M A Y. 
570 
whom they offered facrince on the firft day of it ; and 
Papias derives it from madias, wet, or moifl. TheSaxons 
called May tri milki, becaufe they now began to milk their 
kine three times in the day. 
In this month the .Sun enters Gemini, and the plants 
ill general begin to flower. —May mult be drawn with a 
tweet and amiable countenance, clad in a robe of white 
and green, embroidered with daflidils, hawthorns, and 
blue-bottles. Peacham, 
Hail! bounteous May, that doft infpire 
Mirth and youth, and warm deli re 5 
Woods and groves are of thy drefling, 
Hill and dale doth boait thy hlefling. Milton. 
The month of May was under the prote-ftion of Apollo; 
and in it alfo they kept the feltival of the Bona Dea ; that of 
the goblins, called temuria ; and the ceremony of rcgifugium, 
or the expulfion of the kings. This month has ever been 
eiteemed favourable to love; and yet the ancients, as well 
as many of the moderns, look on it as an unhappy month 
for marriage. The original reafon may perhaps be referred 
to the fealt of the Lemures, which was held in it, as men¬ 
tioned above. Ovid alludes to this in the fifth of his 
Falii, when he fays. 
Nee viduse tsedis eastern, nec virginis apta 
Tempora; quae nuplit, non diuturna fuit: 
Hac quoque de caufa, li te proverbia tangunt, 
Menfe malum Maio mibere vulgus ait. 
It may not be amifs alfo to obferve, that, though May 
is ufually conlidered the molt delightful month in the 
year, and has long been the Mufe’s theme, yet much 
that is laid of its beauties certainly applies better to more 
fouthern climates, or rather to our month of June, which 
indeed is commonly entitled to all the praifes that the 
poets have lavilhed upon May. This common error has 
given birth to fome pleafing lines by Cowper, called the 
“ Judgment of the Poets,” republilhed in the third volume 
of his Poems. 
They gentle call’d, and kind, and foft. 
The flippant and the fcold ; 
And, though Hie chang’d her mood fo oft,. 
That failing left untold. 
No judges, fure, were e’er fo mad, 
Or fo refolv’d to err ; 
In flvort, the charms her After had 
They lavilh’d all on her. 
Then thus the god, whom fondly they 
Their great infpirer call, 
"Was heard, one genial fummer’s day, 
To reprimand them all:— 
“ Since thus ye have combin’d,” he find, 
“ My fav’rite nymph to flight, 
Adorning May, that peevifli maid. 
With June’s undoubted right; 
The minx (hall, for your folly’s fake. 
Still prove herfelf a threw ; 
Shall make your fcribbling fingers ache. 
And pinch your nofes blue.” 
Of may-day fports and may-poles we have fpoken pretty 
much at large under the article Game, vol. viii. p.201. 
See alfo the article London, vol. xiii. p. 72, 73. But the 
author of a pamphlet, entitled, “ The Way to Things by 
Words, and to Words by Things,” in his fpecimen of an 
etymological vocabulary, conflders the may-pole in a new 
and curious light: we gather from him that our anceftors 
held an anniverfary aflembly on May day; the Column of 
the May (whence our May-pole) was the great ftandard of 
juftice in the Ey-Commons, or Fields of May. Here it was 
that the people, if they law caufe, depofed or puniflied 
their governors, their barons, or their kings. The judge’s 
bough or wand (at this time difeontinued, and but faintly 
riprel’ented by a trifling nofegay), and the ftaff or rod of 
authority in the civil and in the military (for it was the 
mace of civil power, and the truncheon of the field-officers), 
are both derived from hence. A mayor, lie fays, received 
his name from this may, in the fen-fe of lawful power. 
The crown, a mark of dignity and fymbol of power, like 
the mace and feeptre,' was alfo taken from tile may , being 
reprelenrative of the garland or crown, which, when hung 
on the top of the may, or pole, was the great fignal for 
convening the people. The arches of it, which fpring 
from the circlet, and'meet together at the mound, or round 
ball, being neceffurily fo formed to fufpend it on the top 
of the pole. 
This is, he farther tells us, one of the ancienteft cuftoms, 
which, from the remote!: ages, has been, by repetition from 
year to year, perpetuated down to our days, not being at 
this inltant totally exploded, efpecially in the lower clafs 
of life. It was confidered as the boundary-day, that di¬ 
vided the confines of winter and fummer ; allufively to 
which, there was inflituted a fportful war between two 
parties; the one in defence of the continuance of winter, 
the other for bringing in the fummer. The youth were 
divided into troops, the one in winter livery, the other 
in the gay habit of the fpring. The mock-battle was al¬ 
ways fought booty* the fpring was lure to obtain the vic¬ 
tory, which they celebrated by carrying triumphally green, 
brandies with may-flowers, proclaiming and linging the 
fong of joy, of which the burthen was in thefe or equi¬ 
valent terms; “ We have brought the fummer home.” 
A cuftoni very fimilar to this prevails in the fouthern 
part of Sweden on this day. Two troops of young men, 
well mounted, are formed as if for a regular engagement. 
The captain of one of thefe companies, chofen by lot, is 
intended to perfonify Winter, and is, confequently, drefleci 
according to that feafon in the north. His clothing not 
only conlifts of a number of (kins, but he takes upon him- 
felf to throw fnowballs and pieces of ice about him, to 
prolong the cold. Thus riding up and down in triumph, 
his valour and hardihood are luppofed to be increafed in 
proportion to the time he can continue this exercife. His 
opponent, who is fuppofed to reprefent Summer, is ftyled 
Captain Florio; and, as there are fcarcely any flowers at 
this time of the year, he is decorated with green boughs 
and leaves. Thefe two perfonages, after much riding and 
curveting, contrive to meet and fight: Summer is lome- 
times afiifted by a band of liorfemen bearing boughs of 
birch made green by art; but, however ardent the cham¬ 
pions for Winter may be, the people always give the palm 
to Summer, becaufe nature and inclination difpofe them 
to fliake off the iron yoke of Winter as foon as poffible. 
Summer thus obtaining the viftory, a general feftival 
takes place, in which the libations peculiar to the northern 
nations are moil liberal. 
In the north of England, May-day ftill retains fome of 
its ancient fports. The young people of both fexes go 
out early in the morning of the firft of May (obferves 
Mr. Hutchinfon) to gather the flowering thorns and the 
dew of the grafs, which they bring home with malic and 
acclamations ; and, having d re fled a pole on the town- 
green with garlands, dance around it. May-dew was con¬ 
lidered as a grand cofmetic, and preferved the face from 
wrinkles and the traces of old age; the happieft gilt Flora 
could bellow on her votaries. It feems from thefe remains, 
that this feftival was introduced by the Romans, who ob- 
lerved it in honour of Flora. 
The Druids, who were the priefts of the God of nature, 
and celebrated every remarkable period in the change of 
the feafons, left a memorial of their religious rites on this 
day, very different from thofe inflituted in honour of the 
celebrated divinity Flora; that is, a Bai-tein rural facri- 
fice. It is to be traced in the mountainous and unculti¬ 
vated parts of Cumberland, among the Cheviots, and in 
many parts of Scotland. Mr. Pennarir gives a particular 
defcription of it in his Tour in Scotland : “ On the firft 
of May, in the Highlands of Scotland, the lierdfinien of 
every village hold their Bel-tcin: they cut a fquare trench 
