[The Yule log in the Vosges; the Yule log in Franche-Comte and
Burgundy.]
On Christmas Eve the mountaineers of Rupt, in the Vosges, also never
fail to put on the hearth the largest log which the hearth can hold;
they call it _la galeuche de Noe_, that is, the Yule log. Next morning
they rake the ashes for any charred fragments and keep them as valuable
talismans to guard them against the stroke of lightning. At Vagney and
other places near it in the Vosges it used to be customary on the same
evening to grease the hinges and the latches of the doors, that no harsh
grating sound should break the slumbers of the infant Christ. In the
Vosges Mountains, too, as indeed in many other places, cattle acquired
the gift of speech on Christmas Eve and conversed with each other in the
language of Christians. Their conversation was, indeed, most
instructive; for the future, it seems, had no secret worth mentioning
for them. Yet few people cared to be caught eavesdropping at the byre;
wise folk contented themselves with setting a good store of fodder in
the manger, then shut the door, and left the animals to their
ruminations. A farmer of Vecoux once hid in a corner of the byre to
overhear the edifying talk of the beasts. But it did him little good;
for one ox said to another ox, "What shall we do to-morrow?" and the
other replied, "We shall carry our master to the churchyard." Sure
enough the farmer died that very night and was buried next morning.
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