vances, and only in the smaller places is anything of the sort
observed.

Yule-tide in Italy at the present day is principally a church
festival.

THE EVE OF CHRISTMAS

(1901)

Cometh the yearly Feast, the wonderous Holy Night,
Worthy of sacred hymn and solemn rite.

No harbingers of joy the olden message sing,
Nor gifts of Peace to waiting mortals bring.

Alone the thronging hosts of evil men I hear,
And see the anxious brow and falling tear.

The Age will bear no yoke; forgets the God above,
Nor duteous payment yields to parents' love.

Suspicious Discord rends the peaceful State in twain,
And busy Murder follows in her train.

Gone are the loyal faith, the rights revered of old--
Reigns but a blind and cruel lust of Gold!

O come, Thou holy Child! Pity the fallen world,
Lest it should perish, into darkness hurled.

Out of the laboring Night grant it a newer birth,
And a New Age to bloom o'er all the earth.

Circle with splendors old the brow of Faith divine;
Let her full glory on the nations shine.

Nerve her to battlings new; palsy her foes with dread;
Place the victorious laurel on her head.

Be Error's mist dissolved, and ancient feuds repressed,
Till Earth at last find quietude and rest.

O gentle Peace, return nor evermore depart;
And link us hand in hand and heart to heart!

--_Pope Leo XIII._

_(Translated by H. T. Henry.)_

CHAPTER VIII.

[Illustration]

YULE-TIDE IN SPAIN

"With antics and with fooleries, with shouting and with laughter,
They fill the streets of Burgos--and the Devil he comes after."

In Spain, the land of romance and song, of frost and flowers, where at
Yule-tide the mountains wear a mantle of pure white snow while flowers
bloom gaily in field and garden, the season's observance approaches
more nearly than in any other country to the old Roman Saturnalia.

The Celts who taught the Spaniards the love of ballads and song left
some traces of the sun-worshipers' traditions, but they are few in
comparison with those of other European countries. Spain is a land
apparently out of the line of Wodin's travel and influence, where one
looks in vain for the mysterious mistletoe, the pretty holly, and the
joyful Christmas tree.

The season is rigidly observed in churches, but otherwise it loses its
spirit of devotion in that of wild revelry. Music, mirth, and