Editing Caudle (section)

==Other uses==
A caudle formed part of the [[Beltane]] (May Day) [[fire festival]] celebrations collated by [[James George Frazer|James Frazier]] in ''[[The Golden Bough]]''. He quotes at length [[Thomas Pennant]], "who traveled in Perthshire in the year 1769": <blockquote>on the first of May, the herdsmen of every village hold their Bel-tien, a rural sacrifice. They cut a square trench on the ground, leaving the turf in the middle; on that they make a fire of wood, on which they dress a large caudle of eggs, butter, oatmeal and milk; and bring besides the ingredients of the caudle, plenty of beer and whisky; for each of the company must contribute something. The rites begin with spilling some of the caudle on the ground, by way of libation: on that everyone takes a cake of oatmeal, upon which are raised nine square knobs, each dedicated to some particular being, the supposed preserver of their flocks and herds, or to some particular animal, the real destroyer of them: each person then turns his face to the fire, breaks off a knob, and flinging it over his shoulders, says, 'This I give to thee, preserve thou my horses; this to thee, preserve thou my sheep; and so on.' After that, they use the same ceremony to the noxious animals: 'This I give to thee, O fox! spare thou my lambs; this to thee, O hooded crow! this to thee, O eagle!' When the ceremony is over, they dine on the caudle; and after the feast is finished, what is left is hid by two persons deputed for that purpose; but on the next Sunday they reassemble, and finish the reliques of the first entertainment.</blockquote>

Frazier notes other Scottish May Day celebrations with similar dishes, "a repast of eggs and milk in the consistence of a custard".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Frazier |first1=James |title=The Golden Bough |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Golden_Bough/The_Fire-Festivals_of_Europe#4._The_Beltane_Fires |accessdate=30 December 2018}}</ref>

Apparently it was "a custom in France to bring the bridegroom a caudle in the middle of the night on his wedding-night", according to an explanatory note in an 1877 edition of ''[[Essays (Montaigne)|The Essays of Montaigne]]'', presumably inserted by the English editor, [[William Carew Hazlitt]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Montaigne |title=Essays |edition=1877 |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Essays_of_Montaigne/Book_I/Chapter_XX |accessdate=30 December 2018}}</ref>