Page:A Glossary of Words Used In the Neighbourhood of Sheffield - Addy - 1888.djvu/59

 of beer and whiskey; for each of the company must contribute something. The rites begin with spilling some of the caudle on the ground, by way of libation: on that every one takes a cake of oatmeal, upon which are raised nine square knobs, each dedicated to some particular being, the supposed preserver of their flocks, or to some particular animal, the destroyer of them; each person then turns his face to the fire, breaks off a knob, and flinging it over his shoulder, says—'This I give to thee! preserve thou my horses! this to thee, preserve my sheep!' After that they use the same ceremony to the noxious animals: 'This I give to thee, O Fox, spare thou my lambs; this to thee O hooded Crow; this to thee O Eagle!' When the ceremony is over, they dine on the caudle, and after the feast is finished, what is left is hid by two persons deputed for that purpose; but on the next Sunday they re-assemble and finish the relies of the first entertainment

A similar account of this ceremony is given by Armstrong. He says: 'In some parts of the Highlands the young folks of a hamlet meet in the moors on the first of May. They cut a table in the green sod, of a round figure, by cutting a trench in the ground of such circumference as to hold the whole company. They then kindle a fire and dress a repast of eggs and milk in the consistence of a custard, &c'.

Other writers have said that these fires were made on carns, or great heaps of stones, and if that is so further light is thrown upon the place-name Burnt Stones. We may see in the adjacent place-names St. Anthony's Hill, St. Anthony's Well, and Stephen Hill, Anthony and Stephen being the tutelary saints of swine and horses, evidence of the worship of the lesser gods who preceded, and under other names were received into, the Christian calendar, and who, in the popular belief, watched over the flocks and herds of men accustomed to invoke their protection.

It is easy to see why the ancient inhabitants of this country first settled in the tops of hills. 'The comparative absence of wood,' says Canon Greenwell, 'was a circumstance which must have materially influenced settlers such as we may consider the early wold-dwellers to have been in their choice of a place of abode. To men who were in possession of no cutting instruments better than axes