Sir R.K. Porter (_Travels_, vol. i. p. 316.) mentions that at a period
of the year corresponding to Easter, "the Feast of nooroose, or of the
waters," is held, and seems to have had its origin prior to
Mahometanism. It lasts for _six_ days, and is supposed to be kept in
commemoration of the Creation and the Deluge--events constantly
synchronised and confounded in pagan cosmogonies. At this feast eggs are
presented to friends, in obvious allusion to the Mundane egg, for which
Ormuzd and Ahriman were to contend till the consummation of all things.

When the many identities which existed between Druidism and Magianism
are considered, we can hardly doubt that this Persian commemoration of
the Creation originated our Easter-eggs.

G.J.


_Buns_.--It has been suggested by Bryant, though, I believe, not noticed
by any writer on popular customs, that the Good Friday cakes, called
_Buns_, may have originated in the cakes used in idolatrous worship, and
impressed with the figure of an ox, whence they were called [Greek:
boun]. The cow or bull was likewise, as Coleridge (_Lit. Rem_. vol. ii.
p. 252.) has justly remarked, the {245} symbol of the _Cosmos_, the
prolific or generative powers of nature.

G.J.


_Gloucestershire Custom_.--It is a custom in Gloucestershire, and may be
so in other counties, to place loose _straw_ before the door of any man