may bear well next year.{39} The
uses of the ashes of the Christmas log have already been noticed.

Sometimes, as in the Thurgau, Mecklenburg, Oldenburg, and Tyrol, the
trees are beaten to make them bear. On New Year's Eve at Hildesheim
people dance and sing around them,{40} while the Tyrolese peasant on
Christmas Eve will go out to his trees, and, knocking with bent fingers
upon them, will bid them wake up and bear.{41} There is a Slavonic
custom, on the same night, of threatening apple-trees with a hatchet if
they do not produce fruit during the year.{42}

Another remarkable agricultural rite was practised on Epiphany Eve in
Herefordshire and Gloucestershire. The farmer and his servants would meet
in a field sown with wheat, and there light thirteen fires, with one
larger than the rest. Round this a circle was formed by the company, and
all would drink a glass of cider to the success of the harvest.[118] This
done, they returned to the farm, to feast--in Gloucestershire--on cakes
made with caraways, and soaked in cider. The Herefordshire accounts give
particulars of a further ceremony. A large cake was provided, with a hole
in the middle, and after supper everyone went to the wain-house. The
master filled a cup with strong ale, and standing opposite the finest ox,
pledged him in a curious toast; the company followed his example with the
other oxen, addressing each by name. Afterwards the large cake was put on
the horn of the first ox.{43}

It is extremely remarkable, and can scarcely be a mere coincidence, that
far away among the southern Slavs, as we saw in Chapter XII., a Christmas
cake with a hole in its centre is likewise put upon the horn of the chief
ox. The wassailing of the animals is found there also. On Christmas Day,
Sir Arthur |347| Evans relates, the house-mother "entered the stall set
apart for the goats, and having first sprinkled them with corn, took the
wine-cup in her hand and said, 'Good morning, little mother! The Peace of
God be on thee! Christ is born; of a truth He is born. May'st thou be
healthy. I drink to thee in wine; I give thee a pomegranate; may'st thou
meet with all good luck!' She then lifted the cup to her lips, took a
sup, tossed the pomegranate among the herd, and throwing her arms round
the she-goat, whose health she had already drunk, gave it the 'Peace of
God'--kissed it, that is, over and over again." The same ceremony was
then performed for the benefit of the sheep and cows, a