n it, and from the accusative
_boun_ it is suggested that the word "bun" is derived. Diogenes Laertius
(c. A.D. 200), speaking of the offering made by Empedocles, says "He
offered one of the sacred liba, called a _bouse_, made of fine flour and
honey." Hesychius (c. 6th century) speaks of the _boun_, and describes it
as a kind of cake with a representation of two horns marked on it. In time
the Greeks marked these cakes with a cross, possibly an allusion to the
four quarters of the moon, or more probably to facilitate the distribution
of the sacred bread which was eaten by the worshippers. Like the Greeks,
the Romans eat cross-bread at public sacrifices, such bread being usually
purchased at the doors of the temple and taken in with them,--a custom
alluded to by St Paul in I Cor. x. 28. At Herculaneum two small loaves
about 5 in. in diameter, and plainly marked with a cross, were found. In
the Old Testament a reference is made in Jer. vii. 18-xliv. 19, to such
sacred bread being offered to the moon goddess. The cross-bread was eaten
by the pagan Saxons in honour of Eoster, their goddess of light. The
Mexicans and Peruvians are shown to have had a similar custom. The custom,
in fact, was practically universal, and the early Church adroitly adopted
the pagan practice, grafting it on to the Eucharist. The _boun_ with its
Greek cross became akin to the Eucharistic bread or cross-marked wafers
mentioned in St Chrysostom's _Liturgy_. In the medieval church, buns made
from the dough for the consecrated Host were distributed to the
communicants after Mass on Easter Sunday. In France and other Catholic
countries, such blessed bread is still given in the churches to
communicants who have a long journey before they can break their fast. The
Holy Eucharist in the Greek church has a cross printed on it. In England
there seems to have early been a disposition on the part of the bakers to
imitate the church, and they did a good trade in buns and cakes stamped
with a cross, for as far back as 1252 the practice was forbidden by royal
proclamation; but this seems to have had little effect. With the rise of
Protestantism the cross bun lost its sacrosanct nature, and became a mere
eatable associated for no particular reason with Good Friday. Cross-bread
is not, however, reserved for that day; in the north of England people
usually crossmark their cakes with a knife before putting them in the oven.
Many superstitions cling round hot cross buns