Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 8, 1897.djvu/347

Rh to bring good luck to the buyer, who often kept a piece of it throughout the year. Any cakes not sold at the end of the feast were divided among the "Lamb Ale Boys."

The lamb was carried in procession on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, when it—or usually a less valuable lamb, the original being returned to the fold unhurt—was killed, and made into pies. Into one pie, called the "head pie," was put the head with the wool on it. The other pies were then cut up and distributed to all who wanted a piece, but the "head pie" could only be bought for a shilling.

The remaining days of the feast were spent in drinking at the "Bowery," whither the morris-dancers returned every night from visits to neighbouring villages to collect money. At the end of each day, the money collected was given to the head morris-dancer, who was responsible for the safe keeping of the apparatus used. The "maces" and "treasury" were last held by Thomas Hawkes of Kirtlington, now dead, and from his brother, John Hawkes, they were bought for me in June, 1894. The account of the feast is from R. Pearman, of Kirtlington, and his wife.

For comparison with this body of customs, I quote the following passage from T. Blount's Ancient Tenures, ed. 1679, p. 149:—