Christmas Carols, Ancient And Modern

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	Some curious particulars are incidentally intro­duced in the glossary. Amongst others, it is stated to be the custom in the province, for the master of a family with his wife and children to sing Noels; " une tres grosse buche" (called lai suche de Noei,) was put on the fire, and the younger children were then sent into the corner of the room to pray that the suche might produce bon bons, by the same means that the renowned Gulliver employed to extinguish the fire in the Lilliputian palace. On their return, packets of sugar-plums, &c. were found near the suche, to whom the children implicitly at­tributed the power of thus supplying them. An account is also given (pp. 257-8) of a repre­sentation of the mystery of the Nativity, in which four animals were introduced, the ox and ass of the manger, (or creche) the cock of the passion, and the lamb of St. John the Baptist, each of them speaking in his own manner. First, the cock ex­claims with a piercing voice, Christus natus est. The ox with a lengthened bellowing (mugissement) demands ubi ? pronouncing it as the Germans, oubi. The lamb answers in Bethleem, laying a stress on, and lengthening the first syllable; on which the ass concludes with hinhamus, hinhamus, signifying eamus. Hone, (on Mysteries, p. 103.) describes a carol printed in London in 1701, having a similar con­ceit, with a large wood-cut, representing the stable at Bethlehem ; Christ in the crib, watched by the Virgin and Joseph ; shepherds kneeling, and angels attending; a man playing on the bagpipes; a 1 rost. 3 tourneroit. 3 lechefrite. 4 gelinotes de bois.