Northumbrian Guisards 209 



Can you cure a dead man ? 

 DR. BROWN : Yes, I have a little boxy, 

 They call it hoxy-poxy, 

 Put a little to his nose, 

 And a little to his chin, 

 Rise up, Jack, and let us hear you sing. 



Whereupon the dead man, who has lain somewhat 

 uncomfortably on the sandy floor, eagerly watching 

 the signal for his resurrection, springs hastily to his 

 feet, dusts his white shirt, and breaks forth into 

 melody as thus : 



Once I was dead, but now I am alive, 



Blessed be the happy man that made me to revive. 



There should now follow tricks and jugglery and 

 tumbling, with quips and quiddities and clowning, of 

 which our boys know nothing, but all ranging them- 

 selves round the kitchen begin a kind of choral 

 dialogue that seems but a scrap and fragment of what 

 it should be. It runs thus : 



ST. GEORGE : Who lives in that red-tiled house over yonder ? 

 CHORUS : You go and ask, and you'll soon find the owner. 

 ENSEMBLE : The ducks and the geese 

 How they do swim over ! 



ST. GEORGE : How deep is that pond over yonder ? 

 CHORUS : Fling in a stone and you'll soon find the bottom. 



ENSEMBLE : The ducks and the geese, &c. 



It is unadulterated nonsense, yet we are all in the 

 spirit of it, and the farmer's voice is loudest in the 

 final ' do swim over.' Now follow songs, but as they 

 are common and modern, ' Robin Tamson's smiddie,' 

 ' There's queer folk in the shaws,' &c., it is needless to 



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