"that a Bro or a
Blaenau would as soon lose a cow from his cowhouse as the football from
his portion of the parish." There is plainly more than a mere pastime
here; the thing appears to have been originally a struggle between two
clans.{51}

* * * * *

Anciently the Carnival, with its merrymaking before the austerities of
Lent, was held to begin at the Epiphany. This was the case in Tyrol even
in the nineteenth century.{52} As a rule, however, the Carnival in Roman
Catholic countries is restricted to the last three days before Ash
Wednesday. The pagan origin of its mummeries and licence is evident, but
it is a spring rather than a winter festival, and hardly calls for
treatment here.

The Epiphany is in many places the end of Christmas. In Calvados,
Normandy, it is marked by bonfires; red flames mount |350| skywards,
and the peasants join hands, dance, and leap through blinding smoke and
cinders, shouting these rude lines:--

"Adieu les Rois
Jusqu'a douze mois,
Douze mois passes
Les bougelees."{53}

Another French Epiphany _chanson_, translated by the Rev. R. L. Gales, is
a charming farewell to Christmas:--

"Noel is leaving us,
Sad 'tis to tell,
But he will come again,
Adieu, Noel.

His wife and his children
Weep as they go:
On a grey horse
They ride thro' the snow.

* * * * *

The Kings ride away
In the snow and the rain,
After twelve months
We shall see them again."{54}

POST-EPIPHANY FESTIVALS.

Though with Twelfth Day the high festival of Christmas generally ends,
later dates have sometimes been assigned as the close of the season. At
the old English court, for instance, the merrymaking was sometimes
carried on until Candlemas, while in some English country places it was
customary, even in the late nineteenth century, to leave Christmas
decorations up, in houses and churches, till that day.{55} The whole
time between Christmas and the Presentation in the Temple was thus
treated as sacred to the Babyhood of Christ; the withered evergreens
would keep alive memories of Christmas joys, even, sometimes, after
Septuagesima had struck the note of penitence.

Before we pass on to a short notice of Candlemas, we may |351| glance
at a few last sparks, so to speak, of the Christmas blaze, and then at
the English festivals which marked the resumption of work after the
holidays.