The day after Twelfth-day was so called because it was celebrated in
honour of the _rock_, which is a _distaff_ held in the hand, from whence
wool is spun by twirling a ball below. It seems that the burning of the
flax and tow belonging to the women, was the men’s diversion in the
evening of the first day of labour after the twelve days of Christmas,
and that the women repaid the interruption to their industry by sluicing
the mischief-makers. Herrick tells us of the custom in his Hesperides:--
_St. Distaff’s day, or the morrow after Twelfth-day._
Partly work, and partly play,
Ye must on S. Distaff’s day:
From the plough soone free your teame,
Then come home and fother them.
If the maides a spinning goe,
Burne the flax, and fire the tow;
* * * * *
Bring in pailes of water then,
Let the maides bewash the men:
Give S. Distaffe all the right,
Then bid Christmas sport good-night.
And next morrow, every one
To his owne vocation.
In elder times, when boisterous diversions were better suited to the
simplicity of rustic life than to the comparative refinement of our
own, this contest between fire and water must have afforded great
amusement.