et.{45}

In England there are signs that supernatural visitors were formerly
looked for during the Twelve Days. First there was a custom of cleansing
the house and its implements with peculiar care. In Shropshire, for
instance, "the pewter and brazen vessels had to be made so bright that
the maids could see to put their caps on in them--otherwise the fairies
would pinch them, but if all was perfect, the worker would find a coin in
her shoe." Again in Shropshire special care was taken to put away any
suds or "back-lee" for washing purposes, and no spinning might be done
during the Twelve Days.{46} It was said elsewhere that if any flax were
left on the distaff, the Devil would come and cut it.{47}

The prohibition of spinning may be due to the Church's hallowing of the
season and the idea that all work then was wrong. This churchly hallowing
may lie also at the root of the Danish tradition that from Christmas till
New Year's Day nothing that runs round should be set in motion,{48} and
of the German idea that no thrashing must be done during the Twelve Days,
or all the corn within hearing will spoil. The expectation of uncanny
visitors in the English traditions calls, however, for special attention;
it is perhaps because of their coming that the house must be left
spotlessly clean and with as little as possible about on which they can
work mischief.{49} Though I know of no distinct English belief in the
|241| return of the family dead at Christmas, it may be that the fairies
expected in Shropshire were originally ancestral ghosts. Such a
derivation of the elves and brownies that haunt the hearth is very
probable.{50}

* * * * *

The belief about the Devil cutting flax left on the distaff links the
English superstitions to the mysterious _Frau_ with various names, who in
Germany is supposed to go her rounds during the Twelve Nights. She has a
special relation to spinning, often punishing girls who leave their flax
unspun. In central Germany and in parts of Austria she is called Frau
Holle or Holda, in southern Germany and Tyrol Frau Berchta or Perchta, in
the north down to the Harz Mountains Frau Freen or Frick, or Fru Gode or
Fru Harke, and there are other names too.{51} Attempts have been made to
dispute her claim to the rank of an old Teutonic goddess and to prove her
a creation of the Middle Ages, a representative of the crowd of ghosts
supposed to be specially near to the living at Ch