40 KiRKBEAN Folklore. 



of '■ pandemonium let loose." What are known as " billet guns," 

 i.e., pop-guns made from the wood of the " boor tree " or alder, 

 were freely used, and dancing of the most boisterous nature 

 indulged in. What the dancing meant may be realised when it is 

 said that most of the children wore clogs, and the noise was so 

 deafening that the " maister " had frequently to hold his hands over 

 his eaz's and to run out of the school. Various competitions were 

 also engaged in, for which the reward was an orange. These were 

 hardly so educative as a " spelling bee," as may be understood 

 when it is said that there was a " shiling " competition and a 

 " scraighing " combat. In the former the competitors stood in 

 a row facing the '■ dominie " and one of the elder scholars, 

 who officiated as judges, and the orange was awarded to the 

 one who "shiled" best, i.e., the one who made the ugliest 

 face. One of my informants, who once acted as one of the 

 umpires, still speaks with zest of the performance of one boy, 

 who so excelled the others in the delightful accomplishment of 

 " shilin' " that he was always the %vinner of the luscious fruit, 

 then far more prized than now. The " scraighing " contest (I 

 prefer to use my informant's expressive Scotch for the emasculated 

 English one of screaming), while it appealed less to the ocular 

 organs, nmst have been something of a trial to the organs of 

 hearing, as it consisted in " scraighing " as loudly as possible. 

 The boy who made the most discordant sound received the orange. 

 The only example of the use of a bonfire, or indeed of the use of 

 fire of any kind, in the observance of the Candlemas "bleeze" 

 that has come within my hearing, was at Southwick school, in an 

 adjoining parish, but as children belonging to Kirkbean took part 

 in the operations I may introduce it as appropriate to this paper. 

 For some days before Candlemas day the children busied themselves 

 during the dinner hour in collecting a pile of whins and other 

 brushwood. On the day itself they made an effigy with a stake 

 dressed in an old coat and hat, and placing it in the centre of the 

 pile set fire to the heap, and consumed the effigy. This is what 

 they knew as the Candlemas " bleeze," but very singularly, the 

 effigy they burned was that of Thomas Paine, the author of the 

 " Age of Reason," but who was only known to them as '• Tom 

 Paine, the infidel." This must have been a comparatively modern 

 introduction, as Thomas Paine did not die until I80'j, and his 

 effigy was being- burned as the Candlemas " bleeze " about 1830. 



