On The Origin And Observance Of Christmas.—Ii.

Virgil ' s description , ( Georg . i ., 335-350 , ) is rather long , but tbe following lines may be culled : — "In primis venerare Deus atque annua magna ! Sacra refer Cereri , Ifctis operatus in herbis Extreina ! sub casum hyeniis jam vere sereno—Terque novas arcuni felix eat hostia fruges : Omnis quam chorus et socii coinitantur ovantes Et Cererem clamore vocent in tccta . "

We have however conformities of the wheel , embracing a much wider field . The Cliatra or Shatra of Indian worship was a wheel , as in a piece of sculpture in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries , where , on the principal front of a temple a six-spoked wheel is guarded by two lions , couchant on each side ; ancl in the " Journal of Biblical Literature "

, July , 1856 , Mr . Talbot , speaking of an Assyrian papyrus , says , among the offerings of the kings were ishibe or shatra , the symbols of royalty : the one a sceptre , the other a circular umbrella , like a wheel ; and a similar one is borne before the Pope when he appears in state / - * But still more curious is it that we should find the wheel

or rota introduced into Mexican archajology , and their intricate astronomical calculations . Scaliger ( De Emend . Temp Edit . 1629 , p . 226 ) , says : — " Tlie Mexicans hacl a wheel ( rota ) of fifty two years , divided into four periods of thirteen each , ancl as their week , so to say , had each thirteen clays , their year as above of twenty months ol eighteen clays , each so as to give it a duration of three hundred and

sixty clays , with five Epagomenw , devoted to joy and festivity ( exactly as the twelve clays , the complement of ' the Saxon lunar with the solar year , from Christmas to Twelfth daj' ) . " " Die ultima Kofcu hoc est anni LH . frangehant omnia fictilia ct _ utensilia , _ exsfmgucbuntur lumina et igucs putantcs inunclo cxitiini inimiucrc in cujusdam harum Rotarum . Ultimam noctem Eotic vi g ilabant putantcs turn extreiuum esse niundi . Qiuun autcm videreut crcpusculum tunc certc niundum aclinic non perituriun surgentes in choreas et ludicra debebaut sese , qui erat primus dies rote HOYS ' . "

And whilst mentioning Scaliger ' s learned work , wc may state , that in his "Explanation of the Saxon Calendar , " he puts rpo-nimu as the exponent of Giuli , which , therefore , as Yule , identifies it with the wheel ; ut ante . Wc have previously remarked that the examples of these fiery wheels driven down hills are principally found in North

Germany , and therefore we find there more frequent allusions to them , irrespective of any roi ' orenco to Christmas or St . John . Thus in Folds llarzsagen ( Legends of the Harz Mountains ) , p . 105 , the exorcism of the ghost of a female innkeeper at Anusthat is related at p . 104 , and ultimately driven out of doors into the Red Sea ; but the exorcist , a Roman Catholic

pater ( evidently a made up fiction ) opens the door after her , bids two soldiers , witnesses of his proceedings , to look out after her , who see her , or pretend they see her , running clown the street like a glowing wheel on fire ( wie ein yliihendes Feuerr ad ) . Another instance which he ives occurs at the foundation

^ g of the famous monastery of Ilfeld ( p . 225 ) . Before it was founded the countess living in the Castle of Ilburg had perceived a bri ght light in the midst of the adjoining woods , and waking her husband he could see nothing though the lady had observed it a full hour previously . The second night tho same brightness occurred to her vision though to

her husband ' s it was still hidden . When the countess saw it the third night , without consulting anyone , she saddled her mule ancl rode in the direction of the light , having before laden her palfrey with as much money as it coulcl carry . Tho light turned out to be a great fire , which , as she approached , rolled itself up into tho form of a huge fiery watermill wheel

, l The following are additional East Indian proofs of the veneration of the wheel in diflbrait forms : —Houghton's " Translation of Menu ' s Code of Laws" ( ii . p . -J 26 > , " Ifc is he ( the Paruscha ) who , pervaded all beings in five elemental forms , causes them by the gradations of birth , growth , and dissolution , to revolve in this world ( until they deserve beatitude ) like the wheels of a car . " Translated by Wilhelm v . Humboldt , liber " Baghavat Gita ( 26 ) . "

( das rollte sich zuscu men m ein grosses feurmges milhlrad ) aud rolled continually forward . The countess followed on her mule , this fiery wheel , ancl arrived at length at the place where it became extinguished . She then caused a church to be built on the same sjiot with the money with which she hacl laden her mule ; ancl as a hole was dug at the place where

the fire hacl disappeared , to lay the foundation of the edifice , there were found , in addition , two tonnen of gold ( about £ 15 , 000 ) whicli were also used to construct the monasterial buildings . In Southern Germany the wheel loses its fiery nature , and becomes a purely symbolical sign under tho denomination of

Wepelrot , meaning , as I suppose , from the analogy of Wellen ancl the manner of its construction , a wheel of withs . It is thus described in Baron Cotta ' s " Morgenblatt , " 1853 , Dect . p . 2 . 35 . Another custom , widely spread throughout Southern Germany , which has been transmitted , us from , the time of our

heathendom , is , driving the wheel ( Scheiben treiben ) answering to the North German practice of rolling fiery wheels down declivities . Disc , like wheel , is the symbol of the sun , of which the Wepelrot im Sauerland is an example . It is a wheel plaited of withies , its nave covered with gold leaf , from which the spokes radiate like so many rays to the

circumference , ancl project somewhat beyond it , which projections are stuck with apples . These loepelrots are thrown into the halls of your acquaintance , and the giver hurries away with all possible speed to avoid recognition . But still such a Wepelrot is carried about in solemn processions and finally considered as a fortunate symbol of the solar disc , religiously preserved by both males ancl females during the

ensuing year . A practice noticed by Grirnin , in his excellent "Mythology , " p . 51 , from Otmar ' s Volhsctgen , bears some analogy to this practice , though farther north , and for another church festival . In the village Questehberg , ou the Harz , the lads of the village on the Tuesday after Whitsunday , carry an oak to the burg or castle hill , which commands the entire

neighbourhood , ancl as soon as they have fixed it upright they fix on it a large chaplet , twisted from raw twigs of trees ancl which resembles a cart wheel : all call out "Die Questc ! " ancl dance round the tree . Tree aud chaplet are annually renewed . It would lead us too far in this disquisition to follow the deductions in Grater Idumea and Hermodc on the connection of the solar wheel with the mystical cates called . Bretzel which travellers on the Anhalt lines of railroad will

find energetically offered to them at the windows of the carriages at the station called Gnadau as a place of pilgrimage ; now no longer in their archaic shape of a wheel but flattened to the form of a Staffordshire knot , with which they have more relation than is at first apparent , but whicli would require more space than is now at our disposal to eliminate . Equally loth are we , for the same reasons , to pass over in

proof of the heathen ori gin of our Christmas festivities , those scenes which in a dramatic form represent the contest of Winter and Summer , and the eventual triumph of the genial season . Wo' have numerous instances of such wordy battles fitting the sun ' s position and his returning power in numerous foreign countries and our own , for which latter the following verse from B . Herrick ' s " Hesperides" may suffice , p . 318 ,

beginning" Farewell Frost ancl welcome Spring , fully exemplified in the Athencm-m , principally after the practices at Eisenach , in Saxony : " Approach of Spring : Sommer ' s Gewin . " One party carried Winter in the shape of a man covered with straw , out of town into exile : another decked Spring in the form of a youth covered with boughs . In process of time the parts before personified were now performed by real dramatis personal , who exhibited a combat , in ivhich Winter is beaten ;—