of the
whole year, St. Nicholas's Day. In England it has gone out of mind, and
in the flat north of Germany Protestantism has largely rooted it out, as
savouring too much of saint-worship, and transferred its festivities to
the more Evangelical season of Christmas.{34} In western and southern
Germany, however, and in Austria, Switzerland, and the Low Countries, it
is still a day of joy for children, though in some regions even there its
radiance tends to pale before the greater glory of the Christmas-tree.

It is not easy either to get at the historic facts about St. Nicholas,
the fourth-century bishop of Myra in Asia Minor, or to ascertain why he
became the patron saint of boys. The legends of his infant piety and his
later wondrous works for the benefit of young people may either have
given rise, or be themselves due to, his connection with children.{35}
In eastern Europe and southern Italy he is above all things the saint of
seafaring men, and among the Greeks his cult has perhaps replaced that of
Artemis as a sea divinity.{36} This aspect of him does not, however,
appear in the German festival customs with which we are here chiefly
concerned.

It has already been hinted that in some respects St. Nicholas is a
duplicate of St. Martin. His feast, indeed, is probably a later
beginning-of-winter festival, dating from the period when |219|
improved methods of agriculture and other causes made early December,
rather than mid-November, the time for the great annual slaughter and its
attendant rejoicings. Like St. Martin he brings sweet things for the good
children and rods for the bad.

St. Nicholas's Eve is a time of festive stir in Holland and Belgium; the
shops are full of pleasant little gifts: many-shaped biscuits, gilt
gingerbreads, sometimes representing the saint, sugar images, toys, and
other trifles. In many places, when evening comes on, people dress up as
St. Nicholas, with mitre and pastoral staff, enquire about the behaviour
of the children, and if it has been good pronounce a benediction and
promise them a reward next morning. Before they go to bed the children
put out their shoes, with hay, straw, or a carrot in them for the saint's
white horse or ass. When they wake in the morning, if they have been
"good" the fodder is gone and sweet things or toys are in its place; if
they have misbehaved themselves the provender is untouched and no gift
but a rod is there.{37}

In various parts of Germany, Switzerla