gathered round the hearth, greeting them with the words, “Christ is born!” They all answer, “He is born indeed,” and the hostess flings a handful of wheat over the Christmas visiter, who moreover casts some of his wheat into the corners of the hall as well as upon the people.  Then he walks straight to the hearth, takes a shovel and strikes the burning log so that a cloud of sparks flies up the chimney, while he says, “May you have this year so many oxen, so many horses, so many sheep, so many pigs, so many beehives full of honey, so much good luck, prosperity, progress, and happiness!” Having uttered these good wishes, he embraces and kisses his host.  Then he turns again to the hearth, and after crossing himself falls on his knees and kisses the projecting part of the Yule log.  On rising to his feet he places a coin on the log as his gift.  Meanwhile a low wooden chair has been brought in by a woman, and the visiter is led to it to take his seat.  But just as he is about to do so, the chair is jerked away from under him by a male member of the family and he measures his length on the floor.  By this fall he is supposed to fix into the ground all the good wishes which he has uttered that morning.  The hostess thereupon wraps him in a thick blanket, and he sits quietly muffled in it for a few minutes; the thick blanket in which he is swathed is believed, on the principles of homoeopathic magic, to ensure that the cows will give thick cream next year.  While he sits thus enriching the milk of the dairy, the lads who are to herd the sheep in the coming year go to the hearth and kneeling down before it kiss each other across the projecting end of the Yule log.  By this demonstration of affection they are thought to seal the love of the ewes for their lambs.[671]

[The Yule log among the Servians of Slavonia; the Christmas visiter (polazenik).]

The ritual of the Yule log is observed in a similar form by the Servians who inhabit the southern provinces of Austria.  Thus in Syrmia, a district of Slavonia which borders on Servia, the head of the house sends out one or two young men on Christmas Eve to cut the Yule log in the nearest forest.  On being brought in, the log is not mixed with the ordinary fuel but placed by itself, generally leaning against a fruit-tree till the evening shadows begin to fall.  When a man carries it into the kitchen and lays it on the fire, the master of the house throws corn over him, and the two greet each other solemnly the one saying, “Christ is born,” and the other answering “He is born indeed.”  Later in the evening the master of the house pours a glass of wine on the charred end of the log, whereupon one of the younger men takes the burnt piece of wood, carries it to the orchard, and sets it up against one of the fruit-trees.  For this service he is rewarded by the master of the house with a piece of money.  On Christmas Day, when the family is assembled at table, they expect the arrival of the special Christmas