"Three blew beanes in a blew bladder,
Rattle, bladder, rattle."
These lines are quoted by Zantippa in Peele's Old Wives Tale, 1595.
[BUCKEE BENE.]
Buckee, Buckee, biddy Bene,
Is the way now fair and clean?
Is the goose ygone to nest,
And the fox ygone to rest?
Shall I come away?
These curious lines are said by Devonshire children when they go through any passages in the dark, and are said to be addressed to Puck or Robin Goodfellow as a method of asking permission to trace them. Biddy bene, A.-S. biddan, to ask or pray, bén, a supplication or entreaty. Buckee, possibly a corruption of Puck.
[THE OX.]
In Herefordshire, on the eve of Twelfth-day, the best ox, white or spotted, has a cake placed on his left horn; the men and girls of the farm-house being present, drink out of a silver tankard to him, repeating this verse—
We drink to thee and thy white horn,
Pray God send master a good crop of corn,
Wheat, rye, and barley, and all sorts of grain:
If alive at the next time, I'll hail thee again!
The animal is then sprinkled with the libation. This makes him toss his head up and down, and if, in so doing, the cake be thrown forwards, it is a good omen; if backwards, the contrary. Sir S. Meyrick, Trans. Brit. Arch. Assoc. Glouc. 1848, p. 128, appears to consider this custom a relic of the ancient Pagan religion.