of boys and girls still go about in this very manner at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and other places in the north of England, some few nights before, on the night of the Eve of Christmas Day, and on that of the day itself. The Hagmena is still preserved among them, and they always conclude their begging song with wishing a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. The very observable word "Hagmena," used on this occasion, is by some supposed of an antiquity prior to the introduction of the Christian faith. Others deduce it from three French words run together,2 and signifying "the man is born." Others again derive it from two Greek words, signifying the Holy Month. The following is taken from Barnabe Googe, f. 44:

'Selden, in his Notes on the Polyolbion, 9, song, tells us: "that on the Druidian custom (of going out to cut the mistletoe) some have grounded that unto this day used in France, where the younger country fellows about New Yeare's-tide, in every village, give the wish of good fortune at the inhabitants dores, with this acclamation, Au guy l'an neuf,' i. e. to the mistletoe this New Year: which, as I remember, in Rablais, is read all one word for the same purpose." He cites here" Jo. Goropius Gallic. 5, et aliis." I find the following in Menage's Dictionary, i. 12, "Aguilanleu, par corruption, pour An gui l'an neuf: ad Viscum, annus novus. Paul Mérule, dans sa Cosmographie, part 2, liv. 3, chap. xi. Sunt qui illud Au Gui l'an neuf, quod hactenus quot annis pridie Kalendas Januar. vulgo publicè cantari in Gallia solet ab Druidis manasse autumnant: ex hoc fortè Ovidii,

Ad Viscum Druidæ, Druidæ cantare solebant: Solitos enim aiunt Druidas per suos adolescentes viscum suum cunctis mittere, eo quasi munere, bonum, faustum, felicem, et fortunatum omnibus annum precari.' Voyez Goropius Becanus in Gallicis, Vigenaire sur César, Vinet sur Ausone, Gosselin au chapitre 14 de son Histoire des anciens Gaulois, André Favyn dans son Theatre d'Honneur, p. 38, et sur tout Jan Picard dans sa Celtopédie. Il est a remarquer, que les vers cy-dessus allégué par Mèrule sous le nom d'Ovide, n'est point d'Ovide. En Touraine on dit Aguilanneu. Les Espagnols disent Aguinaldo pour les prèsants qu'on fait a la Feste de Noël. En basse Normandie, les pauvres, le dernier jour de l'an, en demandant l'aumosne, disent Hoguinanno." See also Cotgrave's Dictionary, in verbo "Au-guy-l'an neuf." The Celtic name for the oak was gue or guy.

I found the following in the handwriting of the learned Mr. Robert Harrison, of Durham :

"Scots Christmass Carroll by the Guisearts.

Homme

S Hoghmenay

Homme est né corrupted to role, or Trolley.

Hinc trole, a ditty. Trololey, Shakespeare. What led to this I do not at present recollect."

"Three weekes before the day whereon was borne the Lorde of Grace,
And on the Thursdaye boyes and girls do runne in every place,
And bounce and beate at every doore, with blowes and lustie snaps,
And crie, the Advent of the Lord not borne, as yet perhaps.
And wishing to the neighbours all, that in the houses dwell,
A happie yeare, and every thing to spring and prosper well:
Here have they peares, and plumbs, and pence, ech man gives willinglee,
For these three nightes are alwayes thought unfortunate to bee:
Wherein they are afrayde of sprites and cankred witches spight,
And dreadfull devils blacke and grim, that then have chiefest might."

In Whimzies; or, a new Cast of Characters, 1631, p. 80, the anonymous author, in his description of a good and hospitable housekeeper, has left the following picture of Christmas festivities. "Suppose Christmas now approaching, the evergreen ivie trimming and adorning the portals and partcloses of so frequented a building; the usual carolls, to observe antiquitie, cheerefully sounding; and that which is the complement of his inferior comforts, his neighbours, whom he tenders as members of his owne family, joyne with him in this consort of mirth and melody." In the Second Part, p. 27, he calls a piper "an ill wind that begins to blow upon Christmasse Eve, and so continues, very lowd and blustring, all the twelve dayes or an airy meteor, composed of flatuous matter, that then appeares, and vanisheth, to the great peace of the whole family, the thirteenth day."

Poor Robin, in his Almanack for 1676, speaking of the Winter Quarter, tells us : "And lastly, who but would praise it because of Christmas, when good cheer doth so abound, as if all the world were made of minc'd-pies, plumb-puddings, and furmity."

6

"When the end of the year approached, the old Druids marched with great solemnity to gather the mistletoe of the oak, in order to present it to Jupiter, inviting all the world to assist at this ceremony with these words: The new year is at hand, gather the mistletoe.' In Aquitania quotannis prid. kal. Jan. pueri atque adolescentes vicosque villasque obeunt carmine stipem petentes sibique atque aliis pro voto in exordio novi anni acclamantes, Allguy, L'an neuf. Keysler, 305; so that the footsteps of this custom still remain in some parts of France." Borlase's Antiq. of Cornwall, pp. 91, 92.

On the Norman Hoquinanno, Douce observes: "This comes nearer to our word, which was probably imported with the

Normans. It was also by the French called Haguillennes and Haguimento, and I have likewise found it corrupted into Haguirenleux. See on this subject Carpentier, Supplem. ad du Cange, tom. iv. Dictionn. de Menage, Boril, and Trevoux; the Diction. des Mœurs et Usages des François; and Bellingen, l'Etymol. des Proverbes François."

We read, in the Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence Displayed, that it is ordinary among some plebeians in the South of Scotland to go about from door to door npon New Year's Eve, crying Hagmena, a corrupted word from the Greek ayia unvn, i. e. holy month. John Dixon, holding forth against this custom once, in a sermon at Kelso, says: "Sirs, do you know what hagmane signifies? It is, the devil be in the house! that's the meaning of its Hebrew original," p. 102. Bourne agrees in the derivation of Hagmena given in the Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence Displayed. "Angli," says Hospinian, Haleg-monath, quasi sacrum mensem vocant.' De Origine Ethn., p. 81.

Douce says: "I am further informed, that the words used upon this occasion are, Hagmena, Hagmena, give us cakes and cheese, and let us go away.' Cheese and oaten cakes, which are called farls, are distributed on this occasion among the cryers." See also Gent. Mag. 1790, p. 499.

A writer in the Gent. Mag. for July, 1790, p. 616, tells us: "In Scotland, till very lately (if not in the present time), there was a custom of distributing sweet cakes, and a particular kind of sugared bread, for several days before and after the New Year; and on the last night of the old year (peculiarly called Hagmenai) the visitors and company made a point of not separating till after the clock struck twelve, when they rose, and mutually kissing each other, wished each other a happy New Year. Children and others, for several nights, went about from house to house as Guisarts, that is, disguised, or in masquerade dresses, singing,

'Rise up, good wife, and be no' swier1

To deal your bread as long's you're here:
The time will come when you'll be dead
And neither want nor meal nor bread.'

"Some of those masquerades had a fiddle, and, when 1 See another version of these lines at p. 14.

admitted into a house, entertained the company with a dramatic dialogue, partly extempore."

An ingenious essay on Hagmena appeared in the Caledonian Mercury, for January 2, 1792, with the signature PHILOLOGUS, the more important parts of which have been extracted in Dr. Jamieson's Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language, in v. Hogmanay. SINGIN-E'EN, Dr. Jamieson informs us, is the appellation given in the county of Fife to the last night of the year. The designation, he adds, seems to have originated from the carols sung on this evening.

[Fragment of the Yorkshire Hagmena song.

To-night it is the New Year's night, to-morrow is the day,
And we are come for our right and for our ray,

As we used to do in old King Henry's Day:

Sing fellows, sing, hag-man, ha!

If you go to the bacon-flick cut me a good bit;
Cut, cut and low, beware of your maw.
Cut, cut, and round, beware of your thumb,
That me and my merry men may have some:
Sing, fellows, sing, hag-man, ha!

If you go to the black ark,' bring me ten marks;
Ten marks ten pound, throw it down upon the ground,
That me and my merry men may have some;
Sing, fellows, sing, hag-man, ha.]

MUMMING.

MUMMING is a sport of this festive season which consists in changing clothes between men and women, who, when dressed in each other's habits, go from one neighbour's house to another, partaking of Christmas cheer, and making merry with them in disguise. It is supposed to have been originally instituted

[The black ark was a ponderous piece of oaken furniture, near three feet in depth, and about six feet in length; the inside of which was usually divided into two parts. They are still occasionally to be met with in the dwellings of ancient housekeepers, and are now generally devoted to the purpose of holding bread-meal and flour. Their original use was that of holding linen, clothes, and valuables.]

2 Mummer signifies a masker; one disguised under a vizard: from the Danish Mumme, or Dutch Momme. Ļipsius tells us, in his 44th Epistle,

in imitation of the Sigillaria, or festival days added to the ancient Saturnalia, and was condemned by the synod of Trullus, where it was decreed that the days called the Calends should be entirely stripped of their ceremonies, and that the faithful should no longer observe them; that the public dancings of women should cease, as being the occasion of much harm and ruin, and as being invented and observed in honour of the gods of the heathens, and therefore quite averse to the Christian life. They therefore decreed that no man should be clothed with a woman's garment, nor any woman with a man's.

The author of Convivial Antiquities,' speaking of mumming in Germany, says, that in the ancient Saturnalia there were frequent and luxurious feastings amongst friends: presents were mutually sent, and changes of dress made: that Christians

book iii. that Momar, which is used by the Sicilians for a fool, signifies in French, and in our own language, a person with a mask on. See Junii Etymolog., and a curious note upon Mumming in Walker's Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards, p. 152. The following occurs in Hospinian, de Orig. Festor. Christian : “ Ab hoc denique Circumcisionis festo, usque ad quadragesimæ jejunium personæ induuntur et vestium mutationes fiunt, vicinique ad vicinos hac ratione commeant, turpi insaniendi bacchandique studio. Quam vestium mutationem nos Germani hodie nostra lingua Mummerey vocamus, a Latina voce muture. Iis etiam, qui ita larvati vicinos suos salutant occilla et oscilla secum deferunt, et ita pecuniam extorquent." fol. 32. Cum quotannis cernerem circa tempus Natalitium vigiliâ imprimis festi sacratissimi, more recepto, homines quosdam Christianos partim facie larvali fœdos, nigris lemuribus non absimiles; partem juvenili formâ, ceu lares compitales et viales, conspicuos; partim venerandâ canitie graves, hunc sanctum Christum, illos sanctos Christi ministros, alios divos Apostolos, alios denique ad æterna supplicia damnatos Diabolos, mendaci præ se ferente : indomita sæpe lascivia, comitante nequissimorum puerorum, servorum, ancillarum colluvie, ubivis viarum oberrantes; mox splendidâ pompâ et veneratione novos tragœdos in ædes admissos: adductos in puerorum terrorem propius, a quibus tantum non exanimatis, osculis, precibus, cultuque plane religiosa excipiebantur." Drechsler de Larvis Natalitiis, p. 19.

1 "Ut olim in Saturnalibus frequentes luxuriosæque cœnationes inter amicos fiebant, munera ultro citroque missitabantur, vestium mutationes fiebant, ita hodie etiam apud hos Christianos eadem fieri videmus a Natalibus Dominicis usque ad festum Epiphaniæ, quod in Januario celebratur : hoc enim tempore omni et crebro convivamur et Strenas, hoc est, ut nos vocamus, Novi Anni Donaria missitamus. Eodem tempore mutationes vestium, ut apud Romanos quondam usurpantur, vicinique ad vicinos invitati hac ratione commeant, quod nos Germani Mummerey vocamus." Antiquitat. Convivial. p. 126. The following occurs in Hospinian, de