Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 4 1886.djvu/192

184 thinking it only your duty. Bring your wood, put it on my tail and take the fire. It is justly yours.' When the wood was laid on the bird's tail it blazed up. All the others brought their chummuch and got fire from her. From then until now we have never been without fire. We took care of it because we found the good of it. So, Nay Minnay (my child), that is how the Whullemooch got their fire." "Nis Tatuja" (my father), said I, "what became of the bird?" "After that it flew away and was never again seen."

The Morris Dancers at Clifton.—A representation of this ancient custom was given at the Victoria Rooms on Saturday afternoon by a troupe not of professional dancers but of village rustics, who, living in the neighbourhood of Shakespeare's birthplace, where the Morris Dance had longer survived than in other parts of the country, were familiar with the various steps and figures. Mr. D'Arcy Ferris, who has revived this ancient dance and organised the troupe, first gave a brief lecture on its origin and antiquity, which, he said, was a purely rustic performance danced by rustics, and therefore uncouth and untrained. The troupe, which numbered twelve men, were attired in picturesque costume, consisting of low beaver hats, gay with particoloured bands; frilled shirts, decorated with rosettes and tied round the arms with gay ribbons; knee breeches, blue stockings, and boots; and around each leg just beneath the knee was a garter, from which depended ribbons of various hues and small bells, which gave a curious jingling effect as the men danced. The ancient piper was represented by a fiddler, who seemed well accustomed to the quaint tunes, to the strains of which the dancers footed it right merrily and with a marked observance of time. Some of the dances reminded one of the simpler figures of a plain set of quadrilles or the country-dance of Sir Roger de Coverley, but most of them were characterised by a peculiar quaintness, due no doubt to their antiquity. The foreman of the dancers announced the name of the dance before commencing. There were—"Shepherds' Hay," "Billy and Nancy," "Princess Royal," "Young Colin," "Devil among the Tailors," "Old Trunk," "Saturday Night," "Constant Billy," "Old Woman tossed up in a Blanket," "Black Joke," "Molly Oxford," "We won't go home till morning," &c. Between the dances there were diversions by the Tom Fool and the hobby-horse.—Bristol Mercury, 8 March, 1886.