CHAP. 10. 1. ANTIQUITIES, fcc. 287 



of green leaves, particularly the blossoming 

 Willows on Palm Sunday, is said to be a charm 

 against witchcraft, ; and Scot, in his Discovery, 

 compares this practice to the receiving con- 

 secrated salt, or the hallowing of candles.* 



There was formerly a custom of going out 

 early on Easter Morning to see the Sun dance, 

 which it was alledged to do as an exulting 

 memorial of the Resurrection. The precise 

 origin of this custom is unknown. The word 

 East signifies the place of rising, and is so called 

 from its being that quarter where, owing to the 

 Earth's rotary motion, the Sun and Stars appear 

 to rise. Easter signifies the time of rising, or 

 the Festival of the Rising of Jesus Christ. 

 East Winds prevail much about the time of 

 year at which this feast is celebrated, and when 

 the Wind is in that quarter, the luminous bodies 

 of the Heavens have often, as I before observed, 

 an apparently wavy or dancing motion, occa- 

 sioned by some peculiar motion in the atmo- 

 sphere. I conceive, however, that the dancing 

 of the Sun was a mere spectral illusion, to 

 which mystical persons are peculiarity prone, 

 while the viewing his rising was a common 



* Scot, Disc. 157. cit. Brund, ii. 3RO. 



