rowing and being eaten about the time of her festival
(December 4).

Coming to Christmas, some of the principal evergreens used in this
country for decorative purposes are the ivy, laurel, bay, arbor vitae,
rosemary, and holly; mistletoe, on account of its connection with
Druidic rites, having been excluded from churches. Speaking of the
holly, Mr. Conway remarks that, "it was to the ancient races of the north
a sign of the life which preserved nature through the desolation of
winter, and was gathered into pagan temples to comfort the sylvan
spirits during the general death." He further adds that "it is a
singular fact that it is used by the wildest Indians of the Pacific
coast in their ceremonies of purification. The ashen-faggot was in
request for the Christmas fire, the ceremonies relating to which are
well known."

Footnotes:

1. By D. Moore and A.G. Moore, 1866.

2. See "Journal of the Arch. Assoc.," 1832, vii. 206.

3. See "British Popular Customs."

4. "Plant Lore Legends and Lyrics," p. 504.

5. "Popular Names of British Plants," 1879, p. 204.

CHAPTER XVIII.

CHILDREN'S RHYMES AND GAMES.

Children are more or less observers of nature, and frequently far more
so than their elders. This, perhaps, is in a great measure to be
accounted for from the fact that childhood is naturally inquisitive, and
fond of having explained whatever seems in any way mysterious. Such
especially is the case in the works of nature, and in a country ramble
with children their little voices are generally busy inquiring why this
bird does this, or that plant grows in such a way--a variety of
questions, indeed, which unmistakably prove that the young mind
instinctively seeks after knowledge. Hence, we find that the works of
nature enter largely into children's pastimes; a few specimens of their
rhymes and games associated with plants we quote below.

In Lincolnshire, the butter-bur (_Petasites vulgaris_) is nicknamed
bog-horns, because the children use the hollow stalks as horns or
trumpets, and the young leaves and shoots of the common hawthorn
(_Cratoegus oxyacantha_), from being commonly eaten by children in
spring, are known as "bread and cheese;" while the ladies-smock
(_Cardamine pratensis_) is termed "bread and milk," from the custom, it
has been suggested, of country people having bread and milk for
breakfast about the season when the flower first comes in. In the North
of England this plant is known as cu