Dec. 22. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



489 



the Mote, observed a very large swarm of bees 

 sweeping along the gorge, and never checking 

 their flight till they reached the mansion, when 

 they at once fixed themselves in the old quarters 

 beneath the chapel floor, flying straight to the 

 entranoe-hole, as if well known and familiar to 

 them. T-'- B. L. 



Sanitary Superstition. — The following scene 

 occurred within this last month at a farm-house 

 in Worcestershire. It is one of the latest passages 

 from the Farce of Folly : 



Scene. The back premises of a Farm-house. Female 

 domestic discovered sitting, and plucking the feathers from 

 a half-killed hen, which is writhing with pain. Enter 

 Mistress ; she expresses disgust at the foul proceeding. 



Mistress. "Good gracious, girl! how can you be so 

 cruel ? Why, the hen is'nt dead ! " 



Domestic. " Xo, mum ! I'm very sorry, mum, but (as 

 though answering a question) I was in a hurry to come 

 down, and I didn't wash my face this morning." 



Mistress (with rising doubts as to the girl's sanitij in 

 reference to her sanitary proceedings'). " Wash your face ! 

 whatever does the girl mean? 1 did not say anything 

 about washing your face ; I said (shouting to her, on the 

 sudden supposition that she may be deaf) that you were 

 very cruel to pluck a hen that you've only half killed." 



Domestic (placidly). " Yes, mum. I'll go and wash my 

 face directlv." 



Mistress (bothered). " Wash your face ! yes, you dirty 

 slut, it wants washing. But first kill this poor thing, and 

 put it out of its misery." 



Domestic (confidentially). "1 can't mum, 'till I've 

 washed mj' face." 



Mistress (repressing an inclination to jise bad language). 

 "Why not?" 



Domestic (with the tone of an instructor). " La, bless me, 

 mum ! whj', don't you know as you can't kill any living 

 thing, unless you've washed your face first? I'm sure 

 that I tried for full ten minutes to wring this 'en's neck, 

 and I could'nt kill her ; and all because I had'nt time to 

 wash my face this morning ! " 



[ The Mistress administers a homily to the Domestic ; 

 the hen is put out of its misery ; and the Scene 

 closes upon the Domestic's ahlutions.'\ 



I was told of this same superstition being brought 

 to bear, about thirty years ago, on the killing of 



pigs. CUTHBERT BeDE, B.A. 



Norfolk Folk Lore : " Led Will," or " Will 

 Led" (probably frorn " Way laid"). — When about 

 ten years old, I remember one AVinsen, our old 

 washerwoman (whose habit it was to come early 

 on those waterholie days, that she might make a 

 long day at the tub), astonishing the servant at 

 breakfast, by relating a circumstance that hap- 

 pened to her that morning. The distance from 

 her house to my father's was about half a mile, 

 and in a meadow, across which the footpath lays, 

 is a hollow place about four feet deep, and ten or 

 twelve yards wide. She stated that each time 

 she attempted to cross this place she was irre- 

 sistibly, and against her will, prevented by some 

 invisible power ; or, as she said, was " Will led," 

 No. 321.3 



and was obliged to go round another and a longer 

 way. 



She did not appear to be stating what she did 

 not fully believe in, as there was really no reason 

 whatever for her using it for any purpose of de- 

 ception ; and I believe such a superstition still 

 exists amongst the illiterate of this county. 



Perhaps some of your readers in other counties 

 have heard of a similar belief. RcsTicus. 



Norwich. 



The Wren Song in Ireland. — In the first vo- 

 lume of Hall's Ireland, will be found an account 

 of the parading the streets of Cork, on St. Ste- 

 phen's Day annually, by the humbler classes, with 

 holly-boughs dressed with ribands, each holly- 

 bough having a dead wren. The song of the 

 wren-boys, with a musical score, is also given. A 

 similar custom is observed in the town of Youghal ; 

 but the words of the chanson there are somewhat 

 different. Here is the Youghal version. It may 

 find a nook in your Christmas Number : 



" SONG OF THE YOUGHAL WKEN-BOYS." 



" Introductioti. 

 " To Mr. * * * we've brought the wran. 

 He is the best gentleman iu the land : 

 Put in your hand, pull out your purse, 

 And give us something for the poor wran ! 



" First verse. 



" The wran ! the wran ! the king of all birds, 

 St. Stephen's Day was caught in the furze ; 

 Altho' he's little, his family's great — 

 I pray, young landlady, you'll fill us a treat. 



" Chorus. 



" Sing, overem, overem, droleen ; 

 Sing, overem, overem, droleen ; 

 Sing, overem, overem, chitimicore, hebemegola tatn- 

 bereen. 



" Second verse. 



" If you fill it of the small. 

 It won't agree with our boys at all ; 

 But if you fill it of the best, 

 I hope in heaven your soul may rest. 



" Chorus, 



" Sing, overem, overem, droleen, &c. 



" Third verse. 



" It is the wran, as you may see, 

 'Tis guarded in a holly-tree ; 

 A bunch of ribands by his side. 

 And the * * * boys to be his guide. 



" Chorus. 



" Sing, overem, overem, droleen ; 

 Sing, overem, overem, droleen ; 

 Sing, overem, overem, chitimicore, hebemegola tam- 

 bereen." 



The asterisks in the first verse denote the place 

 where the name of the individual visited, and 

 from whom a dole is expected, is to come in ; and 

 those in the last verse are supplied by the locality 



