Tregetors seem to have been in high repute. Their feats are thus described by CHAUCER, in his Franklin's Tale:

For I am siker' that there be sciences,
By which men make divers apparences,
Such as these subtle Tergeters play;
For oft at feasts have I well heard say,
That Tragetours, within an hall large,
Have made come in water and a barge;
And in the hall rowen up and downe,
Sometime hath steined a grim lioun,
And sometime flowers spring as in a mede;
Sometime a vine and grapes, white and rede:
Sometime a castel of lime and stone:

And when hem listed, voiden hem anone:
Thus seemed it to every man's sight.

6

And again, in the Squire's Tale,' he says,

And others rowned to his felows loud,
And saied he lied, for it is rather like
An apparence made by some magikes
As jogglours plaien at these feasts great:
Of sundry thoughts thus they jangle and treat,
As leand3 people deemeth commonly
Of things that been made more subtilly,
Than they can in her leandnesse comprehend:
They deemen gladly to their badder end.

And some of hem wondren on the mirrour,
(That born was up to the maister tour)
How men might in it such things see.
Another answerd, certes it might well bee,
Naturally by compositions

Of angels and the reflections;

And saien that in Rome was such on,
They speaken of Alhazen and Vitellion,
And Aristotle that writeth in her lives
Of quaint mirrours, and of perspectives,

As knowing they that han her bookes heard.

The name of Tregetour or Jogelour (Juggler) was applied, in Chaucer's time, to those who by sleight of hand and machines produced such illusions of the senses as are usually supposed to be effected by en

I Sure.

Them.

3 Ignorant.

chantment; and a great deal of machinery was requisite to produce the apparences or illusions enumerated by the poet. The feats of the Tregetours may be illustrated from the following account which Sir John Mandevile has given of the exhibitions before the Great Chan. And than comen Jogulours and Enchantoures, that don many marvaylles: for they maken to come in the ayre the Sonne, and the Mone, be seminge, to every mannes sight. And after they maken the nyght so dark, that no man may see no thing. And aftre they maken the day to come ayen fair and plesant with bright Sonne to every mannes sight. And than they bringen in daunces of the fairest damyselles of the world and richest arrayed. And aftre they maken to comen in other damyselles, bringinge coupes of gold, fulle of mylk of dyverse bestes, and yeven drinke to lordes and to ladyes. And than they make Knyghtes to jousten in armes fulle lustyly; and they rennen togidre a gret randoum: and they firuschen togidere fulle fiercely; and they breken here speres so rudely, that the tronchouns fleu in sprotes and peces alle aboute the halle. And than they make to come in huntyng for the hest and for the boor, with houndes renning with open mouthe. And many other thinges they don be craft of hir enchauntementes, that it is marveyle for to see. And suche playes of desport they make, til the taking up of the boordes.'-Mand. Trav., p. 285, 6.

I have heard my grandfather Lyte say (observes Mr. Aubrey, alluding to the description of Chaucer) that old Father Davis told him, he saw such a thing donne in a gentleman's hall at Christmas, at or near Durseley in Gloucestershire, about the middle of King Henry the Eight's reigne. Edmund Wild, Esq. saies that it is credibly reported, that one shewed the now king of France, in 1689 or 1690, this trick, that is, to make the apparition of an oake, &c. in a hall as described by Chaucer, and no conjuration. The king of France gave him (the person) five hundred louis

d'ors for it. MEM. A Hamborough merchant, now or lately in London, did see this trick donne at a wedding in Hamborough, about 1687, by the same person that shewed it to the king of France.-Aubrey MS.

CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS in GERMANY.

In Germany, on Christmas Eve (Mr. Aubrey gravely observes), many sinfull things in some places are dun by young maids or men, e. g. a mayd washeth her feet in a brazen bason, and afterwards throwes out the water, and placeth it in any place, and hearknes to it, by this she will know what manner of man the future husband will bee; when she heareth scribbling, she taketh it, that he will be a scholar or scrivener; if she heares sewing, a taylor or shoemaker, &c. Yea, as some say, maids will keep a piece of meat at the first and three following Advent Sundays, and at twelve o'clock at night before Christmas, doe lay the table cloth, and sett up the said meat, without laying on it any knyf,-then say, 'Here I sit and would fain eat, if my sweetheart would come and bring me a knyfe;' whereupon a ghost in shape of a man presenteth her with a knife, and such a one her future husband will bee.-Aubrey MS., A.D. 1686.

Another Christmas custom in Germany, recorded by Mr. Aubrey, is as follows. The night before Christmas, they take a trencher, and put upon it a little heap of salt, as big as a walnut more or lesse, for such and such a one, and for themselves two, and set it in a safe place in the morning when they find the heap or heaps entire, all will live the following yeare; but if any or more are melted down a little, they take it that the same man or woman will dye for which it was designed.-Aubrey MS., A.D. 1686. CHRISTMAS EVE at ROME.

A modern traveller affords us an agreeable description of the festivities of Christmas Eve,' and of the ceremonies of the following morning: The first note

of preparation appeared in the arrival of the Calabrian minstrels or pifferari, with their sylvan pipes (zampogne). The costume and appearance of these men closely resemble some groups in the villa Albani, and their instrument is doubtless of remote antiquity. It is like the bagpipe of Ireland and Scotland, but is less harsh than the latter. The music also is wild and plaintive, and bears a resemblance of character to our national melodies, most probably derived from the limited capabilities of the instrument. Meantime, the noise, bustle, and occupation increase, as the holy time draws near. The decorators are busied in draping the churches, clothing altars, and festooning façades. Devout ladies and holy nuns are preparing dresses, crowns, necklaces, and cradles, for the Madona and Child of their respective churches.

Une découpe un Agnes en losange,

On met du rouge à quelque bien heureuse;
L'autre décore un vierge, aux yeux bleus,
Et passe au fer le toupet d'un ange.

GRESSET.

'The cherici (a sort of non-descript in the service of the church, who, like the carattere of the Italian stage, and the double of the French theatre, are men of all work) are busy in making the toilette of the Virgin; and under their hands she blazes in diamonds, or shines in tin, according to the riches of the several parish treasuries. In the Church of the Pantheon, she was crowned with gilt paper, and decked with glass beads; and, on the same day, in Santa Maria Novella, we beheld her coal-black face set off with rubies and sapphires, which glittered on her dusky visage like "a rich jewel in an Ethiop's

ear."

'While shrines and images thus dazzled with preparatory splendour within the churches, all without assumes an air of appropriate but tantalizing festivity; for long before the termination of the black fast, the shops of the poulterers, butchers, and above

all the pizzicaroli (the magazines of all that is savoury to the Roman palate, and comes best within the compass of the Roman purse), exhibit a most inviting aspect. In these shops, the Bologna pudding of immortal memory rivals the dried salmon and savoury tunny-fish of Corsica; while the fancy sports in Raffaelesque traceries and gay festoons of sausages, tastefully disposed in the glare of tallow candles.

At last the hour of attack approaches, announced, like other hours of attack, by the beating of drums and the firing of artillery. The cannons of St. Angelo, which warlike popes have so often directed against their rebellious flock, are heard at Christmas-eve to announce the festivity. The echoes of the Palatine and Campidoglio repeat the awful sounds; shops are shut, saloons are deserted, and all retire to that repose which is to fortify them for the fatigues of the night. The midnight supper and the midnight lauds begin the holy revel; and the splendid pomp in which the august ceremonies are performed at the churches of the Quirinal, St. Louis, and the Ara Cœli, is succeeded by a banquet, of which even the poorest child of indigence contrives to partake.

'The devotees then bend their steps to the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, to attend the procession of the culla or cradle of Christ, which is removed from its shrine, and exposed during Christmas-day on the high altar, to the adoration of the faithful. We arrived at midnight an hour earlier than fashion dictates, when a scene burst upon us, beggaring all description. Emerging from the gloomy darkness of the Roman streets into the illuminated space of one of the most magnificent of Christian temples, and doubtless surpassing the temple of Juno Lucina, on whose ruins it was raised, its three ample naves, separated by rows of Ionic columns of white marble, produced a splendid vista. Thousands of wax tapers marked their form, and contrasted their shadows; some blazed