1889.] 4 1 < [Mooney. 



and thus waking a sleeping sentinel just as the Irish wer on the point of 

 surrounding them. This very much resembles the old story of the sacred 

 geese of Rome, but aside from the fact that the same tradition is related of 

 other armies in other countries, being merely one factor in the universal 

 folk-lore of Europe, the existence of the custom in France and Wales 

 shows that it had its origin in some ancient Keltic festival prior to the 

 introduction of Christianity. In the Isle of Man, the people defend the 

 practice by saying that at this season the wren's body is animated by the 

 spirit of a wicked fairy resembling the German Lorelei, and who can be 

 kild at no other time.* Vallancey asserts that the custom originated in 

 Ireland through the contrivance of the early Christian missionaries, who 

 found the wren an object of superstitious regard amongst the people, and 

 accordingly undertook to overcome this feeling by ordering that he should 

 be hunted and kild on Christmas day, and his dead body carried about in 

 triumph on the day following.f In Ii'eland and Germany, the wren is 

 considerd the king of birds, having won the kingship in a contest with the 

 eagle, a story as old as the days of Aristotle and Pliny, as we ar reminded 

 by the Latin name of regulus or "little king." In Breton legend, it is 

 said to hav brought down fire from heaven, which would account for its 

 sacred character among the Kelts. | 



For some days before Saint Stephen's, and especially on Christmas, 

 troops of boys go about the hedges searching for wrens. The instant that 

 one is perceivd, he is pursued by the whole crowd with stones and clubs, 

 and it is generally but a few moments before his lifeless body is in the 

 hands of his captors. It is believd in some parts that the wren is blind on 

 this day, and therefore the more easily caught. Early in the morning of 

 Saint Stephen's day, the various companies gather at their respectiv head- 

 quarters with bushes of holly or turz, which ar elevated on poles and 

 decorated with the bodies of the slaughterd wrens, the more the better. 

 A live bird is frequently tied by the legs to the top of the bush and is 

 allowd to hang thus, with head down and wings vainly flapping, as the 

 procession moves along. There is sometimes but one wren, which, in the 

 south, is frequently carried in a frame consisting of two hoops, crossing 

 each other at right angles, and fixt to the end of a long pole. Occasion- 

 ally, dead wrens ar worn in the caps of the members of the party, some 

 of whom wear masks as on Saint Bridget's eve. In Limerick and the 

 adjacent districts of Clare, and sometimes also in Longford, and, perhaps, 

 elsewhere, the wren is carried in a small coffin resting on a bier borne by 

 four pall-bearers. In the Isle of Man also the wren is carried on a bier, 

 and the whole ceremony is a whimsical travesty on a funeral. § In Ire- 

 land, however, the proceedings ar by no means of a somber character. 

 The crowd of boys and young men is generally accompanied by a piper 



* Kelly, Folk-lore, 77. 



t Vallancey, Collectanea, iv, Part i, 97. 



X Kelly, Folk-lore, 75. 



g Waldron, quoted in Brand, Antiquities, i, 472. 



PROC. AMEK. PHILOS. SOC. XXVI. 130. 3a. PRINTED MAY 28. 1889. 



