ALMANACK, among Antiquaries, is also the name given to a kind of instrument, usually of wood, inscribed with various figures and Runic characters, and representing the order of the feasts, dominical letters, days of the week, and golden number, with other matters necessary to be known throughout the year; used by the ancient northern nations, in their computations of time, both civil and ecclesiastical. Almanacks of this kind are known by various names, among the different nations wherein they have been used; as rimstocks, primistaries, runstocks, runstuffs, Scipiones Runnici, Bacculi Annales, clogs, &c. They appear to have been used only by the Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians. From the second of these people, their use was introduced into England, whence divers remains of them in the counties. Dr Plot has given the description and figure of one of these clogs, found in Staffordshire, under the title of The Perpetual Staffordshire Almanack. The external figure and matter of these calendars appear to have been various. Some-
times they were cut on one or more wooden leaves, bound together after the manner of books; sometimes on the scabbards of swords, or even on daggers; sometimes on tools and implements, as portable sheezyards, hammers, the helves of hatchets, nails, &c. Sometimes they were made of brass or horn; sometimes of the skins of cels, which being drawn over a stick properly inscribed, retained the impressions of it. But the most usual form was that of walking staves, or sticks, which they carried about with them to church, market, &c. Each of these staves is divided into three regions; whereof the first indicates the signs, the second the days of the week and year, and the third the golden number. The characters engraved on them are, in some, the ancient Runic; in others the later Gothic characters of Ulfius. The saints days are expressed in hieroglyphics, significative either of some endowment of the saint, the manner of his martyrdom, or the like. Thus, against the notch for the first of March, or St David's day, is represented a harp; against the 23rd of October, or Crispin's day, a pair of shoes; against the 10th of August, or St Lawrence's day, a gridiron; and lastly, against New-year's day, a horn, the symbol of liberal potations, which our ancestors indulged in at that season.