Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/552

 5 1 4 Collectanea.

Swan. A blind harper from the Harp at Glasbury played the harp also at these Feasts, and carried it by a string on his back.

Dances.

Quarterly dances in Llanigon parish took place in the time of Anne Thomas' mother. " It did go round. Mother was at the •old Veralt-house by Pencaecock. She was there at a dance. There was young people going there. Old Tom Masta did fasten the door, as they couldn't come out. There was a window, but no cagement. He was angry, because his sweetheart was there. Him did holloa, — " Herrings for breakfast to-day ! " Some one let them out.

Four or five places they had dances in, — Cilcovereth one, Llwynmaddy, "The old Veralt," The old Public. For the dance, six men one side, six girls the other. In the dance, " Haste to the Wedding," old blind Ukin stamped his feet. " Up the middle and down the sides," he said. The girls had short-sleeved frocks, and arms as red as roses, and frocks half-way down the leg. They had low-necked dresses with a while handkerchief under, up to the neck. For the dance Anne's mother and all the women wore bob-tail dresses, two breadths, and tied up behind, in a bob-tail, and a good petticoat to show, which cost more than the dress. All married people w^ould go on a Monday evening -to the dance, but wait till old Mrs. Lewis, [of J the Celyn, did come down to open the ball, — sometimes with old Rhoda, who was then young and smart. Old Mrs. Lewis used to dance on her toes. ^Miss Lewis was a lu7np then, — ten or twelve years old. It was like the rule of the country: they must all go to the Monday dance. They had "Bonnets of Blue," "Swansea Hornpipe," and "The Cushion Dance." For this last one, a young man and a young woman kneeled down on the cushion, and kissed one another before every one, and they always locked the door, else the girls would be running out. The fiddler would lock the door to have his six- pence or threepence all round. For the " Bonnets of Blue," it was " Hays-round, three turns round, and gig-like." Old Nancy Walker used to come in and say, — " Hooray for the Bonnets of Blue ! " The old fiddler did stamp his feet, and say, — "A cross out and a figure in, and round me and back again."