POPULAR BELIEFS. 



When Hcrodiun, Mac-robins, and Dionysius of Ilalicarnassus describe the 

 Saturnalia and the Lupercalia of ancient Rome, they might have been 

 describing these singular festivals of the Middle Ages, which Christianity was 

 compelled to tolerate for a long time, as an inheritance which, though 

 declining to accept, could not be shaken off in a moment. This is how it 

 was that so late as the fifteenth century the feasts of Saturn, Pan, and 

 other pagan divinities were, in spite of ecclesiastical censure, celebrated 



Fig. 171. The Procession of the Bcouf Gras. Slained Glass of the Sixteenth Century, ia the 

 Church of Bar eur-Seine (Aube). 



under denominations which only served to disguise the persistence of the 

 idolatry. 



With the Romans the Feast of the Kalends, or of the Saturnalia, began 

 in the middle of December, and continued until the third or the fifth day of 

 January. As long as it lasted public and private business was suspended, 

 and the whole time was spent in banquets, concerts, and masquerades. 

 People exchanged presents very freely, and at the banquets slaves were 



