BOCKKE.] CEREMONIAL CAKES. f)47 



ceremonies, which are believed by the editor of Bohn s Strabo to sur 

 vive in the Rogation Day processions of the Roman Catholic Church, 

 recall the notes already taken upon the subject of the Arval bread of 

 the Scotch. 1 The sacrifices themselves were designated &quot;Ambarva&quot; 

 and &quot; Ambarvalia.&quot; 



In Scotland and England it was customary for bauds of singers to go 

 from door to door on New Year s Eve, singing and receiving reward. 

 In the latter country &quot;cheese and oaten cakes, which are called farlx, 

 are distributed on this occasion among the cryers.&quot; In the former 

 country u there was a custom of -distributing sweet cakes and a particu 

 lar kind of sugared bread. 2 



A fine kind of wheat bread called wassail-bread&quot; formed an impor 

 tant feature of the entertainment on New Year s Day in old England. 3 



Among love divinations may be reckoned the dumb cake, so called 

 because it was to be made without speaking, and afterwards the parties 

 were to go backward up the stairs to bed and put the cake under 

 their pillows, when they were to dream of their lovers. 4 



References to the beal-tiue ceremonies of Ireland and Scotland, in 

 which oatmeal gruel figured as a dish, or cakes made of oatmeal and 

 carraway seeds, may be found in Brand, Pop. Antiq., vol. 1, p. 226; in 

 Blount, Tenures of Land aud Customs of Manors, London, 1874, p. 131; 

 and in Pennant s Tour in Scotland, in Piukerton s Voyages, vol. 3, 

 p. 49. In &quot;A (. harm for Bewitched Land&quot; we find the mode of making 

 a cake or loaf with holy water. 



The mince pie and plum pudding of Christmas are evidently ancient 

 preparations, aud it is not unlikely that the shape of the former, which, 

 prior to the Reformation, was that of a child s cradle, had a reminiscence 

 of the sacrifice of babies at the time of the winter solstice. Grimm has 

 taught that where human sacrifice had been abolished the figure of a 

 coffin or a cradle was still used as a symbol. 



There is a wide field of information to be gleaned in the investigation 

 of the subject of bean foods at certain periods or festivals of the year, 

 and upon this point I have some notes aud memoranda, but, as my 

 present remarks are limited to prehistoric farinoceous foods, I do not 

 wish to add to the bulk of the present chapter. 5 



&quot;Kostia boiled rice and plums is the only tiling partaken of on 

 Christmas Eve.&quot; 6 



1 Strabo, Geography, Bonn s edition, London, 1854, vol. 1, pp. 341,342. footnote. 



* Brand, Popular Antiquities, vol. 1. p. 460. 



3 Ibid., p. 7. 



4 Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, pp. , t, 180. On the same page: &quot;Dumb cake, a species of dreaming 

 bread prepared by unmarried females with ingredients traditionally suggested in witching doggerel. 

 When baked, it is cut into three divisions; a part of each to be eaten and the remainder put under 

 the pillow. When the clock strikes twelve, each votary must go to bed backwards aiid keep a pro 

 found silence, whatever may appear.&quot; 



6 A writer in the Gentleman s Magazine for .Inly, 1783, inquires : &quot; May not the minced yye, a com 

 pound of the choicest productions of the East, have in view the offerings made by the wise men who 

 came from afar to worship, bringing spifex, etc. Quoted in llrand, Pop. Ant., vol. 1, p. 526. The mince 

 pie was before the Reformation made in the form of a crib, to represent the manger in which the holy 

 child lay in the stable. Ibid., p. 178. 



* Heath, A Hoosier in Russia, p. 109. 



