HISTORY IN BUNS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5399, 17 July 1878, Page 3

HISTORY IN BUNS.

(From the European Mail.)

At the meeting of the British Archteologibal* recently, a paper, appropriate to the Easter season, was • read by Mr. H. Syer Cuming, F.S.'A. Scot., Y.P., on “Good Friday Buns.” The subject was introduced by references to the sacred bread and cakes of the' Hebrews, as well as those of the Egyptians, Babylonians, Samians/ Greeks, and Romans. From a mention of the Hindoo elephant-headed god Ganesha, who is frequently represented' holding in one. of his four hands a'bowl filled 1 with small cakes on which he is,* supposed: to ’ feed, Mr. Cuming passed to the chupattls, connected with the worship of Krishna/which were said to have had so much to do with the outbreak of the Sepoy mutiny ’in 1857. A t home we had St. Michael’s bannock, for Michaelmas, the carvis,’’pr seed-cake, for Allhallow Eve, and for Christmas the ynle-dongh or baby-cake, the plum-pig, plum-pudding, goose-pie, and the! shred or mince-pie ;'with spiced bread and sugared cake for Twelfth Night, the taffy for St. David’s Day, pancakes'* for ShroveTuesday, the tansycMc© andpuddirigpie for Lent in general, and ,the' carling, slm- > bling-cake, and simnel for Mothering Sunday. After Good Friday’s cross buns, came dec’and fancy puddings for Easter Sunday and the Bel-tein oatmeal-cake for May 1.. Moat iof these had doubtless a pagan origin—c.y., the Bel-fcein cake, and the little pastry pig, with its current eyes and wooden trotters, which • latter was a survival of the worship of the; Keltic lunar godess Ked, or Keridwen, the mystic sow. As to the .archaeology of Gobd Friday buns, the accounts given in the popular manuals, such as Brand’s and Hone’s, were all 1 based on authorities no sounder than-Jacpb 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/ symbolical of the moon-goddess and the cakes offered to her as 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" that the Good Friday buns could thus be traced back to-very early times, Mr. Cuming raised the question, how it was to bo explained that they were now, 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, Tie thought the idea might 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 rand of* his death on Calvary. v For two persons to break a Good Friday bun between them was not ouly-a pledge of friendship, but a surety against disagreement,"..the act being ■.accompanied’by the words— t. - ‘ | ■ „ Half foryou.and half for me,.. .. . j . Between us two goodwill shall be.-.: I Again the Good Friday bun was regarded, npt as ordinary food, but as something endowed with peculiar sanctity,'as was’clear from its having for- ages been the. custom with the superstitious to keep it through the year for good luck, and also as a charm against firp, nay, as a’euro - remedy in certain diseases.' He had known a woman - drink down a little grated bun as a cure for poire throat, and at the present time there were some twenty scaje Good Friday buns strung on a cord, and hung tip as a.festoon above* the door of a room in ja house at Brixtou Hill, in the belief that; they would scare away evil spirits. To the notion that these buna resisted corruption longer than other flour food,, allusion avas made.in “Poor Robin’s Almanack” for 1733. • ■ ;