Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/320

 290 Sou///io\ Clcnicuiiiig, and Cat tc ruing.

the mouth of a Sliropshire labourer who had sung it not ■many years before : —

" Here's two or three hearty lads standing hard by, We are come a-souling, good nature to try, We are come a-souling, as well doth appear. And all that we soul for is ale and strong beer.

Go down into your cellar and there you shall find Both ale, beer, and brandy, and the best of all wine ; And when we have got it, O then you shall see. And when we have drunk it, how merry we'll be !

I pray, my good missis, don't tarry to spin,

Look for a jug to draw some drink in.

And when you are drawing, don't let your heart fail,

But draw us one jug of your bonny brown ale !"

Nearly the same set of words was sent me by the leader of the Abbot's Bromley horn-dance less than a month ago.

So much for Souling. Now in South Staffordshire exactly the same custom, but without any mention of the cakes, is practised on St. Clement's Day, November 23rd, and is called elementing: This is not a modern innovation or a degenerate practice. The historian of Staffordshire, Dr. Plot, in 1686, noted that in the Clog Almanacks ('probably the same now preserved in the William Salt Library at Stafford), "a Pot is marked against the 23rd November, the Feast of St. Clement, from the ancient custom of going about that night to beg drink to make merry with." It is often called Bite-apple or Bob-apple Day, because the children hang the apples from strings, or put them in tubs of water, and catch them with their teeth. Further south, in North Worcestershire, the same custom is observed on St. Katharine's Day, the 25th, under the name of Cattern- ing. In both cases it has now passed into the hands of the • children. The ditties resemble the Souling ditties, with