models of fruits. This curious object is carried round, carefully covered with a cloth, from house to house by elderly women, and it is considered exceedingly unlucky to dismiss these vessel-cup bearers without a small donation. A few lines, a corruption of a very ancient ditty, are sung, the covering is removed with reverence, and the contents of the sweetmeat-box, a miserable survival of former grandeur, displayed.
A few years ago this was much more religiously observed in the Yorkshire Dales. The box had several coverings, the inner one being of blue satin. The figures represented the Virgin and the Child Christ, the former always in blue with golden stars, the latter with a halo. At the feet rested a lion and lamb, whilst around were displayed fruits and other offerings, no doubt representing the gifts of the Magi.
The very old women who were privileged to carry these and beg, chanted the lines:
"God bless the master of the house,
The mistress also.
And all the little children
Who round the table grow,"
and were generally regarded as witches in their country. Compare the Italian presepio and the French crèche.
I was acquainted with this custom at Hull, 1850-60. Two or three girls would bring to the house-door a box containing a doll,[1] dressed in blue and set off with tinsel, holly, and holly-berries. A few red apples were also deposited with it. They first sang a few lines of Christmas greeting and then opened the box and asked for money, and became very abusive if refused.
[The customs of wassailing and carrying a vessel-cup are noticed in Ellis's Brand, i., 1, 454, Henderson, 2nd ed., pp. 64-66, and Gent. Mag. Library (Popular Superstitions), pp. 16, 76. The information given may be summarised as follows. Wassailing, or
- ↑ Another correspondent, Miss Phyllis Dawson, lately of Swine, near Hull, says, unprompted, "I think there were sometimes two dolls in the box. The words began 'God rest you, merry gentlemen.'"
