Saint Patrick, according to ancient lore, having been born at Kilpatrick, Scotland, landed near Wicklow, in the year of grace 433. Originally there was a dispute, according to Lover, as to the true anniversary of this renowned saint, some supposing the eighth and others the ninth to be the correct day. The humorist represents a priest as settling the difficulty as follows:— Says he, "Boys, don't be fighting for eight or for nine; Don't be always dividing—but sometimes combine; Combine eight with nine, and seventeen is the mark, So let that be his birthday." "Amen," says the clerk. So they all got blind drunk—which completed their bliss, And we keep up the practice from that day to this! _Wassailing the Orchards._ In Devonshire, according to Brand, on the eve of the Epiphany, the farmer and his men, with a large pitcher of cider, visit the orchard, and, encircling one of the best bearing trees, they drink the following toast three several times:— "Here's to thee, old apple tree, Whence thou may'st bud, and whence thou may'st blow, And whence thou may'st bear apples enow! Hats full! caps full! Bushel—bushel—sacks full! And my pockets full too! Huzza!" This done, they return to the house, to find the doors bolted by the ladies, who will not open until some one guesses what is on the spit, and which is the reward of him who names it. Some are so superstitious as to believe that if they neglect this ceremony, the trees will bear no apples that year. In allusion to a similar ceremony practiced in Sussex and Essex on New Year's eve, Herrick, in his "Hesperides," says— "Wassail the trees, that they may bear You many a plum, and many a pear; For more or less fruits they will bring, As you do give them wassailing." _Cutting Off the Fiddler's Head._ A very singular merriment in the Isle of Man is mentioned by Waldron, in his history of that place. He says that "during the whole twelve days of Christmas there is not a barn unoccupied, and that every parish hires fiddlers at the public charge. On twelfth-day the fiddler lays his head in some one of the girls' laps, and a third person asks who such a maid, or such a maid shall marry, naming the girls then present one after another; to which the fiddler answers, according to his own whim, or agreeably to the intimacies he has taken notice of during this time of merriment. But whatever he says is as absolutely depended upon as an oracle; and if he happens to couple two people who have an aversion to each other, tears and vexation succeed the mirth. This they call cutting off the fiddler's head; for after this he is dead for the whole year." _Striking with Nettles._