BOOK Julagalt. and vegetable fecundity, the northern nations offered that animal, as the Italians did to the earth.* In this point of Christmas. view the boar is the decent substitute for the obscene phallus in the rites of Bacchus and Osiris; and, at this day, it is customary among the peasants in the northern parts of the continent to make bread during Christmas in the form of a boar pig, which they place upon the table with bacon and other dishes; exposing it, as a good omen, the whole of the feast. They call this bread Julagalt, and sometimes Sunnugoltr, because it was dedicated to the sun.† Our Christmas pies were formerly made in this form, until they degenerated to the lugubrious shape of a coffin. According to northern mythology the boar was the favorite dish of their immortalised heroes. The twentieth fable of the Edda contains a remarkable conversation respecting the food and drink of the departed Gothic warriors in the palace of Walhall, or Valhalla:-" But," inquires Gangler, "if every man who has been slain in battle since the beginning of the world, repairs to the palace of Odin, what food does that god assign to so vast a multitude?" Haar answered him,-" The cook Andrimmer dresses the wild boar incessantly in his pot, the heroes are fed with the lard or fat of this animal, which exceeds everything in the world; as to Odin himself, wine is to him instead of every aliment. Boar's Head. Analagous to the Julagalt was the boar's head soused, with a lemon in its mouth, which anciently with us was the first dish brought on table on Christmas day.§ For this Keightley, Fairy Mythology, Vol. I., p. 119. Both are considered by Verelius to be a remnant of the worship of Odin. Dr. Jamieson, Etymol. Dict., Art. Maiden. The heroes are fed on the lard of the wild boar Sehrimner, in the Edda of Resenius, Dæmesaga 33. Strutt observes, that with us the boar's head was highly esteemed, and served on the royal table in great state on the day of coronation.-Horda Angel-cynna, Vol. II., p. 19. Among the Romans the boar was, like the hare among us, frequently sent as a present, when, says Martial : indispensable ceremony there was a carol, which Ritson, in his Observations on Warton's History of English Poetry, quotes from a manuscript, and which is considerably more ancient than Wynkyn de Worde's Christmasse Carolle.* Premising that "Nowell," in the chorus, is the French Nouel or Noel, Ritson's carol is as follows: "IN DIE NATIUITATIS. "Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, Tydinge gode I thingke to telle. "Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, "A bore is a souerayn beste And acceptable in eu'ry feste, So mote thys lorde be the moste and leste. "Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, BOOK II. Christmas. "Pinguescant madidi læti nitore Penates, Flagret et exciso festa culina jugo." but, as its preparation for the table was expensive, the acceptance of the gift was sometimes declined: "Ad dominum redeas: noster te non capit ignis, Conturbator aper." They sometimes served up the animal whole, "aprum ad convivia natum," as a dish of state: "In primis Lucanus aper leni fuit Austro Captus, ut ajebat cœnæ pater." Hor. II., Sat. 8, 6. The boar was sometimes the military ensign of the Romans, instead of the bird of Jove, one solar emblem in place of the other. Among physicians, a boar's bladder has been reputed a specific for the epilepsy; and the tusk still passes with some as of great efficacy in quinsies and pleurisies. * See Warton, Vol. III., p. 144. Strutt, Lib. cit., Vol. III., p. 110. BOOK II. Christmas. Boar hunting. Unlike the above, Wynkyn de Worde's carol, though more scholarly, is destitute of a theological reason for the appearance of this savoury dish on the Christmas table. According to Warton, it is still sung with variations at Queen's College, Oxford; and if tradition deceive not, this deficiency will admit of easy explanation. According to Mr. Wade, the usage is a commemoration of an act of valor performed by a student of the college, who, while walking in the neighbouring forest of Shotover, and reading Aristotle, was suddenly attacked by a wild boar. furious beast came open-mouthed upon the youth, who, however, very courageously, and with a happy presence of mind rammed in the volume, and crying Græcum est, fairly choked the savage with the sage.* The Conformably with customs and opinions of remote antiquity, an old tradition existing within the town of Grimsby, in Lincolnshire, asserts that every burgess at his admission to the freedom of the borough, anciently presented to the mayor a boar's head, or an equivalent in money, when the animal could not be procured. The old seal of the mayor of Grimsby represents a boar hunt; and it seems that in former times this was a very prevalent and favorite amusement with the townsmen; and the lord of the adjacent manor of Bradley was obliged by his tenure to keep a supply of these animals in his wood for the entertainment of the mayor and burgesses; and an annual hunting match was officially proclaimed on some particular day after the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin. In the midst of these extensive woods the sport was followed with avidity; and seldom indeed did the assembled train fail to bring down a leash of noble boars, which were designed for a public entertainment on the following day. At this feast the newly elected mayor took his seat at the head of the table, which contained the whole body corporate and the principal * Walks in Oxford, Vol. I., p. 128. Hone's Year Book, p. 1502. gentlemen of the town and neighbourhood; and the chief dishes were the three boars' heads, two of which were placed before the mayor, and the third opposite the marshall, who was seated at the foot of the table. Hence probably the origin of the seal of the corporation, a chevron between three boars' heads. Such was the attachment of the corporation to their ancient dish that they secured a provision for it in the summer season by letting the ferry between Grimsby and Hull for a certain period, commencing June 20, 1620, at an annual rent of "one good and well fed brawn on the feast day of St. John the Baptist, and one quarter of well fed ox beef, and twenty shillings on the feast day of St. Thomas."* The boar hunt appears to have always been a favorite diversion in this island, and there is in fact extant a trace BOOK II. Christmas. Boar of its existence among the Romans here. Dr. Birch, in Roman 1748, commu..icated to the Royal Society, a very curious Hunting and perfect Roman inscription, which was found near Stan- in Britain. hope, in the bishopric of Durham. It is a votive offering to the God of Woods, and records that Ctetius Veturius Micianus, prefect of the Sebosian wing, more fortunate than many other huntsmen, who had all failed in their attempts, had just taken a boar of the largest size. The inscription has been copied as follows: SILVANOINVICTOSACRVM FORMAECAPTAMQVEM MVLTIANTECESSO RESEIVSPRAEDARI NON POTVERVNTVVSLP.+ Aubrey, who wrote in 1686, speaks, be it observed, of the general custom as extinct before his time: "Before the • Gent. Mag., Vol. XCVIII., p. 401, 402. + Phil. Trans., Feb. and Mar., 1748, art. 6. Journ. Britannique, Tom. I. Avril, an. 1750, p. 12, 13. H last civil wars, in gentlemen's houses at Christmas, the first dish that was brought to the table, was a boar's head with a lemon in his mouth." In some parts of Scotland, he who first opens the door on Yule Day, expects to prosper more than any other member of the family, during the future year, because, as the vulgar express it, "He lets in Yule." On opening the door, it is customary with some, to place in the door-way a table or chair covered with a clean cloth; and, according to their own language, to "Set on it bread and cheese to Yule." Early in the morning, as soon as any one of the family gets out of bed, a new besom is set behind the outer door, the design being to "let in Yule." These superstitions, in which Yule is not only personified, but treated as a deity, are evidently of heathen origin. It is also common to have a table covered in the house, from morning until evening, with bread and drink upon it, that every one who calls may take a portion, and it is considered particularly inauspicious if any one comes into a house and leaves it without participation. Whatever number of persons call on this day, all must partake of the good cheer.* A similar superstition prevails, on this subject, in the north of England and in Scotland, but on New Year's Day -It is that of the First Foot, the name applied to the person, who first enters a house in the new year; this is regarded by the superstitions as influencing the fate of the family, especially of the fair portion of it, for the ensuing year. To exclude all suspected or unlucky persons, it is customary for one of the damsels to engage before hand some favoured youth, who, elated with so signal a mark of female distinction, gladly comes early in the morning, and never empty handed.+ In Lancashire, even in the larger towns, it is considered at this time of day, particu * Jamieson, Etymol. Dict. art. Yule. + Brockett, Gloss of N. Country Words, p. 72. Jamieson, ibid. art. First Fit. |