iece of dramatic ceremonial is described by Barthelemy
in his edition of Durandus,{26} as customary in the eighteenth century
at La Villeneuve-en-Chevrie, near Mantes. At the Midnight Mass a _creche_
with a wax figure of the Holy Child was placed in the choir, with tapers
burning about it. After the "Te Deum" had been sung, the celebrant,
accompanied by his attendants, censed the _creche_, to the sound of
violins, double-basses, and other instruments. A shepherd then prostrated
himself before the crib, holding a sheep with a sort of little saddle
bearing sixteen lighted candles. He was followed by two shepherdesses in
white with distaffs and tapers. A second shepherd, between two
shepherdesses, carried a laurel branch, to which were fastened oranges,
lemons, biscuits, and sweetmeats. Two others brought great _pains-benits_
and lighted candles; then came four shepherdesses, who made their
adoration, and lastly twenty-six more shepherds, two by two, bearing in
one hand a candle and in the other a festooned crook. The same ceremonial
was practised at the Offertory and after the close of the Mass. All was
done, it is said, with such piety and edification that |143| St. Luke's
words about the Bethlehem shepherds were true of these French
swains--they "returned glorifying and praising God for all the things
they had heard and seen."

* * * * *

In German there remain very few Christmas plays earlier than the
fifteenth century. Later periods, however, have produced a multitude, and
dramatic performances at Christmas have continued down to quite modern
times in German-speaking parts.

At Oberufer near Pressburg--a German Protestant village in Hungary--some
fifty years ago, a Christmas play was performed under the direction of an
old farmer, whose office as instructor had descended from father to son.
The play took place at intervals of from three to ten years and was acted
on all Sundays and festivals from Advent to the Epiphany. Great care was
taken to ensure the strictest piety and morality in the actors, and no
secular music was allowed in the place during the season for the
performances. The practices began as early as October. On the first
Sunday in Advent there was a solemn procession to the hall hired for the
play. First went a man bearing a gigantic star--he was called the "Master
Singer"--and another carrying a Christmas-tree decked with ribbons and
apples; then came all the actors, sin