Returning to the subject of football, I may here condense an |349| account of a Welsh Christmas custom quoted by Sir Laurence Gomme, in his book "The Village Community," from the _Oswestry Observer_ of March 2, 1887:--"In South Cardiganshire it seems that about eighty years ago the population, rich and poor, male and female, of opposing parishes, turned out on Christmas Day and indulged in the game of football with such vigour that it became little short of a serious fight." Both in north and south Wales the custom was found. At one place, Llanwenog near Lampeter, there was a struggle between two parties with different traditions of race. The Bros, supposed to be descendants from Irish people, occupied the high ground of the parish; the Blaenaus, presumably pure-bred Brythons, occupied the lowlands. After morning service on Christmas Day, "the whole of the Bros and Blaenaus, rich and poor, male and female, assembled on the turnpike road which divided the highlands from the lowlands." The ball was thrown high in the air, "and when it fell Bros and Blaenaus scrambled for its possession.... If the Bros, by hook or by crook, could succeed in taking the ball up the mountain to their hamlet of Rhyddlan they won the day, while the Blaenaus were successful if they got the ball to their end of the parish at New Court." Many severe kicks were given, and the whole thing was taken so keenly "that a Bro or a Blaenau would as soon lose a cow from his cowhouse as the football from his portion of the parish." There is plainly more than a mere pastime here; the thing appears to have been originally a struggle between two clans.{51} * * * * * Anciently the Carnival, with its merrymaking before the austerities of Lent, was held to begin at the Epiphany. This was the case in Tyrol even in the nineteenth century.{52} As a rule, however, the Carnival in Roman Catholic countries is restricted to the last three days before Ash Wednesday. The pagan origin of its mummeries and licence is evident, but it is a spring rather than a winter festival, and hardly calls for treatment here. The Epiphany is in many places the end of Christmas. In Calvados, Normandy, it is marked by bonfires; red flames mount |350| skywards, and the peasants join hands, dance, and leap through blinding smoke and cinders, shouting these rude lines:-- "Adieu les Rois Jusqu'a douze mois, Douze mois passes Les bougelees."{53} Another French Epiphany _chanson_, translated by the Rev. R. L. Gales, is a charming farewell to Christmas:-- "Noel is leaving us, Sad 'tis to tell, But he will come again, Adieu, Noel. His wife and his children Weep as they go: On a grey horse They ride thro' the snow. * * * * * The Kings ride away In the snow and the rain, After twelve months We shall see them again."{54} POST-EPIPHANY FESTIVALS.