Some Characteristics of Irish Folklore. 259
and leavings" of calendar material for the seeking, nor are they only to be found in what an Ulsterman designated " they backward parts." But the search is beset with an unusual allowance of difficulties. It would almost seem as though writers on Irish customs had entered into a con- spiracy not to write about Irish customs. This may be taken as " so characteristic of the Irish," but we are by no means the only offenders. You may put it down to the natural perversity of the beast when the author of Irisli Local Legends (O'Hanlon) devotes several pages to a diatribe against Joseph Chamberlain and the British South African policy ! But if this is perversity, only blank ignorance explains many sins of omission and com- mission set to the account of English writers. A favourite remark of both Irish and English is that the customs at X do not differ from those at Y, and that those at Y are too well known and generally observed elsewhere to need description, and therewith more folk-tales and nary a custom. Certain peculiar ones have attracted attention, such as Hunting the Wren on St. Stephen's Day in the South. A century ago this was said to be dying out, or even obsolete,^^ but I have heard of Wren Boys from friends within the last three or four years, and have several variants of the Wren Boys' song. One, from Co. Cork, was sung first thing in the morning by small boys, who carried a bush with bits of rag stuck about it, but my friends saw no sign of a wren :
" The wran, the wran, the king of all birds, St. Stephen's Day was caught in the furze. We hunted him up and we hunted him down, And the best of the wran boys knocked him down. Sing holly, sing ivy, sing ivy, sing holly, To keep a bad Christmas it is but a folly, For Christmas comes but once a year, And when it comes it brings good cheer.
^Cf. Shaw Mason, ii. 460.
