Yule-clog or Yule-log
—This was generally lighted on Christmas Eve, and was, says Soane, as large as the hearth would admit of, or the means of the rejoicers could supply; and, in some of the northern counties of England, so long as the log lasted, the servants were entitled to ale at their meals. At one time custom prescribed that it should be lighted with a brand of the last year’s block, which had been carefully put by and preserved for that purpose, as we find it recorded by Herrick:
“Come bring with a noise,
My merrie, merrie boys,
The Christmas log to the firing;
While my good dame, she
Bids ye all be free,
And drink to your heart’s desiring.
With the last year’s brand
Light the new block, and
For good success in his spending,
On your psalteries play
That sweet luck may
Come while the log is a tiending.”91
It is also requisite that the maidens who blow a fire, should come to the task with clean hands:
“Wash your hands, or else the fire
Will not tiend to your desire;
Unwash’d hands, ye maidens, know,
Dead the fire though ye blow.”
Notes
91 To Teend is to kindle, or to burn, from the Anglo-Saxon Tendan to set on fire.