Year's Day, and bring a sprig of evergreens{18}--an offering
by now thoroughly familiar to us. In Scotland, especially in Edinburgh,
it is customary for domestic servants to invite their sweethearts to be
their "first-foots." The old Scotch families who preserve ancient customs
encourage their servants to "first-foot" them, and grandparents like
their grandchildren to perform for them the same service.{19} In
Aberdeenshire it is considered most important that the "first-foot"
should not come empty-handed. Formerly he carried spiced ale; now he
brings a whisky-bottle. Shortbread, oat-cakes, "sweeties," or sowens,
were also sometimes brought by the "first-foot," and occasionally the
sowens were sprinkled on the doors and windows of the houses visited--a
custom strongly suggesting a sacramental significance of some sort.{20}

Before we leave the subject of British "first-footing" we may notice one
or two things that have possibly a racial significance. Not only must the
"first-foot" be a man or boy, he is often required to be dark-haired; it
is unlucky for a fair- or red-haired person to "let in" the New
Year.{21} It has been suggested by Sir John Rhys that this idea rested
in the first instance upon |326| racial antipathy--the natural
antagonism of an indigenous dark-haired people to a race of blonde
invaders.{22} Another curious requirement--in the Isle of Man and
Northumberland--is that the "first-foot" shall not be flat-footed: he
should be a person with a high-arched instep, a foot that "water runs
under." Sir John Rhys is inclined to connect this also with some racial
contrast. He remarks, by way of illustration, that English shoes do not
as a rule fit Welsh feet, being made too low in the instep.{23}

Some reference has already been made to Scottish New Year customs. In
Scotland, the most Protestant region of Europe, the country in which
Puritanism abolished altogether the celebration of Christmas, New Year's
Day is a great occasion, and is marked by various interesting usages, its
importance being no doubt largely due to the fact that it has not to
compete with the Church feast of the Nativity. Nowadays, indeed, the
example of Anglicanism is affecting the country to a considerable extent,
and Christmas Day is becoming observed in the churches. The New Year,
however, is still the national holiday, and January 1 a great day for
visiting and feasting, the chief, in fact, of all festivals.{24} New
Year's Day and its E