en; the horses are given the choicest
hay and, later on, ale; and the other animals are treated to good
things.{34}

At Loblang in Hungary the last sheaf at harvest is kept, and given on New
Year's morning to the wild birds.{35} In southern Germany corn is put on
the roof for them on Christmas Eve, or,{36} as also in Sweden,{37} an
unthreshed sheaf is set on a pole. In these cases it is possible that the
food was originally an offering to ancestral or other spirits.

_Revenons a nos gateaux._ In Rome and elsewhere in Italy an important
article of Christmas food is the _panettone_, a currant loaf. |290|
Such loaves are sent as presents to friends. In eastern Europe, too,
Christmas loaves or cakes are very conspicuous. The _chesnitza_ and
_kolatch_ cakes among the southern Slavs are flat and wheel-like, with a
circular hole in the middle and a number of lines radiating from it. In
the central hole is sometimes placed a lighted taper or a small
Christmas-tree hung with ribbons, tinsel, and sweetmeats. These cakes,
made with elaborate ceremonial early in the morning, are solemnly broken
by the house-father on Christmas Day, and a small piece is eaten by each
member of the family. In some places one is fixed on the horn of the
"eldest ox," and if he throws it off it is a good sign.{38} The last
practice may be compared with a Herefordshire custom which we shall meet
with on Twelfth Night (p. 346).

In southern Greece a special kind of flat loaves with a cross on the top
is made on Christmas Eve. The name given is "Christ's Loaves." "The cloth
is not removed from the table; but everything is left as it is in the
belief that 'Christ will come and eat' during the night."{39} Probably
Christ has here taken the place of ancestral spirits.

In Tyrol peasants eat at Christmastide the so-called _zelten_, a kind of
pie filled with dried pear-slices, nuts, figs, raisins, and the like. It
is baked on the Eve of St. Thomas, and its filling is as important an
event for the whole family as was the plum-pudding and mincemeat making
in old-fashioned English households. When the _zelten_ is filled the sign
of the cross is made upon it and it is sprinkled with holy water and put
in the oven. When baked and cooled, it is laid in the family stock of rye
and is not eaten until St. Stephen's Day or Epiphany. Its cutting by the
father of the family is a matter of considerable solemnity. Smaller pies
are made at the same time for the maid-servan