d. Out-of-doors huge bonfires burned in honor of _Mother-Night_, and
to her, also, peace offerings of Yule cakes were made.

It was the Saxon who gave to the _heal-all_ of the Celts the pretty
name of mistletoe, or mistletan,--meaning a shoot or tine of a tree.
There was jollity beneath the mistletoe then as now, only then
everybody believed in its magic powers. It was the sovereign remedy
for all diseases, but it seems to have lost its curative power, for
the scientific men of the present time fail to find that it possesses
any medical qualities.

Later on, when the good King Alfred was on the English throne, there
were greater comforts and luxuries among the Saxons. Descendants of
the settlers had built halls for their families near the original
homesteads, and the wall that formerly surrounded the home of the
settler was extended to accommodate the new homes until there was a
town within the enclosure. Yule within these homes was celebrated with
great pomp. The walls of the hall were hung with rich tapestries, the
food was served on gold and silver plates, and the tumblers, though
sometimes of wood or horn, were often of gold and silver, too.

In these days the family dressed more lavishly. Men wore long, flowing
ringlets and forked beards. Their tunics of woolen, leather, linen, or
silk, reached to the knees and were fastened at the waist by a girdle.
Usually a short cloak was worn over the tunic. They bedecked
themselves with all the jewelry they could wear; bracelets, chains,
rings, brooches, head-bands, and other ornaments of gold and precious
stones.

Women wore their best tunics made either of woolen woven in many
colors or of silk embroidered in golden flowers. Their "abundant
tresses," curled by means of hot irons, were confined by the richest
_head-rails._ The more fashionable wore cuffs and bracelets, earrings
and necklaces, and painted their cheeks a more than hectic flush.

In the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries the magnificence of the
Yule-tide observance may be said to have reached its height. In the
old baronial halls where:

"The fire, with well-dried logs supplied,
Went roaring up the chimney wide,"

Christmas was kept with great jollity.

It was considered unlucky to have the holly brought into the house
before Christmas Eve, so throughout the week merry parties of young
people were out in the woods gathering green boughs, and on Christmas
Eve, with jest and song, they came in la