Volume Ii Part 115 (1/2)
(1) Drawing water from a well. (2) For a devotee at a well. (3) Collecting flowers for dressing the well. (4) Making a cake for presentation. (5) Gifts to the well [a gold ring, silver pin, and probably a garter]. (6) Command of silence. (7) The presence of devotee at the sacred bush. (8) The reverential att.i.tude (indicated by the bowing and falling on the ground).
I can now add another incident, that of the devotee creeping through a sacred bush or tree (signified by the creeping under or getting enclosed within the arms of the leaders). These are all incidents of primitive well wors.h.i.+p.
I have from many different versions pieced together the lines as they might appear in earlier versions (i. p. 107).
This restoration, though it is far from complete, shows clearly enough that the incidents belong to a ceremonial of primitive well wors.h.i.+p.
Dressing holy wells with garlands and flowers is very general; cakes were eaten at Rorrington Well, Shrops.h.i.+re, and offerings of pins, b.u.t.tons, and portions of the dress, as well as small articles worn on the person, are very general; silence is enforced in many instances, and sacred trees and bushes are to be found at nearly all holy wells.
Offerings are sometimes hung in the bushes and trees, sometimes thrown into the well. Miss Burne records in _Shrops.h.i.+re Folk-Lore_ (pp. 414, 433, 434) that at Rorrington Green, in the parish of Chirbury, is a holy well, at which a wake was celebrated on Ascension Day. The well was adorned with green bowers, rushes, and flowers, and a maypole was set up. The people used to walk round the hill with fife, drum, and fiddle, dancing and frolicking as they went. They threw pins into the well for good luck, and to prevent them from being bewitched, and they also drank the water. Cakes were eaten. These were round flat buns, from three to four inches across, sweetened, spiced, and marked with a cross, and were supposed to bring good luck if kept.
Instances of similar practices at holy wells could be multiplied, and they are exhaustively examined in my husband's book on _Ethnology in Folk-Lore_. Halliwell records in his nursery rhymes what is perhaps the oldest printed version of the rhyme. He says the children form a long string, hand in hand; one stands in front as leader, two hold up their clasped hands to form an arch, and the children pa.s.s under; the last is taken prisoner. Though this way of playing does not appear to be used now-no version, at least, has reached me-it is clear that the game might be played in this way, probably as a commencement of the ceremonial, and then the other positions might follow. Halliwell may not have recorded it minutely or have heard of it as a whole, or the version sent him may have been in degenerate form. It is, however, clear that the arch form here indicates a ceremonial, and not the taking of a prisoner.
”Oranges and Lemons” (vol. ii. pp. 25-35) is the best-known game of the arch form, followed by the contest or tug-of-war. In this game two players, sometimes chosen by lot, clasp hands and form an arch. They have each a name, which is secret. One is called ”Orange,” the other is ”Lemon.” They sing the words of the game-rhyme, and the other players run under the arch in a long line or string. At the close of the verses which ends with the line, ”Here comes a chopper to chop off your head,”
one of the string of players is caught and is asked which she prefers, orange or lemon. She chooses, and is told to stand behind that leader who took that name. This is repeated until all the players have been separately caught, have chosen their side, and are standing behind the respective leaders, holding on to each other by clasping each other's waists. A line is then drawn on the ground, and both sides pull; each endeavours to drag the other over the line. The tug is generally continued until one side falls to the ground. Now this is an undoubted contest, but I do not think the contest is quite of the same kind as the line game of contest and fighting. The line form is one of invaders and invaded, and the fight is for territory. In this form it seems to me that the contest is more of a social contest, that is, between people of the same place, perhaps between parishes and wards of parishes, or burghers and apprentices (townspeople) on one side, and the followers of lords or barons (military power) on the other, or of two lords and barons. The leaders are chosen by lot. Each leader has a ”cry” or ”colour,” which he calls out, and the other players run and place themselves under the banner they choose.
In my account of this game I draw particular attention to the following details:-The game indicates contest and a punishment, and although the sequence is not clear, as the execution precedes the contest, that is not of particular importance in view of the power of the old baronial lords to threaten and execute those of their following who did not join their armed retainers when required. All rhymes of this game deal with saints' names and with bell ringing. Now, the only places where it would be probable for bells to be a.s.sociated with different saints' names in one area would be the old parish units of cities and boroughs. The bells were rung on all occasions when it was necessary to call the people together. The ”alarm” bell tolling quickly filled the open s.p.a.ces and market-places of the towns, and it is a well-known fact that serious contests and contest games between parishes and wards of parishes were frequent. The names ”oranges” and ”lemons,” given to the leaders in the game, usually considered to be the fruits of these names, are, in my opinion, the names of the ”colours” of the two rival factions.
The pa.s.sing under the arch in this game is not absolutely necessary in order that the players may exercise their choice of leaders, nor is the ”secrecy” which is observed necessary either. Even this may have its origin in custom. It may signify the compulsory attendance of a va.s.sal under pain of punishment to serve one side, or the taking prisoner and condemning to death for serving on the opponents' or losing side. An idea is current that it represents cutting off the last person's head, the last of the string or line of players, and in some places the last one in the line is always caught instead of one whom the leaders choose to enclose in their arms. Of course a ”laggard” or late arrival would be liable to suspicion and punishment, and this idea may be suggested in the game; but I do not think that the game originates from the idea of catching a ”last” player. The pa.s.sing under the arch can also be attributed to the custom of compelling prisoners to pa.s.s under a yoke to signify servitude, and the threat of execution would follow attempt to escape or disobedience. Again, prisoners were offered life and freedom on condition of joining the army of their opponents.
The other games of this method of play, ”Three Days' Holiday,” and ”Tug of War,” are the same game under other names, with only a nominy surviving, and the method of play. Several games entered under the t.i.tle of ”Through the Needle Eye,” are really the ”arch” type with the ”tug,”
that is the ”Oranges and Lemons” game, instead of belonging to the ”Thread the Needle” or first form of arch type, as they are usually considered. The Scottish form, described by Jamieson (ii. p. 290), is an exception which should have been included with ”Thread the Needle,” to which group it belongs. The other games, ”Through the Needle Eye,” have lost a portion of their play, which probably accounts for the mixture of name with the ”Thread the Needle” games, because of both containing the arch form. ”Namers and Guessers,” ”Fool, Fool, come to School,” ”Little Dog, I call you,” practically versions of one and the same game, which I have cla.s.sed in this type because of the ”tug,” have an additional element of guessing in them. The leader or namer on one side and the guesser on the other take sides. All the players have names given them, and it is the first business of the guesser to guess which of the players has taken a particular name. If he guesses correctly, he takes that player on his side; if incorrectly, he stays on the namer's side.
After he has ”guessed” at all the players, the ”tug” follows, and the beaten side has further to run the gauntlet between two lines of the successful side. This game, having all its players chosen by guessing, by what might have been originally choosing by ”lot” or by magical powers, may have an entirely different meaning, but it is clearly a contest game, although there is no indication as to the why or wherefore. The punishment of ”running the gauntlet” is found in the game, which again indicates military fighting.
This group of games, though small, is perhaps one of the most indicative of early custom, for beyond the custom which is enshrined in each game-foundation sacrifice, well wors.h.i.+p, &c.-it will be noticed there is a common custom belonging to all the games of this group; this is the procession under the arch. The fact that this common custom can also be referred to primitive usage, confirms my view that the particular customs in each game owe their origin to primitive usage. Mr. W. Crooke has very kindly supplied me with some notes on this interesting subject, and I gladly avail myself of his research:-
”In Cairo, women walk under the stone on which criminals are decapitated, in the hope of curing ophthalmia and getting children.
They must go in silence, and left foot foremost.”-Lane, _Modern Egyptians_, i. p. 325; Hartland, _Perseus_, i. p. 163.
”Rheumatism and lumbago cured by crawling under granitic ma.s.ses in Cornwall.”-Hunt, _Popular Romances_, p. 177.
”Pa.s.sing children under bramble to cure rupture.”-_Ibid._, pp. 412, 415.
”This cures chincough.”-Aubrey, _Remains_, p. 187.
”In Scotland, sick children are pa.s.sed through the great stones of Odin at Stennis, and through a perforated monolith at Burkham, in Yorks.h.i.+re.”-Rogers, _Social Life in Scotland_, i. p. 13.
”Barren women pa.s.s their hands through the holes of the Bore Stone at Gask in order to obtain children.”-_Ibid._, iii. p. 227.
”Similar rites prevail in Cyprus.”-Hogarth, _Devia Cypria_, p. 48; Gardner, _New Chapters in Greek History_, p. 172.
”This again gives rise to the use of the gateway through which pilgrims pa.s.s to temples. Such are the Indian Torana, in this shape, which are represented by the Torio, so common in j.a.pan.
”The Greeks had the same, which they called Dokana (d??a?a, from d????, 'a beam'). With them they represented the Dioscuri-Castor and Pollux. They are described by Plutarch.”-_De Amor. Fratr._, i. p.
36.
”Similar arches, covered with charms, were seen at Dahomi by Burton.”-_Mission to Gelele_, i. pp. 218, 286.
”Women in England creep under a gallows to get children.” (I have mislaid the reference.)
”There are many 'creeps' or narrow holes in Irish dolmens certainly used by people, who had to creep in to wors.h.i.+p the ghost or bring offerings. Captives intended to be slaughtered had to creep through such places.”-Borlase, _Dolmens of Ireland_, ii. p. 554.
”Barren women pa.s.s their hands through such holes.”-_Ibid._, ii. p.