:

it is easy to infer how he became amongst the people the Tutelar Saint of horned cattle and those connected with them finally, as the horn grew from other causes to be the emblem of cuckoldom, we can be at no loss to understand why Saint Luke's Day eventually got to be desecrated by this custom, or why butchers, above all others, should be its votaries.*

ST. CRISPIN AND ST. CRISPIANUS; October 25th.These saints were patrons of the gentle craft as it has been called, and we must not be surprised at Crispin and Crispianus patronizing this humble but useful occupation when we find St. Dismas and St. Nicholas presiding over thieves, St. Martin and St. Urban over drunkards to guard them from falling into kennels, St. Mathurin over fools, and St. Magdalene, St. Afra,† and St. Brigit over prostitutes. Crispin and Crispinianus moreover had excellent grounds for taking the gentle craft under their protection, as a brief sketch of their story will show. They were Romans of noble birth, who conceived a fancy for converting the Heathens of France, and for this purpose set out on a missionary expedition to Soissons, having previously disposed of all their worldly goods and chattels. But so strictly was the edict of the emperors Dioclesian and Maximian observed in that city, that no one dared to lodge or relieve them, and in consequence they soon found they must work if they wished to

* This account has already appeared in a late periodical; as however upon re-considering the subject, I see no reason to alter my former opinion, I have reprinted the whole as I first wrote it. Both Brand and Hone have treated this matter at some length, but both have avoided the main question-what had Saint Luke to do with Cuckold

dom?

This is coming pretty near to Venus in name as well as occupation -Aphra ; Aphrodite. How St. Briget, or, as her name is sometimes written, Bridget. got into such doubtful companyI cannot say; but Magdalene had sufficient reasons of her own to account for her patronage.

live. Thus urged by necessity, they took to shoemaking, as being a quiet trade that did not interfere with their spiritual repose, when God himself instructed them thoroughly in the craft.* As they did not care for great gains, they soon got plenty of custom, and not to lose time they turned their shop into a chapel, preaching with so much zeal and unction that many who only thought of buying a pair of shoes, got the gospel into the bargain-" plusieurs acheterent d'eux sans aucun prix la Perle Evangelique, ne penchant acheter que des souliers." The fame thus acquired having come to the ears of the Prefect Rictiovarius, he loaded them with chains, and brought them before the Emperor Maximian as contemners of the Gods and disturbers of the public peace. As they would not yield either to the threats or the promises of Maximian, he ordered them to be tortured to death; but the hammers

So at least says Ribadeneira-" Dieu le leur apprit luy-même parfaitement." Les Fleurs des Vies des Saints, tom. ii. p. 382. + Ribadeneira, as above.

It is a curious fact, though it seems to have attracted little attention, that the pagans, so tolerant on all other occasions, should on the sudden have become such fierce persecutors of the Christians. Indeed toleration may be said, with that single exception, to have been a marked characteristic of Heathen worship, for the attack upon the Jews was political not religious. While Christian, Brahmin, Jew, and Mahomedan, have all in turn been persecutors, not only of each other, but of any dissentients amongst themselves, the Gods of Rome had no quarrel with those of Greece, nor did the Grecian divinities refuse companionship with the Isis and Osiris of Egypt. ay on the first appearance of Christianity the Romans were far from being disposed to quarrel with the new faith; it was not until long after the crucifixion,-forced upon them by the Jews and much against their will-that they became persecutors. Does not this seem to indicate that Christianity at a very early period had lost sight of the doctrines of its heavenly founder, and by its assuming a stern and fanatical spirit, in place of the love and humility inculcated by him, itself provoked this intolerance?

employed to crush them, recoiled upon their tormentors, the river refused either to drown or to freeze them, for it buoyed up their bodies and from being cold enough to destroy life changed into a comfortable warm bath; and when they were plunged into boiling lead, instead of injuring the intended victims a quantity of the hot metal spurted out into the Prefect's eye, and made him more furious than ever. At length upon the especial prayer of the saints, an angel came and pulled them both uninjured out of the lead, when Rictiovarius in a fit of rage, inspired of course by the devil, jumped in himself and perished miserably. Sharp steel, however, effected in the end what could not be done by any other means. By order of Maximian they were beheaded, and their bodies exposed to the birds and beasts of prey. But though now very sufficiently dead, their miraculous career on earth was not yet over. birds and beasts, forgetting their usual nature, refused to touch the holy corpses; an old man and his wife were warned by God to carry them off by night; that they might the more easily effect this, the bodies were rendered light by divine interposition; and finally when the aged pair reached the boat with their precious cargo, the bark was supernaturally impelled against wind and current, without the help either of oar or sails, till they reached their own home, where they buried the bodies as decently as they were able. But the reign of Constantine came, and with it also came the reign of the saints; the bodies were disinterred, and first conveyed to Soissons; but finally, being of Rome, they were buried in the church of St. Lawrence in that city.*

The

ST. SIMON AND ST. JUDE; October 28th. These saints, like St. Swithin, were supposed to be great promoters of wet weather. Brand tells us that in the Runic Calendar

*Those who wish to verify these important facts, should consult Ribadeneira as above.

St. Simon and St. Jude's Day was marked by a ship, on account of their having been fishermen,* though even this emblem may perhaps be connected with their pluvial propensities, of which we find so many scattered indications in our old writers. Thus, in Middleton and Dekkar's Roaring Girl,

"Dost thou know her then?

As well as I know 'twill rain upon

Simon and Jude's day next."t

"Now a continual Simon and Jude's rain

Beat all your feathers as flat down as pancakes."+ ALLHALLOW'S EVE; HALLOW EVEN; HALLOWEEN ; HOLY-EVE; NUTCRACK NIGHT. October 31st. This Eve is so called from being the vigil of All Saint's Day, and is the season for a variety of superstitions and other customs. In the north of England many of these are still found to linger. One of the most common is that of diving for apples; or of catching at them with the mouth only, the hands being tied behind, and the apples suspended on one end of a long transverse beam, at the other extremity of which is fixed a lighted candle. The fruit and nuts form the most prominent parts of the evening feast, and from this circumstance the night has obtained one of its names, namely Nutcrack Night. Nuts also were employed as one, and perhaps the oldest of the many modes of divination practised at this season, for Hutchinson is quite correct when he says of this eve, that "it seems to retain the celebration of a festival to Pomona, when it is supposed the summer stores are opened on the approach of winter. Divinations and consulting of omens attended all these ceremonies in the practice of the heathen. Hence in the rural sacrifice of nuts * Popular Antiquities, vol. i. p. 209.

Act. I. Scene I., p. 19, edit. 1825, 8vo. London.

+ Id. p. 25.

propitious omens are sought touching matrimony; if the nuts lie still and burn together, it prognosticates a happy marriage or a hopeful love; if on the contrary they bounce and fly asunder, the sign is unpropitious."* Here again, as in so many instances, the custom may be traced back from an unmeaning frolic to a popish superstition, and from that to a classic rite. "Nuts have a religious import," says the Romish calendar;† and going yet farther back, we find that this is but an echo from the times of paganism. Amongst the Romans it was a custom for the bridegroom to throw nuts about the room that the boys might scramble for them, thereby as some will have it, intimating that the new husband meant henceforth to lay aside the sports of boyhood.‡ That the phrase in time came to signify the assumption of manhood I can easily believe; but the explanation of Pliny, though doubtful in itself, seems to point to a

* HUTCHINSON'S NORTHUMBERLAND, vol. ii.-Ancient Customs, P. 18. An appendix to the volume.

+ "Nuces in pretio et religiosa"--as quoted in Brand's Pop. Antiquities, vol. i. p. 212.

Erasmus, when speaking of the phrase nuces relinquere, says "translata metaphora, vel a venusta nuptiarum ceremonia in quibus sponsus uxorem ducens nuces spargebat utpote jam pueritiæ renuncians. Ita Catullus in carmine nuptiali :

ADAGIA, Erasmi et Aliorum, p. 528, folio. 1643, "The next place to these for bignes the walnuts doe challenge. which they can not claime for their credit and authoritie: and yet they are in some request among other licentious and wanton Fescennine ceremonies at weddings; for lesse they be than pine nuts, if a man consider the grossnesse of the body outwardly; but in proportion thereto they have a much bigger kernel within. Moreover nature hath much graced and honoured these nuts with a peculiar gift she