and then adds, that there are four kinds of festivals-the first, peculiar to families; the second, to cities; the third, to nations; and a fourth, common to all the people living under the Roman empire, and which takes place when the old year has ended, and the new one has begun. On the day before the calends the whole city was in a fever of expectation, and as the evening advanced a jubilee prevailed among all classes, the forum being crowded with people. Presents too of all kinds might be seen passing to and fro in every quarter of the city, some for ornament, and others for the table; some from the rich to the poor, and others from the poor to the rich; some amongst the wealthy classes, and others in like manner among those who had little to give, but who loved the old custom too well to let it pass by unhonoured.

But this merry-making by day would seem to have been little more than a prologue, though a very jovial one, to the revel that followed sunset. Deep in the night all was song and dance, laugh and jest, both in the streets and at home; no one thought of sleeping: or, if any drowsy folks were so inclined to offend against the laws of good fellowship, they were quickly taught that the liberty of rest and quiet was the only liberty not allowed at such a season. The obstreperous revellers would knock long and loudly at their doors; and, the more angry they were, the greater was the delight of their tormentors as well as of the casual passers-by, who thought the joke much too good to be interrupted.

It is probable that these previous, or introductory, festivities were not capable of much augmentation, yet still it was with day-break that the real business of the season may be said to have commenced. The columns and porches of the houses were wreathed with laurel or other green branches, and troops of gay companions might be

seen, clad for the most part in purple, and bearing small torches, who accompanied with acclamations some rich man* on horseback to the shrines and temples. Servants followed and scattered gold amongst the people, so that a constant scramble was kept up to the great amusement of all parties.

Having performed the usual sacrifices to the Gods, they then went round to the magistrates, and bestowed New Year's gifts upon their servants. But this was all done openly, the money passing through the hands of those in office to their subordinates, and the former kissing the person to whom he presented the intended gift. Others imitated this example; gold flowed about freely on all sides; and the revelry in consequence soon reached its height, for at a time like this there were few hoarders amongst any class. So ended the first day.

On the second day the festival assumed another character. There was now no more exchanging of gifts, people for the most part remaining at home, while masters and servants played promiscuously at dice and cockal,† all ranks being levelled for the season; and, what per

* In the Greek it is "ävdρа inπотрópov," one who breeds horses, a curious phrase, as seeming to indicate that the breeding of horses was the occupation of men of rank and fortune. Reiske, who explains it by einen reichen und vornehmen Mann, says that Libanius alludes to the consul.

+COCKAL is a game in which four pastern bones of certain animals properly marked were thrown like dice; and hence among the Romans it had the name of TALUS, which signifies the pastern-bone of a beast. How it ever came to be called cockal or huckel-bone by us is more than I can account for, these words alluding to a very different part of the animal anatomy.

This was imitated even by the clergy in their DECEMBER LIBERTIES-Libertas Decembrica." Sunt nonnullæ ecclesiæ, in quibus usitatum est ut vel etiam episcopi et archiepiscopi in Cænobiis cum suis ludant subditis, ita ut etiam sese ad lusum pilæ demittunt. Atque hæc quidem libertas ideo dicta est Decembrica, quòd olim apud

haps the latter valued as a higher privilege, they might be drunk or lazy without the slightest fear of punishment.

On the third day were the chariot-races, which produced an agreeable variety not only by the courses themselves, but by the disputes to which they gave rise. The hippodrome was crowded, and in it for the greater convenience of the people were baths and dice-tables, so that night as well as day was passed in riot.

The fourth day somewhat diminished the excesses of the festival, though even the fifth did not quite put an end to them; people still continued lingering about the flesh-pots of Egypt, and it was only slowly and reluctantly that they at length returned to their usual occupation.

This is the substance of what has been recorded by Libanius; and it is useful to be borne in mind, the New Year festival of the Romans being unquestionably the origin of the same festival among the early Christians. That it was

imported into Britain with the new religion seems highly probable; but at the same time we must not forget that the Mithraic worship of the Hindoos had a kindred ceremony in the huli, though at a different season, and that there was an undeniable connection between Druidism and the creed of Mithra. It is possible therefore that at least a part of these festal customs may have existed in Britain, together with Druidism, long before the introduction of Christianity among us, though it would be put down by the Romans to the utmost of their power upon their invasion of the island. From political motives they sought to extirpate the Druids, and abolish everything that could serve to keep the people in mind of them, for in the ruling religion they found the most determined obstacle to all

ethnicos moris fuerit ut hoc mense servi et ancillæ, et pastores, velut quadam libertate donarentur, fierentque cum dominis suis pari conditione, communia festa agentes post collectionem messium. BELETUS DE DIVIN. OFFIC. Cap. 120.

their views of conquest. For a long time it kept up the spirit of the people, who like the followers of Mahomet, the soldiers of the Crusade, or the fanatics of Cromwell, felt convinced that they were fighting not only their own battles, but the battles of the deity.

Whencesoever derived, these customs gave great offence to the early Fathers of the Church as Christianity became more firmly established and they felt themselves in a position to dictate. But though to make the heathens abandon their Gods was comparatively speaking an easy matter, it seems to have been a very different thing when in the sour and jealous spirit of fanaticism they took up arms against the popular amusements. They then found the people much more zealous for their pleasures than they had been for their deities. They persisted however; denouncing all such observances in their sermons, and prohibiting them by their canons, under penalty of expulsion from the bosom of the Church. With more zeal than discretion they forbade the decorating of houses with laurel,* and made it a capital sin for men to masquerade in female attire, or for women to assume the dress of men. Nay, even the cantilena and the commessationes-the public carolling and feastingwere put under the ban ecclesiastic; and to make their point yet more sure, the zealous fathers ordained the observance of a fast. For the same reason the strenæ, or new-year's gifts, were forbidden by the Council of Auxerre in 614, which stigmatized them as diabolical; but though these prohibitions do not appear to have done much good at the time, yet they have taught us many customs, of which we otherwise should most probably

"Ex Græcorum Synodis Martinus Bracharen. collect. c. 73, recitat vetitum esse Christianis ea Kalendaru die viridi lauro vel aliis virentibus arborù ramis ornare domos." MARTYROLOGIUM ROMANUM. Kalendis Januarii.

have known little or nothing. Thus the canon which forbids the profane GAME OF FAWN (cervulus or cervula) and the no less wicked CALF-GAME (vetula) punishing the offenders with a three years' penance, conveys a valuable hint to antiquarians, and hence we learn that it was the Roman practice on the ides of January to assume as far as possible the shapes of various animals, and run about the streets in wild imitation of their voice_and_action,* In this custom, moreover, we trace the evident origin of the hobby and the dragon that used at one time to figure in our own sports at certain seasons.

It does not, however, appear that these efforts of the ancient fathers of the Church, to substitute fasting for feasting, and mortification for merriment, were very generally successful. The old customs were too deeply rooted in the hearts of the people to be eradicated by sermons or synods, and the most they could do was to give something of a Christian colour to things that were still essentially Pagan. We shall have occasion hereafter to observe how much succeeding Popes improved upon this plan.†

* CONCILIUM TOLETANUM IV. Canon 10. Isidore tells us that to put a stop to these amusements the Church ordered a general fast; "Proinde ergo sancti patres, considerantes maximam partem generis humani eodem die hujusmodi sacrilegiis ac luxuriis insidere, statuerunt in universo mundo per omnes ecclesias publicum jejunium." ISIDORI OPERA, De Officiis Eccles., lib. 1, cap. xl.

There is a curious passage to this effect in Hospinian. "Omnes enim illæ superstitiones ethnicæ, quas lib. de Festis Ethnicorum in Calendis Januar. commemoravimus, et olim hoc die sunt observatæ a Christianis, et etiamnum hodie pertinaciter observantur a nobis. Discurrunt namque noctu tam scnes quam juvenes promiscui sexus cantantes præ foribus divitum quibus felicem annum cantando precantur et optant. Hoc autem quum noctu fiat nemini dubium esse debet quin sub hoc prætextu multa obscæna et turpia perpetrantur simul. Eade nocte plurimi mensam varii generis epulis parant et ornant, putantes se per totum anni spatium talē ciborum abundantia habituros.