nature's springtide, and rather a large piece of the human nature which
runs to seed in the oriental "backsheesh"--a picturesque combination of
blessing and begging. The "Mayers' song," and its setting in this
district, was something like the following:--At an early hour in the
morning a part of the townspeople would parade the town singing the
Mayers' song, carrying large branches of may or other greenery, a piece
of which was affixed to the door of the most likely houses to return
the compliment. Sometimes delicate compliments or otherwise were paid
to the servants of the house, and, if not in favour with the Mayers,
the former would find on opening the door in the morning, not the
greeting of a branch of "may" but a spiteful bunch of stinging
nettles!--a circumstance which caused servants to take a special
interest in what they would find at their door as an omen of good
fortune.

During the day the Mayers' procession went on in a more business-like
form, with sundry masked figures, men with painted faces--one wearing
an artificial hump on his back, with a birch broom in his hand, and the
other in a woman's dress in tatters and carrying a ladle--acting the
parts of "mad Moll and her husband." Two other men, one gaudily
dressed up in ribbons and swathed in coloured bandages and {99}
carrying a sword, and another attired as a lady in a white dress and
ribbons, played the part of the "Lord and Lady." Other attendants upon
these followed in similar, but less imposing, attire. With fiddle,
clarionet, fife and drum, a substantial contribution from the
townspeople was acknowledged with music and dancing, and a variety of
clownish tricks of Mad Moll and her Husband.

We thus see that the chubby-fisted little fellows who, not possessing
even a doll, rig out a little stump of an old sailor or soldier, or
even a bunch of greenery on a stick, as well as the girls who now
promenade their dolls of varying degrees of respectability, have an
historical background of some dignity, when, on the morning of the
first of May, they line our streets and reflect the glories of the past
to an unsentimental generation which knows nothing of "Mad Moll and her
husband."

The following are some verses of the Mayers' song--

Remember us poor Mayers all,
And thus we do begin,
To lead our lives in righteousness,
Or else we die in sin.
* * * *
A branch of May we have brought you,
And at your door it sta