eleven o'clock. It was a charming morning, bright and hot, as we
strolled along the shore to the orange-garden of Barbacaja, where we
gathered oranges fresh from the trees.

"On returning home to dinner no plum-pudding or mince-pies awaited us
certainly, but we had tolerably good beef, for a wonder, and lamb,
_merles_, and new potatoes.

* * * * *

"Christmas Day in Corsica is observed by the people as a religious
festival, but not as a social one; and there are no family gatherings
as in England and Germany. This arises, no doubt, from that
non-existence of true domestic life which must strike all English
taking up a temporary residence in France.

"There was a succession of _fete_ days throughout Christmas week, when
the shops were shut and the people dressed in holiday attire. But the
great day to which every one seems to look forward is the first of the
year, _le Jour de l'An_. Presents are then made by everybody to
everybody, and visits of congratulation, or merely of ceremony,
received and expected. The gifts are sometimes costly and handsome,
but generally they are trifling, merely valuable as works of
remembrance, consisting chiefly of bonbons, boxes of crystallised
fruits, and other confectionery."

CHRISTMAS IN CHIOS.

[Illustration: From an ivory, Byzantine. British Museum ]

The preceding illustration of Eastern art belongs to the same period
as many of the Christmas customs which have survived in Chios, and it
carries our thoughts back to the time when Byzantium was the capital
of the Greek Empire in the east. From an interesting account by an
English writer in the _Cornhill Magazine_, for December, 1886, who
spent a Christmas amongst the Greeks of this once prosperous isle of
Chios, it appears that, two days before Christmas, he took up his
quarters at "the village of St. George, a good day's journey from the
town, on the slopes of a backbone of mountains, which divides Chios
from north to south." On the morning following the arrival at St.
George, "echoes of home" were heard which caused the writer to
exclaim: "Surely they don't have Christmas waits here." Outside the
house stood a crowd of children singing songs and carrying baskets.
From the window, the mistress of the house was seen standing amongst
the children "talking hard, and putting handfuls of something into
each basket out of a bag." "On descending," says the writer, "I
inquired the cause of this early invasion, and