health-drinking from a bowl or loving-cup, was a usual accompaniment of Christmas feasting, sometimes extended to the orchards and the oxen. The favourite liquor was "lambswool," a mixture of ale, spices, and roasted apples. In many places parties of wassailers went about visiting the neighbouring houses singing their good wishes and carrying a bowl with apples, which the hosts were expected to fill with ale, or money to purchase it. But the custom of carrying a representation of the Madonna seems to have been confined to Northumbria, where the name "vessel-cup" and the apples are the only relics of the wassail-bowl which, one supposes, once accompanied it.—Ed.]
Yew Wood.
Dr. Conventz of Danzig read a paper before Section K of the British Association at Glasgow on "The Past History of the Yew in Great Britain and Ireland." He called attention to the large number of prehistoric and early historic implements made of yew wood in the British Museum and the Science and Art Museum of Dublin. He also showed a so-called Toll-holz of yew; this implement, which was used in Germany, consists of a die with signs and letters cut in it, with which cakes are marked, which are then given to mad dogs in order to cure them. In Sweden patterns for printing wall-papers were formerly made of yew; in several countries shuttles are made of this wood; on the Aland Island the may-poles are decorated with yew twigs. Dr. Conventz has also studied the names of uninhabited places (Flur-namen) with the assistance of Dr. H. R. Mill and the Rev. C. H. Close. In Ireland there are more than a hundred place-names compounded with "yew;" at some of these places he has found sub-fossil yew below the surface. Dr. Conventz would be glad to have notes of English parallels to the above usages, details of any finds of yew wood or yew implements, and information as to the folklore of wood in England and other countries.
