LEAP YEAR LORE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18642, 25 February 1924, Page 12

LEAP YEAR LORE.

1924 has brought us round once more to Leap Year, that delight of the penny comics, and the humorist whose stock-in-trade it is to . answer, "Well, it's Leap Year." until fhe joke grows so stale that it fails to raise a giggle from even the most youthful of his feminine admirers.

The feminine privilege of proposing at Leap Year dates, or so tradition has om die fourth century, and the Eerson who originated it is supposed to c no less than the holy St. Batrick himself. The story runs as fellows: On a certain day, St. Patrick was walking alone on the shores of Lough Neagh, when Sf. Bridget came up to him in great distress. She told him her trouble, weeping bitterly, and saying that in the Christian school of which she Was the head,, the Christianised maidens complained that the men no longer sought them in fearing that since their conversion their minds were above such worldly trivialities. Worse . than tbjs, and the good St. Bridget's fears broke out afresh— they had' mutinied against all the traditions of maidenly behaviour, and declared that, since the men weqe so wanting in courage, they now intended to propose to whomever they chose; if St. Patrick conceded the right, to propose, however, the misguided maidens would be justified in their behaviour. St. Patrick pondered awhile, and at last he said that he would allow women to propose every seventh year. Thereupon St. Bridget threw her. arms round his neck, and weeping, cried,: "Arrah, Patrick, jewel, I dare not go back to the girls with such a proposal. Make it one year in four.'' And S?. Patrick, who, like a true Irishman,. could never resist the blandishments of the other sex, instead of reproving .Bridget for her boldness, said, smiling indulgently, that the ladief, should be granted Leap Year, the longest of fhe whole lot. . . St. Bridget, overcome with delight, promptly initiated the custom by proposing to the saint then and there. St*. Patrick, however, feeling that matters had gone far enough, declined Bridget's hand, but ' got over the difficulty by ■ giving her a kiss and a silk gown, thus establishing 'the c customary Leap Year fine. Long afterwards, in the yeair 1288, the trad'tion became legal fact, for an Act of Parliament was then passed decreeing that every maiden should be legally entitled to propose. The wording of the Act runs as follows-^ "Ordonit that during ye reign" of her ( maist blessit Maiestie, Margaret, ilka maiden ladee of baith high and lowe estait, shall hae libertie to bespeke ye man she likes. Gif he refuses to take liir to bee his wyfe, he shale be mulcet in the sum of ane hundridty pundes, or else, as his estait may bee except and always gif he can make it appeare that he is betrothit to anifher woman, then he shale bee free." From that time onward quite a number of women claimed their "hundridfy" pounds, though in many cases doubtless the more submissive, impecunious males preferred to sacrifice their hundred pounds or so of flesh (and bone) to be cherished and ministered to till death the twain did part.