Discovery of Horse-heads, By Dr. E. C. Robertson. 511 



as those sliowered into Coventina's well, are still thrown into the 

 clear spring waters. We have in All-Saints' Day the Heathen 

 autumn festival— in All-Hallow-Eve the day of thanksgiving for 

 the fruits of the earth, when apples are eaten, and stalks of corn 

 pulled for charms. The Midwinter festival of the Pagan Yule- 

 is changed into the feast Christmas and kept as the birth of our 

 Saviour. In Easter we have the Saxon Goddess of Spring, in 

 proper person " Eostre ''; and throughout the Eastern Church, 

 as well as in the West we have the eggs still, which were offered 

 to the goddess "Eostre" as a symbol of production, or as the 

 Eoman Catholic Church says, of the resurrection. Paul II., in 

 1466 issued a form of benediction of eggs for England " for those 

 eating them in thankfulness on account of the resurrection of oar 

 Lord." The " Yirding of a live cock " to cure epilepsy, which 

 custom has perhaps hardly even yet passed away, is another ex- 

 ample — it being in the nineteenth century an unwitting offering 

 to the heathen god, Esculapius. The last words of Socrates may 

 be quoted, as referring to the custom of offering a cock to the 

 god of health, " Crito, I owe a cock to Asclepias, wiU you 

 remember to pay the debt." ''The debt shall be paid" said 

 Crito, '' is there anything else." There was no answer, Socrates 

 was dead. 



We need not feel surprise at such superstitious practices being 

 connected with Christianity. The early missionaries did not 

 stamp out such things, but gave them a religious turn. Well- 

 Worship continued, but the weUs became consecrated to the Saints 

 —the Heathen feasts became Christian festivals, the sacred ivy 

 and holly of the Heathen were used by the priests of the new 

 religion to adorn their churches. This shows how great was the 

 tolerance of the early Christian church towards the rites and cere- 

 monies of Heathen worship. 



These ancient pre-christian rites might be expected to keep 

 their hold upon the people most tenaciously in a district, situated 

 as the dale of the Eede, of which Els don might be called the 

 capital, was of old. Eedesdale was until quite recently, a very 

 secluded valley, surrounded by moors and morasses, and occu- 

 pied to a great extent by shaggy woods. Until all-conquering 

 Eome planted her standard in its centre, Eedesdale must have 

 been singularly inaccessible to the outer world. After the Eoman 

 domination came to au end, the district seems to have remained 

 undisturbed by Saxon from the east or Northman from the west. 



2m 



