Dec. 29. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



507 



Ten pipers piping, 



Nine drummers drumming, 



Eiglit maids a-milking, 



Seven swans a-swimming. 



Six geese a-laying, 



Five gold rings, 



Four collie birds. 



Three French hens. 



Two turtle-doves, 



And a partridge upon a pear-tree." 



Newcastle-on-Tyne. 



Robert S. Salmon. 



THE FOLK LORE OF A CORNISH VILLAGE : FASTS 

 AND FESTIVALS. 



(^Concluded from Vol. xii., p. 297.) 



Christmas comes next, season of mirth and mis- 

 rule, its advent proclaimed by the evergreens with 

 which every wall and window is garnished. The 

 old women "go a-gooding" round the parish, col- 

 lecting from their richer neighbours the measure 

 of meal wherewith to make the cake or pudding, 

 and giving many benedictions in return. 



On Christmas eve the mirth begins, when the 

 " mock " or log is lighted by a portion saved from 

 the last year's fire. The family gather round the 

 blaze, and amuse themselves by various games ; 

 and even the younger children are allowed, as a 

 special favour, to sit up till a late hour to see the 

 fun, and afterwards to " drink to the mock." In 

 the course of the evening the merriment is in- 

 creased by the entry of the "goosey dancers" 

 (guised dancers), the boys and girls of the village 

 ■who have rifled their parents' wardrobes of old 

 coats and gowns, and thus disguised, dance and 

 sing, and beg money to make merry with. They 

 are allowed, and are not slow to take, a large 

 amount of license in consideration of the season. 

 It is considered to be out of character with the 

 time, and a mark of an ill-natured, churlish dis- 

 position, to take offence at anything they do or 

 say. If kindly treated they create a little mirth, 

 and leave without doing any mischief. This 

 mumming Is kept up during the week. 



The Christmas play was a favourite amusement 

 with our forefathers, but Is dying out. It is a 

 remnant of the gnary mirkl, or miracle play, which 

 in remote times was performed in the " round," 

 or amphitheatre. The later dramas have not 

 been, like the older ones, on Scripture subjects ; 

 the one_ at present In use having for its subject 

 the achievements of St. George. The play Is ex- 

 hibited in the largest room of the Inn, or some 

 other public place, and occasionally repeated as 

 one of the entertainments of any feast which may 

 happen in the Christmas week. The players are 

 the young men of the village, and a subscription 

 is made for the purchase of properties, the young 

 damsels contributing their services in the manu- 



Ko. 322.] 



facture of the costumes. " Very tragical mirth " 

 indeed It is, like that with which the swains of 

 Athens sought to amuse the bridal of Theseus and 

 Hippolyta. The play has been printed entire by 

 Davies Gilbert in his Christmas Carols. 



Early on Christmas morning we are awoke by 

 the waits (not here known by that name), singing 

 and playing their hymns under our windows. 



The Itinerant bookseller now brings his Christ- 

 mas carols. Among these are a few modern 

 hymns of some pretensions to poetry, but the 

 greater number are only remarkable for their ab- 

 surdity; they would, Indeed, be ludicrous If on a 

 less solemn subject. In a broadsheet just pub- 

 lished, I find the carols entitled, " The moon 

 shone bright," " Heavenly Union," " Hark, what 

 news the Angels bring," " The Holy Well " (a 

 legendary Incident In the life of our Saviour), 

 " The first good joy our Mary had," " Joy to the 

 World," " Shepherds rejoice," "The Star of Beth- 

 lehem " (Kirke White), " While shepherds watch 

 their flocks by night," " Christ in the manger," 

 " Bethlehem's babe," " As I sat on a sunny bank," 

 " O well, and O well, the Angels did say," " Hark, 

 all around the welkin rings," " Righteous Joseph." 



On Christmas night It is believed that the cattle 

 in the stalls observe the time by falling on their 

 knees. 



Innocents' Day, — Our housewives strictly re- 

 frain from scrubbing and cleaning on this day, on 

 what account I cannot discover. 



Thomas Q. Couch, 



Curious Anachronism. — Having purchased a 

 copy of Sir E. B. Lytton's Harold for railway 

 reading, my eye was arrested by the following 

 anachronism, which It may be well to point out, 

 If only for the amusement of your readers. At 

 book v. ch. vli., the author makes Harold to say : 



" In my youth I turned in despair or disgust from the 

 subtleties of the schoolmen, which split upon hairs the 

 brains of Lombard and Frank," &c. 



I should think Sir E. B. Lytton's brains must have 

 been split upon something, when he described 

 Harold as having read the schoolmen a full cen- 

 tury before Peter Lombard's Sentences Avere writ- 

 ten, and two centuries before Thomas Aquinas 

 flourished. 



When the Saxon priesthood of the age of Ed- 

 ward the Confessor are described as " perhaps the 

 most corrupt and Illiterate In all Europe" (bk. iv. 

 ch. i.), there are authorities, no doubt, to make 

 good the assertion ; but I suspect that such au- 

 thorities are to be found chiefly among the Norman 

 writers, whose reason for discovering " insuffi- 

 ciency " in the Saxon priesthood must have been 



