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the Day of Gifts. Providence, in their eyes, seemed to 

 have selected it, in bleak January, the severest month 

 in the year, to bring to the domestic circle, with touch- 

 ing religious observance, a warm gleam of sunshine. 



" In the quaint drawings which illuminate the Catholic 

 missals in the Middle Ages, January, says Brady, " is 

 represented by the figure of a man clad in white, as the 

 type of the snow usually on the ground at that season, 

 and blowing on his fingers as descriptive of the cold ; 

 under his left arm he holds a billet of wood, and near 

 him, stands the figure of the sign Aquarius, into which 

 watery emblem in the zodiac the sun enters on the 19th 

 of this month." 



It was Numa Pomphilius who named this month 

 Januarius, in honour of Janus, the Pagan deity sup- 

 posed to preside over doors — typefying the opening and 

 closing of the year. Janus could look into two direc- 

 tions at once ; the double faced, typical old villain, 

 honoured among the ancients, is not without his repre- 

 sentatives amoug the moderns. 



Scanning through the weird gallery of the past, the 

 Fasti, of our native city, give us back the quaint 

 figures of our Gallic ancestors, as they moved round on 

 this festive day. 



Without venturing to assert that the family side- 

 board on New Year's Day groaned under such pyra- 

 mids of crockignolles, iced gdteaux and bonbons, such 

 an array of wine decanters and liqueur flasks, as was 

 customary in the hey-day of our youth — when Blue 

 Ribbonmen, alas ! were curiosities — we can positively 

 affirm that reliable, written records remain of how 

 things were managed in the " rock city " in the good 

 olden time. 



Several entries occur in the private journal of the 

 Jesuits, recently published, throwing light on the 

 customs of New Year's Day and its presents, furnish- 

 ing a gratifying picture of the cordiality which reigned 

 among the inhabitants of New Prance. Let us open 



