Referring to these customs, Cuthbert Bede remarks (_Notes and Queries_, 2 ser. viii. 448): "A farmer's wife told me that where she had lived in Herefordshire, twenty years ago, they were wont, on Twelfth Night Eve, to light in a wheat field twelve small fires, and one large one.... She told me that they were designed to represent the blessed Saviour and his twelve Apostles. The fire representing Judas Iscariot, after being allowed to burn for a brief time, was kicked about, and put out.... The same person also told me that the ceremony of placing the twelfth cake on the horn of the ox was observed in all the particulars.... It was twenty years since she had left the farm, and she had forgotten all the words of the toast used on that occasion: she could only remember one verse out of three or four:-- "Fill your cups, my merry men all! For here's the best ox in the stall; Oh! he's the best ox, of that there's no mistake, And so let us crown him with the Twelfth Cake." _The Derby and Chesterfield Reporter_ of 7th January 1830 gives the following notice of the Herefordshire customs: "On the eve of Old Christmas day there are thirteen fires lighted in the cornfields of many of the farms, twelve of them in a circle, and one round a pole, much longer and higher than the rest, in the centre. These fires are dignified by the names of the Virgin Mary and the Twelve Apostles, the lady being in the middle; and while they are burning, the labourers retire into some shed or out-house, where they can behold the brightness of the Apostolic flame. Into this shed they lead a cow, on whose horn a large plum cake has been stuck, and having assembled round the animal, the oldest labourer takes a pail of cider, and addresses the following lines to the cow with great solemnity; after which the verse is chaunted in chorus by all present:-- "Here's to thy pretty face and thy white horn, God send thy master a good crop of corn, Both wheat, rye, and barley, and all sorts of grain, And, next year, if we live, we'll drink to thee again. "He then dashes the cider in the cow's face, when, by a violent toss of her head, she throws the plum cake on the ground; and if it falls forward, it is an omen that the next harvest will be good; if backward, that it will be unfavourable. This is the ceremony at the commencement of the rural feast, which is generally prolonged to the following morning." In Ireland,[88] "on Twelve Eve in Christmas, they use to set up, as high as they can, a sieve of oats, and in it a dozen of candles set round, and in the centre one larger, all lighted. This is in memory of our Saviour and His Apostles--lights of the world." [Footnote 88: Vallancey's _Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis_, vol. i. No. 1. p. 124.]