Page:Notes on the folk-lore of the northern counties of England and the borders.djvu/112

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ST. AGNES’ FAST.

St. Agnes’ Fast, the same which has furnished Keats with a subject for his little poem, The Eve of St. Agnes. He recounts, in his own glowing yet chastened style, how all the wintry day Madeline’s heart had brooded

On love, and winged St. Agnes’ saintly care,
As she had heard old dames full many times declare.

They told her how, upon St. Agnes’ Eve,
Young virgins might have visions of delight,
And soft advisings from their loves receive,
Upon the honeyed middle of the night,
If ceremonies due they did aright;
As supperless to bed they must retire,
And couch supine their beauties, lily white;
Nor look behind, nor sideways, but require
Of Heaven, with upward eyes, for all that they desire.

St. Agnes’ Fast is thus practised throughout Durham and Yorkshire. Two young girls, each desirous to dream about their future husbands, must abstain through the whole of St. Agnes’ Eve from eating, drinking, or speaking, and must avoid even touching their lips with their fingers. At night they are to make together their “dumb cake,” so called from the rigid silence which attends its manufacture. Its ingredients (flour, salt, water, &c.) must be supplied in equal proportions by the friends, who must also take equal shares in the baking and turn-

    And they approach it, saying, as they cut each line of corn, “Wee day, wee day!” When the neck is cut there is shouting and halloing, and the reapers call out

    We have ploughed, we have sowed,
    We have reaped, we have mowed,
    We have brought home every load,
    With a Hip, hip, hurrah!

    Compare with these harvest customs those of Schaumberg-Lippe. When barley was cut there a tuft was left called “Waul roggen.” In this was placed a stick adorned with flowers, called the “Waul staff;” and then the reapers bowed to it with hats off, shouting together thrice, “Waul, waul, waul!” Waul is a corruption of waud-wod, that is to say, Wustan or Woden. In like manner is d changed into l in the two German dialects as, for instance, melecin for medecin. The Greek δάκρυ = lacrima, the Sanskrit madhu in Latin is mel. Wee-day is also a corruption of Wustan or Woden.—S. B. G.