DECEMBER 261 



link we have with pre- Reformation times is the 

 Christmas play which is still enacted by our village 

 mummers. It is preserved orally, and is passed on 

 thus from generation to generation. I have taken 

 it down from the lips of a member of an hereditary 

 mumming family, and append it here as I heard it 

 last night in our kitchen regions, and have heard it 

 almost every Christmas-time through my life. It 

 may be observed from internal evidence that the 

 characters were formerly more numerous than they 

 are in these degenerate days ; for the bold Turkish 

 Knight, to accommodate himself to the shrunken 

 number of the players, and perhaps also to suit the 

 exigencies of the tale and the necessity for a re- 

 cognition of British conquest everywhere, is rolled 

 into one with the Bold Foreign King. 



The peaceful winter night is disturbed by the 

 sound of stealthy footsteps outside the drawing- 

 room windows, and presently, led by a concertina, 

 the preliminary chant breaks out 



" God bless the master of this house, 



I hope he is athin 

 An' if he is praay tell us zo, 

 An' zoon we 'ool begin. 



Chorus With a hey dum dum, 

 With a hey dum dum, 

 With a hey dum dum de deny ; 

 Vor we be come this Christmas-time 

 A purpose to be merry. 



" I hopes the missis is athin, 



A-zittin' by the vire, 

 A-pittin' us poor mummers yer, 

 Out in the dirty mire. 



Chorus With a hey dum dum, etc. 



