sited in the earth ;--and to them has afforded a period of toil at once exhilarating, healthful, and profitable. This happy event has, therefore, from the earliest times, been almost universally celebrated by some kind of festivity, often attended with religious ceremonies. The Israelites, all whose institutions were of a religious nature, both began and ended their harvest with public acts of devotion. On the second day of the Passover, occurred what was called the day of First Fruits, this being the period when the barley was nearly ready for the sickle. On that day, a sheaf of barley, publicly reaped, was given to the priest; which being threshed, winnowed, dried and ground, was partly heaved and waved with oil and frankincense, partly burnt on the altar along with a lamb, offered in sacrifice. After this religious ceremony, the Israelites were permitted to commence their harvest. Five weeks subsequent to the day of First Fruits, came the feast of Pentecost, one object of which was to celebrate the blessing of the finished harvest. On this occasion, three burnt-offerings and a peace-offering were successively presented on the altar, and, along with the latter, were offered two loaves made of fine flour leavened. When the vintage was finished, this propitious event was celebrated by the feasts of Trumpets and Ingathering, which latter corresponded with the feast of Tabernacles. During these solemnities, much hilarity was mingled with the devotional exercises of the Hebrews, and their public thanksgivings were accompanied with domestic demonstrations of joy, and acts of kindness and festivity. While, in almost all other countries where the inhabitants have advanced to the agricultural state, the bounties of harvest have called forth public expressions of enjoyment and gratitude, our own forefathers were not wanting in such expressions. Although in the habitual temperament of the British population, there is perhaps less liability to excitement, and more of the sober cast of thought, than exists among some of our continental neighbours, there are also circumstances in our climate and insular situation, which render the produce of the soil a matter of peculiar attention and anxiety. The weather is more precarious than in most of the adjoining countries; and consequently, the prosperous consummation of the harvest more uncertain. When the labour is happily accomplished, therefore, there is the greater cause of joy. Although in common years we rarely depend on foreign importation for the first necessaries of life, yet, when the harvest is scanty, this dependence is great and distressing. Both in a national and private point of view, therefore, an abundant and well-secured harvest is a cause of peculiar thankfulness; to the farmer it affords prosperity, to the proprietor assurance that his rents will be paid, to the poor and labouring classes a promise of cheap provisions, to the whole community freedom from the disadvantages attending the necessity of having recourse for a supply of food to a foreign, it may be, a hostile market. It is not surprising, therefore, that the time of harvest-home has always been considered, in this country, as a season of rejoicing. It is curious to observe a similarity of customs in different nations, while it is frequently difficult to assign any probable origin to the traditionary ceremonies handed down from the obscurity of remote antiquity. Some of these are such as may have naturally suggested themselves by the circumstances of the case, independently and without intercommunity; but there are others of so peculiar a nature, as to indicate transmission from country to country, and to point to a period, however remote, when those nations, among whom the practice exists, have been united by some common tie. In this view they acquire an importance which would not otherwise belong to them, and become objects of interesting investigation to the historian and the antiquary. Of this latter kind may, perhaps, be considered the ceremony of decking a sheaf or handful of corn with ribbons, made generally to resemble as much as possible a female figure,* and suspending it in some conspicuous place during the harvest-home festival. This custom is very general among European nations, as regards its essential feature, though, in different countries, it differs as to its details. In Scotland, for example, it is the last cut handful which is thus honoured, and he who is dexterous enough to carry off this prize, is said to have " won the kirn.”+ In England, the stalks of corn to be preserved, are those taken last from the field, at the conclusion of the ingathering. They are carried on a pitchfork in a kind of procession, which usually takes place when the last load of corn is borne from the field. Much ceremony was formerly employed on that occasion. The stock-cart, as it was called, came home with a burden covered with a sheet, while all the horses were ornamented in a similar manner, and the labourers followed from the field, crowned with ears of corn, and singing, "Harvest home." The following lines of Herrick, describe some other ceremonies which attended this rural procession. "Some bless the cart, some kiss the sheaves, To prayers than to merriment, Run after with their garments rent." The superstitions which these observances indicate, are happily fast passing away under the light of a purer Christianity. It were well, however, if a more ardent and * Is it from heathen times that we derive this custom, and is this the image of the goddess of corn? This expression probably arises from the ancient custom of producing at the feast, which followed the conclusion of the reapers' toils, a quantity of half-churned cream, newly taken from the churn, or as it is in Scotland named the "kirn." The feast itself is, from the same circumstance, called the "kirn." VOL. IV. D manly piety could be said to supply their place; for it is one thing to reform a creed, and another to imbue the heart with devotional feeling. In this, as in other agricultural customs, an obvious change is rapidly taking place. The old ceremonies which graced the harvest-home are disappearing one by one; and even the festive enjoyment with which the season was crowned, "the joy of harvest," as it is emphatically called in Scripture, will probably soon be known only as a subject of tradition or of history. Whether this will turn out to be for the advantage of our rural morals or otherwise, I shall not stop to inquire. The growing change, at least, indicates a striking feature in the character of the age, which is rapidly throwing off all regard for antiquity, and even passing to the opposite extreme. If the pious mind did not find consolation in beholding, in this restless state of society, proofs of the fulfilment of prophecy, and did not assure itself that there is an unseen 66 governor among the nations," the prospect would appear ominous, and full of terror. Nothing can be more tremendous than the anticipation of human society thrown loose from all moral and religious restraint, and rampant with the insane love of change. We need, however, entertain no such gloomy fears, because we know that the progress of society is leading to the most glorious results. If, in that progress, we should sometimes find that the breaking down of ancient customs, trifling though they may be, is a symptom that the foundations of society are unsettled, it is, at the same time, an indication that better times are approaching, when, after overthrow and turmoil, a surer and firmer basis shall be laid for the happiness of the human race. SECOND WEEK-FRIDAY. STORING OF CORN. WE must regard it as another instance of beneficent contrivance, that the various kinds of corn are more easily preserved than almost any other species of food. Man is so dependant on this article, which forms the material of what has been appropriately called the staff of life, that if it were subject to those disadvantages which render the storing of most other edible substances difficult and precarious, very calamitous consequences might ensue. Indeed, it is the facility it affords for storing which gives to corn one of its most distinguishing advantages, and, combined with its nourishing qualities, has raised it to the rank it has always held among the means of human subsistence. There are chiefly two properties on which this facility depends, both of them intimately connected with the close and careful packing, as it may be called, which nature has given to the farinaceous substance it contains; the one is its capacity of being stored in small bulk, and the other its quality of being easily preserved from decay. Each grain of corn may be regarded as a little package, wrapped neatly and tightly up in its own cover, and so kept from immediate contact with the surrounding mass, as well as from the external atmosphere, both of which would prove injurious. The importance of this compact form will distinctly appear if we only attend to the difference produced by the breaking up of these natural parcels when the corn is reduced to the form of flour or meal by passing through the mill. The very same substance is now rendered difficult of preservation, becoming liable to many accidents, from which in a state of grain it is easily defended. It was not, however, the intention of Providence that |