of a beautiful moonlight Christmas-eve. The Indian made signals to him to be silent; and, when questioned as to his reason, replied, -"Me watch to see the deer kneel; this is Christmas night, and all the deer fall upon their knees, to the great spirit, and look up.” In various parts of England, bees are popularly said to express their veneration for the Nativity, by "singing," as it is called, in their hives, at midnight, upon Christmas-eve :-and in some places, particularly in Derbyshire, it is asserted that the watcher may hear the ringing of subterranean bells. In the mining districts, again, the workmen declare that 66 -ever 'gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated," high mass is solemnly performed, in that cavern which contains the richest lode of ore,-that it is brilliantly lighted up with candles, -and that the service is chanted by unseen choristers. Superstitions of this kind seem to be embodied in the carol commencing with "I saw three ships come sailing in," to which we have before alluded;-the rhythm of which old song is, to our ear, singularly melodious : : "And all the bells on earth shall ring, On Christmas-day, on Christmas-day, And all the angels in Heaven shall sing, And all the souls on earth shall sing, On Christmas-day, on Christmas-day, Such fancies are but the natural echoes, in the popular mind, of ancient songs and customs and so strongly is that mind impressed with the feeling of a triumph pervading the entire natural economy on "the happy night That to the cottage as the crown, Brought tidings of salvation down,” that even the torpid bees are figured, in its superstitions, to utter a voice of gladness,—the music of sweet chimes to issue from the bosom of the earth,—and rich harmonies to echo and high ceremonies be gorgeously performed, amid the hush and mystery of buried cells. We must not omit to mention, that these supposed natural testimonies to the triumph of the time have been, in some places, used as means of divination, on a very curious question. The change of style introduced into our calendars, nearly a century ago, and by which Christmas-day was displaced from its ancient position therein, gave great dissatisfaction, on many accounts,— and on none more than that of its interference with this ancient festival. The fifth and sixth of January continued, long, to be observed as the true anniversary of the Nativity, and its vigil ;and the kneeling of the cattle, the humming of the bees, and the ringing of subterranean bells, were anxiously watched, for authentications on this subject. The singular fact of the budding, about the period of old Christmas-day, of the Cadenham oak, in the New Forest of Hampshire, and the same remarkable feature of the Glastonbury thorn (explained in various ways, but, probably, nowhere more satisfactorily than in the number for the 31st December, 1833, of the Saturday Magazine),-were, of course, used, by the vulgar, as confirmations of their own tradition; and the putting forth of their leaves was earnestly waited for, as an unquestionable homage to the joyous spirit of the true period. We have already alluded to the high ceremonies with which the great day is ushered in, amongst the Catholics, and to the beautiful music of the midnight mass : "That only night of all the year Saw the stoled priest his chalice rear." The reader who would have a very graphic and striking account of the Christmas-eve mass, as performed by torchlight, amid the hills, in certain districts of Ireland, will find one in Mr. Carlton's "Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry." We have also mentioned, that all the watches of this hallowed night shall ring to the sounds of earthly minstrelsy, imitating, as best they may, the heavenly choirs that hailed its rising over Judea, nearly two centuries ago. Not for the shepherds, alone, was that song! Its music was for us, as for them;—and all minstrelsy, however rude, is welcome, on this night, that gives us any echoes of it, however wild. For us, too, on the blessed day of which this vigil keeps the door, "is born, in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord;"-and we, too, amid the sacred services of to-morrow, will "go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us." CHRISTMAS DAY. 25TH DECEMBER. AND now has arrived the great and important day itself, which gives its title to the whole of this happy season,--and the high and blessed work of man's redemption is begun. The pæan of universal rejoicing swells up on every side; and, after those religious exercises which are the language that man's joy should take first-the day is one of brightened spirits and general congratulation. In no way can man better express his sense of its inestimable gift, than by the condition of mind that receives gladly, and gives freely, than by mustering his worldly affections, that he may renew them in the spirit of the time. This is not the proper place to speak more minutely of the religious sentiments and services which belong to the season, than we have already done. We e may merely remark that the streets of the city, and the thousand pathways of the country are crowded, on this morning, by rich and poor, young and old, coming in on all sides -gathering from all quarters, to hear the particulars of the "glad tidings" proclaimed; and each lofty cathedral and lowly village church sends up a voice, to join the mighty chorus whose glad burthen is—"Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace, good will toward men." From the religious duties of the day, we must turn, at once, to its secular observances; and these we will take in the order (with reference to the progress of its hours) in which they come, -mingling the customs of modern times with those of the past, in our pages, as, in many respects, we wish our readers would do, in practice. On the subject of the identity of the modern plum-pudding with the ancient hackin, we are furnished with the following curious remarks, by Mr. Crofton Croker-which we think well worth submitting, for the consideration of the curious in such matters. 6 "The hackin,' says that amusing old tract, entitled, ‹ Round about our Coal Fire,'' must be boiled by day-break, or, else, two young men must take the maiden [i. e. the cook] by the arms, and run her round the market-place, till she is ashamed of her laziness.' Brand, whose explanation Hone, in his Every-day Book, has adopted, renders hackin by the great sausage;' and Nares tells us, that the word means a large sort of sausage, being a part of the cheer provided for Christmas festivities,'-deriving the word from hack, to cut or chop. Agreeing in this derivation, we do not admit Nares's explanation. Hackin, literally taken, is mince-meat of any kind; but Christmas mince-meat, everybody knows, means a composition of meat and suet (hacked small), seasoned with fruit and spices. And from the passage above quoted, that the hackin must be boiled [i. e. boiling] by day-break,' it is obvious, the worthy archdeacon, who, as well as Brand and Hone, have explained it as a great sausage, did not see that hackin is neither more nor less than the old name for the national English dish of plum-pudding. "We have heard first rate authorities, upon this subject, assert -the late Dr. Kitchener and Mr. Douce were amongst the number, that plum-pudding-the renowned English plum-pudding -was a dish, comparatively speaking, of modern invention: and that plum-porridge was its ancient representative. But this, for the honor of England, we never would allow,—and always fought a hard battle upon the point. Brand, indeed, devotes a section of his observations on popular antiquities to Yuledoughs, mincepies, Christmas-pies, and plum-porridge,' omitting plum-pudding, --which new Christmas dish, or rather, new name for an old Christmas dish, appears to have been introduced with the reign of the merry monarch,' Charles II. A revolution always creates a change in manners, fashions, tastes, and names;-and our theory is that, among other changes, the hackin of our ancestors was then baptized plum pudding. In Poor Robin's Almanac for 1676, it is observed of Christmas,-'good cheer doth so abound |