IRELAND.
On the anniversary of St. Stephen it is customary for groups of young villagers to bear about a holly-bush adorned with ribbons, and having many wrens depending from it. This is carried from house to house with some ceremony, the “wren-boys” chanting several verses, the burthen of which may be collected from the following lines of their song:
“The wren, the wren, the king of all birds,
St. Stephen’s Day was caught in the furze,
Although he is little, his family’s great,
I pray you, good landlady, give us a treat.
My box would speak if it had but a tongue,
And two or three shillings would do it no wrong;
Sing holly, sing ivy—sing ivy, sing holly,
A drop just to drink, it would drown melancholy.
And if you draw it of the best,
I hope in Heaven your soul may rest;
But if you draw it of the small,
It won’t agree with the wren-boys at all;” &c., &c.
A small piece of money is usually bestowed on them, and the evening concludes in merry-making with the money thus collected.—Croker, Researches in the South of Ireland, 1824, p. 233.
