folks have other business on hand. Each girl expects the
"first foot" from her sweetheart and there is occasionally much
stratagem displayed in outwitting him and arranging to have some
grandmother or serving maid open the door for him.

During the last century, all work was laid aside on the afternoon of
the thirty-first, and the men of the hamlet went to the woods and
brought home a lot of juniper bushes. Each household also procured a
pitcher of water from "the dead and living ford," meaning a ford in
the river by which passengers and funerals crossed. This was brought
in perfect silence and was not allowed to touch the ground in its
progress as contact with the earth would have destroyed the charm.

The next morning, there were rites to protect the household against
witchcraft, the evil eye, and other machinations of his satanic
majesty. The father rose first, and, taking the charmed water and a
brush, treated the whole family to a generous sprinkling, which was
usually acknowledged with anything but gratitude.

Then all the doors and windows were closed, and the juniper boughs put
on the fire. When the smoke reached a suffocating point, the fresh air
was admitted. The cattle were fumigated in the same way and the
painful solemnities of the morning were over.

The Scots on the first of the year consult the Bible before breakfast.
They open it at random and lay a finger on a verse which is supposed
to be, in some way, an augury for the coming year. If a lamp or a
candle is taken out of the house on that day, some one will die during
the year, and on New Year's day a Scotchman will neither lend, borrow
nor give anything whatsoever out of his house, for fear his luck may
go with it, and for the same reason the floor must not be swept. Even
ashes or dirty water must not be thrown out until the next day, and if
the fire goes out it is a sign of death.

The ancient Druids distributed among the early Britons branches of the
sacred mistletoe, which had been cut with solemn ceremony in the night
from the oak trees in a forest that had been dedicated to the gods.

Among the ancient Saxons, the New Year was ushered in with friendly
gifts, and all fighting ceased for three days.

In Banffshire the peat fires are covered with ashes and smoothed down.
In the morning they are examined closely, and if anything resembling a
human footprint is found in the ashes, it is taken as an omen. If the
footprint points towards the door