2o8 Devon Notes and Queries, inexorable to all entreaties to open them until some one has guessed at what is on the spit, which is generally some nice little thing, difficult to be hit on, and is the reward of him who first names it. This account has been copied again and again, but many of the subsequent writers have been able to add various features of interest. For example, Lysons in 1822 {Magna Britannia, vi., p. cccliv.) speaks of the ceremony as bein^ performed in some places on Christmas-eve and in others on Twelfth-day eve, and gives the interesting information that ^' the potation consists of cyder, in which is put roasted apples or toast : when all have drank, the remainder of the contents of the bowl are sprinkled over the apple tree." Mrs. Bray in 1832 {Borders of the Tamar and Tavy, 1879 ^ition, i., p. 290) was apparently the first to mention " placing bits of toast on the branches.*' A writer in Notes and Queries for 1851 (ist Series, iv., p. 309) speaks of a preliminary feasting, at which hot wheat-Hour cakes were dipped in the cider and eaten ; later in the evening a cake was deposited on a fork of the tree, and cider was thrown over it, the men firing off muskets, fowling-pieces, pistols, &c., the women, girls, and boys shout- ing and screaming to the trees with all the excitement of young Indians the following rhyme : — Bear blue [bloom], apples and pears enoug' ; Barn fulls, bag falls, sack falls. Hurrah 1 Hurrah 1 Hurrah 1 Miss Pinchard in 1876 {Trans. Devon Assoc, viii., p. 49) says that a little boy was hoisted up into the tree, and seated on a branch. He was to represent a tom-tit and sit there crying, " Tit, tit : more to eat ; '* on which some of the bread and cheese and cider was handed up to him. This interesting addition connects the custom more closely with that practised in Japan, as indicated by your correspondent. The boy is obviously the personification of the spirit of the apple-tree, and the libations and ofiferings are intended to propitiate the spirit in order to obtain a good crop in the coming year. The firing of guns may possibly be intended to frighten away the evil spirits of blight and disease ; but, as this seems to be a recent addition to the custom, its object is more likely to emphasise the shouting. It is not clear that the barring of the doors, described in the GentlematCs Magazine for 1791, has any special significance. R. Pbarse Chops*
