Up with the kettle and down with the pot,
Give us our answer, and let us begone.
Come now, mistress, shake your feathers,
Don’t you think that we are beggars;
We are the boys came here to play,
So give us our money and let us go away.
[As to our correspondent’s request for information, reference may be made to the discussion of J. G. Frazer, in “The Golden Bough,” (Lond. 1890), ii. 140 f. The custom has been prevalent in France, as well as in Great Britain and Ireland. In the Isle of Man, on Christmas Eve, the wren was hunted, killed, and fastened on the top of a pole. It was then carried from house to house, the bearers, meanwhile, chanting an appeal similar to that above given, at the same time collecting money. The wren was then laid on a bier and buried with much solemnity. The rite, according to another account, is described as taking place on St. Stephen’s Day (December 26th). The bird, in the latter case, was hung in the centre of two crossing hoops, decorated with evergreen and ribbons. In the song, reference is said to have been made to boiling and eating the bird. The money collected appears to have been employed for a feast at night. English and Irish usages were substantially identical.
As to the significance of the custom, it is only clear that it must have been a survival of a sacred rite. Mr. Frazer gives Asiatic parallels, but these are not very close, nor indeed are the accounts complete or sufficient. His own conclusion is that the custom is the remains of a pastoral sacrament, in which the animal god is killed and sacramentally eaten. That the wren has in some degree a sacred character is made probable by the superstitions relating to the bird. But the whole subject is obscure.]
W. W. N.
Modern Additions to Indian Myths, and Indian Thunder Superstitions.—The following remarks were made by the undersigned at the Annual Meeting, 1892:—