After tea a cake is produced, and two bowls, containing the fortunate chances for the different sexes. The host fills up the tickets, and the whole company, except the king and queen, are to be ministers of state, maids of honour, or ladies of the bedchamber. Often, the host and hostess, more by design perhaps than accident, become king and queen. According to Twelfth-day law, each party is to support his character till midnight.'

In Ireland "On Twelve-Eve in Christmas, they use to set up as high as they can a sieve of oats, and in it a dozen of candles set round, and in the centre one larger, all lighted. This in memory of our Saviour and his Apostles, lights of the world." Sir Henry Piers's Description of the County of Westmeath, 1682, in Vallancey's Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, vol. i. No. 1, p. 124.

A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xxxiv. Dec. 1764, p. 599, thinks the practice of choosing king and queen on Twelfth Night owes it origin to the custom among the

1 Johannes Boemus Aubanus "Mores, Leges, et Ritum omnium Gentium." 12mo. Genev. 1620, p. 266, gives the following circumstantial description of this ceremony:

"In Epiphania Domini singulæ Familiæ ex melle, farina, addito zinzibere et pipere, libum conficiunt, et Regem sibi legunt hoc modo: Libum materfamilias facit, cui absque consideratione inter subigendum denarium unum immittit, postea amoto igne supra calidum focum illud torret, tostum in tot partes frangit, quot homines familia habet: demum distribuit, cuique partem unam tribuens. Adsignantur etiam Christo, beatæque Virgini, et tribus Magis suæ partes, quæ loco eleemosynæ elargiuntur. In cujus autem portione denarius repertus fuerit, hic Rex ab omnibus salutatus, in sedem locatur, et ter in altum cum jubilo elevatur. Ipse in dextera cretam habet, qua toties Signum Crucis supra in Triclinii laqueariis delineat: quæ Cruces quod obstare plurimis malis credantur, in multa observatione habentur."

Here we have the materials of the cake, which are flour, honey, ginger, and pepper. One is made for every family. The maker thrusts in, at random, a small coin as she is kneading it. When it is baked, it is divided into as many parts as there are persons in the family. It is distributed, and each has his share. Portions of it also are assigned to Christ, the Virgin, and the three Magi, which are given away in alms. Whoever finds the piece of coin in his share is saluted by all as King, and being placed on a seat or throne, is thrice lifted aloft with joyful acclamations. He holds a piece of chalk in his right hand, and each time he is lifted up, makes a cross on the ceiling. These crosses are thought to prevent many evils, and are much revered.

Romans, which they took from the Grecians, of casting dice who should be the Rex Convivii: or, as Horace calls him, the Arbiter Bibendi. Whoever threw the lucky cast, which they termed Venus or Basilicus, gave laws for the night. In the same manner the lucky clown, who out of the several divisions of a plum-cake draws the king, thereby becomes sovereign of the company; and the poor clodpole, to whose lot the knave falls, is as unfortunate as the Roman, whose hard fate it was to throw the damnosum Caniculum.

It appears that the twelfth cake was made formerly full of plums, and with a bean and a pea: whoever got the former, was to be king; whoever found the latter, was to be queen. Thus in Herrick's Hesperides, p. 376:

"Twelfe Night, or King and Queene.

"Now, now the mirth comes

With the cake full of plums,

Where beane's the king of the sport here;
Besides we must know,

The pea also

Must revell, as queene, in the court here.

Begin then to chuse,
(This night as ye use)

Who shall for the present delight here,

Be a king be the lot,

And who shall not,

Be Twelfe-day queene for the night here :

Which knowne, let us make
Joy-sops with the cake;

And let not a man then be seen here,
Who unurg'd will not drinke

To the base from the brink

A health to the king and the queene here.

Next crowne the bowle full
With gentle lamb's-wooll;

Adde sugar, nutmeg, and ginger,

With store of ale too;

And thus ye must doe

To make the Wassaile a swinger.

Give them to the king

And queene wassailing;

And though with the ale ye be whet here;
Yet part ye from hence,

As free from offence,

As when ye innocent met here."

And at p. 271 we find the subsequent :—

"For sports, for pagentrie, and playes,
Thou hast thy eves and holidayes:
Thy wakes, thy quintels, here thou hast,
Thy May-poles too, with garlands grac't:
Thy Morris-dance; thy Whitsun ale;
Thy shearing feast, which never faile.
Thy Harvest Home; thy Wassaile Bowle,
That's tost up after Fox-i'-th'-Hole;
Thy mummeries: thy twelfe-tide kings

And queens: thy Christmas revellings."

So also in Nichols's Queen Elizabeth's Progresses, "Speeches to the Queen at Sudley," ii. 8,

"Melibaus. Nisa.

"Mel. Cut the cake: who hath the beane shall be king; and where the peaze is, shee shall be queene.

"Nis. I have the peaze, and must be Queene.

"Mel. I the beane, and king; I must commaunde."
Thus p. 146, ibid., we read—

"Of Twelfe-tide cakes, of peas and beanes,
Wherewith ye make those merry scenes,
Whenas ye chuse your king and queene,
And cry out, Hey for our town green."

In the Popish Kingdome, Barnabe Googe's Translation, or rather Adaptation of Naogeorgus, f. 45, we have the following lines on "Twelfe Day :"

"The wise men's day here followeth, who out from Persia farre
Brought gifts and presents unto Christ, conducted by a starre.
The Papistes do beleeve that these were kings, and so them call,
And do affirme that of the same there were but three in all.
Here sundrie friends together come, and meet in companie,
And make a king amongst themselves by voyce or destinie:
Who after princely guise appoyntes his officers alway,
Then unto feasting doe they go, and long time after play :
Upon their bordes in order thicke the daintie dishes stande,
Till that theire purses emptie be, and creditors at hande.
Their children herein follow them, and choosing princes here,
With pomp and great solemnitie, they meete and make good chere.
With money eyther got by stealth, or of their parents eft,
That so they may be traynde to know both ryot here and theft.
Then also every householder, to his abilitie,

Doth make a mightie cake, that might suffice his companie:

Herein a pennie doth be put before it come to fire,
This he divides according as his householde doth require,
And every peece distributeth, as round about they stand,
Which in their names unto the poore is given out of hand:
But who so chaunceth on the piece wherein the money lies,
Is counted king amongst them all, and is with showtes and cries
Exalted to the heavens up, who taking chalke in hande,
Doth make a crosse on every beame, and rafters as they stande:
Great force and powre have these agaynst all injuryes and harmes
Of cursed devils, sprites, and bugges, of conjurings and charmes.
So much this King can do, so much the crosses bring to passe,
Made by some servant, maide, or childe, or by some foolish asse.
Twice sixe nightes then from Christmasse, they do count with diligence,
Wherein eche maister in his house both burne up frankensence;
And on the table settes a loafe, when night approcheth nere,
Before the coles, and frankensence to be perfumed there:

First bowing down his heade he standes, and nose, and eares, and eyes,
He smokes, and with his mouth receyves the fume that doth arise:
Whom followeth straight his wife, and doth the same full solemnly,
And of their children every one, and all their family:

Which doth preserve they say their teeth, and nose, and eyes, and eare,
From every kind of maladie and sicknesse all the yeare:
When every one receyved hath this odour, great and small,
Then one takes up the pan with coales and franckensence and all,
Another takes the loafe, whom all the reast do follow here,
And round about the house they go, with torch or taper clere,
That neither bread not meat do want, not witch with dreadful charme,
Have powre to hurt their children, or to do their cattell harme.
There are that three nightes onely do perfourme this foolish geare,
To this intent, and thinke themselves in safetie all the yeare.
To Christ dare none commit himselfe. And in these dayes beside,
They judge what weather all the yeare shall happen and betide :
Ascribing to each day a month, and at this present time,
The youth in every place doe flocke, and all apparel'd fine,
With pypars through the streets they runne, and sing at every dore,
In commendation of the man, rewarded well therefore:
Which on themselves they do bestowe, or on the church, as though
The people were not plagude with roges and begging friers enough.
There cities are, where boyes and gyrles together still do runne,
About the streets with like, as soon as night beginnes to come,
And bring abrode their Wassell Bowles, who well rewarded bee
With cakes and cheese, and great good cheare, and money plenteouslee."

In Gloucestershire there is a custom on Twelfth Day of having twelve small fires made, and one large one, in many parishes in that county, in honour of the day. In the Southhams of Devonshire, on the eve of the Epiphany, the farmer, attended by his workmen, with a large pitcher of cider, goes

to the orchard, and there encircling one of the best bearing trees, they drink the following toast three several times :

"Here's to thee, old apple-tree,

Whence thou mayst bud, and whence thou mayst blow!
And whence thou mayst bear apples enow!

Hats full! caps full!
Bushel-bushel-sacks full,

And my pockets full too! Huzza!"

This done, they return to the house, the doors of which they are sure to find bolted by the females, who, be the weather what it may, are inexorable to all intreaties to open them till some one has guessed at what is on the spit, which is generally some nice little thing, difficult to be hit on, and is the reward of him who first names it. The doors are then thrown open, and the lucky clodpole receives the tit-bit as his recompense. Some are so superstitious as to believe, that if they neglect this custom, the trees will bear no apples that year. See Gent. Mag. 1791, p. 403.

On the eve of Twelfth Day, as a Cornish man informed me on the edge of St. Stephen's Down, October 28, 1790, it is the custom for the Devonshire people to go after supper into the orchard, with a large milk-pan full of cider, having roasted apples pressed into it. Out of this each person in company takes what is called a clayen cup, i. e. an earthenware cup full of liquor, and standing under each of the more fruitful apple-trees, passing by those that are not good bearers, he addresses it in the following words :

"Health to thee, good apple-tree,

Well to bear pocket-fulls, hat-fulls,
Peck-fulls, bushel bag-fulls ;"

And then drinking up part of the contents, he throws the rest, with the fragments of the roasted apples, at the tree. At each cup the company set up a shout.

So we read in the Glossary to the Exmoor dialect::"Watsail, a drinking song, sung on Twelfth-day eve, throwing toast to the apple trees, in order to have a fruitful year, which seems to be a relic of the heathen sacrifice to Pomona."

[The following lines were obtained from this district, and probably form another version of the song above given, —