Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 47.djvu/262

252 the Celtic May-day ceremonials and customs were of quite different origin from those of England, and in many small superstitions concerning May-day we find among the Irish peasantry frequent hints at sun-worship or of the worship of fire, the symbol of the sun. It is still believed to be unsafe or even profane to carry fire from one house to another on May-day; and on that day, when evil-minded persons or witches have special power, the butter in the churn may be protected from bewitchment by placing a live coal under the churn.

Undoubtedly the most remarkable survivals of sun-worshiping festivals in modern Europe are the Christmas rejoicings, which are but a Christianized relic of the old Yule celebration, marking the occurrence of the midwinter solstice, and the merrymaking on St. John's eve, which is merely an adaptation of the midsummer fire-festival of pagan times. In our own country the latter occasion passes unnoticed, but Christmas is sufficiently observed.

It is a general popular belief throughout the United States that in making cake the eggs, or indeed the whole mixture, must be stirred or beaten from beginning to end in the same direction in which the stirring began, or the cake will not be light, and that a custard will curdle if the stirring motion is reversed.

This superstition is still current even in households where a patent egg-beater is used, which is so constructed that its loops of wire revolve in opposite ways at the same time; and, although the result is most satisfactory, the belief in the old rule of stirring "only one way," or in a dextral direction, is unshaken. Often it is said that the stirring must be sunwise, the popular expression for this dextral motion being "with the sun." The same notion is found in Newfoundland; and a woman from Aberdeen, Scotland, tells me that it' is a general belief among her countrywomen that, to succeed in any household work where either stirring or rubbing is involved, the movement should always be "with the sun." Some matrons in northern Ohio say that to insure good bread the dough should be stirred "with the sun," and that yeast should be made as near sunrise as possible to secure lightness. It is also a common saying that if, after turning the crank of a churn for a time sunwise (the most natural way for a right-handed person), it be turned backward, all the work done will be undone. The same superstition is found in Newfoundland. In southern Sweden cooks will tell you that, in beating butter to a froth or in making gravy, the stirring must continue as begun, to secure good results; and in eastern Massachusetts I find that the superstition extends even to the processes of making ice-cream and molasses candy. The notion that lye soap will not "come"—i. e., saponify—unless it is stirred "with the sun" is more or less current in localities where this old-fashioned industry is yet