h rye-straw.{57} The straw was probably intended
originally to bring to the house, by means of sacramental contact, the
wholesome influences of the corn-spirit, though the common people connect
it with the stable at Bethlehem. The practice of laying straw and the
same Christian explanation are found also in Poland{58} and in
Crivoscia.{59} In Poland before the cloth is laid on Christmas Eve, the
table is covered with a layer of hay or straw, and a sheaf stands in the
corner. Years ago straw was also spread on the floor. Sometimes it is
given to the cattle as a charm and sometimes it is used to tie up
fruit-trees.{60}

Dr. Frazer conjectures that the Swedish Yule straw comes in part at least
from the last sheaf at harvest, to which, as embodying the corn-spirit, a
peculiar significance is attached. The Swedish, like the Polish, Yule
straw has sundry virtues; scattered on the ground it will make a barren
field productive; and it is used to bind trees and make them
fruitful.{61} Again the peasant at Christmas will sit on a log and throw
up Yule straws one by one to the roof; as many as lodge in the rafters,
so many will be the sheaves of rye at harvest.{62}

CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR GIFTS.

We have come across presents of various kinds at the pre-Christmas
festivals; now that we have reached Christmastide itself we may dwell a
little upon the festival as the great present-giving season of the year,
and try to get at the origins of the custom.

The Roman _strenae_ offered to the Emperor or exchanged between private
citizens at the January Kalends have already |277| been noted.
According to tradition they were originally merely branches plucked from
the grove of the goddess Strenia, and the purpose of these may well have
been akin to that of the greenery used for decorations, viz., to secure
contact with a vegetation-spirit. In the time of the Empire, however, the
_strenae_ were of a more attractive character, "men gave honeyed things,
that the year of the recipient might be full of sweetness, lamps that it
might be full of light, copper and silver and gold that wealth might flow
in amain."{63} Such presents were obviously a kind of charm for the New
Year, based on the principle that as the beginning was, so would the rest
of the year be.

With the adoption of the Roman New Year's Day its present-giving customs
appear to have spread far and wide. In France, where the Latin spirit is
still strong, January 1 is even now t