34 GUISING AND MUMMING IN DERBYSHIRE. 



At Handsworth (in Yorkshire), near Sheffield, the boys have 

 an imitation of a sheep's head. It is made of wood with a pair 

 of real sheep's horns, with two glass marbles for the eyes. The 

 tongue is a piece of red flamiel. The boy who is acting the 

 old tup gets under a sack, and holds the sheep's head up 

 with a broom handle, as shewn in the photograph. Here five 

 boys go round. They begin about seven o'clock on Christmas 

 Eve, and finish their rounds on the night of New Year's Day. 

 The four boys represent : — 



(i) An old woman with bonnet, frock, apron, and black- 

 ened face. 



(2) A butcher with his smock and apron, and his knife 



and steel. On his apron are a few spots of blood. 

 The old woman and the butcher go arm in arm to 

 the door of a house and say : — 



" Here comes me and our owd lass. 

 Short o' money and short o' brass; 

 Pay for a pint and let us sup, 

 And then we'll act our merry old tup." 



(3) The old tup. 



(4) A fool with his face blackened. 



When the butcher kills the tup it falls to the ground, as if 

 it were dead, but they have no basin to catch the blood. They 

 sing the following lines : — 



As I was going to Derby 



Upon the market day, 

 I met the finest tupsie 



That ever was fed with hay. 

 Failey, failey, 

 Laddy, fallairy lay. 



The butcher that killed the tupsie 



Was up to the eyes in blood ; 

 The boy that held the pail, sir. 



Was carried away with the flood. 

 Failey, etc. 



