form of helping to carry the _cacho-fio_, and all the while shouting
and singing and dancing--after the fashion of small dryads who also were
partly imps of joy. So we came down through the sun-swept, terraced
olive-orchards in a spirit of rejoicing that had its beginning very far
back in the world's history and yet was freshly new that day.

Our procession took on grand proportions, I should explain, because our
yule-log was of extraordinary size. But always the yule-log is brought
home in triumph. If it is small, it is carried on the shoulder of the
father or the eldest son; if it is a goodly size, those two carry it
together; or a young husband and wife may bear it between them--as we
actually saw a thick branch of our almond borne away that
afternoon--while the children caracole around them or lend little
helping hands.

Being come to the Mazet, the log was stood on end in the court-yard in
readiness to be taken thence to the fire-place on Christmas Eve. I
fancied that the men handled it with a certain reverence; and the Vidame
assured me that such actually was the case. Already, being dedicate to
the Christmas rite, it had become in a way sacred; and along with its
sanctity, according to the popular belief, it had acquired a power which
enabled it sharply to resent anything that smacked of sacrilegious
affront. The belief was well rooted, he added by way of instance, that
any one who sat on a yule-log would pay in his person for his temerity
either with a dreadful stomach-ache that would not permit him to eat his
Christmas dinner, or would suffer a pest of boils. He confessed that he
always had wished to test practically this superstition, but that his
faith in it had been too strong to suffer him to make the trial!

On the other hand, when treated reverently and burned with fitting
rites, the yule-log brings upon all the household a blessing; and when
it has been consumed even its ashes are potent for good. Infused into a
much-esteemed country-side medicine, the yule-log ashes add to its
efficacy; sprinkled in the chicken-house and cow-stable, they ward off
disease; and, being set in the linen-closet, they are an infallible
protection against fire. Probably this last property has its genesis in
the belief that live-coals from the yule-log may be placed on the linen
cloth spread for the Great Supper without setting it on fire--a belief
which prudent housewives always are shy of putting to a practical test.

The