Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes Part 20

At Entraigues, in Vaucluse, men and boys hunted the wren on Christmas Eve, and when they caught a bird alive they gave it to the priest, who set it free in church. At Mirabeau the hunted bird was blessed by the priest, and the curious detail is preserved that if the first bird was secured by a woman, this gave the s.e.x the right to jeer at and insult the men, and to blacken their faces with mud and soot if they caught them. At Carca.s.sonne, on the first Sunday of December, the young people who dwelt in the street of Saint-Jean went out of the town armed with sticks and stones to engage in the hunt. The first person who struck the bird was hailed king, and carried the bird home in procession. On the last of December he was solemnly introduced to his office as king; on Twelfth Day he attended ma.s.s in church, and then, crowned and girt about with a cloak, he visited the various dignitaries of the place, including the bishop and the mayor, in a procession of mock solemnity. This was done as late as 1819.[67] This identification of the bird and the men explains the hiring of a cart or waggon to convey "the bird" in our own custom-rhymes.

[67] Rolland, loc. cit., II, 295 ff.; Frazer, loc. cit., II, 445 ff.

The Breton chant on "plucking the wren," _Plumer le roitelet_ begins:--

Nin' ziblus bec al laouenanic Rac henes a zo bihanic _bis._ (L., I, p. 72.)

"We will pluck the beak of the wren, for he is very small," and continues, "We will pluck the left eye of the wren, for he is very small".

and then enumerates right eye, left ear, right ear, head, neck, chest, back, belly, left wing, right wing, left b.u.t.tock, right b.u.t.tock, left thigh, right thigh, left leg, right leg, left foot, right foot, first claw of left foot and every claw in succession of this and of the other foot. The last sentence is "We will pluck the tail of the wren," and then sentence after sentence is repeated to the first, "We will pluck the beak of the wren because he is very small, we have plucked him altogether."

Another poem preserved in Breton relates how the wren was caught and caged and fed till the butcher and his comrades came and slew it, when the revelry began (L., I, p. 7).

I have often wondered at the cruel sport of confining singing birds in cages. Possibly this goes back to a custom of fattening a victim that was sacrificially slain. For the wren is tabu in Brittany as among ourselves, and in popular belief the nestlings of each brood a.s.semble with the parent birds in the nest on Twelfth Night, and must on no account be disturbed. This reflects the belief that the creature that is slain during the winter solstice, at its close starts on a new lease of life.

The wren is not the only bird that was sacrificially eaten in France, judging from the chants that are recorded. A chant on "plucking the lark," _Plumer l'alouette_, is current in the north of France which begins:--

Nous la plumerons, l'alouette, Nous la plumerons, tout de long. (D. B., p. 124.)

"We will pluck the lark, we will pluck it altogether."

And it enumerates the bird's beak, eyes, head, throat, back, wings, tail, legs, feet, claws.

A variation of the same chant is sung in Languedoc, where it is called _L'alouette plumee_, "the plucked lark," and is described as a game (M.

L., p. 457).

Again, the dividing up of the thrush forms the subject of a chant which is sung in Brittany in the north (L., I, p. 81), and in Languedoc in the south. It is called _Depecer le merle_, and preserves the further peculiarity that the bird, although it is divided up, persists in singing. The version current in Languedoc begins:--

Le merle n'a perdut le bec, le merle n'a perdut le bec, Comment fra-t-il, le merle, comment pourra-t-il chanter?

Emai encaro canto, le pauvre merle, merle, Emai encaro canto, le pauvre merlatou. (M. L., p. 458.)

"The thrush has lost his beak, how will he manage to sing, and yet he sings, the poor thrush, yet he goes on singing."

The chant then enumerates the bird's tongue, one eye, two eyes, head, neck, one wing, two wings, one foot, two feet, body, back, feathers, tail; always returning to the statement that the bird, although it is divided up, persists in singing.

The French word _merle_ stands both for thrush and for blackbird. The blackbird is held in reverence among ourselves in Salop and Montgomeryshire, and blackbird-pie was eaten in Cornwall on Twelfth Night.[68] But there is no reference to the sacrificial slaying of the bird, as far as I am aware. In the French chant the bird continues to sing although it is killed. The same idea finds expression in our nursery song of _Sing a Song of Sixpence_. This piece, taken in conjunction with the eating of blackbird-pie in Cornwall and the French chants, seems to preserve the remembrance of the ancient bird sacrifice.

The first verse of this rhyme appears in the collection of 1744, in which "naughty boys" stands for blackbirds. In other collections the piece runs as follows:--

Sing a song of sixpence, a bagful of rye, Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pye And when the pye was open'd, the birds began to sing; Was not this a dainty dish to set before the king?

The king was in his parlour counting out his money, The queen was in the kitchen eating bread and honey, The maid was in the garden hanging out the clothes, Up came a magpie and bit off her nose. (_c._ 1783, p. 26.)

[68] Thomas, N. W., "Animal Superst.i.tions" in _Folk-Lore_, September, 1900, p. 227.

The magpie is "a little blackbird" in the version of Halliwell, which continues:--

Jenny was so mad, she didn't know what to do, She put her finger in her ear and cracked it right in two.

Halliwell (1842, p. 62) noted that in the book called _Empulario or the Italian Banquet_ of 1589, there is a receipt "to make pies so that the birds may be alive in them and fly out when it is cut up," a mere device, live birds being introduced after the pie is made. One cannot but wonder if the device was a mere sport of fancy, or if it originated from the desire to give substance to an ancient belief.

Again, the robin redbreast was sacrificially eaten in France at Le Charme, Loiret, on Candlemas, that is on February the first (Ro., II, 264). There are no chants on the sacrifice of the robin in France, as far as I know. Among ourselves, on the other hand, where no hunting of the robin is recorded, a piece printed both by Herd[69] and Chambers suggests his sacrifice. The piece is called by Chambers _The Robin's Testament_, and it describes how the bird, on the approach of death, made a bequest of his several parts, which he enumerated exactly in the way of the sacrificial bird-chants current in France. They were his neb, feathers of his neb, right leg, other leg, feathers of his tail, and feathers of his breast, to each of which he attributed a mystic significance. The piece in the combined versions stands as follows:--

[69] Herd, David, loc. cit., II, 166.

Guid-day now, bonnie Robin How lang have you been here?

I've been bird about this bush, This mair than twenty year!

_Chorus_: Teetle ell ell, teetle ell ell.

Tee, tee, tee, tee, tee, tee, tee, Tee, tee, tee, teetle eldie.

But now I am the sickest bird That ever sat on brier; And I wad make my testament, Guidman, if ye wad hear.

"Gar tak this bonnie _neb_ o' mine, That picks upon the corn, And gie 't to the Duke o' Hamilton To be a hunting horn.

"Gar tak these bonnie feathers o' mine, _The feathers o' my neb_, And gie to the Lady o' Hamilton To fill a feather-bed.

"Gar tak this guid _right leg_ o' mine And mend the brig o' Tay; It will be a post and pillar guid, It will neither ban nor gae.

"And tak this _other leg_ o' mine And mend the brig o'er Weir; It will be a post and pillar guid, It'll neither ban nor steer.

(_Herd only_).

"Gar tak these bonnie feathers o' mine The feathers o' my tail, And gie to the Lady o' Hamilton To be a barn-flail.

"Gar tak these bonnie feathers o' mine The _feathers o' my breast_, And gie to ony bonnie lad That'll bring me to a priest."

Now in there came my Lady Wren With mony a sigh and groan; "O what care I for a' the lads If my wee lad be gone?"

Then robin turned him round about E'en like a little king, "Go, pack ye out at my chamber door, Ye little cutty quean."

(_Chambers only_).

Robin made his testament Upon a coll of hay And by came a greedy gled And snapt him a' away. (1870, p. 40.)

_The Robin's Testament_ should be compared with the French piece called _Le Testament de l'Ane_, "the testament of the a.s.s," of which a number of variations have been collected. The "testament of the a.s.s" was recited outside the church on the so-called _Fete de l'Ane_, "the feast of the a.s.s," which was kept in many cities of France till a comparatively recent date. In Douai it was celebrated as late as the year 1668. On this occasion an a.s.s was brought into church, and an office was recited in Latin, which enlarged on the a.s.s that carried the Holy Family into Egypt, the a.s.s which bore Christ into Jerusalem, the a.s.s of Balaam, and so forth. Its chorus consisted of braying, in which the a.s.sembled canons joined. This service in church was preceded by a recitation outside the holy edifice, which was in the vernacular, and which, in dialogue form, enlarged on the several parts of the a.s.s.[70]

[70] Clement, Madame, _Histoire des fetes civiles et religieuses du Nord_, 1834, p. 184. Also, Du Cange, Glossarium, _Festum Asinorum_.

One of these dialogue pieces, current in Franche-Comte, describes how the she-a.s.s, conscious of the approach of death, bequeathed her feet and ears to her son, her skin to the drummer, her tail to the priest to make an aspergill, and her hole to the notary to make an inkpot (B., p. 61).

Another version, at greater length, is in the form of instruction which is given by the priest to the child, whose answers are set in c.u.mulative form.

"The feast of the a.s.s," in the words of Bujeaud, "must have been very popular, since I have often heard the children of Angoumais and Poitou recite the following piece ":--

Le pretre: Que signifient les deux oreilles de l'ane?

L'enfant: Les deux oreilles de l'ane signifient les deux grands saints, patrons de notre ville.

Le pretre: Que signifie la tete de l'ane?