Hunt provides us with a series of festivals in this chapter, which he has placed into near- calendar order. That’s very convenient, and it means that this will eventually be the skeleton of a chapter in the gazetter, giving seasonal ideas for the covenant’s life. Some of these festivals just need to be flagged so they can be expanded later, and some have story seeds obvious in them already. In previous weeks I’ve been trying to boil; the raw material of Hunt’s work down more, but this chapter has a lot of colour in it I want to keep, for tone in the final gazetter, so I hope readers will pardon voluminous quotation.
New Years’ Day: Sanding the steps
It is unlucky for a woman to be the first to enter a house on New Year’s Day, so it is traditional to pay boys to put sand on the steps, and in the all. Packs of boys rove around offering this service. Is it a single shapeshifting lady this tradition is aimed at? Clearly she’s a faerie. Does she personally hate sand? Some vampires hate sand (they need to count the grains).
January 4: Drinking to the apple trees on Twelfth Night Eve.
“IN the eastern part of Cornwall, and in western Devonshire, it was the custom to take a milk-panful of cider, into which roasted apples had been broken, into the orchard This was placed as near the centre of the orchard as possible, and each person, taking a “” clomben ” cup of the drink, goes to different apple-trees, and addresses them as follows :
‘ ‘ Health to the good apple-tree ; Well to bear, pocketfuls, hatfuls, peckfuls, bushel-bagfuls.” Drinking part of the contents of the cup, the remainder, with the fragments of the roasted apples, is thrown at the tree, all the company shouting aloud. Another account tells us, ” In certain parts of Devonshire, the farmer, attended by his workmen, goes to the orchard this evening ; and there, encircling one of the best-bearing
trees, they drink the following toast three times :
‘ Here ‘s to thee, old apple-tree ; Hence thou mayst bud, and whence thou mayst blow,
And whence thou mayst bear apples enow ! Hats full ! caps full ! Bushel, bushel-sacks full! And my pockets full, too ! Huzza !’
This done, they return to the house, the doors of which they are sure to find bolted by the females, who, be the weather what it may, are inexorable to all entreaties to open them, till some one has guessed what is on the spit, which is generally some nice little thing difficult to be hit on, and is the reward of him who first names it. The doors are then thrown open, and the lucky clodpole receives the tit-bit as his recompense. Some are so superstitious as to believe that if they neglect this custom, the trees will bear no apples that year.”
Christmas-eve was selected in some parts of England as the occasion for wishing health to the apple-tree. Apples were roasted on a string until they fell into a pan of spiced ale, placed to receive them. This drink was called lamb’s-wool, and with it the trees were wassailed, as in Devonshire and Cornwall. Herrick alludes to the custom : ” Wassaile the trees, that they may beare You many a plum, and many a peare ; For more or lesse fruits they will bring, And you do give them wassailing.”…In some localities apples are blessed on St James’s Day, July 25.
January 5: Twelfth Night Cake
“THE custom, apparently a very ancient one, of putting certain articles into a rich cake, is still preserved in many districts. Usually, sixpence, a wedding-ring, and a silver thimble are employed. These are mixed up with the dough, and baked in the cake. At night the cake is divided. The person who secures the sixpence will not want money for that year ; the one who has the ring will be the first married ; and the possessor cf the thimble
will die an old maid.”
Hunt also quotes a lengthy poem in which each household makes a large cake, all members are given a piece, and whoever gets the penny is the king of the festivity.
Plough Monday (first Monday after Epiphany): Geese dancing
“THE first Monday after Twelfth-day is Plough Monday, and it is the ploughman’s holiday.
At this season, in the Islands of Scilly, at St Ives, Penzance, and other places, the young people exercise a sort of gallantrj called “geese-dancing.” The maidens are dressed up for young men, and the young men for maidens ; and, thus disguised, they visit their neighbours in companies, where they dance, and make jokes upon what has happened during the year, and every one is humorously ” told their own,” without offence being taken. By this sort of sport, according to yearly custom and toleration, there is a spirit of wit and drollery kept up among the people. The music and dancing done, they are treated with liquor, and then they go to the next house, and carry on the same sport…The…term…is…derived from “dance deguiser”, hence guise-dancing, or geese-dancing, by corruption.
February: Shrove Tuesday
Boys march around in groups, carriying cords weighted with stones, and beating on doors. In St Ives they sing “Give me a pancake, now-now-now. / Or I’ll souse in your door with a row-tow-tow” What happens if a boy making his cord uses a stone with a natural hold in it (an elfstone)? Does this create a minor magical item that attract the fae?
Nearest Sunday to April 28th
“The parish feast takes place on the nearest Sunday to the 28th 1 of April. It happened in very early times, when winters extended further into the spring than they now do, that one of the old inhabitants resolved to be jovial, notwithstanding the inclemency of the season ; so he invited all his neighbours, and to warm his house he placed on the burning faggots the stump of a tree. It began to blaze, and, inspired by the warmth and light, they began to sing and drink ; when, lo ! with a whiz and a whir, out flew a bird from the hollow in the stump, crying, Cuckoo ! cuckoo ! The bird was caught and kept by the farmer, and he and his friends resolved to renew the festal meeting every year at this date, and to call it their ” cuckoo feast.”
Previous to this event Towednack had no “feasten Sunday,” which made this parish a singular exception to the rule in Cornwall. This feast is sometimes called “crowder” feast, because the fiddler formed a procession at the church door, and led the people
through the village to some tune on his ” crowd.””
Since we have seen cuckoos are gelatinous in the winter, and valuable, could these men have a secret to finding them? If we assume for story’s sake they have a cuckoo wake at every annual feast, how do they know where they are sleeping?
May-day
Hunt clearly loved this, so I’ll quote him in full, for tone. Note the Imaginem vis source.
“THE first of May is inaugurated with much uproar. As soon as the clock has told of midnight, a loud blast on tin trumpets proclaims the advent of May. This is long continued. At daybreak, with their “tintarrems,” they proceed to the country, and strip the sycamore-trees (called May-trees) of all their young branches, to make whistles. With these shrill musical instruments they return home. Young men and women devote May-day to junketing and pic-nics.
It was a custom at Penzance, and probably at many other Cornish towns, when the author was a boy, for a number of young people to sit up until twelve o’clock, and then to march round the town with violins and fifes, and summon their friends to the Maying.
When all were gathered, they went into the country, afTu^ were welcomed at the farmhouses at which they called, with some refreshment in the shape of rum and milk, junket, or something of that sort. They then gathered the ” May,” which included the young
branches of any tree in blossom or fresh leaf. The branches of the sycamore were especially cut for the purpose of making the ” Maymusic.”
This was done by cutting a circle through the bark to the wood a few inches from the end of the branch. The bark was wetted and carefully beaten until it was loosened and could be slid off from the wood. The wood was cut angularly at the end, so as to form a mouth-piece, and a slit was made in both the bark and the wood, so that when the bark was replaced a whistle was formed. Prepared with a sufficient number of May whistles, all the party returned to the town, the band playing, whistles blowing, and the young people singing some appropriate song.”
Junket, by the way, is a jelly made with milk. Rum is post-period.
8 May: The Furry in Helstone
Hunt quotes” The Every Day Book” here:
On the 8th of May, at Helstone, in Cornwall, is held what is called the Furry. The word is supposed by Mr Polwhele to have been derived from the old Cornish word fer, a fair or jubilee. The morning is ushered in by the music of drums and kettles, and other accompaniments of a song, a great part of which is inserted in Mr Polwhele’s history, where this circumstance is noticed. So strict is the observance of this day as a general
holiday, that should any person be found at work, he is instantly seized, set astride on a pole, and hurried on men’s shoulders to the river, where he is sentenced to leap over a wide place, which he, of course, fails in attempting, and leaps into the water. A small contribution towards the good cheer of the day easily compounds for the leap. About nine o’clock the revellers appear before the grammar-school, and demand a holiday for the schoolboys, after which they collect a contribution from houses.
They then fade in to the country (fade being an old English word for “go”) and in the middle of the day return with flowers and oak branches in their hats and caps. From this time they dance hand in hand through the streets, to the sound of the fiddle, playing a particular tune, running into every house they pass without opposition. In the afternoon a select party of the ladies and gentlemen make a progress through the street, and very
late in the evening repair to the ball-room. A stranger visiting the town on the eighth of May would really think the people mad, so apparently wild and thoughtless is the merriment of the day. There is no doubt of ‘the Furry’ originating from the ‘Floralia,’ anciently observed by the Romans on the fourth of the calends of May.”
This sounds like a day off for apprentices, and the grogs get to tax the magi (or watch as they cheat to ump the river).
June: Midsummer Night
“IF on midsummer-eve a young woman takes off the shift which she has been wearing, and, having washed it, turns its wrong side out, and hangs it in silence over the back of a chair, near the fire, she will see, about midnight, her future husband, who deliberately
turns the garment..
If a young lady will, on midsummer-eve, walk backwards into the garden and gather a rose, she has the means of knowing who is to be her husband. The rose must be cautiously sewn up in a paper bag, and put aside in a dark drawer, there to remain until Christmas-day. On the morning of the Nativity the bag must be carefully opened in silence, and the rose placed by the lady in her bosom. Thus she must wear it to church. Some young man will either ask for the rose, or take it from her without asking. That young man is destined to become eventually the lady’s husband.
“At eve last midsummer no sleep I sought, But to the field a bag of hemp-seed brought ; I scatter’d round the seed on every side, And three times in a trembling accent cried,
‘ This hemp-seed with my virgin hand I sow, Who shall my true love be, the crop shall mow.’ I straight look’d back, and, if my eyes speak truth, With his keen scythe behind me came the youth.” Gay’s Pastorals.
The practice of sowing hemp-seed on midsummer-eve is not especially a Cornish superstition, yet it was at one time a favourite practice with young women to try the experiment. Many a strange story have I been told as to the result of the sowing, and many a trick could I tell off, which has been played off by young men who had become acquainted with the secret intention of some maidens. I believe there is but little difference in the rude rhyme used on the occasion,
“Hemp-seed I sow, Hemp-seed I hoe,”
(the action of sowing the seed and of hoeing it in, must be deliberately gone through) ; “And he Who will my true love be, Come after me and mow.” A phantom of the true lover will now appear, and of course the maid or maidens retire in wild affright.
If a young unmarried woman stands at midnight on Midsummer-eve in the porch of the parish church, she will see, passing by in procession, every one who will die in the parish during the year. This is so serious an affair that it is not, i believe, often tried. I have, however, heard of young women who have made the experiment. But every one of the stories relate that, coming last in the procession, they have seen shadows of themselves ; that from that day forward they have pined, and ere midsummer has again come round, that they have been laid to rest in the village graveyard.”
The magi can intervene in either of these processes, and grogs can, discovering the intention of the maidens, give them a scare. Can magi prevent a girl who has stood the porch from dying? What power grants the visions?
End of Harvest: Crying the Neck
To be hinest I don’t know what I want to do with this, but I have a hunch I can use it for something, so I’m keeping it instead of cutting it as I should. I hope you’ll pardon me.
“After the wheat is all cut on most farms in Cornwall and Devon, the harvest people have a custom of “crying the neck.” I believe that this practice is seldom omitted on any large farm in these counties. It is done in this way. An old man, or some one else well acquainted with the ceremonies used on the occasion (when the labourers are reaping the last field of wheat), goes round to the shocks and sheaves, and picks out a little bundle of all the best ears he can find ; this bundle he ties up very neat and trim, and plaits and arranges the straws veiy tastefully. This is called ” the neck ” of wheat, or wheaten-ears. After the field is cut out, and the pitcher once more circulated, the reapers, binders, and the women stand round in a circle. The person with ” the neck ” stands in the centre, grasping it with both his hands. He first stoops and holds it near the ground, and all the men forming the ring take off their hats, stooping and holding them with both hands towards the ground. They then all begin at once, in a very prolonged and harmonious tone, to cry, ” The neck ! “at the same time slowly raising themselves upright, and elevating their arms and hats above their heads ; the person with the neck also raising it on high. This is done three times. They then change their cry to ” We yen ! we yen ! ” which they sound in the same pro- longed and slow manner as before, with singular harmony and effect, three times. This last cry is accompanied by the same movements of the body and arms as in crying ” the neck.”
Well, after this they all burst out into a kind of loud, joyous laugh, flinging up their hats and caps into the air, capering about, and perhaps kissing the girls. One of them then gets ” the neck,” and runs as hard as he can down to the farmhouse, where the dairy-maid, or one of the young female domestics, stands at the door prepared with a pail of water. If he who holds ” the neck” can manage to get into the house in any way unseen, or openly by any other way than the door at which the girl stands with the pail of water, then he may lawfully kiss her ; but, if otherwise he is regularly soused with the contents of the bucket….The object of crying ” the neck ” is to give notice to the surrounding country of the end of the harvest, and the meaning of ” we yen” is ” we have ended.'” It may probably mean ” we end,” which the uncouth and provincial pronunciation has corrupted into ” we yen.” . The ” neck ” is generally hung up in the farmhouse, where it often re- mains for three or four years.”
31 October: Allan-apples at St Ives
“The ancient custom of providing children with a large apple on Allhallows-eve is still observed, to a great extent, at St Ives. “Allan-day,” as it is called, is the day of days to hundreds of children, who would deem it a great misfortune were they to go to bed on ”
Allan-night ” without the time-honoured Allan apple to hide beneath their pillows. A quantity of large apples are thus disposed of, the sale of which is dignified by the term Allan Market.”
25 December: Christmas
Hunt notes a tradition in western Devonshire that at midnight on Christmas day, oxen in their stalls all go down on their knees, as if in prayer.
Guise dancing, as described above, is common in the Twelve Days of Christmas in St Ives, and perhaps elsewhere. The guise dances in St Ives include vast pantomime plays, with more participants than viewers. It’s also a time for telling hard truths to friends, and for breaking courtships.
Apprentices get three days off after Christmas, not including the Sunday.
Christmas plays: “St George, and the other tragic performers, are dressed out some- what in the style of morris-dancers, in their shirt sleeves and white trousers, much decorated with ribbons and handkerchiefs, each carrying a drawn sword in his hand, if they can be procured, otherwise a cudgel. They wear high caps of pasteboard, adorned with beads, small pieces of looking glass, coloured paper, &c. ; several long strips of pith generally hang down from the top, with small pieces of different coloured cloth strung on them ; the whole has a very smart effect.
Father Christmas is personified in a grotesque manner, as an ancient man wearing a large mask and wig, and a huge club, wherewith he keeps the bystanders in order.
he Doctor, who is generally the merryandrew of the piece, is dressed in any ridiculous way, with a wig, three-cornered hat, and painted face. The other comic characters are dressed according to fancy.
The femafe, where there is one, is usually in the dress worn half a century ago.
The hobbyhorse, which is a character sometimes introduced, wears a representation of a horse’s hide. Beside the regular drama of ” St George,” many parties of mummers go
about in fancy dresses of every sort, most commonly the males in female
attire, and vice versa.”
I won’t give the full scripts, but there are tow lines which strike my attention, during the fight between the Turkish Knight and Saint George. One is from the Doctor:
“I have a little bottle, which goes by the name of Elicumpane ; If the man is alive, let him rise and fight again.” What is that? The other oddity is this:
“Stage directions [The latter is knocked down, and left for dead. Then another performer enters, and, on seeing the dead body, says] “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust ; If Uncle Tom Pearce won’t have him, Aunt Molly must.”
[The hobbyhorse here capers in, and takes off the body.]
So, the hobbyhorse, which gets sacrificed to the sea after this is over, carries off the supposed corpse? That seems macabre and needs an explanation in the final gazetteer.
Photo credit: Foter.com
Games From Folktales 