CHAP. 10. 1. ANTIQUITIES, &c. ftf 



year. The former may be interested in tracing 

 their historical origin, and the latter in develop- 

 ing their particular physical causes. 



The Festival of the Circumcision, January 1 , 

 was held by the Scotch in former times as 

 ominous, and as affording a prognostick of the 

 weather of the coming year, of which our poet 

 Churchill makes this month the leader 



" Froze January, leader of the year, 

 Minced pies in van, and calf's head in the rear." 



Sir John Sinclair quotes the parson of Kirk- 

 michael, in the County of Banff, as relating the 

 following superstition of the people. On the 

 first night of the new year, I suppose New 

 Year's Eve, they carefully watch the weather, 

 and from the disposition of the Air and direc- 

 tion of the Wind, they pronounce the whole 

 year to come. If the Wind then blow from 

 the West, they call it Da na Coille, or the 

 Foundation of Trees.* The English of the 

 same period spent this Eve, according to national 

 custom, with a wassail bowl and Christmas 

 pastimes. 



Twelfth Day, January 6. In Gloucestershire, 

 on the eve of the Epiphany, the farmers have a 



* ,Stat. Ace. Scotl. xii. 458. 



T 



