Page:Notes on the folk-lore of the northern counties of England and the borders.djvu/112

90 St. Agnes’ Fast, the same which has furnished Keats with a subject for his little poem, The Eve of St. Agnes. He recounts, in his own glowing yet chastened style, how all the wintry day Madeline’s heart had brooded

St. Agnes’ Fast is thus practised throughout Durham and Yorkshire. Two young girls, each desirous to dream about their future husbands, must abstain through the whole of St. Agnes’ Eve from eating, drinking, or speaking, and must avoid even touching their lips with their fingers. At night they are to make together their “dumb cake,” so called from the rigid silence which attends its manufacture. Its ingredients (flour, salt, water, &c.) must be supplied in equal proportions by the friends, who must also take equal shares in the baking and