Page:Songs from the Southern Seas and Other Poems (1873).djvu/176



HERE is an old tradition sacred held in Wexford town, That says: "Upon St. Martin's eve no net shall be let down; No fishermen of Wexford shall, upon that holy day, Set sail or cast a line within the scope of Wexford Bay." The tongue that framed the order, or the time, no one could tell; And no one ever questioned, but the people kept it well. And never in man's memory was fisher known to leave The little town of Wexford on the good St. Martin's Eve.