HISTORY IN BUNS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 175, 22 July 1878, Page 4

HISTORY IN BUNS.

(From the European Mail ) At the meeting of the British Archaeological Society recently, a paper, nppropriate to the Easter season, waß read by Mr H. Syer Cuming, F.S.A. j Scot., VP., on " Good Friday Buns." | The subject was introduced by referenc»B to the eacred bread and cakea of ' the Hebrews, ns well of thoso of the Egyptians, Babylonians, Samians, Greeks, and Romans. From a mention of iho Hindoo elephant-beaded god Ganesha, who is frequently represented holding in one of his four hands a bowl filled with small enkeg on which he is supposed to feed, Mr Cuming passed to the chupattis, connected with the worship of Krishna, which were said to have had bo much to do with the outbreak of the Sepoy mutiny in 1857. At home we had St. Michael's bannock for Michaelmas, thecarvie, or seed-cake for Allhallow Eve, and for Christmas the yule-dough or baby-enke, the plumpig, plum-pudding, goose-pie, and the shred or mince-pie ; with spiced bread and sugared cake for Twelfth Ni<rht, the faffy for St. David's day, pancakes for Shrove Tuesday, the tsnsycake and pudding-pie for Lent in general, and the carling, eimbling-cake, and simuel for Mothering Sunday. After Good Friday's cross bune, came rice and fancy pud lings for Easter Sunday and the Bel-tein oatmeaUc^ke for May Ist. Most of thfse had doubtless a pagan origin— e,g., the Bel-tein, and the little pesfcry pigj with its currant eyes and wooden trotters, which latter was a survival of the worship of the Keltic lunar godess Ked, or Karidwen, the mystic bow. As to the archaeology of Good Friday buns, the accounts given in the popular manuals, such as Brand's and Hone's, were all based on authorities no sounder than Jacob Bryant and the Rev. George Stanley Faber. This was shown in reference to the derivation of our word bun from the Greek accusative boun, for heifer, and a supposed connection thus made out between the mystic heifer, smybolical of the moon-goddess and the cakes offered to her bb Queen of Heaven , and so with our Good Friday buns. It was remarkable that Grecian sculptures and paintings represented sacred cakes of the same form as our modern bun, even to the Greek cross with which they were marked. Having shown thai the Good Friday buns could thus be traced back to very early times, Mr Cuming raised the question how it was to ba explained that they were how to be found in England only. Continental Europe knew nothing of them, and only the southern part of Britain. Though admitting the absence of any direct proof, he thought the ides misfit be reasonably maintained that the presence of the Good Friday bun in England was coeval with the introduction of Christianity into our island in Apostolic ages, and that with the early Eastern missionaries who brought us the new faith it was symbolic of the bread broken by our Lord Himself at the Last Supper and of his death on Calvary. For two perßonß to break a Good Friday bun between them was not only a pledge of friendship, but a eurety against disagreement, the act being accompanied by the wordsHalf for you, and half for me. Between us two goodwill shall fee/ Again the Good Friday bun was reg»rded not as ordinary food, but as something endowed with peculiar sanctity, ss was clear from its having for ages been the custom with the superstitious to keep it through the the year for good luck, and also as a charm against fire, nay, as a sure remedy in certain diseases; He bad 1 known a woman drink down a little grated bun as a cure for sore throßt, and at the present time there were some twenty stale Good Friday buns strung on a cord, and hung up as a festoon above the door of a room in a house at ; Brixton Hill, in the belief that they would scare away evil Bpirits. To the notion that these buns resisted corruption longer thac other flour food, alluaion was mado in " Poor Robin's Almanac " for 1733.