St. Clement Danes, London, as well as on the boundary marks of the parish.

Though it is long since St. Clement has ceased to be noticed in this country, yet at one time his day like that of so many other Saints was a period of feasting and rejoicing. Of this we have still the undeniable vestiges. In the old clogs,* a pot was placed against the 23rd of November, for the feast of St. Clement, from the ancient custom of going about that night to begg drink to make merry with."†

Cloggs were a sort of almanacks made upon square sticks, which were still in use among the lower classes in the country when Dr. Plot wrote his History of Staffordshire, that is to say, in 1686. They were also used at one time both in Sweden and Denmark (See Olaus Magnus, De Ritu Gent. Sept., lib. 1, cap. 34, and lib. 16, cap. 20-Olai Wormii Fast. Danic. lib. 2, cap. 2, 3, 4, and 5.) By the Danes they were called Rimstocks, perhaps because the Dominical Letters used to be in Runick characters; or, more probably because Rimur signified a calendar, and thus the compound word would mean no more than a calendar of wood. By the Norwegians they were called Primstaves, from the chief thing inscribed upon the staves, namely, the Prime or Golden Number. By the Swedes they were named Baculi Annales, an appellation which seems to be somewhat too restricted, inasmuch as they were often engraved upon little oblong boards as well as upon staves; while at other times their material was horn, or a hollow bone, or many bones tesselated as it were, or fastened together. In this country they were chiefly made of box-wood, but also of fir and oak. Sometimes they were made of brass. regard to form, some were small, and adapted to be carried about in the pocket for private use; others again were large, and suspended from the wall or chimney mantle-piece. Lastly, as to the kinds of cloggs; some were "perfect, containing the Dominical Letters, as well as the Prime and marks for the feasts engraven upon them; others were imperfect, having only the Prime and the immoveable feasts on them." There can be no doubt as to these matters, for specimens of the clogg are still to be found both in the Museum at Oxford and in private collections; and Dr. Plot has given a full account of them in his HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE, (chap. x.)

PLOT'S STAFFORDSHIRE, p. 430.

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ST. ANDREW'S DAY; November 30.-A day that never was of much note with us, though in Scotland it has given rise to many observances. The only point worth recording of it in respect to this country is the annual Kentish custom, or diversion as it is called, of hunting the squirrel. "The labourers and lower kind of people assembling together form a lawless rabble, and being accoutred with guns, poles, clubs, and other such weapons, spend the greatest part of the day in parading through the woods and grounds, with loud shoutings, and under the pretence of demolishing the squirrels, some few of which they kill, they destroy numbers of hares, pheasants, partridges, and in short, whatever comes in their way, breaking down the hedges and doing much. other mischief; and in the evening betaking themselves to the alehouses, finish their career there, as is usual with such sort of gentry."

In Saxony the young girls in the time of Luther used to strip themselves naked, and recite the following prayer, in order to learn what kind of a husband they were like to have. "Oh God! my God!-Oh Saint Andrew! take care that I have a good and pious husband; and show me this day who it is that is to marry me."

* HASTED'S HISTORY OF KENT, vol. 11, p. 757.

"Deus, deus meus !-O sancte Andrea, effice ut bonum et pium acquiram virum; hodie mihi ostende qualis sit qui me in uxorem ducere debet."-LUTHER'S COLLOQUIA MENSALIA, part 1, p. 233.

ANCIENT AND POPULAR SUPER

STITIONS AND CUSTOMS.

Ir is an ordinary superstition of old women that they dare not intrust a child alone in the cradle without a candle. This conceit derived from the Jews, who were afraid of a she-devil called Lilith.*

Flowers at Funerals.-The custom of rosemarie and flowers owing to the Jews, whose ancient custom it was, as they went by the waie with their corpses, to pluck every one a blade or two of grass, as who should say, they were not sorry as men without hope, for their brother was but so cropt off and should spring up again.†

*

Abp. Kennett's MS. Collection, Lansdowne Cat. Brit. Mus. N. 1039. Plut. 79. F. vol. 105. fol. 8.-The Lilith mentioned by Kennett was, properly speaking, either a bird of night (nocturna avis) or an animal howling in the night-time (animal noctu clamans. Vid. Hoffman's Lexicon.) Hence,—and the transition is not very difficultthe Lilith passed into a female spectre, that appeared in the night-time and was supposed to be peculiarly hostile to new-born children. The fables in regard to her amongst the Jews are numerous. They hold her to be the mother of demons, and had a regular demonifuge song, or incantation, which they chaunted to protect infants in the cradle against her influence.

+ Id. p. 8.

Building.-"Now a custom of the Jews when they build any hous to leave part of it unfinisht in memory of the destruction of Jerusalem. Nay, the Jews say that God himself purposely left one part unfinisht.”*

Dead Bodies.-"The Mahometans to this day, when they have washed their dead, they dispose of them in such a place where they may be layd out so as that the face and feet may most directly be towards the temple of Meccha; which custom is but a transcript of the Jewish rite, which was to carry up the dead bodie, when washed into such a place as is a vπepov, or upper chamber, where they composed the corpse in such posture as turned the face and feet toward Jerusalem. This perhaps gives original to our burial with face to the east. The modern Jews lay out a dead corpse with the feet toward the chamber door, and a wax-candle at the head put into a pot of ashes.”†

Shaving." Priests were allowed no whiskers, but to shave their whole face."‡

Custom at Sea." It was the custom in a storm to cast lots, and the person, on whom the lot fell, was exposed in a little boat as in the example of Jonas. This was practised in the reign of King Stephen."§

* Id. fol. 8.

+ Id. fol. 8.

Id. fol. 9.

§ Id. f. 9.-Strange as this custom may be, the archbishop had good authority for asserting it. The story is to be found in William of Newburgh, where it is told of a certain Rayner, a great enemy to the church, whose iniquities were such as once, when voyaging with his wife, to render the ship on the sudden immovable. Thereupon the sailors cast lots according to ancient custom, when the lot fell upon Rainerus. That this might not be the mere effect of chance they threw a second and a third time, and the result being the same, it was unanimously pronounced to be the judgment of God. He was therefore put into a boat with his wife and his ill-acquired wealth, when the boat being submerged by the weight of his sins was swallowed up by the waters. "Alter verò Rainerus nomine, præcipuus ecclesiarum effractor atque

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Cross. At one time people used to sign themselves with the sign of the cross before they slept, and believed they were not otherwise under God's protection. Thus when a certain pious hermit, by name, Ketellus, who had the gift of seeing devils, returned home one night weary with the labours of the field and forgot to sign himself as usual with the sign of the cross, two fiends immediately took advantage of this neglect. "Aha!" quothed they;

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we have caught you at last, Master Ketellus!" Upon this he tried to cross himself and invoke the name of Christ, but found both his hands and tongue were tied. In the midst however of their diabolical taunts, a resplendent youth appeared bearing in his hands an axe, which being only slightly touched sent forth such a sound that the terrified demons incontinently fled. And now the youth-whom our historian has no doubt is the hermit's angel-accosts the anchorite, and, rebuking him for his negligence, says, 'take care they do not catch you napping again, friend Ketellus.*"

Scadding of Peas.-" A custom in the north of boiling the common grey peas in the shell and eating them with butter and salt, first shelling them. A bean shell and

incensor, cum uxore suo transfretans, iniquitatum suarum pondere in medio mari navim, qua vehebatur, fecit immobilem. Quod cum maximo nautis, et aliis qui simul vehebantur, esset stupori, antiquo exemplo jacta est sors, et cecidit sors super Rainerum. Et ne forte hoc casu accidisse videretur, iterum et tertiò sorte jacta et fideli inventa, judicium Dei declaratum est. Itaque, ne universi cum ipso et propter ipsum perirent, expositus est in scapha cum uxore et pecunia male adquisita. Navis illico expedita est, et cursu solito ferebatur. Scapha verò pondere peccatoris subsedit, fluctibusque absorpta est." GULIELMI NEUBRIGENSIS HISTORIA. p. 46. Lib. i. cap. xi. Tom 1. Svo. Oxonii. 1719. It is hardly necessary to add that this custom must have originated in the scriptural tradition of Jonah and the whale.

* Id. Lib. Secundus, Cap. xxi. p. 173.