36 ENGLISHSAGA

The smaller towns and villages of England were as marked
in their distinguishing differences. At Abbot's Bromley in Staf-
fordshire on the first Monday after September 4th, the Deer Men
with their hobby horses danced the Horn Dance in painted rein-
deer heads and ancient costumes of red and green. In May, at the
Furry Festival at Helston, any person who would not join the
dance and remained at work was set astride a pole and carried to
the river there to leap or compound in cash for the good of the
community.

"Where are those Spaniards
That made so great a boast, O?
They shall eat the grey goose feather,
And we will eat the roast, O!"

There was a wonderful wealth and diversity in the local manner
of celebrating the great Christian, and still older than Christian
feasts. On Christmas' Eve in the villages of the New Forest
libations of spiced ale were poured out to the orchards and
meadows: at Huddersfield the children on their wassailing bore
evergreens hung with oranges and apples:

"We are not daily beggars
That beg from door to door,
But we are neighbours' children
Whom you have seen before.

"Call up the butler of this house,
Put on his golden ring;
Let him bring us a glass of beer,
And the better we shall sing."

And after service on Christmas morning in many parts of the
north country the whole people ran through the streets crying—

"Ule! Ule! Ule! Ule!
Three puddings in a pule,
Crack nuts and cry Ule."

[n Wiltshire Shrove Tuesday was kept by bands of children
marching three times about the churches with joined hands.