eople's faces.{47}

As Santa Klaus St. Nicholas is of course known to every English child,
but rather as a sort of incarnation of Christmas than as a saint with a
day of his own. Santa Klaus, probably, has come to us _via_ the United
States, whither the Dutch took him, and where he has still immense
popularity.

In the Middle Ages in England as elsewhere the Eve of St. Nicholas was a
day of great excitement for boys. It was then that the small choristers
and servers in cathedral and other churches generally elected their "Boy
Bishop" or "Nicholas."{48} He had in some places to officiate at First
Vespers and at the services on the festival itself. As a rule, however,
the feast of the Holy Innocents, December 28, was probably the most
important day in the Boy Bishop's career, and we may therefore postpone
our consideration of him. We will here only note his connection with the
festival of the patron saint of boys, a connection perhaps implying a
common origin for him and |221| for the St. Nicholases who in bishops'
vestments make their present-giving rounds.

The festival of St. Nicholas is naturally celebrated with most splendour
at the place where his body lies, the seaport of Bari in south-eastern
Italy. The holy bones are preserved in a sepulchre beneath a crypt of
rich Saracenic architecture, above which rises a magnificent church.
Legend relates that in the eleventh century they were stolen by certain
merchants of Bari from the saint's own cathedral at Myra in Asia Minor.
The tomb of St. Nicholas is a famous centre for pilgrimages, and on the
6th of December many thousands of the faithful, bearing staves bound with
olive and pine, visit it. An interesting ceremony on the festival is the
taking of the saint's image out to sea by the sailors of the port. They
return with it at nightfall, and a great procession escorts it back to
the cathedral with torches and fireworks and chanting.{49} Here may be
seen the other, the seafaring, aspect of St. Nicholas; by this mariners'
cult we are taken far away from the present-giving saint who delights the
small children of the North.

ST. LUCIA'S DAY.

The only folk-festivals of note between St. Nicholas's Day and Christmas
are those of St. Lucia (December 13) and St. Thomas the Apostle (December
21).

In Sweden St. Lucia's Day was formerly marked by some interesting
practices. It was, so to speak, the entrance to the Christmas festival,
and was called "little Yule."{50}