Poetry > Ballads in the Cumberland dialect

202
NOTES.
feast, and a rustic epicure may now riot amidst a j
profusion of pies, plum-puddings, and dumplings. \
Note 56, p. 98.
And, Jeff, when met at Cursmas cairdins.
In Cumberland, a succession of diversions, feasts, 'j
and merriments, distinguishes the holidays of Christ- I
mas. Of the different festive meetings which take ’
place at that season, card-playing constitutes a con- i
siderable portion of the amusement: and the cottage
that can supply a stool, ashes-board, and a rush-light,
has sufficient accommodation for a rustic card-player. |
The children have also their peculiar amusements i
at this festive season. In some parts of Cumberland,
a number of boys and girls, on the eve of New-Year’s
Day, go about from house to house singing a sort of a
carol, of which the following lines are the first I
couplet:—
Hagnuna, Trolola,
Give us some pie, and let us go away.
When they receive their present of pie, they depart
peaceably, wishing the donor a happy New-Year.
In Northumberland, the first word in the couplet is
Hagmena, which some derive from the two Greek 1
words agia mene, signifying the holy month. The 1
custom is not unknown in Scotland. Some years I
ago, one of her ministers endeavoured to abolish it \
by censuring it from the pulpit. “ Sirs,” said he
to his audience, “do you know what Hogmane ]
signifies? It is, the Devil be in the house!—that is |
the meaning of its Hebrew original." Our little
strolling Cumbrian boys and girls will not, I think,
be easily persuaded that any part of their begging-
song conveys an imprecation on the houses which
they visit.
Note 57, p. 99.—I’ll hev a young weyfe suin /
A man with his bosom inflamed with love, while