St. Andrew

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 64, 30 November 1886, Page 2

St. Andrew

To-day is celebrated the anniversary of St. Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland. Contemporary history is rory reticent as* to his parents, but from a variety of circumstances we hare reason to believe they were, although their names are unknown, respectable in their walk of life, whatever it was. Andrew settled down in a email village near Edinburgh where he invented the Haggis, by which his memory has been perpetuated down to the present day. The original iv vention was I not patented by Andrew, therefore many ! of the mysteries of its manufacture have I been swallowed in the womb of time. It I is believed that m the creation of this | wonderful production, in the old time and 1 for some centuries after Ani>REw's death, there were many secret ceremonies of the

most terrible and awe striking character. Eleusinian mysteries were mere " handbills and dodgers" by comparison. They were so religiously observed that if ever any one revealed their secret mysteries, it was supposed the dreadful Hogmanay would fall upon the offender and crush him into a bannock, the occult meaning of which word has been lost or forgotten in the dim mists of prejudiced civilization. Further, if any one had the temerity to appear at the celebration without proper introduction, or the shibboleth or password of Bawbee (meaning also lost), he was to die the death, and be made braxie of in a reeking lum (meaning also lost). We have left Andrew, but as he has been dead some years he will exouse us. To resume, before the execution of Mary Queen of Scots, during whose reign the country was much impoverished by finding Caledonian Cremonas, and other musical instruments, for the dissipated French courtiers who had flocked to Holyrood, the lecturer John Knox did much to uupopularise saints and all persons of that ilk, and in the general disbandment which took place, Andbew was the only saint left on the list, because of the gratitude of the nation to him for his discovery of the Haggis. But, the poverty of the nation wrought a miraculous change in the hearts and minds of the people as to the mode of its worship by the initiated, who at this time numbered among them the whole male population of Scottish birth. The password was thenAuchtermuchty, a word no Englishman— gentle or simple — can pronounce to this day. Hitherto it had been the custom for a certain number of oxen and sheep to be sacrificed, and their ashes (so to speak) gathered up and apportioned, the whole being sprinkled with myrrh and frankincense, otherwise called oatmeal and onions. For convenience of carnage the cheif of the clan, or head of the family, took his portion, which he placed in the stomach of a sheep. On arrival at his village it was suspended in the lum (supposed to be a kind of fetich house) after copious libations of usquebaugh (dew gathered from the heather on the mountains at the full of the moon). On Hansel Monday next following the Sacred Day (to-day), the bag was taken from its place, and each member of the family was allowed to rub his body with it as a cure for present, and a preventive of future ills or diseases. It is known that on several occasions the bag burst, and the hungry children, innocent and regardless of the awful tapu upon it, greedily eat up the fragments. It was thus the miraculous properties of the Haggis were discovered ; for these children grew strong and lusty beyond their fellows. The nation, which has always been distinguished for its ecenomy and wisdom, elected ever afterwards to eat the Haggis instead of hiding it in the sacred lum. A neighboring nation called England made many attempts to conquer this people, but the mana of the Haggis was too powerful for the Scotch to be conquered by a people who could not say Auchtermuchty.