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Page 46
Mr. Aubrey says (1686): "At Oxford, the boyes do blow cows' horns all
night; and on May-day the young maids of every parish carry about their
parish garlands of flowers, which afterwards they hang up in their
churches."
A generation or more ago the little boys of Oxford used to blow horns
early on May-day--as they said--"to call up the old maids." There was
once a custom in Lynn for the workhouse children to be allowed to go out
with horns and garlands every May-day, after which a certain worthy
gentleman gave them a good dinner.
In Cambridgeshire, within the present century, the children had a doll
dressed as the "May Lady," before which they set a table with wine and
food on it; they also begged money and garlands for "the poor May Lady."
There are some quaint superstitions connected with May-day and
May-blossom. To bathe the face in the dew of a May morning was reckoned
an infallible recipe for a good complexion. A bath of May dew was also
supposed to strengthen weakly children. Girls divined for dreams of
their future husbands with a sprig of hawthorn gathered before dusk on
May-eve, and carried home in the mouth without speaking. Hawthorn rods
were used at all seasons of the year to divine for water and minerals.
Bunches of May fastened against houses were supposed to keep away
witches and venomous reptiles, and to bring prosperity in various
shapes.
The Irish of the neighbourhood of Killarney have a pretty superstition
that on May-day the O'Donoghue, a popular prince of by-gone days,
returns from the land of Immortal Youth beneath the water to bless the
country over which he once ruled.
Some curious customs among the Scotch Highlanders (who call May 1st
_Beltan_ Day) have nothing in common with our Green Festival except as
celebrating the Spring. They seem to be the remains of very ancient
heathen sacrifices to Baal. They were performed by the herdsmen of the
district, and included an open-air feast of cakes and custard, to which
every one contributed, and which was cooked upon a fire on a turf left
in the centre of a square trench which had been dug for the purpose.
Some custard was poured out by way of libation. Every one then took a
cake of oatmeal, on which nine knobs had been pinched up before baking,
and turning his face to the fire threw the knobs over his shoulder, some
as offerings to the supposed guardians of the flock, and the rest in
propitiation of beasts and birds of prey, with the form "This to thee,
O Fox! spare my lambs! This to thee, O hooded Crow!" &c. In some places
the boys of the hamlet met on the moors for a similar feast, but the
turf table was round, and the oatcake divided into bits, one of which
was blackened with charcoal. These being drawn from a bonnet, the holder
of the black bit was held _devoted_ to Baal, and had to leap three times
over the bonfire.
I do not know of any children's games that were peculiar to May-day. In
France they had a May-day game called _Sans-vert_. Those who played had
to wear leaves of the hornbeam-tree, and these were to be kept fresh,
under penalty of a fine. The chief object of the players was to surprise
each other without the proper leaves, or with faded specimens.
A stupid old English custom of making fools of your friends on the 1st
of May as well as on the 1st of April hardly deserves the title of a
game. The victims were called "May goslings."
One certainly would not expect to meet with anything like "Aunt Sally"
among May-day games, especially with the "May Lady" for butt! But not
the least curious part of a very curious account of May-day in
Huntingdonshire, which was sent to _Notes and Queries_ some years ago,
is the pelting of the May Lady as a final ceremony of the festival. The
May-garlands carried round in Huntingdonshire villages appear to have
been more like the "milkmaids' garland" than genuine wreaths. They were
four to five feet high, extinguisher-shaped, with every kind of spring
flower in the apex, and with ribbons and gay kerchiefs hanging down from
the base, by the round rim of which the garland was carried; the
flower-peak towering above, and the gay streamers depending below.
Against this erection (not unlike the "mistletoe boughs" of the North of
England) was fastened a gaily-dressed doll. The bearers were two little
girls, who acted as maids of honour to the May Queen. Mr. Cuthbert Bede
describes her Majesty as he saw her twenty years ago. She wore a white
frock, and a bonnet with a white veil. A wreath of real flowers lay on
the bonnet. She carried a pocket-handkerchief bag and a parasol (the
latter being regarded as a special mark of dignity). An "Odd Fellows'"
ribbon and badge completed her costume. The maids of honour bore the
garland after her, whose peak was crowned with "tulips, anemones,
cowslips, kingcups, meadow-orchis, wall-flower, primrose,
crown-imperial, lilac, laburnum," and "other bright flowers." Votive
offerings were dropped into the pocket-handkerchief bag, and with these
a feast was provided for the children. If the gifts had been liberal,
"goodies" were proportionately plentiful. Finally, the May-garland was
suspended from a rope hung across the village street, and the children
pelted the May-doll with balls provided for the occasion. Their chief
aim was to hit her nose.
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