Ç'at lo Trimazot."
The derivation of Trimazo is uncertain; someone suggested that Tri stands for three, and mazo for maidens; but I think mazo is more likely to be connected with the Italian mazzo, "nosegay." The word is known outside Lorraine: at Islettes children say:
"Trimazot! en nous allant
Nous pormenés eddans les champs
Nous y ons trouvé les blés si grands
Les Aubépin' en fleurissant."
They beg for money to buy a taper for the Virgin's altar; for it must not be forgotten that the month of May is the month of Mary. The villagers add a little flour to their pious offering, so that the children may make cakes. Elsewhere in Champagne young girls collect the taper money; they cunningly appeal to the tenderness of the young mother by bringing to her mind the hour "when she takes her pretty child up in the morning and lays him to sleep at night." There was a day on which the girls of the neighbourhood of Remiremont used to way-lay every youth they met on the road to the church of Dommartin and insist on sticking a sprig of rosemary or laurel in his cap, saying, "We have found a fine gentleman, God give him joy and health; take the May, the pretty May!" The fine gentleman was requested to give "what he liked" for the dear Virgin's sake. In the department of the Jura there are May-brides, and in Bresse they have a May-queen who is attended by a youth, selected for the purpose, and by a little boy who carries a green bough ornamented with ribands. She heads the village girls and boys, who walk as in a marriage procession, and who receive eggs, wine, or money. A song still sung in Burgundy recalls the præ-revolutionary æra and the respect inspired by the seigneurial woods:—
"Le voilà venu le joli mois,
Laissez bourgeonner le bois;
Le voilà venu le joli mois,