ding
also to the old rhyme:--

"Then comes the daffodil beside
Our Lady's smock at our Lady's tide."

In Catholic countries Lent cakes were flavoured with the herb-tansy, a
plant dedicated to St. Athanasius.

In Silesia, on Mid-Lent Sunday, pine boughs, bound with variegated paper
and spangles, are carried about by children singing songs, and are hung
over the stable doors to keep the animals from evil influences.

Palm Sunday receives its English and the greater part of its foreign
names from the old practice of bearing palm-branches, in place of which
the early catkins of the willow or yew have been substituted, sprigs of
box being used in Brittany.

Stow, in his "Survey of London," tells us that:--"In the weeke before
Easter had ye great shows made for the fetching in of a twisted tree or
with, as they termed it, out of the wodes into the king's house, and the
like into every man's house of honour of worship." This anniversary has
also been nicknamed "Fig Sunday," from the old custom of eating figs;
while in Wales it is popularly known as "Flowering Sunday," because
persons assemble in the churchyard and spread fresh flowers upon the
graves of their friends and relatives.

In Germany, on Palm Sunday, the palm is credited with mystic virtues;
and if as many twigs, as there are women of a family, be thrown on a
fire--each with a name inscribed on it--the person whose leaf burns
soonest will be the first to die.

On Good Friday, in the North of England, an herb pudding was formerly
eaten, in which the leaves of the passion-dock (_Polygonum bistorta_)
formed the principal ingredient. In Lancashire fig-sue is made, a
mixture consisting of sliced figs, nutmeg, ale, and bread.

Wreaths of elder are hung up in Germany after sunset on Good Friday, as
charms against lightning; and in Swabia a twig of hazel cut on this day
enables the possessor to strike an absent person. In the Tyrol, too, the
hazel must be cut on Good Friday to be effectual as a divining-rod. A
Bohemian charm against fleas is curious. During Holy Week a leaf of palm
must be placed behind a picture of the Virgin, and on Easter morning
taken down with this formula: "Depart, all animals without bones." If
this rite is observed there will be no more fleas in the house for the
remainder of the year.

Of the flowers associated with Eastertide may be mentioned the garden
daffodil and the purple pasque flower, another name for the anemone
(_Anemone pu