But in the clothes he does every day wear.”
It is a tradition among the gipsies that the cross our Saviour was crucified upon was made of Ash.
In Devonshire, it is customary to burn an Ashen faggot at Christmastide, in commemoration of the fact that the Divine Infant at Bethlehem was first washed and dressed by a fire of Ash-wood.
The Yule-clog or -log which ancient custom prescribes to be burnt on Christmas Eve, used to be of Ash: thus we read in an old poem:—
“Thy welcome Eve, loved Christmas, now arrived,
The parish bells their tuneful peals resound,
And mirth and gladness every breast pervade.
The ponderous Ashen-faggot, from the yard,
The jolly farmer to his crowded hall
Conveys with speed; where, on the rising flames