, one of the family will die or leave
home during the year. If they point inward, a child will be born
within the year.

In some parts of rural England, the village maidens go from door to
door with a bowl of wassail, made of ale, roasted apples, squares of
toast, nutmeg, and sugar. The bowl is elaborately decorated with
evergreen and ribbons, and as they go they sing:

"Wassail, wassail to our town,
The cup is white and the ale is brown,
The cup is made of the ashen tree,
And so is the ale of the good barley.

"Little maid, little maid, turn the pin,
Open the door and let us in;
God be there, God be here;
I wish you all a Happy New Year."

In Yorkshire, the young men assemble at midnight on the thirty-first,
blacken their faces, disguise themselves in other ways, then pass
through the village with pieces of chalk. They write the date of the
New Year on gates, doors, shutters, and wagons. It is considered lucky
to have one's property so marked and the revellers are never
disturbed.

On New Year's Day, Henry VI received gifts of jewels, geese, turkeys,
hens, and sweetmeats. "Good Queen Bess" was fairly overwhelmed with
tokens of affection from her subjects. One New Year's morning, she was
presented with caskets studded with gems, necklaces, bracelets, gowns,
mantles, mirrors, fans, and a wonderful pair of black silk stockings,
which pleased her so much that she never afterward wore any other
kind.

Among the Romans, after the reformation of the calendar, the first
day, and even the whole month, was dedicated to the worship of the god
Janus. He was represented as having two faces, and looking two
ways--into the past and into the future. In January they offered
sacrifices to Janus upon two altars, and on the first day of the month
they were careful to regulate their speech and conduct, thinking it an
augury for the coming year.

New Year's gifts and cards originated in Rome, and there is a record
of an amusing lawsuit which grew out of the custom. A poet was
commissioned by a Roman pastry-cook to write the mottoes for the New
Year day bonbons. He agreed to supply five hundred couplets for six
sesterces, and though the poor poet toiled faithfully and the mottoes
were used, the money was not forthcoming. He sued the pastry-cook, and
got a verdict, but the cook regarded himself as the injured party.
Crackers were not then invented, but we still have the mottoes--those
queer