Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/551

 Collectanea. 5 1 3

birch, and put it above every door, even the beast house, to keep the witch out ; and every outside must have a bit of a sprig. At the works in Llanigon parish there would be a large tub of water, with rosy-cheeked apples in ; and boys had to try and catch them.

Harvest. — Stephens of the Sheephouse used to try and get his wheat in before others had hardly begun, and gave his men bottles of drink to go on the Tump above Penglommen and holloa " Har- vest home ! " About ten men went after the first load was brought in, and they'd echo the whole parish, shouting " Harvest home ! " If the last load did slip, there was no goose for the men's dinner.

Parsnip Day. — William Thomas called the twenty-first day of December " Parsnip Day," and remembers, when he was a boy, his mother always gave them parsnips on that day. It was an old Welsh custom. Mrs. Davies remembered an old aunt of hers always had parsnips on Parsnip Day.

Llanigon's Feast. — This Feast took place on the first Sunday after the 20th of September. Farmers 'ud give milk on Saturday in earthen jars, according to what they could spare. At Pot Street (village lane) there was a biggish arch, going down to the two houses, and a big oven facing the road ; two women 'ould bake in it at a time, and heps of rice puddings and apple tarts were made there agin the Feast, and if you had any ducks before the Feast, they was gone, unless they was locked up. The blacksmith's shop was then a public, and seats were all round the wych-elm there, and a table with drink, and a woman would come up with cakes and nuts from Hay, and sell them. All this went on on a Sunday. Cakes and nuts were sold again on Monday. Young people mostly came on the Sunday, and every servant would come home to the Feast. On Monday night farmers and married people would go and dance, — old Betty Humphreys and old Rhoda Newell ; the latter would bring servant-fellers from Court O'Llowes. People would come from the two publics, and begin to wrestle and fight. The orchard at the blacksmith's shop was just full with men. At one fight old Nancy Walker carried her husband a quart of beer, and said, — " Fight on. Jack, I'll carry thee bones home in my apron, before thee be beaten."

Old blind Ukin played the fiddle at these Feasts for the people to dance, and his daughter did carry it and often played at the