of many of the poorer sort of people in the North of England (who are so unfortunate as to provide more mouths than they can with convenience find meat for) great collections are oftentimes made by the guests, such as will far more than defray the expenses of the feast of which they have been partaking. Moresin informs us of a remarkable custom, which he himself was an eye-witness of in Scotland. They take, says he, on their return from church, the newly-baptized infant, and vibrate it three or four times gently over a flame, saying, and repeating it thrice, "Let the flame consume thee now or never." Papatus, i., p. 72. Borlase writes: "The same lustration, by carrying of fire, is performed round about women after child-bearing, and round about children before they are christened, as an effectual means to preserve both the mother and the infant from the power of evil spirits." In the "Autobiography of Sir John Bramston," Sir John relates how after the death of King Edward VI., in

1553, Rose, a daughter of Sir William Lock, in the time of her first husband, Anthony Hickman, fled ultimately to Antwerp. from the persecution of Mary's government, they being Protestants. Mr. and Mrs. Hickman took two children abroad with them, and while they remained at Antwerp, she had a third, which she caused to be baptized in the house according to the rites of the Reformed Church. "The fashion was,' ," writes the author of these memoirs," 'to hange a peece of lawne out at the window where a child was to be baptised; and her house having two dores into two streetes, she hunge lawne out at each doore, soe the neighbours of each side, thinckinge the child was caried out at the other dore, inquired no farther." It is customary in the North also for the midwife, &c. to provide two slices, one of bread and the other of cheese, which are presented to the first person they meet in the procession to church at a christening. The person who receives this homely present must give the child in return three different things wishing it at the same time health and beauty. The gentleman who informed Brand of this, happening once to fall in the above present, was at a loss how to the way of such a party, and to receive make the triple return, till he bethought himself of laying upon the child which was held out to him, a shilling, a halfpenny, and a pinch of snuff. When they meet more than one person together, it is usual to single out the nearest to the woman that carries the child. The same sort of practice was in vogue in Durham and cheese were the articles there and then and Northumberland in 1886; fruit-cake presented.

The cake was in fact a currant loaf. Antiquary, February, 1886, p. 84. In the "Statistical Account of Scotland," we read that the inhabitants "would consider it as an unhappy omen, were they by any means disappointed in getting themselves married, or their chilhad previously fixed in their mind for that dren baptized, on the very day which they purpose. Again, parish of Kilsinan, Argyleshire, we read: "There is one pernicious practice that prevails much in this parish, which took its rise from this source, which is, that of carrying their children out to baptism on the first or second day after birth. Many of them, although they had it in their option to have their children baptized in their own houses, by waiting one day, prefer carrying them seven or eight miles to church in the worst weather in December or January, by which folly they too often sacrifice the lives of their infants to the phantom of superstition." Again, the minister of the parishes of South Ronaldsay and Burray, Orkney, says: "Within these last seven years, (i.e.

circa 1790), the minister has been twice interrupted in administering baptism to a female child before the male child, who was baptized immediately after. When the service was over, he was gravely told he had done very wrong, for as the female child was first baptized, she would, on her coming to the years of discretion, most certainly have a strong beard, and the boy would have none." Lastly, the minister of Logierait, Perthshire, says: "When a child was baptized privately, it was, not long since, customary to put the child upon a clean basket, having a cloth previously spread over it, with bread and cheese put into the cloth; and thus to move the basket three times successively round the iron crook, which hangs over the fire, from the roof of the house, for the purpose of supporting the pots when water is boiled, or victuals are prepared. This might be anciently intended to counteract the malignant arts which witches and evil spirits were imagined to practice against new-born infants." Grose tells us there is a superstition that a child who does not cry when sprinkled in baptism will not live. He has added another idea equally well founded, that children prematurely wise are not long-lived, that is, rarely reach maturity; a notion which we find quoted by Shakespear, and put into the mouth of Richard III. That an unbaptized infant cannot die, is a belief still entertaned in Lancashire; but the authors of "Lancashire Folk-Lore, " 1867, do not appear to have been aware, that the superstiton is a very ancient and wide-spread one, and that this description of spirit was known as the Latewitch. There was formerly a custom of having sermons at christenings. I (says Mr. Brand) had the honour of presenting to the Earl of Leicester one preached at the baptism of Theophilus Earl of Huntingdon.

sisse, antiquissimus patrum Tertullianus meminit in lib. de Persecut. Hildebrandus, De Diebus Festis, 1735. See Du Cange's "Glossary, v. Natali. Drechler, in his Treatise De Larvis," p. 30, quotes the 79th Canon of the General Council held at Constantiople in 690-1, for the apparent origin of this custom: "Quando aliqui post Diem Natalem Christi Dei nostri reperiuntur coquentes similam et se hanc mutuó donantes, prætextu scil. honoris secundinarum impollutæ Virginis Matris, statuimus ut deinceps nihil tale fiat a fidelibus." These cakes, Drechler imagines, were originally given as presents in remembrance of the Virgin, and other aritcles were, in course of time, added or substituted, the original object being kept in view. We are told that the Christmas Box money is derived hence. The Romish priests had masses said for almost every thing if a ship went out to the Indies, the priests had a box in her, under the protection of some saint: and for masses, as their cant was, to be said for them to that saint, &c. the poor people must put something into the priest's box, which was not opened till the ship's return. The mass at that time was called Christmas: the box called Christmas Box, or money gathered against that time, that masses might be made by the priests to the saints to forgive the people the debaucheries of that time: and from this, servants had the liberty to get box money, that they too might be enabled to pay the priest for his masses, knowing well the truth of the proverb: "No Penny, No Pater Noster." Athenian Oracle, by Dunton, i., 360. In the illustration of the cut to Blaxton's

:

English Usurer," 1634, the author, speaking of the usurer and swine, says: deficient in giving; like the Christmas earthen boxes of apprentices, apt to take in money, but he restores none till hee be Christmas Box.-Hutchinson ob- broken like a potters vessell into many serves on these gifts to servants and shares." And in Mason's "Handful of mechanics, for their good services in the Essaies," 1621, signat. c 2, we find a similabouring part of the year, "The Pagana-lar thought-"like a swine he never doth lia of the Romans, instituted by Servius Tullius, were celebrated in the beginning of the year: an altar was erected in each village, where all persons gave money. This was a mode originally devised for gaining the number of inhabitants." Hist. of Northumb., ii., 20. Denique in nostris Ecclesiis nocte natali Parentes varia munuscula, Crepundia, Cistellas, Vestes Vehicula, Poma, Nuces, &c. liberis suis donant, quibus plerumque Virga additur, ut metu castigationis eo facilius regantur. Dantur hæc munuscula nomine S. Christi, quem per tegulas vel fenestras illabi, vel cum Angelis domos obire fingunt. Mos iste similiter a Saturnalibus Gentilium descendere videtur, in quibus Ethnicos sportulas sive varia Munera ultro citroque mi

good till his death: as an apprentices box
of earth, apt he is to take all, but to re-
store none till hee be broken." The box
was evidently at one time of earthenware.
Aubrey, in his "Natural History of Wilt-
shire," circa 1670, speaking of a pot in
which some Roman Denarii were found,
says: "it resembles in appearance an ap-
prentices earthen Christmas box."
"One
asked a fellow, what Westminster Hall was
like. Marry, quoth the other, it is like a
butler's box at Christmas amongst game-
sters: for whosoeuer loseth, the box will
bee sure to be a winner."-Taylor's Wit
and Mirth, 1629.

th'are some fair gamesters use To pay the box well, especially at In and In,

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