234 ST. Thomas’s day.- — flying Dutchman. 
for the youth of both sexes to go from house to house, knocking at 
the doors, singing Christmas carols, and wishing a happy new year. 
They get, in return, at the houses they stop at, pears, apples, nuts, 
and even money. Little troops of boys and girls still go about in 
this very manner at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and other places in the 
north of England, some few nights before, on the night of the eve of 
Christmas-day, and on that of the day itself. The Hagmena is still 
preserved among them, and they alw ay s conclude their begging song with 
wishing a merry Christmas and a happy new year. The very observa- 
ble word “ Hagmena,” used on this occasion, is by some supposed of 
an antiquity prior to the introduction of the Christian faith. Others 
deduce it from three French words run together, and signifying 
“ the man is born.” Others again derive it from two Greek words 
signifying the “ holy mouth.” 
The Man in the Moon. 
The ancient superstition of “The Man in the Moon” is supposed to 
have taken rise from the passage in the book of Numbers; (xv. 32.) where 
a man is related to have been punished with death for gathering sticks 
on the Sabbath. 
Going a-Gooding on St. Thomas’s Day. 
“ I FIND some faint traces of a custom of going a-Gooding (as it is 
called) on St. Thomas’s Day, which "seems to have been done by 
women only, who, in return for the alms they received, appear to 
have presented their benefactors with sprigs of evergreens, probably 
to deck their houses with at the ensuing festival. Perhaps this -is 
only another name for the northern custom of going about and crying, 
Hagmena.” — Brand's Popular Antiquities. 
The Flying Dutchman. 
The following extract is from a work entitled, Researches into 
Atmospheric Phaenomena,” by Thomas Forster, Esq. — Among the 
superstitions referable to atmospheric phaenomena, may be mentioned 
the story of the Flying Dutchman, a ship, said by mariners to be 
seen about the Cape of Good Hope in blowing weather, undei the 
following extraordinary circumstances: — “ She is never known to get 
into port, and is seen at uncertain periods sailing at an immense rate 
.before the wind, under full press of canvass, in the most violent gales. 
The story attached to this appearance is, that she was a merchant 
ship from Holland, and that the captain having sworn a tremendous 
oath, in consequence of not being able to make the port, he was 
condemned, as a punishment, together with all the rest of the crew, 
to beat about the sea till the day of judgment. From the corrobo- 
rated account of many navigators, there seems to be no doubt but 
that something is seen, which they take for a distant sailing vessel ; 
but the most intelligenji: naval officers, with whom I have conversed, 
seem to regard it as some waterspout, or else a cloud reflected in the 
