We have already come across peculiar cakes eaten at various pre-Christmas festivals; at Christmas itself special kinds of bread, pastry, and cakes abound on the Continent, and in some cases at least may have a religious origin. In France various sorts of cakes and loaves are known at the season of _Noel_. In Berry on Christmas morning loaves called _cornaboeux_, made in the shape of horns or a crescent, are distributed to the poor. In Lorraine people give one another _cognes_ or _cogneux_, a kind of pastry in the shape of two crescents back to back, or else long and narrow in form and with a crescent at either end. In some parts of France the _cornaboeux_ are known as _holais_, and ploughmen give to the poor as many of these loaves as they possess oxen and horses.{24} These horns may be substitutes for a sacrifice of oxen. Sometimes the French Christmas cakes have the form of complete oxen or horses--such were the thin unleavened cakes sold in the early nineteenth century at La Chatre (Indre). In the neighbourhood of Chartres there are _cochenilles_ and _coquelins_ in animal and human shapes. Little cakes called _naulets_ are sold by French bakers, and actually represent the Holy Child. With them may be compared the _coignoles_ of French Flanders, cakes of oblong form adorned with the figure of the infant Jesus in sugar.{25} Sometimes the Christmas loaf or cake in France has healing properties; a certain kind of cake in Berry and Limousin is kept all through the year, and a piece eaten in sickness has marvellous powers.{26} Cortet gives an extraordinary account of a French custom |288| connected with eating and drinking. At Mouthe (Doubs) there used to be brought to the church at Christmas pies, cakes, and other eatables, and wine of the best. They were called the "De fructu," and when at Vespers the verse "De fructu ventris tui ponam super sedem tuam" was reached, all the congregation made a rush for these refreshments, contended for them, and carried them off with singing and shouting.{27} The most remarkable of Christmas cakes or loaves is the Swedish and Danish "Yule Boar," a loaf in the form of a boar-pig, which stands on the table throughout the festal season. It is often made from the corn of the last sheaf of the harvest, and in it Dr. Frazer finds a clear expression of the idea of the corn-spirit as embodied in pig form. "Often it is kept till sowing-time in spring, when part of it is mixed with the seed corn and part given to the ploughman and plough-horses or plough-oxen to eat, in the expectation of a good harvest." In some parts of the Esthonian island of Oesel the cake has not the form of a boar, but bears the same name, and on New Year's Day is given to the cattle. In other parts of the island the "Yule Boar" is actually a little pig, roasted on Christmas Eve and set up on the table.{28}