e at any time during the twelve days preceding Yule-tide must
buy the consecrated fire. The Druids also had a rather unique custom
of sending their young men around with Yule-tide greetings and
branches of mistletoe (_quiviscum_). Each family receiving this gift
was expected in return to contribute generously to the temples.

With the coming of the Saxons, higher revelry reigned, and a Saxon
observance of Yule-tide must have been a jolly sight to see. In the
center of the hall, upon the open hearth, blazed a huge fire with its
column of smoke pouring out through an opening in the thatched roof,
or, if beaten by the wind, wandering among the beams above. The
usually large family belonging to the house gathered in this big
living-room. The table stretched along one side of the room, and up
and down its great length the guests were seated in couples. Between
them was a half-biscuit of bread to serve as a plate. Later on this
would be thrown into the alms-basket for distribution among the poor.

Soon the servers entered carrying long iron spits on which they
brought pieces of the meats, fish, and fowls that had been roasted in
_isen pannas_ (iron pans) suspended from tripods out in the yard.
Fingers were used instead of forks to handle the food, and the
half-biscuit plates received the grease and juices and protected the
handsome _bord-cloth._

There was an abundance of food, for the Saxons were great eaters.
Besides flesh, fish, and fowls their gardens furnished plenty of beans
and other vegetables, and their _ort-geards_ produced raspberries,
strawberries, plums, sweet and sour apples, and _cod-apples_, or
quinces. The cider and stronger drinks were quaffed from quaint
round-bottomed tumblers which, as they could not stand up, had to be
emptied at a draught.

The Saxons dined at about eleven o'clock and, as business was not
pressing in those days, could well afford to spend hours at the feast,
eating, drinking, and making merry.

After every one had eaten, games were played, and these games are the
same as our children play to-day--handed down to us from the old Saxon
times.

When night came and the _ear-thyrls_ (eyeholes, or windows) no longer
admitted the light of the sun, long candlesticks dipped in wax were
lighted and fastened into sockets along the sides of the hall. Then
the _makers_, or bards as they came to be called in later days, sang
of the gods and goddesses or of marvelous deeds done by the men of
ol