Father and mother are dead:
Brother and sister are in the back yard,
Begging for barley bread."
Geo. E. Frere.
Perhaps it would not be uninteresting to add to the records of the "Snail-charm" (Vol. iii, p. 132.), that in the south of Ireland, also, the same charm, with a more fanciful and less threatening burden, was used amongst us children to win from its reserve the startled and offended snail. We entreated thus:—
"Shell a muddy, shell a muddy,
Put out your horns,
For the king's daughter is
Comings to town
With a red petticoat and a green gown!"