CHERRY. 83 



receive the sedulous bee, gives a pleasure that is scarcely 

 surpassed by its autumnal transparent fruit. 



There is a feast celebrated at Hamburgh, called the 

 " Feast of Cherries;" in which troops of children parade 

 the streets with green boughs ornamented with cherries, 

 to commemorate a triumph obtained in the following man- 

 ner: In 1432 the Hussites threatened the city of Hamburgh 

 with immediate destruction, when one of the citizens, 

 named Wolf, proposed that all the children in the city, 

 from seven to fourteen years of age, should be clad in 

 mourning, and sent as supplicants to the enemy. Proco- 

 pius Nasus, chief of the Hussites, was so touched with 

 this spectacle, that he received the young supplicants, 

 regaled them with cherries and other fruits, and promised 

 them to spare the city. The children returned crowned 

 with leaves, holding cherries, and crying " Victory" 



