CHAP. 10. 1. ANTIQUITIES, &c. 300 



The Festival of St. Stephen, which imme- 

 diately follows Christmas, is mentioned as a 

 good day for sweating and bleeding of Horses, 

 but I am unable to guess why. 



St. John the Evangelist's Day, December 27, 

 was esteemed a critical day in former times in 

 judging of Brumal Epidemicks, and to prevent 

 Rheums, and other diseases belonging to mid- 

 winter, our forefathers instituted the salutary 

 exercise of football. 



Childermas, or the Feast of Holy Innocents, 

 was esteemed a day of very unlucky omens.* 



" When the Cock, with lively din, 

 Scatters the rear of darkness thin ; 

 And to the stack or the barndoor, 

 Stoutly struts his dames before." 



* See Hospinian de Festis, and other early writers oil 

 Christian Antiquities. 



In describing, as above, the numerous superstitious notions 

 and practices, attached by our forefathers to particular days 

 in the Roman Calendar, it is by no means intended to ascribe 

 the celebration of those days to superstitious origin. The 

 annual memento to particular occurrences in Sacred History, 

 which each revolving year presented on particular days ap- 

 pointed for the celebration of Saints, and Martyrs, and certain 

 holy acts of the Church, operated so powerfully on the minds 

 of devoted Catholics in those early ages, as to induce them, 

 by a species of mental fallacy not uncommon, to mix up many 

 other opinions, derived from imperfect atmospherical and 



