Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/186

 178 Hoffmann, we have the Christmas-tree with its golden apples as the principal feature of the festival. After the beginning of the century, Prussians brought it to all parts of Germany, where it was till then unknown. It was especially by the frequent changes which took place with the frontiers of the German states, through the Congress of Vienna, that the custom was spread. Prussian officers and officials brought it to the west to Westphalia, and to the east to Dantzic. In Munich it was only introduced in 1S30 by the Queen Caroline, the wife of Louis I of Bavaria. After that all the principal places in Germany accepted it.

It lies in the nature of the Yule festival that the tree which graces it must be of the cuniferous tribe, for, at that time, all other trees in the forest are bare. But, for all that, it seems that in many places people tried, and often succeeded, in having trees with foliage and blossoms at Christmas-time.

We still possess an etching by Joseph Keller, entitled "Christbescherens, oder der fröhliche Morgen" (Christmas Gifts, or the Happy Morning), which must have been executed about the year 1790 at Nuremberg. This drawing shows us, in the corner of a room, a tree in the full splendour of its foliage, hung with ornaments just like those used to-day, and decorated with candles, two of which are borne by an angel suspended from the centre of the tree. This shows that foliage-trees must have been used formerly.

There is a report from Nördlingen relating to about the same time and place. It is the autobiography of the painter, Albrecht Adam, who was born in Nordlingen in 1786. He says: "In Nördlingen we don't have the dark fir-tree for Christmas; instead of that a small cherry or apricot-tree is planted, months before, in a pot, and placed in the corner of the room. Generally these trees are covered with blossoms at Christmas-time, and fill up the whole corner of the room. This is looked upon as a great