From all their eggs and all their fry,
O give them alms, if ever so small,
Else hens and chickens and eggs and all,
A prey to 'Piet' will surely fall."
The Swedes raise their Maj stăng or May-pole, not on May, but on St John's Eve, a change due, I suspect, to the exigencies of the climate.
German Mailieder are one very much like the other; they are full of the simple gladness of children who have been shut up in houses, and who now can run about in the sunny air. I came across the following in Switzerland:
"Alles neu macht der Mai,
Macht die Seele frisch und frei.
Lasst dans Haus!
Kommt hinaus!