80 BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



In the East, customs have undergone but little 

 change; and many of the sports which are 

 prevalent on May-day in some parts of Eng- 

 land and Ireland, and which, at first sight, ap- 

 pear to proceed from unmeaning caprice, may 

 be proved to be fragments of ancient Eastern 

 ceremonies, by their similarity to those still prac- 

 tised there on that day." 



My aunt said, that she had seen a May-bush 

 very prettily hung with flowers at Chamouni, in 

 Switzerland ; and she added, " in the old-fa- 

 shioned custom too of making fools on the first 

 of April, there is probably a vestige of the 

 Eastern celebration of the season when the sun 

 enters Aries ; that is, when the year commences. 

 In Persia, medals of gold were struck with the 

 head of the Ram, on the festival of the Nauruz 

 or new year's-day ; and the frolic of making 

 fools still distinguishes the Nauruz festival, and 

 is practised, I believe, from one end of India to 

 the other." 



I asked my uncle when that Eastern colony to 

 which he had alluded came to England, as I did 

 not recollect seeing it mentioned in the History 

 of England. 



" The ancient Britons," said my uncle, "had 

 a tradition of their being descended from an 

 Eastern tribe called Sacca ; and undoubtedly 

 there are many points of resemblance between 

 their modes of worship, and those practised in 



