old November feast, though transferred to the season
hallowed by Christ's birth. The show of slaughtered beasts, adorned with
green garlands, in an English town just before Christmas, reminds one
strongly of the old November killing. In displays of this kind the pig's
head is specially conspicuous, and points to the time when the swine was
a favourite sacrificial animal.{1} We may recall here the traditional
carol sung at Queen's College, Oxford, as the boar's head is solemnly
brought in at Christmas, and found elsewhere in other forms:--

"The boar's head in hand bear I,
Bedeck'd with bays and rosemary;
And I pray you, my masters, be merry,
_Quot estis in convivio._
_Caput apri defero,_
_Reddens laudes Domino._"{2}

The Christmas bird provided by the familiar "goose club" may be compared
with the German Martinmas goose. The more luxurious turkey must be
relatively an innovation, for that bird seems not to have been introduced
into England until the sixteenth century.{3}

Cakes and pies, partly or wholly of vegetable origin, are, of course, as
conspicuous at the English Christmas as animal food. The peculiar
"luckiness" attached to some of them (as when mince-pies, eaten in
different houses during the Twelve Days, bring a happy month each) makes
one suspect some more serious original purpose than mere gratification of
the appetite. A sacrificial or sacramental origin is probable, at least
in certain cases; a cake made of flour, for instance, may well have been
regarded as embodying the spirit immanent in the corn.{4} Whether any
mystic significance ever belonged to the plum-pudding it is hard to say,
though the sprig of holly stuck into its |285| top recalls the lucky
green boughs we have so often come across, and a resemblance to the
libations upon the Christmas log might be seen in the burning brandy.

A dish once prominent at Christmas was "frumenty" or "furmety" (variously
spelt, and derived from the Latin _frumentum_, corn). It was made of
hulled wheat boiled in milk and seasoned with cinnamon, sugar, &c.{5}
This too may have been a cereal sacrament. In Yorkshire it was the first
thing eaten on Christmas morning, just as ale posset was the last thing
drunk on Christmas Eve. Ale posset was a mixture of beer and milk, and
each member of the family in turn had to take a "sup," as also a piece of
a large apple-pie.{6}

In the Highlands of Scotland, among those who observed Christmas,