Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 14, 1903.djvu/185

 Collectanea. 169

Hail ! all hail ! the merry month of May,

I'm come to show my garland, Because it's the first of May.

Hail ! all hail ! away to the woods ! away I

And to the fields, and lanes so gay ! Hail ! all hail !

At the end of the song, the " Lord " generally kisses the " Lady," and contributions in money are asked of the bystanders.

(September, 1894.)

The following slightly different version is from Stonesfield :

Hail, all hail, the merry month of May, I am come to show my garland. Because it is May Day. Hail, all hail, the merry month of May, Hasten now to the woods away, And to the fields so blythe and gay. Hail, all hail.

[ On May Day, 1899, 1 took down the following mutilated song from some children at Y.vrnton, who carried a garland of the usual Oxfordshire type, made of two crossed hoops covered with flowers, &c. The third verse belongs to a type that I have not met elsewhere in the county, and I was in hopes that I had found a good thing; but the children followed it up with some "milk- and-water " rubbish that they had been taught in the village school :

Good morning ladies and gentlemen. All in the month of May, I'm come to show my garland. Because it is May Day.

The first of May

I have brought you,

And at your door I stand ;

If it's but a little

And that we'll do

To help us on our way.

Come, come, come, The summer now is in Come out among the flowers. And make some pretty bowers, Come, come, come, The summer now is in. ]