conquered all the T they forgat God, their own Lust. that they called able Knyght in I hym for Help, a better of this K great Worship to after which Wo that the Mone the 2d Day of The Romain. of Rome, with Worship of thi the more Help Then was t and when he false Maumet undo this fou God's Wors! perhaps the youthful Part of the World hath first practised this Custom, so common at this Season. In the Trullan Council we have Lots and Divinations forbid, as being some of those Things which provoked the LORD to anger against King* Manasses, who used Lots and Divinations, &c. upon which the Scholiast hath these Words. + The Custom of drawing Lots was after this Manner; on the 23d Day of June, which is the Eve of St. John Baptist, Men and Women were accustomed to gather together in the Evening by the Sea-side, or in some certain Houses, and there adorn a Girl, who was her Parents first-begotten Child, after the Manner of a Bride. Then they feasted and leaped after the Manner of Bacchanals, and danced and shouted as they were wont to do on their Holy-days: After this they poured into a narrow-neck'd Vessel some of the SeaWater, and put also into it certain Things be Pe know well, how on St. Ualentine's Day * 2 Lib. Kings, Chap. 21. ↑ Can. 65. in Syn. Trul. in Bals. P. 440. Chaucer. longing longing to each of them. Then as if the Devil gifted the Girl, with the Faculty of telling future Things; they would enquire with a loud Voice, about the good or evil Fortune that should attend them: Upon this the Girl would take out of the Vessel, the first Thing that came to Hand, and shew it, and give it to the Owner; who upon receiving it, was so foolish as to imagine himself wiser, as to the good or evil Fortune that should attend him, This Custom, as he tells us a little after, is altogether diabolical: And surely it was so, being used as a presage of what was future. Was the Custom of the Lots now mention'd, used as among the Heathens, they would no Doubt be as worthy of Condemnation; but as far as I know, there is but little Credit given to them; tho' that little is too much, and ought to be laid aside. But if the Custom was used without any Mixture or Allay of Superstition, as I believe it is in some Places, yet it is often attended with great Inconveniences and Misfortunes, with Uneasinesses to Families, with Scandal, and sometimes with Ruin. OBSER OBSERVATIONS ON CHAP. XX. Festa Valentino rediit lux Quisque sibi sociam jam legit ales avem. Inde sibi dominam per sortes quærere in annum Quisque legit Dominam, quam casto observet amore Mittere cui possit blandi munuscula Veris. BUCHANAN. BIRDS are said to choose their Mates about this Time of the Year, and probably from thence came the Custom of young Persons chusing Valentines or special loving Friends on that Day: This is the commonly received Opinion.-I rather incline to controvert this, supposing it to be the Remains of an antient Superstition in the Church of Rome on this Day, of choosing Patrons for the Year ensuing; and that, because Ghosts were thought to walk on the Night of this Day*, or about this Time. Gallantry seems to have borrowed this, or rather, to have taken it up, when Superstition (at the Reformation) had been compelled to let it fall. I have searched the Legend of St. Valentine, but * This I find in an Observation of the 14th of February, in the old Romish Calendar so often cited: "Manes nocte vagari creduntur.” |