Note 126 — ITER DUMNONIENSE. VI.

St. Martin’s day, in the Norway clogs, is marked with a goose; for on that day they always feasted with a roasted goose: they say St. Martin, being elected to a bishoprick, hid himself, but was discovered by that animal. We have transferred the ceremony to Michaelmas. Sumner’s glossary, voce ᵹe-beoꞃꞅciꞃe, mentions the alæ of the northern people, meaning such a religious ceremony as we have been speaking of: and, if one consults Skinner’s Etymologicon for the derivation of our word ale, we may be apt to suspect it is most reasonable to refer it to this custom, from the incongruity of his.