GUISING AND MUMMING IN DERBYSHIRE. 35 



The blood that ran down Derby street 



And over Derby Moor, 

 It made the biggest water-wheel 



That ever was seen before. 

 Failey, etc. 



The horns that grew on this tup's head 



They were so mighty high, 

 That every footstep he let down 



They rattled against the sky. 

 Failey, etc. 

 The wool that grew on this tup's back 



It was so mighty high. 

 That the eagles built their nests in it, 



For I heard the young ones cry. 

 Failey, etc. 



I am told that something was formerly sung about the tup's 

 horns being as long as the church steeple. The boys at Hands- 

 worth have not a sheep's head, but a sack, with a pair of 

 sheep's horns sticking out at the top. 



At Upperthorpe, near Sheffield, boys go round on Christmas 

 Eve with " the old tup." They tie the ends of a sack to re- 

 present horns, as they do at Castleton. The custom is dying 

 out, and at Norton a sufficient number of boys could not be 

 got together at Christmas, 1901, when I made enquiry. Both 

 " the old tup " and " the old horse " were performed at Norton 

 and Dronfield when I was a boy, about 1855. I have remem- 

 bered the tunes since boyhood, having frequently heard them 

 sung. 



The butcher of modern life who kills a sheep now puts it 

 on a stretcher, and stabs it in the throat with his knife, a boy 

 holding a bucket or pail under the wound to catch the blood. 



The ceremony which has just been described represents the 

 sacrifice of a ram, for it is inconceivable that just as the old 

 year was passing into the new the men or boys of numerous 

 villages should pretend to kill a ram as a mere freak. Pos- 

 sibly a ram's body was once distributed amongst the people, 



