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name given to this month by the Romans was from JANUS, one of their divinities, to whom ave two faces; because, on the one side, the ay of this month looked towards the new year, on the other, towards the old one."

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Remarkable Days

10 D 9 In JANUARY 1822.

1. CIRCUMCISION.

Is festival was instituted in the sixth century, mmemorate the circumcision of our Saviour. is also New Year's-day, which has ever been dered a season of joy and congratulation for ings received and dangers escaped in the past

The antient custom of going about with the ail, a bowl of spiced ale, on New Year's-eve, fth-night, and Christmas-eve, is still kept up any places. The mode of proceeding in the ern counties of England is as follows: A comof six men, having provided themselves with le bowl, set out on the commencement of the year to visit the inhabitants of the town or vilin which they live. They rarely begin until the

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candles are lighted, when, without ceremony, the silently open the door, and, in an audible voice, b gin to sing some barbarous lines that seem to ha neither sense nor meaning, any further than the contain a request that those within will bestow som thing on

These poor jolly wassail boys,

Come travelling through the mire ;

and, having obtained this either in meat, drink, money, and sometimes in all, they retire and repe the same ditty at the next door.-Ben Jonson h given us two curious personifications of the wassa the first, in his Forest, No. 3; while giving an a count of a rural feast in the hall of Sir Robe Wroth, he says,

The rout of rural folk come thronging in,

Their rudeness then is thought no sin-
The jolly wassal walks the often round,

And in their cups their cares are drowned:

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and, the second, in Christmas, His Masque, as was presented at Court, 1616,' where Wassall, as o of the ten children of Christmas, is represented the following quaint manner: Like a neat sempst and songster; her page bearing a browne bow drest with ribbands, and rosemarie before her.

Fletcher, in his Faithful Shepherdess, has giver striking description of the festivity attendant on t wassail bowl:

The woods, or some near town
That is a neighbour to the bordering down,

Hath drawn them thither, 'bout some lusty sport,
Or spiced wassel-boul, to which resort

All the young men and maids of many a cote,

Whilst the trim minstrell strikes his merry note.

The persons thus accompanying the wassail bo especially those who danced and played, were cal wassailers, an appellation which it was afterwa customary to bestow on all who indulged, at a

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s Lady in Comus making use of the term in wing beautiful passage:

Methought it was the sound

Of riot and ill-managed merriment,
Such as the jocund flute or gamesome pipe
Stirs up among the loose unlettered hinds,
When for their teeming flocks, and granges full,
In wanton dance they praise the bounteous Pan,
And thank the gods amiss. I should be loath
To meet the rudeness, and swilled insolence,
Of such late wassailers.

Year's-day is still observed in Scotland with hilarity, and some curious ceremonies, for count of which we refer to our last volume,

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Consult also T.T. from 1814 to 1819 in, for a description of many interesting cushow obsolete. In Cornwall, it is considered lucky to pay money on the first day of Janus it ensures a continuance of disbursements hout the year.

BYE-PAST TIME.

The sky is blue, the sward is green,
The leaf upon the bough is seen,
The wind comes from the balmy west,
The little songster builds its nest,
The bee hums on from flower to flower,
Till twilight's dim and pensive hour;
The joyous year arrives; but when
Shall bye-past times come back again?
I think on childhood's glowing years-
How soft, how bright, the scene appears!
How calm, how cloudless, passed away
The long, long, summer holiday!
I may not muse-I must not dream-
Too beautiful these visions seem
For earth and mortal man; but when
Shall bye-past times come back again?

I think of sunny eves so soft,
Too deeply felt, enjoyed too oft,
When through the bloomy fields I roved
With her, the earliest, dearest loved;

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6 EPIPHANY, or TWELFTH-DAY,

The rites of this day, the name of which signifie an appearance of light, or a manifestation, are di ferent in various places,obutialling honour of th Eastern Magi. There is a very antient and singula custom, in various partsy of the continenty whic takes place on the eve of the Epiphany, and is per formed in the following manner:A cake, made o flour, butter, and eggs, and of a size proportionabl to the number of the guests, is brought in and di vided into as many shares as "convives" are going t sit down to supper. These pieces, one of whic conceals a bean lodged in the outer part of the cake are tossed up in a napkin. The youngest person i the company comes forward, and having said grace takes hold of a slice without looking at it, and the addresses the master of the house by these words 'Fabæ Domine (lord of the bean), who is this for? An answer is given; and when all the shares ar drawn, the guest who finds the bean in his or he possession is declared king or queen of the feast and becomes possessed of all the rights belonging t the president for the night. When either drinks, i any one in the company omits to say aloud, "the king" or "the queen drinks," a fine is lawfully ex acted, which consists in a pledge deposited in th

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some one, to be redeemed after supper by. a song. This sort of amusement was well at Rome, with this difference, that the king ast was not chosen by means of a bean, but cast of small bones called tali. They are -bones of sheep, which schoolboys in France = for a game called osselets; having been sly smoothed upon a stone, and reduced to es. The tessera, dice, have six. Horace rm. lib. 1, od. 4:

But when you sink to Pluto's hall,
No little rattling bones shall fall
To choose you Monarch of the wine.

her custom, on the eve of the Epiphany, still ed on the continent, is to take a few larks, t them upon a fresh-cut twig of hazel, and hem before a good fire; after a few minutes' ation, the whole begins to turn without help, if by a spontaneous motion. The staring ny, in amazement and rapture, cry 'Miracle! nain persuaded that this cannot be done but ernatural agency or magic. The fact is, that › contained in the veins of the twig (which are ly set in a spiral line round the centre) being sively attracted by the fire, causes a sort of

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the Popish Carnival, which commences on h-day, and usually holds till Lent, many cuparticulars will be found in our preceding vo;-we shall now add an account of 'the CarniRome in 1820,' from the pen of the lively and aining Lady Morgan, whose work on 'Italy' ns some admirable sketches of the manners and ns of the modern Romans.

e Carnival' (says our author) commences on

the very entertaining notes to Tabella Cibaria, a Poem, pp. and some lines alluding to the bean in T. T. for 1820, p. 9.

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