Masters, what they call Orders. I have heard also of a similar Custom at the School of Houghton-leSpring, in the County of Durham.

OF THE GULE OF AUGUST, COMMONLY CALLED LAMMASS-DAY.

LAMMAS-Day, says Blount, the first of August, otherwise called the Gule or Yule of August, which may be a Corruption of the British Word Gwyl Awst, signifying the Feast of August, or may come from Vincula, (Chains) that Day being called in Latin,' Festum Sancti Petri ad Vincula. The last Opinion seems a wild and vague Conjecture. How much more probable is the Hypothesis of the learned Gebelin, which the Reader will find, both in the original French, and translated into English, if he will be at the Trouble of turning back to Page 171.

Antiquaries are divided also in their Opinions concerning the Origin of the Word Lam, or Lamb

mass.

Some suppose it is called Lammass-Day*, quasi

which I slept, had a Latin Title (Montem) above the Chimneypiece that referred to the Little-Hill, the Scene of this singular Custom.

* We have an old Proverb " At latter Lammass" which is synonymous with the "Ad Græcas Calendas" of the Latins, and the vulgar saying" When two Sundays come together," i, e. never.

Lamb-Masse, because on that Day the Tenants that held lands of the Cathedral Church in York, (which is dedicated to St. Peter and Vinculat) were bound by their Tenure to bring a live Lamb into the Church at high Mass on that Day.

Others suppose it to be derived from the Saxon Hlar Mærre. i. e. Loaf Masse, or Bread Masse, so named as a Feast of Thanksgiving to God' for the first Fruits of the Corn; and seems to have been observed with Bread of new Wheat; and accordingly it is a Usage in some Places for Tenants to be bound to bring in Wheat of that Year to their Lord, on or before the first of August. Ham. Resol. to 6 Quæres, p. 465. Vide Blount.

Of the vulgar Saying, "UNDER the RosE.

DOCTOR Browne leaves me little more on this Subject, than the easy and agreeable Task of making him speak concisely and in plain English.

Nazianzen, says he, seems to imply in the subsequent translated Verses, that the Rose, from a natural Property, has been made the Symbol of Silence, Utquè latet Rosa verna suo putamine clausa,

Sic os vincla ferat, validisque arctetur habenis,
Indicatque suis prolixa silentia labris.

In the antient Calendar of the Romish Church, I find the sub sequent Observation on the 1st of August:

"Chains are worshipped, &c."
"Catena coluntur ad Aram in Exquiliis
Ad Vicum Cyprium juxta Titi thermas."

Hence

Hence it should seem when we desire to confine our Words, we commonly say, they are spoken under the Rose."

There is a Propriety in this Expression also, if we mean only in Society at convivial Entertainments, where it was an antient Custom to wear Chaplets of Roses about the Head.

The Germans have a Custom of describing a Rose in the Ceiling over the Table.*

Lemnius and others have traced it to another Origin: The Rose, say they, was the Flower of Venus, which Cupid consecrated to Harpocrates, the God of Silence, &c. it was therefore an Emblem of it to conceal the Pranks of Venery; thus; the Poet:

"Ut Rosa flos Veneris, cujus quo facta laterent
Harpocrati Matris, dona dicavit Amor;

Inde Rosam mensis Hospes suspendit amicis,
Conviviæ ut sub eâ dicta tacenda sciant."

* I shall favour my Reader here with another curious Observation of the learned Author of the Vulgar Errors: Coral was thought to preserve and fasten the Teeth in Men, yet is used in Children to make an easier Passage for them; hence that well-known Toy, with Bells, &c. and Coral at the end, which is generally suspended from their Necks. This Custom is supposed with the greatest Probability to have had its Origin in an antient Superstition, which considered it as an Amulet or Defensative against Fascination.-For this we have the Authority of Pliny, in the following Words: " Aru"spices religiosum Coralli gestamen amoliendis periculis arbitrantur; "Et Surculi Infantiæ alligati tutelam habere creduntur,"

Of the SILLY How, that is, the holy, or fortunate

CAP or HOOD.

VARIOUS were the Superstitions, about half a Century ago, concerning a certain membranous Covering, commonly called the Silly How, that was sometimes found about the Heads of new-born Infants. It was preserved with great Care, not only as medical in Diseases, but also as contributing to the good fortune of the Infant and others.-This, says Dr. Browne, is no more than the Continuation of a Superstition that is of very remote Antiquity. Thus we read in the Life of Antoninus, by

* In Scotland, says the learned and modest Author of the Glossary to Douglas' Virgil, the Women call a haly or sely how, (i. e. holy or fortunate Cap, or Hood) a Film, or Membrane stretched over the Heads of Children new born, which is nothing else but a Part of that which covers the Foetus in the Womb; and they give out that Children so born, will be very fortunate. In Verbo How.

An Instance of great Fortune in one born with this Coif is given by Elius Lampridius, in the History of Diadumenos, who came afterwards to the Sovereign Dignity of the Empire. This Superstition prevailed much in the primitive Ages of the Church. St. Chrysostom in several of his Homilies inveighs against it: He is particularly severe against one Prætus, a Clergyman, who being desirous of being fortunate, bought such a Coif of a Midwife. See Athenian Oracle.

It would be giving the Reins up to Fancy altogether to suppose that the present remarkable black Spots in the Wigs of those of the highest Orders of the Law, owe their Origin to this antient Superstition; but I have no Kind of Doubt but that the Word Howdy, used in the North for a Midwife, and which I take to be a dimi nitive of How, is derived from this obsolete Opinion of old Women. An Etymon I have heard of Howdy, that is, "How do ye," is not unlike the "All Eggs under" of Swift, and forcibly satirizes that Licentiousness of Fancy in which many Philologists have indulged themselves.

Spartianus

Spartianus, that Children are sometimes born with this natural Cup, which Midwives were wont to sell to credulous Lawyers, who held an Opinion that it contributed to their Promotion.*

Of the Phenomenont, vulgarly called WILL or KITTY with the WISP, or JACK with a LAN

THORN.

How Will a Wisp misleads nightfaring Clowns,
O'er Hills and sinking Bogs, and pathless Downs.

GAY.

THIS Appearance, called in Latin, Ignis Fatuus, has long been an article in the Catalogue of popular

* "But to speak strictly, continues our Author, the Effect is natural, and thus to be conceived, the Infant hath three Teguments, or membranous Filmes which cover it in the Womb, i. e. the Corion, Amnios and Allantois; the Corion is the outward Membrane, wherein are implanted the Veins, Arteries, and umbilical Vessels, whereby its Nourishment is conveyed: The Allantois a thin Coat seated under the Corion, wherein are received the watery Separa tions conveyed by the Urachus, that the Acrimony thereof should not offend the Skin. The Amnios is a general Investment, containing the sudorous, or thin Serosity perspirable through the Skin. Now about the Time when the Infant breaketh these Coverings, it sometimes carrieth with it about the Head a Part of the Amnios, or neerest Coat; which saith Spiegelius, either proceedeth from the Toughness of the Membrane or Weaknesse of the Infant that cannot get clear thereof, and therefore herein Significations are natural and concluding upon the Infant, but not to be extended unto magical Signalities or any other Person."

+ Blount tells us it is a certain viscous Substance, reflecting Light in the Dark, evaporated out of a fat Earth and flying in the Air. It commonly haunts Church-yards, Privies, and Fens, be cause it is begotten out of Fatness; it flies about Rivers, Hedges, 2 D 4

&c.