Then the ring of children divides again to let the two into the middle, and sings: Pray come back love, etc., Pray come back love on a fine summer's day. Now you're married we wish you joy, Your father and mother you must obey,* II. Wall-flowers. Form a ring. One child remains outside. The ring of children The child outside says: Excepting (names one), and she's the worst of all, She can hop and she can skip, And she can turn the candle-stick. Fye! Fye! For shame, Turn your face to the wall again. Then the child addressed turns round and looks the other way. This is repeated until all the children are named. III. The Poor Widow. Form a ring, with one child in the middle. The ring of children sings: One poor widow is left alone, all alone, all alone, And choose the one that you like best. Then the child in the middle chooses one, and the ring of children sings: Now she's married I wish her joy, And now it's time to go away. *"First a girl and then a boy" is another version.-E.C. Then the child who was first in the middle goes out, and the child that she chose stays in, and represents the poor widow da Capo. IV. The Jolly Miller. The children sit in a ring and sing: There were three jolly millers (repeat 3 times) Down by the River Dee. One finger, one thumb, keep moving (repeat 3 times) There were three jolly millers (3 times) Down by the River Dee. Two fingers, two thumbs, keep moving (3 times) Down by the River Dee. There were three, etc. This formula is repeated, with an additional member each time until: Two fingers, two thumbs, one head, two arms, Two legs and one body keep moving, Down by the River Dee. It is of course accompanied by appropriate gestures. V. Counting out Rhyme. (From a Grundisburgh child.) The girls each put their fingers on a cap, and then one says— putting her finger in the middle of the cap. One (takes her finger away). Higgery Hoggery Heggery Am, Filsy Folsy Filsy Fam, Kuby Koby Virgin Mary, Sprinkle Sprinkle Blot, Out go she. The girl to whom the last word, "she," comes, has to take her finger away. X.-HARVEST CUSTOMS. "In Suffolk," says Sir John Cullum in his entertaining History of Hawsted, "the harvest lasts about five weeks; during which the harvestman earns about £3. The agreement between the farmers and their hired harvestmen is made on Whitsun Monday. Harvest gloves of 7d. a pair are still presented. During harvest, if any strangers happen to come into the field, they are strongly solicited to make a present to the labourers, and those who refuse are reckoned churlish and covetous. This present is called a Largess; and the benefactor is celebrated on the spot, by the whole troop, who first cry out Holla! Largess! Holla! Largess! They then set up two violent screams, which are succeeded by a loud vociferation, continued as long as their breath will serve, and dying gradually away. Wheat harvest is finished by a little repast given by the farmer to his men. And the completion of the whole is crowned by a banquet, called the Horkey, to which the wives and children are also invited. The largess money furnishes another day of festivity, at the alehouse, when they experience to perfection the happiness of Corda oblita laborum. At all their merrymakings their benefactors are commemorated by Holla! Largess! The last load of corn is carried home, as it were, in triumph, adorned with a green bough."* "In the descriptive Ballad which follows," says Bloomfield in his Advertisement to the "6 Horkey," "it will be evident that I have endeavoured to preserve the style of a gossip, and to transmit the memorial of a custom, the extent or antiquity of which I am not acquainted with, and pretend not to enquire into." In Suffolk husbandry, the man who (whether by merit or by sufferance I know not) goes foremost through the harvest with the scythe or the sickle, is honoured with the title of 'Lord,' and at the Horkey or harvest-home feast, collects what he can for himself and brethren from the farmers and visitors, to make a 'frolic' afterwards For the significance of this custom, cf. Frazer's Golden Bough, vol. i. 336-338; 340-346; 408; ii. 4, 7, 8, 68. called 'the largess spending.' By way of returning thanks, though perhaps formerly of much more, or of different signification, they immediately leave the seat of festivity, and with a very long and repeated shout of a 'largess' (the number of shouts being regulated by the sums given) seem to wish to make themselves heard by the people of the surrounding farms. And before they rejoin the company within, the pranks and jollity I have endeavoured to describe usually take place. These customs, I believe, are fast going out of use, which is one great reason for my trying to tell the rising race of mankind that such were the customs when I was a boy."—The Suffolk Garland, printed and sold by John Raw, MDCCCXVIII., p 337. They used to put green boughs and flowers, and sometimes a man would put a ribbon, on the last load. They used to deck the last sheaf with a green bough and put ta on top o' the load. [Taken down from an old labourer's account of harvests in Suffolk in old days. Grundisburgh.] One of the Five Hundred points of Husbandry relates to August. Grant harvest-lord more, by a penny or twoo, To call on his fellowes the better to doo: * Give gloves to thy reapers a Larges to crie, And daily to loiterers have a good eie.-Tusser. W. Hone. "Everyday Book," vol. ii, p. 1156. Largess, s. a gift to reapers in harvest. When they have received it, they shout thrice, the words "hallo largess;" an obvious corruption of the words "à la largesse," a very ancient form of soliciting bounty from the great; not of thanking them for it. it is unquestionably a remnant of high feudal antiquity. It is called halloing a largess." "The Vocabulary of East Anglia," by Rev. R. Forby, vol. ii, p. 190. The custom after harvest of crying largesse prevails generally among the people in this neighbourhood; but the hockay, or harvest-home, since the introduction of task-work at the reaping season, begins to * See the custom of giving gloves to servants at Lammas under "Miscellaneous Customs." fall into disuse. When this good old custom is kept here with due solemnity, besides the usual homage paid to the master and mistress of the house, a ceremony takes place which affords much mirth: a pair of ram's-horns, painted, and decorated with flowers, is carried in triumph round the festive board; and as the forester who had killed the deer was honoured of old with the buck's horns, and saluted with a ditty-("As you like it," iv., 2)-so the harvest-man of Hengrave, having finished his labours, is crowned with the ram's horns, and greeted with a song which has the same point as the other, though more coarsely expressed. "Gage's Hengrave," p. 7. The time for hearing real Suffolk songs is after harvest, when the Hawkey time has come and the men have the supper so long looked forward to. They like it best arranged as their fathers have had it from time immemorial. A favourite song is a very short one. After the usual pressing from the "Lord of the Faist," one of the company will stand up and begin with: Laarn tew be wise Laaaaren teeeew be wise, Larrrrrren tu beeeeeee wise!" This goes on till a voice calls out, " Will, come, dew you guv us more than that there, man, co'!" No notice, however, is taken by the singer of the remark, and he goes on, only varying the stress laid upon the words of each line. But at last the "Dew yow's" become general, when the singer coolly sits down, saying with an air of authority, "Larn that FUST." Cambridge. "Brother Mike," Suffolk Notes & Queries, HEALTHS. The Master's Good Health. Here's a health unto our Master, the founder of the feast, I wish with all my heart and soul, in heaven he may find rest. I hope all things may prosper, that ever he takes in hand, For we are all his servants, and all at his command. Drink, boys, drink, and see you do not spill; For if you do, you must drink two; it is your master's will. |