ve are often called the "Daft Days"; cakes and pastry
of all kinds are eaten, healths are drunk, and calls are paid.{25}

In Edinburgh there are striking scenes on New Year's Eve. "Towards
evening," writes an observer, "the thoroughfares become thronged with the
youth of the city.... As the midnight hour approaches, drinking of
healths becomes frequent, and some are already intoxicated.... The eyes
of the immense crowd are ever being turned towards the lighted clock-face
of 'Auld and Faithful'' Tron [Church], the hour approaches, the hands
seem to stand still, but in one second more the hurrahing, the cheering,
the hand-shaking, the health-drinking, is all kept up as long as the
clock continues to ring out the much-longed-for midnight hour.... The
crowds slowly disperse, the much-intoxicated and helpless ones being
hustled about a good deal, the police urging them on out of harm's way.
The first-footers are off and away, flying in every direction through the
city, singing, cheering, and shaking hands with all and sundry."{26}

|327| One need hardly allude to the gathering of London Scots around
St. Paul's to hear the midnight chime and welcome the New Year with the
strains of "Auld Lang Syne," except to say that times have changed and
Scotsmen are now lost in the swelling multitude of roysterers of all
nationalities.

Drinking is and was a great feature of the Scottish New Year's Eve. "On
the approach of twelve o'clock, a _hot pint_ was prepared--that is, a
kettle or flagon full of warm, spiced, and sweetened ale, with an
infusion of spirits. When the clock had struck the knell of the departed
year, each member of the family drank of this mixture 'A good health and
a happy New Year and many of them' to all the rest, with a general
hand-shaking." The elders of the family would then sally out to visit
their neighbours, and exchange greetings.{27}

At Biggar in Lanarkshire it was customary to "burn out the old year" with
bonfires, while at Burghead in Morayshire a tar-barrel called the
"Clavie" was set on fire and carried about the village and the fishing
boats. Its embers were scrambled for by the people and carefully kept as
charms against witchcraft.{28} These fire-customs may be compared with
those on Hallowe'en, which, as we have seen, is probably an old New
Year's Eve.

Stewart in his "Popular Superstitions of the Highlands of Scotland" tells
how on the last night of the year the Strathdown Highlanders used to
b