The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-04-19

can, be found in England. is the Hot Cross-bun Age seems not to wlher or lessen the popularity of that saaaaty edible It Is as inevitable on. 5000 Friday as the plum pudding on Christ- mas Day. Brand in his English An tiouities shows that. Hot Cross-buns were made in Britain long before the Rornish priest appeared, and infers that the outcast priests of Baal, who accompanied the Phoenicians into Eng land, baked the original English Hot Cross-b It was marked with cross. which divided it into four equal parts, to indicate the four quarters of the moon, Diana being the queen of, the Night, or else for the same req son. it was stamped with the crescent. Doubtless these cakes however trans formed or changed in intention. were the survival of a pagan practice Cakes were baked in honor or Astafte. even by the Jewish women, as the Prophet Jeremiah tells us, and we know how persistently pagan cere- monies held their own. even among -" Tn an old book. entitled "A Month in | Yorkshire we find the statement that biscuits baked on Good Friday would person would certainly recover if he | swallowed one grated in milk. or bran dy and water The same book records the unQuestioned fact that clothes hung
  l taken in be found spotted with blood. | Another prevalent superstition was that Hot Cross Buns could never pro- | duce illness, even when they were houses in Cornwall at the present day the Good Friday bun may be seen hang | ing on the bacon-rack, where 1t remains until 1t Is replaced by a fresh cake on the return of the next Good Friday.
 Admiring readers of Dickens. will no doubt recall how the interesting and ingenious Mr. Quilp treated the wooden figure head of a ship which orname nt- ed that charming gentleman's river r-side abode He was really initiating the Good Friday flogging of Judas lscar1ot which Is an honored custom In some countries: As late as the year 1874 The London Times printed in detail. description or a Good Friday observ- ance which transpired in the London docks, and In which the sailors from Portuguese and South American vessels took part. At daybreak a block oi wood, roughly carved to represent the betrayer of Christ. and clothed in 2 sailors suit, with red cap on its head was hoistcd by a rope around its neck to the fore rigging. After chapel ser vices. the several crews returned to thS docks. lowered the figure. cast 1t into the Thames and tucked 1t three times It was then hoisted on board, kicked about the decks and lashed to the cap stan. By this time, the men had worked themselves into a state of frenzy. witt imprecations and abuse, and knottine ropes as rods of chasttsement. they whipped the effigy until every vestig' of its clothing had been cut to tatters During this performance the various captains served grog to their own men the ship bells rang a discordant clat ter. and the sailors roared out their de nunciations of the traitor. Judas. I'm ceremony concluded with the burning of the effigy. amid the 1eers of th' crowd.
 Another Good Friday custom O kindlier nature, was the distribution o new six-pences in the churchyard fo old widows to pick up-a profita bI observance which has existed in som parts of England for four hundre' years, although nobody understands 1t origin. A like benefaction was the be stowment of a penny and a bag O raisins on the boys of the Bluecoa School. every Good Friday morning
 Another superstition. which expert ence must have often discredited i that never was a Good Friday on whicl rain did not fall Inasmuch as 1t gen orally comes in the month of April. 1t i not unlikely that clouds may drol something of their garnered fullnes at some hour of the day.