a
characteristic dish was new sowens (the husks and siftings of oatmeal),
given to the family early on Christmas Day in their beds. They were
boiled into the consistence of molasses and were poured into as many
bickers as there were people to partake of them. Everyone on despatching
his bicker jumped out of bed.{7} Here, as in the case of the Yorkshire
frumenty, the eating has a distinctly ceremonial character.

In the East Riding of Yorkshire a special Yule cake was eaten on
Christmas Eve, "made of flour, barm, large cooking raisins, currants,
lemon-peel, and nutmeg," and about as large as a dinner-plate.{8} In
Shropshire "wigs" or caraway buns dipped in ale were eaten on Christmas
Eve.{9} Again elsewhere there were Yule Doughs or Dows, little images of
paste, presented by bakers to their customers.{10} We shall see plenty
of parallels to these on the Continent. When they are in animal or even
human form they may in some cases have taken the place of actual
sacrificial victims.{11}

In Nottinghamshire the Christmas cake was associated with the
wassail-bowl in a manner which may be compared with the Macedonian custom
described later; it was broken up and put into the bowl, hot ale was
poured over it, and so it was eaten.{12}

The wassail-bowl--one cannot leave the subject of English Yuletide
feasting without a few words upon this beloved beaker of hot spiced ale
and toasted apples ("lambswool"). _Wassail_ is |286| derived from the
Anglo-Saxon _wes hal_ = be whole, and wassailing is in its essence the
wishing of a person's very good health. The origin of drinking healths is
not obvious; perhaps it may be sacramental: the draught may have been at
first a means of communion with some divinity, and then its consumption
may have come to be regarded not only as benefiting the partaker, but as
a rite that could be performed for the welfare of another person. Apart
from such speculations, we may note the frequent mention of wassailing in
old English carols of the less ecclesiastical type; the singers carried
with them a bowl or cup which they expected their wealthier neighbours to
fill with drink.{13} Sometimes the bowl was adorned with ribbons and had
a golden apple at the top,{14} and it is a noteworthy fact that the box
with the Christmas images, mentioned in Chapter IV. (p. 118), is
sometimes called "the Vessel [Wassail] Cup."{15}

The various Christmas dishes of Europe would form an interesting subject
for exhaustive