112 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



In August, 1575, the General Assembly petitioned the 

 Regent "that all clayes . . . such as Yule-day 

 may be abolished, and a civil penalty ap- 

 pointed against the keepers thereof by Ceremonies, 

 Banquettings, Playing, Feasting, and other like 

 vanities."* 



George Buchanan, in his History (lib. v.) gravely 

 derives the word Yule from Julius, and considers 

 that it was so named in honour of Caesar. Other 

 surmises have been made, apparently almost equally 

 fantastic, as in deriving it from the Greek oidos or 

 ioulos — a hymn in honour of Ceres — and from the 

 Latin Jubilu7n. Yet, though Yule is not at all likely 

 to have been derived from the Greek, the word 

 oulos or olos, signifying the tvhole, has almost cer- 

 tainly the same root-origin as the Gothic giul or hiul, 

 a circle, a. wheel — the type of completeness — to which 

 the word Yule has been traced. This origin of the 

 word is, I think, the most probable that has been 

 suggested. The Gothic giul or hiul is not only 

 closely related to our English wheel, but to our ally 

 whole, and heal. The name for the feast of the 

 winter solstice appears to be connected with the idea 

 of a wheel, implied in the completion of the sun's 

 downward course and the commencement of his 

 upward one ; and as a circle from another point of 

 view suggests completeness, the nil of the Gaelic 

 iiilioc seems also to be related to the Gothic word as 

 well as to the Greek oulos. The resemblance, then, 

 in several languages between the names for the plant 

 and for the season has thus apparently no direct 

 relation to the connection that has arisen between 

 the mistletoe and Christmns, but is accidental so far 

 as that is concerned, and arises from a common de- 

 rivation from a primitive root, in which both the 

 idea of a circle and of completeness is conveyed. 



In Normandy, and some other parts of France, 

 there used to be a popular custom of giving twigs 

 of mistletoe to friends on the last day of the year 

 * Calderwood's History of the Kirk of Scotland. 



