Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/611

 s. ii. DEC. 24, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

503

" Then came the Most Holy, blessed be He, and slew the Angel of Death, who had slain the slaughterer, who had slaughtered the ox, which had drunk the water, which had extinguished the fire, which had burnt the staff, which had smitten the dog, which had bitten the cat, which had devoured the kid, which my father bought for two zuzini ; one only kid, one only kid."

The most popular interpretation of this parable is that the kid is Israel, the two zuzim the two tables of the law ; the cat is Babylon, the dog Persia, the staff Greece, the fire Rome, the water the Turks powers which in succession overthrew each other ; then the ox refers to Edom, by which term the Euro- pean nations are designated ; the slaughterer refers to the fearful war which will take place when the confederated armies of Gog, Magog, Persia, Gush, and Pul come up to drive the sons of Edom from Palestine. The Angel of Death is the pestilence which shall destroy all the enemies of Israel ; and lastly the Most Holy shall establish His kingdon upon earth, under the rule of Messiah, the son of David.

I must acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. H. W. Innes, LL.B., who was the first to point out to me the resemblance between the nursery story and the Jewish poem.

CHR. WATSON.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHRISTMAS. (Continued from 9 th S. xii. 502.)

Austin. W., of Lincoln's Inn. Devotionis Augus- tiniana Flam ma, or certaine devout, godly and learned Meditations. 16?o. Sm. folio. Contains three ' Carrols for Christmas Day.'

Office de la Nuit et du Jour de Noel selon 1'usage

du Diocese de Paris avec dix Considerations

tirees de SS. Peres sur la Naissance de Nostre Seigneur, par le Sieur Du Voisin. Paris, 1077. Sm. 8yo.

Christ's Birth miss-tim'd ; or, a Resolution of the Lord Carew's Question, touching the true Time of the Conception and Birth both of John Baptist, and also of our Saviour, proving that Jesus Christ was not born in December. By R. S. In the Phoenix, vol. i., 1707.

A New Christmas Carol, called the Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. At the end of ' The Carpenter,' Cheap Repository Tracts, 1795. Pp. 23, 24.

A Garland of the Old Castleton [Derbyshire] Christmas Carols. Edited, with notes, by W. H. Shawcross, vicar of Bretforton, co. Worcester. Hemsworth [co. York], 1904. 12mo, 6 leaves and paper cover.

Christmas Carols, from Ancient Times to the Present. Extracts from various writers. Pub- lished by Nelson, n.d. ; printed within borders, in red and blue.

W. C. B.

" WASSAIL." This word is defined by Pref. Skeat in his 'Etymological Diet.' as "a festive occasion, a merry carouse." I suggest that it is cognate with the O.N. veizla, a

feast. In the neighbourhood of Sheffield a carol known as * Jolly Wessel ' is still sung at Christmas, and in 1875 I published a^ version of it in 'Household Tales,' &c. p. 107. It begins :

Our jolly wessel,

Love and joy come to you,

And to our wessel boo ;

Pray God send you

A happy new year.

We 've been a while a-wandering

Amongst the leaves and greaves,

And now we come a-wesseling,

So plainly to be seen.

I need riot quote more, and it is enough to- say that the carol goes on to express a wish that the master and mistress of the house may have "a pocket full of money and a cellar full of beer," and other good things. The children who sing it carry a decorated holly bough, and go round from house to- house. Possibly readers of ' N. & Q.' could supply other versions of the carol.

Now in the Danish parts of England Old Norse was once spoken, and, as Sheffield was such a district, 1 see no reason why the for O.N. J6la-veizla, Yule banquet. In the third line boo may be the holly bough, but too would make better sense.
 * jolly wessel " of our carol should not stand

It may be objected that the O.N. z was pronounced like ts, and that the ei of the first syllable would normally become long o- in modern English, just as O.N. steinn corre- sponds to the modern E. stone. I cannot say whether or not the first objection would be valid, but I am sure that the second would not be. Thus the O.N. 'sveif, a handle, is swaifin Derbyshire, not swoaf.

The following explanation of ivassayl is given in Robert of Gloucester's 'Chronicle' (Hearne, ed. 1724, p. 118) : Men, J>at knew the langage, seide, wat was wassayl, And l>at he scholde J>at bro3te onswere "drynkhayl."

An old Northern feast was essentially an ale-drinking. It is called ol-drykkja, and even drykkja, in the sagas, so that Robert of r Gloucester's "drink ale" is to the point as regards definition. S. O. ADDY.

CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS, GAMES, &c. In. 1479, at Bristol, the Mayor, the Sheriff, and their brethren received "Seynt Kateryns players " at their doors on St. Katherine's Eve, and gave them drink and rewards ; and special ordinances were made for keeping the peace during the Christmas mumming-time, for which see Ricart's ' Kalendar,' pp. 80, 85. At Christmas, 2 Edward VI., the king gave daily alms for a week, the children of the chapel sang "Gloria in Excelsis," the heralds