(2) There is talk of unchristened folk beneath
the threshold wailing "for a wax-light and offerings to be brought them;
when that is done they lie still enough"--here there may be a modified
survival of the idea that ancestral spirits dwell beneath the doorway.
(3) The food must on no account be cleared away after the Christmas meal,
but is left for three days, apparently for the house-spirits. (4)
Blessings are invoked upon the "Absent Ones," which seems to mean the
departed, and (5) a toast is drunk and a bread-cake broken in memory of
"the Patron Namegiver of all house-fathers," ostensibly Christ but
perhaps originally the founder of the family. Some of these customs
resemble those we have noted on All Souls' Eve and--in Scandinavia--on
Christmas Eve; other parallels we shall meet |254| with later. Among
the Slav races the old organization of the family under an elective
house-elder and holding things in common has been faithfully preserved,
and we might expect to find among the remote Serbian highlanders
specially clear traces of the old religion of the hearth. One remarkable
point noted by Sir Arthur Evans was that in the Crivoscian cottage where
he stayed the fire-irons, the table, and the stools were removed to an
obscure corner before the logs were brought in and the Christmas rites
began--an indication apparently of the extreme antiquity of the
celebration, as dating from a time when such implements were unknown.
Pages:
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333