Page:Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme.djvu/39

 So in Zerbst the Bridegroom waiteth all dinner time.

At Basel in Helvetia, a kind of bread or cake is presented to the Bridegroome comming out of Church at the doore of his house before he entres, the Man y$t$ presenteth it, breaketh of a bit, which the Bridegroome receiveth and eateth it. [W. K.]

Soule-cakes. In Salop, &c. die oĩun Animarum (All-Soules-day Novemb. 2d) there is sett on the Board a high heap of Soule-cakes, lyeing one upon another like the picture of the Sew-Bread in the old Bibles. They are about the bignesse of 2$d$ cakes, and n'ly all the visitants that day take one; and there is an old Rhythm or saying,

This custome is continued to this time. This putts me in mind of the Feralia dict. à ferendis ad tumulum epulis: id quod forant [ferunt?] tunc epulas ad sepulchrum quibus jus ibi parentare. Feralia deum manium dies in Febr. Had Ovid continued his Fastorum to Novemb: in probability we should have found such a kind of custome used at that time sc. Novemb: 2$d$.

Mdm. Seed-cakes, for the Ploughmen, after Sowing is donne; I thinke, All-Saints' night, or Eve. Also Cakes at Home-harvest.

Offertories at funeralls. These are mentioned in the Rubrick of ch. of Engl. Comon-Prayer-booke: but I never sawe it used, but once at Beaumaris, in Anglesey; but it is used over all the Counties of North- Wales. But before when the corps is brought out of Doores, there is Cake & Cheese, and a new Bowie of Beere, and another of Milke with Anno Dni ingraved on it, &  parties name deceased, w$ch$ one accepts of on the other side of  Corps; & this Custome is used to this day, 1686, in North Wales, where a small tablet or board is fixt near the Altar, upon w$ch$ the friends of  defunct lay their offerings in mony according to their own ability and the quality of the person deceased. This custom proves a very