370 Years Ago

"...On this day, Wednesday, February 28, 1638, the Covenant was first read aloud in the Greyfriars Church of Edinburgh. This was the same church where John Knox had once been taken for trial. It was already dear to the Scots, and now would be more so. Leading individuals signed the covenant on the spot.

The next day, it was taken to Tailors Hall, where the burghers of the city added their names. In subsequent days and weeks, the movement gained force as copies made their way not only throughout Scotland, but into Ireland. Everywhere, people signed..."

(from http://chi.gospelcom.net/DAILYF/2003/02/daily-02-28-2003.shtml)

1640 - Ulster Covenanters causing bother yet again

This is a description of a scene in Scotland in early August 1640, of a Covenanter army of 20,000 men, 4,000 horse and wagon loads of artillery. The army had left Edinburgh on 31st July and was preparing to invade England - headed by Blair from Bangor and Livingstone from Killinchy!

"...along with the colours displaying the motto 'Covenant for Religion Crowne and Country,' marched resolute military chaplains, namely Alexander Henderson, Robert Blair, John Livingstone and other country pastors..."

Henderson is acknowledged as the author of Scotland's National Covenant, so once again this shows just how integral the Ulster ministers were to the whole "50 Years Struggle" from 1638 - 1688.

(quoted from The Covenanters, p349 by J King Hewison, 1908)

Thanks Graeme!

Check this out - my brother Graeme just sent it to me. This is what gospel music should be all about. Simplicity and sincerity - fantastic!

Be Prepared

It's the motto of the Scouts; it's worth bearing in mind that if you intend trying to spend time tracking down Covenanter monuments, you need to have the right boots with you. The monuments are often well off the beaten track, in the middle of fields and moors, which are good fun to squelch and skid through in mid February. Here's the evidence!

A was gutters tae the oxters and had tae change baith ma breeks and ma shuin at the side o tha road yin day! But no tae worry, A got the photos A was efter - ye can see maist o them here

Theodore Roosevelt and the Covenanters

100 years ago, the President of the USA was Theodore Roosevelt. He was made President aged just 42, following the assassination of President William McKinley - yet another President of Ulster descent whose ancestors came from Dervock in County Antrim. Roosevelt's term was from 1901 - 1909, and his mother's ancestors had come from Glenoe in County Antrim and emigrated to what were then the "American Colonies" in May 1729.

In his great epic "The Winning of the West" , Roosevelt wrote:

"It is doubtful if we have realised in the leadership of our country, the part played by that stern and virile people, the Scotch-Irish, whose predecessors taught the creed of Knox and Calvin. These Irish representatives of the Covenanters... formed the kernel of the distinctively and intensely American stock who were the pioneers of our people in their march westward, the vanguard of the army of fighting settlers... they became the vanguard of our civilization...these were the men who first declared for American independence... they were the kinsfolk of the Covenanters, they deemed it a religious duty to interpret their own Bible... for generations their whole ecclesiastical and scholastic systems have been found fundamentally democratic."

Alexander Peden and the 100 Ulster-Scots

(Illustration - Alexander Peden at the grave of Richard Cameron, Airds Moss, between Cumnock and Muirkirk)

The Covenanters in Ulster story is so unresearched (except by the dedicated few) that it's like stumbling through a diamond mine - kick something over and there's another gem right before your eyes. Here's the latest one:

From a book called Historical Notices by Lord Fountainhall, Vol II p 630, dated 27th March 1685:

"News came to the Privy Counsell that about 100 men well armed and appointed had left Ireland, because of a search there for such malcontents, and landed in the West of Scotland and joyned with the wild fanatiques... They had one Mr Peden a minister with them, and one Isaack who commanded them. They had frighted the most part of all the country ministers, so that they durst not stay at their churches, but retired into Edinburgh or garrison tounes; and it was sad to see whole shires destitute of preaching except in brughs. Whenever they came they plundered armes, and particularly at my Lord Dumfries's house" (quoted in History of Old Cumnock, page 169)

So Peden left Ulster, returned to Scotland (probably in 1685 - when the 23 year old Rev James Renwick was emerging as the new leader of the Covenanters), and brought with him a band of 100 well-armed Ulster-Scots. They joined their Scottish Covenanter kinsfolk, and promptly tore their way through the west of Scotland, seizing guns whereever they went.

.......


Peden had heard much about young Renwick (shown here), but was wary of him. When they eventually met, Peden was reassured by Renwick's commitment. He had little to worry about, for when Renwick was seized and hauled to Edinburgh to be martyred, these were his final words:

"...Spectators, I am come here this day to lay down my life for adhering to the truths of Christ, for which I am neither afraid nor ashamed to suffer. Nay, I bless the Lord that ever He counted me worthy, or enabled me to suffer anything for Him; and I desire to praise His grace that He hath not only kept me from the gross pollutions of the time, but also from the many ordinary pollutions of children; and for such as I have been stained with, He hath washed and cleansed me from them in His own blood.

I am this day to lay down my life for these three things:
1. For disowning the usurpation and tyranny of James, Duke of York.
2. For preaching that it was unlawful to pay the cess expressly exacted for bearing down the gospel
3. For teaching that it was lawful for people to carry arms for defending themselves in their meeting for the persecuted gospel ordinances.

I think a testimony for these is worth many lives; and if I had ten thousand, I would think it little enough to lay them all down for the same.

Dear friends, I die a Presbyterian Protestant; I own the word of God as the rule of faith and manners... I leave my testimony approving the preaching in the fields, and defending the same by arms. I adjoin my testimony to all these truths that have been sealed by bloodshed, either on scaffold, field, or seas, for the cause of Christ.



I leave my testimony against Popery, Prelacy, Erastianism, against all profanity, and everything contrary to sound doctrine and the power of godliness; particularly against all usurpations and encroachments made upon Christ’s right, the Prince of the kings of the earth, who alone must bear the glory of ruling in His own kingdom, the church; and in particular against the absolute power affected by this usurper, that belongs to no mortal, but is the incommunicable prerogative of Jehovah, and against his Toleration flowing from this absolute power.”

Renwick was hanged in Edinburgh on February 17, 1688. The illustration here is of his statue in Stirling.

18,000 Martyrs for Jesus

This is a detail from the Covenanters memorial at Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh, taken last Sunday afternoon.

Hilary's Family Tree - part 1

Hilary's dad has a great family tree that one of his ancestors put together donkeys years ago. The family line is "Moneypenny of Pitmilly" in Fife, Scotland. It's about 5 miles away from St Andrews - a town which Wylie describes as the capital city of the kingdom of darkness". (Having said that, our kids like the beach there)

David Moneypenny (1512 - 1579) : the family tree says "having been declared privy to the slaughter of Cardinal Beaton (shown here) in 1546. he and his son received a pardon in 1553 from Mary Queen of Scots".

Moneypenny and Beaton were cousins, but it was Beaton who had overseen the execution of George Wishart, the second Protestant martyr of the Scottish Reformation, who was burned at the stake in St Andrews on 1st March 1546. (A memorial today marks the spot where Wishart was martyred - here are photos of the "plinth" style sign, and the cobble monogram in the road of his initials).



In revenge, on 29th May of the same year, a group of about 16 men broke into the Cardinal's chambers at the Castle of St Andrews, stabbed him twice with a dagger and twice again with a sword. They then hung his body from his window at the front of the castle for all to see. Wylie wrote "...the cardinal's corpse flung upon a dung hill, the conspirators kept possession of his castle..."

Brutal stuff indeed. Then on 4th June 1547, the French navy arrived, stormed the place, and took the castle's occupiers away to slavery. One of them was a certain John Knox.

(The moral of this story is that it might be a good idea to check out your fiancés family tree before you accidentally marry an axe murderer. That my wife is descended from one of Cardinal Beaton's assassins is either a) a great honour or b) a good reason to go to self-defence lessons)

The Five Brothers of Margaret Wilson - "Martyr of the Solway"

This is a famous painting of Margaret Wilson, by John Everett Millais She was drowned in May 1685 in the rising tides of the Solway Firth, near Wigtown in south west Scotland. I've just discovered that her four older brothers - William, Robert, Samuel and John - all fled the "Killing Times" in Scotland and came to Ulster in an open boat in 1684.

- William Wilson (died 1721) married an Elizabeth McIlroy
- Robert Wilson married, and had a daughter called Margaret
- Samuel Wilson married a Martha Kirkpatrick in 1732
- John Wilson (born 1660 or 1666) brought with him an oak chair and chest, and was at Carrickfergus on 14th June 1690 to meet William of Orange (and the 15,000 troops that came with him). John was given lands at Rashee, near Ballyclare.*

* The following information was also sent to me: "..."The Wilsons were an impeccably Protestant family of the middle sort who traced their ancestry back to a John Wilson who was reputed to have arrived at Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim, in the suite of King William III in 1690. Wilson almost certainly arrived in Ireland earlier, and there are lots of Wilsons in the vicinity before 1690, but it was socially more superior to claim an association with William of Orange than for the family to be mere ‘Planters’." - from the biography of Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, CIGS, by Keith Jeffery

....................

Her younger brother, Thomas Wilson, (died 1734 at Penninghame, Wigtown) witnessed her martyrdom, and he left Scotland for Holland where he joined the Williamite army in Flanders. He was later stationed at Edinburgh Castle. (nb - William laid seige to the Castle from 18 March 1689 - 13 June 1689)

News of Margaret's drowning must have reached Holland, possibly via Thomas, for when William of Orange wrote his Declaration to the People of Scotland (dated 10 October 1688) William specifically mentioned barbarities such as the destroying of poor people by 'hanging, shooting, and drowning them without any form of law or respect to age and sex'.

(thanks for the information on this post are due to Willie Drennan, Jack Greenald and Gordon Lucy. See the self-published booklet "Margaret Wilson the Martyr - a Genealogical Account of the Wilson Family of Penninghame Parish" by John G Wilson of Kilwinnet. Published by House of Kilwinnet Publications, Colmonnel, Ayrshire, 1998. Visit http://www.wilsonofkilwinnet.com/

Matthew Scott, Ballyhalbert, 1772

My friend Richard MacMaster (now living in Florida), emailed me this info a while back:

Belfast News Letter, October 13, 1772
"Matthew Scott of Ballyhalbert in the County of Down, intending to remove from thence, will on Tuesday the 23rd Inst., sell by Auction all his Household Furniture, Stock of Cattle, and Farming Utensils, also his Interest in a Lease, during the Life of the Revd. Peter Winder, of 17 acres and a half of Land, contiguous to the Village of Ballyhalbert."

He doesn't actually say he's going to America, but disposing of his household furniture, cattle and farming utensils would suggest he wasn't simply moving to another farm a few miles away. He wasn't going to Ballywalter for the day - he was about to go on a lifetime journey. In 1772 America was gearing up for her War of Independence, and as about 1/3 of George Washington's army were Ulstermen, maybe that's where Matthew Scott was heading too?

There was a Captain Matthew Scott in Washington's army - in the 13th Pennsylvania Regiment - and it had at least one Ulsterman in its ranks, an Alexander McCurdy

...........

(pic above is of a soldier of the 13th Pennsylvania Regiment, Continental Line)

Presidential Elections? 60 years ago...

Even here in wee Northern Ireland, the US Presidential elections are getting pretty heavy news coverage. Obama or Clinton or McCain?*

I'm no expert on US politics (I'm sure John Killian can keep me right), but I've been interested over the past year or so in a former candidate - Henry Wallace (1888 - 1965) - who ran for the "Progressive Party" in 1948. He had been Vice President during WW2. His post-war position was to feed the world, not to destroy it. He wanted to build up the ordinary American farmer by encouraging new agricultural practices and methods that would both rebuild the economy and feed people who needed it.

Wallace's father, or maybe his grandfather (they were BOTH also called Henry Wallace!) was a big hitter in the early days of The Scotch-Irish Society of the USA, and he wrote a lengthy article in their 1892 "Proceedings" called "The Scotch-Irish of Iowa". In it he wrote:

...Wherever you find the (Scotch-Irish) race there you find the Sabbath, and a plain and simple worship that deals with the highest themes, and an industry and thrift that needs no fawning to secure its rewards. These are the racial characteristics that will abide with us as long as we teach our children the Catechism; so long as we preserve the Scotch-Irish Sabbath, and retain our conviction that the great supreme Power that is behind and over all is the rewarder of the righteous and the foe of every form of oppression.

So long as this moral environment is maintained the Scotch-Irishman will be found battling for civil and religious liberty, as he has done in all his past history. He will ever be striving, whether North or South, in America or Europe, to realize an ideal state and an ideal home. He may be masterful and dominating, ill to force, unjust sometimes, but only when the truth and the just cause has not been pleaded at the bar of his conscience.

He is now just beginning to recognize the value of his achievements on this continent... it is only in free America, modeled in its political institutions, on the principles of the Scotch Presbytery, that the Scotch-Irish character can reach its highest development....

Rousing stuff indeed! A while back my late friend Brian Richmond loaned me a CD by a now-defunct band called The Hangdogs. They recorded one of Henry Wallace's campaign songs on their 2003 album "Wallace 48". Some of the lyrics and songs on the cd are what we Ulster folk would call coooooorse, but "Wallace 48" is a real standout, and worth bearing in mind when we look a Presidential elections today. Sounds very familiar...



Brother have you heard the news?
There's another war a-brewin'
With 60 million still warm in the ground...
Republican or Democrat,
The bosses call the shots
Big business, war and empire intertwined...
"No more hunger, fear or A-bombs
Across the world and across the land!"
Cries the uncommon champion
Of the common man...
That quiet Iowa farmer
Henry Wallace is his name...

(the line "Big business, war and empire intertwined..." sounds a lot like what Eisenhower famously called "the military-industrial complex" in his ominous farewell speech of 1961. Watch it on Youtube below)



*ps - what little reading I've done about the current US Presidential election leads me to prefer many of the policies of Ron Paul. But, ultimately, as Henry Wallace wrote, "...the great supreme Power that is behind and over all is the rewarder of the righteous and the foe of every form of oppression..."

The Hymns of Samuel Rutherford?

Rutherford didn't write any hymns of his own, but The Letters of Samuel Rutherford are regarded as some of the finest Christian literature ever written. They have inspired believers across the world for generations. Here's a great example of their impact:

In 1857, an Edinburgh woman called Ann Ross Cousin (1824-1906) was given a book of Rutherford's letters. They had such a deep effect on her that she wrote two mighty hymns - "Oh Christ What Burdens Bowed Thy Head", and "The Sands of Time Are Sinking" (also sometimes called "In Immanuel's Land")

Two brilliant old hymns.

Samuel Rutherford, the Covenant and the "Eagle Wing"

Samuel Rutherford(1600 - 1661) was one of the great "minds" of the Covenanters. I bought a book of his letters yesterday, in the Evangelical Bookshop in Belfast (the wee one beside Church House), in the second hand section at the back. (in my student days that was a weekly forage for me!)

I was delighted to see that Rutherford corresponded with Rev Robert Cunningham of Holywood, and was obviously aware of the plans of Blair, Livingstone, Hamilton and McClelland to sail to America on "Eagle Wing" - they sailed from Groomsport in County Down on 9th September 1636 with 136 other Ulster-Scots Presbyterians in what was the first attempt to emigrate from Ulster to America.

Just a few months after Jenny Geddes hurled a stool at the Dean in St Giles' in Edinburgh, Rutherford was ousted from his ministry at Anwoth by the Bishop of Galloway on 27th July 1636 and was banished to Aberdeen in the north of Scotland. A week later, on 4th August 1636, he wrote (from Aberdeen) to Cunningham in Holywood. Rutherford said:

"...I know not, my dear brother, if our worthy brethren be gone to sea or not. They are on my heart and in my prayers. If they be yet with you, salute my dear friend, John Stuart, my well-beloved brethren in the Lord, Mr Blair, Mr Hamilton, Mr Livingstone and Mr McClelland, and acquaint them with my troubles, and entreat them to pray for the poor afflicted prisoner of Christ. They are dear to my soul. I seek your prayers and theirs for my flock; their remembrance breaketh my heart..."

What is significant is that the Ulster ministers were not some maverick rump doing their own thing - they were deeply interconnected with their fellow ministers in Scotland. For someone of Rutherfords standing to be aware of their plans to sail to America also opens other questions - was "Eagle Wing" the advance party, and had it succeeded how many others would have followed them to the New World?

From the Covenanters to the Carter Family

In 1933 the Carter Family recorded "On the Sea of Galilee". A brilliantly simple wee song, with these lyrics:

Must I be carried to the sky
On flowery beds of ease -
While others fought to win the prize
And sailed through bloody seas?

You don't have to read much about the Covenanters to be humbled by their utter commitment and sacrifice. So these lyrics hold true today like no other generation before. For all our decadent wealth - and our greed for even more - what right do we have to "flowery beds of ease" when our forefathers "sailed through bloody seas" - and many believers around the world are being persecuted at this very moment?

William Cleland's "Bluidy Banner"

William Cleland was just 17 years old during the Covenanters battles of 1679 at Drumclog (where the Covenanters defeated "Bluidy Clavers" - Graham of Claverhouse), where Cleland was an Officer of Foot and was instrumental in the victory. He also fought as a Captain at the Battle of Bothwell Brig where he was a Captain, but where the Covenanters were defeated.

Cleland carried a beautiful banner, made of blue silk. it had three messages:

1. At the top in gold Hebrew script it reads "Jehovah Nissi" which translates as "The Lord is My Banner" - a quote from Exodus 17 v 15, where during a great battle that the Israelites were fighting against the Amalekites, they were assured of the victory as long as Moses held his arms aloft. As he grew tired, his brother Aaron and Caleb's son Hur held his arms up for him. After the victory, Moses built an altar and called it "Jehovah Nissi"

2. In the middle it says "For Christ and His Truths" in large white letters

3. At the bottom in red type it says "No Quarters for Ye Active Enemies of Ye Covenant"

Cleland gave the banner and his sword to his friend Henry Hall of Haughhead at an unknown date, to prevent them falling into the hands of the enemy. The items were passed down the generations to several zealous Covenanters until they reached the hands of the Raeburn Family from East Lothian, and were discovered by a Mr James Drummond around 1850. The banner eventually came into the possession of the regiment at a later date.

The banner can today be seen on display at the Cameronians Regimental Museum in Hamilton, Scotland.

Postscript:William Cleland later joined a Covenanter regiment fighting for King William III, but was killed at the Battle of Dunkeld in August 1689. A book of his poetry was published in 1697, including one entitled "On the clergie when they met to consult about taking the Test in the year 1681" - I've not read it, but must be a comment on the "Test Oath" which was forced upon the clergy in July 1681, to place the King in supremacy over the Church.

Changin...

(Sorry about the recent outage roon here.) I'm going tae be changin a wheen o things on the blog - the name and the address for starters.

So far am thinkin about "1606" as the new name - my favourite year in Ulster history as it was the year that Hamilton & Montgomery brought Scottish people to the Ards Peninsula in large numbers.

Any suggestions will be gratefully received. I'll set up a forwarding thing to redirect readers from this address to the new yin once it's all set up.

The Whore of Babylon

...then again, when the European Parliament depicted itself on a series of stamps in 1992 as a woman riding a beast on seven hills/waves, it looked almost identical to the symbolism of Revelation chapter 17. Hmmmm...

Rearranging the Mental Furniture

It's funny how much we just accept as we're growing up. We don't question, we just absorb and accept. It can be a long time before we start to ask questions.

One of the things I soaked up a lot of when I was wee was "dispensationalist theology". What that means in simpler language is a particular type of "Bible prophecy". The Bible certainly has major prophetic elements to it, there's no doubting that. Events were predicted in Scripture which were clearly fulfilled in future years. (For example, some claim that over 1000 Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled by Jesus himself.)

However, in the mid 1800s when the "Plymouth Brethren" were setting themselves up, they fully embraced a more sensationalist approach, which put a whole new interpretation on things. They made specific claims about future events, invented the term "rapture", predicted future world empires, re-wrote the whole the identity of Antichrist etc etc.

These powerful and almost magnetic ideas then filtered into most evangelical churches on both side of the Atlantic, which then in turn spawned a whole raft of fictional books like "In The Twinkling of an Eye" , and more recently the mulit-million dollar"Left Behind" series. Dispensationalism is today a very big money spinner. My e-Friend (we've never met in person) Crawford Gribben has a great book on the subject called "Rapture Fiction" which I can thoroughly recommend.

So this Brethren world was the environment that I, and many tens of thousands of Ulster believers, was brought up in. I was enthralled. Preachers like Hedley Murphy held me spellbound for years between the ages of probably 8 and 14. Dispensational prophecy was preached solidly in Gospel Halls up and down the country. Preachers would arrive with massive home made hand painted wallcharts which were often too long for the small buildings they were preaching in, outlining the history of the world from Genesis to Revelation. Theologically these tens of thousands of Ulster believers are rock solid on pretty much everything - except prophecy. We were waiting with baited breath for the breaking news report that Henry Kissinger, then Gorbachev, then Saddam, and maybe now even Tony Blair, has revealed himself as Antichrist.

Remember, that until the mid 1800s these ideas didn't exist, and biblical Christianity had survived for 1800+ years without them. Make no mistake, Jesus is coming back. But He might not be coming in the way many have been (mis)led to expect. Perhaps the whole thing is a distraction - making some Christians obsess about current affairs and trying to spot the prophetic fulfilments. Perhaps it also gives some Christians the glib opt-out of "why should I worry about the state the world is in? I'm going to be raptured out of it anyway"

So, over recent years I've begun to question these things that I soaked up. As another friend put it, I'm "rearranging my mental furniture". Any advice on good reading material from you sound Reformed believers out there would be much appreciated and will be added to my Christmas list.

(Robin Fairbairn has already suggested "Windows on the World" by Liam Goligher, and "The Momentous Event" by WJ Greer.

"...not in device or creed..."

This hymn's been rattling about in my head a lot recently.

(It's number 332 in the "Redemption Songs" hymnbook. The music was arranged by William James Kirkpatrick - his name's a dead giveaway that he was more than likely of Ulster descent. And he was born in Duncannon, Pennsylvania.)

As a struggling believer, trying to live each day as I should but making a mess of it and falling far far short most all of the time, I often wonder about doing "enough". Praying "enough". Giving "enough". Helping "enough". Witnessing "enough".

But no matter what I do - no matter what any believer does - it's never enough. Because "enough" would imply that what Christ did for us has limits and can in some way be measured... and therefore could perhaps be repaid through our own actions and works.

"Enough" only works in one context, and the chorus of the hymn explains its magnificent simplicity:

"I need no other argument,
I need no other plea,
It is enough that Jesus died,
And that He died for me..."

Xmas in Niatirb

A Lost Chapter from Herodotus
by C. S. Lewis

"...And beyond this there lies in the ocean, turned towards the west and the north, the island of Niatirb which Hecataeus indeed declares to be the same size and shape as Sicily, but it is larger, and though in calling it triangular a man would not miss the mark. It is densely inhabited by men who wear clothes not very different from other barbarians who occupy the north- western parts of Europe though they do not agree with them in language. These islanders, surpassing all the men of whom we know in patience and endurance, use the following customs.

In the middle of winter when fogs and rains most abound they have a great festival which they call Exmas , and for fifty days they prepare for it in the fashion I shall describe. First of all, every citizen is obliged to send to each of his friends and relations a square piece of hard paper stamped with a picture, which in their speech is called an Exmas-card . But the pictures represent birds sitting on branches, or trees with a dark green prickly leaf, or else men in such garments as the Niatirbians believe that their ancestors wore two hundred years ago riding in coaches such as their ancestors used, or houses with snow on their roofs.

And the Niatirbians are unwilling to say what these pictures have to do with the festival, guarding (as I suppose) some sacred mystery. And because all men must send these cards the market-place is filled with the crowd of those buying them, so that there is great labour and weariness.

But having bought as many as they suppose to be sufficient, they return to their houses and find there the like cards which others have sent to them. And when they find cards from any to whom they also have sent cards, they throw them away and give thanks to the gods that this labour at least is over for another year. But when they find cards from any to whom they have not sent, then they beat their breasts and wail and utter curses against the sender; and, having sufficiently lamented their misfortune, they put on their boots again and go out into the fog and rain and buy a card for him also. And let this account suffice about Exmas-cards.

They also send gifts to one another, suffering the same things about the gifts as about the cards, or even worse. For every citizen has to guess the value of the gift which every friend will send to him so that he may send one of equal value, whether he can afford it or not. And they buy as gifts for one another such things as no man ever bought for himself. For the sellers, understanding the custom, put forth all kinds of trumpery, and whatever, being useless and ridiculous, sell as an Exmas gift. And though the Niatirbians profess themselves to lack sufficient necessary things, such as metal, leather, wood and paper, yet an incredible quantity of these things is wasted every year, being made into the gifts.

But during these fifty days the oldest, poorest and the most miserable of citizens put on false beards and red robes and walk in the market-place; being disguised (in my opinion) as Cronos. And the sellers of gifts no less than the purchasers become pale and weary, because of the crowds and the fog, so that any man who came into a Niatirbian city at this season would think that some great calamity had fallen on Niatirb. This fifty days of preparation is called in their barbarian speech the Exmas Rush.

But when the day of the festival comes, then most of the citizens, being exhausted with the Rush, lie in bed till noon. But in the evening they eat five times as much supper as on other days and, crowning themselves with crowns of paper, they become intoxicated. And on the day after Exmas they are very grave, being internally disordered by the supper and the drinking and reckoning how much they have spent on gifts and on the wine. For wine is so dear among the Niatirbians that a man must swallow the worth of a talent before he is well intoxicated. Such, then, are their customs about the Exmas.

............

But the few among the Niatirbians have also a festival, separate and to themselves, called Crissmas, which is on the same day as Exmas. And those who keep Crissmas, doing the opposite to the majority of the Niatirbians, rise early on that day with shining faces and go before sunrise to certain temples where they partake of a sacred feast. And in most of the temples they set out images of a fair woman with a new-born Child on her knees and certain animals and shepherds adoring the Child. (The reason of these images is given in a certain sacred story which I know but do not repeat.)

But I myself conversed with a priest in one of these temples and asked him why they kept Crissmas on the same day as Exmas; for it appeared to me inconvenient. But the priest replied, It is not lawful, O Stranger, for us to change the date of Crissmas, but would that Zeus would put it into the minds of the Niatirbians to keep Exmas at some other time or not to keep it at all. For Exmas and the Rush distract the minds even of the few from sacred things. And we indeed are glad that men should make merry at Crissmas; but in Exmas there is no merriment left.

And when I asked him why they endured the Rush, he replied, It is, O Stranger, a racket ; using (as I suppose) the words of some oracle and speaking unintelligibly to me (for a racket is an instrument which the barbarians use in a game called tennis ).

But what Hecataeus says, that Exmas and Crissmas are the same, is not credible. For the first, the pictures which are stamped on the Exmas-cards have nothing to do with the sacred story which the priests tell about Crissmas. And secondly, the most part of the Niatirbians, not believing the religion of the few, nevertheless send the gifts and cards and participate in the Rush and drink, wearing paper caps. But it is not likely that men, even being barbarians, should suffer so many and great things in honour of a god they do not believe in..."