32 GUISING AND MUMMING IN DERBYSHIRE. 



The man that stuck the tupsie 

 Was up to the knees in blood; 



The man that held the basin 

 Was washed away in the flood. 

 Say laylum, etc. 



And all the women in Derby 



Came begging for his ears, 

 To make them leather aprons 



To last for forty years. 

 Say laylum, etc. 



And all the men in Derby 



Came begging for his eyes, 

 To kick about in Derby, 



And take them by surprise. 

 Say laylum, etc. 



As the singing goes on the butcher pretends to stick the tup, 

 and the old man with the bowl or basin pretends to catch his 

 blood. When the performance is ended they ask for a copper 

 or two, and then they sing " Christians, Awake.''^ 



In 1867 Mr. Jewitt printed a version of "The Derby Ram." 

 It begins : — 



As I was going to Derby, sir, 



All on a market 'day, 

 I met the finest ram, sir. 

 That ever was fed on hay. 

 The long version printed by Mr. Jewitt tells us that the 

 butcher who killed the ram was drowned in the blood, and 

 that the boy who " held the pail " was carried away in the 

 flood. The maids in Derby begged for his horns; the boys 

 begged for his eyes. As regards the skin we are told that : — 

 The. tanner that tanned his hide, sir. 



Would never be poor any more. 

 For when he had tanned and retched it, 

 It covered all Sinfin Moor. 



1 Related to me by Jack Potter, of Castleton, one of the mummers, in 

 1901. 



